Building a Workstation

[dvornik]

I haven't noticed any issues with DVI converters, they work just like the regular VGA outputs, although some people claim there's quality loss. On my 750 XGL the monitor with the converter looks better than the other one on VGA, both are not perfect unfortunately.

If you're using max 5 then 900 XGL performs just like GF4 4600 until Nvidia writes functional maxtreme drivers for it, IMHO.

[Drongo Stabbins]

Thanks dvornik!

I really wasn't too sure how the DVI-I to VGA thing would go as far as quality was concerned, but I'm happy enough with what you said.

As for the 900XGL or GF4 4600 thing in regard to the maxtreme drivers, well I am kinda sold on the 900XGL, But if you have any other info regarding this, (links etc) It might make me think twice.
Otherwise Im happy enough :)

[dvornik]

Look at my "maxtreme again" post. It looks like there's a partial solution.

[Drongo Stabbins]

Great!
Thanks again dvornik.....
really appreciate it...... :thumbsup:

[elvis]

Originally posted by Drongo Stabbins
My main question is about the Asus P4PE board. My reason for using the P4 2.80 processor is that I already have one, but the P4PE board should allow me to go to 3ghz+ when I can.
I know its being pitched for the P4 3Ghz+ CPU's, but given that it is a S478 board it should be okay with a P4 2.80, right?
(Or am I just being stupid?)

The other question is about the 900XGL, I believe it comes with DVI-I to VGA adapters for the monitor outs, I think this should be fine with the monitors I have mentioned, but does anyone have any experience/ issues with this?

if it hasn't already become painfully obvious, i'm a big AMD fan and for the price you'd pay for an intel system you can typically get something a lot gruntier if you went amd.

understandably though, it's difficult to justify a platform jump if you're only upgrading one of your cpu or motherboard. perhaps consider a second system in total, and using the old one as part of a two-node network renderer? food for thought. :shrug:

other than that, yes the new board will work with the old processor. it may pay to also check that the board supports hyper-threading. P4 3GHz and up chips will support this feature, which does good things for 3d and multimedia work.

to answer your quadro question: no, you will not have any dramas. we have a number of these cards with all sorts of analog and digital devices attached, no problems. the quality of DVI to VGA converters that come with these cards are very good.

[Drongo Stabbins]

Thanks for the help elvis!

The P4 chip I'm using isn't coming from one of my other machines, I just got recently at a good price (as well as some of the other components)

As for the AMD/Intel thing, well I'm just used to working with Intel machines, good sense about price/performance issues hasn't really factored here unfortunately, its just what I'm used to... y'know?
Maybe I'll make the switch someday, maybe...

And the P4PE it definitely supports hyper-threading, but of course only with the 3Ghz+ processors (but that’s for another upgrade...)

Thanks again for the reply!
It has helped a lot!:thumbsup:

[Gyan]

Originally posted by Drongo Stabbins


And the P4PE it definitely supports hyper-threading, but of course only with the 3Ghz+ processors (but that’s for another upgrade...)

Thanks again for the reply!
It has helped a lot!:thumbsup:

I've an Asus P4PE board. Like others have said, it will support your 2.80 Ghz chip. But I would avoid this board. Instead go for an Abit IT7-Max v2. Due to either an immature BIOS / design / chipset drivers or whatever, this board eats up your memory bandwidth. I, and a couple guys over at OCAU have seen this firsthand. I've a sound card and a TV Tuner card too. With both of them installed, ram running at DDR333 shows bandwidth of 22xx MB/s :annoyed:

With them removed and/or disabled, I get 25xx MB/s. The tuner has the dominant effect. The effect is more pronounced at higher memory clock speeds. The Abit so far is the best 845PE board out there, which IMHO pretty much makes it the best P4 board out there. Oh, and it has the SATA, RAID ...etc if you need it as does the P4PE.

IIRC, Intel will be releasing 2.x Ghz processors with HT in 2003. But take that with a pinch of salt.

[Johnlittle]

Nice set up if you ask me. But,,,,,,,,,I still think you should wait a bit more if possible. The Bartons from AMD are coming real soon. I am personally waiting for the Dual 3.0 or 3.2 gig dual boards in MP versions. Plus with these boards when they up-grade to 4 gigs or so a few months later you can get an upgrade without spending an arm and a leg,by just getting new processors. The MB will be OK with those new higher processors,for awhile at least..
By the way:PNY Quadro 4 900XGL ,how much are they going for these days?
And are there any Quadro 2's available? And just how much better are Quadro 2's and 4's then Geforce 4600's anyways while working with Max or Maya? Thanks for any answers to this kind of off topic question.
And good luck with your new rig.

:beer:

[Drongo Stabbins]

The 900XGL just about halfed in price recently from the place I was buying it from (I think it had something to do with the 980 being released?).........so that made the decision easy
(got it for £564.00).......plus it is one powerful card.......
Personally I have no problems really really recommending it!:thumbsup:
As for the processor thing...well its a bit late in the day for me now.......maybe on the next round of upgrading.....who knows it could be AMD.........

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