Okay, kinda a hardware question, but...

[handige_harrie]

When building a rig (for C4D) I usually start with the cpu, since it's the most important element. So I do not really understand your approach.

Why go with AMD when The Pentium4's with Hyperthreading are performing so much better? Especially considering the budget you have I'd definitely go for Intel.

I posted quite some lines on hardware here. Use the search, it'll help you.

[geoffb]

CPU is definately the place to start. You need to decide if you want a dual processor system, or a single. AMD or Pentium. And of course what is the fast that you can afford and still get all the other compenents. As far as what works best with Cinema, I would just get the best, because it will run fairly well on almost anything, render times is what you want to worry about and that is why you go for the best CPU you can afford, that and the fact that you do not want to get stuck with something that is so outdated already when you already get it. I would say dont buy anything under 2Ghz and I would probably say if you can afford it, go for the Dual Xeon 3ghz.

Also, something else to think about it the new G5 will be coming out in august. For $2999 you can get the fast computer in the world! I know this will spark up debates, and I hope if you are a PC person who hates mac's you will just ignore this and stay on the subject of the hardware and not personal preferences, but the tests prove that the new G5 is supper fast. I mean the throughput is up to 16Gigs/Sec!!! :drool: They say with the full 8Gigs of ram that you can transfer the entire amount of a DVD in under a second! :drool: I mean if you are doing graphics, and you want a computer that is going to last, speed-wise, I think the G5 is the answer! Hands Down! My opinion of course.

Best of Luck,
Geoff
:buttrock:

[derwolpertinger]

yeah i am with geoffb's opinion, grab yourself the brandnew g5! :D

[LucentDreams]

perhaps you uys didn't notice his budget. New G5 will be great no doubt, but still expensive, he needs something he can afford. Handife, while the new P4's hyperthreading is appealing, i find the comment about his budget odd, since AMD's are way cheaper. Or did you mean simply the fact that with that budget he can still afford a P4 with hyperthreading)

Hard decisions all round, ATI or Nvidia, AMD or P4,

My biased personal recomendations, New P4 with HT ATI 9700 or better, as much ram as possible. Then decide ont he rest, always focus budget around the most important features, then worry about crdrives and Hd and such. I mean you may want 60, but to get the best for other things, maybe you'll have to settle with a 40 gig or something.

[geoffb]

But why not use the computer you have now for a little longer and make the extra $1200 to buy the full blown G5? That is what I am doing, course by the time I get to buy it it will be the G6 I actually by, but hey its still freakin fast!

Geoff

[AdamT]

Originally posted by geoffb
But why not use the computer you have now for a little longer and make the extra $1200 to buy the full blown G5? That is what I am doing, course by the time I get to buy it it will be the G6 I actually by, but hey its still freakin fast!

Geoff

Even assuming the G5 turns out to be the baddest PC on the planet--which is a big assumption, btw--who knows what AMD/Intel will have by the time he's able to afford it? If you hold out for the "the next big thing" you will never buy a new computer, because there is always another next big thing.

I'd say start with a P4 3Ghz processor (533 fsb) (which is not much more than an AMD XP 3000), XP Home, 512 mb ram, 20gb hard drive, cheap case, CDR-RW drive, floppy, a good motherboard, monitor (if you need a new one), and then buy the best video card you can get with what's left over.

[imashination]

3gig p4 - £300
1gig ram - £110
100gig hdd - £100
Case - £50
Motherboard - £90
Radeon 9700pro - £150
18" LCD - £700

That leaves £300 to pick a monitor

This machine will roar along and give you 5.1 surround, firewire, USB2 and all of the usual bits

[handige_harrie]

Originally posted by Kaiskai
I find the comment about his budget odd, since AMD's are way cheaper. Or did you mean simply the fact that with that budget he can still afford a P4 with hyperthreading)
The latter ;).


Why is the (dual 2ghz) G5 even considered an option when it costs almost twice his budget? Saving an extra $1200 is easier said than done, and spending $3000 on a computer is never a good thing imo.

Besides that -and I don't want to start a flamewar- can someone give me honest benchmark comparisons between the G5 and pc's?

The one's I saw was a comparison between scores from Ace's Hardware SPEC-mine database and Mac's own G5 scores.

http://www.tweakers.net/nieuws/27615/

I translated the bottom lines just above the benchmark scores:

In Apple's own comparison the Power Mac G5 wins allmost all tests from the Xeon 3,06GHz and the Pentium 4 3GHz. It is remarkable however that in Apple's comparison the Intel scores are much lower than their maximum scores posted on the SPEC-website. In the table below we compared Apple's results with the results from Ace's Hardware SPEC-mine database.
Just to let you know, tweakers.net is a respected and trustworthy hard- and software newssite.

As for the system, I'd go with Imashination's post.

[geoffb]

Why is the (dual 2ghz) G5 even considered an option when it costs almost twice his budget? Saving an extra $1200 is easier said than done, and spending $3000 on a computer is never a good thing imo.
Besides that -and I don't want to start a flamewar- can someone give me honest benchmark comparisons between the G5 and pc's?
The one's I saw was a comparison between scores from Ace's Hardware SPEC-mine database and Mac's own G5 scores.

