atj-w

Hi everyone, I need some advice for a workstation purchase. I am in the process of buying 3 workstations for a new start-up company, the setup will be based on the Xeon 5100 woodcrest Duo CPU. Video card will either be the Quadro 3500 or 4500.

My question is, should I get the 32bit or 64bit Winxp Pro operating system?

We will be starting a project immediately and will be running 3ds max 8 and possibly Vray(yet to be decided). I understand that 3ds max 9 is 64bit but will only be available in Oct.

We have to start almost immediately so it will have to be 3ds Max 8 and Vray, will it run on Winxp Pro 64bit? Or should I get the 32bit version first and upgrade later?

Please advice as I need to confirm the workstation order within these two days..

Thanks
James

arnold@asylumstudio.co.za

studio max 8 runs on 64 bit. I would have gone with AMD dual core instead of Xeon, much faster and more stable, but that is just my opinion...

atj-w

Thanks Arnold, yes I have read the Opterons have been trashing the Xeons, but the Xeon I am getting is the latest "Woodcrest" 5160 version.

There is already a rendering comparison benchmark here which show that the "Woodcrest" versions are faster.

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_cont...eon5160&page=6

Btw, does Vray run 'well' in 64bit Winxp Pro ?

Thanks again,
James

Geoffc

First off, you are correct in ordering the 5160's right now, I just did myself. Perhaps the Opterons might catch up with the next release, but these new Woodcrests are the fastest rockets around.


Go ahead and order the win64 bit version. Not only will max 8 work with it, but max 9 will be streamlined for it and according to the vray developers, they will release a 64bit version to coincide with the max 9 release.

I haven't yet received the workstation that I ordered, but it will be the exact situation as described above. I'm 98% sure that the current release of vray will work with it, it just won't be optimized for 64 bit yet, so should run about the same speed as regular Winxp for now.


The only caveat that I've heard regarding the Win64 system, is the lack of drivers for some hardware and peripherals. But my belief is that if you are truely ordering workstations, not 'home' or handbuilt pc's, you should have no problem, especially with the standard Quadro's.

atj-w

Hi Geoffc, we are getting the complete systems from HP, I could have built them myself but I told the company that it wouldn't be "certified" like what HP would "promised".

It would be a waste of time in the middle of a project trying to figure out "BSODs"..

As for Max and Vray, can't help wondering if there would be "areas" in the coding that the 32bit emulator can't translate..

Cheers,
James

ShaunDon

I'm running max 8 and v-ray on XP x64 without any issues, minus some minor driver hiccups for a few peripherals. The new V-Ray 1.5 is fully 64-bit, and Autodesk promises that max 9 (sometime in Nov., I assume) will also be 64. I just can't wait!

Shaun

__________________
Shaun Donnelly
TANGRAM 3DS

DavidR

We run Win Server 2003-64 with Max7 and Vray on our renderfarm, and it works fine. Don't be put off by HP's "not certified" thing; it just means they haven't tested it enough themselves, nor have the app vendors, but in practice, it works (our Renderfarm is all HP blades). There are caveats: some of your peripherals might not have (or ever get) 64-bit drivers; these include printers, colour calibration 'spiders', scanners, etc. Check for drivers for things you won't be replacing. You can still dual-boot 32/64, or better, have a 2nd machine for basic stuff. I'm looking forward to making the jump soon, too