3d apps (3dmax, zbrush) build - what to look for?
Last response: in Systems
Hi everyone.
Theres an expression in italian that says "like a fish out of water", no idea if there an equal in english, but thats exactly how i feel now that i have to build my next PC system. Im a student of game design and spend a lot of time in front of my pc for work and for pleasure.
Been working a lot with 3d applications like 3dstudio max, maya, zbrush, mudbox, all of them having huge problems with my actual pc when handling scenes of 50k polys. (except mudbox, where i can work up to 4mio polys). my aim would be working with 1gb big files and around20 mio polys per scene.
the problem is, thinking "ill get a good grafic card and all will be fine" sounds a bit minimalistic, so im here to ask you guys (and i hope you know better than me) which components are essential for working fluently with 3d applications. On the other side, i also play on that pc. Im not the kind of guy who has 20 last.gen games installed at a time, so for instance a good velociraptor300gb will do on that field..
my budget is around 1600-1800euros, 1400-1500gbp... (screen included, 22-26inch)
if any of you has good builds to point out on that matter, or a guide for that specific matter, or knows about people working in that scene being very happy with a product, please let me know..
waiting for your answers!
regards, raffael
Theres an expression in italian that says "like a fish out of water", no idea if there an equal in english, but thats exactly how i feel now that i have to build my next PC system. Im a student of game design and spend a lot of time in front of my pc for work and for pleasure.
Been working a lot with 3d applications like 3dstudio max, maya, zbrush, mudbox, all of them having huge problems with my actual pc when handling scenes of 50k polys. (except mudbox, where i can work up to 4mio polys). my aim would be working with 1gb big files and around20 mio polys per scene.
the problem is, thinking "ill get a good grafic card and all will be fine" sounds a bit minimalistic, so im here to ask you guys (and i hope you know better than me) which components are essential for working fluently with 3d applications. On the other side, i also play on that pc. Im not the kind of guy who has 20 last.gen games installed at a time, so for instance a good velociraptor300gb will do on that field..
my budget is around 1600-1800euros, 1400-1500gbp... (screen included, 22-26inch)
if any of you has good builds to point out on that matter, or a guide for that specific matter, or knows about people working in that scene being very happy with a product, please let me know..
waiting for your answers!
regards, raffael
More about : apps 3dmax zbrush build
Intel Core i7 860 2.8GHz Socket LGA 1156 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £219.38
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172754
ASUS P7P55D PRO iP55 Socket LGA 1156 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £126.84
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173450
ZOTAC Geforce GTX275 896MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card £359.93 2 of these
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161657
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz HyperX Memory Kit CL7 1.5V £151.11 (8 gb)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169488
Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Case - No PSU £44.80
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854
Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blac £51.79
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150247
Corsair 750W TX PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12v rail £89.70
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134677
Samsung T240 24" TFT Monitor 1920x1200 1000:1 300cd/m2 5ms DVI/HDMI Rose B £239.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143848
comes to £1283.08 from http://www.ebuyer.com/
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172754
ASUS P7P55D PRO iP55 Socket LGA 1156 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £126.84
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173450
ZOTAC Geforce GTX275 896MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card £359.93 2 of these
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161657
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz HyperX Memory Kit CL7 1.5V £151.11 (8 gb)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169488
Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Case - No PSU £44.80
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854
Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blac £51.79
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150247
Corsair 750W TX PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12v rail £89.70
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134677
Samsung T240 24" TFT Monitor 1920x1200 1000:1 300cd/m2 5ms DVI/HDMI Rose B £239.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143848
comes to £1283.08 from http://www.ebuyer.com/
That's a nice build and good choices.
Ideally you would work and play on different machines, because you would get better work performance from a workstation GPU such as:
http://www.dabs.com/products/pny-quadro-fx-3700-512mb-p...
I understand there are ways to get good 3D modeling performance out of a standard GTX card though... you might want to look around for that info.
