Playaa April 9, 2007 Share Playaa Member April 9, 2007 2 different lines of questioning here. 1) I am learning 3D modeling and have 2gigs of ram...do I need more? (I can do up to 8) 2) I have a friend who has been doing 3D modeling for a year but only at college on college computers...he wants me to build him a pc for under $1000 JUST for 3D modeling...(he doesn't game). I've heard tell of a special nvidia video card designed just for use with 3D modeling applications...does anyone know if this is true and where I can find it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters April 9, 2007 Share stutters GC Alumni April 9, 2007 bummer on that whole "under $1k" thing. you see those new quad xeon (4 procs x 2 cores/proc = 8 cores) mac pro's? holy canoli. http://www.apple.com/macpro/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa April 9, 2007 Author Share Playaa Member April 9, 2007 well, actually he said he could go up to $1300 but this is through a student loan and he's a poor guy who's still in college and would be paying for this all himself. We all know that you don't need the absolute bleeding edge pc to have a great pc so I'm trying to save him money. heck my pc cost me less than $900 built 100% from scratch including new monitor (19" widescreen), keyboard, mouse, case, power supply...everything...and it's 2 gigs of ram with dual-core 64bit 2.0ghz processor. Plenty good to run 3D modeling and any video game I throw at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler April 9, 2007 Share boiler Member April 9, 2007 (edited) I've done a fair bit of 3D modeling and animation (with Blender3D and Maya), as well as techincal modeling with ironCAD (=teh devil) and CATIA. Two of the most important aspects will be having a fast processor, and a good amount of RAM. For a budget system, 2GB ought to be enough ram for what he wants to do. Unless you are modeling HUGE scenes, you shouldn't need much more than 2GB, although you can always go higher if it would make you feel better. Remember, only 64bit OS's will recognize higher than 4GB, and it seems 32bit versions sometimes won't recognize all 4GB (shows as 3.5GB from what I've heard). I render fairly small scale scene stuff, so I never had a problem running out of RAM with 2GB. As far as graphics cards are concerned, nvidia makes the Quadro series of cards that are designed for business use. I cannot tell why they are so special compared to the GeForce line of cards, and are also usually much more expensive. Those may not be what you/he are/is looking for. FWIW, I run all those 3D animations and such on a evga 7300gt, and it works just fine. Could it be faster? Yeah, it could, but I didn't feel like spending the extra money at the time to drop in a faster card. Any mid-range "gaming" graphics card (ati X1K or nvidia 7/8000) with opengl support, etc would fit the bill just fine for what he's looking for. This isn't some high end pixar-quality digital animation-intense machine we're talking here. For what he wants to spend, focus the main funds into getting an E6600 Core 2 Duo, a couple gigs of decently fast ram (you shouldn't need gaming-grade DDR2 800 or anything), and a big hard drive (320GB+, 3D stuff takes up boatloads of space) If this is sounding like what you are looking for, let me know and I'd be happy to throw a few parts together in a list to come up with a possible solution. You should be able to fit in the $1000 and get enough for what he is trying to do, and maybe include a 20" widescreen LCD too. *edit - From what I've read thus far on the Quadro's, the difference has something to do with more/faster OpenGL buffers, etc. Only problem is they're mostly $1000+. There is a quadro fx1400 128mb for $354, but I honestly don't think it would be worth it. For a non-professional student, the quadro's will not be for you. Edited April 9, 2007 by boilersax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox April 9, 2007 Share appalachian_fox Member April 9, 2007 *edit - From what I've read thus far on the Quadro's, the difference has something to do with more/faster OpenGL buffers, etc. Only problem is they're mostly $1000+. There is a quadro fx1400 128mb for $354, but I honestly don't think it would be worth it. For a non-professional student, the quadro's will not be for you. One major difference between some of the Quadros (perhaps all of them, I'm not sure) is that they have an output which send a refresh/redraw synchronization signal for use with various 3D viewing solutions such as LCD shutter glasses. Completely unnecessary, but a cool application if you ever get the chance to use such a setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa April 9, 2007 Author Share Playaa Member April 9, 2007 good advice all around boiler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher April 9, 2007 Share Preacher Member April 9, 2007 On the quick side I threw a few parts together since it's "for a friend" instead of you I didn't put in the normal time I do on this lol. recommended on the cheap side $1235 including shipping and you get a t-shirt a thumb drive and $15 MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16856110070 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151133 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822144016 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820144062 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115003 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16829102005 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102064 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16824112177 Would work for cheapest $786.49 with free sony thumb drive and $15 mir: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103036 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16856101020 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231098 