New 3D Machine Advice

[Blanks]

Hi - its my first post here, but i have been reading the site for weeks now :D

errrmm here goes...
Im an animation student who uses Maya. Im looking to get a new machine for the coming year. I was thinking along the lines of:
2.8c
Abit IS7G/IC7G
1 Gb of somkind of RAM like Geil?
I have the rest of the gear already...

Will dual channel DDR make a big difference to the rendering/general performance? and with this board does it have to be dual channel or will 1 stick of any old RAM work? Also is 3200 the normal RAM speed for an 800Mhz FSB chip?

Does anyone see a major problem with the list above? Id like a little room for OCing, but its stability that is the major factor for me with this machine for obvious reasons.

Forgive the dumb questions, I haven't had an Intel since the days of my P3 600 and so feel free to patronise, rather that than be left confused :)

Thanks people

[L337 M33P]

Welcome to the forums!


That setup looks OK to me, but get a P4 2.4C instead of a 2.8C. Same sort of chip, 800FSB. the chip is cheaper and overclocks like nobody's business, some people have been hitting 100% rock stable with 1200FSB :D :D - the CPU is at about 3.6GHz in those cases. Not extreme cooled either - just with large lumps of copper and loud fans.

If you plan to overclock, RAM + a good Intel board are a must. The dual channel is more benefit to Intel boards than AMD, with pretty cool bandwidth in the memory department.

PC3200 is the default for 800MHz FSB chips.

Have you considered an AMD system? - the processor and a dual channel motherboard together will be cheaper than a 2.8C/

[Chris_F]

Looks good to me. If your looking into using it for Maya, you should really look into a professional graphics card.

[Tyranos]

Originally posted by Blanks
Hi - its my first post here, but i have been reading the site for weeks now :D

errrmm here goes...
Im an animation student who uses Maya. Im looking to get a new machine for the coming year. I was thinking along the lines of:
2.8c
Abit IS7G/IC7G
1 Gb of somkind of RAM like Geil?
I have the rest of the gear already...

Will dual channel DDR make a big difference to the rendering/general performance? and with this board does it have to be dual channel or will 1 stick of any old RAM work? Also is 3200 the normal RAM speed for an 800Mhz FSB chip?

Does anyone see a major problem with the list above? Id like a little room for OCing, but its stability that is the major factor for me with this machine for obvious reasons.

Forgive the dumb questions, I haven't had an Intel since the days of my P3 600 and so feel free to patronise, rather that than be left confused :)

Thanks people


You know, in my school days I did my "homework animation" on an amd k62 500 with a geforce 2mx. You can do it on almost any machine, but its just a PITA.

Unless you're gaming, you shouldn't have to concern yourself very much with too many gaming aspects of a machine. Just have large quantities of good ram, and as fast as a processor you can afford. As for the 1000 dollar graphics cards, I find that my 9700pro performs better than a lot of them, and is adequate for real time viewport rendering up to about 500000 faces before it gets really hard to work with. Depending on your skill level and attention to detail, you may need more ram than 1024mb. I find that my system in sig runs out of memory when trying to render scenes with ~3000000 polygons. If money isn't a big deal:

Dual Xeon 3.06ghz
1.5gb ram or more >4gb, depending on how much Maya is able to use.
Good pc3200 or pc3500, registered
9700pro class card and above. You can also do a quadro softmod to boost openGL performance.
I'd recommend a RAID 4 type array. Data integrity and safety is more important than the speed.. You don't want to lose your final project at the last minute and have it unrecoverable.

You can also go with dual mp2800 bartons if you'd like.

[gamer004]

do not get an intel motherboard, get an abit or asus, because if you plan to overclock the 2.4, intel boards can not overclcok at all

[altoids1]

I have a friend who animates and he has a Dual XP 1600 and 512 of ram with the gigabyte plus board. I know he is very happy wiht that setup, at least if he isnt he hasnt complained about anything. It wasnt that expensive either if cost is a factor in your choice

[UPCguy21]

Yea, I know a lot of people say intel intel, yadda yadda. But on tigerdirect.com, you can get a soyo dragon kt333 ultra platinum motherboard for 99 bucks, plus you can pick up an amd athlon xp 2500 for about 85. Then graphics cards, I've seen radeon 9600's for 170, although if you are going to do more animation and editing, perhaps the 256 mb 5600 fx from that they had for 170 bucks would be a better choice, because the more memory the merrier right? RAM, I think I saw 256 mb's of ddr ram there somewhere for like 20 bucks a stick. This may not be the greatest setup in the minds of many people on this board, and some don't like tigerdirect, personally, I and buddies of mine that I know have not ever had problems with them, the shipping was fast as well, prices seemed reasonable. But some of these components might be a good option if you are wanting back for your buck. Not only that, but a lot of the guys on the forums claim the 2500 to be a good overclocker. Plus, if you save money on a chip by going amd, then if you are not a fan of that nvidia chip I mentioned, then you could put the extra $$ toward a 9700 pro or comparable video card. It's your money though.

[krishen]

look at my signature that machine edits video and renders 3d like a champ. it also plays every game in high res, and crunches 12-15 SETI@Home units a day (by itself).
TigerDirect is crap.

[ajrettke]

hmmm...before you plunge you may want to consider a dual AMD rig, you can probably get a dual 2500+ for the a cheaper price as a 2.4C/IC7...IS7 would be slightly cheaper...but you would have to mod the chips, which is very simple though....

