Help me Build a $2500 Graphics Workstation

[front243]

Hi,

I am waiting to get my student license 3DS Max so I might as well plan my workstation.

So I ask you: If you had $2500 and should buy a system for 3D Studio and a bit Photoshop what would you buy?

Which processor ? Xeon, Opteron or would a plain A64 or Intel be better and spend more on ram, videocard or display?

Which videocard? Would a gaming card be ok or could I tell the difference to a pro card (and would a pro card fit my budget)

And which display? I would like LCD but is a CRT better for photoedition. I am thinking about color-correctness and so on.

If you could spec out a complete system would be great, but if you can answer some of my questions would be appreciated as well.

PS: Sorry for my English, it's not my first language

Edit: I forgot to say, I prefer to assemble it myself, so no prebuild systems please

 

[Crescent13]

First of all, for color reproduction, LCD's are MUCH better. CRT's have good contrast and response time, LCD's have better color reproduction, and clarity. Does that price include the monitor? If it doesn't, I would say

Quadro 3400

DFI Lan Party nF4-D

AMD Athlon X2 4400+

two OCZ PC-3200 2x1024MB value ram kits

you can mod the motherboard to the top of the line model by doing this.

 

[imported_Kensai]

AMD Opteron 265
Tyan K8WE
eVGA 7800GTX
4GB DDR400 ECC Reg
Lian Li v1200B
Antec 550W EPS12V
Dell 2005FPW
4 X Seagate 7200.8 RAID 5

 

[deadmantyping]

Originally posted by: Kensai
AMD Opteron 265
Tyan K8WE
eVGA 7800GTX
4GB DDR400 ECC Reg
Lian Li v1200B
Antec 550W EPS12V
Dell 2005FPW
4 X Seagate 7200.8 RAID 5

if you're doing photoshop and 3dsmax work i wouldn't get a 7800gtx, go with a quadro, like crescent13 recommended. i'd also go for the opteron and the 4gb ecc reg. the dell monitor will probably be good enough, and i'd say get an lcd over a crt in this case because you're looking for image and color quality.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: deadmantyping

Originally posted by: Kensai
AMD Opteron 265
Tyan K8WE
eVGA 7800GTX
4GB DDR400 ECC Reg
Lian Li v1200B
Antec 550W EPS12V
Dell 2005FPW
4 X Seagate 7200.8 RAID 5

if you're doing photoshop and 3dsmax work i wouldn't get a 7800gtx, go with a quadro, like crescent13 recommended. i'd also go for the opteron and the 4gb ecc reg. the dell monitor will probably be good enough, and i'd say get an lcd over a crt in this case because you're looking for image and color quality.

Not worth it to me. A 7800GTX has so much power that it should crush the 3400 in most things except for super optimized applications.

 

[front243]

Hello, thanks for your suggestions. I have checked some of the prices in Denmark , and while Opteron 265 and Quadro 3400 sound tempting I am already breaking my budget with these two items (at least with Danish prices).

I mixed your suggestions and ended with this:

Quadro 3400
DFI Lan Party nF4-D
AMD Athlon X2 4400+
two OCZ PC-3200 2x1024MB value ram kits
Dell 2005FPW
4 X Seagate 7200.8 RAID 5

I am sure that is plenty of horsepower for my use, I am not a professional afterall.

I have looked at the 3DSMax support forum and many seem to recommend Xeons, do they perform better than Athlon X2 in a Dual configuration with 3DS? (does anybody have links to benchmarks?)

I could fit a dual Xeon 2.8-3.2 GHz within my budget I guess.

By the way, I never owned a dual motherboard before, can I start with one CPU and upgrade to the second later, or does a single cpu in a dual motherboard not work?

 

[Literati]

MAC?

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
First of all, for color reproduction, LCD's are MUCH better. CRT's have good contrast and response time, LCD's have better color reproduction, and clarity. Does that price include the monitor?
/q]

What the hell are you talking about?!? LCD's are not anywhere close to CRT's in color reproduction.

I would suggest dual opterons.

 

[Fox5]

I say Athlon X2 processor, it will outperform dual Xeons. Go for low latency DDR ram though.

A 7800GTX would be good and probably close to the current top end pro card while being significantly cheaper. The 7800GTX has much more power than the current top of the line prosumer card, so it should be able to brute force its way through most things and come out ahead.

CRTs have better color range, but not accuracy.

Athlon X2 is two cpus on one chip, you can't use it in a dual motherboard though. If you want a dual dual core chips, you would need two dual core opterons and a motherboard for them, that would cost significantly more though.

