[brodie_geers]

I would spend more on the processor up front and skimp a bit on the RAM for now if need be. I've never done the specific comparison but I suspect if you look at some of the results on benchwell.com you'll find that processor speed matters a lot more than RAM. The other reason for that is that RAM is cheap and can easily be added down the road. You don't want to load your machine with a ton of wonderful RAM and skimp on the processor and end up having to upgrade that too quickly.

-Brodie

[Bubbaloo]

If it's a render machine and it won't be used as a workstation, put your money in the processor(s). RAM will only help you render larger scenes and higher resolution.

[D_Ratty]

Hi All

Right spent some dollar and bought two new machines a new Dell Precision M6400 with Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core QX9300, 8gig ram, 1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX3700M graphics card and on windows vista, for a dat to day use.

For the render machine i have got one built follow some of the results from Benchwell spec and a overclocking website (and advice from our computer guy!) spec is, Intel iCore 920, ASUS p6T Deluxe motherboard, 8Gig RAM, ATI Radion 512 mb Graphics, Noctva NH-V12P CPU cooler, 850W PSU, 500 Gig HD and Vista 64bit. Once arrived ill run the benchwell test and try and uploads some results!

All totals around £4k so I hope it work and its worth the money!!!!

Also asking a stupid question i currently export at 1280 x 980 pixels is this to big? and if i make this smaller will i get quicker results?

Thansk

Rat

[messire]

curious to see your benchwell results to compare with my mac pro ( benchwell 1750 with 64bits mxcl)!

as for render: smaller = faster for sure...the numbers you are giving seems pretty small already...now with new machine ( and 16gb ram) i never render under 2000 pixels and its still almost too fast

N

[brodie_geers]

That size sounds small to me as well, but it depends on what you're doing with it. If it's just for computer viewing that should be fine. If you're printing it it depends a lot on what size you'll print at and what the purpose is. Here's a good article on resolution http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=4480

-Brodie

[D_Ratty]

Hi all

For those who are interested, got the new render machine today total cost £1850 +VAT took some time to get here and built!! Saying that Dell have preformed to there normal standard and although it was promised the new laptop last Wednesday it is looking like to will get here on Friday!!!

However, the machine has been overclocked to run about 30% faster, i run the benchwell test it is coming in at around 7min 45secs and is around twelth on the list so i am please! money well spent i think!! In the end we was tweeking it to save seconds to try and get it in the top ten but i had to remember comparing it to the old machine which run it in about 1hr 45mins!!!! it should save us alot of time.

Thanks everyone for all your help, if anyone wants i will get the excact make of the motherboard etc. so it can be copied i know our tech spent some time researching into the overclocking part of it all.

thanks again

David