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crystalcrow
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3D Solid Modelling Components

Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:17 am

Hey guys...this is my first post. I am interested in building my own computer. The main purpose of this computer will be 3D Solid Modelling software such as Catia, Solid Works, Inventor and AutoCad, with some gaming as well such as Doom3, etc... . I'm wondering if anyone could help me out with picking some components, stuff like AMD Athlon 64 vs. P4 3.0 or the Video Card choices like, AGP 8X vs. PCI Express, ATI Radeon X600 Pro vs. the NVIDIA GForce 6600.

This is what I've speced out
AMD Athlon 64 2800
MotherBoard (can't remember, I'm at work right now info is at home)
1GB Dual Channel DDR
NVIDIA GForce 6600 (not GT) PCI Express 256 MB

Can anyone help me out, does look like a good system bang for buck. I do not want to spend alot of money (approx $1000 CDN for whole system w/o monitor).
Thanks
 
steelcity_ballin
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:23 am

Well for 1000 CAN you've got what, 822 USD give or take rounding. So for that You can build a much snappier systems me thinks. For rendering intense things, encoding, and the like I find pentium to be a better performer. Im not sure how that has change since dual core introduction from both sides but perhaps you'd look into a cheaper dual core solution with lots of ram as I know those programs LOVE ram.
 
Usacomp2k3
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:28 am

Moved to System Builders anonymous.

Anyways, if you look at the $750 recommended system, I think you could take that, and trade out the 6600gt for a 6600 and get an extra gig of RAM. That's a good start at least.
 
crystalcrow
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:37 am

I like that system...if it comes with the 6600 GT then i'll keep it. When I was piecing my computer together the 6600 GT was more expensive then the 6600. What does bug me though is the 512kb cache memory of the AMD 64's, I would like 1MB like the P4's, how important is this for my application? Also, how important is the front bus speed as compared to the processor speed for my application?
 
crystalcrow
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:40 am

I like that system...if it comes with the 6600 GT then i'll keep it. When I was piecing my computer together the 6600 GT was more expensive then the 6600. What does bug me though is the 512kb cache memory of the AMD 64's, I would like 1MB like the P4's, how important is this for my application? Also, how important is the front bus speed as compared to the processor speed for my application?
 
Usacomp2k3
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:48 am

Honestly I don't know about the particular application, but I would think that system memory would be the most important thing. If you look at one of the Tech Report benchmarks for POV-RAY, the 3200 holds it's own against an Intel 3.4. Of course, each piece of software will be different, but that'll give you a general idea.
 
draksia
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:55 am

I do alot of work in Catia and Solidworks. My advice get as much ram as possible at 2 gb or more.

Also a 6600GT or 6800 is a lot more video card for money and will work better when doing 3d modeling.

I would stick with A64 because it it offers much better 64bit support which will be coming for shortly for programs like these. They also benefit greatly from 64bit especially when doing FEA.
 
crystalcrow
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:56 am

The application was 3D Solid Modelling programs like Catia and Solid Works. A friend told me to go for the faster prcessor speed vs. the front side bus speed as 3D Solid programs will require a faster internal processor speed. For some reason i'm kind of stuck on the AMD 64's though. The P4's are to expensive.
 
crystalcrow
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:07 pm

Hey thanks.....I like the sound of 2GB of memory... doesn't hurt...DDR memory ist't that expensive. Now I just need to make sure that my MOBO has 3 184DIMM slots (Just in case). What about 128MB VCard vs. 256MB VCard??
 
mac_h8r1
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:12 pm

I spent the past week at SIGGRAPH, where all the big guys in digital content creation were showing off their goods. Autodesk (3DS Max8, Combustion 4), Avid (Softimage 5/ XSI), Adobe, Eyeon (Fusion 5), NaturalMotion, Massive. Before the conference, I would have recommended Intel, but ALL of these companies used Dual-Core AMD64 and nVidia. I was shocked, to say the least, but the machines they were using were pushing some serious ammounts of data very fast. After seeing that, I fully stand behind a recommendation of AMD.
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steelcity_ballin
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:15 pm

crystalcrow wrote:
Hey thanks.....I like the sound of 2GB of memory... doesn't hurt...DDR memory ist't that expensive. Now I just need to make sure that my MOBO has 3 184DIMM slots (Just in case). What about 128MB VCard vs. 256MB VCard??


The 128 v 256 debate is mainly aimed at how much AA and AF you use versus what resolution you run. If you are doing intense CAD operations at 1600x1200 or greater, the 256 would be better. Otherwise the price premium might not be justified.
 
Flying Fox
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Tue Aug 09, 2005 1:09 pm

Question: Does Catia need certified workstation class OpenGL cards?

That could be a problem.

The P-D 820 is still cheaper than the x2 3800+. Given that budget I'm just not too sure.

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