Other Need some advice for putting together a WIN7 PC for Rendering

OCD Solutions

OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
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Rentz, GA
My 14 yr old nephew is getting into computing, specifically graphic rendering, and he's putting together a powerhouse rendering PC. I told him I'd help him track down some items and help with some of the cost but I am honestly lost when it comes to what he's doing.

Before anyone goes off on the Apple Mac tangent, I figured he would be into a MAC too but he says the software he uses only works with WIN7 so that is what he wants. He's alot like me in that aspect, once he makes up his mind, it's set in stone. :biggrin:

Anyways, I have been looking on ebay and seeing the items he's listed as well as bigger and better items. I know he's working with a small budget for a 14yr old which is why I offered to help and see if I couldn't get him a better PC for the same budget. He's set a budget of $1000.

Here's the list he's sent me so far;

power supply: Corsair cx 430 power supply
Ram: 2 packs of corsair vengeance blue 8 gb (16gb ram)
gpu: gigabyte's GeForce NVidia GTX 650
cpu: intel core i5 3470: quad core 3.2 ghz
mother board: msi b75ma-p45 (this is a great mother board)
Case: cooler master haf 912 mid tower atx case
hard drive: western digital caviar blue 500gb

things like the case and the hard rive don't matter to much. but the gpu must be the one shown above. and the cpu must be strong enough so I can get full power out of the gpu. I can't have any lese then 16gb of ram.
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I know there's a handful of IT guys on here and hopefully some guys who know something about rendering that can chime in and offer advice.

Thanks in advance.
 
S

SJ 701X

Location
In a hole
Get a 660 or see if you can get a 580 for a more reasonable price. Also, get a bigger power supply and I like them modular. The gpu difference won't matter. They both have cuda and tesselation capabilities. I'll look up prices for you. You also need CD dives, fans, etc.

Sent from GS3 Synergy
 
OCD Solutions

OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
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Rentz, GA
Thank you very much. I'll find out what software package he wants to run and get back to you.

I was shopping his list last night but I don't know if his component list is based on specific need or because if fits his budget. The 650 you mentioned is a perfect example; I found a 680 for about $20 more but who knows, the 650 might be the rockstar for rendering. :dunno:

I am going to give him a call today and talk thru some of his choices and get a better feel for which components are open to upgrade. He is in Canada on the west coast with the rest of my family. I have always lived and worked far away from my family so this will be a good chance to connect with my nephew and get to know him better. I'm told he is just like me in so many ways so it should be interesting.
 
SuperN8

SuperN8

Location
MI
I don’t know what kind of rendering a 14 year old could be working on but power to him!! That’s awesome! I agree with SJ 701X and bump up the power supply and don’t forget to add a CD/DVD Drive. Also the case should include cooling fans but adding designated CPU cooler is always a good idea. My only advice would be to fill the mother board with the most ram possible; in the list I am pretty sure the board listed will take 32gigs so give it what it can handle, ram is relatively cheap. I would also get rid of the one 500gig hard drive and swap for a 80gig SSD, to support the OS and other software, and at least one 1tb hard drive to store the files, 3D rendering and other media files can take up lots of space. And although it’s on the pricier side I would stray away from the NVidia GTX 650 and look into something like the FirePro V5900. The GTX 650 would be a great gaming GPU however the FirePro V5900 is designed for working with visual effects and modeling.
 
b.lee

b.lee

Team Cheeseburger
Location
Lapeer County, MI
SuperN8 said:
I don’t know what kind of rendering a 14 year old could be working on but power to him!! That’s awesome! I agree with SJ 701X and bump up the power supply and don’t forget to add a CD/DVD Drive. Also the case should include cooling fans but adding designated CPU cooler is always a good idea. My only advice would be to fill the mother board with the most ram possible; in the list I am pretty sure the board listed will take 32gigs so give it what it can handle, ram is relatively cheap. I would also get rid of the one 500gig hard drive and swap for a 80gig SSD, to support the OS and other software, and at least one 1tb hard drive to store the files, 3D rendering and other media files can take up lots of space. And although it’s on the pricier side I would stray away from the NVidia GTX 650 and look into something like the FirePro V5900. The GTX 650 would be a great gaming GPU however the FirePro V5900 is designed for working with visual effects and modeling.
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X2 on the SSD drive... I would set it up as a "Scratch drive" for the software itself, it will speed the rendering up a ton.
SSD drives do have a relatively short lifespan so you don't want to store any important data on it.

