New PC - Overkill?

[Vegard]

Im considering on buying a new computer.
But some people says that my shopping list is a little overkill:

Antec Nine Hundred
Club3D GeForce 8800GT 512 MB x 2
Crucial DDR2-667 4096 MB x 2
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Samsung SyncMaster 223BW
Thermaltake Toughpower 750W
XFX nForce 680i SLI
Zalman CNPS 9700NT

so my question is:

Is 8gb of ram and 2 3d cards too much or would 3ds max and games run better?

[The IC]

2 cards is quite frankly a waste of time for 3dsmax, and 8gb of memory is only useful if you have an operating system that can utilise it...the processor is by far the most important thing, if the spare money from the second card is enough you could get Xeon quad cores (or whatever AMDs equivalent is)

[tom120934]

If you have enough room on your desk, you can think of getting 2 displays. Any modern graphic card can handle it easily, and it's really appreciable to work this way. Or think of a 24 inch display.

Otherwise, the Xeon idea is good for dual processors (8 cores) It will require special logicboard, such as a Tyan. And fully buffered RAM, which is more expensive.

8GB is definitely overkill. Getting 2x2Go will be enough for today, and will let you buy later another couple of 2Go.

Last advice : fanless. You'll really appreciate with no noise, low music if you like. A must have.

[greenvampire]

like the IC said, 8gb ram is only good if your using an op to support it... I think Vista only supports 3gb in 32bit mode.

unless your thinking of water-cooling I would opt against a duel card setup, the Nividia GeForce 8800GTX is excellent imo. (ive got one)

Max runs fine for me, and im runnin 4gb ram, quad core 2.4ghz, single Nividia geforce 8800gtx.

[Vegard]

THx guys

the reason why I wanted 8gb of ram is to hande large scenes in 3ds without any trouble. I know that 32bit xp and vista dont support more then 3gb.
Dont I get a extra renderbucket for the 2nd 3d card?
the fans in the computer only make 16 and 19 db of noise

[greenvampire]

if you really want to go for a duel card then look into the cooling systems indepth,
i've heard a few horror stories of fans over-working and burning out... and obviously causing the computer to cook itself :/

[tomsullivan]

the video cars is manly used in the veiwport if you are using driect x

CPU does the rendering,

and like it was pointed out you could have 100gig of ram but windows XP only 2gig and vista uses 3gig.

also if you are look to waste money in a new computer buy a 10000 RPM hhd, saving and loading is much faster.

with that computer you pointed out you should not ahve any problems with large sence, max can handel but loads of poly you just have to set up your sence right with layers and crap like that

[Vegard]

Originally Posted by tomsullivan

the video cars is manly used in the veiwport if you are using driect x

CPU does the rendering,

and like it was pointed out you could have 100gig of ram but windows XP only 2gig and vista uses 3gig.

also if you are look to waste money in a new computer buy a 10000 RPM hhd, saving and loading is much faster.

with that computer you pointed out you should not ahve any problems with large sence, max can handel but loads of poly you just have to set up your sence right with layers and crap like that

Xp and vista 64bit takes more then 2 and 3gb

[tom120934]

Time to say again some basic facts.

Render is done only by CPU. This is why it's important to use the most powerful you can afford. Today top level is bi-Xeon like I said above. Cheapest best choice is IMHO the Q6600 overclockable to 3.4-3.5GHz without any trouble.

Videocard is only used to show the model interactively during modeling time. Any modern card will do the job. Use extra bucks only if you're going to use your PC for games.

Memory : unless you're a god like TomSullivan, you won't need more than 2Go. Pay attention to RAM speed and quality instead of quantity.

Display : really important, this is the only thing which will actually show you your work. Unless you plan to earn your life from CG, no need for professionnal hardware. Read some tests and benchmarks here and there.

