Choosing parts for a comp that is used for 3D animation

Dialamo

Dialamo

New Member
Well, my friend is in desperate need of a new computer, as his old computer can't cope well with the programs he uses. I don't have a good idea of what parts to choose out since I don't know what a 3D editing computer really needs. He mostly uses his computer for programs like Alias Maya, Photoshop, and some other programs. He also plays the occasional game or two.

The budget is $2000 Canadian (W/O Taxes). It must come with a case, decent cooling (some case fans and AS5), keyboard, speakers, mouse and monitor (17" or more, no more than $300, and must be flat).

Here are the internal hardware pre-requirements:
AMD X2 4400+ or better
2GB of RAM (Corsair or OCZ preferred)
A 400w Power Supply or higher with at least 24A on the 12v rail. (Antec preferred)
A graphics card that is decent for 3D animation and the occasional game.
A 200GB Hard Drive minimum (7200RPM and 16MB cache is a must!)

Try not to go too high off the budget,and try to get all of the parts from these two sites and look for the best prices between them:
www.canadacomputers.com
www.ncix.com
 
The graphics card is the hardest part, since normally you would opt for an ATi FireGL or nVidia Quadro card when it comes to 3D modeling/animation. They don't perform very well in games as they aren't meant to render alot of frames per second like the Radeon or GeForce series of graphics cards. And the Radeon/GeForce aren't capable of the same operations as the FireGL/Quadro cards.

And Alias doesn't own Maya anymore, Autodesk does.

EDIT:

I put this rig together in 20 minutes.

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.2GHz Dual Core Socket 939
Mobo Asus A8N5X Socket 939
PSU Antec SmartPower 2.0 450 Watt
GPU Asus EN7600GS Silent HTD
RAM Corsair Value Select PC3200 DDR400 Kit 2x1024MB
Monitor ViewSonic VA912b-4 19" LCD
HDD Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATA150 200GB 7200RPM 16MB
Case Cooler Master Centurion 2
Speakers Creative Inspire T3000 2.1
Thermal paste Arctic Silver 5 (Seems to be out of stock at Canada computers)
Case fans Cooler Master 120mm Blue Neon
Mouse & keyboard Logitech LX 501 Cordless Desktop - Cordless Keyboard/Mouse - White

Total: 1720$ (with 2 case fans and no thermal paste)

This rig can be modified based on need or liking.
 
Last edited:
Thank you very much! You gave me a basic understanding on the computer. I think I may change the graphics card though and opt for one a bit more powerful if I can. Everything else looks good. I will also be adding in a DVD burner and a floppy disk drive.
 
Dialamo said:
Thank you very much! You gave me a basic understanding on the computer. I think I may change the graphics card though and opt for one a bit more powerful if I can. Everything else looks good. I will also be adding in a DVD burner and a floppy disk drive.
Click to expand...

There's room in the budget to upgrade the GPU, but it won't be making much of a difference if he doesn't play games a lot, since the CPU usually does all the rendering when using Maya. The GPU can be utilized though by using hardware shaders that the GPU renders in real-time etc.
 
mrjack said:
There's room in the budget to upgrade the GPU, but it won't be making much of a difference if he doesn't play games a lot, since the CPU usually does all the rendering when using Maya. The GPU can be utilized though by using hardware shaders that the GPU renders in real-time etc.
Click to expand...
Ah, so I guess it may be more wise to add in a 4800+ than a new GFX card?
 
Basically, yes. That is if he doesn't do much gaming, cause he'll need all the power he can get when rendering scenes. The GF7600GS is a good card for gaming, though.
 
if hes a professional 3d editor than you should get one ofthe quads form nvidia

they are awesome for rendering and will play games but if hes doing it for a business get rendering power first
 
Impr3ssiv3 said:
if hes a professional 3d editor than you should get one ofthe quads form nvidia

they are awesome for rendering and will play games but if hes doing it for a business get rendering power first
Click to expand...

Their actually called Quadro. And they aren't good for gaming, oh no. If you try to play CoD2 with a Quadro, you can expect about 6fps. Yay, 6fps, it'll look like a slideshow of your aunts and uncles vacation. And the processor does most if not all the work when rendering a scene. The Quadro's are good cause they can draw a lot of polygons but they aren't meant for games as they are a bit different in design that your usual Radeon or GeForce card. And most games don't support Quadro's or FireGL's.
 
Not really, the Quadros still CAN game. Try the Quadro FX4400 if you can afford it. IMO the FX4500 is not worth the extra money.
Who told you that you'll get "6 fps" in CoD2? What Quadro did you try out? The Quadro FX3400 can run Doom 3 at 70 fps with Anti Aliasing 4x and AF 16X at 1024x768 resolution and 50 in 1280x1024 resolution...
 
But seriously, who would fork up the money for a Quadro when you can get a GeForce 7900GTX or Radeon X1900XTX which cost less?

EDIT: Found these benchmark results posted on another forum, they're 3DMark03 and 05 results. And if Praetor reads this, I know you don't care for 3DMark results.

And some oppinions on the performance of Quadro's.
#1
#2
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top