Dual processor PC advice

[grant_PD]

I'll be making the move soon to a dual processor PC to get into some hefty renderings and animations. Can anyone give me some advice about what to look for when getting these machines?

Is there a manufactor that sells one right out of the box, or should I build custom?

I know the G5's are good but I'm windows based so they're out of the question.

[alanmac]

Take a look over on the cgtalk.com website and do a search. Search in the "Hardware" section where a lot of this is talked about and should start you in the right direction. As I'm sure you are aware technology is ever changing and at a fast pace.

The majority of CAD work undertaken does not require this level of number crunching but as you say you are going into hefty rendering and animation and thats an area which makes heavy demands on a machine.

Depending on the programs you use some manufacturers have tested their machines with certain programs and give system recommendations based on these.

If you go the self build route then the help and advice on sites such as cgtalk. com and others will prove invaluable.

Looking at your web site may I suggest you look also into the Vectorworks/Cinema 4D combination. Don't know what you are currently using. Whilst Renderworks offers excellent results I think the area you work in may require the greater capabilities of Cinema and with the dedicated plug in you can update your Vectorworks file and then in turn update your Cinema one without loss of work.

If you have several machines you can share the animation rendering task over these and save many hours of machine time. You'll need the software to achieve this, available in most programs including Cinema.

Good luck and happy shopping.

Alan

[islandmon]

Apple now offers Xgrid 'free' to developers. This little gem allows for unlimited parallel processors via enet ! It provides for instant super-computer processing of non-serial commands. The published results are staggering. How about trillions +++ of instructions per sec ! And it's a snap to set-up . 1) Ident the server 2) declare the clients. 3) Go for it

Xgrid essentially terminates the need to have multi- processors in one box. Every thing with a processor can now be linked including the Treo.