CPU or Video Card?
Pentium4 with pci-express and a good Quadro card
(better card, faster pci bus)
OR
dual Opteron with just a gamer video-card
(better cpu)
Which is a better choice?
ALSO
If I could get a Single Opteron with a Quadro card
would that be the best choice of all even without
the PCI-Express?
I want to get away with Opteron against Xeon issue.
the real issue is AGP vs. PCI-Express. you can only get PCI-Express with Xeon, AGP with Opteron. so the choice is the video card, I don’t think cpu differ that much.
Alright,
…but what if the cpu is a P4 (3.4GHz)?
P4 with PCI-Express VS. Opteron with AGP
Which is better?
If you can hold off for a few months then do because both Intel and AMD are to release their new dual core 64-bit processors which will most likely require a new motherboard upgrade. If not then these benchmarks should help you decide http://www.gamepc.com/labs/index.asp , http://zoorender.com/ , http://www.spec.org/
As for the graphics card I’d recommend the newest NVIDIA Quadro you can afford. Unless you’re willing to mod a gaming card (Geforce/Radeon) to get the benefit of DCC features such as hardware overlay planes.
P4 is a single CPU, Opteron is dual CPU, so there really is no comparison. Dual is obviously better, but cost a lot more. If all you want is single CPU, definetely go with a P4 (in 32-bit or 64-bit) or Athlon 64.
as DarkKnight said, dual core is the hottest thing coming, the problem is that release date is mid 05. and my bet is that they will get delayed. Both Intel and AMD wants the bragging right to be the first to market. so what happens is that they will release in very small quantity (translation: VERY expensive) initially just to be the first. so my guess realisticly, price won’t come down to reasonable level till 3rd quarter of 05.
Alright thanks!
I really do need a better system, not to mention the fact
my old computer has been trying to tell me its dying for a
few months already.
So Im going to get a low end P4 for the time being
and save my money for a shiney new dual core Opteron
sometime in 2006 and hopefully Opterons will start coming with PCI-Express by then.
In the mean time, would anyone say they could find a better deal than this? If so, please tell me.
$950 (CAD)
(PC assembled, with a one year warrenty)
P4 - 3.2GHz
ASUS P5GD1 MOBO
512MB DDR400 PC3200 RAM
RADEON X600PRO 256MB PCI EXPRESS
Realtek ALC861 AUDIO
160GB 7200RPM Serial ATA150
12X DVD+/-RW BURNER
Marvell 88E8053 PCIe Gigabit LAN
I know the video card sucks, but I’ll just put up with it until
I can afford a Quadro FX1300 or something better, and P4 wasnt my first choice, but if a much improved CPU is going to come out this year I might as well save my money and wait for it. This system should do in the mean time.
@Dark_Knight would this vcard be good mod material?? 
Actually Hyperthreading has shown a performance gain with applications that can take advantage of the technology. What is missed by some people is that even if you have two physical processors such as dual AMD Opteron or a P4/Xeon w/Hypthreading (basically one physical and one virtual) software such as Maya, XSI, Photoshop/Gimp/Cinpepaint, etc can only use one processor at a time. It’s during the rendering process with software such as Mental Ray where the multiple processors come into play.
So for the original poster if on a budget the Intel P4 would most likely be his best option. Since Maya and Mental Ray are not yet coded for 64-bit it’s not a big concern to purchase a 64-bit processor at this time. Though considering how fast technology moves it would make sense to purchase one, even if it’s a single Intel P4 EMT64 w/Hyperthreading. Then in 2005 when Intel and AMD come out with their dual core processors this user could choose to either sell their current system to cover the cost of upgrading or use it for other uses (ie: small renderfarm).
A further method of cutting cost is to for consumers to custom build a workstation themself. If the original poster is leary of doing that then considering where he’s located there are several companies that distribute workstations. HP and GamePC for example offer consumers the choice between Windows or Linux preinstalled. Even Alienware now offers workstations and financing options. Though there’s other such as Boxxtech, etc.
If a consumer is considering a Linux distribution for their OS then comparing what is offered by each prior to having it installed is wise. A consumer can do this with a LiveCD/DVD (demo) of the OS and by seeing what is offered by the developer through their website. For example Novell offers indemnity protection while some distributors lack the resources to offer this.
Anyway, a few links for the original poster:
HP (USA portal) http://www.hp.com/http://www.hp.com/
HP (Canada portal) http://www.hp.ca/http://www.hp.ca/
Game PC http://www.gamepc.com/http://www.gamepc.com/
Alienware http://alienware.com/main.aspx
Novell SuSE Linux http://www.novell.com/linux/suse/index.htmlhttp://www.novell.com/linux/suse/index.html
Novell Indemnity Protection http://www.novell.com/licensing/indemnity/http://www.novell.com/licensing/indemnity/
Intro to Multithreading, Superthreading and Hyperthreading http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/hyperthreading.ars/1http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu…threading.ars/1
P4 - 3.2GHz: Sufficient and if supports EMT64 (64-bit) even better.
