Am I right here?AMD/INTEL/GF3/4-Almost buying this

[g-l-baxter]

So I have two options

NUMBER-1

Soyo K7V Dragon Plus
512Mb DDR266 RAM
2x Maxtor 80Gb ATA100 RAID0
AMD Athlon XP 2000+

NUMBER-2

ASUS P4S333
512MB DDR266 RAM
2x Maxtor 80GB ATA100 RAID0
Intel Pentium 2.0Ghz 512Cache

Now the question is:
Which one should I buy????
And I know you've noticed that I did't say about the video card.... well THATS the problem

Should I go With a GF3 Ti500 and softquadro.
Or should I go with a GF4 Ti4600???

By the way this computer is mainly for using on Maya.

Please guys, give me a hand, I've searched a lot on the net, one place says amd rlz, others says intels, one place say GF3 that can be softquadroed are better, other says GF4 will be better.... I'm really confused.

Thanks...

Ps. I can't buy quadros boards.

Love is...... delete Ms Windows from her computer...

[grocs]

any number of people will write and say various things some contradicting each other...

Personally Id go with a dual processor AMD board (Asus or Gigabyte) with only one cpu so you can add another later on down the line when you need more speed... as for the graphics card... from what i have heard the GF4 Ti4600 comes out faster than the GF3 Ti500 SQd however I wouldn`t get the 4600... I would get the 4400 and overclock it using Powerstrip to get it faster than a stock 4600 for $100 less...

really when it all comes down to it you go with your gut feeling...

[g-l-baxter]

Hi there

I know that gf4 will be faster, BUT, what about stability? because w/ gf3 softquadro, you "have" a professional board, and that's what maya really likes, so it doesn't crashes.
Thanks anyway...

Oh... can anyone say something about the system? amd or intel? are these motherboards stable and fast?

c'mon guys.... just a hand plz...

If the computer is troubling your studies...... leave the school.... (old chinese proverb)

[grocs]

I have a GF4 Ti4400 OCd and its as stable as a heavy flat rock on a flat surface. I dont have any problems when using it with any part of maya.

AMD is fast and cheap... Pentium is Fast and expensive... go look at the render tests to see which gives the best output... youll find that most of the first page is made up of AMDs

[g-l-baxter]

Okay...

so I guess i'm going with this....

SOYO K7V Dragon Plus Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2100+
1Gb RAM DDR266
2x Maxtor 80Gb Raid0
CD-RW/DVD Combo
MSI Geforce 4 4400 128mb
19" Sony Trinitron

anyone in something similar???

thankz

[norbert]

I would buy the new MSI Geforce Ti 4200 64 MB and from the saved money an Intel P4 2000/512KB instead.

AMD is fast but it also runs at its temperature limit (because of the older 1.8 um wire layout). Yes, the new AMD boards should shut down the processor if it starts to get hot, but if the cooler fails and the security mechanism doesn't work fast enough, the AMD goes up in smoke within seconds, according to Tom's Hardware. Not so the P4. It runs even with a defect cooler (for quite some time). If you want to use the processor longer (3 to 5 years) and often, I would buy the P4. It certainly has a longer lifespan.

[aaron_johnson]

Hi great to hear some good feedback on a GF4,

i'm trying to decide between a softQuadroed GF3-Ti500 and a GF4-Ti4200 overclocked.....

two questions for you: are there any display artifacts in the hypershade or anything...? if not i'm impressed my VX1 has bugs for africa.

also what brand of card are you using...? (prbly not that important).

thanks heaps,

-paul

[hella356]

I think what Tom's portrays as a big weakness of AMD is highly overblown. In all the years I've been working with computers I've NEVER seen a heatsink just fall off like they dramatize. No one that I've asked has ever seen it happen either. Perhaps if the oilpan fell off on two makes of car one would have a blown engine while the other would limp along and be shut down before harm was done. But how often do oil pans just fall off?

Yes, Athlons do require a bit more care when installing the heatsink but when it is done correctly it's perfectly fine. That article was mostly just a bunch of FUD. The only salient point made was the possiblility of the sink falling off while being tossed around in shipping. That could happen I guess but I've still never heard of it happening. But once the box is set up and running I wouldn't worry about it. The fan dying is far more likely but that isn't nearly as big a problem as removing the whole sink.

[g-l-baxter]

Yep... me too. I'd really appreciate to know if there are some display artifacts....

Luckly a friend of mine bougth a GF4 today and another friend of mine have a GF3 .....

Yes... I'll spend the rest of the weekend testing those cards.... as soon as I have my conclusions I'll decide what to buy....

oh and... should I post these conclusion here? anyone interested?
anyway... I'll make a new post when it's done...

For we are many....

[grocs]

I have PNY Geforce Ti4400 there are no artifacts that i have noticed and I have used every part of maya to test it...

anyone should post their findings or add their findings to already existing findings because it will help people out.

also about pentiums... ok so they may last 3-5 years but will someone keep a computer that long these days? Especially if they want to keep up with todays and the futures software requirements?

[aaron_johnson]

hi - thanks for your response

that would be cool, make sure to paint a heavy paintFX stroke scene (with grass or something) and then u'll really get an idea of the card's manipulation performance.

also with the GF4 are you going to overclock it..?

look forward to your post.

[grocs]

it is OC`d... using powerstrip

[exodusmaximus]

that render test is outdated!
AMD falls behind Xeon on cloth, fut and paint effects