Ideally you would work and play on different machines, because you would get better work performance from a workstation GPU such as:
http://www.dabs.com/products/pny-quadro-fx-3700-512mb-p...
I understand there are ways to get good 3D modeling performance out of a standard GTX card though... you might want to look around for that info.
if there a reason for you to pick the geforces instead of lets say 2 radeon 4870?
i mean i have some remote reminance of someone saying nvidias work much better with autodesk programs.. not sure thou.. maybe something related to the control server or drivers...
about the GPU i dont really know.. heard one cant almost play anything with one of these.. artifacts all over the place.. but it might of be someones trouble and not a standard.. and also the price isnt really "amateur" friendly..
i mean i have some remote reminance of someone saying nvidias work much better with autodesk programs.. not sure thou.. maybe something related to the control server or drivers...
about the GPU i dont really know.. heard one cant almost play anything with one of these.. artifacts all over the place.. but it might of be someones trouble and not a standard.. and also the price isnt really "amateur" friendly..
Related ressources
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This is an interesting review of Nvidia Quadro FX vs ATI FirePro, read it before buying a new Graphics card.(remember new ati series is coming out soon)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/quadrofx...
You need a Blue-Ray player (or writer), Sony, Samsung, Pioneer and LG are good makes).
I would go for 8 [2x4] giga byte of memory and another Hard drive for backups. (you could setup up a raid).
As for the OS Windows 7 64Bit
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/quadrofx...
You need a Blue-Ray player (or writer), Sony, Samsung, Pioneer and LG are good makes).
I would go for 8 [2x4] giga byte of memory and another Hard drive for backups. (you could setup up a raid).
As for the OS Windows 7 64Bit
^+1 for another HDD for back up. As for RAM, go 12GB if possible. No need for Blu Ray.
Imo, going LGA1366 (aka i7 920) will be a better option as you will be able to use the i9s which are hexacore CPUs later. You should notice a decent performance increase with an i9 upgrade down the road. And no, i9 will not be available for LAG1156.
I understand there are ways to get good 3D modeling performance out of a standard GTX card though... you might want to look around for that info.
I'm assuming you are talking about softmodding gaming cards to workstation? If so no, you can no longer softmod on ATI/nVidia cards.
Imo, going LGA1366 (aka i7 920) will be a better option as you will be able to use the i9s which are hexacore CPUs later. You should notice a decent performance increase with an i9 upgrade down the road. And no, i9 will not be available for LAG1156.
Quote:
I understand there are ways to get good 3D modeling performance out of a standard GTX card though... you might want to look around for that info.
I'm assuming you are talking about softmodding gaming cards to workstation? If so no, you can no longer softmod on ATI/nVidia cards.
Intel Core i7 920 D0 BOX, Quad Core, 2.66 GHz, LGA 1366
DFI LANParty DK X58-T3eH6, ATX, X58, LGA1366, SLI, CFX
Corsair HX3X12G1333C9, 6x2GB, DDR3-1333, CL9-9-9-24@1.5V
WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS, 10'000rpm, 16MB, 300GB, SATA-II
ZOTAC GTX-275 AMP! 896MB DDR3, 240SP
Samsung SyncMaster T240, 24" TFT, DVI-D + HDMI, schwarz
Corsair CMPSU-TX750, 750W, SLI/CF, ATX2.2/EPS, 80Plus
Noctua CPU-Kühler NH-U12P SE1366 - Sockel 1366
Lite-On iHAS324-32, 24fach DVD Writer, schwarz, S-ATA
DFI LANParty DK X58-T3eH6, ATX, X58, LGA1366, SLI, CFX
Corsair HX3X12G1333C9, 6x2GB, DDR3-1333, CL9-9-9-24@1.5V
WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS, 10'000rpm, 16MB, 300GB, SATA-II
ZOTAC GTX-275 AMP! 896MB DDR3, 240SP
Samsung SyncMaster T240, 24" TFT, DVI-D + HDMI, schwarz
Corsair CMPSU-TX750, 750W, SLI/CF, ATX2.2/EPS, 80Plus
Noctua CPU-Kühler NH-U12P SE1366 - Sockel 1366
Lite-On iHAS324-32, 24fach DVD Writer, schwarz, S-ATA
Shadow703793 said:
Imo, going LGA1366 (aka i7 920) will be a better option as you will be able to use the i9s which are hexacore CPUs later. You should notice a decent performance increase with an i9 upgrade down the road. And no, i9 will not be available for LAG1156.
