media_jam
06-21-2005, 12:36 AM
Who’s bored? If you have a lot of time on your hands, would like to help a newbie out or just wants to live vicariously through my budget then I’m in need of your help. I’m a new computer animation student who’s looking to build a workstation and have a budget of $4,000.00 USD. I’ll be using Maya for school and plan to get into Visual/Special FX as soon as I get my feet wet in animation. My goal is to build a workstation that will give me the most value and longevity as well as work well with the programs that I plan to be involved with. So I would like for you all to list a specs sheet showing the parts that you would buy (exact model so I can just copy and paste into Newegg or some other site and purchase). I have been doing some research and have concluded that these are the main parts that I want to start with (some are generalized-that’s where you all come in):
---Athlon 64 X2 4800; this CPU is the best for the multithreaded programs that’ll be running
---Nvidia 6800 gt/ultra card-256mb; this item is confusing because I see a lot of versions of the same. I just want to get one that works with the mobo I’ll be choosing
---motherboard-one that supports the Athlon 64 X2 and graphics card; possibly a 2 cpu mobo so that I could upgrade at a later date( I’ve heard that Tyan makes one but I don’t know the model that’ll be good for me)
---nice case; thinking about a Lian-Li PC-V2000 Tower Case but could be swayed away
---sufficient fans and power supply
---hardisk-250mb SATA
---dvd writer- 16x dual layer
---2 gigs of ram
---monitor- any good monitor in the 20” range with good specs. I’ve leaning towards the Viewsonic VX924 because of the 4ms response rate; “fastest in the industry”.
To add to the mix I almost walked out of CompUSA the other day with the newest Power Mac G5 with comparable specs (sort of):
Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5
1.35GHz frontside
bus/processor
512K L2 cache/processor
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
250GB Serial ATA
16x SuperDrive (double-layer)
Three PCI-X Slots
ATI Radeon 9650
256MB DDR video memory
Now mind you I’ve been a pc user for all of my graphic life but…the machine just looked good. Also the virus and stability issue (I just had to reformat my pc a month ago due to spyware, etc.), the intrigue of a new OS and the fact that it would save me the headache of building one myself. So PC, CG and VIS FX guys I’m calling out to you. I’ve always heard you could build a better, faster and more upgradeable system yourself so lets put my money to where your mouth is (so to speak) and see if you could help me build a better mouse-killer. If not I might just go mac on you all (which might not be all that bad).
Thank you all in advance for your cooperation.
---Athlon 64 X2 4800; this CPU is the best for the multithreaded programs that’ll be running
---Nvidia 6800 gt/ultra card-256mb; this item is confusing because I see a lot of versions of the same. I just want to get one that works with the mobo I’ll be choosing
---motherboard-one that supports the Athlon 64 X2 and graphics card; possibly a 2 cpu mobo so that I could upgrade at a later date( I’ve heard that Tyan makes one but I don’t know the model that’ll be good for me)
---nice case; thinking about a Lian-Li PC-V2000 Tower Case but could be swayed away
---sufficient fans and power supply
---hardisk-250mb SATA
---dvd writer- 16x dual layer
---2 gigs of ram
---monitor- any good monitor in the 20” range with good specs. I’ve leaning towards the Viewsonic VX924 because of the 4ms response rate; “fastest in the industry”.
To add to the mix I almost walked out of CompUSA the other day with the newest Power Mac G5 with comparable specs (sort of):
Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5
1.35GHz frontside
bus/processor
512K L2 cache/processor
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
250GB Serial ATA
16x SuperDrive (double-layer)
Three PCI-X Slots
ATI Radeon 9650
256MB DDR video memory
Now mind you I’ve been a pc user for all of my graphic life but…the machine just looked good. Also the virus and stability issue (I just had to reformat my pc a month ago due to spyware, etc.), the intrigue of a new OS and the fact that it would save me the headache of building one myself. So PC, CG and VIS FX guys I’m calling out to you. I’ve always heard you could build a better, faster and more upgradeable system yourself so lets put my money to where your mouth is (so to speak) and see if you could help me build a better mouse-killer. If not I might just go mac on you all (which might not be all that bad).
Thank you all in advance for your cooperation.