New comp - im lost!

[mlmiller1983]

Hello! The time has come for buying new parts for a new PC but I am so lost with all new stuff out there, specially the nest of cpus. I have no time to have up2date knowledge of hardware market all the time so when its finally time for buying new things I have to speedlearn and this time im confused up over my ears, so many questions.

OK here are my system today:
P4 2,4 ghz
asus mobo 8xagp
3x 512 DDR (PC 2700)
club3d radeon 9800XT

My new system will be used much for 3d studio max. But it will also be used alittle for games etc because its my homecomp, but mainly 3d max.
And a few questions i have about the new system i want to buy:

Firstly, AMD or intel sollution? - wich socket type etc?
are the nvidia cards (6600GT and 6800GT) much faster in pci express compared to agp and its price? (i guess thats the best cards for both game and modelling after reading alot threads in this forum)
Is a SLI system something to consider, does it work/speed up renders and viewport in max, or is it only a game benefit?
What type of RAM should i go for?
32 or 64 bit?

I hope i didnt make to stupid questions :)

- OmegaN

- For Studio Max either AMD or Intel would be good. EIther AMD Opterons or Intel Xeons would be your best bet. Without going dual core Intel Xeons have HT which could speed up the rendering process(makes your PC see 4 CPUs instead of 2). AMDs are Socket 940 and Xeons are socket 604.
-PCI Express cards are really no faster than AGP 8x at the moment. But that will change as the technology matures.
-RAM, PC3200 in dual mode is pretty much standard now.
-SLI only has benefits in certain video games and does not speed up the render/work process.
-32bit or 64bit. 64 bit 3D animation software will come out in the future but at the moment most 3D animation software is 32 bit. I'd say get a processor that will support 64 bit OS in the future but stick with 32bit now.

I hope this helps and good luck.

[OmegaN]

THX for the help

- For Studio Max either AMD or Intel would be good. EIther AMD Opterons or Intel Xeons would be your best bet. Without going dual core Intel Xeons have HT which could speed up the rendering process(makes your PC see 4 CPUs instead of 2). AMDs are Socket 940 and Xeons are socket 604.

I guess you mean I should go for 2x XEON right?
Does they function with game also? and how much faster in rendering does 2x
Intel XEON 2.8Ghz 512kb 533Mhz Socket604 do than one
Intel Pentium 4 570 Prescott 3.8Ghz Hyperthreading 1Mb 800Mhz Socket775?

-RAM, PC3200 in dual mode is pretty much standard now.
Is it any diffrence particualar difference in speed between DDR and DDR2
like take these two for example:
2x1024Mb (tot 2048Mb) Dual DDR-DIMM PC3200 400Mhz 184pin
2x1024Mb (tot 2048Mb) Dual DDR2 PC4200 240pin 533Mhz
The price difference is not much on these two. And another question, does xeon support ddr2?

Oh and thx again for your help :)

[tantuscomputers]

THX for the help
Is it any diffrence particualar difference in speed between DDR and DDR2


Actually DDR2 can be a little slower in some instances. The point is, though, in a year, DDR2 will be completely mainstream and you'll have compatibility issues with a board that only takes older memory. The DDR2 boards and memory will be a little more expensive.

[OmegaN]

Actually DDR2 can be a little slower in some instances. The point is, though, in a year, DDR2 will be completely mainstream and you'll have compatibility issues with a board that only takes older memory. The DDR2 boards and memory will be a little more expensive.

Ah thx thats good to know, then its probably better to buy DDR2 mobo and ram so i dont have to buy a new one lateron.

thx for replying

[OmegaN]

Another little question. If im deciding to go for a pentium 4 should i go for a verision with EM64T or without?

And what is the difference between:
Intel Pentium 4 560J 90nm Prescott 3.6 ghz and
Intel Pentium 4 560 Prescott 3.6 ghz ?? / have read on intel (their technical mumbojumbo with low-voltage etcetc) but i dont understand what benefit 90nm does, is it better preformance with it? cause these two i have looked at the one with 90nm is cheaper AND is delivered with a cpu-fan and the other one is without and more expensive

Another thing about SATA HDD, is it more trouble to format & installing on a SATA drive than a normal IDE HDD? Can I have like 2 IDE drives and 1 SATA drive without any complications?

And last, wich one is the best mobo/chipset in your opinion for a P4? Should i go for a mobo with the Intel 925XE chipset or Nforce4 ?

Its a living hell to buy a new comp these days :)

- OmegaN

[lots]

About setting up an OS on an SATA drive (formatting and etc) It depends on the SATA controller on the motherboard. Basically there are two types of controllers. The first type is the third party add on. This means the manufacturer of the board bought a SATA chip from a 3rd party vendor and slapped it onto the motherboard. This type of controller will need to have the driver on a floppy before windows installation, at which point you press f6 at the beginning of the installation and load the driver off the floppy. The second type is a native controller. This controller comes embeded in the chipset and does not require the mobo maker to buy an external chip. Most of the time in this design, you will not need to do anything special during installation. Just do what you normally do in any IDE system.

As for which chipest to go for, I'd pick Nforce4. Mostly because its got a few more features that may be of interest. Also from what I remember it is not any slower than the Intel solution. Though I could be wrong since I have not checked the numbers recently..

About 90nm business. This is the manufacturing process on which the chips are based. Generally the rule is the smaller the process the greater potential in GHz speed the chip can have. Also, this improves cooling of the CPU, meaning (in most cases) a smaller process will lead to cooler temperatures on the core. This does not mean that a 90nm P4 running at 3.0GHz is faster than a 130nm P4 running at the same speed (ignoring other tweaks to the CPU design). Cooler temperatures are good. :P

[PixelVampire]

While you are educating :-)
For Maya what would be better from a price performance ratio?

Dual Opteron system or a 2x dual core system?

[OmegaN]

Thx lots, that solved some problems :)

- OmegaN

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