This is of course only if Maya is SMP capable, Also let us know if you plan on OCing.

[Jarlax3]

Before this gets too much further I think an important question to ask is what your budget for the CPU, MB, and Ram is?

But aside from that, what you have looks like a great machine. I would also suggest sticking with a abit board or maybe an Asus (P4P800 or P4C800 lines). If you are more interested in raw stock power then the 2.8c makes sense and still leaves room for overclocking. If you are really wanting to overclock and see what you can do I would suggest 2.4c as it is cheaper and can be pushed hard.

AMD does make good chips and can be a cheaper option, but since you are looking to do heavy graphics work I think the hyperthreading and faster FSB will work better for you.

Also, I would buy 2 matched sticks and take advantage of the Duel Channel option of the motherboard. It will help performance and in the end it will probably help your overclocking as well.

And finally, WELCOME TO THE FORUMS and never worry about posting and bad/dumb question because there is no such thing. We all had to start somewhere and learn, nobody just knew everything. You are hear posting and asking questions, but soon you will be replying and giving advice.

Good luck!

[Blanks]

Thanks for all the help guys...

I've got an xp 1700 at the mo (which won’t clock at all)
Its going fine, but I don’t think it will be able to handle the things I want to do next year. Plus it’s the first year I'll be using Maya on my own projects and it has VERY high requirements compared to 3DSMax that I used to use.

I was considering an AMD dual / single Intel. I think they are about the same price. BTW I live in the UK so times a factor of 50 to all the costs :mad: All I need is board, chip and RAM. Im still looking for good places to order from - any ideas?

My budget was going to be about £500, but its give or take either way. I’ve been out of the OC game for about a year and have come back to find I don’t know anything anymore....

I just thought that the high FSBs and very fast RAM of the Intels would be good for rendering frames. How much does an AMD benefit from Dual channel or fast memory, cos with a P4 isn't it the only way to clock it? Is there a sort of limit of what is sensible to put in an AMD like PC2700, PC3200, PC9999 :)

I don’t really mind too much about performance in the viewports cos I have a 9700Pro, at work I have an FX 5800, so its mainly raw processing power im in need of oh and plenty of RAM. At work they use Intels almost exclusively; just thought there must be a reason other than tradition

Thanks so so much for all this

[L337 M33P]

2 Matched DIMM sticks is not the only thing that enables dual channel. That's just marketing BS, any two sticks that are of the same brand and type can run in dual channel mode. |In fact some of the biggest overclocks here are with 2 random sticks that are the same make.

AMD Duallies > Intel HT +Dual channel > AMD single CPU + Dual Channel IMO, so for the price of an HT proc and a motherboard consider a Duallie - the K7D Master MSI board has a 4x AGP slot and FSB/Multiplier adjustments. The mod for MP'ing an AMD chip is very simple - just close an L5 bridge (forgot which one) using PCB trace repair pen.

[L337 M33P]

Some linkys for you:

www.dabs.com <---- MSI K7D Master (make sure you get the dual version) and the RAM - PC2700 will do in that board, up to 2 DIMMs or 1 GB can be unregistered and unbuffered so you can use "normal" sticks.
www.cpucity.co.uk <--- guaranteed steppings on AMD chips - people in the AMD forum will tell you which ones are the dog's danglies
www.tekheads.co.uk <-- heatsinks, fans

It is true that the higher bandwidth of Intel chips will yield better results, but AMD duallies have much greater multitasking and processing potential. The bandwith doesn't suck either.

[Blanks]

Right, cheers mate....

If i did go for the Dual XP route then the OC possibilites are more limited right? The MSI K7D with a couple of 2500 and some PC 2700 seems to be quite common looking around the forums...as long as its not too damn loud :)

So i have done some more research and the choices seem to be (tell me if they are crap choices):

2*Barton 2500s, K7D, 1Gb PC2700 - £424.76 ($679.58)

or

2.8c (HT helps Maya), IC7G, 1Gb PC3500/PC4200 - £544/£616.86 ($870.42/$987.05)

either will be a kick ass rendering machine, but which would you guys go for and why, without wanting to start a intel/amd fight!

[Constantinos]

Go AMD and save yourself some money. With the extra money you save you can get a good video card so you can see your art better.

[L337 M33P]

^ He already has a R9700Pro d00d

I'd go for the AMD - overclocking options are not that limited as the multipliers of the CPU can be adjusted up to about 20x. You just have to cut/join the last L3 bridge if you want higher/lower multipliers. Ones above 12.5x require the higher set and below 13x the lower set :rolleyes: I can't remember what you do to the bridge to get each set. The board itself maxes out at around 150FSB, which isn't Intel-like greatness but considering you have 2 procs doing the work.... Plus it's cheaper. :D

You could instead of a 2500 pair get a Thoroughbred B pair at XP1700 or XP1800 speed for lots less money and OC them to about the same level as top Bartons - 2800 equivalent speed probably. You have to get the right steppings though ;)

[ajrettke]

hmm i'd check into the SMP forum about that...the thing with bartons is they got 512k cache, and are going to run at the same speed as the XP...150x12.5, unless you wanna blow brdiges (very easy BTW) which some people don't want to attempt. Again ask in SMP if the bartons 512k cache makes a difference in rendering