PC Peripherals Rendering machine / 3D animation.. As cheap as possible.

madnav · Sep 11, 2009

A friend of mine is looking forward to buy a machine for 3D animation.

Need to be as cheap as possible..in terms of cost. do not want to compromise a lot on the requirements..so will be buying just what requirements demand.

i understand that a quad core will help rendering buy no idea which gpu to go for this purpose.

Need a balanced rig...so please let the suggestions flow in..

1. Q: What is your budget?

A: ~30k (but can go north and south as per requirements and options available)

2. Q: What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)

A: NA

3. Q: Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)

A: NA

4. Q: Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.

A:

1. CPU - AMD Athlon X4 620

2. Motherboard - Biostar A785GE (If not going for dedicated GPU)

3. GPU - Not Sure (If oing for gpu.. will invest in cheapest AM2+ board available)

4. RAM - 2x 2GB 800MHz either Transcend OR OCZ Titanium

5. Display - 17/19 incher (suggest one for the purpose..)

6. HDD - 500GB WD Blue if available OR Seagate 7200.12

5. Q: Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component

A: This will be final. No Upgrades will be done later.

6. Q: Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)

A: Mumbai

7. Q: Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market

A: No

8. Q: What is your intended use for this PC/hardware

A: 3D Animation

9. Q: Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.

A: Nothing as such. But would like to get VFM over brand.

10. Q: If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?

A: No gaming.

11. Q: Are you looking to overclock?

1. Maybe (Depends upon the user/buyer)

12. Q: Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?

1. Windows 7 64 bit

2. Windows XP SP3

Dark Star · Sep 11, 2009

That sums up pretty well. The AII X4 is certainly the way to go for.

However a 3d animator should have good quality screen. Since he is on tight budget I don't expect him to buy IPS , rather get him a 22" FULL HD monitor say S2233SW or the BENQ Q series ?

Double the ram amount , 2 gb X 4 would be much better , and try to go for better sticks , tighter timings in blend with AII X4 will result in massive bandwidth.

madnav · Sep 11, 2009

he asked me for 2x 2Gb so going for that for now. may add extra 2x2GB later.. 4GB sticks will cost a bomb. and timings on OCZ Titanium looking good to me

will chuck A785GE since its costing around ~3.8k uATX with limited expandability.. would rather go 790GXBE or 780G based cheaper options.

need more inputs on gpu front

yes he cant go IPS panel.. he asked me for basic 17 incher...may have to see if he can go for 2233SW or atleast 2033SW

sharmapu · Sep 11, 2009

which animation soft u will run...maya???

mihirX · Sep 12, 2009

got a question here...are samsung monitors better thn dell ones for such work if on tight budget?

funkYm0nk3Y · Sep 12, 2009

yes samsung lcd's are better than dell's

mihirX · Sep 12, 2009

funkYm0nk3Y said:
yes samsung lcd's are better than dell's

k....thx!!

stormblast · Sep 12, 2009

Dark Star said:
That sums up pretty well. The AII X4 is certainly the way to go for.

However a 3d animator should have good quality screen. Since he is on tight budget I don't expect him to buy IPS , rather get him a 22" FULL HD monitor say S2233SW or the BENQ Q series ?

Double the ram amount , 2 gb X 4 would be much better , and try to go for better sticks , tighter timings in blend with AII X4 will result in massive bandwidth.

IMO, intel is the way to go when it comes to 3d rendering.

2ndly, the myth about needing a good panel for 3d animator is completely false. any tn panel will also do. it really makes no diff unless you are very finnicky abt the colors. todays tn panels are also very good. also what is the point of making or creating an animation or an image on your ips panel, only to give it to the client who has some old tn panel to see it on. save money here n get a regular tn panel.

depends on what kind of 3danimation he does, 8gigs would help if he works on heavy scenes, otherwise stick to 4gb.

if he is using 3dmax, then any desktop 3d card will do depending on his budget. max works very well in d3d mode.

i really dont know the market prices of components so i cant really suggest what would fit in his budget, but i would like to suggest to build the rig around a good psu like corsair vx450.

Vij · Sep 12, 2009

stormblast said:
IMO, intel is the way to go when it comes to 3d rendering.

if he is using 3dmax, then any desktop 3d card will do depending on his budget. max works very well in d3d mode.

+1

If you are using max any decent gaming card should do fine, but with Maya, Quadro FX580 is the only sensible option that fits your budget.

aditya_reds · Sep 12, 2009

Agree with stormy.. intel is the way to go for rendering stuff.. 4gb ram will be great.. no need to go for 8gb... for the card u can go for the HD 4850 512MB.... should be decent enough to handle anything.... if ur working on very high poly scenes then might as well go for the quadro fx.. but i think it wont make a huge difference coz of the budget u have so goin for the 4850 is sensible...

MAGNeT · Sep 12, 2009

stormblast said:
2ndly, the myth about needing a good panel for 3d animator is completely false. any tn panel will also do. it really makes no diff unless you are very finnicky abt the colors. todays tn panels are also very good. also what is the point of making or creating an animation or an image on your ips panel, only to give it to the client who has some old tn panel to see it on. save money here n get a regular tn panel.

Thats a good suggestion...i was waiting for one ips panel to go ard 12-13k for long time......my samsung 17incher is in its 5th year....

So now i guess ill go with samsung again seeing its warranty support...was only worried about the panel stuff

And for animation there are 3 stuff which u shdnt compromise......gfx card,ram and processor......give maximum preference to them.....than go for psu and than other stuffs......

