Help with new computer build

[SuryanshuRai]

Hey Ash,

I am not one of the experts you wanted to answer your thread, but have been researching a lot for my own workstation, so can share some info I collected.

Processors:
i7 920 is an amazing bet if you are cash strapped. Has great performance.
It has 2.66 Ghz clock speed, 8MB L3 cache and has 4.3 GT/s Bus speed.

From here on you can get i7-930(2.8 GHz), i7-940(2.93 GHz), i7-950(3.06 GHz) and i7-960(3.2 GHz) depending on how much you want to spend. All these have Intel Virtualization Technology and of course 4 cores.

And then of course is the grand dad of i7s. The i7 -975 extreme (3.33 GHz, 6.4 GT/s)
All of the i7 series supports upto 24 GB RAM.

But I seriously doubt your current board will support the i7 series. I guess it only works on the X58 chipset. You can either go in for one of the original intel motherboards or get an ASUS P6T Professional, P6T Deluxe or a P6T. and if you are feeling rich you can go in for the P6T supercomputer(its awesome, but will burn a BIGGG hole in your pocket :)

Getting off i7, you can look at AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor. I have heard it works great and the figures look good too. It has benched well on tom's hardware benchmark. But I am an Indian, and we generally cant look beyond Intel ;p

Also you can look at Xeon E5520. You can get two of these in the price of an i7 975 extreme (in India atleast). With this you get ECC memory and the Xeon archi is very stable. A good MB to go with it is Intel 5520BC, with dual processor slots. It can take RAM upto 192 GB (Please Varify) and support SLI technology. Also, server boards are generally more stable, so you get a nice stable system.

Graphics Cards:

THe options you have here are:
ATI FirePro v 7750, v7700, v5700 and v3700
nVidia QuadroFX 1800 or 580

I have heard a lot in favor of ATI cards, but some people have given very bad reviews to ATI, and I just cant seem to trust those guys. So although v7700 is a great deal, but I would like to stick to Quadros. ATI at times messes up with Maya 64 bit big time. Better safe than sorry ;p

Hope I was of help to you.

Get back to me if you want a detailed cost benefit-analysis of the GPUs. Like the Shader models and the openGL and DIrectX versions these support.

Regards,

Suryanshu Rai
Production Manager - Animations,
Institute of Lifelong Learning,
University of Delhi.

[AshMorgan]

Hey thanks for the reply, i am very thankfull for your help, are you building a system or have one done? I really like the idea of a server board for the two processors but would this last in the long run and upgradabillity? and for the cost, how much better would it be for performance wise compared to my set up at the moment? Also would it need a specialist case? or would it be more cost effective to just get a Nvidia quadro card and upgrade ram to 8 gig for know then get a full new pc system in a year or two? Sorry if these seem as noobish questions but im trying to catch up in the vast sea of technical jargon and maths haha many thanks again,

Ash

[olson]

Short of building a dual socket workstation you won't get much of an upgrade for your money. Going from a Core 2 Quad to a Core i7 will maybe get you 30% more bang. Hardly worth it for the price if you ask me. Max out the memory in your current system and call it good. Then the rest of the money can be used for whatever else like a good monitor if you don't already have one, another software package you want to learn, a NAS to backup important work, another hard disk to dual boot and learn Linux if you haven't yet (essential for visual effects shops), or maybe a netbook to take notes in classes. Cheers!

[meleseDESIGN]

Here we go! ;)

For sure Dual Socket Setups is the best choice you can make nowadays, they aqre made for a long run and upgradabillity works out.

I am a Dual-Setup user since the first Dual Socket A Boards came out, since that I used all Sockets under Windows Plattform and as the Socket 771 came out also within MAC OSX Plattform. So I have a little bit experiences with Dual-Socket Systems (not to mention here my 4 and 8 way systems).

Anyways, there are a few things you should be aware of an Dual-Socket System.

