bilbo

Hi all,

First, let me introduce myself. I'm Bill (I chose bilbo because someone apparently already has Bill as a login name) and I've been visiting CGarchitect since its inception. However, it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I started viewing the forum pages(!). I've found them so helpful that I decided to register. Anyway...

After reading the Cinema4D forum, I've decided to go for it and buy the (student) package. Now I need some advice on what hardware setup to get.

1. Packages like Maya, XSI, etc have 'certified' graphics cards. I didn't see anything like that on Cinema4Ds website. Does anyone here run it on a 'comsumer' grade card? If so, any comments?

2. How optimized is it for dual processors? I've read Greg's comments about VIZ/MAX being biased towards being single-threaded. What about Cinema4D?

3. 2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, dual channel DDR400 P4 or dual AMD2400+? From my limited understanding of hardware, it seems like the P4 should be (a lot?) faster than the dual AMDs for interactive stuff like modeling but the 2400+s should render about 40-50% faster. Is this correct?

4. I think I read somewhere, possibly Anandtech, that running dual XPs on Tyan's dual AMD boards was not only possible, but just as stable and reliable. Is this true? Anyone with firsthand experience with this?

5. How much of a real-world difference does using dual channel DDR400 make versus 'single' DDR400 (assuming you're using the same computer, MB, RAM, etc)?

Phew, sorry for the long post. I have more questions, but I think I'll leave at that for now.

Thanks

Frosty

Hi Bill. I'll try to answer as many of your questions as I can.
1) Cinema does not require a "certified" card. I use a GF4 T1 4400 just fine. Obviously higher end card like the Fire and Quardro series will perform much better.
2) Cinema LOOOOVES SMP. I believe it can handle up to 16 CPUs per box. However, this only applies to rendering. Use of Mocha, Pyrocluster and TP rely heavily on CPU speed. To some it up two slower CPUs will render more quickly than one faster chip. One fast chip will run the GUI more smoothly than two slower CPUs.
3) You are about right on the money.
4) This makes me a lil leary. I think that was possible with the older chips but nothing new. I think AMD altered the chips so that they could no longer work in SMP. There was another thread here recently about the Asus board being able to handle the newer Athlon MPs (2600 and 2800).
5) I really dont have any idea

Hopefully some of the more tech savy dudes can chirp up and correct whatever errors I made and help inform your decision. If you really want the Tyan board though I have a lead for you here in Winnipeg.

__________________
Steve Shaw, M.Arch
www.crucialperception.com

bigcahunak

Not so much of errors but...
All AMD XPs (based on TBred core) will run in dual mobos, BUT only is you mod their L5 bridge on the CPU itself. It has to be done with a conductive pen. Its not as complicated as unlocking the L1 bridge - multiplier, but still it ain't exactly the typical task when putting a rig together... needless to say it will void your warranty.

The single P4 advantage in non-rendering tasks would be minor, while the dual advantage in renderings and multi tasking would be a sinificant one. And, as Greg said before "the feeling of the dual is adictive..." and I'd definitely go with it.

Try to push for a dual Xeon though.

Oh, 5... the dual channel DDR has advantages mainly in benchmarks, hardly in real day to day jobs.