transitioning from a mac to windows...

wgzn

wgzn

Veteran
ok, before anyone turns this into a mac v win discussion. dont! thats not what im here for.

i'm going to be taking on more 3d work in the near future (for workflow reasons will be done with 3ds max) and am CONSIDERING (since FCP was really the only thing keeping me on a mac) transitioning to a windows workflow.

i'm not really interested in hacking or overclocking or getting in to a bunch of tinkering. just looking for the best graphics horsepower for the money. so with this in mind. i'm looking for suggestions about the most RELIABLE, worry-free approach. do i go with a major manufacturer and just add / upgrade parts. or will i be better off building a machine from the ground up?

not looking for a pixar-level setup. just want to get the most from my adobe / autodesk products...
 
I've generally built and have been happy with the results. There are tradeoffs however. It is certainly a lot more work and if something fails it's up to you to figure out what is wrong because there isn't that single major manufacturer to go back to. The benefits are generally lower cost and you get the exact configuration you want. Often when I dig into the specs of a commercial system I see one or two things that hurt the overall system such as a weak power supply. If you do go pre-built you might consider Boxx who specifically design for visual applications.

If I post this quickly, you'll at least one reply before a war starts :)
 
Unless you can find a significant sale, you generally end up with a more ideal system when you spec it out and build it yourself.
And if you still see some advantages to the mac, you can find a motherboard and components which are proven hardware for
hackintosh setups and you can end up with a dual boot system.
 
I'm not sure if this has changed, but 4 or 5 years ago I saw some real-world tests for 3dsmax that had regular radeon and geforce cards working just as fast as quadro and firegl cards. I haven't done any 3D in a long time, so I don't know if this has changed, but you definitely want to have that cleared out for whatever version of max you're going to use, before you spend $1K on a graphics card that's basically a rebranded $200 card. Also, requiring a pro card closes down lots of options, so, it's no only the price of the GPU.
 
I agree with Samuel H..i do quite abit of 3D...don't get yourself more card then you need...nice CUDA card will be fine..and won't keep you off other programs
 
can you guys elaborate (or clarify)

Samuel H: requiring a pro card closes down lots of options,
Click to expand...
bgreemcam: and won't keep you off other programs
Click to expand...

im looking for a good, fast, no bottle-necks solution. if i go with one medium to high end card is it going to leave me incompatible with something else?
 
My info is from 4 years ago, but here you go:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=307466
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=307873
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=3338059

Summary:
* in a Maya scene with a lot of models of very detailed cars, a the gaming cards (geforce 9800GT, 9800GT, etc; I think they were selling for <$150 at the time) were getting about the same fps as the very expensive pro cards (there's a quadro FX4600 there, that's a $2000 card... with the same processor as the geforce 8800)
* that same scene, with that same hardware, in 3dsmax, was getting fps around 6 times higher --> software matters even more than hardware, and direct3D was a lot faster than openGL, at least back then


edit: this is what I would buy today:
intel i5-4670 (or i7-4770 if your software is particularly good with hyperthreading)
standard motherboard from a manufacturer I trust (probably Asrock, it's cheap but it hasn't given me any problems lately, unlike, say, Asus and Gigabyte) (probably Asrock B85M Pro4, it has 4 RAM slots and supports up to 32GB of RAM)
16GB or 32GB of RAM (it doesn't need to be very fast, it doesn't make a difference; but buy a good brand, like crucial, kingston, corsair, mushkin or patriot)
geforce mid-to-high-end graphics card (if you're doing 3D, probably a 760GTX; for me, it would be a 650Ti or even just 650; not easy, but I'd try to get a quiet one)
240GB SSD drive (probably intel 335; if you want the fastest and newest, that'd be the more expensive sandisk extreme II -it has to be the II version, I don't trust the sandisk controller of older ones)
quiet 3TB HDD (probably WD)
big but quiet CPU cooler (probably scythe katana 4; it's huge, make sure it fits in your motherboard and case!)
decent, quiet power supply, no need for overkill (probably Seasonic G550 or G650; make sure it has enough of the right connectors for your motherboard and graphics card)
nice, quiet case (probably a cooler master silencio 550)

I think that should run you between $1000 and $1500 (because it would be 1000eur to 1500eur here in Europe). Plus assembly, software, etc.
 
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