Hi,

I need a new PC to meet my academic needs related Computer Graphics, 3D Modeling and Artificial Intelligence.

Graphics card

I thinking about nVidia Quadro or GeForce serie 8/9. Which is suits more my needs and what are the advantages?

CPU

Xeon or Quad Core? Which one in each category?

Motherboard

I have no idea.

Memory

What type of memory (DDR2, DDR3, etc)?

Regards,
Alexandre

Do you have a budget in mind?

Ah yes, I forgot to include that.

Well, I live in Portugal and my budget should be around 1300€ which in turn is 1,995.24 USD.

My recomendations:

CPU: Q6600 (helps in CAD, 3D,etc)

Motherboard: P35-DS3x or P5K-x

RAM: 2GB+ DDR2 800 RAM (Good manufactures include: Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, G. Skill) I personally like the Crucial Ballastix and Corsair XMS2. More than 4GB would help greately if doing some intense 3D work. Be warned that you need a x64 OS to gain full access to 3.5GB+ RAM. No need for DDR3 for now.

GPU: 3870/8800GT 512/ 8800GTS 640/3870X2/9600. You don't need to spend more money on a Workstation card. The performance gain is negligible or non existent for the price you will pay. I have found out that cards with more RAM tend to be better than cards with lower RAM, but you will have to consider clock speed,etc.

PSU: Corsair 450VX/520HX//550VX/PP&C 610. Please don't skimp on the PSU. See Official XS Tiered PSU Manufacturer Brand Listing for PSU tire listing and pick one from the top tires listed there.

Case: One that fits your budget and you like it. Keep in mind air flow, easy access, size, etc when selecting a case.

I read some things about Quadro cards and I guess I'm giving up on it. It's just for acamdemic purposes, now and I want to play games.

8800 GTX(Ultra?) 768, HD 3870 X2, GF 9600 - which one is better?

Thanks!

In order from best to lowest based on pure performers: (high to low)

8800Ultra
3870X2
8800GTX
9600

For your needs a 640MB 8800GTS would be good (3D, CAD,etc) for gaming a 9600 would be more than enough. Imo, unless you specificaly run software that benefit from more GPU RAM, etc. a 9600 or 8800GT 512 would be more than enough.

- Western Digital - CAVIAR SE 250GB 8MB 7200RPM SATA II;
- GF 8800ULTRA 768MB DDR3 XLR8 OVERCLOKED DVI TVOUT PCI-X
- Intel - Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHZ
- Gigabyte - P35-DS3R
- Samsung - CW-21Z503N SLIMFIT TV 21pol

What about that? There's also the Core 2 Duo E8500 for the same prize and the P5K.

in some theoretical testing,3870X2 is more powerful than 8800Ultra ,it means when you do some extremely arithmetic in pure X2 is great. and it's gamming performance just a little behind the 88Utra

It's 200€ cheaper also.

Get a 8800GT or 3870.

Don't go for ultra or SLI cards. No 3D app uses SLI or Crossfire.

Go for the q6600 and overclock to 3-3.2 or more. It's a life saver for rendering. If you decide to overclock it would be good to buy and better HSF.

Also get some DDR2. You dont really need some expensive stuff. DDR2-800 will be enough.

^Agreed. Like I said before the Ultra is kind of an overkill. If planing on OCing make sure you get a good cooler.

Forgot to add:

Get a 320GB+ 7200.11 HDD its almost as fast as a Raptor in most benchmarks.

?!?!?! Are you sure it's PCI-X? PCI-X is a completely different socket from PCIe. Never knew they made PCI-X. 8800s.

Off-topic: What means OC? I googled but it only returned results about the TV serie...

I copy that specification from a shop's website. I think the 'X' means "put what you want here", as in 'e'

OC means to overclock.

You get a q6600 and overclock it from 2.4 to 3.2GHz (or even more).

A 3.2GHz quad core CPU would cost you a 1000$ and this is just as good.

Quadro vs Geforce dabate.

Get Geforce over quadro, quadro isn't worth it at all.

To really put it simple

Q6600 2.4 overclock to 3.0-3.2 GHz
Better heatsink+fan (AC Freezer 7+)
Gigabyte P35-DS3R
8800GT or HD3870
2x2GB DDR2-800 (5-5-5-8 - cheap stuff)
500W PSU (2x12v at 18A at least)
A case of your choise with a couple of fans running at 7v.
(There is a 7v fan mod, it's for silence)

You really can't go any better on this and in my opinion everything beyond this is really a waste of money.

I might be totally of here but aren't nVidias Tesla series going to help calculating physics and thus help in Global illumination renderings such as raytracing and radiosity calculations?