New PC Help: For 3D animation and games?

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Vanigan

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Well now that my video card has fried and my system's power supply is wonky, I figure it's time for a completely new system. My current system has been with me for a while, around 1.5-2 years now and it's just too old to play newer games even with all the detail settings turn to the lowest. Here's where I'm coming from.

Retired Big Bertha:
Athlon XP 2000+
1GB RAM PC2700
160GB Maxtor PCI hard drive
ATI 9800

On top of that, I'm now in need of a PC that can handle 3D animation well (Maya, 3DS MAX, etc...), so that means lots of memory and a professional 3D card.

Thankfully, pro 3D cards these days are actually based on gaming cards, usualy about a generation behind, so I won't be too far behind with a pro card.

My price range is around $1000, could go up to $2000 if my family helps. Besides the CPU, I'll need new everything. Including a new LCD monitor so I don't burn my eyes out, and this'll also be the main monitor of a dual screen setup.

On top of that, I may need it to be somewhat portable, but if anything I'll just get one of those CPU totes with the straps and bags on the side for accessories and wires. I like to work in the animation labs at school with other animators. I don't think I want a laptop, mainly because there's a price premium for those, I can't reuse the LCD, and I don't need it to be that portable. Plus, I can upgrade some.

Quietness is also a concern since I've become a little sensitive to PC noise.

Here's the list, which is basically taken from Sharkyextreme's value PC guide with some changes:
Antec Sonata II case (with 450W SmartPower 2.0 PSU)
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TWIN2X PC2-5400 - will likely go up to 4GB
Some Seagate or Maxtor PCIe large hard drive.
Samsung SH-S182D 16X DVD Writer
19" Widescreen LCD, most likely Samsung, the extra screen space really helps with animation.
Motherboard sound
Logitech wired laser mouse

I need CPU suggestions, and the motherboard will then come from that. I have no brand loyalty, so Intel or AMD either one will work. In my case a quad core could actually have serious benefits with 3D apps, so I'm willing to sacrifice pure gaming performance for application performance. Besides, there's games coming out that'll use quad cores.

I do need a motherboard with at least a Firewire 400 connection, 800 would be great though. It's for my portable hard drive, those animation files and backups get really big.

Now on to video cards, anyone know what's a good pro 3D card that won't break the bank, yet is based on a relatively recent gaming card? No brand loyalty, so NVidia or ATI is fine. Plus I plan to create some high poly detail gaming models, for use in normal mapping.
 
You should be able to get buy with a gaming video card for 3d modeling...just make sure it's got an asston of RAM on the thing.

And definately go quad core, it'll speed up 3DS Max insanely. That's what a friend of mine is using at work now, and he can run 3DS Max, Photoshop, Winamp, ZBrush, and a few proprietary programs with no problem whatsoever.

Also, if you're gonna be normal mapping things, check out Crazybump. It's a beta program right now that takes ANY jpg texture and makes it into a normal map. It wont be as fine tuned as a crafted normal map, but a lot of industry people swear by the program... the website has testimonials from people from Raven and Bungie. The site is www.crazybump.com
 
[quote name='Logain8955']You should be able to get buy with a gaming video card for 3d modeling...just make sure it's got an asston of RAM on the thing.

And definately go quad core, it'll speed up 3DS Max insanely. That's what a friend of mine is using at work now, and he can run 3DS Max, Photoshop, Winamp, ZBrush, and a few proprietary programs with no problem whatsoever.

Also, if you're gonna be normal mapping things, check out Crazybump. It's a beta program right now that takes ANY jpg texture and makes it into a normal map. It wont be as fine tuned as a crafted normal map, but a lot of industry people swear by the program... the website has testimonials from people from Raven and Bungie. The site is www.crazybump.com[/QUOTE]

wow quad core (any speed) will make this programs fly? Given the fact that Autodesk bought out Maya, so new versions of maya will take advantage of Quad Cores...holy shit :O
 
You can get by with a regular graphics card, but your rendering times are going to be longer since regular cards don't have access to 3d extensions that Pro cards have. But pro graphics cards tend to cost alot more (some can cost over $1000).

You used to be able to soft mod regular Nvidia cards into a Quadro using Rivatuner, but I 'm not entirely sure of the procedure and I'm not sure if it works on the newest 8000 series cards. Its worth researching though.

For ATI there is something called softfiregl which will "turn" a regular ATi card into a Fire GL card, but it wont work with the newest ATI cards (i.e. 2900X. It should work with the x1950xt which is a pretty fast card in itself.

The problem is do you go with an older card which can be softmodded, or do you go with a new card which is more future proof.
 
I think the HD 2900 XT might be best for you.

It's got 1GB of memory and it's a solid performer in games. Sure it's not a good value in terms of gaming performances (it falls around the same as a less expensive 320MB GTS).

But overall, it should work for you nicely I'd think.
 
Thanks guys. Looks like I'll be getting an X1950 Pro with 512MB video memory. The 512mb would normally be overkill for a mid range card, but 3D aps need texture memory. I'll try to softmod it, but that should be enough. For the CPU I'm going AMD X2 6000+. Both these options together come to $400 total for the CPU and Video. The motherboard should add on $100-$150, which fits with my budget.

Sadly, those $400+ components like the quad core intel and ATI 2900 or NVIDIA 8800 are well out of my budget. However, this PC should be very upgradeable since we probably won't see the PCIe or even the socket formats change drastically in the future. So my first upgrade will definitely be a quad core CPU.
 
If you are going with an AMD 6000+ its onsale at Frys B&M with a cheapo mobo for $179 (expires tomorrow). It was also available online ($170 w/o the mobo) but that deal is dead now, maybe they might bring it back so keep checking.
 
Rats, and I was at Fry's earlier today, even checked the price on a box 6000+. I had enough on me that I could have bought it there and then.


Well that just goes to show I should always check CAG before going shopping.
 
[quote name='Vanigan']Rats, and I was at Fry's earlier today, even checked the price on a box 6000+. I had enough on me that I could have bought it there and then.


Well that just goes to show I should always check CAG before going shopping.[/QUOTE]


It think the deal was for an OEM CPU, so you would still need a heatsink. The mobo is a very basic ECS one, which you can probably ebay for 20-30 bucks. Its still a very good deal considering the CPU is around $220 online.

I have a feeling that there might be some good stuff on sale tommorrow (July 4) so don't feel too bad that you missed the deal.
 
[quote name='ofacto']You can get by with a regular graphics card, but your rendering times are going to be longer since regular cards don't have access to 3d extensions that Pro cards have. [/quote]
You mean viewport performance, right? Rendering is entirely processor dependent and doesn't have anything to do with the video card.

I bought a quadro 2 years ago and it's the last workstation card I'll ever buy. Every place I've worked uses game cards and having used both, gaming cards are fine in 3d apps and are a much better deal.

To the OP, check out the quad core price drop happening at the end of the month: http://www.techpowerup.com/img/07-05-15/Inte.jpg
 
I think pro cards are better for more complex models, like those that'd be used in film or science. Since I'm making models that are for gaming, I don't think I'll need them that much. Although if I ever make super high poly models for normal mapping it's an issue, but by then I'll be in a studio.

I'm going to stick with the 6000+ because I'm interested in the AMD quad core coming in august. The intel quad core uses two dual cores put together, so while there's 4 cores, there's less communication between them.
 
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