Well I dont want to start a war either, but Apple had the hardware tests run by veritest, an independant, un biased company. I found thins on Apple's Website.

”World’s fastest” based on SPEC® CPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professional application performance tests against 3 GHz Pentium 4-based Dell Dimension 8300 and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-based Dell Precision 650. SPEC® CPU 2000 benchmarks run with GCC 3.3 and independently tested, full report available from Veritest; professional applications tested by Apple, June 2003.

About the spending the extra money. Everyone here has suggested buying either an AMD, or P4 so far, and while they are good processors, I still feel that the G5 will out preform the rest. I mean we are at a point now where you can get more speed from a Dual 2.0 Ghz than you can a dual 3.06 Ghz, according to Apple's website and the keynote that Steve Jobs gave.

Anyways, my opinion, is this. I was going to upgrade my computer. I have a AMD Athlon T-Bird 1.2 Ghz, 512MB RAM, GeForce 4MX 64MB, and a CD-RW. I was planning on upgradding to a dual athlon and a dvd-rw drive as well as the new 256MB Nvidia card. Looked online and found out it was going to be about $1300, maybe a little lest, maybe a little more. The next day I went to the keynote which is on Apple's website, but be prepared its like an hour and a half long. Here's the link. Quicktime Site (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/)

I am always a person to try to buy the best that I can knowing that it will last me longer before I have to upgrade again. It may just be me, but that seems what is the best course of action. And by-the-way Jester Capp even said himself that he is a "hard-core Mac-er" so thats one more reason to stick with the mac. Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox.

Geoff

[LucentDreams]

geoff, no offense meant here, I'm hopeful the apple system is good, but you can't consider anything posted by the company as a valid benchamrk. I'm sure you wouldn't form microsoft either. wait until someone likes toms hardware or something gets one, then start comparing benchmarks, no matter what the company, they always skew results in ther favor, like the pam cooking spray commercial where their cookie slides all the way down the pan with a good flick of the wrist, and the other cokie on another pan not using oam cooking spray doesn't slide all thew way down when its nicely placed, ha funny how tha t works. To say the heafty paycheck from apple makes veritest unbiased isn't a wise comment either, especialy since its already been brought up a million times since the G5 was announced, that there were oprtimisations on ther mac that were not on the Del machine. In otherwords, don't believe everything you see on a companie's website, like for instance mocca will solve your charater animatino needs, wel its true if you know what your doing, but if you don't , mocca isn't gong to help much now is it, and yet some people say mocca is useless simply because they can't rig with it, when they couldn't rig before they had it either.

again, not saying the macs won't be good, but justifying waiting and trying to save up which is hard to do, especially when your current computer makes it almost impossible to meet deadlines, is not the best advice. Heck I'd even say build yourself a $1200 machine, then try saving up some more, and in five motnsh time, buy what ever the $1200 model is at that time, then you have two really nice machins, otimize one for rendering, the other for working on, and then you have one hell of an awesome workflow, cause as nice as a dual processing or hyperthreading system can be, its always nice to know one computer can render while the other is totally unaffected allowing you to work unihibited.

[Jester Capp]

Thanks, guys! I'm so glad i got this many responces...

I did start with the processor and graphics card the first time, but then after I filled in all the components and looked at my final result it was over $2000!!! So, i took a bit off here, a bit off there, and got it down to about 1800. But I still needed to loose some more stuff!:annoyed: This is the point at which I came to you. I had (at the time) selected a AMD 3000+ and a ATI all-in-wonder 9700 pro. This combo costs around $700-750. So I thought, "should i downgrade it $200, or downgrade the rest of the stuff $200..." After reading all your thoughtful suggestions, here is what i've done: I replaced the AMD 3000+ with a 2800+, which is still a respectable processor. I decided against P4 because, while they are traditionally a little better, they are also traditionally more expensive.:shame: I downgraded the 9700 all-in-wonder to the ATI 9600 pro. That's still an exellent chip! This new arangement saved me $300, so i could add a tv tuner chip to replace the all-in-wonder capabilities, and even upgrade some of the other stuff a little. I am very happy with this arrangement!

I thought about the g5, but it wasn't really an option. While many of you can earn more money, i am still a student! My budget was given to me by the powers that be (my parents). As much as i would LOVE to have the g5 it is unfortunatly out of reach... But i am still super happy with my current choice.

Thanks a buch, everyone!:applause:

[handige_harrie]

I decided against P4 because, while they are traditionally a little better, they are also traditionally more expensive.
Well price/performance wise, I think P4 is a better choice than AMD (if you are going for a fast AMD, because they are expensive as well). When you are talking about slower AMD's (<2400+) they are better price/performance wise, but they do not give you the power a fast P4 gives you.

I would seriously consider the P4 (with 800mhz fsb and HT). Compare benchmark results and prices.

Might be nice to show us your entire system you put together so far :).

[Jester Capp]

I posted my whole system on the hardware forum, And it's going under rigourous review! This is the link: http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73934

feel free to make any suggestions that havn't already been made

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