CGTalk - Decent PC setup for EIAS

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frogjackson

12-11-2009, 03:15 PM

Hello all

I'm a Mac man myself, always have been, always will be....

but there comes a time when you do have to consider 'bang for your buck' so Im thinking of getting a fast (and hopefully cheap) PC to use for rendering primarily.

As with all things I'd be appreciative of anyone out there who is using PC's with EIAS as to performance and optimisation for render speed.

I may build my own PC you see, and if I do I want to make sure I get all the right bits...and some glue to stick it together :p

And one other thing, I've heard tell of discrepencies on renders coming out of mac and pc boxes - something to do with the floating point calculations being a little different which can cause flicker in animated work. If someone could clarify what this is and whether there is a way round it (when using macs and pcs in a renderfarm setup) it would also be appreciated.

Hope everyone's well and looking forward to the Christmas festivities - with three kids in the house its happy chaos at mine !

All the best

James

shoutzager

12-11-2009, 04:42 PM

I use Macs as well. I heard from Paul S. that the PC version of EI8 is not working that well. Have you looked at the iMac with the i7 chips. You get a lot of bang for the buck. There is a thread below about it.

AVTPro

12-12-2009, 08:56 AM

markalanthomas

12-12-2009, 09:30 AM

Because of the lack of 64 bit software for 3D on the Mac, I too am considering a PC 64bit system. I would like to know how much one would cost with say 12 gigs of RAM. Maybe a 27in monitor. Yes was seriously considering the new iMas 27" but I don't know if as a 64bit PC it would up against my Mac Pro Quad 2.66 Ghz.

The main reason I didn't get it is because of the space a new box would take up. but How much?

The quad-core 27" iMac would likely be noticeably faster than your quad Mac Pro, and it's got a fantastic screen with a resolution just shy of the 30" Cinema Display (it's just a little shorter due to it being 16:9 rather than 16:10 like the 30).

ediris

12-12-2009, 09:45 AM

Wait a moment there, in my very basic knowledge of software you can run a 64 bit 3d app with a few emulators, i think it is a wise path to follow. There is a few people that runs Softimage 64 bit in a Mac Pro i dont see how it will affect somebodies workflow.
There is no excuse why to go PC or MAC at the moment.
Edgard

markalanthomas

12-12-2009, 09:48 AM

I believe that VMWare Fusion has support for 64-bit Windows and apps, so you could probably throw that onto a 27" iMac with a lot of RAM and have a Mac and a PC in a single, super compact machine with an awesome display.

estudiodesign

12-12-2009, 11:35 AM

I follow some forum discussions about that new i7 Imac27 in the moment and
although it really seems to be a great deal, I would and will wait some more weeks,
until a new marge appears.
Apple definitely seems to have hard- or software problems regarding this
strange flickering which appears on a lot of machines in a spontan way.
A lot of frustrated users in the moment...

By the way...For those who are fit enough to build and set up their own machines,
the hackintosh community could be a perspective.
This way you can combine cheap computers with Mac-system.
You can save a lot of money this way, but speaking for myself I´m not sure
if I could save time and nerves doing that ;-)

best
Tom

futagoza

12-12-2009, 11:47 AM

By the way...For those who are fit enough to build and set up their own machines,
the hackintosh community could be a perspective.
This way you can combine cheap computers with Mac-system.
You can save a lot of money this way, but speaking for myself I´m not sure
if I could save time and nerves doing that ;-)

best
Tom

Hi Tom,

maybe interesting for you and others, we have now a company in Germany shipping PC´s with OSX...

http://www.pearc.de/

Regards
Stefan

estudiodesign

12-12-2009, 12:24 PM

Cool !
Very interesting, thank you Stefan.

best
Tom

AVTPro

12-12-2009, 01:02 PM

The 64 bit especially concerning Maya is a real issue for me.

Considering the size of data assets from my client, memory management is pivotal to success.
The number of 64 bit 3D apps on the Mac is nominal to PC.

My option are:

1. Cinema 4D, Houdini, or LightWave.
2. Spec out a PC workstation
3. BootCamp 64bit on a Mac.

Currently Maya is not 64 bit on a Mac yet a new Maya Lic would cost the same as PC despite the fact their functionality is not the same. That's a rip.

My MacPro version 1.1 but I hear I can run Bootcamp on a separate drive and get 64bit. I'm not fond of emulators for production.

There is no info to when or If Maya wil go 64bit on the Mac.

juanxer

12-12-2009, 02:23 PM

Just check that your Mac Pro isn't a 2006-generation one, as Apple won't directly support Windows 7 64bit on it: you can install the OS, but Apple's drivers installer won't accept to work on such system (although I hear you can install Vista 64bit first, install Apple's 64bit drivers for Vista, and then update it to Windows 7).

One interesting thing to note: while running Windows, a Mac Pro will recognize any standard PC graphics card (it simply won't work while on OS X).

About price/performance, another interesting option would be to go for second hand last generation 8-core Mac Pros: there are really sweet deals floating around these times.

AVTPro

12-13-2009, 05:48 AM

Juan. Thanks. Very informative as always.

I'll get another 2TB cavier green and format it for Vista 64. That would be good enough to access my 11gb.

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