[4saken]

I have around 2400-2800$ to spend on a new system. The main use for the computer will be rendering with Mental Ray, Pixar Renderman and other 3d rendering engines.

Here are the main parts I am thinking about so far.

QX6700 Extreme - 970$

GeForce 8800GTX 768 MB - 560$ (x2 SLI? Is it worth it for rendering?)

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - 2x = 4GB - 180$

MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - 150$

1860$ total so far

I would really appreciate any suggestions on changes to this setup and other information about these that would be helpful. I may grab a 10k RPM drive as well for the main drive.

But mainly I am wondering, which case/water cooling system would you suggest? Which water cooling system would be best without spending to much on it and also having it fit in the case if possible.

Would it be better to wait till July 22nd for the price changes? If so, how much of a difference on these parts would you foresee? There is also a new processor coming out, would this new one be much better when it comes to rendering with the use of all cores.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[GibbyGano]

Actually, I may be off base on this seeing as I am not sure how the 3D animation market has progressed, but if you are not planning to do much gaming with the rig, I would get a Quadro. They are pretty much catered specifically to rendering.

 

[blade007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4saken I have around 2400-2800$ to spend on a new system. The main use for the computer will be rendering with Mental Ray, Pixar Renderman and other 3d rendering engines. Here are the main parts I am thinking about so far. QX6700 Extreme - 970$ GeForce 8800GTX 768 MB - 560$ (x2 SLI? Is it worth it for rendering?) G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - 2x = 4GB - 180$ MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - 150$ 1860$ total so far I would really appreciate any suggestions on changes to this setup and other information about these that would be helpful. I may grab a 10k RPM drive as well for the main drive. But mainly I am wondering, which case/water cooling system would you suggest? Which water cooling system would be best without spending to much on it and also having it fit in the case if possible. Would it be better to wait till July 22nd for the price changes? If so, how much of a difference on these parts would you foresee? There is also a new processor coming out, would this new one be much better when it comes to rendering with the use of all cores. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

wait till July 22 when the price drops for the quad q6600, its going to be $266, ull sav lik $700 buks

 

[Penicilyn]

Well I would go with a Q6600 processor and two Quadros instead of a gaming video card. Then 4Gb of Geil Black Dragons ram and an ASUS P5N32-E for the motherboard.

Quadro FX1500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133179
GeIL Black Dragon 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820144072
ASUS P5N32-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131073

 

[DuckieHo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GibbyGano Actually, I may be off base on this seeing as I am not sure how the 3D animation market has progressed, but if you are not planning to do much gaming with the rig, I would get a Quadro. They are pretty much catered specifically to rendering.

Quadros cost more than entire gaming rigs.

Quadros are just modified gaming cards for improved texture sizes and better AA. Don't bother with FX1500 since it is based on the 7900GT. The 8800GTX would beat it.

If those apps rely on the GPU... you might want to just get a cheaper C2D and get two 8800GTX.

 

[GibbyGano]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo Quadros cost more than entire gaming rigs. If those apps rely on the GPU... you might want to just get a cheaper C2D and get two 8800GTX.

That's true, they are a chunk of change, but, from what I've heard, they are worth it. (If you are a professional that is, not so much for a hobby.)

 

[Audi]

What programs are you going to be using? What sort of rendering? 3D or video?

Shed some light on me and I'll help ya out

 

[4saken]

First of all I must say thanks for all the insightful replies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penicilyn Well I would go with a Q6600 processor and two Quadros instead of a gaming video card. Then 4Gb of Geil Black Dragons ram and an ASUS P5N32-E for the motherboard. Quadro FX1500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133179 GeIL Black Dragon 4GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820144072 ASUS P5N32-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131073

I am not sure about the 2x Quadros but that ram and MB look good. Why is that ram 80$ more? I do need a video card that supports Dual-Link for the monitors I plan on using.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audi What programs are you going to be using? What sort of rendering? 3D or video? Shed some light on me and I'll help ya out

The main programs will be Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox and Renderman. Mainly viewing extremely high polygon meshes(5-10 million as a priority for the machine), calculating photons and final gather. Tho I do some video rendering as well in post(compositing) and would like the machine to perform as well as I can get it with that as well. I do not know a lot about hardware, so I have a hard time deciding which parts will be the most useful for me(4gb ram vrs 8gb ram, 1 vid card vrs 2 SLI etc).

This machine will most likely not be used for rendering production projects. But other high intensity projects that will require a LOT of rendertime.

It sounds like I should wait till the 22nd before buying a proc. But by that time I hope to know exactly what I should get.

I've been looking at a number of water cooling kit reviews and it looks like there are certain ones that are especially good. And buying the wrong one could cost you about 10+ degrees. I don't care for/need an external one if I can get a case that will work well with an internal one. I wouldn't mind spending 300-400$ on the cooling system(including the pieces for cooling an HD and video card and ram).

I really appreciate all the help, thanks.

 

[Audi]

What OS are you going to be using? All of those programs benefit greater from Render Farming than they do from single PC.

Have you thought about breaking up the cash and building two core 2 duo's to mini-farm your renders?

With one mainbox benefiting from the better GPU, and the secondary box having a low-end GPU and adding Processor power to the render farm? I think you'd make better time going this way. If that's not a possibility... are you willing to Overclock or do you prefer stock?

 

[4saken]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audi What OS are you going to be using? All of those programs benefit greater from Render Farming than they do from single PC. Have you thought about breaking up the cash and building two core 2 duo's to mini-farm your renders? With one mainbox benefiting from the better GPU, and the secondary box having a low-end GPU and adding Processor power to the render farm? I think you'd make better time going this way. If that's not a possibility... are you willing to Overclock or do you prefer stock?

I will probably be using Fedora Linux for Maya. But I may end up using XP or Vista(if it performs well enough with Vista).

I have considered working towards a farm. But the main problem I see with that is that I am mainly a high polygon modeler and I need to not lag when a model is subdivided numerous times. Lagging while trying to sculpt intricate details is very frustrating. I would be unhappy with a farm if the main PC I use for sculpting would lag during such times. I see what you are saying tho, it sounds like I may not lag in those cases. But I question how much of a difference in rendertime I would get with lower end CPUs. I do have a machine with only an AMD 3400+ that I may try making a farm with. I also hope to be able to preview particle effects and dynamics with the machine without serious delay. Are you suggesting making 2 machines with Quad Q6600s? I fear I would not have the money to buy 2 good video cards. And I need at least one card to have Dual-Link(for a Dell 30")

Also I would like to Overclock it. But I do not have much experience overclocking.

 

[Audi]

Oh boy, does Subdivision suck.

Two Rendering machines with Quads come late july would be SOOO bad-ass for a mini-render farm. You just don't even know.

If you just want one machine, base it around Q6600's and spend the rest of the money on Raid and Ram. They'll both improve, as you already know, render times.

Also, you wouldn't exactly NEED a good video card for the second machine, because it'll just be an extra leg for CPU process. That's how it's distributed between machines if I recall correctly.

You could get one machine with a Q6600, the other with an E6300 and do better than you could with a decked out single machine.

 

[4saken]

Very nice idea. Do you think my current card(GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB AGP) could be used in the 2nd machine? And then get a MB with a single AGP slot for it. Also on a render farm, do you know if the 2nd machine would need good/fast ram? I could probably dismantle my current machine, get a new MB/proc for it and still use the same case/video card and possibly ram to save quite a bit of money.

Then go with Q6600s for both machines after July 22nd. Get a 8800GTX for the main machine along with the best ram and MB? It seems that with the price drop after the 22nd I could afford this setup.