Rendering PC

mr-issa

Hello all,
I'm building a new PC mainly for rendering. My budget is around 1200$.
What are the specs that you recommend and where should I get it from for lower prices?
The software that I'm going to use is Autodesk 3ds Max 2013.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

AvoK95

Get this:
Intel Core i7 3770
Kingston HyperX Red 8GB 1600MHz KHX16C10B1R/8
Asus P8B75-V
Cooler Master Elite 350 RC-350 Case RC-350-KKR500-GP w/ RS-500-PSAR-I3 500W PSU
Some random DVD RW
WD Green 2TB WD20EARX 5400RPM SATAII 64MB
Intel SSDSC2CW120A310 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Inno3D Geforce GTX 660 GE 2GB DDR5 Dual w/TV
All this costs about $1166 + VAT + $4 Shipping (Could me more maybe) = $1286.6 (Sorry for being a little bit off budget)
If I had to spend a few more dollars, I'd get a second 8GB stick and add an aftermarket CPU cooler such as the Thermaltake CLP0598 Contac 16 or a Thermaltake CLP0534 Slim X3.

All these price are picked from PCandParts.com

d3ad

As you main purpose for the workstation is to render 3Ds Max, you should definitly pickup a Quadro or Firepro card. for example

PNY Quadro 2000 1GB DDR5 w/TV $559.00 PX-103
PNY Quadro 600 1GB DDR3 w/TV $235.00 PX-104

Depending on how you adjust your budget.

prices from Pcandparts.com

AvoK95

Yes, I think that's a great idea. But you should see if AutoDesk works with Quadro cards. There are few programs that are very well known and Quadro cards are not supported.

I did some research on AutoDesk, and found out the GPU does help in rendering but just not that much.

What I would do is, I would call their support or ask someone who's profession is using or teaching such software and find out if Quadro cards help.

badbyte

if this one is as a hobby or training then you could order something other than an i7, like a Core2Quad or an Core2Extreme CPU, this could cut down your cost a little.

AvoK95

badbyte wroteif this one is as a hobby or training then you could order something other than an i7, like a Core2Quad or an Core2Extreme CPU, this could cut down your cost a little.

Let go of the damn Core2 series and look into the new architecture!
He can get an i3 which is as fast as a Core2Quad and cheaper than a Core2Duo.

Core2 series are dead. Period.

mr-issa

AvoK95 wroteGet this:
Intel Core i7 3770
Kingston HyperX Red 8GB 1600MHz KHX16C10B1R/8
Asus P8B75-V
Cooler Master Elite 350 RC-350 Case RC-350-KKR500-GP w/ RS-500-PSAR-I3 500W PSU
Some random DVD RW
WD Green 2TB WD20EARX 5400RPM SATAII 64MB
Intel SSDSC2CW120A310 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Inno3D Geforce GTX 660 GE 2GB DDR5 Dual w/TV
All this costs about $1166 + VAT + $4 Shipping (Could me more maybe) = $1286.6 (Sorry for being a little bit off budget)
If I had to spend a few more dollars, I'd get a second 8GB stick and add an aftermarket CPU cooler such as the Thermaltake CLP0598 Contac 16 or a Thermaltake CLP0534 Slim X3.

All these price are picked from PCandParts.com

Thanks Avok,
You recommended 1155 socket but the upcoming i7 cpus are 2011 so i won't be able to upgrade. The i7-3820 and i7-3770 have the same price but the motherboard (LGA 2011) is only 80$ more expensive. So should i get the i7-3820 ?
Thanks

AvoK95

LGA 2011 are a second class of parts.
There's both LGA 1155 and 2011.
The 3770 is faster than the 3820.
And LGA 2011 is a second socket. LGA 1155 will always be there, and LGA 2011 will use the LGA 1155's previous generation architecture.
Stick with 1155. You're good to go for 8 to 10 years.

mr-issa

AvoK95 wroteLGA 2011 are a second class of parts.
There's both LGA 1155 and 2011.
The 3770 is faster than the 3820.
And LGA 2011 is a second socket. LGA 1155 will always be there, and LGA 2011 will use the LGA 1155's previous generation architecture.
Stick with 1155. You're good to go for 8 to 10 years.

http://blog.gsmarena.com/intels-lineup-of-next-generation-haswell-of-desktop-core-i7-and-core-i5-processors-leaks/

AvoK95

All of these are on 1155.
The 2011 sockets are only for extreme ($2000+ workstations) and are just overkill. It's for people who just want to get a PC without any financial budget.
The 2011 sockets will always be 1 architecture behind the 1155 socket. Haswell is coming for 1155 which mean Ivy Bridge will newly come to 2011.

mr-issa

AvoK95 wroteAll of these are on 1155.
The 2011 sockets are only for extreme ($2000+ workstations) and are just overkill. It's for people who just want to get a PC without any financial budget.
The 2011 sockets will always be 1 architecture behind the 1155 socket. Haswell is coming for 1155 which mean Ivy Bridge will newly come to 2011.

Haswell is coming for 1150 not 1155 :/
Thanks for your help man, do you think that the prices will go down after new year ?

AvoK95

Mr.Issa wrote
AvoK95 wroteAll of these are on 1155.
The 2011 sockets are only for extreme ($2000+ workstations) and are just overkill. It's for people who just want to get a PC without any financial budget.
The 2011 sockets will always be 1 architecture behind the 1155 socket. Haswell is coming for 1155 which mean Ivy Bridge will newly come to 2011.
Haswell is coming for 1150 not 1155 :/
Thanks for your help man, do you think that the prices will go down after new year ?

