Rendering Machine build Help

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r3awak3n

Gawd
Joined
Dec 7, 2006
Messages
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Hey to everyone in this awesome forum. My current computer is getting old, its been 2 years and it has serve me good so now its time to build a new more expensive machine. I will have arround 3k to buy a computer without screen. Exciting because it will be the most expensive computer i ever bought and therefore the best (by far :D). I need this computer to be my work computer, very little play on it, i am going to be using alot of after effects, cinema 4d, maya, pshop, illustrator, some premier/avid, some shake and would like to isntall osx to use finalcut pro (my fav of the 3 for video editing).
So i have been researching and researching cuz although 3k seems alot its not as much as i though. Parts i already have are, keyboard (my faithful 10 dollars logitech), mouse (510mx), screen (samsung 21" 215tw), ocz 600 w power supply, decent pair of speakers.
And these are the parts that im planning to buy:
-Intel QX6700 - $1099
-EVGA nForce 680i SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX Motherboard - $249
- 2x CORSAIR XMS2 DOMINATOR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - $305x2- $610
- Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 - $229
- 2x SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - $150x2 - $300
- COOLER MASTER CM Stacker STC-T01-UW Black/ Silver Aluminum Bezel - $145
- COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 550W Power Supply - $70
- NEC Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD - $30
- Noctua NH-U12F High Performance Cooler - $65
- Steelpad QCK+ Cloth Mouse Pad - $15. im retiering my ratzpad
- Gfx Card ?????

Price $2646 (shipping should be a good $100) so $2746

Ok, so these are the components i chose. The powersupply will go with my 600W ocz on the cooler master which has dual psu so ill b pushing 1050 which is more than enough. My question is abut the other components, are they all quality components? would you change some and why? Main complain i see is the evga mobo (but the asus costs 50 dollars more with so much less features, seems like a rip off), the samsung hard drives (been having samsungs and they been nothing but good to me, plus they are gonna be my non working hard drives, they just store info, and i back up stuff that i really need). Also im not sure what gfx card to get, i wanted one of those dx10 cards but im not going to be playing any games (i have a console for that), and it really doesnt matter what graphic card you have when you are rendering, I cant (and sincerelly think they are a rip off) afford a quadro and i think that a mid range gfx will do me good (going from a 6600 gt), so what do you think for max 300 dollars? I was thinking of the 7950gt, or should i go for the 7900gt? I was recommended the 7900gto but i cant find it anywhere and it seems to be about 300.

please feel free to add components, change components. I really appreciate it. thank you so much,

Paulo
 
Everything looks really good, I'm envious!

Regarding the video card - seems a shame to buy a 79xx when you are so close budget-wise to a DX10 card. If you can wait on building the system or beg/borrow/steal a cheapie placeholder video card I'd do it and wait until after the holidays and get an 8800 GTS, it will probably be around your price range then.
 
Why the Raptor? You can also put multipel HD in to get a fast transferrate example:
Run 260 MB/s max on 4x WD3200KS in RAID-0 on theSATA II nForce4 controller. :)
And: Very Silent. Saves you a buck for some silly noisy raptorz.

Maybe even 4Gig RAM for the Movie job?

Videocard: No matter what always the "GT" or "GT+" version.

Maybe the CPU not the right Value for Money......wait for the Quadcore?
Or buy the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 480,- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 € 280,-
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=4

Save your buck and put it in a high end videocard maybe even with some hardwarerender possibilities.

Did you consider Intel Pentium Xeon?
 
For the ram I'd be changing it to Crucial Ballistix DDR1000: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146563

I know the psu is going to be paired with a 600w OCZ but that coolermaster powersupply is shite so go with another 600w OCZ: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341001

For the gfx card go with EVGA 8800GTS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130071

If you can't offord the 8800gts go with this HIS x1950xt(w/xtx cooler): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161048

Rest is good, good luck with your build :)



@YouriCarma: He has chosen the intel quadcore
 
You guys are recommending GAMING CARDS to someone who wants to build a render box? Apples to oranges. :( Sorry guys, but if he's building a box for 3D rendering, a gaming card is a waste of time/money. They dont do rendering well at all for what he needs it for.
What you need is a nvidia quadro or ATI fireGL. These are serious workstation cards, not your run of the mill gaming cards. Expensive cards, but worth it when applying it to what you're actually using it for. Around $1400-2K for the card. The quadro is the much better card, BTW. If you're on a tight budget, you're left with nothing BUT gaming cards, unfortunately.
The Quadro: http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadrofx.html
Hope this helps. :)
 
Didn't I say what I said?

