New 3D Viz PC Help!

[portisgreg]

Hi all!

Just wondering if I could get some advice...

Its been a number of years since I last bought a pc hence I'm not really up on what the best thing is nowadays (I sound old!), I currently have a Dell Workstation (about 5yrs old), Dual 1.7GHz Xeon, 2 x 40gig HD, 1GB Ram, and a standard dual monitor graphics card (128mB i think) but I find its pretty slow now especially for multitasking.

I'm after a decent new PC. I'm a 3D Designer, I do 3D visualization, animation, graphic design, technical drawings, therefore I need a decent machine mainly for fast multitasking and also rendering and want it to last me a while without having to constantly upgrade. 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, Premiere & Vectorworks are the primary apps I use but I also use it for general home use, internet, MP3's, DVDs, blah blah blah.

I'm willing to spend up to £2,000 ($3800ish).

I've got 2 x 19" tft screens, I'd prefer 2 x 19" LCD screens however I can survive with the old monitors if it means getting a better system.

I was thinking of getting...

a 2 x dual-core (i.e. quad) system,

decent motherboard with upgrade space

1 x super fast smaller HD (OS & programs),

2 x large HD ( one for data, one of backup (poss RAID??))

LOADS of RAM (2GB plus)

Decent speed graphics card but not too hi-end cos they're a ridiculous price

lots of USB slots

dvd burner

decent cooling case

decent sound card

and

a floppy drive!

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations please?

Also, is it worth getting a 64bit machine? What about getting 2 x Dual Core CPU's?? Intel or AMD (that'll prob start some arguements!)? Is there any imminent new technology I should wait for?

Thanks!

Greg

P.S. I'm in the UK so I'll be buying here.

 

[Howard]

prelim specs:

2x Xeon 5130 CPUs
Tyan S2692 board or equivalent Supermicro Greencreek-based board (I don't think IWILL has any that use RAID 5)
4x1GB DDR2-667 FB-DIMM
Quadro FX 1400
WD WD740ADFD 74GB
3x WD WD5000KS 500GB, RAID5
NEC ND-3550A
Enhance ENS-0560G
1x Samsung 215TW (keep an old monitor)

 

[mleonard]

I just put together a workstation for the very same thing, 3D Studio Max, AutoCad, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premeire, home use. What type of design work do you do, it sounds like we might do the same thing!

Anyway, I ended up ordering 2 Intel Xeon (Woodcrest), a workstation motherboard, and mid-level professional video card. I got 4GB of RAM which may have been too much as I started reading only 2GB is addressable in 32 bit OS's & software. If that is the case, I'll wait for 64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate, and 3D Studio Max ver 9 will come in a 32-bit and 64-bit package. Not sure about the other software yet.

The price of my system came in less than your budget, however I did not include a sound card (using onboard), and I alread had the RAID-0 hard drives, storage hard drive, monitor, and DVD. If you do get a new monoitor, maybe consideer a single 24" widescreen or even 30". I use to use (2) 17" or 19" CRTS and the single 24" is great. It's almost (not quite) big enough for all the menus, but really clears up my desk.

Check out the thread I started here and the parts I ended up with, Building a 3D Workstation

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: mleonard
I just put together a workstation for the very same thing, 3D Studio Max, AutoCad, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premeire, home use. What type of design work do you do, it sounds like we might do the same thing!

Anyway, I ended up ordering 2 Intel Xeon (Woodcrest), a workstation motherboard, and mid-level professional video card. I got 4GB of RAM which may have been too much as I started reading only 2GB is addressable in 32 bit OS's & software.[/L]

Nah, you can do over 2GB on a 32-bit platform.

 

[portisgreg]

Cheers for your input guys...

www.polarmonkey.co.uk if you wanna see what I do mleonard.

I'm thinkin this, I'll get a 'conroe' 2.93GHz CPU (overclock it), then when the quad CPU comes out (and drops in price) I'll upgrade. What motherboard would allow me to do that?

2GB RAM is good, i need some spare slots though (future upgrading).

I'm also nervous about goin to 64bit yet since I know some drivers aren't compatible and prob most of my software too! Can I get the 64bit hardware but run it in 32bit until the drivers and software gets up to speed?

Monitors... I have 2 tft's now and cant see myself working on one again. I'd love some lovely LCD's but I think I'll spend the £ on the pc and then get the LCDs later when I can. What's a decent graphics card to get? ATi or Nvidia? I'd like them to be SLi compatible although, I dont think I will, it's incase I want to upgrade in future.

Cheers!

Greg

 

[dodgybob]

To be honest i'd get a cheaper conroe chip if a few months along the line it'll be replaced for the the quad core kentsfield. These chips seem to be excellent overclockers, will offer a lot more power than you have currently and you'll be able to step up to a quad core that much sooner with the money that you save.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

look at these numbers. max & viz use the same rendering engine basiclly.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=11

thats what i would get if i were you.

