Need your thoughts on this PC

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fighthall

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Hey everyone,

I'm new here and Ive been looking into buying a PC for like 5 months now. Finally I have enough funds.

Please post your thoughts on this system, whether some of them are bad choices and what not.

- i7 920
- X58 MSI PRO
- OCZ 3x1GB (1333mHz) Platinum -------> I only plan a 64 bit move in Oct thats when Im buying a 6GB kit. Which will give 9GB in total.

- 4870 1GB XFX
- LG GH22LS30 22x LightScribe Dual Layer DVD Writer - Black / Ivory
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 Sata 3Gb/s 500GB 16-MB Cache
- Raidmax Tornado
- Vantec ION2+ AS VAN 600W


This system works out to be around R10,232


It's main focus is 3D Animation Development. But also to play say Splinter Cell Conviction on max.

I plan to increase the Ram and if needed add another 4870 1Gb when the time comes.

Thanks! :)
 
Hi fighthall

Seems to be a solid system, though I prefer more hard drive space :p But if you don't need more than 500GB (for now at least) it'll be a monster :D
 
considering the 'main focus' i would go for 3x2gb instead ;)
 
You need to check for stock availabilty on these x58 motherboards, I was in the process of building my system last week and finding the right mobo was the hardest hing .You may also want to shop around a little more, as some dealers are considerably cheaper than most on different items. I suggest you PM antowan and etai for some prices too.
 
what software do you use, ZBrush or 3dsmax/maya?
 
can you break down the costs for me? That seems very cheap for an i7 with a 4870

edit i see you aren't buying an lcd. Well it looks great.
 
zakdoc89 said:
You need to check for stock availabilty on these x58 motherboards, I was in the process of building my system last week and finding the right mobo was the hardest hing .You may also want to shop around a little more, as some dealers are considerably cheaper than most on different items. I suggest you PM antowan and etai for some prices too.
Click to expand...

Those boards are in stock
 
Thanks guys,

Im good with 500GB, got an external of the same size, so it should see me through.

Well like The_Techie says I'm only working with a 32 bit OS now. With Win 7 I will take the 64 bit route.

Im using a Mix of Mudbox, 3DS Max, After Effects, Photoshop and some times Maya.

- i7 920 (R3000 PCint)

- X58 MSI PRO (R2332 Take2 or IkonicIT)
- OCZ 3x1GB (1333mHz) Platinum (Either Phrophecy/Ikonicit at R700)
- 4870 1GB XFX (Take 2 - R2000)
- LG GH22LS30 22x LightScribe Dual Layer DVD Writer - Black / Ivory (Take 2 - R296)
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 Sata 3Gb/s 500GB 16-MB Cache (Take 2 - R600)
- Raidmax Tornado (PCInt - R396)
- Vantec ION2+ AS VAN 600W (Prophecy - R908)
 
And will you be rendering on this system too?

Mudbox/ZBrush = RAM - lots.

3dsMax/Maya = GFX Card - i'd recommend going for a dedicated Work-based Graphics Card. they cost a lot more, but much better than a gaming 3d card.
think nVidia Quadro FX or ATi FireGL. i'm not sure about the prices but i'm GUESSING you can get a low-range card for about R4000 ?

After Effects, Photoshop & 3dsmax/maya Final rendering require CPU - nothing else.

i'd suggest you don't spend too much on CPU and rather blow it on a good(ish) Quadro Graphics card. they chew up polygons in 3dsmax like nothing else.

I see you will be using mudbox - i'm not sure about it's retopology features (like ZBrush has) but it seems you will be working with high poly counts. so you need lots of RAM too.

So I'd suggest don't go i7, save the money for GFX and lots, lots, lots of RAM.

you don't need DDR3 for mudbox, you just need LOTS.

You don't need a Flippen good CPU, because a non i7 will run AE and PS just fine.

If you're using only that 1 system for rendering, the i7 isn't going to give you THAT much better rendering performance. you want speed while DESIGNING the stuff, not when it has to do calculations for rendering.

So yeah - go for a pre-i7 system, with lots of DDR 1066 ram, and the best Quadro/FireGL you can afford.

hope that helps.
 
I know Ram is very much needed. The reason I chose i7 is for better memory handling (tri channel) and the 4 cores with hyper threading.

Hmm, workstation graphics are super expensive for what I need, also the system will be more for building and animating the 3ds models rather than rendering it out.

Maya is more graphic intensive than 3ds max and I barely use maya (truly horrible program) and Mudbox works well with 2gb where zbrush has delays.

Overall I want this system to last a few years and be quite upgradeable. Nonetheless thanks Keeper for your suggestion.
 
I have personally always found that more cores and cpu speed helps with 3dsmax rendering. For the modelling though a fast gpu seems to help with the very large models which my people seem to enjoy making.

My i7 destroys all our other systems (q66, q93, q84) for rendering. So i rather spend money on cpu and ram than a workstation gpu.

When rendering a 5k frame avi i would rather have it rendering at 35secs a frame than 49secs a frame.

Rendering has and always will be our biggest head ache. (3 quads in our "farm" with my i7 as back-up)
 
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