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View Full Version : New to 3D - hardware advice needed

crispyduck
03-18-2007, 10:59 PM
Hi,

At the risk of being redirected to a myriad of informative, but sometimes outdated and contradictory threads, I'd like to ask for advice on putting together a cheap but effective system to be used for 3D modelling in Maya - hopefully Zbrush as well. I'm about to start a 3 month Maya course and my aim is to start out with the basics and to upgrade as I learn more and my 3d tasks become more demanding.

From what I've seen so far on the forums, a reliable self-build setup would be as follows (included are some brief googled costings in pounds):

Asus P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard = £117
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Processor = £192
2x1GB Memory = £100 (roughly)
GeForce 7900GS Graphics Card = £91
500G Seagate Hard Disk = £199
Pioneer DVR-111D DVD drive = £23
Silverstone Element 500W Power Supply = £60
Lian Li PC-7 Plus Case = £56

TOTAL = approx £841

Not included - monitor, peripherals etc..

My questions on this front are:

a) Can anyone could point me toward a better (UK) deal?
b) Can you suggest where I could scale up/down on hardware and save money?
c) Can you confirm that these selections are compatible and will do the job?

I'll leave it there for now and see what happens!

Thanks,

Crispyduck.
Drowned-Fish
03-19-2007, 09:02 AM
Double Post nvm.. read my second
Drowned-Fish
03-19-2007, 09:03 AM
1st of all, thats not a cheap system. Secondly, when youre just starting with Maya and Zbrush and stuff, I'd wait till I am convinced I actually like 3d modeling, if I were you. Would be a shame if you bought such a great machine for nothing really.

So my advise is, wait until you know you wanna go on with modeling. After that, buy a rig.

- Martijn
cyphyr
03-19-2007, 10:32 AM
It might not be cheap but you can pay a LOT more than that for a decent system. I would think about the graphics card a bit more, check out the maya and zbrush forums and see what advice they give. Also think about a dual socket motherboard, they dont cost much more and you can add another processor to bump up your power in a few months when you find you need the extra oomph. Same goes for ram, make sure the board will take another 2 gig of ram, many say they do but for some reason dont.
Hope it helps
cyphyr
mattmos
03-19-2007, 11:32 AM
Pretty solid selection there for a cheapish but capable pc. Should be able to get the hard disk for half that price (compare with overclockers.co.uk and yoyotech.co.uk ). I'd think about a seperate cpu cooler, the intel one is quite noisy, have a look at tunic tower maybe.
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03-19-2007, 11:32 AM
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