Originally posted by: mapesdhs
Just curious gybp, what kind of renders will you be doing? How complex? eg. see:
http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/showoff1.jpg
That was done by someone I know who mostly uses Maya (he worked on World in Conflict). He said he needs at least 24GB RAM to cope with renders
at this level of complexity, indeed would prefer twice that or more if possible. Here's a complete animation (20MB file, will convert to DivX later):
http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/Scene_2_Take.mov
However, if you're not going to work on stuff anything like that complex then 12GB should be ok, though given the low RAM cost I'd just
max it out if it can take 24GB.
As for performance, if you're doing tasks that use 1 or 2 threads (most animation applications operate this way in normal use, interactive
modelling, etc.), then the 860 should have the edge because of its better Turbo mode (both CPUs have HT). For rendering though, where
all 4 cores are used, the 920 may pull ahead somewhat, but likely not by a huge amount.
If you think you'd benefit from the ability to upgrade to a 6-core or 8-core CPU later on, then a 920 system is a better choice, but do
bare in mind that given the low cost of entry quad-cores now (especially the Athlon II X4 recently launched) it could be cheaper in the
future to improve overall rendering throughput for a complete animation simply by obtaining a separate extra system or systems. And I
mean seriously cheaper. For example, if Asrock adds BIOS support for the Athlon II X4 CPUs to the old mbd I have (AM2NF3-VSTA;
cost 35 UKP new, it already supports Phenom2 X4s, runs very well), a board which is available for pennies from industrial suppliers, then
the existence of such boards means one could easily build very cheap render boxes; this board is an AGP model, but there are plenty of
PCIe boards of a similar ilk.
Btw, in all honesty, you'd be mad not to overclock the system. It's so easy to do. Just get a decent cooler and 3.8GHz is a breeze, which will
help a lot for rendering. The COGAGE TRUE Spirit is a good choice - not as expensive as the Thermalright U120 Extreme, but almost as good
(designed by the same people):
http://www.hardocp.com/article...eatsink_roundup_q309/5
Studios use XEON systems of course. One company I know has more than 900 Dell PowerEdge 1950 servers, all dual quad-core XEON 3.2GHz, 32GB ECC RAM;
more than 7000 cores total (ECC matters in such places). Recently I specced out a small renderfarm for a studio in Spain: 3 x Dell PowerEdge R710, each with
2 x quad-core XEON i7 2.93GHz, 32GB EEC DDR3/1333 RAM, 2 x 750GB SATA RAID1. The main modelling desktop was a Dell Precision T7500, 2 x Quad-core
XEON X5570 2.93GHz, 24GB DDR3/1333 EEC, NVIDIA Quadro FX5800 4GB gfx, 160GB 10K SATA, etc. A pretty costly setup, but home users can build very
nice systems for hardly any outlay if one exploits 2nd-hand parts when sensible (I do; recently bagged a 6000+ CPU for 45 UKP which was I thought a good deal,
building a PC for my gf using the old Asrock board; very nice girly-blue case only cost me 17.50 BIN off eBay).
Here's a suggestion:
Price up the two configurations, see what the difference in cost would be. Then work out, if you did go for the cheaper 860 setup, whether the unused
difference would be enough to obtain a separate extra system by whatever means, eg. 2nd-hand AM2 system upgraded to the $99 AMD quad-core.
This would give you the same performance for using Maya (or whatever is your chosen app) in the normal way with the 860 setup, but a lot more overall
rendering resources when crunching out frames (two systems instead of one). Remember the only thing a render box needs is CPU/RAM. Disk/gfx can
be anything; for reliability, pick up cheapo 2nd-hand SCSI, while for gfx even a pennies-level PCI card is fine.
Or use the difference to fit more RAM in the 860 setup.
I know of a photographic company which has built up an extensive renderfarm simply by buying shed loads of $75 2nd-hand P4/2.8GHz PCs (old business
machines), though that's a bit too low down the the scale IMO (power consumption of lots of single-core systems not so good). Anyway, there's plenty
you can do.
Either way, if your budget allows, get the best setup you can. 8)
Lastly, if you're serious about animation modelling, get hold of a 2nd-hand Quadro FX card. Functions such as antlialiased wireframe will run massively
faster than with consumer cards such as the 8800GT (as it happens, the same card I use atm). eBay is a good source of Quadro cards. Here's a handy
summary page:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html
An FX1800 or FX3800 would be ideal. However, no need if you're not dealing with heavy models.
Good luck!! 8)
Ian.
--
SGI Guru.
http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgi.html
(36-CPU Onyx3800 IR4)
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