Hardware recommendations

chango70

Just done a quick test with my new i7 Core 920 CPU desktop (2.67GHz x 4 Stock overclocked to 3.00GHz x 4) running the same VRay rendering against my T9500 2.6GHz x2 Core Duo laptop.

i7 Cores managed to finish the rendering just under 3 minutes, while the Core duo took 14 minutes. Thats almost 5x the speed!!!

It turns out the multi threading on i7 Cores gets working as 2 cpus per core making VRay run like as if I had 8 cores.

Superb results, I recommend it to anyone.

chango70

I believe that now the i7 Cores are released there is no reason other than cost to go AMD anymore. The benchmarks are amazing! The slowest i7 Core 920 is faster than the fastest last generation Quad (the QX9775)which is incredable! Plus they apparently can overclock relatively easily according to Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/). It was worth the wait. Now I am going to specify a system with the following hardware:

Intel Core i7-920 2.66Ghz
6Gb DDR3 Ram
WD velociRaptor 10000Rpm HD
Samsung 1TB Spinpoint 7200rpm HD
Asus P6T Desluxe Intel X58 Motherboard
Quadro FX 1700 Graphics Card

That should do the trick for modelling and rendering

Any improvement welcome.

remus

looks jealous

Gaieus

I have a (fairly "old") Intel Pentium 4 processor in my laptop and it's 3.8 GHz but it was from the time when multi core was still in an experimental stage and this single core processor was made to be able to perform dual threading (I think this is called "hyperthreading" in the HW world). It's really handy because in fact it is a single core (with quite high clock speed) so SU can run at high speed on it but when it comes to applications which are capable of multi threading (ie. rendering), it works as a dual core.

First I didn't know this and I was surprised to see that in the Task manager I have two CPU's displayed and when rendering with IDX Renditioner, it was apparent that two different, independent sets of rows were being processed in the image at the same time.

I am not a HW guru so I learn something new every day.

chango70

I just did the same test against my friend's 2x Xeon Quad Mac Pro found out this rig is about 25% faster. Considering his cost around £2200 and mine around £1500. I'd say I had a deal.

Gaieus, yes i heard about the Pentium 4 multi threading. I heard for some reason they axed it on the Duo Core processors. Maybe it was too good value for money?

Gaieus

I don't know. I'm just feeling lucky now

Anssi

The new i7 processor has hyperthreading again. If I understand right, it can also split a demanding task among multiple cores doing something like hyperthreading in reverse...

Anssi

caddict

For the record, I have just had to retire my 600MHz Toshiba laptop from active service.

With its 128MB memory and 11GB harddrive running Windows 2000 and with an on-board video chip, it bravely powered SU6 through many a client presentation. (Granted, the model would often break up into wireframe if view changes were too rapid)

Now that I have shifted to SU7, and SU6 cannot open models made in version 6, when I tried to install SU7 on the old girl, I was met with the fatal message "Operating System not Supported".

So there you go. Progress. Still, she had to go sometime.

Although I am thinking that I could easily revert back to SU6 without really noticing, seeing that version 7 was hardly a quantum leap.

plot-paris

well, at least now you have an excuse to buy a monster! (may I suggest something like the 18.1" screen
Acer Aspire 8920, that weighs 4.8 kg and hardly deserves the title of 'laptop'?)

caddict

I've started saving already

tomasz

@plot-paris said:

well, at least now you have an excuse to buy a monster! (may I suggest something like the 18.1" screen
Acer Aspire 8920, that weighs 4.8 kg and hardly deserves the title of 'laptop'?)

[attachment=0:3anrpjzn]acer-aspire-8920.jpg[/attachment:3anrpjzn]

I am also looking for a laptop suitable for SU. You can buy cheaper and not so heavy Acer with same or probably better graphics card. It won't be 18" screen, but who wants to carry a 5kg and/or kill a flying-by bird with a swing of a screen.

plot-paris

I do! I do!!! and as a matter of fact, I am writing this with the bespoken beast on my lap, listening to 'Air' by Johann Sebastian Bach from it's in-built 5.1 Cinematic Surround Sound speaker system (with subwoofer - in a laptop!).

(and, admittedly, my shoulders are still sore from carying it during my travel from London to the south of Germany two days ago )

Anssi

Jakob,

Does it make much noise? I have an older 17" Acer Aspire, and i am otherwise quite fond of it, but it churns away like a bulldozer (not quite but...). I envy my daughter's IMac-it has no fans at all!

Anssi

plot-paris

it definitely has a fan running, especially when running renders of course. but I think it is not too loud - and for it's monstrous size appropriate

EddyNL

Guys,

I've got this museum piece:

AMD Sempron 2400+
1,75 Ghz, 512 MB
ASUS Radeon 9600 128MB

I'm looking to buy a new desktop because I can't run any large SU models.
What's the most important issue for 3d performance like SketchUp and Kerky?

Dual core? RAM? Or the videocard?
Any suggestions?

Thanks, Ward

remus

For sketchup you want a fast clock speed (number of cores doesnt effect SU performance.) Good processors to look at are the intel core 2 duo and if your feeling up to a bit of overclocking, the intel core 2 quad. Youll also need a graphics card with decent openGL support, the quadro cards are generally pretty good for this, although a bit pricey.

For kerky you want lots of RAM and a processor with lots of cores, although youll need a 64 bit OS if you want to have more than 4GB of ram.

On balance, id say go with a core 2 quad processor and 4gb of ram. A pretty standard combination thats also pretty powerful.

EddyNL

Thanks for the quick reply Remus!

Would this be any good?

Intel E5200 Core 2 Duo
Geforce 9300 512mb
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
500GB 7200rpm

AMD Phenom X3 8650+
Geforce 8300 HDMI, DVI
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
750GB 7200rpm

remus

The top setup looks good Dont know enough about AMD to tell you whether the other choice of processor is a good one, though.

With regards to the 8300 graphics card, it seems there have been a couple of minor issues with it and SU: http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp/web/graphics-card-feedback?hl=en Probably worth investigating, just in case.

chango70

If you can wait, I'd get the i7 Core mobile CPU laptops coming out later half of this year. The multi-threading almost halves your rendering times. Worth the wait I'd say.

If not I recommend http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk you can build one with 512MB Nvidia 9600M GT graphics card for under £1000 pounds. I have one and the diffault setting makes sketchup lines look super SMOOTH! without anti-aliasing turned on! Incredable for presentations n walkthroughs.

I'd be honest with you PCSpecialist are not really the best quality as mine broke under a year (arguably not their fault as my GPU, the 8600M GT died and if you read internet forums this card is dying at a dispropotionate rate on all manufacturers laptops including Apple) but their service is incredable. They didn't ask any questions had it sent back and upgraded my chasis (Old Chasis had a 8600M GT which died) with new GPU all for free! Sent back to me in a week. So basically I got a free upgrade from them.

The 9600M GT gives amazing default display quality.

chango70

@eduardonl said:

Thanks for the quick reply Remus!

Would this be any good?

Intel E5200 Core 2 Duo
Geforce 9300 512mb
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
500GB 7200rpm

AMD Phenom X3 8650+
Geforce 8300 HDMI, DVI
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
750GB 7200rpm

Whats your budget?