1. They are more expansive compared to Single-Socket systems, but actually that´s nothing you should care about, because you would anyways buy a Dual-Socket System for a long run, regulary you will use a Dual-System twice as long.as a Single-System.

Performance related a Dual-System would only make sence with at least two X5570 Processors.
Unfortunately you can´t overclock Dual-Socket 1366 system jet (maybe till some good Skulltrails comming), so you need at least around 3GHz CPUs to get around double of the performance as an single none-overclocket i7 system.

Most of the Dual-System need an E-ATX Case. There is an Asus ATX Board which will fit in every Standard ATX Case (I have one of this boards right now).

If you have the money right now go for a Dual-System, if you don´t have the money right now go for Single-System and buy a new one in 1-2 years. Remember, performance wise a Dual-System last at least twice as long as a Single-System (established by history)!

[vincentvv]

Allso upgrading, so i hope its ok i post in this thread.
Was looking at HP`s Z400 workstations, they are abit expensive in dk, so it would be a cheap model, the cheapest have Intel Xeon, Dual-Core processor W3503 2.40 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 1066 Mhz Memory- it cost around 8000 DK ( 1 usd= 5.50 DK)

.. I got a feeling that building (getting it build, cough) would be cheaper/better?
How much is gained by using Xeon Processors compared to the "sweetspot" i7 spec, which been posted here in this forum?

[meleseDESIGN]

What´s this for a trading rate? :surprised

Beside, I don´t believe people make black holes when they die, but maybe their energy will end in black holes. ;)

If you need to care about money when buying a new Workstation then don´t buy the HP Z400 with this specs, neigther a Dual-System, get a nice i7 Machine instead.

Benchmarks can be found here: cbscores.com

[vincentvv]

That sig might be a decade old. But i think i was going down the "what happens with human lifeforce when the body dies " road or something like that :)
I am leaning more and more to i7 - on the other hand i dont mind paying, say 25% more for a 10% faster system if it for example is more reliable, easyer upgradeable and suchs - pros and cons etc etc.

[AshMorgan]

thanks mele and olson Ill defiantly take on board whats been said, I think at the moment as money is tight as im just finishing uni ill go with maxing out this one and save up for a dual socket set up in a year or so (as ill know more by then and hopefully get some experience with building machines hehe also one last thing im going to max out the ram so I need to get a graphics card as I know the 8800GTX card I got is more aimed at the gaming market, so would anyone be able to suggest a high end GPU aimed towards animation please as this is what the pc would be used for id be looking to spend no more than £500 for the GPU.

Many thanks

Ash

[meleseDESIGN]

@Frede

So if you don´t mind to spend a little extra for performance then I would highly recommend to go with a Dual-System. Remember: when choosing a good Dual-System you get even near double as much performance as with a Single-System and it will take approximately twice the time till a Single-System reaches to the Performance of that Dual-System. Over a long run you would spend near the same amount of money. Just think like that: you buy a good Dual-System today and it will last you about 3-4 Years, a Single-System will last about 1-2 years and then you have to invest again for a hole new system (maybe not for PSU & HDDs, but for Board and CPU). If you allways buy a Single-System then you allways get a little bit power - compared to a good Dual-System - over and over again.

I did it allways contrariwise. I invested every 3-4 years near twice as much money for a Dual-System. In the end I had about 1-2 years double as much power as I had with a Single-System, after 3-4 years my Dual-System had still the same power as a newer Single-System.

As en example:

Just imagine you would buy a Dual-System with two X5570 Xeon CPUs or a Single-System with an i7 920 instead. Your goal is to keep a Dual-System for 3-4 years and a Single-System for about 1-2 years. You would spend about 2500$ for a Dual-System or 1000$ for a Single-System nowadays. After 1-2 years you would invest another 1000$ for a new Single-System, while your Dual-System has still as much Power as the new Single-System. You can spend 2000$ every 3-4 years for two Single-Systems or 2500$ for one Dual-System, with the nice backround that you will have twice as much power with the Dual-System for about 1-2 years. You wouldn´t lose anything, no money and no performance, you just spend 500$ more to have the 100% more power for 1-2 years. For me, that 100% more performance for about 1-2 years is definitively worth the little extra 500 (or how much ever) bucks! And if you resell the Dual-System probably you wont even lose the 500$, for Dual-Systems you still get a good price after 3-4 years when selling it.

