Help me decide on my new system (2 Options)

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So now that I've figured out what I'm gonna get I need some help deciding. I know it's really my decision in the long run but I'm curious as to what you guys think.

Here's system number one
-Dual AMD Athlon MP2000+'s
-1 Gig Ram
-80 WD IDE Drive
-GeForce 4 Ti 4600
-Win2k

System 2
-Dual Processor Motherboard with "a" AMD Athlon MP2200+
-1 Gig Ram
-80 GB WD IDE
-Quadro4 700 or 900 XGL
-Win2k

Both would roughly in the same ballpark in price (roughly) and have a DVD player and Cd-RW burner and decent sound card. The only thing is that I could have the dual processor right off the bat with a non-workstation videocard. Or a single processor system with a little more powerfull processor (until I have money to get processor numero 2.) with a workstation video card (or I could save a lot of money and not get the workstation card at all??). I like to play video games, but that's not the highest priority on my list but it's important(I'm an animator first and foremost). So I'm not sure which route to go. The dual processor system is gonna be a little bit cheaper too, and I'm not totally sure if going with the Quadro 4 900XGl is really worth it??? What do you guys think?

Oh and I'm open to other video card suggestions (Ie. ATI FireGL 8800, Cheap and easy Ti 4200 for the time being until something great comes out)

Thanks in Advance.

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OK so I decided to go with the Single Processor that's more powerful for the time being but now I'm still stuck on a video card. Should I shell out the money for a Quadro 4 750-900XGL? Or should I save some cash and get a ATI Fire GL 8800 (entry/mid-level workstation card) or Ti4600 (game card but would proly be just fine in maya)?? Anyone have any suggestions?

[dvornik]

I hezitate to answer cause I'm not a Maya user (max). Try asking at CGTalk.com hardware, it seems to be more alive.

I would say there's no point buying a dual-capable board with one processor. By the time you upgrade you'll be outperformed by cheap single processors.

Decide what's important to you. Duals are good for rendering and are useless for viewport performance. Pro cards are a bit faster in viewport performance for much more money - not scientific comparison, just an idea.

Generally - for rendering get dual processors, for viewport performance - single (incl board) processor and a pro card.

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Thanks! I'm mostly thinking that I am going to save the cash and go with the ATI Fire GL 8800 just because it is technically a workstation card for about the same price as a GeForce 4 Ti 4600. Still thinking it over though. I read your other posts about the 750 GXL and figured that if it's not "that" great of a card I don't need to shell out $200 more for it than the Fire GL 8800? But I dunno. Thanks for the help.

[dvornik]

Get more opinions on this. Personally I'm very skeptical of "workstation" cards, and I have a 750 XGL and support a bunch of Quadro2 Pros at work.

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I will....the only reason why I was thinking of getting the FireGL 8800 is because they have that card in the machines at my school and they seem to be able to handle my work fairly easy. At work I'm using a Quadro 2 pro I believe and that seems to be able to handle some pretty complex scenes without too much trouble (unless they get really heavy). I'm gonna check tomorrow and ask around. I know one of my friends just got a Ti 4200 and he said it screams (he got it for about $150 as a replacement card), he hasn't tested it in Maya though. Thanks again I'm gonna keep checking this stuff out.

[3dmod]

i would get the dual proc with a cheap card new silicon is on its way for videocards and proc upgrades usally require a new mother board a new video card can be changed easily and they improve so much also i notice when playing animations that allot of transfermation needs alot of proccessing power i have a quadro 4 900 on a pwntium 4 1.5 and during animations it maxes out my proc go with the dual

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Yeah but isn't it true that Maya isn't optimized or utlilzes dual processors besides when rendering? So no matter what I won't be using both processors while running animations in maya...just rendering right? Which is why I was thinking more towards the more powerful chip???? I'm not sure about this though? I thought Max was the only program that is optimized for dual processors. Thanks for the card tip....I was doing some research last night and came to that same conclusion. What are your thoughts on maya using 2 processors? Maybe I'll do some research on that today but I thought it couldn't use both (multithreaded??) I dunno