Elliot

Itzik,

Thanks.... Solidworks requires a powerfull machine. It has its own rendering software. It is for mechanical 3D Modeling.

Yes about Discreet and all those guys. I know some of them on a personal level and they are good guys. However, they have business bosses to respond too. These guys (developers) are frustrated as we are... I guess it is the business environment that makes them behave in that manner.

Now, about the computer. Are you suggesting I get rid of the case..... The case alone is almost $600.00. Yesterday I visited a local guy and he showed to me the size of these Xeons. They are different and require a different case. The local guys has designed a special plate to mount between the motherboard and the aluminum case.

One of the Xeon guys I called in California said that he has given up on standard cases and will only use the special cases for the new Xeons. Another guys insisted the power supply of 645 watts is just too much power. He thinks a 550 watts will do it. Between the Power Supply and the case there is almost a $900.00 difference. Then the next big reduction comes out of the video card. The local guys suggest we use the Quadro 1300 (PCI Express). That is a difference of about 600.00.

When you add these two items there is a difference of $1,400.00. However, should I be concerned at the cooling and it's respective noise? The Supermicro case is supposed to be a little bit more quiet, but some of the reviews I have read they claim the opposit. If I go down to 3.4ghz then there is another $600.00 and then difference becomes 2K. Everytime I do these machines I want to buy as much as possible so they will last longer. This time I think I will be just throwing money away.

There is a 2,000.00 quiet case with no fans. It is a a motherboard attached to a giant heatsink with air circulation. The processors are also some how connected to the heat sink. Supposedly it is approved by Intel. This case comes from a Taiwan shop in California. I don't know much it cost.

I agree with you about the rendering and the light testing. Lately I have not been involved in 3D that much. But on this end the 3D comes in cycles. Sometimes I go for a month or two and then I get a lot of things to do. Those are the times that I get mad for not having up-graded. I do a lot of photoshop. I am doing all the brochures for our company as well as the video presentations. I have been also doing QTVR's to show the clients the before and after. These QTVR programs also do rendering and they are power hungry.

I feel like you.... Do it the right way.... but in a cost effective manner!!

Thanks for your time in getting back to me. I am not up with the technology anymore and all these things require research to make the correct decisions.


Thanks
Elliot

__________________
Elliot