Computer Specs?!? For Rendering...

[Clifton]

Hey All,
My work (a high school in Tasmania) is looking at purchasing a new computer for RENDERING lightwave projects that the Graphic Design students have made. I have been searching on the internet for information regarding rendering computers and have been able to come up with nothing of any help. Basically my problem is that we would like a really good rendering machine but I am unsure as to what parts of the computer I should “beef” up. If you could let me know which of the following would make the most difference it would be greatly appreciated…

PROCESSOR: Would it be better to use a Pentium 4 processor or an Athlon XP?

RAM (DDR): Should we use DDR333 (PC 2700) or DDR400 (PC 3200)?

HDD SPEED: Is a 7200RPM hdd fast enough or should we consider SCSI?

FSB SPEED: Is this that bigger issue when it comes to rendering?

GRAPHICS CARD: Would something like a S-Media ATI Radeon 7500 64MB DDR be good enough? Would a better graphics card make much of a difference anyway?

What are the best specifications of a Windows XP based computer that will be used for rendering?

Please let me know as we are really in need of a computer that will render faster… or current ones take upto 4 days for some projects.

Thanks very much for any help / support that you can give.

Clifton. :(

[CoryC]

If these computers are going to be used only for rendering, the most important thing is the CPU.

For processor - Pentiums run Lightwave a bit faster but Athlons are cheaper.

RAM - If you are running complex scenes get more RAM 1-2GB. You won't see any big differences between 2700 and 3200.

FSB Speed - You also won't see big differences in rendering times between 533 and 800 FSB.

HDD - A 7200RPM HD will do fine. Get lots of space. You can never have too much.

Graphics Card - Doesn't matter too much for a render box. Pick up a cheap Nvidia MX card.

For the budget of one hi-performance machine you could put together a couple lower performance render boxes and end up better off. A quick guess-timate says each box could be had for under $1000US.