Building new PC - advice solicited.

[leatherbury]

I intend to put together the following system (a bit less than $800 from Newegg). I have built PC's before but I have never built an AMD nor have I ever overclocked. I want to overclock this one to 2.7+ as some have said they do. Any advice form guru's would be appreciated.

I do not intend to run games, but I will run heavy 3d apps (max, maya, ac3d, opengl) and video compiles and edits (tmpgenc, videoredo, vdub). Some visual c and batch-type programming. I have done some research, but, if anyone has some relavant experience and advice, I am ready to listen.

I will probably run W2k SP4 (or XP SP2, but only if I HAVE TO).


MOTHERBOARD:
EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLi Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX

VIDEO:
XFX PVT43PUAH3 Geforce 6600 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card

SYSTEM MEMORY:
OCZ Gold Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model OCZ4001024ELDCGE-K

POWER SUPPLY:
Power & Cooling 510 SLI-PFC ATX12V 510W Power Supply

DVD READER:
LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SHD-16P1S PC

FLOPPY:
SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive

CASE:
Antec SUPER LANBOY Silver anodized aluminum ATX Mini Tower Computer Case

 

[1Tanker]

I do not intend to run games, but I will run heavy 3d apps (max, maya, ac3d, opengl) and video compiles and edits (tmpgenc, videoredo, vdub).

I'm no guru, but with some of those apps, 2GB of RAM would really be advisable. GL

 

[gomerpile]

Dude I'm going to lay it straight no bsing ya. I think what you are planning to buy would be nice but if you can hold on to the cash save it for a bit more time, wait untill the new amd2 are in full bloom and the bugs taken out. The reason being is dx10 is comming and a new os and you will have spent 800 on a system that will do but wont keep up

 

[jimytheassassin]

Plus, is extreme OC a good idea with 3d apps? If you're into so much rendering why not look to a ATI firegl or matrox card? I could be way off base cause i don't use these programs, but those lines excel at this more than a 6600..yes no? Of course, .much more money.. so I'm not recommending, just asking if you considered it.

 

[grpcing]

I've used 3ds max very much for the last 4 years both in school and at home. Your system looks nice, but I consider some changes in the system specs.

1GB of RAM is not enough, especially when in big scenes and rendering with shadow maps. I would buy at least 2GB, but if think it will require more in complex physics simulations. I have a friend who build a quite small but complex physics scene and with the swapfile 3ds max needed 5.3GB of memory.

Quadro vs GeForce
I think the choice depends on how much you are using the 3d programs, the quaro is quite equal to a geforce but it also supports features that will be used in a 3d program,ex:
Support for two-sided lighting
Up to eight clip regions (GeForce supports one)
Read more on the following link
http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/support/faq.asp?faqlineid=44

I've also read that the quadro could display more plogons in viewport without slowing down the system. Read more here:
http://www.solarflarestudios.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1016

For the cpu I would choose a Pentium D or Athlon X2 it will render much faster then the Athlon 64
Look at the following link
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=247&chart=74&model2=212

There is 1min 20s difference between the X2 3800 and the X2 3200, a minute isn't very much in the time aspect, but compared in performance the x2 is 125% faster. If you are rendering a single fram you could just wait one minute more but if you're rendering a 5min movie, about 9000 frames it will make a huge difference.

And then we have Xeon and Opteron based systems, excellent at 3d rendering.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/04/22/duel_of_the_titans/page24.html
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=noconaopteron&page=11&cookie%5Ftest=1

But this is only some facts that shows you what systems that are best suited for maya, 3ds max etc. Better hardware costs more and you have to ask yourself, how much money will I spend?
As a home pc with the ability to play games and working with 3d apps I would go for 2GB RAM, a Geforce/Radeon card and a Athlon X2 processor (or Core 2 Duo Eseries), but it is YOU that makes the final decision.

 

[leatherbury]

I certainly appreciate the replies - I realize that I need to do more research.

One thing is clear: I need a lot more memory. Probably at least 4 gigs, but, there are other boards that offer 8 gigs - the ones that Newegg has aren't reviewed good yet, so I should broaden my search maybe. But that will up the price by several hundred dollars at least. Even so, that extra ram will probably make the difference during a live interactive demo of a complicated 3d scene.

Also, I am very much interested in the overlay plane feature described by the quadro write-up. They talk about stereo-scopic dislpaying (using special glasses) being supported by that video card, so, I need to look at that also. I can just imagine the extra "umph" from seeing a complicated 3d scene with accurate stereo glasses and no freeze-ups nor frame stutters. I haven't located a price for this card yet (but it does support a 1366X768 resolution which is used by the LG 32" display that I was contemplating - at a later date).

But then there is the talk about AMD2 and DX10. I need to look into that also, but, I can only imagine what kind of $$$'s will go with it.

Bottom line is that my meager $800 budget is probably not enough to do much good over my current setup (2.4 ghz northwood/w 1g ram).

I had let myself think that by OC'ing to 2.7 with the 3200+, I could realize a significant increase in 3d computing power. It is probably better to wait and save more $$$'s so when AMD2 and dx10 come out (after the initial hoopla) I can get something that will really make a difference.

I am losing my confidence in building a PC system. It has been a while, and, there is so much research needed, I may just seek out a professional PC component builder and pay and extra $200 to make sure it is done right the first time.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[1337n00blar]

you might want to think about waiting for the price drops that are expected to happen after conroe comes out. The price of the cheapest X2 will drop to $169. Dual cores are also a lot better (I have only heard) for the type of applications you want to run - you can check out the benchmarks at the interactive charts on the THG home page. As to AM2 vs. 939, a lot more information is available for 939, but AM2 will run Revision G chips if you want to do some future proofing.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800

p.s. I would recommend against getting a "professional" builder. My friend got one, and he was simply an idiot. He got a mobo with too few IDE cables, got a graphics card that was AGP instead of PCI-e and had to be replaced, and didn't overclock the system any. Luckily my friend doesn't really know a lot about computers and is convinced that his rig is still the bomb and cheap, so he's happy, but if you do your own research and just put together the computer with a friend who's done it before you should be ok.