Graphic Arts Rig

[sharkcellar]

I got some great help from you guys in helping me find a gfx card for my current clunker. Thanks a lot for all the help!

I have After Effects CS4 and I want to build a rig around it so that I can use it to its full potential. I will also be using this computer to do Photoshop and 3DS Max work on, and I suppose play a couple of games, but primarily this thing will be my graphic arts workstation. So what are the suggestions for the following parts?

Motherboard:

Processor:

Graphics card:

Thanks.

 

[elconejito]

Budget?

Processor => i7 920
Motherboard = > Someone else will have to chime in, but what features in a mobo do you need?
Graphics Card => At a minimum something like a Nvidia 9600GT to support OpenGL in CS4. Photoshop doesn't do much with it other than some display stuff (panning, sooming, etc), but After Effects uses it a lot for the filters, and I assume 3DS Max will put it to good use too. A GTX 260 or ATI 4890 or better if it's in the budget. For CS4 it doesn't matter if its ATI or Nvidia, you may want to see if 3DS Max has a preference, or if you might even have to use a workstation-level card.

 

[sharkcellar]

Elconejito,

Oh yeah, budget. I am not on a limitless budget ;^P. I would say my price range is $800-$1k. Thanks!

As far as the mother board goes, expandability is my main concern. I would like to be able to add my Digi 001 audio card into this rig and maybe a dedicated firewire card among other things...

 

[akugami]

Make sure you are running a 64 bit OS. More bits does not necessarily equate to more speed but the extra RAM that a 64 bit OS can address may make things run faster/smoother. RAM is cheap enough that getting 6-8GB of RAM should not break the bank.

Get a mid level graphics card in roughly the $120 to $170 range and that should be fine for your uses. A Radeon 4850, Radeon 4870, or Geforce 260 (do not buy the Geforce 250).

An Intel i7 is out of your price range. I'd get an Intel Q9550 which is a nice processor. If you're not afraid of spending the time to overclock it you can get tremendous value. Getting a decent overclock is relatively easy but as always, it requires time to test for stability.

Not familiar with the Digi 001 audio card. What kind of card is it? PCI or PCIE? If it's PCI, most modern boards should provide at least one PCI board as well as PCIE so I wouldn't worry too much about expandability. Most motherboards have a similar set of features. Each has it's own quirks and exact feature set but there is a base set that most don't deviate from.

You'll also want a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB HD. Nice combination of speed as well as size. Working with After Effects you're likely to be working with large sized files and a fast HD is definitely preferred.

Keep in mind you'll need a computer case and PSU (powr supply unit). Please, please do not skimp on the PSU. A bad PSU can surge and burn out your system. I've seen firsthand blown motherboards, cpu's, HD's and RAM. The good news is there are many decent level PSU's out now. Certainly much better than it was even three years ago. Newegg has a PC Power & Cooling 750W PSU for $110 right now. For a step down Newegg has CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W for $80 after rebate. If you want other choices or brands, FSP, Antec, Seasonic, BFG, Thermaltake all make decent PSU's.

 

[elconejito]

If the $800-1000 is for just those three items, then you're good to go. Approx $200 for a motherboard, $280 for i7 920, and $200 video card = ~$680. If you have a Microcenter near you, the i7 920 is $199. Any of the video cards akugami mentioned would be great choices. I don't know how much CS4 or 3DSMax performance scales with the performance of the video card. If it were my money I'd target about $150.

If the $800-$1000 is for the total system, we might have to rework those choices...

 

[sharkcellar]

Yeah, I suppose I didn't add case and power supply and fans. I've never built my own before so I'm seeking advice to plaster the holes in my ignorance. :^)

 

[akugami]

Mechbgon - The only PC building guide that includes snack breaks!

Read the above web site. While most of it is old news to those of us familiar with building our own PC's, it's really chock full of useful information. A lot of it seems like common sense but at the same time it's a very thorough guide that covers all the bases. If someone still can't build a PC after reading that guide, that someone needs to just pay someone to do the job for him.

The only thing is that the site is a little dated on the parts he used. If you're building from scratch you'll likely only encounter SATA cables rather than the old IDE cables when attaching hard drives and optical (CD, DVD, Blu-Ray) drives for example. Another is you will 99% not encounter an AGP video card as mentioned in the guide. Any new video card you buy will almost certainly be PCI Express (PCIE) which is not to be confused with the old PCI standard.

If you buy a good case you generally don't need to add fans or at most one fan. An Antec 300 or Cooler Master Centurion 5 makes decent cases.

Considering the age of your computer, I'm going to assume you're starting completely from scratch.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Phenom 955BE / Asus 790GX AM3: $270

G.Skill 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600: $95

Antec Earthwatts 430w PSU / Antec 300 Case: $85

That's $450 before $15 rebate plus shipping.

You could do a stripe RAID with 2 1TB WD Blacks ($89.99 with Promo Code EMCLVMV44) or better yet buy one for data/scratch and buy a second drive which you may cut a 100Gb partition for your OS/Apps with the remaining space dedicated to backup.