 

[front243]

Hm, I am still a bit undecided for videocard vs. CPU. I guess a 7800GTX could be plenty for videocard, then I could use a Opteron instead.

I have look at arstechnica.com's "God Box" and he suggest:

Tyan Thunder K8WE
2xAMD Opteron 252

Note this is june edition of the guide, I think Opteron 265 is newer, but dual Opteron 265 is too expensive to me.

So my question is: Would you choose a high-end video card like Quadro 3400 and a lower cpu like Athlon X2 over a "lower" end videocard like 7800GTX and highend cpus like Opteron 252.

 

[CreativeTom]

Originally posted by: Literati
MAC?

lol, this isn't a mac forum-come on man......

 

[JonnyBlaze]

the quadro is a waste of money unless your going to be working with HUGE detailed models. a 7800 would work fine if not better. or even go with a cheaper quadro if you really want it.

if the video card decides wether your going with dual cpu's, get the cheaper video card. the cpu's do ALL the final rendering work and having 2 or maybe even 2 dual core cpus (they make that yet) will save you alot more time than a qudro card. 3dsmax is fully multithreaded so you will get a big boost.

 

[front243]

Right my system looks like this now:

Tyan Thunder K8WE (even allows SLI if I find it necessary )
2xAMD Opteron 252
4096MB Registered/ECC PC3200 DDR
Geforce 7800GTX
DVD-Writer, probably NEC3520 I have good exp. with that
Dell 2005FPW
Lian Li v1200B
Antec 550W EPS12V
4 X Seagate 7200.8 RAID 5
Mouse/Keyboard, probably Microsoft
Generic Floppy

I ended at about $3000 so I probably will have to start with a single CPU and upgrade gradually. Thanks for all your help!

 

[rbV5]

So my question is: Would you choose a high-end video card like Quadro 3400 and a lower cpu like Athlon X2 over a "lower" end videocard like 7800GTX and highend cpus like Opteron 252

I'd "settle" for the 7800GTX and the higher end CPU's myself. I've done plenty of 3D work with far less video card comfortably, and those Nvidia gaming cards give you much of the performance of the workstation cards at far less cost (it also allows for some decent gaming breaks in between work sessions)

I've never had close to the CPU power that I've wanted though, so I'd spend my money there. Photoshop, you'll just want plenty of ram.

You're getting much more than I've ever had, it should suit you well as a student. I do believe that being forced to use slower crap, helps develop your skills as well. When mistakes have a time cost, you quickly learn to make less of them

 

[front243]

You're getting much more than I've ever had, it should suit you well as a student. I do believe that being forced to use slower crap, helps develop your skills as well. When mistakes have a time cost, you quickly learn to make less of them

Yeah, in fact I am not a student I am retired, when I was a student I was very poor like you probably were

But I talked with the danish distributor of 3D Studio and I was allowed to purchase the student edition as the regular version was way beyond what my income allows.

 

[mettleh3d]

Dude get the 9800pro and flash it to a Fire Gl X2 for free!
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=92&var2=0
I mean seriously, $130 for a workstation card is pretty awesome.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: front243

You're getting much more than I've ever had, it should suit you well as a student. I do believe that being forced to use slower crap, helps develop your skills as well. When mistakes have a time cost, you quickly learn to make less of them

Yeah, in fact I am not a student I am retired, when I was a student I was very poor like you probably were

But I talked with the danish distributor of 3D Studio and I was allowed to purchase the student edition as the regular version was way beyond what my income allows.

Hey, thats great. Are you just learning 3DSmax, then? Props for that in your retirement:thumbsup: Are you using Photoshop CS2? I've very recently begun playing with HDR (creating from multiple digtal photographs) since I've recently upgraded some of my software packages. 3DSmax7 and PS CS2 are an awesome software combination.

 

[front243]

Yes, I just started and now I am hooked, so I thought I better invest in some decent hardware. I guess that workstation will work good for my gaming needs as well

I don't have Photoshop CS yet, I use Photoshop 7.0, but I think I will upgrade soon.

 

[rbV5]

Does that version qualify for the free update to Autodesk 3DSmax 8.0? I see they announced it earlier this month.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: front243
Right my system looks like this now:

Tyan Thunder K8WE (even allows SLI if I find it necessary )
2xAMD Opteron 252
4096MB Registered/ECC PC3200 DDR
Geforce 7800GTX
DVD-Writer, probably NEC3520 I have good exp. with that
Dell 2005FPW
Lian Li v1200B
Antec 550W EPS12V
4 X Seagate 7200.8 RAID 5
Mouse/Keyboard, probably Microsoft
Generic Floppy

I ended at about $3000 so I probably will have to start with a single CPU and upgrade gradually. Thanks for all your help!