Silence : don't trust only the dB quantities. Figures like 16 and 19 dB are lies. Again, read tests and benchmarks for : CPU cooling system, GPU cooling system, PSU, box. All of them exists as passive -- no fan at all. They're a bit more expensive. Forget CPU overclocking with a passive cooling system, it's just too dangerous.

PSU, logicboard ... : these parts are often not really cared of, but you should think they can put out of order your carefully choosed other parts if they fail. So again, you should prefer quality over price.

As a summary, here's the configuration I've built for my daily CG use. It was in last June, so there're some parts you have to change.

- CPU : Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz, overclocked to 3.4GHz. My choice now would go to Q6600, same overclocking.
- RAM : 2Go DDR2 800MHz, low latency (4-4-4-12), from Crucial (Ballistix Tracer)
- MB : ASUS P5WDH, fanless
- CPU cooling system : Thermalright Ultra 120, fanless
- PSU : I don't remember the brand, but it uses a 12cm fan to keep it pretty silent. Put a fanless PSU if you can afford it.
- Case : Antec P182 with three 12cm fans in it at lowest speed.
- HD : Raptor 10000rpm 74Go for operating system, Samsung 500Go for data. Don't let data and OS merged, really dangerous. Do backup, external HDD or DVDs.
- Display : HP w2207, 22 inches, really nice to work and to watch some videos.
- Video card : ASUS 8600GT (NVidia), fanless.

At first boot, I didn't notice it was on. After some months of use, the noise level is a bit higher but still unnoticeable when there is some noise (low music, or even keyboard typing or mouse friction)

If I don't overclock, I can shutdown all fans in the case without any problems.

[Vegard]

Originally Posted by tom120934

Time to say again some basic facts.

Render is done only by CPU. This is why it's important to use the most powerful you can afford. Today top level is bi-Xeon like I said above. Cheapest best choice is IMHO the Q6600 overclockable to 3.4-3.5GHz without any trouble.

Videocard is only used to show the model interactively during modeling time. Any modern card will do the job. Use extra bucks only if you're going to use your PC for games.

Memory : unless you're a god like TomSullivan, you won't need more than 2Go. Pay attention to RAM speed and quality instead of quantity.

Display : really important, this is the only thing which will actually show you your work. Unless you plan to earn your life from CG, no need for professionnal hardware. Read some tests and benchmarks here and there.

Silence : don't trust only the dB quantities. Figures like 16 and 19 dB are lies. Again, read tests and benchmarks for : CPU cooling system, GPU cooling system, PSU, box. All of them exists as passive -- no fan at all. They're a bit more expensive. Forget CPU overclocking with a passive cooling system, it's just too dangerous.

PSU, logicboard ... : these parts are often not really cared of, but you should think they can put out of order your carefully choosed other parts if they fail. So again, you should prefer quality over price.

As a summary, here's the configuration I've built for my daily CG use. It was in last June, so there're some parts you have to change.

- CPU : Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz, overclocked to 3.4GHz. My choice now would go to Q6600, same overclocking.
- RAM : 2Go DDR2 800MHz, low latency (4-4-4-12), from Crucial (Ballistix Tracer)
- MB : ASUS P5WDH, fanless
- CPU cooling system : Thermalright Ultra 120, fanless
- PSU : I don't remember the brand, but it uses a 12cm fan to keep it pretty silent. Put a fanless PSU if you can afford it.
- Case : Antec P182 with three 12cm fans in it at lowest speed.
- HD : Raptor 10000rpm 74Go for operating system, Samsung 500Go for data. Don't let data and OS merged, really dangerous. Do backup, external HDD or DVDs.
- Display : HP w2207, 22 inches, really nice to work and to watch some videos.
- Video card : ASUS 8600GT (NVidia), fanless.

At first boot, I didn't notice it was on. After some months of use, the noise level is a bit higher but still unnoticeable when there is some noise (low music, or even keyboard typing or mouse friction)

If I don't overclock, I can shutdown all fans in the case without any problems.

This is a good reply, thx...