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16856110061 The second set-up leaves a lot of room for software purchases like Vista and also comes with Rainbow 6 vegas for you lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler April 9, 2007 Share boiler Member April 9, 2007 I threw some parts together on Newegg, and came up with a rock-solid system that should be right up his alley. I'll post it later when I have time. Grand total I came up with was $1191.39 shipped. couple of comments on the stuff preach posted: 1) no need for fancy sound card - not a gaming comp 2) go intel core 2, and E6600. enough of a budget to fit that. 3) any sort of design work or 3D modeling would be a lot more enjoyable with the higher resolution of a 20" widescreen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler April 9, 2007 Share boiler Member April 9, 2007 Ok, here are the parts I would suggest. Obviously there are some areas where money could be saved if necessary. I also did not include any OS - if he's in school/college, his school should have a software deal with MS to get windows for cheap (mine was $15 a couple years ago while I was still in school). Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 Power Supply ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000AAKS 400GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive SAPPHIRE 100165L Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail LITE-ON Black 20X 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner BenQ FP202W Black 20.1" 8ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 600:1 Grand Total: $1190 shipped The ram is a little overkill for what he needs, but it has $40 instant savings right now so it's a great deal. That case/PSU is one of the best combos you will find, very recommended for those on a budget. The CPU is supposed to come down in price near the end of this month - from what I've read somewhere near $220ish vs the $308 right now. That vid card is only $109, but should be quite capable. 512MB is a worthy spec too. GLHF! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norguard April 10, 2007 Share Norguard Member April 10, 2007 (edited) The biggest difference between gaming cards and QuadroFX or FireGL(ATi's card), is that while gaming cards are designed for speed, when rendering, the developer cards are geared specifically towards pixel perfect accuracy, every time they render a scene. All of the textures and shaders will render out exactly the same way, every single time, at the cost of speed. In the case of the new cards, the clocks and RAM have been bumped a lot (1GB+ on some of the new FireGL models) to match the speed of gaming cards, while keeping the rendering perfection. Unfortunately, some of those cards are almost $2000 - way, way above budget for the entire system. 2GB would be sufficient. I honestly don't know how I'd recommend it, though. ...whether it should be 2x 1GB DIMMs, to take advantage of dual-channel RAM, or whether it should be 1x 2GB, so that it can later be upgraded to 4GB dual-channel, for less money, than having to buy a total of 4 1GB DIMMs. Either way doesn't really matter in the short-term. Edited April 10, 2007 by Norguard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo April 10, 2007 Share Cujo Member April 10, 2007 i'd go 2x1gb. i have 4x1gb now without issues. that's an insane price for ram. 1x2gb would be more expensive now and timings/speed would be lower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler April 10, 2007 Share boiler Member April 10, 2007 yeah, that price for memory that fast was crazy when I found it, thats why I posted it. I just found my order summary for the PC parts I used to build my work PC last summer, and I saw that I bought 2x1GB Corsair Value RAM @667MHz for $230. Thats crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher April 10, 2007 Share Preacher Member April 10, 2007 http://www.geeks.com/pix/2007/MCSYS.html?c...SYS-_-Viewasweb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage April 10, 2007 Share ZeroDamage Member April 10, 2007 Wait until later this month on the Intel CPU's. Many will be dropping as much as 50% in price. Buy now and you will be kicking yourself later. I am talking just a couple of weeks (April 22 I believe is the date). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler April 10, 2007 Share boiler Member April 10, 2007 (edited) Wait until later this month on the Intel CPU's. Many will be dropping as much as 50% in price. Buy now and you will be kicking yourself later. I am talking just a couple of weeks (April 22 I believe is the date). I concur on this, as I mentioned it earlier in my parts list post lol preach, you're constantly finding amd combo deals all over the place and passing the savings on Edited April 10, 2007 by boilersax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa April 10, 2007 Author Share Playaa Member April 10, 2007 Preaches link looks perfect... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler April 10, 2007 Share boiler Member April 10, 2007 (edited) you're gonna want more power than that compaq system has for this 3d stuff. If he needs the budget to be less than $1000, the stuff I posted above can be adjusted to fit said budget. Edited April 10, 2007 by boilersax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaM2 April 10, 2007 Share akaM2 Member April 10, 2007 I could get him 2-3 week old Dell XPS 410 with E6700/2gb ram/250gb hd/512mb 7950GT OC for around his price if he wants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler April 10, 2007 Share boiler Member April 10, 2007 I could get him 2-3 week old Dell XPS 410 with E6700/2gb ram/250gb hd/512mb 7950GT OC for around his price if he wants. that would work too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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