Building a rig for a 3D artist

[zaphox]

I'm building a system from scratch (besides K/B & mouse) for a friend of mine. she's a 3D artist using Maya, Z-Brush, photoshop etc. Here's what I've come up with for a start. I may have picked out some odd choices (by today's standards) because I'm quite out of the loop with hardware these days.

One thing I don't know yet is what O/S she wants. I will probably recommend Vista 64 if asked.

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P - £69.78
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BlackEdition - £142.00
1GB Asus 9800 GT, PCI-E 2.0(x16) - £86.23
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600MHz), CAS 9-9-9-24 - £95.59
750GB Western Digital WD7500AADS Caviar Green - £48.29
LG GH22NS50 DVD writer - £16.66
Asus TM-250 Black/Silver MicroATX Case - £26.32
550w Corsair VX Series PSU -£62.68
20" Dell IN2010N Widescreen,1600x900, 5ms LCD Monitor - £102.33

Total: £653.33

How does that look overall? have I missed anything? Are there any silly choices or obvious rivals? etc. If anything it could do with being a bit cheaper.

Also, would people recommend getting an after market CPU cooling solution, or will the package one be sufficient? (there won't be any Over Clocking going on!)

Cheers.

[Olimain]

Have you considered a solid state drive for the operating system and program files? Should speed up launching these sort of apps quite a bit...

[Terbinator]

6GB may run in a sort-of gimped mode as it will use 3 of the 4 DIMM slots. The 6GB kits are targeted at the Bloomfield Core i7's as they have a triple-channel memory controller.

For a similair price to the X4 955 you can pick up a new Intel i5 which will perform better and have a lower power draw. however this will mean spending at least £20 more on the mainboard. In addition to this an Ati Radeon HD 4850 can be had for around £75 and will perform better than a 9800GT and still allow for hardware acceleration in stuff like Photoshop CS4.

Lastly this PSU should be fine and save yourself £30

[alsenior]

most 3d apps use opengl acceleration features that are only available on quadro's and firegl's so it might be a worthwhile investment putting one of those in rather than a standard consumer card. also it would be wiser to choose a different monitor if she values colour reproduction. because if iirc the monitor you have chosen is a TN panel and generally they are poor in visual work also that monitor only connect via vga which means the screen is liable to interference. unfortunately both those things are going to raise the cost of the machine

[blackbirds]

It doesn't seem especially well thought out, to be honest.

CPU, mobo and RAM - why not go for the equivelent 775 platform? The CPU would be slightly more expensive, but the reduced cost of the mobo would cover for this. Play.com sells PNY 2GB PC6400 modules for £18, so you could equip the system with 8GB DDR2 for £23 less than the 6GB Corsair OCZ, which isn't suited for this system anyway.


GPU - Seems a tad steep in price. Are the apps going to need that much power? Could something with passive cooling work in its place?

Harddisk - £48 for a 750GB drive. £2 more, and you can get a 1TB drive. You really have to start researching better, this isn't good.

Monitor - Just one? And one as small as that? When you're doing serious work with a PC, you lose acres of screen space to toolbars and menus and info boxes and all that sort of stuff. With 3D work, you'll be having all those toolbars and stuff and then what remains of the display divided by four for the different angled views of the object. It gets pretty fiddly. Can you not spring for a 24" at 1920*1200?

[CK_1985]

It doesn't seem especially well thought out, to be honest...
...You really have to start researching better, this isn't good.

What are you doing blackbirds? The guy's asking for help so be helpful, don't lecture.

Not cool

[zaphox]

Thanks for the help so far.. will have a rethink and possibly post an updated system later.

[shaithis]

Would are the constraints you have to work in?

Whats more important? Cost, performance, support?

Really need more info before commenting.

