Work Computer Upgrade Advice

richie_C

richie_C

richie_C

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10 Jun 2011
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I work for a 3D POS design company and my and the other two 3D guys use PC's are we want to upgrade them all. Ive been set the task of specing and building the new rigs. The building part im fine with Ive build many PC's what Is like to know is whats the best hardware out there for say the price of £1000 per machine.

We currently use dell PC's which have:

Intel Xeon E5410 2.33GHz
Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 256MB
4GB DDR 2 RAM
500GB SATA System Drive.

Now ive looked on the Dell website and the price of their Xeon rigs seems a bit OTT.

The main bulk of work for the rig will be rendering at large resolution like 2400x3200 and some Photoshop work.

What kind of spec could I get that betters the one above for £1000 or more if needs be.

Many Thanks,

Rich
 
Im sure Stulid will be along to help you out soon!

For 3D rendering work I am led to believe the i7 2600k would be best?

With 8/16Gb ram and a 6950?

I think you would see a good improvement from that but like I said someone with more knowledge will be along soon :D
 
Thanks Gregry. I look forward to Stulid's reply.

Ive been looking at Core i7 with 12GB RAM (Triple Channel) and a 6950.

Things like case and dvd drive dont need to be priced as we can use them from the current machines.
 
For the graphics card, you will most likely need a quadro / fireGL card. The 'consumer' cards are not always supported by the CAD software, or they will be missing important features. The pro cards also cost a fortune and are pretty basic.

Also remember that with Dell, you get their business customer service. That's why they are so expensive.
 
IMO, something around a 2500K, or a 2600 / 2600K. Overclocking brings performance, but it's also more risky and potentially unstable, and it's not something you want in a work PC. Reliability first! And you also want quiet :)
 
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We use 3D Studio Max and that works with any card. Ive been using it on my home rig for many years.

So would you say core i5 or i7?

8/12/16 GB RAM?
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £277.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
1 x Intel 320 Series 80GB 2.5" SATA-II 25nm Solid State Hard Drive - OEM with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £104.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** LOWEST UK PRICE ** £99.98
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £66.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.46
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £979.36 (includes shipping : £12.50).



With that budget, many ways to skin a cat I suppose. SSD? Maybe tricky with a 64GB SSD, it needs maintenance to not fill it up with junk.

Some more.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £239.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex Games £209.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £131.99
1 x Intel 320 Series 80GB 2.5" SATA-II 25nm Solid State Hard Drive - OEM with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £104.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £66.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.46
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,009.36 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
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Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 £215.99
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive £139.99
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI £61.78
Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case £79.99
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz x 2 £99.98
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme CPU Cooler £42.89
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter £16.99

£1014.08


Thats what I priced up off the top off my head. The graphics card will probably change for a work station GFX Card of a similar price and there are 1 or 2 Fire Pros in that price range along with a Quadro.

We only need a system drive as all work is hosted and backed up onto a server
 
For 3DS max you'll want an NVidia card, increasingly as time goes on. And one with at least 1gb of video memory. It will work with an ATI card but 3ds max is very much favouring NVidia technologies. An Autodesk rep told me as much (not verbatim, dont quote me).
 
Quixote thanks. Ive amended the rig replacing the OCZ SSD with the Cruical SSD and putting in an Nvidia GTX 560i and putting the Antec PSU back in. Total Price £988
 
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