New newsletter (tS7) - Might be a dopey Q. but... 2005-05-17 - By David Angelini
Back
Kris,
I searched for a new system for about a good year....again waiting for the next
new architecture to trickle down (in this case PCI-Express). A couple of good
reference sites are:
http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html
http://arstechnica.com/index.ars
http://storagereview.com/index.html
While these sites are web-magazine of sorts devoted to electronics hardware and
PC enthusiasts, you can also get some very good information from PC vendors
also. One site that does this really well (and has one of the deepest
configurators around) is Monarch Computer. Their PC education starts here:
https://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=M
&Category_Code=easyas123
Now the system I finally selected was a gaming system....I would not totally
dismiss them as they require some of the same horsepower as would a good
graphics workstation. In fact, 3D World wrote an article some months ago that
basically stated that the performance difference between professional and
gaming graphics cards is narrowing faster than the difference in price. So as
long as you know what to look for (e.g. bus speed, architecture, type of RAM,
type of processor, etc), then you could get a significant amount of PC for a
far cheaper price from a gaming system then you would from a workstation. Also
, unless you have the money to get multiple Xeon processor type machine ($3500
and up), then I would submit that your money is best spent on those gaming
machines....just don't put any games on them!
So after about a year of research and price hunting, I was able to get the
following in my gaming system (purchased last November):
3.6 GHz P4 560 processor w/HT (800 MHz FSB)
2 Gb DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz
256Mb PCI-Express ATI Radeon X800 XT
2x160 Gb SATA 7200 RPM Hard Drives with 8 Mb cache (Raid 1 for redundancy)
Dual 16x DVD Drives (one with 16x DVD +/-R/W with double layer write capability)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card (Dolby 5.1) with IEEE 1394
17 inch LCD Monitor
WinXP Pro
MS Basic
Total Price (including shipping) was less than $2300. Right now it has run
quite successfully and with no performance bumps the following applications
(demo mode only): Softimage XSI, 3DS Max, Lightwave. I also ran a stress test
in Cinema 4D in which I had one particle system emitting a number of other
particle emitters. At one point there were close to 70,000 particles being
generated which represented close to 500,000 polygons. The graphics card just
chugged along taking only about 10-15 seconds to draw each frame (though you
could really hear the fan running at high speed).
I can't ask for much more than that...gaming system or otherwise!!
Thanks,
Dave Angelini
P.S. Mke sure that you reserve some money for a UPS/surge protector. Power
spikes really degrade the life of a motherboard and a good UPS is vital for
anyone who hates to loss precious renders during a power failure (power
failures are double trouble as you not only lose your work but the line current
usually spikes tremendously right before a power outage). I have a UPS that
has a 20 minute battery life which is roughly about the average per frame
rendering time for most of my work.
Also, look into getting another NIC card for your old PC. Use the old PC to
act as a hardware firewall between the internet and your new PC. Do all the
surfing, downloading and email on the old PC (while the new PC is off) and via
its second NIC card transfer on the files you want to the new PC. A KVM switch
will serve both computers with a single keyboard, monintor and mouse. Better
than McAffee! Also, you can render on the new PC while surfing on the old, or
render on both....your choice.
>
> This might be kind of a stupid question, but, when I'm research systems (I
> want a new system in the near future), how would I look for this?
>
> My main "thing" is modeling/graphics, IOW I'm *not* looking for a "game
> machine", I'm looking for a modeling/graphics machine.
>
> Roman mentioned the NVidia 8600 (I've been pleased with my current, i.e.
> old, NVidia GeForce2), or at least, the 6000 and 8000 series NVidias.
>
> But, are you talking about something similar to "dual CPUs"? Sorry but
> I've never heard of "multikernal" or "cell" processors, so I don't
> understand exactly what is meant here, or how to go abut getting one (or
> finding out *when* I can get one). I had been looking into the 64-bit
> things but given the info here, I don't want top jump into somehthing that
> will cost as much yet be inferior (meaning, not do what I want it to do).
>
> So, to look for "multikernel/multicell" processors in, for example,
> tomshardare.com, is that what I type, i.e. "multikernel processor"?
>
> If you or anyone can offer any online references, I'd really sppreciate
> that, because this is totally new to me.
>
> TIA =:-) !