[Infinite]

Intel Core i5 750, S 1156, Lynnfield, Quad Core, 2.66GHz, DMI 2.5 GT/s, 8MB Cache, 95W, Retail ---£150
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, Intel P55 Express, S1156, DDR3 2200, SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX ---£82
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit --- £73
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM --- £55
512MB Asus HD 4770, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 3200MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 640 Cores, 2x DVI/ HDTV --- £73
450W Corsair CMPSU-450HXUK, Modular, Sli, ATX, EPS12V PS/2, 20/24 pin, 5 year Warranty --- £52
Sony AD-5240S-0B 24x DVDR 12xDVDDL DVDRW x8/-RWx6 SATA Black --- £15
Any Case --- £25
22" Dell 2209WA, Black High Quality E-IPS Gaming Screen, Widescreen, 6ms, DVI/VGA, 1680x1050, 1000:1 - £210 --- This is a must have if your friend is doing like proper art work.

The system comes to around £525, but your paying an extra £210 for a IPS panel, which imo is worth it.

[Vimeous]

I'd go further with the screen and try either the HP LP2475w (£426 - http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...reg_R1002_UKEN) or Dell 2408WFP (£440 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=772061).

The extra size will be hugely beneficial for long stints concentrating hard on the screen.

Also consider a tablet or 3d-spacial tool for an improved user experience.

[mycarsavw]

Here's what I've come up with for a start. I may have picked out some odd choices (by today's standards) because I'm quite out of the loop with hardware these days.

It doesn't seem especially well thought out, to be honest.

The guy said he was out of the loop, that's where you step in and try to guide him, not lecture.

[Pob255]

Well to start with you got some of the basics right.
3d modeling = cpu, cpu, memory, cpu
Does depend on what 3d modeling you're planning on, it's after effects, complex physics and similar, that tend to be more memory heavy.
4gb should be fine but maybe more.

In 3d rendering graphics cards don't come into final renders, only viewport rendering.
A pro card would be nice but they are probably way over budget as the low end and cheaper models tend to be worthless, just not being good enough to have any major improvement and a gaming card is better.
Personally I'd look at a ati 4850 or gts250

I do agree with Infinite about the screen, I have a TN and while it's fine for gaming.
It does get to me a little when doing 3d work, it only take a change in your seat positon and all the tones have shifted just becuase you're an inch or two lower.
Games, small shifts are not an issue, 3d&2d it's a pain.

am2+ vs am3 vs socket775 vs socket1156
That's a hard call.
1156 is going to be fastest, but is the extra speed worth it? it's the most expensive.
I'd say a good quadcore 775 with light overclocking

For cooling depends on cpu, but any tower cooler based on a 120mm fan should be fine.

[Vimeous]

Now there's a 1156 board for £82 I'd put that above a 775 solution.

[Pob255]

However that's a low end motherboard and the ram is still going to be more as well.

A p43 motherboard can be had for under £60
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170220
and 2x2gb of pc6400 is around £46
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166785
And a Core 2 Quad Q9400 for £140
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148545

Yes it's slower, but not a huge amount slower and that's a decent total saving.
(I'm currently trying to get the cash together for an 1156 build and just saying heck to it and getting a c2q is looking good atm)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

However that's a low end motherboard and the ram is still going to be more as well.

A p43 motherboard can be had for under £60
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170220
and 2x2gb of pc6400 is around £46
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166785
And a Core 2 Quad Q9400 for £140
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148545

Yes it's slower, but not a huge amount slower and that's a decent total saving.
(I'm currently trying to get the cash together for an 1156 build and just saying heck to it and getting a c2q is looking good atm)

Unless you are going for an i5 based build a DDR3 based Phenom II based build is still better value than a socket 775 one.

For instance in 3D modelling a Phenom II X4 955BE is faster than a Q9550:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16796/9

The cost would be broadly similar too!

AM3 motherboard ~ £50 to £60

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&...22&subcat=2789

4gb DDR3 ~ £58

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166995

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £142

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047

Scan may have some of the bits cheaper so it is worth checking them too.

This review compares the Core i5 750 and the Phenom II X4 955BE for 3d modelling:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17545/11

[Pob255]

While none of thoes bench marks are for Maya so that my run better with one type or other.
However that's a very good showing for the PhenomII X4
Over the quad core the cost is very close, so is the performance (yes the PhenomII X4 is showing as faster but not by much, and the c2q cost is still very slightly lower)
Deffinately worth a quad core over a dual core, although according to the first review they are all behind the c2d Extreme QX9775, which is odd unless they were overclocking it to heck and back.