Could anyone help with spec for 3d apps PC?

nadmai

nadmai

nadmai

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17 Feb 2007
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Hi, I wondered if people could give me some advice regarding the PC i'd like to build please?

The kind of work that I'm doing (3D Apps - Maya animation and dynamics simulation and Blender. Handling large uncompressed video files in after effects, Photoshop texture painting) has convinced me to build a new PC.

I can't afford to go the whole hog for a workstation PC and so would like something that will handle general PC use but also can cope with the demands of the more specialised software. Overclocking is not really something I'm concerned about, just stability and quality.

  • Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
  • Asus P5W64-WS Pro Intel 975X (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
  • Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
  • OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2
  • Tagan TG500-U25 500W ATX2.0 Dual Engine Silent SLi Compliant Silent PSU
  • Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler

RAM - I'm not sure about this, I assume having RAM that runs at the same speed as the processor fsb is a good idea?
PSU - Again I could do with advice here
CPU Cooler - Again advice needed, anyone with this board know if there are problems fitting this particular unit? I read in other sections of the forum and product review that there were problems fitting this unit to another asus board P5B deluxe.

I already have an nVidia Quadro 1300 graphics card and optical drives.

I thought the antec P180 case although I do love the looks of the Thermaltake Tai Chi again not sure of any issues.

If there is anything I have overlooked or anything you can advise me on, I would really appreciate it. Many thanks for your time.
 
Yours is one of the few situations where RAID 0 makes sense for the home user.
If you use a RAID 0 array as your scratch/temp work disk you should see significant speedier access.

(http://faq.storagereview.com/tiki-index.php?page=SingleDriveVsRaid0)

"There are certain uncommon situations where RAID 0 can significantly improve system performance. For example, editing of large audio or video files is sometimes limited by the maximum sequential transfer rate of the hard drives, but it is far more common for the processor to be limiting factor. Generally, if you frequently make simple edits to large media files, RAID 0 can potentially improve your productivity. Examples of "simple" edits might include removing portions of an uncompressed audio file, or combining two video files."

So double up on a drive for your work.

However that leaves you looking at 4 drives. 2 in raid (cheap will do), a fast one for your OS. A large one for storage. More £s

I would drop the 6600 to a 4300 and overclock. I wouldn't recommend this for a work machine if it were not absolutley trivial. I have been building such overlcocked machines for other whom i would normally give stock machines to becuase of the hassle maintaining them. So far I have had zero issues.

Any reasoning behind that specific motherboard?
 
Thanks for your reply artaxerxes. I was going to initially go for two 75gb raptors in raid 0 but then I heard there might be extra hassles with running XP / Vista on them. So perhaps get a 75/150Gb raptor as the OS and programs drive and then two other 150Gb drives in raid 0 as scratch and then a 500gb storage? I assume then that I would need to look for a board that had 4 sata slots, as I believe the asus has only 3 - any recommendations?

No reason for that specific motherboard other than it is listed as a good solid workstation type board and ran at the fsb of the processor.
 
Yeah it is solid, and you pay for it, but it looks worth it for the high end user.

I googled a review and I was very impressed. 8 SATA II ports; so even with the above 4 HDDs you will have room to migrate your Opticals to SATA as well.

It is a truly solid choice.

Only other consideration is perfect power for this level of spec. I don't know enough about Tagan's to recommend them or say boo to them. However these chaps know far too much about PSUs

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103

That gels with current opinion here with the Corsair 520 or 620 being favourites. I personally tend towards Enermax. Anything in Tier 2 should satisfy, anything in Tier 1 is weapon grade.
 
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