Need advice on a build for an architect!

FrankDaTank

FrankDaTank

FrankDaTank

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Joined
17 Feb 2010
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236
Location
Newry
Hey there, I have a friend who is an architect, and he has asked me to build him a pc he can use for work. The machine needs to be orientated around his profession as he will be using programs like Photoshop and vray, and autocad most of the time.

He wants to be able to run these programs smoothly and not have to wait ages while he renders images and models. This takes him a while as he has an old computer.

His budget is around £450 or so and doesn't need a monitor. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks.
 
I would say an i5 quad with 6gigs of cheap/generic RAM and a cheap mobo should do the trick nicely, with a decent hdd, a wd or a Sammy, but it depends on what he's already using...
 
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Not really, art and design is more dependant on number crunching power, so a solid processor and a decent amount of memory would be the critical components. Obviously a graphics card is needed, but as long as its a decent card, it certainly doesn't need to be a top of the range one... ironic but true!
 
Cheers, I can save him a few quid on the gfx card side of things. I was unsure if it would help contribute anything in the way of processing power towards rendering images/models. So a good processor and decent ram 6gb or so. Thanks a lot.
 
1055t buid whats that? I have an amd x4 and i love it but i was curious if there was difference in task specific performance for things like rendering. I'd personally prefer an amd build. Thanks for the reply.
 
On rendering for things like 3d the 6 core will pretty much be 50% faster than the equivalent 4 core. Its actually one of the few occasions where the cores are actually being fully used.

Programs like Autocad, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Lightwave etc. are some of the few programmes that actually will max out all your cores whilst rendering.

I wish video work was as reliable to be honest, its rare any video encoders/ renderers actually use all available cores.

E-I
 
HD4850 / GTS 250 -> £90
1055T -> £160
AM3 board -> £90
4 gigs ram -> £100
550W psu -> £50

-> ~ £490, £500 with shipping.

A bit over budget, but that should cover all the requirements.

a quad-core 955 would do a decent job as well. That's £30 off, and saving a bit on the mobo, you could achieve £450.
 
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FrankDaTank said:
  • friend who is an architect, and he has asked me to build him a pc he can use for work
  • he will be using programs like Photoshop and vray, and autocad most of the time.
  • He wants to be able to run these programs smoothly and not have to wait ages while he renders
  • This takes him a while as he has an old computer
  • His budget is around £450 or so
Click to expand...

frankdatank.jpg

Optional USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s + £16.00
 
If he's using Vray and Max more RAM can be very useful, it depends on the complexity of his models. We have many scenes that will use 16+GB RAM, but 6GB is pretty good, obviously 64bit.

Graphics cards will have an affect in manipulating models in Max, less so in Autocad. The best are the Quadro cards, particularly as CUDA becomes better supported, but they also have specific accelerators for MAX.

However on his budget that won't be an option, many others are using gaming cards to good affect, a decent Nvidia card will be good, don't go too cheap, it will make MAX and AutoCad painful.

The best option for serious work is a dual processor setup as Max scales so well, in which case a Supermicro board and dual Xeon 6 cores are good, but again way beyond his budget.

Depending on how serious his needs are it may be worth reconsidering his budget if possible?
 
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