Noooooooo!!!
Don't get two 252s....
Get *ONE* 265, 270 or 275 instead. It'll leave you with a better upgrade path.

 

[front243]

Originally posted by: rbV5
Does that version qualify for the free update to Autodesk 3DSmax 8.0? I see they announced it earlier this month.

No , it does not qualify for upgrades. Hmm, perhaps I should wait until that is released.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: front243
Hm, I am still a bit undecided for videocard vs. CPU. I guess a 7800GTX could be plenty for videocard, then I could use a Opteron instead.

I have look at arstechnica.com's "God Box" and he suggest:

Tyan Thunder K8WE
2xAMD Opteron 252

Note this is june edition of the guide, I think Opteron 265 is newer, but dual Opteron 265 is too expensive to me.

So my question is: Would you choose a high-end video card like Quadro 3400 and a lower cpu like Athlon X2 over a "lower" end videocard like 7800GTX and highend cpus like Opteron 252.

No reason to get dual single core opterons, performance won't be any better than a dual core single athlon x2. DO NOT go opterons if you are going single core opterons, it will cost more and have no benefit. Instead go for an X2 SLI capable system and load it up with say 4GB of memory.

 

[Czar]

First of all.. screw what everyone has been saying, you dont need a xeon or opteron, you dont need a quadro or firegl.

Get a fast intel or amd machine, just the normal cpu's, dual core would be nice, to switch from photoshop to 3dsmax.
Get 2gb of ram, its cheap enough, upgrade when you start to see the need for more.
Get a decent nvidia card, 6600 or there abouts. They are better at opengl than ati.
Get two goood lcd monitors. The most improtant part.

I see you are still learning both, i learned it a two years ago in a multimedia school, still learning, still hardly even coming close to the peak of my 3500 athlon and 9700 pro radeon card, not even close.

You will spend most of your time in front of your computer so a good monitor or better yet, good monitors, will be your most valuable asset. I also recomend you try to keep the computer as silent as possible if you are in an enviroment that makes it worth it. I also recomend that you use your old computer (whatever that is) as a dedicated render machine, install the net version of 3dsmax there and you can send a net render either through the scanline rendere or mental ray. Keep that machine far away from you as possible.

Also large mp3 collection is very important to keep you sane


In a few years and if you have been busy enough learning you might be reaching the peak of the hardware, but then the hardware will be getting outdated anyways. And remember, the hardware does not make you better at this, I have seen amazing stuff coming from people in china using 400mhz pentiums.


and oh yeah, if you can wait for version 8, then they will probably include hair and cloth which they released as addons for version 7, through their site, need a some licensing deal with them to get a hold of it.

good luck, hope this helps

 

[Duvie]

Get the fastest cpus you can as this is important in the rendering...Then you can spend 250 dollars like me (les no) and get a 6800NU and convert it to a quadro with rivatuner...100% works...as long as you just run in windows environment you are fine......

I would rather spend my money with processing power and ram then vid card with my quadro fix. I pull spec scores that beat the 4000 dollar quadro 4000 and 3400 systems....thanks to my cpu speed and overclocked 6800...The quaudo 4000 I belive is the 6800agp version anmd is clocked like a basic 6800 at 325/700...MOst will do more then that like my BFG.

If you need reliability dont OC, but the quadro hack is legit and unlike in the past with Geforce4's this is full functioning and able to upgrade to nay current drivers....I use 3dsmax 7 and the performance increase was phenomenal in 3d orbiting and such with no degradation....

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: front243

Originally posted by: rbV5
Does that version qualify for the free update to Autodesk 3DSmax 8.0? I see they announced it earlier this month.

No , it does not qualify for upgrades. Hmm, perhaps I should wait until that is released.

Yes, I would definately wait if you can get a similar deal. You could use Gmax or something to hold you over. There is a trial version of 7, and 8 should have one soon. There's other nice packages like Maya PLE, Houdini Apprentice and Newtek just dropped the price of Lightwave even more, and they just announced V9, which is a free upgrade from 8 after the 1st of this month. If you're not completely sold on 3Dsmax that is.

Listen to these guys, they know what they are talking about.