30k budget looks tough to me to get that all under 1 roof since its being build from scratch...than i guess darkstar option is good to go for amd....but intel is 1 st choice ...but stilll if budget cant be increased.....

Rest stormy and others have very well guided......no point suggesting particular ram brand since again budget is the constraint

madnav · Sep 12, 2009

how much does quadro fx580 cost??

and intel still better if max i can accommodate is E7500 instead of Athlon II X4 620 ??

stormblast · Sep 12, 2009

MAGNeT said:
And for animation there are 3 stuff which u shdnt compromise......gfx card,ram and processor......give maximum preference to them.....than go for psu and than other stuffs......

very wrong. the 1st & foremost important thing for any rig, especially a workstation is the psu. buy a solid psu 1st according to the rig you choose. gfx card is not at all important as i have already mentioned above (for 3dmax). even a 7200gs can get the work done easily. processor is equally important as the psu. then comes the ram depending on how heavy the scenes would be.

madnav said:
how much does quadro fx580 cost??

and intel still better if max i can accommodate is E7500 instead of Athlon II X4 620 ??

the x4 will dominate the e7500 because the amd cpu you mentioned is a quad core & the intel is a dual. i suggest to go for an intel quad core.

the quadro really doesnt matter, it wont fit in your budget. also if he is using 3dmax then quadro is a waste of money imo.

gbee · Sep 12, 2009

for rendering u must go for QUADRO FX 580 nad if u want gaming also them go for GTS 250
QUADRO FX 580 @95-9600
GTS 250 1 GB @ 85-8600
both in Leadtek brand

MAGNeT · Sep 12, 2009

stormblast said:
very wrong. the 1st & foremost important thing for any rig, especially a workstation is the psu. buy a solid psu 1st according to the rig you choose. gfx card is not at all important as i have already mentioned above (for 3dmax). even a 7200gs can get the work done easily. processor is equally important as the psu. then comes the ram depending on how heavy the scenes would be.

ppo: i guess i need to wash my brains now....thanks for correcting....i was seeing other way

Vij · Sep 13, 2009

gbee said:
for rendering u must go for QUADRO FX 580 nad if u want gaming also them go for GTS 250
QUADRO FX 580 @95-9600
GTS 250 1 GB @ 85-8600
both in Leadtek brand

Popular misonception.
Truth is that for 3d software render GPU is not used at all.
Secondly, with Maya most gaming cards give good frame rates but produce viewport glitches, so Quadro FX 580 is the sensible choice. Again with Max any decent gaming card will do.

madnav · Sep 13, 2009

he has not responded yet so im thinking i will chuck the gpu for now and rely on the HD4200 IGP for now.

will post in the final config for further constructive comments and criticism once he responds

thank you everybody for your inputs

Chaos · Sep 13, 2009

stormblast said:
\ndly, the myth about needing a good panel for 3d animator is completely false. any tn panel will also do. it really makes no diff unless you are very finnicky abt the colors. todays tn panels are also very good. also what is the point of making or creating an animation or an image on your ips panel, only to give it to the client who has some old tn panel to see it on. save money here n get a regular tn panel.

Depends upon where in the pipeline you are located. If you are an animator or a layout guy, it doesn't really matter. However if you are a lighter or surfacer or an FX artist, color correction issues are massive problems. At my office, we use HP 2480ZX Dreamcolor displays for all lighting/FX/surfacing work. Before we got these, everyone was on NEC Multisync CRTs. It all depends on the requirements. If your client doesn't care, you won't care. In our case, every single tiny thing matters and the attention to detail is just crazy.

vij said:
Popular misonception.
Truth is that for 3d software render GPU is not used at all.
Secondly, with Maya most gaming cards give good frame rates but produce viewport glitches, so Quadro FX 580 is the sensible choice. Again with Max any decent gaming card will do.

There are quite a few plugins for Maya that actually do the final render on the GPU as well. Much of the FX pipeline at our place uses a GPU renderer until we need HD or higher quality renders.

Vij · Sep 13, 2009

Chaos said:
Depends upon where in the pipeline you are located. If you are an animator or a layout guy, it doesn't really matter. However if you are a lighter or surfacer or an FX artist, color correction issues are massive problems. At my office, we use HP 2480ZX Dreamcolor displays for all lighting/FX/surfacing work. Before we got these, everyone was on NEC Multisync CRTs. It all depends on the requirements. If your client doesn't care, you won't care. In our case, every single tiny thing matters and the attention to detail is just crazy.

There are quite a few plugins for Maya that actually do the final render on the GPU as well. Much of the FX pipeline at our place uses a GPU renderer until we need HD or higher quality renders.

Yes, some particles are hardware rendered, and then theres stuff like Gelato thats a hardware accelerated render, but in general many people have the misconception that Maya/Max software renders need GPU power which is not true.

stormblast · Sep 13, 2009

Chaos said:
Depends upon where in the pipeline you are located. If you are an animator or a layout guy, it doesn't really matter. However if you are a lighter or surfacer or an FX artist, color correction issues are massive problems. At my office, we use HP 2480ZX Dreamcolor displays for all lighting/FX/surfacing work. Before we got these, everyone was on NEC Multisync CRTs. It all depends on the requirements. If your client doesn't care, you won't care. In our case, every single tiny thing matters and the attention to detail is just crazy.

what you have mentioned is true but his friends needs the rig for home use & his budget is around 30k. some people here were still suggesting him an ips panel which dint make sense to me.