3D Render Machine - Spec

bloodiedathame · 7 Feb 2011 at 11:13

I am very out of the PC components game, I have no idea what people are using and what seems to be the best in hardware so I hope I can ask what I need in here.

I'm working on a project at the moment which looks increasingly likely as if I'm going to need a very fast PC system to render high def 3D footage from Cinema 4D (modelled on a Mac). Graphics cards are pretty unnecessary but processor (+ cooling), RAM and storage are important.

Would faithful forum members be able to come up with W7 systems to the following budgets please? £500, £1000 and £1500.

Thanks in advance, PC numpty.

bloodiedathame · 7 Feb 2011 at 12:25

Or bite the bullet and go for this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-053-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1801

Have been looking on http://cbscores.com/index.php?sort=rend&order=desc for ideas.

Current machine came in at 7 on the render score.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:13

Seriously no replys, I thought you guys loved these bang for buck threads?

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:35

Excellent, cheers for that.

My current desktop machine has 2 quad cores (Nehalem(?) Xeons at 3GHZ) and 10GB RAM. Do you think your spec would give a noticeable improvement over my current rig?

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:43

Brian8bit said:
Hell no.

Thought not.

Err yeah, so back to the drawing board. A 2 CPU rig would be sensible, so maybe 2x 6-core i7s?

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:59

Which makes me think, why not go the whole hop up to X5650s? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-053-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1801

I could build a rig for about £3k?

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:20

The rig is good (4 year old-ish MacPro) just been told the processors aren't Nehalem.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:29

Just ran a system scanner which indicates the processors are 5400 Quad Core Xeons. The model is an early 08, so not quite 4 years. Will these come under X5400 on cpubenchmark?

Wikipedia says they might be X5450 Harpertown. This branding malark is a pain!

i7 950 looks like a sensible option...

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:39

Just says 2x3 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.

Crucial scanner says: Apple Mac Pro (8-core Xeon 5400 Series) 2nd Gen. Early 2008 Desktop/PC

So yes, E5472s is right.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:43

psychas said:
wait for bulldozer 8 core should be good for render or bulldozer 12 core server chip ?

When are they released? Need something within about 2 months.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 17:08

Can o' worms springs to mind.

*edit

1 x i7 2600k will perform as well as my current rig (gets roughly the same passmark score).

Am I right in saying the cheapest i7 2600k build would be around £900?

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 18:35

Thoughts?

Qty Price Line Total
"Krypton Ankylosaur MKII" Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz @ 4.60GHz Overclocked Bundle - Asus Extreme £539.99
(£449.99) £539.99
(£449.99)
Corsair Force 40GB F40 2.5" SATA-ll Solid State Drive (CSSD-F40GB2-BRKT) £83.99
(£69.99) £83.99
(£69.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £65.99
(£54.99) £65.99
(£54.99)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 SILENT 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Low Profile Graphics Card £27.59
(£22.99) £27.59
(£22.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)
Sub Total : £746.26
Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing address, CR2 9NL with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £151.35
Total : £908.11

Will the Akasa Venom CPU Cooler fit in the case?