I'm assuming you are talking about softmodding gaming cards to workstation? If so no, you can no longer softmod on ATI/nVidia cards.
That's a very good point Shadow, I had totally missed that. The ability to upgrade to 6 cores might be quite nice.
Too bad about the soft mod thing.
noktek said:
Intel Core i7 920 D0 BOX, Quad Core, 2.66 GHz, LGA 1366DFI LANParty DK X58-T3eH6, ATX, X58, LGA1366, SLI, CFX
Corsair HX3X12G1333C9, 6x2GB, DDR3-1333, CL9-9-9-24@1.5V
WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS, 10'000rpm, 16MB, 300GB, SATA-II
ZOTAC GTX-275 AMP! 896MB DDR3, 240SP
Samsung SyncMaster T240, 24" TFT, DVI-D + HDMI, schwarz
Corsair CMPSU-TX750, 750W, SLI/CF, ATX2.2/EPS, 80Plus
Noctua CPU-Kühler NH-U12P SE1366 - Sockel 1366
Lite-On iHAS324-32, 24fach DVD Writer, schwarz, S-ATA
Good build. BUT wait for the ATI 5xxx.
noktek said:
so thats the result of a small council i had with a friend of mine keeping in mind the suggestions done here an the high-profile approval it got.. (btw im getting 2 of them grafic cards)what exactly are you talking about the 19? unknown matter to me.. ¨cheers
Core i9:

Gulftown, aka i9: 6 cores 12 threads.
Transmaniacon said:
With that kind of budget, OP could probably get good performance from SSD, might be worthwhile to have an OS/Programs/Working Directory drive, and then have a RAID 1 backup.True that.
@ proximon
You Write: "It's not about waiting, but about an upgrade path. Using the X58 board with the i7 920 will allow you to upgrade to 6 cores next year.
Using the P55 board with the i7 860 will cost less now, but future upgrades will be limited to 4 cores."
I've read this same thought from many people, and I always find it missing in its logic. The upgrade path is not limited to anything specific, unless you clarify what upgrade means to you. Lets say a person chooses 1156 socket now, perhaps due to performance today and saves $100 over buying 1136. (just a for-instance).
Then lets say in two years (not immediate upgrade, but once the technology settles, that person chooses to upgrade to the i9.
They do have a path! They buy a new mobo, processor/hsf. Who knows what that will cost, but to decide if that process is desireable, you would have to reduce that cost to npv which would be the cost of the mobo + processor/(1+i)^2, and you'd have the ability to calculate a figure of merit for the decision to buy 1156 now as: $100- present value of the cost of the future mobo/processor. (i represents the interest rate)
You then have to compare that result to the other scenerio, which is 0 savings now, and the cost of the processor (only) in, say, 2 years. Which is 0 - processor costs/(1+i)^2
How can you say which way is better without knowing the future cost of the mobo and processor, the likely interest rate, and without knowing if something else about mobos for i9 will be different in 2 years to render it undesireable to continue to employ the "old" x58 mobo?
Best,
Bob
You Write: "It's not about waiting, but about an upgrade path. Using the X58 board with the i7 920 will allow you to upgrade to 6 cores next year.
Using the P55 board with the i7 860 will cost less now, but future upgrades will be limited to 4 cores."
I've read this same thought from many people, and I always find it missing in its logic. The upgrade path is not limited to anything specific, unless you clarify what upgrade means to you. Lets say a person chooses 1156 socket now, perhaps due to performance today and saves $100 over buying 1136. (just a for-instance).
