Computer Opinion

# 1 23-08-2010 , 03:05 AM

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Location: Hawaii

Posts: 224

Hello Maya community!

I was looking to build a tower purely for graphics and I was wondering if anyone could give me on the advise on this particular build.

ASUS
AMD Phenom™ II X6 Processor / 8GB Memory
8 GB ddr memory
1 TB HD
ATI 5750 1 GB dedicated memory

and the other
ASUS
Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E5500
4 GB DDR memory
1 TB HD
Didn't look at the graphics card.
But was looking at installing a 1GB NVidia and throwing in 4GB more to make it more comparable to the first. (This build even with the upgrades makes it a few hundred dollars cheaper than the first)

I'm looking to pick up the new 2011 package deal. The addition of motion builder and mudbox with all the cloth, fluid, and fur is looking too good to pass up!

~To create a new world through the imagination

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# 2 23-08-2010 , 04:13 AM

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Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Is that a 6-core vs a 2-core? More cores, for sure, if you're doing rendering. And most people seem to dislike ATI over NVidia, something to think about.

I have an i7 920 which I really like, with DDR3 RAM.

What's your budget is the first question.

Oh, and if you can spare the cash, I really like having an SSD for OS and apps, and a big HDD for data.

-stwert

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# 3 23-08-2010 , 04:44 AM

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Location: South FL

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Those descriptions aren't very telling at all. Questions, Questions.

- Whats the budget?
- Are you rendering on that machine?
- Hopefully that's DDR3 and not DDR.

And those 2 processors aren't really comparable IMHO.

I'm not loving that ATI video card:

Check the Maya compatibility list. And it kinda irks me when these cards are marketed with the "1GB" buzz word to take attention away from the bit rate, 256MB min I say.

- Genny
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# 4 23-08-2010 , 07:10 AM

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At the moment I'm looking to max out at around 1500 to 2000 USD as I want to pick up the 2011 package deal.

I definitely want this to be able to render more complex scenes/ objects/effects as what I do continues to grow and expand.

All the memory is DDR3. I'm kind of (okay WAAAYYY behind) on what the difference is.

-GecT which two processors aren't exactly compatible?

As far as the bit rate and the type of core its running I'll have to check the store and get back to you guys with that. Those are the kind of things I wouldn't think to look for. Just doing a little research on the forums led me to look for something other than ATI just because many boardmembers have reported problems/unsatisfactory performance.

Thanks again guys!

~To create a new world through the imagination

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# 5 23-08-2010 , 08:13 AM

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Location: Bristol, UK.

Posts: 191

Ample video card memory is good for textures sets, if you look at the high end nvidia (and ATI) stuff you're looking at 1.5gb of memory minimum, more for the expensive cards.

As GecT noted, you also need to see how quickly the card can shift all this texture & poly information between the video processing unit and the memory on the card and the PCI bus. This is the transfer rate and the higher the bandwidth the more information you can shift. (the new Quadro 4000 can shift about 90 Gigabytes of info per second!! the 6000 can do 144GB/s! )Try for 256 bit or 384 bit as a minimum memory interface bandwidth.

For rendering, more cores (as fast as possible) + lots RAM is your friend. The core i7's are good at this, and has a very low latency memory interface! Data in quickly -> Data out quickly!

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# 6 23-08-2010 , 04:37 PM

EduSciVis-er
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Originally posted by CGWolfgang

-GecT which two processors aren't exactly compatible?

Originally Posted by

Comparable... as in 2 vs 6 cores doesn't even compare.

-stwert

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# 7 23-08-2010 , 06:36 PM

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DDR is an older memory standard, mainboards that support phenom IIs use either DDR2 or DDR3.

You can get a good i7 system for that budget if you build it yourself but I know not everybody wants to get into that. The biggest problem I have with off the shelf rigs is that they have ONE component that is promoted and the details of all the other components are shrouded in mystery lol.

- Genny
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# 8 23-08-2010 , 08:20 PM

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The biggest problem I have with off the shelf rigs is that they have ONE component that is promoted and the details of all the other components are shrouded in mystery lol

Originally Posted by

true true i once saw a "gaming" pc with ati 5870 but on further inspection i realized it had an intel e5300 processor

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# 9 26-08-2010 , 07:25 PM

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Join Date: May 2004

Location: Bowling Green. Kentucky U.S.A.

Posts: 810

Dude,
I spent appx 700$ usd on mine, before i modded my case.
I have a AMD Athlon X4 2.8 gig processor.
Nvidia GTS 250 1 gig video card, 6 gigs of ddr3 ram ( Kingston 1066 i believe it was ) ( going to get 2 more gigs eventually)
running it all on a MSI 770-G45 mobo. Has 4 easy OC settings if you're into that sort of thing, where the Motherboard will set the computer up to overclock the cpu it you wish it, though i see no need wiht the current setup i have.
and I currently have a 650 watt power supply, though i am going to get a 800 watt modular psu soon and use this one a sa switched Desktop psu for Desk lighting issues. ( don't ask, i am heavy into modding everything. )

I am not a renderer by any means, but i know my old rig used to take about 1.5 hours to render one scene i had, with fg for lighting, now it renders in about 10 minutes,

also, Opened a model once, just to see how far i could push the card, and stared to subdivide it.. I was running over 2.5 million polys at 20 fps according to maya hud with no lag issues at all, and got tired of trying to lag it out.

And it calculates dynamics in a snap ( so far as i've tried anyway, and my old rig used to lag out and crash on the things i am doing now.)
The only thing i would change on my setup so far not mentioned above, is i would get AMD's Phenom II 3.5 Gig Quad core processor, the one with the 6 meg and 4 meg l3 cache .. that bad boy is lightning fast.

My advice, build my system save a crap load of money and still get 2011.
F.Y.I.
i could upgrade my psu, get the new CPU and also the extra 2 gigs of ram and spend just under 400$ to do it all, so even that is well within your price range.

g-man

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# 10 30-08-2010 , 07:28 AM

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Location: Atlanta, GA

Posts: 258

Originally posted by legendofzombi

My advice, build my system save a crap load of money and still get 2011.

g-man

Originally Posted by

What he said. Building a computer is as easy as boiling water. just research it if you dont know how. Yes. There are websites that teach you how to boil water as well as building pc's.

But it is true you would save a crap load of money and get exactly what you want.

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# 11 30-08-2010 , 09:07 AM

Head of 3d Admedia
Join Date: May 2007

Location: nairobi , ken-ya

Posts: 1,340

i got the intel 980x took me 5months to save for it but this thing is a beast. it does costs an arm n a leg but i think with 2000 usd im sure you can squeeze it in

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