Build advice for a MAYA workstaion???

slim01

slim01

slim01

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Hi guys I got a friend who is well into her animation who wants a good rig for 3D modelling AND rendering using MAYA and 3D Studio Max.

Unfortunately she hasn't given me a budget YET, but cheaper for her will obviously be better so im just trying to figure out which is the best way to go for her... Ive done a little research and hope you guys can help me answer questions below.

CPU
1) AMD or Intel? Ive heard Intels are generally better at multitasking? But theres the cost... i ALWAYS use AMD usually. Im thinking an X4 955 BE.
2) Quad Core or is Dual core? AMD X2 550 BE fine? Am I right in thinking quadcore has many benefits for 3D rendering?

MEMORY
3)DDR3 or DDR2? Any real difference in this area?
4)4gb or 8gb? I know 4gb should be plenty for gaming, but is it enough for 3d rendering? would there be much of a performance increase in going to 8gb?

GRAPHICS
5)Quadro FX or Good Nvidia card (apparently ATI cards suck at maya)?
£170 for a PNY nVIDIA Quadro FX 580 512MB seems a HECK of a lot of money for what the specs are compared to gaming cards - are they REALLY that much better for 3D work? Shes not really into gaming and I understand the quadro cards SUCK for it... but for around £200 i could get a gtx 280, wouldn't that hold MUCH more power?

Thanks in advance guys
 
CPU
It depends on the budget, But I think the AMD x6 is superposed to do well with rendering? If not then take a look at the i7.. but if your budget cant afford it then a i5 or AMD x4 should be ok (overclock the x6 / i5 or i7 to 4ghz).. but 100% go with a quad core.

MEMORY
I don't think there is a huge difference with ddr2 and 3... But you will want 6GB +

Graphics card
I am sure the Quadro cards are better for rendering but any high end nvidia card should be fine as well (gtx470 £220ish), Don't go with ATI for the type of rig your going for.
 
yeah thought so with defo not going for ati cards. Just spoke to her again and when i said around £800 for a budget build (this is including a monitor and windows 7 remember) she looked a bit shocked.

Im thinking around £700 will do her. CPU im thinking a black edition 955 quad, clocked to around 4ghz, with 4gb of memory for now, then another 4gb when she can afford it. the 6 cores add a lot of money, and mobos are a little bit more to support them.

wow ram is expensive these days. I have 8gb in my machine now, bought it for £38 for 4gb, its now £96 WTF?

As far as the quadros go they look terrible for what they cost, but i know nothing about them so maybe they ARE worth it over a good Nvidia card. anyone here used one?
 
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Quad core is really essential, rendering is effectively twice as fast
 
Intel > AMD, premium > economy, for 3d designing, it's usually best not to scrimp ;)
ram, get the DDR3, it'll be supported for longer, and get 8Gb while ya at it, maya will happily sit there doing something and want more

go for nvidia graphics, they are better for this sort of thing than ATI, not sure why
 
Hi there. I purchased the fx 580 fex days ago, mostly to speed up the viewports in Maya. This little card can handle very large scenes like if they hve a sphere with a lambert shader. The drivers are the diference, and they realy make the diference.

You can overclock it very easily with nvidia inspector too.

This card is amazing to use with maya...forget about the low hardware specs...the drivers are working here, and they boost the performance of 3d app more than a big geforce would do. The only thing that is a drawback is the 512 mb memory, but well, other quadro options are much expensive than this one.

You won´t regreat if you buy it.

Oh..and other thing...it has only one vga compatible output( the dvi i). The other two outputs are only digital, and for comvertion to vga you´ll have to spend quite a few dollars, in case you want to use dual vga display.

Cheers!!
 
Hey Im planning my workstation build atm for maya, 3ds max I would 100% recommend A quad core CPU also DDR3 would be better if your getting a new CPU, the Quadro FX is great card, like what Aylduit said the drivers relay help but it depends on your workload if your not going to have many components on the screen then normal card will do.

Also Stay away for ATI many driver problems with them! Also depending on the version of 3ds Max if you get Nvida card the Cuda will help.
 
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the Quadro FX is great card, like what Aylduit said the drivers relay help but it depends on your workload if your not going to have many components on the screen then normal card will do.
Click to expand...

That´s true, if she isn´t going to deal with heavy scenes (like 2 millon or above textured faces in one scene)...then a gtx460 1gb could be enough for her.

About render, i forgot to say...a quad core of course, or better...a i7 860 with 4 cores and 4 logical cores would be great . Building a system with i7 860 is cheaper than i7 920 and they can perform equaly. The thing about 920 is that the motherboard that use will be usefull for upgrade and the one used for 860 wont. Not big deal.

About ram...i have 6gb right now, and in many ocassions i use it all and the system would benefit from 2 extra gb. So anyway...4gb isn´t that bad really, but with 8gb she´ll be very confortable.

I would suggest, if the budget allows it

core i7 860
8gb ddr3
fx 580 or gtx 460 depending on kind of scene she´ll work with.
1tb hard disk

if that´s too expensive

quad core intel..i.e:q8300 (just buy the slowest and overclock it...
4gb
fx 580 or gtx 460 depending on kind of scene she´ll work with.
500 gb hard disk.
 
thanks for all your help guys, nice to see everyone has confirmed and has pretty much the same idea i had from the start.

Ayduit deserves big thanks from me - always great to have someone who has and is running the card!!

Yeah it is going to be her focus, but shes a bit of a rogue - with lots of different ideas going around in her head. This is why i told her, she'd have to be serious about getting into doing £D work before I build it for her, as 3d rendering isnt really something you want a cheap PC for.

Im not sure on the type of 3d work shell be doing, but have explained, for example, more ram is always going to be better, but she can add this at any time - like when she actually gets into it seriously!!

Shes like me with work and business - has a million ideas of things to do, but never really settles on anything. ive only just recently decided on my business idea, was a hard choice but i thought i had to get on and decide once and for all. i have a passion for computers and decided to stick with it. everyone needs a computer right??

DOWN WITH MACS!!
 
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