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New Computer for Cinema4D
Okay, soon I’m going to be getting a new computer and would like to get one that will be best for what I do.
I’m a programmer, designer, and visual effects (modeling, video effects, etc) designer, as well as a hardcore gamer (Battlefield 2, America’s Army, etc).
I’m looking at getting an Alienware ALX machine, and would like to list you some difference specs for the PC I’m looking at so that you might be able to help me choose the best configuration.
Right now I have an Alienware Area 51, with an Intel Pentium 4; 3.2GHz (With HyperThreading), an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra (256 MB Card), and I have 2; 500 MB Corsair RAM modules (Total of 1024MB (1GB)).
On some of the stuff I’m rendering out in Cinema4D it takes up to 9 minutes to render one frame. I’m not using caustics, or anything too wild that would make it take very long rendering times, except for using “hard” shadows on various lights.
When I try to render out the movie with full quality (3790 Frames) it will take around 4 days, hehe 🙂
Please help me decide on one of the following machines. I want to pick the one that will be best for rendering at great speeds.
Configuration 1:
Alienware Aurora ALX
– Alienware nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard PCI Express
– AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 with HyperTransport Technology
– Windows XP Professional, with SP 2
– Dual 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX KO (SLI Enabled)
– 2GB Ultra Low Latency Corsair Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at up to 550MHz – 4 x 512MB
– 148GB RAID0 (2 x 74GB Serial ATA 10,000 RPM w/8MB Cache)Configuration 2:
Alienware Area-51 ALX
– Alienware nForce4 SLI Intel Edition Chipset Motherboard PCI Express SLI
– Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 w/ HT 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB – DUAL CORE
– Windows XP Professional, with SP 2
– Dual 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX KO – SLI Enabled
– 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz – 4 x 1024MB
– 148GB RAID0 (2 x 74GB Serial ATA 10,000 RPM w/8MB Cache)The reason for the ALX is because it is liquid cooled, and my office area stays pretty toasty :).
Thank you for your time,
Travis -
8 Replies
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Remember that the speed of the final render has nothing to do with you graphics card, its all about processor speed and ram, the only thing SLI will help you with, if it is supported by Cinema is the number or polys Cinema can display in real time.
From Simon Carlson-Thies
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I’m partial to AMD myself. BTW, when I built my PC for gaming I just took the part list like you have there and ordered it on newegg.com and had the same machine (albeit in an uglier case) for half the price.
My machine is almost identical to your first config (except with FX-55 chip) and it was only a few grand instead of like 6 or 7.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Stricly writing from teh C4d side ( you may see it differently for games)
Alienware are way overpriced.
FX processors or Pentium Extreme processors are overpriced.
Get a machine with a dualCore AMD x2 processor instead, they are much faster for rendering.
have a look at
http://www.3dfluff.com/mash/stuff.htm
for Cinebench results for a wide variety of systems, this can help you to decide.As far as I know, dual Gaphic cards won”t make a difference for C4d.
( I would also go with a 7800gt, as the Radeons don|t support Dual Planes, which are nice to have if you have very large models)I don|T think you can use 4 gigs or ram unless running Winxp64.
(3 is the limit, and for that you need to turn it on in XP). -
[moka-studio] “Get a machine with a dualCore AMD x2 processor instead, they are much faster for rendering.”
Yep, I agree.
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Well, if I was to get a Dual-Core Intel Pentium Extreme Edition Processor running at 3.20GHz, with hyper-threading that is like 4 processors.
You think that would be faster than the AMD FX-57?
And if I was to get the AMD FX-57, wouldn’t I need Windows XP 64-bit edition, as well as 64-bit applications to take advantage of the 64-bit processor?
Check this out:
https://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumXE/index.htmAnd watch the demonstration video (found on the right side panel).
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[thowle] “Well, if I was to get a Dual-Core Intel Pentium Extreme Edition Processor running at 3.20GHz, with hyper-threading that is like 4 processors.
No it’s not. It is like getting a dual core processor with hyperthreading….
the hyperthreading will give you a boost for rendering ( and for display as well most likely), but it does not equal another processor….
The speedgain is more like 20% ….
A dual core gives you ca. 85 % speedgain.
So you probably get ca. 220% speedgain compared to the equivalent single, non-multithread processor.really, have a look at Mash”s website, it will answer most of your questions regarding hardware performance for C4d.
There is a Pentium Dual Core there that scores 281/607 meaning 216% boost…[thowle]
You think that would be faster than the AMD FX-57?
Yes, a dual core will be faster than the FX57.
The FX 57 is overpriced….
It will probably give you the faster OGL display of the 2 though[thowle]
And if I was to get the AMD FX-57, wouldn’t I need Windows XP 64-bit edition, as well as 64-bit applications to take advantage of the 64-bit processor?”
Nope,. AMD64 processors ( the FX proc included) work fine with Win32 bits.
They can however support te 64 bits applications as well, if you have win64 ( but you don|t need Win64 to use these processors).
C4d64 running under win64 is I believe ca. 20-30% faster for rendering than C4d 32 on teh same machine.
However there are quite a few applications out there that are not supported in Win 64 bits yet, such as Qtime ( but tis has nothing to do with the 64bit processor, just with the operating system)
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If you were to build a dedicated render machine, then you could get the 64bit windows. Since you are looking for a workstation, and in addition a game station, stick to 32bits for the Operating system.
If you get a 64 bit achine though, you have the advantage that you can switch to the 64bitsOS at a later date. -
You really should look at getting as much ram for the computer as you can. At the moment dual core processors are about a 50% speed boost over a single processor, in fact you get more of a speed boost from two single processors running in parallel then with a single dual core.
From Simon Carlson-Thies
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hey
My name is Dieudonne Form RWANDA, Cetral africa.
I use cinema 4d v12,
i have a computer (intel duo core)1400 Gb of RAM, Graphic card nVIDIA GeForce 7200GT 254MB, rendering takes 0.83 pts.How can i encrease the capacity of this computer?
Is there RAM more than 4GB?
Can you make correspondence or cooperative with me in order to make an animation school in my country.I am able to use Cinema 4d 12 in every tool up to xpresso.
Thank you to accept my request.
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