[acquiesse]

Hey everyone,

I'm an Architecture student looking to buy a system and the priority is the lowest render times. My budget is around £1200 and an XPC would give some useful portability. The main difference seems to be in the CPU, I've been trying to decide between the AMD and Pentium and am having difficulty working out which to go for.

The benchmark websites give some results against Studio MAX etc. but as different programs use processors in different ways; using hyperthreading or not, using 64 bit or not etc. it isn't easy to work out the most appropriate.

I was hoping someone could point me towards a benchmark which would be most relevant to Maxwell and a website which is reliable. If not any user experience would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone

Mark

[acquiesse]

Thanks everyone, its pretty interesting!

The systems I can afford seem to be either an AMD 64 +4000 or a Pentium 560 3.6.
I had a look on the forums and couldn't find anything which related specifically to them and it gets quite complicated comparing similar processors.
I presume a Xeon is faster than the 560? Even though they both have the same FSB?
Do 2 x AMD 2000 = AMD 4000? I've got an old AMD 2000, but would have presumed that they can get more power out of them now...


As I am comparing CPU's on price it isn't really fair to compare a 3.2 AMD with a 3.2 Pentium, especially when it might be a 660, rather than 560... Then there is the question of whether a 925XE chipset will improve things?!

I think i'll just toss a coin!

I'll have a gig of RAM which seems enough for the 3D and photoshopping. I haven't noticed much difference between the old SD 133, and the DDR 333, I'll be interested to see if the 533 RAM helps...

The graphics card is likely to be an ATI X800 or 6800 Ultra.

The comment about being able to render Architectural models isn't really relavent... If you gain time you can up the quality and image/animation size... I'll be using my current PC to put presentations together while the new one runs animations...

Thanks for the help

[acquiesse]

Just to bring this to a close....

having read far to many discussions and reviews... the conclusion i came to with processor power at the moment, is that amd are cheaper, faster and kick the ass of pentium's at everything...

except for rendering and photoshop! D'oh

with regard to the system i have brought, it became aparent with uni that i would be forced to get a laptop. i ended up with a 3.4 pentium, 1.5 gig ram, 60 gig 7200 hard drive and a 256 ati x800 graphics, all for £1250 on ebay.

i'll watch with interested as the value halfs by xmas....

mark

p.s the system is a dell 9100

p.p.s. to all the yanks.. yes i know i could have brought it cheaper in the us, but i'd have to add 17% tax, shipping and wouldn't have been able to send it back to the supplier!

[adamwade]

I've got an XPC now, runing Maxwell - P4 2.8ghz and 1GB RAM. The only problem I have had is with my ATI Fire X1 video card. It seems this card sucks more power than the little XPC can handle. It finally quit on me and the tech at Shuttle removed the safety shut off on the power supply, and it's been OK since. The ATi drivers have been a little unstable though so DONT GET AN ATi card with an XPC. Shuttle told me that they are all tested with only Nvidia cards, so go that route.

[acquiesse]

Hi,

I've brought it now, so can't really change it...

I did look at the fugitsu, but decided the 3.4 intel would give more power... The amd is the best for gaming, but intel beat it in rendering and photoshop (I can't remember all the links). The fugitsu was ok, but I believe my package is better, I have a brand name with a 3 year warrenty so feel reasonably secure.

These laptops aren't really designed to be mobile, with the desktop componants, they just let you pick it up and plug it in somewhere else... But as a pleasant suprise i found i'd been sent a second battery, so i might get 2 hours out of it! I guess I'll have to develop some arm muscles to carry it round...

Mark