Then lets say in two years (not immediate upgrade, but once the technology settles, that person chooses to upgrade to the i9.
They do have a path! They buy a new mobo, processor/hsf. Who knows what that will cost, but to decide if that process is desireable, you would have to reduce that cost to npv which would be the cost of the mobo + processor/(1+i)^2, and you'd have the ability to calculate a figure of merit for the decision to buy 1156 now as: $100- present value of the cost of the future mobo/processor. (i represents the interest rate)
You then have to compare that result to the other scenerio, which is 0 savings now, and the cost of the processor (only) in, say, 2 years. Which is 0 - processor costs/(1+i)^2
How can you say which way is better without knowing the future cost of the mobo and processor, the likely interest rate, and without knowing if something else about mobos for i9 will be different in 2 years to render it undesireable to continue to employ the "old" x58 mobo?
Best,
Bob
Not bad Bob, but there are other factors. Most people choose an OEM edition of Windows when building their own comp. This can be quite the hassle with MS to change the MB.
Replacing a motherboard is a great deal of work involving as well a re-format and a fresh OS install.
CPU and RAM can be dropped into a board fairly quickly, and no software changes are needed.
Unless you are a serious enthusiast like me, you will generally hang onto a build until it no longer works for you... and my experience has shown me that the immediate reaction at that time will be, "What can I do to upgrade for minimal cost?"
Also, CPUs tend to come down in price over time.
Replacing a motherboard is a great deal of work involving as well a re-format and a fresh OS install.
CPU and RAM can be dropped into a board fairly quickly, and no software changes are needed.
Unless you are a serious enthusiast like me, you will generally hang onto a build until it no longer works for you... and my experience has shown me that the immediate reaction at that time will be, "What can I do to upgrade for minimal cost?"
Also, CPUs tend to come down in price over time.
Proximon, your reply helps fill in your assumptions: that is the "upgraders" will normally seek a sub-optimal upgrade in exchange for reducing the upgrade time to that of replacing a processor/hsf.
I suggest "sub-optimal", because I value the fresh os install that always accompanies my upgrades. I can't remember an upgrade in which I didn't redo the mobo as part of the build. And the technology is always changing, whether as part of an improved bios, or i/o or power or sata or something....
Agreed that cpus come down in price, but mobos, and ram do too. That's why I think the op could be making a good choice to avoid the high cost of the 1136 mobo today, even if he may wish one for a future upgrade.
At least we owe the op the awareness that there could be a potential benefit to planning his i9 build to simply be a different build rather than an extension of this one.
I've rebuilt, btw, (normally a new mobo/processor/ram...sometimes video) nearly a dozen times with OEM Windows and never faced a hassle, so I'm not sure what you are referring to. All you have to do is inform MS of the upgrade.
Best,
Bob
I suggest "sub-optimal", because I value the fresh os install that always accompanies my upgrades. I can't remember an upgrade in which I didn't redo the mobo as part of the build. And the technology is always changing, whether as part of an improved bios, or i/o or power or sata or something....
Agreed that cpus come down in price, but mobos, and ram do too. That's why I think the op could be making a good choice to avoid the high cost of the 1136 mobo today, even if he may wish one for a future upgrade.
At least we owe the op the awareness that there could be a potential benefit to planning his i9 build to simply be a different build rather than an extension of this one.
I've rebuilt, btw, (normally a new mobo/processor/ram...sometimes video) nearly a dozen times with OEM Windows and never faced a hassle, so I'm not sure what you are referring to. All you have to do is inform MS of the upgrade.
Best,
Bob
You guys are probably going to flame me for bumping this one month old thread but no PC has been bought yet.. so i was wondering if the parts uggested here (obsidians build and mine) are all still actual and if theres anything new to be taken into account before buying..
(for those who dont want to read all the posts up here, its all about doing an awesome build for 3d apps/games with 1600 €, screen included)
(for those who dont want to read all the posts up here, its all about doing an awesome build for 3d apps/games with 1600 €, screen included)
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