Hypothetical Hardware Question

[jritterw]

I currently work in an architecture office, and have been producing renderings of projects for awhile now using 3ds Max. I would like to upgrade my computer so I can really crank out some nice images. I am running an Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, 2 gigs ram each and an ATI FireGL V5600 graphics card. I have had some success with net-rendering, but have recently run into a wall using RPC content, which is being worked on so I think that will be set up and running shortly. Money is obviously an issue, ie I dont want to spend an astronomical amount for a new computer, but I will spend a good amount if I know it will drastically increase either image quality or render times. This all leads me to my hypothetical question...for all you professionals out there who love doing this and have amazing machines...what do you use? What would be on your wishlist as far as a graphic card (I have heard NVIDEA is good)...are there specific machines out there that are custom built for pumping out renderings? Please help, I want to get really good at this and push the envelope as much as I can...

[gmay.240153]

I work in a small construction office where we build log homes. Recently we began upgrading and I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of some of the up grades. I'm using ACA 2009 64 bit. I have a computer with a AMD Phenom ii X4 955 processor 3.21 GHz, 8 GB of ram, and a NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 video card. We recently started doing renderings of some of our models using ACA 2009. I'm not very good at it yet, but I can do a presentation rendering in about 3 to 5 minutes. Obviously it's not as good as 3DS MAX or any similar program, but it gets the job done. I've been quite pleased with this new setup and have very few complaints. IMHO 64 bit is the way to go.

[stusic]

Net rendering will satisfy your rendering needs; a bigger, better machine will handle modeling of complex scenes. You can use your workstation to render, but you'll be sitting around, unable to use your machine for much more than solitaire when you're rendering. I try to keep my render times low, but depending on the requirements, I can sometimes have scenes that take a hour per frame to render - that's an hour you can't work on your scene. Test renders are productivity killers without a farm. If you know you'll be animating walkthroughs or other animations regularly, than I would highly suggest looking in to building a render farm. Shoot, even high-resolution stills can be rendered in strips and distributed to your farm. They're easy to implement and any existing computers can possibly be used at the onset, adding more machines as budget allows (any computer helps).

As far as workstation needs go, the most important things I look at are 1.) graphics card, 2.) processor(s), 3.) ram. Hard drives are the next highest priority and power supplies and other components are important, but less critical (IMHO, of course).

For reference, here are my workstation specs:

(Similar to HP's Z800 FL880UT)
2 - Quad-core Xeons
8gb Ram
Nvidia Quadro FX 4600
Nvidia Geforce 9800GT
2 - 160gb(?) 10k HDs
DVD witer, etc...

All in all, I think this ran about $5k. However, I do a boatload of animating, often with high poly counts. I think you could do well with a single Quadro 3700 and save nearly a grand... You can also do with standard-speed hard drives, but those resources (textures, xrefs) will be slower to load. Just don't skimp on the graphics card.

Your boss is going to look at your proposed machine and laugh because it looks like a high-end gaming machine. Play MW2 after work Dell recently bought Alienware, the high-end gaming systems, but look at their Precision workstations. Gaming systems are fast, but often built around over-clocking, so cooling systems, cases, led lights and whatnot can get ridiculous, and it would be laying your money down on the wrong parts.

The HP Z800 and xw9400 and anything by Boxx are good choices as they're made for DCC and the like. Configure them and get what's the best for you and your budget. I would suggest sticking with the 64-bit flavors of Vista or XP. Throw in a blu-ray burner and you should be good.

Hope this helps!

[jritterw]

thanks, this is the info I was looking for...now to figure out how to get this at work...

[stusic]

A good approach is to show the ROI. A top of the line workstation will last much longer than one that's borderline. I've had mine for almost two years and don't plan on upgrading for (i hope) another two years. That's a pretty substantial lifetime for a computer.

Good luck!