3D studio and maya PC

Dartanion

Dartanion

Dartanion

Associate
Joined
21 Aug 2006
Posts
14
Location
Cambridge
Hi guys,

My Girlfriend is looking to buy a desktop to do maya and 3d studio work. she doesnt want to spend more than 800 pounds really. i was wondering what u could reccomend? I guess it needs some form of Quadro card? She also has her heart set on a graphic tablet for input all inside the price. :(

I know it's not a lot of money, but what do u guys rekon? ive never really tried to spec this kind of PC before.

Thanks very much.

Tom
 
monitor.. yes
keyboard..yes
mouse.. no shes set on just using the graphic tablet.
speakers... no she can use headphones i guess.
 
hmmm rock and a hard place with that one, u need an úber pc for that means ££ tho, im sure someone will spec BUT id go with

conroe of some sort (clock it up as much as is 100% stable
4gigs Geil Value ram
2x seagate 320gb (if poss)
An Nvidia Gfx card of what you can fit in budget (nvidias drivers usually better in max and maya)

The rest spec ill let someone add up :D
 
If she is at uni and can access labs and / or render facilties and do some of the more high end work there, then she can get away with a decent level hobby card rather than a 3d specialist card - a lot of the advantage in the specialist cards lies in the drivers anyway.

If she plans out what work she has to do on each project she will normally be able to divide the time between 'home' PC and the lab PC's. In terms of VFM a hobby card might then suit her (and her pocket) better.
Given that, the most important aspects of the spec are processing power (get as much as is feasible) and memory.

Check the processor comparisons on Tom's Hardware for some 3d performance figures, Core2duo currently tends to offer the best value for money.

Edit: Spelling.
 
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i had maya and i found that you dont need a really good graphics card. it all ran smoothly with many objects.

MB-064-GI Gigabyte GA_945PL_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-064-GI)
£55.95 £55.95
MY-066-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT533D2) (MY-066-CS)
£55.95 £55.95
GX-044-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 GTO ICEQII TURBO 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (RX800GTO-256ICEQT) (GX-044-HT)
£94.95 £94.95
CA-038-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-038-LL)
£47.95 £47.95
CA-012-AK Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel (CA-012-AK)
£33.95 £33.95
FG-008-AF AcoustiFan C-Series Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-008-AF)
£7.95 £15.90
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£114.95 £114.95
MO-018-OK OcUK Value Hanns-G HC174D 17" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-018-OK)
£86.95 £86.95
KB-054-MS Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 Keyboard (KB-054-MS)
£11.95 £11.95
HD-111-MD Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 17 160GB 6G160E0 SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-111-MD)
£35.95 £35.95
CD-019-AS Asus DRW-1608P3S 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige) - Retail (CD-019-AS)
£23.95 £23.95
Subtotal £578.40
VAT £101.22
Total £679.62


so heres my spec corrections wellcome as lots may need editing.
 
We spec this as an entry level maya machine:

Intel E6300, 2Gb Ram, DP965LT, Quadrofx 550, 160gb sata, Xp32Bit

pretty impressive results for a machine that costs about £1000.

Specviewperf results:

Run All Summary

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 17.66

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 22.81

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.42

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 22.35

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 27.59

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.91

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 23.27

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGNX\SUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 4.520

---------- SUM_RESULTS\TCVIS\SUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 3.686

Against E6700, 4Gb, D975XBX, V5200, 160gb, Xp32Bit

Run All Summary

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 24.41

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 32.31

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 18.47

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 31.63

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 70.11

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 27.74

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 39.14

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGNX\SUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 11.85

---------- SUM_RESULTS\TCVIS\SUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 8.403

That said Maya results are superb on the higher spec Conroe as to the faster clock and the extra cache. But a fair bit more money.
 
What she really needs is enough RAM, loads of HD space, a nippy processor & good, big monitor (see here) all in a stable package...
  • GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL) £109.95
  • Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-003-AK) £53.95
  • Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN) £114.95
  • BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-032-BG) £45.95
  • Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) £41.95
  • NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-035-NE) £19.95
  • Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN) £39.95
  • Viewsonic VX2025wm 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-052-VS) £241.95
  • Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 Keyboard (KB-054-MS) £11.95
  • Subtotal £680.55
  • VAT £119.10
  • Total £799.65
 
so graphics card is not a big consideration then? or only for really big renders? having the cpu power and ram will make up for it?

she currently has a athlon 64 3700+ mobile in a laptop with a mobility radeon 9700 and 1GB of RAM. Slow hard drive of course...
 