A DVD burner will set you back no more than $30 so you have eased into the $670 range

Snag a copy and key for the Windows 7 Release Candidate 64-bit and burn an ISO -- that will save yah some $$$ up front.

What's left in your budget can go toward a nice monitor and video card (and Kb/m if you need it).

 

[sharkcellar]

Thanks a lot guys, this has been really helpful!

 

[elconejito]

OK, $800-1000 total for all parts.

Definitely go for a quad core, either AMD or Intel. All of the programs you listed will benefit from that. Phenom II is roughly equivalent to Core2Quad, both in price and performance. i7 will get you more performance, but the platform costs a bit more.

I don't know much about AMD, so somebody else should probably chime in. I chose the fastest PIIX4, and an AM3 motherboard. You could save a few bucks by choosing an AM2+ mobo and DDR2 RAM for similar performance. I just choose AM3 & DDR3 to give a better upgrade path in the future.

=======
AMD Setup

CPU: Phenom II X4 955 - $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103674

Mobo: ASUS M4A78T-E (AM3) - $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131366

DDR3 RAM: G.Skill F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK - 4GB - $65 (I just chose this rather arbitrarily)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231189

AMD Sub-Total = $415
=======

Intel Setup
CPU: Core2Quad Q9550 - $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115041

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R - $115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128359

DDR2 RAM: G.Skill F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - 4GB - $50 (I just chose this rather arbitrarily)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231166

Intel Sub-Total = $385
=======

Common to both Intel & AMD

Hard Drive(s): Western Digital 640GB Black WD6401AALS - $75 x2 = $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136319
(Note: I recommend 2 because you use one for OS/Apps/scratch drive, the other for storage. If your workflow involves a lot of simultaneous writing/reading to a drive, you may want to pick up a 3rd drive.)
(Note2: the non-Black version WD6401AAKS is $5 cheaper and is very close in performance.)
(Note3: the 1TB Black WD1001FALS is $100. More space, little bit faster)

Case: Antec 300 - $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129042

PSU: Antec EA650 - $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817371015

Video Card: ATI 4890 - <$200 (or Nvidia GTX260 216 <$180)
many choices available.

Common Sub-Total = $480
=======

Totals (not including shipping and/or tax)
AMD = $895
Intel = $865

If you're going to be overclocking You should budget an additional $50-75 for a good CPU Cooler.

Don't forget to budget for a backup. a low power green drive in an enclosure at the minimum.

Like I mentioned above, you might be able to get a different mobo/RAM combination for the AMD setup. I just don't know enough about them to give a good recommendation. That would drop the price to probably exactly the same as the Intel option.

If you need to shrink that budget a little, you can get a less powerful video card, somewhere between $100-150. A smaller quality PSU down to maybe around 500w for around $50. And you could just go with one drive if you don't do a lot of heavy disk access. For the CPU on Intel side you could drop down to a Q8200 for around $160, and on the AMD side a PIIX4 940 for about $175 (PIIX4 920 for $150).

If you can expand the budget a little I'd say double the RAM first. Then add more hard drives, possibly in some combination of RAID. Then I'd get a nicer case. All of these would probably still net you less than $1000.

If you have a Microcenter or Fry's near you check for prices there. I know Microcenter has the Q9550 for $170 which is a steal at that price. And the Q8200 is sometimes available for just over $100.

 

[Modelworks]

For video card it isn't the speed of the card so much as it is the ram it has on board. Scenes in things like 3dsmax differ from gaming in that they use much larger textures. It isn't uncommon for 3ds to use 400MB of textures for a scene. If your card does not have enough texture space then when you rotate in viewports it will stutter as textures are swapped, sometimes it even crashes the application.
So figure out your average texture memory usage and include extra for the frame buffering.

Also before making the switch to 64 bit make sure any plugins you use have 64 bit versions. You can't use 32 bit plugins in max when running 64 bit.

 

[nyker96]

with your budget, i recommend the amd AM3 system. Keep in mind this rig is design for all around purpose. you get a great all around rig. for exmaple, with your money I would build the following rig, all price from newegg:

motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P ($130)
ram: OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) ($100)
cpu: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition ($210)
vid card: MSI R4850-512M OC Radeon HD 4850 512MB ($83AR or $113 without rebate)
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB ($100 a pop, get 2x if you got the cash)
rest cash put on case/PSU etc. but the core of the system is as above.

 

[Arglebargle]

You might consider biting the bullet and going the Intel i7 route, or stepping back to an AMD 3 system.

Pro Audio computer builders are nearly unanimously in favor of the Core i7 because of memory bandwidth and handling boosts, among other things. Whether that translates to your video situation is a question I can't answer. Phenom IIs also have some benefits in Audio, just not as much. Audio and video work are places where the new processors really tend to pay off.

 

[sharkcellar]

Modelworks,

Thanks for that tip on 3DS Max!