>
> - Kris M. Krieger
>
>
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<html><body>
<DIV>Kris,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I searched for a new system for about a good year....again waiting for the
next new architecture to trickle down (in this case PCI-Express). A
couple of good reference sites are:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html">http://www.tomshardware
.com/index.html</A></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://arstechnica.com/index.ars">http://arstechnica.com/index
.ars</A></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://storagereview.com/index.html">http://storagereview.com
/index.html</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>While these sites are web-magazine of sorts devoted to electronics
hardware and PC enthusiasts, you can also get some very good information from
PC vendors also. One site that does this really well (and has one of the
deepest configurators around) is Monarch Computer. Their PC education
starts here:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="https://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY
&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=easyas123">https://www.monarchcomputer.com
/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=easyas123<
/A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now the system I finally selected was a gaming system....I would not
totally dismiss them as they require some of the same horsepower as would a
good graphics workstation. In fact, 3D World wrote an article some months
ago that basically stated that the performance difference between professional
and gaming graphics cards is narrowing faster than the difference in price.
So as long as you know what to look for (e.g. bus speed, architecture,
type of RAM, type of processor, etc), then you could get a significant
amount of PC for a far cheaper price from a gaming system then you would from a
workstation. Also, unless you have the money to get multiple Xeon
processor type machine ($3500 and up), then I would submit that your money is
best spent on those gaming machines....just don't put any games on them!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So after about a year of research and price hunting, I was able to get the
following in my gaming system (purchased last November):</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>3.6 GHz P4 560 processor w/HT (800 MHz FSB)</DIV>
<DIV>2 Gb DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz</DIV>
<DIV>256Mb PCI-Express ATI Radeon X800 XT</DIV>
<DIV>2x160 Gb SATA 7200 RPM Hard Drives with 8 Mb cache (Raid 1 for redundancy)
</DIV>
<DIV>Dual 16x DVD Drives (one with 16x DVD +/-R/W with double layer write
capability)</DIV>
<DIV>Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card (Dolby 5.1) with IEEE 1394 </DIV>
<DIV>17 inch LCD Monitor</DIV>
<DIV>WinXP Pro</DIV>
<DIV>MS Basic</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Total Price (including shipping) was less than $2300. Right
now it has run quite successfully and with no performance bumps the following
applications (demo mode only): Softimage XSI, 3DS Max, Lightwave. I
also ran a stress test in Cinema 4D in which I had one particle system emitting
a number of other particle emitters. At one point there were close
to 70,000 particles being generated which represented close to 500,000
polygons. The graphics card just chugged along taking only about 10
-15 seconds to draw each frame (though you could really hear the fan
running at high speed).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I can't ask for much more than that...gaming system or otherwise!! <
/DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thanks,</DIV>
<DIV>Dave Angelini</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>P.S. Mke sure that you reserve some money for a UPS/surge protector.
Power spikes really degrade the life of a motherboard and a good UPS
is vital for anyone who hates to loss precious renders during a power failure
(power failures are double trouble as you not only lose your
work but the line current usually spikes tremendously right before a power
outage). I have a UPS that has a 20 minute battery life which is
roughly about the average per frame rendering time for most of my work.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Also, look into getting another NIC card for your old PC. Use the
old PC to act as a hardware firewall between the internet and your new PC. 
; Do all the surfing, downloading and email on the old PC (while the new PC is
off) and via its second NIC card transfer on the files you want to the new PC.
A KVM switch will serve both computers with a single keyboard, monintor
and mouse. Better than McAffee! Also, you can render on the new PC
while surfing on the old, or render on both....your choice.</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff
2px solid">> <BR>> This might be kind of a stupid question, but, when I'm
research systems (I <BR>> want a new system in the near future), how would I
look for this? <BR>> <BR>> My main "thing" is modeling/graphics, IOW I'm
*not* looking for a "game <BR>> machine", I'm looking for a modeling/graphics
machine. <BR>> <BR>> Roman mentioned the NVidia 8600 (I've been pleased
with my current, i.e. <BR>> old, NVidia GeForce2), or at least, the 6000 and
8000 series NVidias. <BR>> <BR>> But, are you talking about something
similar to "dual CPUs"? Sorry but <BR>> I've never heard of "multikernal" or
"cell" processors, so I don't <BR>> understand exactly what is meant here,
or how to go abut getting one (or <BR>> finding out *when* I can get one). I
had been looking into the 64-bit <BR>> things but given the info here, I don
't want top jump into somehthing that <BR>> will cost as much yet be inferior
(meaning, not do what I want it to do). <BR>> <BR>> So, to look for
"multikernel/multicell" processors in, for example, <BR>> tomshardare.com, is
that what I type, i.e. "multikernel processor"? <BR>> <BR>> If you or
anyone can offer any online references, I'd really sppreciate <BR>> that,
because this is totally new to me. <BR>> <BR>> TIA =:-) ! <BR>> <BR>
> - Kris M. Krieger <BR>> <BR>> <BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR>
__ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ______<BR>
****************************************************************************<BR>
********<BR>
This message has been checked for all known viruses by the Cable & Wireless<BR>
E-mail Virus Protection service, powered by MessageLabs.<BR>
<BR>
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Manager.<BR>
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