That's a typo. And no I don't think so..

mr-issa

AvoK95 wrote
Mr.Issa wrote
AvoK95 wroteAll of these are on 1155.
The 2011 sockets are only for extreme ($2000+ workstations) and are just overkill. It's for people who just want to get a PC without any financial budget.
The 2011 sockets will always be 1 architecture behind the 1155 socket. Haswell is coming for 1155 which mean Ivy Bridge will newly come to 2011.
Haswell is coming for 1150 not 1155 :/
Thanks for your help man, do you think that the prices will go down after new year ?
That's a type. And no I don't think so..

You can see it in the picture.
And in the descreption they said "The new chips use a new socket – LGA 1150 with Lynx Point chipsets (so you’ll need a new motherboard). "
Hope not

AvoK95

Turns out you're right. But you wouldn't need to upgrade for a long time anyway. Computer hardware has come to a point where it satisfies the consumers needs no matter what they have. Some people are still rockin' their Core2Quads seeing that they don't need any upgrades since it satisfies their needs.

badbyte

The Core2 Family not dead. Only for the mainstream consumer.
Think of it a little, all the office PCs get these overpowered i3 CPUs which run pirated MS products and occasionally surf the internet (or most of the time when it comes to facebook). Why wouldn't you pay for a machine that does the same job for less?
And the Core2 CPUs are a nice virtualisation solution for server solutions for a cheap price.

@ AvoK95: So I can't agree with you that the Core2 CPUs are "Dead".

Now in the case of rendering, I'm not an expert but what we all could agree is this, Mr. Issa won't be doing some hardcore redering for a game or Pixar Animations.
So here comes my qustios to Mr. Issa, what do you do exactly? Do you want to use it for work or for private use? And if it is for private or training use, then you could save money with a Core2 CPU.
If not then you will have to estimate how big your animations are and how many you will do.

Padre

Before throwing specs, how long will ur longest render be ? will u be using that machine for modeling / lighting etc ... or just for the render ?

AvoK95

badbyte wroteThe Core2 Family not dead. Only for the mainstream consumer.
Think of it a little, all the office PCs get these overpowered i3 CPUs which run pirated MS products and occasionally surf the internet (or most of the time when it comes to facebook). Why wouldn't you pay for a machine that does the same job for less?
And the Core2 CPUs are a nice virtualisation solution for server solutions for a cheap price.

@ AvoK95: So I can't agree with you that the Core2 CPUs are "Dead".

Intel released the i3, i5, and i7 series of CPUs to replace the Core2 series as they became obsolete.
Why would you spend money on something old. An i3 with an H61 motherboard will cost you $192. And this is an i3 3220, you might get the Sandy Bridge version for even less. Note that the i3 530 (Older than Sandy Bridge) turned out to be as fast as a quad core even though it only has 2 cores and 4 threads. So the Sandy Bridge CPUs are a lot more faster than the i3 530 even.

The Core2 series has been dead for nearly 2 years now. If people listened to your advice and bought Core2 based motherboards or computers, they will have to upgrade DDR2 RAM which will cost a LOT more than DDR3, because they aren't made anymore (Since they are too old) They have to change the entire motherboard to LGA 1155, if they want to upgrade to something faster. Even crappy computer stores are starting to use LGA 1155 sockets. If you want to save money, you can just get a Pentium G series which a lot faster than the Core2 series and will cost you about $128, which is cheaper than 1 Core2Duo 3.0GHz CPU, and a lot more faster.

Core2Duo CPUs were the 2500/3570's of 2007 up to 2009. When I got my i3 540, my CPU cost me $150 when the Core2Duo was around 130~ish. I don't see any point of saving a mere $20 for double the performance, DDR3 support, SATAIII support, more RAM support, and not to mention motherboard support.

It's down right stupid (No offence)

mr-issa

Thanks all for your help,
Mostly I will be rendering architectural models with vray (indirect illumination on and some displacement maps in the materials) in high resolutions and 300 dpi.
I will also do the modeling on the PC.
The average time of rendering on my current PC (core2duo) is about 1.5 hours per frame.
Currently I'm modeling projects for architects and architecture students but I'm planning to do some animations in the future.

badbyte

@AvoK95:
No worries, no offence taken. But if you take a look at this link, and this one.
The i-Family started with 2 cores accompanied with hyperthreading,and the main function of hyper-threading is to decrease the number of dependent instructions on the pipeline.
So if you have an i3 for instance, you have by default 2 cores but hyperthreading makes it appear 4 so be aware of that.

And again, considering them as obsolete for office use or even a firewall is something really decadent. The only thing that makes them slow down is software products from Microsoft.

Down the bottom line I agree with you that they are old and should be considered to be replaced sooner or later, but in some areas of application like I mentioned before, they still do a good job.
True in animation it is undeneiable.

@Mr.Issa: Ok in this case I would get a motherboard with a 1155 socket and start off with an i3 and then finally go for a i7.

AvoK95

My god you're stubborn. Dude! both cost the same and one is faster than the other. Getting the slower one makes it stupid. And are you serious suggesting Core2 series CPUs for someone who has a budget of $1200 ??