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View Full Version : Buying computer, please help~

hestia
05-12-2005, 01:31 AM
Hi~

I am considering buying a computer really soon and would like your expert advice on the configurations. I'm a grad. student and will mainly be using Combustion, After Effects, some Maya, and possibly some other compositing and 3d apps (e.g. shake) in the future. I've read a lot of threads here regarding hardware comparisons but am still confused. I'd like your recommendation on a pc config. that you think would be good enough (processor and video card in particular), since I do have a budget. I don't think I need a top of the line system right now anyways. Please try not to turn this into an argument about benchmarks as they only contribute to the confusion. Thank you very much for your help!
1000101
05-12-2005, 02:52 AM
Personally I'd shoot for a dual opteron 865 or 875 should they be available in your purchasing timeframe. It will give you plenty of horsepower for when you hit the real world.

2gb of RAM is a must;

and if at all possible a real quadro based video card. You don't want to be late on a project because your video card drivers suddenly decided to garble a bunch of polys on a model you've been working on.

I'd also recommend at least 2 hard drives. One drive for your system; and at least one more drive to use as a workbench/scratch area.

8mb cache drives help; and at least a 7200 rpm spindle speed.

If you want to save some cash a bit; you can get a dual core Athlon64 X2 based system and use unbuffered memory (it's also quite a bit cheaper) and still have a pretty robust system for the future. Everything else above holds true.
hestia
05-12-2005, 06:03 PM
Thanks 1000101

my question is... which quadro card is the "entry level" you would recommend? I'm having doubts about the 64MB ones and after reading some threads about video cards geforce seems to be a much cheaper choice. Could you explain the advantage of quadro cards?
stewartjones
05-12-2005, 10:47 PM
Quadros update the viewports faster. Have better OpenGL drivers, DirectX drivers etc. I have noticed a vast improvement on the amount of polys i am able to view from moving from an ATI 128mb to a Quadro 128mb.

I'm not sure about the 64mb cards, and i'm no hardware expert. maybe a 6800gt would suit you, i think that you can soft mod them too!
1000101
05-13-2005, 12:29 AM
vyntax nailed it as to the why's of the quadro.

As for the choice; I think the QuadroFX 1300 or 1400 series should be fine.
It's the mid range card and should offer some good performance for you.

They offer lower end cards but I'm not a big fan of them.

The QuadroFX 540 should be about as low as you'd want to go.
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