Mac user gettin a PC...help!

[jrd]

so i'm in the mac world and my office is looking into getting me a PC station for Lightwave. i haven't a clue as to what's best for the money. here is what our IT person (also a mac guy, which is a little scary) has come up with....

Dell PWS 650 running Windows XP Pro
Dual Xeon 3.02
3Dlabs Wildcard 4 7110 (256mb)
1GB ram
120 and 80 GB drives
2 monitors........ etc. etc.

about $8500, not my money.

any suggestions, things i need, things i don't..... ? help, please. like i said, i'm from the mac world and don't know what's best or a waste of money on this end.

thanks,

[js33]

Sounds pretty nice.
Like you said it's not your money so don't sweat it.
It's not that you don't need any of that.
It's expensive because it is the top of the line bleeding edge at the moment. I've heard Dell support is pretty good but have never owned one. You could probably get the same machine for
about half that if you built it yourself. One thing you could change and not notice the difference with LW is the graphics card.
A GeForce 4 Ti 4600 will probably get you the same performance
as the Wildcat in LW. Although I don't know if that would save you much.

Just go for it if you want to get some work done.

Cheers,
JS

[Matt]

sounds like an absolutely rocking system to me!!!

dual 3Ghz is damn fast, I wish I had that!!!!

we have Dell Dual 650 (2.4Ghz) machines here and they kick ***!

the 3DLabs Wildcat would kick the crap out of the nVidia Ti4600, sorry js33, but the Ti4600 is a good card, but it's a high-end gaming card, not a pro-3D card like the Wildcat.

Dell systems are pretty reliable, never had to use their support as nothing has gone wrong with mine, but I hear they're held in high regard.

trust me, that is a very good system!!!

on the monitor front go for the Dell UltraSharp flat screens (using DVI) I'm working on the 19" UltraSharp now and I can see every pixel!

Matt

[kenmac]

Congrats.

[stnage]

I got Dell 650 dual with SCIS HD. only 32MB graphic card.
It is very nice. I use Mac at work and have several at home.
Lightwave will be nice on your new Dell.
I will get 3Dlabs VP970 some point, yet so far I love my Dell...not as much as MAC.

Make sure you get flat panel. If company pay $8000 for system, you deserve 22" flat panel.

Good luck

[js33]

Originally posted by Matt
the 3DLabs Wildcat would kick the crap out of the nVidia Ti4600, sorry js33, but the Ti4600 is a good card, but it's a high-end gaming card, not a pro-3D card like the Wildcat.



Well he asked where he could cut back and that was the only thing I saw. Honestly how much difference does a Wildcat make in LW over a Geforce 4 Ti4600? Yeah I know its called a gaming card but 90% of LW users probably use one.

Cheers,
JS

[mattclary]

If available, I think the Wildcat VP 970 is cheaper than the Wildcat 4. I have one and like it a lot.

[jrd]

thanks everyone for the input. it seems that i may be able to cut back the graphic card and save ~1000.
my choices are:

nVidia Quadro 4 900 XGL ( -$1200)
ATI FIRE GL X1 (-$1200)
nVidia Quadro FX 1000 ( -$799)
nvidia Guadro FX 500 (-1550)

these are all 128Mb cards.
anyone have any thoughts on these cards vs. the 3Dlabs Wildcat 4. i know the Wildcat will kick a**, but do i need to kick that much arsh for the extra cost.

thanks again!

[Matt]

js33 - I know, but if they're willing to buy him that card, go for it I'd say!!!

I have a Quadro 4 900XGL, pretty quick.

Having said all that, js33 does have a point about not noticing the difference in LW.

But the reason is because LW doesn't really make FULL use of OpenGL (compared to other 3D software I'm using - SolidWorks) if it did you'd notice a HUGE difference!

[js33]

Yeah hopefully that will change in LW8.
So maybe you better go for the Wildcat in case. :D

Cheers,
JS

[Wade]

Do shift some of your money into ram if you will be rendering much. Give each processor a gig and a half or more.


Wade

[Beamtracer]

There is no longer any reason to jump to Microsoft Windows in order to do 3D.

[mattclary]

...as long as you don't mind waiting until Septemeber and you can run the benchmarks yourself AFTER you laid out $2000 - $3000.

[Beamtracer]

As you probably saw on the Mac forums here, Brad Peebler displayed the new Luxology 3D rendering app running at twice the speed on a G5 as it did on a Xeon.

But... buy a Dell if you want to.

[jrd]

beamtracer,

fancy seeing you over here on the PC board. i must admit after monday i think i will sit tight and wait for some REAL WORLD benchmarks between the G5 and the Xeon. i don't trust the benchs as apple presented them, as a lot of people over on the MAC board have pointed out.... i can wait a few months and see how it pans out.........

[mattclary]

I'd like to see Brad run the same render on an Opteron.

[Rory_L]

This is a choose your own Dell components site. I plugged in the top of the range specs and it still came out dirt cheap. Ask Dell for the English language site mirror. Might be worth it, eh!

Three of my colleagues, including the graphics boss have just ordered Dells from this site for personal use. Another`s had his for a while and says it`s great.

http://jpstore.dell.com/store/newstore/dhs/masterNormal.asp?iConfigID=1&iSeg
ID=1&c_SegmName=DHS&c_ConfigType=Normal&BrandId=4310&FamilyId=3

Cheers,

R

[policarpo]

I'd also look at BOXX too(http://www.BOXXtech.com)

Go look @ Boxx....i just configured a sweet machine for $4,162.00 , with 2GB RAM, 120GB HD, and a Quadro4 580...