2 Specs, Which One Is Recommended?, Wants a balance between gaming and Vis

[puro]

Hello everyone here at OCuk

I apologise for another 'help me with this spec' thread as I know you must get a ton. I also want to note I am very serious here, please dont flame me for thinking im some hyped 13 year old kid as I have seen in other threads.

I am looking to purchase or put together a machine that is good for Architectural renders. Im wanting a spec that can handle large populated scenes to be rendered. I will also be using it to do low poly games work, but mainly higher architectural vis.
I am however very much stuck, I have two specifications. One is a Boxx spec (prices have come down in price for boxx setups) that I can get through escape studios and another is a rig that ive selected parts for.

I do however play a lot of games, if I didnt I would probably go down the Boxx route. I am definatly after a machine that could have a decent balance between games and vis.

Here are my 2 specs.

Spec One - Boxx 4850 Series

Intel Core i7 940 Processor (2.93GHz) (Quad-Core)
6GB DDR3 1333 (3 DIMMS)
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 768MB
250GB 7,200rpm SATA
500GB Serial ATA RAID 0 Array (2x 250GB 7,200rpm)
20X Dual Layer DVD RW Writer
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
BOXX 3 year limited warranty

Spec two - Hand picked

Coolermaster Cosmos S Case,
Gigabyte GA EX58 UD5 Intel X58,
Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz,
CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 1000W PSU,
Standard CPU Cooling Fan,
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz,
1TB 7200RPM SATA II,
Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD RW Black SATA,
2 x Sapphire Radeon 4870 X2 2GB in Crossfire Mode,
802.11g WiFi PCI adapter,
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

I really hope that somebody can put me down the correct path here. The price is ranging between 2,000 - 2,500.

Thankyou for reading,
Dan.

 

[Kennysevenfold]

firstly there is no need for the intel 940, the 920 will be fine, and no need for a 1kw psu, thats nuts

how about this..crossfire, storage drive and 12gigs of ram


Product Name Qty Price Line Total

OCZ Apex Series 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1APX120G) £321.99
(£279.99) £321.99
(£279.99)

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + Far Cry 2 Game £241.98
(£210.42) £241.98
(£210.42)

Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £207.99
(£180.86) £415.98
(£361.72)

Asus P6T Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £204.99
(£178.25) £204.99
(£178.25)

Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply £143.99
(£125.21) £143.99
(£125.21)

Silverstone Fortress FT01B-W Tower Case with Window - Black (No PSU) £137.99
(£119.99) £137.99
(£119.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £72.99
(£63.47) £72.99
(£63.47)

OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3G1333LV6GK) £61.99
(£53.90) £123.98
(£107.80)

Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £57.99
(£50.43) £57.99
(£50.43)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £35.98
(£31.28) Sub Total : £1,528.56 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £16.85 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £231.81 Total : £1,777.22

 

[puro]

Thankyou for your kind reply Kennysevenfold,

Do you infact recomend a Crossfired Radeon over a Nvidia workstation card? From what I read above, you are suggesting I lower the processor and graphics card slightly and up the ram? Have you any knowledge on the Palit Revolution which could be crossfired? The total of that spec is in fact cheaper than the two specs I had in mind. Thankyou for this helpfull reply =]

Dan.

 

[mp260767]

not sure if it would work but how about going dual monitor, NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 768MB linked to one for the rendering and something like a 260GTX linked to the other for gaming ?

do the apps only run with XP, maybe worth going vista 64 bit or wait on windows 7.

 

[puro]

EDIT: Made a post in the Graphics card dedicated forum area instead.

I have been doing some more research on cards and I am still coming full circle.

So far I am clear on the fact 3Ds Max and other graphics packages only make use of a single GPU, so sli/crossfire is not necessary, nor are the 2gpu cards on one board.

Cards I am looking at are as follows;

EVGA GeForce GTX 285 2GB SC
SAPPHIRE HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
NVidia GeForce GTX 295 1792MB

From what I am understanding, all of the above cards are very high powered pieces of kit, so whichever I go for wont really make to much of a difference performance wise as its mainly for viewport related shenanigans. I do still want a good card for gaming. I have heard various sources that ATI have better architecture of cards atm but also the drivers are not so good. I have always been under the impression Nvidia comes out the stongest. Would I be safer going for a Nvidia card here? These days which performs better under max, ATI or Nvidia? I really am coming full circle when I keep reading. At least I am definatly set on a 'gaming' card over a 'workstation' card.

Hope you can help.

 

[Trunks9486]

Do NOT get the APex SSD

Only, Intel or Vertex drives are good buys right now...