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Upgrade workstation time!…Advice For Cinema 4d
Hi Everyone,
It’s time to upgrade my workstation and I was hoping for some lovely advice! We have 8 core intel macs and I’m jealous of how fast they render things, net render loves them though! I am a loyal PC user, so PC all the way here!Current machine:
Windows 32-bit
core 2 duo 6600 @ 2.40Ghz
4gb RamSoftware (In order of likely usage – most heavily used at top):
Cinema 4d 10.5 (Using Vray 1.082 / dynamics / particles on a regular basis)
Cinema 4d 10.5 Net Render/Server (With Vray etc)
After Effects CS3 (All well known plugins)
Boujou 4.0
Small amount of editing in HD
Photoshop etc
Quicktime
Dreamweaver
FlashType of projects:
30 second to 5 minute motion graphic pieces – increasingly rendered in 1920×1080 HD for tv.Few Questions:
What would people recommend?
Should I go Vista 64-bit so I can have more than 4gb Ram?
What software from my list is likely to have issues on 64bit?
What type of processor? 8+ cores would be nice but i’m not sure which intel to go for. I’m all a bit confused with cores and quad and duo’s!
Any particular graphics card?
Where is best to go to have a machine like this built on the web?In terms of budget…tricky one as I’m not paying but lets say £2-4k. I Don’t need monitors.
Any advice would be most appreciated! Thanks guys.
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3 Replies
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My advice would be to get a Mac Pro and run XP 64 on it through boot camp. You can also load XP 32 and have the option to boot into either variety of Windows or OSX for ultimate flexibility. As far as graphics cards go, Cinema doesn’t benefit from high end adapters, so get a mid-level nVidia or ATI card. As a general rule nVidia has better drivers but things change so frequently in the vid card area — I can’t really say what’s the best choice at the moment.
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Thanks Adam,
Quick question…
How reliable is boot camp for running the software in my list? I need it to be ultra reliable for long vray renders.
Sounds like a great idea though…i have read about boot camp but just assumed (probably wrongly) it would be full of glitches and not take advantage of all the machines power, especially for high end HD graphics.
Just for the sake of a fully rounded opinion…has anyone else got any thoughts, or opinions about bout camp?
Many thanks.
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Through Boot Camp Windows runs exactly the same way that it would on a purpose-built PC. It’s not a virtual machine but a native install just like any other PC — no reduction in performance whatsoever. I’ve been using it for over a year on a quad-core Mac Pro 3 Ghz with no issues running C4D, AE, PS, Rhino, etc., etc. It’s actually the best PC I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned and built quite a few. 🙂
Under the original Boot Camp you couldn’t access more than 2 gigs of RAM under Windows, but I understand that that limitation has been removed with Leopard and the new version of Boot Camp.
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