X2 on maxing out the memory

X2 on the FirePro V5900 ... we just purchased a FirePro W7000 for an autocad station, its going to be sweet... (triangle rate of 1.85 billion triangles per second)
The NVidia is more of a gaming card as mentioned above...
 
N3vrSat1sfied

N3vrSat1sfied

Military Member
Location
Fort Worth, TX
Boyer, talking with my cousin at work today. This is his recommendation:
get at least a 600 watt power supply $70, and like sj 701 said the 580 or 660 gpu, The 580 is actually a faster/better card than the 660 but harder to find.

Heres is recommendation

power supply: Corsair cx 600 power supply $69
Ram: 2 packs of corsair vengeance blue 8 gb (16gb ram) $135
gpu: gtx 660 super clocked $205
cpu: intel core i5 3570k $220
mother board: msi b75ma-p45 (this is a budget mother board) $65
Case: cooler master haf 912 mid tower atx case $60
hard drive: western digital caviar blue 500gb 720 rpm $60
optical drive: $15

total $830

recommended to add solid state drive samsung 840 120gb $99 or a 64gb as an operation sytem drive for $80

total $929
assuming he has fans, etc.
 
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MADMAT

MADMAT

Location
Ohio
As many INTEL cores as you can afford (they CRUSH AMD at this editing), as much RAM as you can afford, and the biggest SSD you can afford. Everything else is easy. I would noy build a system on EBAY.....no way! Newegg only...1 point of accountability...and the prices can't really be touched.

When you are ready and if you need me to I can put together a shopping cart and email it to you. I say when you are ready because countless customers want build specs and the stuff changes so fast that if you are not ready to buy it is a waste of time.

SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD!!!
 
SuperN8

SuperN8

Location
MI
MADMAT said:
... and the biggest SSD you can afford.
SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD!!!
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Hey Madmat, why buy the biggest SSD possible?
Right now they are pricey as compared to standard disk drives. I don't see why you would need anything larger than 80gigs. Especially since SSD do have a relatively short life span and if you can reduce the amount of I/Os from that drive then the lifespan is dramatically increased. That’s what makes them so great for running the OS from while you write to the standard disk drives.
 
OCD Solutions

OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
Location
Rentz, GA
SuperN8 said:
I don’t know what kind of rendering a 14 year old could be working on but power to him!! That’s awesome!
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Well, my Sister is a full time artist so he was born and raised in a very creative world. He has been showing and selling his art at her gallery for years now and even gets in on some of her bigger studio tours. They always switch up medias and are always learning new methods so rendering is just another artistic media.

EDIT: He is currently using 3D animation software called Blender.
http://www.blender.org/

This was one of his first renderings;

Masons Creature.jpg

And this is one of the last assignments he did for school.

Masons Render 001.jpg
 
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Mdavies_02

Mdavies_02

Location
Stouffville, Ontario
SuperN8 said:
Have you experienced any problems with the added heat from overclocking? Did you take precautions to keep the temps down? Just curious.
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Water cooler,

3 120mm Fans
1 210mm Fan

She sits pretty at 40* for standard use, 59* peak for the small gaming I do.

Corsair 500R Tower helps, has a decent amount of volume.

If I get into some heavier stuff I plan to upgrade to 8 140mm H.O Fans.
 
MADMAT

MADMAT

Location
Ohio
No one needs a ssd...but man once you have one you can't go back. I work on a lot of machines and I can feel all these dang spinning hard drives right away.
 
MADMAT

MADMAT

Location
Ohio
Oh and for some reason I got it in my head we were talking editing HD video here....that is why I said get the biggest you can afford. Also AMD will be fine....Intel is just much better at video editing for some reason but you pay for it.

But for that stuff just go with a 64GB SSD...that is what I run with Windows 7, Office, and BF3 on it...

I went with the 8 core (not really 8 cores) AMD and 8GB of RAM for my own machine. I'll spend as much as customers want though...for them....I have 2200 machines in Northern Ohio.
 
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