A overpriced highend CPU is also a waist of money not the special Videocard for you.
 
Ditch the quad core CPU, get an E6600 or something. Quad core is "better" but you have no budget for a workstation card so you have to cut down some places. Also get rid of the Raptor. RAID0 actually benefits video editing, so keep your 2x500GB configuration. You'll then be able to afford at least a decent Quadro...
 
thx for all the replies guys, i really appreciate it. To be sincere i was investigating the quadros amongst 3d forums, etc... and everyone says that quadros are a myth, they are pretty much gamming cards with different drivers that may benefit some but will really not benefit the average 3d artist, some even claim that there are absolutly no benefits with this cards. Now i am sure there are benefits but i dont think they are worth 1500 dollars. Now, there reason for that is that rendering has nothing to do with the video card but with ram+cpu (hence my cpu decision, and i did think of the xeon but to afford a nice xeon mobo and 2 decent xeons it would be more than the quad) and same with after effects, even though both use opengl, a decent card can handle all those programs pretty well thats why i am going to save on the gfx and spend it on the processor and memory. I have been using my 6600gt and never had a problem in cinema 4d, sometimes the scene slowed down but only when using lots of physics and i blame that on the cpu (3200xp). Now i wish i could afford a quadro but i cant : ( so i wont, if i did i would be all for it but since i really want to render fast i think investing on the quad will benefit me way more (i can actually render after effects and at the same time work on a new scene).

about the memories (why not the dominators? any reason i should choose the ballistix?)
I will change the psu, thank you, i also think ill be better served with the ocz.

I always wanted a raptor but seems like alot of people say they are useless. Would i possibly not get absoltly no benefit getting this as my boot/work drive? maybe i should just got with the 2 500s in raid, would save me 200 bucks to buy a better gfx.

About the gfx, i would get a gts but i dont think ill get any benefit for now, and i can always add a better gfx later if i need (when the dx10 comes down in price, maybe some will even be made moded to quadros like old 6800s). thank you so much guys, please keep it comming.
 
The crucial ballistix are DDR2-1000 and have a nice rebate, making them cheaper with higher performance. The dominator sticks you chose most likely use promo chips, so they won't OC well. Whether or not you want to OC is irrelevant, though, because of the price: DDR2-800 for $305 or DDR2-1000 for $285AR? The Dominators used to use the good ol' micron chips like the crucial sitcks, but rev2.x use promos... and you'll most likely get rev2.2.

http://ramlist.ath.cx/ddr2/

Also, you're right about the Quadro/FireGL cards. They are basically high end gaming GPUs with more optimazations for rendering openGL. I'd save my money and go for a high end gaming gpu, lol. My uncle does alot of AutoCAD work, and does the same thing. If, however, you do go for a pro card, go with FireGL. The price difference for the Quadro's isnt really justified for the little performance gain over the FireGL counterparts.
 
Yeh, dont think youll find all the needed drivers to run all that hardware on OSX (inlcuding finding OSX for sale )

:(
 
@enginurd: Going for the ballistix then, thx for the site and explanation. And thats exaclty wat i heard about the quadros. i would get one if i had the money but sincerelly they are not worth it for me, i preffer to invest on a nice processor that will be fast and let me multitask like nothing else. (i just dont want each of my scenes taking 20 mins to render when they are pretty simple and i have 900 frames : ))
@Rob Black: yeah alot of people are on macs for this type of work but sincerelly i dont like macs, was always a windows person, think they are quality but are way over priced, have all my software already for windows so the only soft i would really need to use is shake which i can use in linux. Plus what card would i get with the mad, a x1900 or a cheap nvidia, they all come with crappy gfx cards apart from the way over priced quadro which would prob put my system at 5k (apple ram is expensive too)
@dbwillis: I will forget about osx then, ill use shake in linux.
@General crespin: the 7900 GTX is still extremelly expensive, i would prob cash the extra for the 8800 gts... its a good card but for 100 bucks more u dont get that much more perf increase to the gto. The 7900GT is pretty weak though but i think it will do the job just fine, i never really have many complicated scenes, plus its not like maya is going to benefit from dx10. And ill prob eventually upgrade to 8800 gts or gtx when they are cheaper.