 

[yobarman]

I recently orded a Digital Content Creation computer along the lines of yours. (Ordered 3 weeks ago, but still waiting for Monarch to ship ugh!) Here's what I got:

Case: NZXT Apollo Black
Power Supply: Corsair HX Series 520HX
Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe
Processor: Intel Core Duo E6400 2.13 Ghz (plan on overclocking to 3.ghz + )
Heatsink Fan: Cooler Master RR-LCH-P9E1
Gease: Artic Silver 5
DVD-RW Drive: Samsung 18x DVD+-R
RAM: G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 SDRAM (PC2 6400) - 4 gigs total
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracudea 320GB 7200RMP 16MB (2 for 640 gigs... will probably set up a RAID where one is a mirror)
Video Card: PNY Quadro FX 560 128MB - very good entry level 3D card

 

[mleonard]

Originally posted by: Howard
Nah, you can do over 2GB on a 32-bit platform.

Thanks Howard, I feel alot better. And thanks for your help with my system.

As for 64-bit, whichever high end chip your likely to choose, it'll be 64-bit. You don't have to put a 64-bit OS on it though, untill your ready, likely when 3D Studio Max 9 64-bit comes out and other software and drivers you relly on.

I just started reading about the emerging quad-core CPU's so I don't know much. But I would guess that by the time they come out they will be priced very high and would take quite some time for prices to fall to within your budget. If you do get a cheaper Conroe system and later upgrade, that machine may make a nice renderfarm node.

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
look at these numbers. max & viz use the same rendering engine basiclly.
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=11

Some good benchmarks in the link, although a Mac Pro won't run 3dsmax. Also, the benchmarks are a bit misleading since they are comparing a dual CPU system to single chips, of course it'll blow them away.... duh. That Mac Pro does use the same Xeon 5160(Woodcrest) 3.0GHZ as PC based workstations, in fact it got the exact same score as a HP xw6400 PC Workstation, SPECapc 3dsmax 7 benchmarks. The link is great for putting together the pieces of a hight end system.

Seeing what you first wrote about you HD's, a good setup might be (2x) Western Digital Raptors in a RAID-0 (stripping, supper fast) for your OS, programs, current working directories, and (1x) large HD for storage, swap, archive, backup of current working directories. You'll get great read/wite speeds on the RAID, I'm getting 110MB/s with the ones I have.

I checked out your link and my hunch was right.... 3dsmax+Vectorworks=grounded in reality. You have some nice work. I'm doing almost the same freelance work in LA. I'll send you a link with some of my work soon.

 

[Geomagick]

I'm puzzled slightly by your statement - 'I have two tfts and would like 2 LCDs'

TFT = Thin Film Transistor which is a type of LCD technology.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: mleonard

Originally posted by: Howard
Nah, you can do over 2GB on a 32-bit platform.

Thanks Howard, I feel alot better. And thanks for your help with my system.

As for 64-bit, whichever high end chip your likely to choose, it'll be 64-bit. You don't have to put a 64-bit OS on it though, untill your ready, likely when 3D Studio Max 9 64-bit comes out and other software and drivers you relly on.

I just started reading about the emerging quad-core CPU's so I don't know much. But I would guess that by the time they come out they will be priced very high and would take quite some time for prices to fall to within your budget. If you do get a cheaper Conroe system and later upgrade, that machine may make a nice renderfarm node.

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
look at these numbers. max & viz use the same rendering engine basiclly.
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=11

Some good benchmarks in the link, although a Mac Pro won't run 3dsmax. Also, the benchmarks are a bit misleading since they are comparing a dual CPU system to single chips, of course it'll blow them away.... duh. That Mac Pro does use the same Xeon 5160(Woodcrest) 3.0GHZ as PC based workstations, in fact it got the exact same score as a HP xw6400 PC Workstation, SPECapc 3dsmax 7 benchmarks. The link is great for putting together the pieces of a hight end system.

Seeing what you first wrote about you HD's, a good setup might be (2x) Western Digital Raptors in a RAID-0 (stripping, supper fast) for your OS, programs, current working directories, and (1x) large HD for storage, swap, archive, backup of current working directories. You'll get great read/wite speeds on the RAID, I'm getting 110MB/s with the ones I have.

I checked out your link and my hunch was right.... 3dsmax+Vectorworks=grounded in reality. You have some nice work. I'm doing almost the same freelance work in LA. I'll send you a link with some of my work soon.

what do you mean it wont run it? they are testing it on the mac pro right there.

 

[mleonard]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
what do you mean it wont run it? they are testing it on the mac pro right there.

True, but the SPECaps is running 3dsmax on WinXP booted from Mac OSX bootcamp. 3dsmax does not run on Macs nativly. Why purchase 2 OS's and then run one on top of the other. I would guess there would be some loss of performance, however it did tie that HP xw6400 PC Workstation, probably with the exact same hardware.