CGTalk - New PC

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Redsand1080

10-19-2004, 02:47 PM

Hey all, I have one other question in regards to purchasing a new PC. I'm about to buy a new PC to replace my out-dated P4 1.8 ghz, 512 mb ram system; and want to be as informed as possible on making the most intelligent purchase. I was looking at getting a Boxx system as opposed to just another Dell; is it worth the money or no?

Does anyone know if Lightwave 7.5 and 8 have a renderer that can handle multi-threading? I know Photoshop, Maya, and Max are able to but have seen no documentation on NewTek's sight regarding this feature. Also, which video card would be best to choose? I understand that is a highly debated topic and perhaps comes down to personal preference, but from what I have read it seems the Quadro line of cards from Nvidia are at the top for now.

One other question, I was thinking of setting up either a Raid 0, or 1 array, but have heard that that can cause the system to become unstable. Also with a Raid array with mirroring, would that be bad for rendering...because I know it is more efficient to read from one hard drive and write to another.

Also, how does Lightwave 7.5 interact with PCI Express, since that wasn't really a hot topic back when that version was released...because I was gonna go with a PCI Express mobo instead of AGP.

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Vertizor

10-19-2004, 04:21 PM

I was looking at getting a Boxx system as opposed to just another Dell; is it worth the money or no?
Compared to a Dell? Yes. I'm not knocking Dell, I have the same system still running solid after 3 years.

Does anyone know if Lightwave 7.5 and 8 have a renderer that can handle multi-threading? I know Photoshop, Maya, and Max are able to but have seen no documentation on NewTek's sight regarding this feature.
So I guess you haven't bought it yet. Go on, buy it. The answer is a resounding YES, LW's renderer does support multiple processors. Heck you could tell it to use multiple threads on a single CPU system but obviously that's no good (unless you bought a P4 with HT).

Also, which video card would be best to choose? I understand that is a highly debated topic and perhaps comes down to personal preference, but from what I have read it seems the Quadro line of cards from Nvidia are at the top for now.
Yeah, basically just stick with Nvidia. If not for the performance, then for the drivers.

Also, how does Lightwave 7.5 interact with PCI Express, since that wasn't really a hot topic back when that version was released...because I was gonna go with a PCI Express mobo instead of AGP.
PCI Express is just an inerface, no software can interact with it directly, it's all transparent in the hardware level. There's no benefit to using PCI Express for 3D work right now, it's more of a treat for gamers. Don't bother, save your money for more RAM, or software.

Redsand1080

10-20-2004, 12:09 AM

Thanks alot for the advice...that definitely cleared up some areas I wasn't sure about.:thumbsup:

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