Graphics Workstation Advice Needed

[AMDfreak]

The wife of one of my coworkers just got a new job and was given a free hand to pick her own workstation, supposedly money is no object. She doesn't want to go the MAC route since she is already very comfy with a PC. I'm thinking of something along the lines of a dual Opteron system, 1 or 2 GB of RAM and a Fire GL card. What are some good companies to look at that can build and support a good workstation? I'd build it myself, but I won't be able to support it.

 

[imported_waldo]

I would get a Quaddro based on the current system, but they are very expensive. Dual Opt's are nice, but Xeon still has the gammit in graphic work, but not by much. Good workstations are often built by HP. If you have your choice you can get an SGI, but that is a huge expense. The new Wildcat Realizms are beautiful as well, if the company can afford them...especially the 800!! Alienware is also getting into the workstation market. definitely get at least 2 GB of ram...I run 1.5 at home, and sometimes I run out. Hope that helps!

 

[ohnnyj]

We have a few Dell's here at our company and have had no issues with them. Everyone can complain all they want about Dell but the quality of their computers has been second to none for our company. Other companies to look at include IBM (I think they still make them but not sure since they sold their desktop division to Lenovo), Boxx, and Polywell. I'm sure there are many others but those are the ones I am familiar with.

 

[ohnnyj]

Oh, and I second the change to a Quadro card as they are better than ATIs offerings. If you want to go all out then you could wait for the Iwill dual 16x PCIe boards to come out, stick a couple of Quadro FX4000s on it in SLI mode and that my friend would fly like nothing else.

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: waldo
Dual Opt's are nice, but Xeon still has the gammit in graphic work, but not by much.

If you noticed his name is AMDFreak so I don't think this would go over with him.

I just have to say this, hey I found waldo .

Hey waldo.

 

[Edward Lee]

Here is a good practical application for SLI technology.

 

[AMDfreak]

Originally posted by: ohnnyj

Originally posted by: waldo
Dual Opt's are nice, but Xeon still has the gammit in graphic work, but not by much.

If you noticed his name is AMDFreak so I don't think this would go over with him.

I just have to say this, hey I found waldo .

Hey waldo.

LOL! I do prefer AMD CPU's for my systems, but I'm no blind fanboi. If Xeons can give appreciably better performance for the desired task then I'll definately recommend them. Thanks for all the input here!