Best use of what I have plus $2000?

[davegraham]

Hi all I need a little advice. I am trying to figure out how to get the best work station plus possibly a small render farm with what I have already and $2000. At the moment I am doing everthing on a P4 3.4H with 2 Gigs of fast ram and a Geforce 7600 GT. But render times are getting out of hand. So the question is how best to spend the money and use what I have?

oh goody. 2K isn't all that much but...it's workable.

What I am thinking about know is a quad core intel after the 22nd when they drop in price. The 7600Gt. With a couple of nice fast harddrives and lots of ram and use the video card I have now.

the Q6600 should be the sweet spot for you. a 7600GT is decent as well. "fast" harddrives may be a little interesting as performance of the new 250gb single platter Seagate is incredible without breaking the bank (around 68.00 apiece if you shop well) vs. the staggering cost of Raptors (not worth it imho). you could do a 2-drive RAID 0 array for scratch and have an OS and storage drive for the same price as 1 x 150gb raptor. *shrug* that's MY recommendation.

regarding the "lots of ram." well, that's more applicable to your OS than anything. Remember, you've got very little chance of actually seeing more than 3.5GB or so (more than likely around 3.2GB) of memory under WindowsXP Pro. What OS will you be using?

I also have another case laying around from my computer I used before this one. I figure I can do that part for about $1000-1200. Then use the P4 3.4 (and its older video card) and the $800 remaining on some quad or duo systems? Would this get me the most rendering for the money and hardware I have? And what about photoshop and 2D work?

honestly, buy:
a.) some micro-ATX mainboards with int. graphics (<$100)
b.) some Core 2 Duo E4300s (<$200.00)
c.) 2GB of GSkill DDR2-800 memory or other value DDR2-800 mem (<110.00 apiece; 2 x 1GB)
d.) a couple of 80GB SATA drives (<100 for both)
e.) and buy some used PSUs on ebay (or i've got 4 x Antec 480w PSUs if you want 'em).

all you're really going to need is either a KVM (<100.00 or so) or some sort of terminal, appropriate licensing ( no, I do NOT condone using the same XP license across multiple machines) a cheap-ass GigE switch + cabling and you're good to go. :)

definitely doable. :)

Any way for software I am using Max, Vray, Afterburn, Photoshop, premier pro, painter etc.


yippee. :)

dave

[Sulla]

the Q6600 should be the sweet spot for you. Ok good thats the one I was looking at. Just waiting for the price drop this month.

What OS will you be using I have XP Pro and it seems like the way to go at the for the next couple of years.

For the hardware for the other two computers I did not notice a cases. So were you thinking I use the cases I have and just get rid of the 3.4? And will a micro-ATX even fit in a full size case?

Also any guese on how much this would shave off the render times of the 3.4 by itself?

Any way thanks very much for the advice. :)

[davegraham]

Ok good thats the one I was looking at. Just waiting for the price drop this month.

yup. :)

I have XP Pro and it seems like the way to go at the for the next couple of years.

i've been fooling around with some Linux distribs that, pending the appropriate software ports, would kick the pants off of windows without issue. :) that being said, Vista has potential....down the road.

For the hardware for the other two computers I did not notice a cases. So were you thinking I use the cases I have and just get rid of the 3.4? And will a micro-ATX even fit in a full size case?

get some cheap-ass microATX cases (around 30.00 or so) and put 'em in there or just use some wood cutting boards (10x10 or so) and mount 'em up. :) (i do something really similar but, that's a different story). yes, micro ATX boards will mount in atx cases.

Also any guese on how much this would shave off the render times of the 3.4 by itself?

Any way thanks very much for the advice. :)

too many variables to really count in that pile, but...depending on your configs (and the inherent efficiency of the Core 2 Duo architecture vs. P4s), it'd be demonstrable. remember, you've got to have the capability to feed the beast (as it were) so, a lot of consideration needs to be made for how you're going to assign the nodes and give them work.

and yes, my advice is free. :)

dave

[Sulla]

Also for the two computers what about something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-CORE-2-DUO-E4300-2GB-DDR2-250GB-HD-256MB-VIDEO_W0QQitemZ300128720360QQihZ020QQcategoryZ140075QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[davegraham]

that'd work.

not a big fan of ECS but, whatever. if you spent a little more money on an Intel G33 based board, you'd be able to have a little more warranty, better support, etc. but that's me.

remember, this is an investment and, spending the time on researching the components, etc. will net you a better reward.

cheers,

dave

[Sulla]

Thanks for the advice Dave it really does help. I will keep doing research and while I wait on the price to drop.

[davegraham]

Thanks for the advice Dave it really does help. I will keep doing research and while I wait on the price to drop.

not a problem. i love this kind of stuff.

dave

[Sulla]

Ok then more questions. Any good resources on setting up a small render farm with Max and/or Vray on max. Since some times I will be using Vray and some times other renderers that come with max.

[davegraham]

Ok then more questions. Any good resources on setting up a small render farm with Max and/or Vray on max. Since some times I will be using Vray and some times other renderers that come with max.

I'll see what I can put together but, in the interim, you might want to start another thread to have this question answered by others as well.

cheers,

Dave

[Sulla]

OK thanks and will setup a new thread just on seting up a mini render farm.

[davegraham]

OK thanks and will setup a new thread just on seting up a mini render farm.

np....just helps keep things clean for other users who might want to do the same thing.

dave

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