Jez(UK)

First of all, Hello there everybody !

A bit of a background.

I used to be a freelancer about 5-6 years ago, back in the days of 3DS Max R4.

I used to do Office Interiors and I used to do them to quite a high standard. Problem was I used to spend a helluva lot of time tweaking an image (to very tight deadlines) to achieve this quality and subsequently burnt myself out (a couple of times in fact).

So I took a change of career (totally unrelated to CG, which involved living in another country for 5 years in fact), and now that I'm back in the UK I want to come back to doing what I know and enjoy best but this time to try to work a bit smarter and not burn so many midnight hours (and hence not burn myself out again).

I used to use Max, but I believe that now I'd be better off with Max Design (I don't need high-end animation tools, and would rather have real-life lighting simulations instead).

I have 2 oldish machines (circa 2003 and late 2005), and I want to run past you all the specs of both of them.

One of the machines, I haven't even built yet, but I have all the bits. It is;

Supermicro X6DA8-G2 (FSB 800mhz)
2 x Xeon 3800ghz (Nocona processors), SL8P2 socket 604,
8gb ram
4 x 75gb SCSI U320,
2 x 500gb IDE (Western Digitals),
PNY FX4600 (768mb) PCIe card,
No monitors yet (should I get 1 large one or 2 x 21" ??)
1000w Enermax Galaxy
Lian-Li A70B.

XP Pro 32 or 64 bit or Vista ??

As I said, this machine is (as far as the MB, Ram, Processors are concerned) is a september 2005 machine, so it's about 3 years old.

The other machine is about 5 years old (Socket 604, 3.2ghz, 2gb ram, Raid0 400gb IDE, AGP 8X etc), and I envisage using it as a slave to help with renders.

Can't remember how big my scenes would get but I think they were anywhere from 300,000faces to upto 800,000+

Would these machines be powerful enough to run 3DS Max Design 2009 ??

I'm only out to do Still Image Renders (A1 is the largest I'd go) and my clients would still be Architects, Interior Designers, Office Furniture Manufacturers etc.

Finally, as I'm rusty on using the software, so I'd need to look at training for 3DS Max DESIGN. Can anyone point me in the right direction for Self Training using this software (as I'd rather learn at my own pace rather than expensive 1-to-1 training). Are there on-line training for 3DS Max Design, or books, DVDs etc that can be recommended ??

Many thanks,

Jez

Jez(UK)

I forgot to mention that I do have access also to a QuadCore machine (Q6600, 2.4gz XP Pro with 4gb ram) machine which could also help with rendering.

Spooner04

there's not really much difference between max and max design. both are capable of "real life lighting simulations". Max design has some tools to display how much light is hitting a surface. You'll have to look for some screen shots for examples. The max design thing is really just a marketing thing to try to get architects into max. Pick up whichever you want, but just trying to help clarify.

As far as your machines go, the dual Xeon seems like it will work fine. You might want to look at upgrading it though after you have some cash flow. The socket 604 sounds like a bit of a door stop at this point. I would at least get 4 gigs of ram in there before giving it a go. I don't think it has much life left in it.

Gander0

One big screen all the way! I recently upgraded from two and will never go back.

Jez(UK)

Thanks Gander,

What size screen would you recommend ?

In fact what screen would you recommend ?!

Thanks,

Jez

SandmanNinja

I can see the advantage of having a single, HUGE, screen, but I have dual 22" screens and love it.

In fact, when I use someone else's machine, I feel lost without a 2nd screen.

It's great to click the MAXIMISE button on 3ds and still have a another screen for ref images, tutorials, a quick look for materials, etc. And yes, I know you can do that on a single huge screen, but it's just what I'm comfortable with.

__________________
-SandmanNinja
website

chuck

Wouldn't a Q6600 smoke those Xeons? I had a dual 3.4 xeon rig (800mhz fsb) and my Q6600 (not OC'd) destroys it. A new mobo and chip would be worth the money, and they overclock well. I like having the speed on my main computer, even though I have access to others as well.

8gb of RAM on a 32bit system is a waste...Windows can't use more than 4.

Have you looked into Vray? Well worth the money...good balance of speed and quality. I'd like to go 64bit myself, since I'll hit memory limits when dealing with big scenes. You should use the 3gb switch at a minimum if you stick with 32bit.

At work I have 2 19" screens, which is handy for multitasking...but my 24 at home is great too. Dual 22's sounds just about perfect.

Welcome back...

Chuck

Gander0

Jez

Ive got a 24 inch screen as my desk space isnt massive. I think you can get reasonably priced 27 inch screens though.

One of the dell 27inch screens has got a stack of good reviews recently:

Think it might be this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-028-DE&groupid=703&catid=17&subcat=1120&name=Dell%20Ul trasharp%202709W%2027"%20Widescreen%20LCD%20Monito r%20-%20Midnight%20Grey

Jez(UK)

Hi Chuck and others,

Chuck, that was exactly the type of reply I was hoping for, thanks!

Yeah, maybe the Q6600 would smoke it, I don't know. There used to be a Benchmark site re 3DS Max and processors and render times, hopefully it still exists and I can find it. No doubt I can run tests myself when I'm set up to do it.

Having read your post, I took a look at upgrade costs and noted that it'd cost around £1000 to upgrade one of my old machines to a dual quad core xeon (2.5ghz) with 8gb ram on a supermicro X7DWA-N board. That mobo would give me great upgrade-ability further down the line as well.

Not sure I agree with the comment that there isn't much difference between 3DS Max and 3DS Max Design. Design certainly has more in it from the lighting point of view (esp. for Architects, Interior Designers) and less in it regarding the animation point of view (a lot of which I never used anyway). But I'll take another look.

And I'll also find out more about VRay as well.

Finally, I'm not sure how big to go with dual screens - I'm currently using a 24" screen to type this in (it's not my machine) and I find 1 x 24" widescreen to be kinda too wide !! it's like a trade off between what how much you can see and how far your mouse needs to travel to get from one side of the screen to the other !

Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I tend to prefer non-ws monitors - that'd make dual monitors much more confortable in my opinion.

At this stage I could go for any sized screens but I think dual 22" would be ideal. Any bigger (in dual screen) and you'd then be needing to turn your head from side to side to look from one screen edge to the furthest edge of the 2nd screen.

Regards,

Jez

P.S. Thanks for the link Gander - I do buy bits and pieces from Overclockers, but usually try my hardest to keep away from Dell kit - maybe on this occasion I may be tempted (maybe 1 big screen could be the way to go after all ! I'm confused !)

Gander0

I know what you mean about dell, but I think those monitors look great. Your best bet is to try and track down some reviews. Computer Arts and CG World do comparisons from time to time.

Maybe one big screen isnt good for you, but i used to span my two and the space in the middle drove me up the wall. Max is fine with two as i could split the viewports, but for post work in photoshop or any moving image application its great to be able to see things in one full screen.

Oh yeah and then there is the two screen calibration issues!