ASUS P5GD1 MOBO: Nice motherboard but I do have a few issues with it’s design. First being lack of PCI-E slots and second being it’s FSB. If you want to consider upgrading later and if Intel plans to use the same LGA775 sockless design for their dual core processor then you should find a board with a faster FSB. Such as Asus P5AD2-E Premium or Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE.
512MB DDR400 PC3200 RAM - Good but if you can afford another 256 or 512 MB the better your highend software will run.
RADEON X600PRO 256MB PCI EXPRESS - Haven’t heard anyone hardware modding this card though if you’re planning on using Windows you could try software emulation of the drivers with RivaTuner. Over all I dislike ATI due to several reasons. Some of which have to due with poor Linux support, late driver releases and Maya as well as XSI not performing well on their cards. Not that the Radeon line is intended for DCC (Digital Content Creation) work but that when cutting corners I’ve found NVIDIA to perform better even with their Geforce line. If you’re planning on cutting corners for now by purchasing a non-DCC card and modding it then I would suggest either Geforce FX 5700, FX 5900, 6600 or 6800. The only card out of them that hasn’t yet been hardware modified is the 6600 which is new. I heard http://www.giga-byte.ca/http://www.giga-byte.ca/ is going to release a dual GPU card for the Geforce 6600 line ( http://www.pcstats.com/releaseview.cfm?ReleaseID=1184http://www.pcstats.com/releaseview.cfm?ReleaseID=1184 ). It would be cool to see if someone could put two of this cards in an SLI configuration and successfully hardware mod them to enable Quadro features. That would be like having 4 Quadro GPU on one machine. Anyway, search the forums here http://forums.guru3d.com/http://forums.guru3d.com/ for info on users that have modified their cards. I posted a link in the Hardware forum here on modding a Geforce 6800 to Quadro 4000 if that’s a card you’re considering.
Realtek ALC861 AUDIO - Should perform well in both Windows and Linux systems.
160GB 7200RPM Serial ATA150 - Nice drive and going with SATA is a good idea. You may want to consider a Western Digital Raptor that runs at a blazing 10,000 rpm. http://www.wdc.com/http://www.wdc.com/
12X DVD+/-RW BURNER - Both Sony and LG are good manufacturers of Dual Layer DVD burners. If you feel your turnkey system is costing to much consider buying some things separately such as the burner. Since you mentioned your system quote in Canadian I can recommend a few places to shop. Online dealers Tigerdirect.ca and NCIX.com located in Canada are very competitive and support various payment such as PayPal. If you’re in for example Toronto there’s several computer stores located along College near Spadina such as factorydirect.ca. Since moving out West I’ve noticed there’s a lack of computer competition here so purchasing online is preferable for the best deal.
Marvell 88E8053 PCIe Gigabit LAN - I’m not familiar with the Marvell chipset. I typically trust well known brand names such as Intel, HP, D-Link for LAN hardware.
Basically Im just trying to find a cheep but acceptable for DCC workstation that wont set me back very far while I save up some more dough. So I can buy a real computer
in a year or two.
The MOBO specs say it comes with 1 x16 PCI-E and 3 x1 PCI-E slots.
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket775/p5gd1/overview.htm
but yea, I really dont like ati cards either, thats just what
comes with the system.. maybe I can get them to upgrade
it before shipping.
As far as the cpu goes, this is all it says…
# Intel Pentium 4 540 w/ Hyper Threading Prescott
# 3.2 GHz Clock Speed
# 800-MHz system bus
# Supports Hyper-Threading Technology
(Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel
The system should get you by for now though you may experience issues with the Radeon X600 while using Maya or XSI. Blender isn’t so resource intensive as Maya or XSI and if you’re on a really tight budget is a good way to get some skills as well as work done. You didn’t mention what OS you’re planning on using but in any case you should be able to find Open Source software to save some money. See the post “Software for 3D/2D Artists, Designers, etc.” here http://www.linuxforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53452http://www.linuxforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53452 for more information.
No matter if you’re a student, freelancer or studio owner financing is typically the best method to get what you want now while spending what you can afford. Problem with eBay and places like that you typically have to make full payment now instead of spreading the payments over several months. Not every company expects you to have a credit card. Some are willing to finance as long as you have steady employment and a bank account for the last 6 months. It’s like looking at Alienware’s ALX systems or workstations and realizing with the additional equipment and software not many people can seriously pay full payment instead of financing. Not that you have to do that now but something to consider for the future.
Cheers 
what will be your main use for the workstation…? modelling, animation, or is rendering to deadlines an issue…? if the latter is the case then a dual processor setup is something you’ll want to consider. if you’re a serious modeller or rigger and will be doing a lot of artisan work, you really need at least 2GB ram.
I want to PC for school. Im planning to go to VFS.
Also my current PC is dying.. and its not worth upgrading so
when it finally kicks the bucket Im just going to toss it.