What Hardware to choose :S

[ronyy]

Hey everyone,

I am a computer graphics and animation student and a new member,
I mainly use the pc for rendering, compositing ... and use programs like Maya, 3ds max, after effects, photoshop.... and i don t use it for gaming.
I want to buy a new desktop pc but i m not sure what to choose and i have some questions
what is better?

- 3.00 GHz - Q9650 1333MHz/12M Core 2 Quad or 2.93 GHz - i7-940 8M/LGA1366 ???

- what VGA to choose nvidia or ati??
i was told that ati is better for rendering and i don t want a quadro fx or firero...the graphic card's budget is about 300$ i saw the nvidia 9800GTX or the 260GTX and the Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 Dual w/TV and i don t know what to choose ?

- 4 gb DD3 RAm
- 2 * 500gb HDD
- Intel DX58SO mthbrd
- and a thermaltake case
http://www.thermaltake.com/product_i...&name=M5&ovid=


and what should be the power supply's voltage to such system??
can anyone help?

and Thank you for your replies

[Kilauea]

If your budget allows, you will definitively want to go with an i7, if you are a bit tighter on budget, the i5 would be a good choice.
Depending on which one you choose, it will change how much RAM you should get (at least 6gb for i7, 4gb for i5)

For the graphic card, I am not which ones you'd be better off with, I would think a GTX 260 because of CUDA.

For the Power Supply, get a 450w or more from those brands Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, Silverstone.

It would probably be best to tell us your budget for the whole PC and exactly what you need.

[ronyy]

A pc for 3D softwares and compositing and rendering
budget not more than 1200$ without the screen

[BigDogg]

If you haven't bought it already then don't go with the Intel DX58SO. It has only 4 Ram DIMM's so if you ever wanted to upgrade to 12GB triple channel it would not be possible on that board. From my understanding, RAM is a very important component for video processing. The I7 is one of the if not the best chip you can buy today.

[misterd]

Where will you be buying these parts from? If you tell us we can make a well rounded shopping list for your cart. I too would stay away from the Intel branded boards. They tend to be lacking in features and don't make up for that in price. With your budget I'd probably also go the AMD route.

My original thoughts would be like this.. i just picked a popular Canadian store for fun

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor AM3 3.2GHZ (quad to render better) - $174.42
http://www.directcanada.com/products...anufacture=AMD
Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 AMD790X - $156.30
http://www.directcanada.com/products...cture=GIGABYTE
Coolermaster CM690 II - $95.45
Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case Black 4X5.25 1X3.5EXT 6X3.5INT *No PSU* - DirectCanada
Patriot Viper Extreme Performance 4GB DDR3 2X2GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 x2 - $299.00
Patriot Viper Extreme Performance 4GB DDR3 2X2GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 CL 7-7-7-20 Memory Kit - DirectCanada
Antec Truepower New 650W Modular Power Supply - $104.53
Antec Truepower New 650W Modular Power Supply ATX12V V2.3 Active PFC 80 Plus SLI Ready 120MM PWM Fan - DirectCanada
Western Digital WD15EARS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 64MB $128.52
Western Digital WD15EARS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM - DirectCanada
OCZ Agility Indilinx 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk $174.99
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...y&promoid=1210
XFX Radeon HD 5750 700MHZ 1GB 4.6GHZ GDDR5 $144.74
XFX Radeon HD 5750 700MHZ 1GB 4.6GHZ GDDR5 2XDVI HDMI Display Port DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card - DirectCanada

Now you're getting a gaming card, not a rendering card. This brings your price before tax to 1174.42 CAD. But make sure you pricematch everything for the lowest prices.

With some more details we'll be able to give you more assistance. my 2 cents, keep the change.

[MarkOne]

Go with the i5-750 and I7-860, forget Intel Board, the driver install disk really suck, and they still use those cheap mylar capacitor on their board , I was a big fan of them before, but since few years the team who make the drivers install disk are totally in the ditch.

[Signal2Noise]

Originally Posted by MarkOne

Go with the i5-750 and I7-860,...

Since you're into graphics and animation then skip the Core i5 750. It lacks a specific feature that comes in handy for your applications: Hyperthreading (HT). It's not critical mind you. I run LightWave, CS4 Extended, Softimage XSI and a variety of other apps on my i5 750. But I will eventually get a HT capable cpu soon. So if you go Core i5, where the sweet spot is for price/performance, choose a processor with HT.

Really, for 'futureproofing' and ultimate performance you may want to spend the extra dollars and go with a 'true' Core i7/socket 1366 setup. A fast CPU, lots of RAM, and a decent quality, high res monitor is where you should focus your money. Gaming card will be fine but it need not be an uber-powered 5890 or anything. GPU helps with onscreen polys and scene navigation but that's about it.

That's my two pennies of thought.

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by Signal2Noise

.... compared to my old Q6600 system which had HT. .

hyper treading on a Q6600...you are not serious

[Signal2Noise]

Originally Posted by MarkOne

hyper treading on a Q6600...you are not serious

Whoa! I guess I was talking out of my ass. I always thought it did support HT but it's VT. My bad.