Ok, so im pretty decided, im gonna change the ram (but will it work with the mobo? it says its ddr2 800 and the ram will b ddr2 1000, it should be fine right? ddr2 is what is recommended but the fastest the better) and going to get another ocz, maybe a less powerful one for i dont think i need 1200 watts of power, maybe get a 400 or 500, 1000 watt power is enough. Still not 100% on the gfx. The thing is for a 300 dollars card, i rather just spend the extra 150 and get a 8800 gts, i mean it will do me good for a while and it will definatly be better than any of the others. So thats my question, should i really ditch the raptor?
 
yeah ditch the raptor get a 8800GTS, the DDR1000 ram will work in the mobo as its still DDR2 :) Looks like your good to go.
 
I think the only reason for not ditching the raptor is seeking times not transferrates anywayz.

But Raptors are noisy (did they call them Raptor for the noise or the speed lol)

Better to buy the best buck/size HD at the moment and buy two or more to make your transferrates higher in RAID 0. 1x HD 60 MB/s, 2x HD 110 MB/s and 4x 266MB/s for example.

And on some Mobo's you can make a Raid 0 (for your OS) partition next to the Raid 5 (files)!!!
 
drop the coolermaster power supply, try a seasonic s12ep 550.
 
Youri Carma said:
I think the only reason for not ditching the raptor is seeking times not transferrates anywayz.

But Raptors are noisy (did they call them Raptor for the noise or the speed lol)

Better to buy the best buck/size HD at the moment and buy two or more to make your transferrates higher in RAID 0. 1x HD 60 MB/s, 2x HD 110 MB/s and 4x 266MB/s for example.

And on some Mobo's you can make a Raid 0 (for your OS) partition next to the Raid 5 (files)!!!
Click to expand...


im definatly droping the raptor, im actually really happy u guys tell me that. for 200 bucks i dont mind not having it and im going for a 8800 gts, probably a evga cuz they are the cheaper ones. I might actually sell my ps3 and keep playing games on the pc now that im investing that much on a gfx : )

Now, whats all this about raid 5? i never heard of raid 5, im going to have to do a search on it. but if i do go raid 0, im going 2 500 gb drives, 4 atm would be overkill, i dont need all that space (YET : ))

@Bbqq: I have dropped the coolermaster and im going for an ocz, but ill check on that seasonic.


ohhh i got a question, should i get barracudas instead of samsungs since they are slighlty faster?

once again thx guys, you are helping me out alot.. i really cant wait to build this machine
 
I'd skip the OCZ GXS also. Ripple. Try the Silverstone ST56ZF ($109 at eastluna) or the Corsair HX 520 ($120 on zzf with free ship), they both offer more usable power, stability, and a single massive 12v rail.
 
r3awak3n said:
ohhh i got a question, should i get barracudas instead of samsungs since they are slighlty faster?
Click to expand...

The samsungs are good value the speed difference between them is neglible especially when your gonna forking out an extra $120 just for the seagate's which is just not worth it.
 
I might get 2 400gb barracudas for 120 each instead. I dont think i need more than 800 gb of storage (specially cuz im going to be isntalling an extra 120 SATA and a 80 gb ATA.
 
First off, do not listen to all of the gamers here. They do not have any idea what you are trying to do and your software’s hardware requirements. I work almost with the same programs. The CPU configuration is just fine and will serve you well into the future. The ram will also work well. The type of rendering you are going to do does not need top of the line RAM. Because of your heavy I/O work, get the standard Raptor instead of the see-through one unless it really turns you on. You do not need more than one for rendering. The CPU will still be the bottleneck and not the HD. As for a PSU unit: I highly advise a Seasonic or Corsair 600W unit. It will be very silent and they are rock solid with their voltages and quality components.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Manufactory=1459&PropertyCodeValue=1314:14179

You do not need a gaming card but need a card that will do a great job of rendering a quality playback. I just put in an ULTIMATE X1950 PRO and it will last you forever for what you need to do. Anything more expensive would be just a waste of your money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102070

I hope this helps.
 
