3d rendering pc

[EggWhite50]

I am an independent designer of Retail Displays using SketchUP and AutoCAD. My current machine is a HP DC7900 Quad Core 2, Q8200@2.33Ghz 1.98 GHz, 3.24 GB RAM is boggin down. I have $2,000 to spend for the CPU and Graphic cards. I would appreciate your suggestions of what to purchase. This is for 3-D rendering only, I do not do any gaming.
Thanks

 

[EggWhite50]

I am an independent designer of Retail Displays using SketchUP and AutoCAD. My current machine is a HP DC7900 Quad Core 2, Q8200@2.33Ghz 1.98 GHz, 3.24 GB RAM is boggin down. I have $2,000 to spend for the CPU and Graphic cards. I would appreciate your suggestions of what to purchase. This is for 3-D rendering only, I do not do any gaming.
Thanks

I forgot to share the graphic card I'm currently using
ATI FireGL V3600 256MB PCI Express x 16 Workstation Video Card

 

[Pyroflea]

As far as I understand, 3D rendering is heavily CPU intensive, and doesn't really require GPU power at all. As I'm sure you've noticed, it always uses a helluva lot of RAM

As you haven't given any guidelines (please view this thread, reference for next time: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice ), I'll just tell you what you'll most likely want to look for.

CPU: Quad- or Six-Core. Intel makes very nice quad cores (Core i7 series), while AMD makes some nice budget-oriented Quad cores as well; AMD makes very affordable Six-core processors as well. The choice is yours!

RAM: Lotsa, lotsa RAM! I'd go for at least 6GB-8GB, maybe more depending on how large these renders are gonna be. Again, you'll have to make the call.

Motherboard: Not overly important. As long as it has the appropriate CPU socket, and has the features you want/need, it's good to go. I usually pick motherboards mostly by ratings.

Video Card: As I mentioned, not overly important. Something cheap and simple will be fine, just for connecting your monitor, and displaying these lovely renderings.

Hard Drives: You'll probably want something that's fairly fast (Western Caviar Black or similar). You may even consider a RAID0 setup for even faster speeds, or even and SSD for the OS/Program drive.

PSU: Get something reliable. Corsair, Seasonic, and Antec are the best brands, imo. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp That's a PSU calculator; it'll help give you an idea as to how much power your system will draw. Make sure to give yourself a bit of headroom.

Case, DVD Drive, etc.: Not overly important. 120mm or larger fans will help you move a bunch of air with less noise, if that's an issue. As long as everything serves it's purpose and you're happy with it, go for it.

Anyways, I think I pretty much covered everything. Make sure your OS is 64-bit, or else you can't use more than 3GB or RAM.


I know I just kind of generalized here, but hopefully I've helped give you some insight. If you have more questions, please ask!

Good luck

 

[shovenose]

well oyu could reuse the gfx card from your previous copmuter

and i would say a core i7 quad-core. they are better performers than quad-core amds, but also cost way more. and since they have ht, so you would have 8 threads

 

[EggWhite50]

Thank you for the help, this is exactly the type of information I was looking for. It's great that you guys are willing to share your knowledge and expertise. Thanks!

 

[Pyroflea]

I had forgotten than the i7's were hyper threaded (I'm still stuck in the past ), and the AMD's weren't, so I'd go for one of them.

As for the help, no problem! That's why we're here