;)

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@Ashley

Now I noticed you´re a Student, I wouldn´t recommend you to go with a Dual-System any more. Just try to get a nice i7 System for an attractive price. That wouldn´t be wrong and will probably fit with your current needs. And you don´t need to spend 500$ for a GFX card, because there is no need for a high-end card to boost your animation skills, you can do this even with a 8800GTX (I liked this card years ago too, but with newer energy-saving technologies with current cards I switched from that one).

:)

[Jettatore]

That's a nice computer, no need to change anything. You could at some point double the RAM to 8GB, and then upgrade the video card. But neither upgrade is fully necessary at this point. I would leave it alone and just make sure I had a clean install of a x64 bit operating system so that I knew the computer was set up to it's fullest potential. I would also consider overclocking.

[AshMorgan]

@ melese

Yeah im a student lol but im finishing my degree in may, so i thought with my final loan installment I could invest in a high end graphics card so it would last me long enough to not worry about upgrading for a long time at least, Im going to upgrade my ram to the full 8gig I was wondering would you be able to suggest a good graphics card to upgrade to even if its not the best out there (i know it wont increase my animation talent but while I have the money which wont be hard to pay back (and living at home for a short time) i thought id get a great card now because it will be easier to buy than when I move out and have bills to pay etc lol so if you coudl help that would be great, again thanks for all the help everyone

ash

[vlad]

@ melese

Yeah im a student lol but im finishing my degree in may, so i thought with my final loan installment I could invest in a high end graphics card so it would last me long enough to not worry about upgrading for a long time at least, Im going to upgrade my ram to the full 8gig I was wondering would you be able to suggest a good graphics card to upgrade to even if its not the best out there (i know it wont increase my animation talent but while I have the money which wont be hard to pay back (and living at home for a short time) i thought id get a great card now because it will be easier to buy than when I move out and have bills to pay etc lol so if you coudl help that would be great, again thanks for all the help everyone

ash

I have a 8800gtx at home and a new 260gtx at work. The 260 is marginally faster than the 8800. Very little difference. So you could go out and spend 250$ on a 260gtx that wouldnt be much faster than what you already have, or you could spend 450$ on a 285gtx that would be a little faster than your 8800, or you spend 800$ on a Quadro and be very disapointed OR you could wait, save the money, and when you're ready to upgrade your whole system, put that money where it really counts : CPU and RAM. :thumbsup: And then, just buy the best bang for buck graphic card that will be availlable (like the 260 seems to be the sweet spot today).

[SuryanshuRai]

Here we go! ;)

For sure Dual Socket Setups is the best choice you can make nowadays, they aqre made for a long run and upgradabillity works out....


regulary you will use a Dual-System twice as long.as a Single-System.

Performance related a Dual-System would only make sence with at least two X5570 Processors.


!

I think i can only afford two E5520 processors for now. Will it do??

[meleseDESIGN]

I think i can only afford two E5520 processors for now. Will it do??

You can take a picture of the benchmark list at cbscores.com. Look at it and tell me what you see? There you can see the E5520 processors will be twice as fast in Multithreaded tasks as an standard clocked i7 920. I wouldn´t recommend the E5520 because of it´s low clock rate and some missing features like higher QPI, 1333MHz memory support and better memory bandwidth. So the E5520 isn´t better as the i7 920, that´s why I would avoid this processors, bacause I want at least the speed during single threaded tasks as i would have with an standard clocked i7 950. But for a render node those E5520 processors are perfect.

It shouldn´t cause any hugh issues to upgrade latter on for the newer 6-core Xeons to stay above the performance level of an 6-core Single-System within multithreaded tasks/rendering.

;)

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