thx for the answers rambrant, really appreciate it. So do you really think i will benefit from the raptor vs 2 400 gb or thats really not going to do anything for my rendering/working? I dont care about the see thorugh raptor but if im not going to get any or very little performance gain i rather not spend 220 dollars on 150 gigs. Humm, you got me thinking about dropping the gfx card again, i do game once in a while but not enough to justify such a card (course the gts will be future proof but with the research i had done i also thought a 200/250 dollar card would work fine with my rig, for wat i want and would prob even benefit spending 300 more dollars on extra 2 gigs of ram). About the ram, i think ill stick with the ballistix, they cost same price as dominators and are faster. The thing is i will have enough money to buy the gts (if i drop the raptor and get the 2 400s) but with the price diff btw a x1950 or even a 7950 gt i could afford myself a wacom tablet (300 bucks) that i also have been wanting for a whiel. Also it would give me an excuse to do work instead of play video games at 1680/1050 on my computer ahah (i wold have to justify the card : ))
thx for all the answers guys, keep it comming.
 
For rendering you need Pure CPU power so most important.
CPU + MOBO.

Not important Ram and HD, only maybe the ram in volume but 2Gig is a lot and you can alwayz ad later.Why? Cause the RAM won't be the bottleneck in your system but your HD's will. So better getting more best price/GB ratio HD's in RAID 0 to get high transferrates.

That's why it's called RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive (Later became Independent) Disks. :rolleyes:

HD not important so get the HD (16MB cache) with the best Price/GB example:
Western Digital SATA II, 16MB: (and real 300GB)
$180,-500GB 0,358
$136,- 400GB 0,340
$ 76,- 250 GB 0,304
$88,-320GB 0,275 Best price/GB ratio.

So if you spend 4x 320 GB = $352,- = 4x 300 (real Gigs**)= 1,2 TB :D
with a transferspeed roundabout 266 MB/s in RAID 0. :)
Maybe overkill (But I like it and have them for a genuine reason, no paranoia about space and very fast.).

**remember that the seagate or other 300Gbytes HD's proplably will be real 280GBytes or something!

But for $ 264,- you have a honarable (No Sepuku needed..lol..real) 900GB which is not a shame.Probably the same amount of Gbytes as 2x500GB but surely faster than two HD's in Raid 0.

Raid 0 is the fast unsafe system. Raid 5 is the very safe (Hot swappable disk) but slow system. That's why a combination makes sense. Fast for the OS and safe for the files.
For RAID 5 you need minimum 3xHD setup.

I am not going far into the gaming stuff cause for the highend you will always be ripped of but the gaming hart always makes the mind spin a little bit....so very calculating on the Systemparts and very non-calculating for the severely pounding gaming hart/card. I know how it feels but i still prefer the first. Also depending on which monitor you gonna use?

TIP:Use the old 80GB HD's and so on for backup! Don't put them in line with any of the new generation HD's your waisting your transferspeeds. You can buy some cheap housing and make a USB HD extern Backup system. :p
 
/\ thank you for the answer : ) that cleared out alot.
About the ram though, ram is slighlty important to be because of after effects (which will be the prob i will use the most) and the preview mode uses ram, so the more ram the faster the preview.

I have alot of stuff and i know i would fill 1.2 TB easilly in a year, thats not the problem, and i also like space but i dunno if i can justify it, it will just make me not delete anything lol. I didnt know conencting 4 HDs in raid would be benefitiary, that is very interesting.

GFX card wise, you are absolutly right, in the last 2 machines i have built, it was always the hardest thing to choose, i mean there are always teh obvious answerrs (and right now it would be a 8800 GTS or GTX) specially on a 3k machine but im already buying a 1100 dollar processor (that will come down alot in the next 3 months) so i dont think i should buy a gfx card that will drop in half in the next 3 months. I think i will benefit more with the processor than with the graphic card and as rembrant said, a decent graphic card will serve me good for a while (and i can always upgrade in the futere when the 8800s come down to 250 dollars :)). The quad will come down but i dont think it will be that much, the C2D extreme is still at 900 bucks, same price it was a few months ago.

I will be overclocking my qx6700 a little bit too : )
and the screen im using is a 21" samsung 215 TW, and i have a cheap 17" crt as a second screen.
 
You have a nice budget. I'd go for a raptor (wd1500adfd) and a raid array (2 x hd400lj's) :p I'd also go for the cheaper vidcard (x1950 or 7950) and the wacom (if you need it). fyi, theres a new ratpadz model, check it out :D
 
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