If she is still set on a graphics tablet then the Wacom ones are considered the best in the world! They aren't cheap though unfortunately.

http://www.wacom-europe.com/uk/index.asp

The Graphire range I believe is very good at an affordable price. If you want the best, however, then it is the Intuos3 range you want. Not cheap!

SiriusB
 
Dartanion said:
monitor.. yes
keyboard..yes
mouse.. no shes set on just using the graphic tablet.
speakers... no she can use headphones i guess.
Click to expand...


Graphics tablets are perfectly fine, and quite usefull for making textures in Photoshop etc. My using them to control Max and Maya :confused: That would really not work IMO. I'd spec a mouse with a decent amount of buttons. Ive got the mx1000 and it works great in max. As for needing a Quadro card, I would say no. Your much better off getting a cheap ATI or Nvidia card and as long as it supports DirectX and OpenGL it will be fine. The main part in a 3D machine is the CPU. Dual core all the way, and the Conroe is perfect for this. Ram is also quite important. If you can track down a really cheap one, I would also reccomend 2 monitors. I find it really frustrating having to do texture work with 1 monitor, as with 2 you can have Photoshop open on one, and max/maya on the other.

Edit;

Dartanion said:
so graphics card is not a big consideration then? or only for really big renders? having the cpu power and ram will make up for it?

she currently has a athlon 64 3700+ mobile in a laptop with a mobility radeon 9700 and 1GB of RAM. Slow hard drive of course...
Click to expand...

The GPU has almost no say in rendering.. its all down to the cpu.
 
I've been using 3ds Max on an athlon 2500, variously with 512Mb RAM and 1Gb RAM, and with a Radeon 9000, Geforce 6600 and onboard Geforce MX4 graphics. Extra RAM made some difference: I didn't generally notice the difference in gfx power though.

Any half-decent card will do, UNLESS... you plan on building & manipulating extremely detailed meshes (I'm a low poly modeller) or spend a lot of time rendering. In which case it might be wiser to consider a proper 3d card, a quadro or what have you. But I reckon you can get by with any half-decent gaming card if you're not gonna go mental with the polys, or if you're prepared to wait :]

abc
 
so general concensus is dont buy a quadro. get a conroe and ram... and i think dual monitors is probably part of a later upgrade. so will be buying with that in mind. as for the tablet wacom does seem to be the one. though they are expensive for ones that are any good.

anyone got experience with the tablets. there are 3 sizes, a6, a5, a4. are a6 and a5 too small for this kind of work?


i agree about the mouse, think its needed for windows use.
 
I can offer you my tablet experience, cos I was given a tiny a6 wacom last xmas. I've been a mouse user for ever, and... i just can't get used to the wacom. I think that's partly because of the small size: I kind of feel it'd make a lot more sense if the tablet was the same size as the monitor. With an A6 tablet and a 20inch screen I just can't get by.

All the artsy people I know recommend that you should buy the biggest Wacom you can afford. Actually same goes for the monitor too - while RAM and CPU power are all going to help with the modelling process, you need to spend the most money on the bits you interface with all of the time. Monitor and tablet first, then CPU etc, then gfx card. Just my 2 cents anyway :

By the way... 3d artists tend to be split about 50/50 between tablets and mice... it's more common to use tablets for 2d but many pro modellers use them too.
abc
 
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Definetly go for a minimum of 2gig ram, then go for the best cpu you can afford.
A big monitor is a great help, or two smaller ones if they work out cheaper (of course two big ones are even better)

You can never rely on the Uni for pc's, they'll probably be better than the average Uni pc but may be a few years out of date. Then when it comes close to deadline times you'll find almost every decent pc is in use.
 


heres mine. got it when i was in japan. although im only 18 and still in fulltime education i thought i will start to illustration. this is a great board it cost me 200 pounds (40000yen)and i placed a A4 piece of paper on top for some size comparison.

it only came with the pen and mouse but bought a 20 quid air brush pen later.


EDIT; thats the wacom ptz-930
 
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