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    • brodieB Offline
      brodie
      last edited by

      If you can find a great deal on the 3.2 it'd definately help SU out a bit but I think they're running about $600 more expensive than the 2.66's right now. For that kind of money you could probably overclock and burn through 2 2.66's and by that time the i7's will be going for 6 cereal box tops.

      -Brodie

      steelblue http://www.steelbluellc.com

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      • thomthomT Offline
        thomthom
        last edited by

        I've got an Intel Q9450 which is originally 2.66GHz, but a friend of mine helped me overclock it to 3.3GHz. I would have gone higher if I had better RAM.
        There is money to save on the CPU if you get a processor and motherboard than can be overclocked. (And you know how or know someone who can overclock computers.)

        Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
        List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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        • A Offline
          AkaBear
          last edited by

          Thank you very much for the replies and feedback.

          The more I have learned about this the more questions it has raised.

          Are the issues associated with migration of 32bit xp pro to 64bit vista ultimate all that bad. Many of the applications I have will not be upgraded at the same time. (Autocad 2004, Sketchup, and 3ds Max and Adobe suite at work.)

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          • R Offline
            remus
            last edited by

            you shouldnt have too many problems, as long as you remember to download 64 bit drivers for everything.

            http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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            • thomthomT Offline
              thomthom
              last edited by

              @akabear said:

              Thank you very much for the replies and feedback.

              The more I have learned about this the more questions it has raised.

              Are the issues associated with migration of 32bit xp pro to 64bit vista ultimate all that bad. Many of the applications I have will not be upgraded at the same time. (Autocad 2004, Sketchup, and 3ds Max and Adobe suite at work.)

              Vista64bit support is much much better than XP 64. I haven't run Vista64bit, but I'm running Windows7 64bit, which uses pretty much the same driver system as Vista and I got no problems with any applications. That include SU, 3DSMax, Adobe CS4.
              I got wo-workes that run Vista64 at home and they also report no real issue.
              32bit applications will run with no problem under 64bit OS unless they do some funky stuff they shouldn't. What do you might want to double check if all your hardware drivers are available in 64bit drivers. With new hardware that's rarely an issue. But if you got some older hardware the manufacturers might not have bothered to provide one.

              Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
              List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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              • A Offline
                AkaBear
                last edited by

                Thanks to all those that assisted.

                Ended up settling on something roughly the same for home, but fractionally cheaper and less power but opted for a safe route to avoid conflict with existing software that is not likely to be upgraded anytime soon.

                As for the work pc, well might go higher yet. Still working on that one.

                Dell XPS 630
                Intel Intel® Core™2 Quad 2.66GHz
                4GB DDR2 667MHz RAM
                500gb Harddisk 7200rpm
                NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 GTx 512MB (avoided the ati card just to be safe for now, the NVIDIA is a fair card for graphics but the home pc is also partly for funn too!)
                20.5in monitor

                Will try out Vista Ultimate 32bit (but sad to let go of XP pro) although may downgrade later if dissatisfied.

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                • R Offline
                  remus
                  last edited by

                  Quite a tidy setup 👍

                  quick piece of advice with regards to the operating system: i wouldnt bother with vista, if you stick with xp for the moment and then upgrade to windows 7 when it comes out. Its basically a much more polished version of vista and much nicer to use.

                  http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                  • brodieB Offline
                    brodie
                    last edited by

                    Looks like a good setup to me. I had the 8800 GT for awhile, I think you'll be very happy with it (and it plays quite nicely with SU). I'd probably ditto the advice on waiting for Windows 7. And if you anticipate wanting some more ram later of course it'd be a good idea to go w/ a 64 bit OS as 32 bit won't recognize any more than the 4GB you've got.

                    -Brodie

                    steelblue http://www.steelbluellc.com

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                    • W Offline
                      Wazzer
                      last edited by

                      HI Guys

                      I am still trying to spec a new company laptop and was hoping you can give me some advice.

                      I would really like to have a Lenovo W700 notebook with the Nvidia Quadro FX3700 1GB with Intel x9100 CPU however it is very very expensive!!

                      I am looking at a DELL alternative with the following specs for about 25% less than the Lenovo
                      It has Intell T9800 Core 2 Duo CPU
                      Nvidia Quadro FX3700 1GB
                      4GB 1067MHz DDR3 RAM
                      200Gb 7200rpm SATA HD
                      17" WUXGA 1920x1200 LCD Panel
                      All running on XP pro SP3

                      Can you guys tell me if this would work well with SU

                      Alternitivley

                      Can anyone recommend and alternative NoteBook with similar specs that would be cheaper?

                      Thanks for the feedback

                      Ben

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                      • W Offline
                        Wazzer
                        last edited by

                        Would it be worth considering downgrading to the FX3700 512Mb card and upgrading the processor?
                        Which would have bigger impact on graphics performance where SU is concerned?

                        Many thanks

                        BEn

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                        • thomthomT Offline
                          thomthom
                          last edited by

                          SU is more CPU hungry than GPU hungry.

                          Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                          List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                          • W Offline
                            Wazzer
                            last edited by

                            Interesting thanks you

                            So a better CPU would be preferable to a high spec Graphics card.

                            Cheers

                            Ben

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                            • brodieB Offline
                              brodie
                              last edited by

                              Your specs look really good to me. In fact they're almost overkill for SU, which doesn't use hardware very well (eg, doesn't recognize dual processors).

                              To elaborate on Thomthom's point. SU uses the processor to show the geometry and GPU for textures and shadows. Textures and shadows can be turned off while you're modeling and orbiting but you can't turn off the geometry, so the CPU is typically the more important.

                              -Brodie

                              steelblue http://www.steelbluellc.com

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                              • AnssiA Offline
                                Anssi
                                last edited by

                                Hi Wazzer,

                                IMO you could even go to the lower spec (Quadro FX 2500 512 Mb or what the number now was, I was looking at the specs a couple of days ago) card but consider a CPU with more than 3 GHZ clock speed.

                                Anssi

                                securi adversus homines, securi adversus deos rem difficillimam adsecuti sunt, ut illis ne voto quidem opus esset

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                                • W Offline
                                  Wazzer
                                  last edited by

                                  Thats interesting thanks

                                  So i would get as good or better performance with an X9100 processor and a Quadro FX5700 512Mb
                                  Combination plus 4GB system Ram?

                                  I appreciate your help guys

                                  Ben

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                                  • Z Offline
                                    Zilonx
                                    last edited by

                                    Core i7 920 ou Q9650 ???? (Well, both without overclock). Does anyone have experiences, benchmarks, opinions?

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                                    • R Offline
                                      remus
                                      last edited by

                                      The i7 is the better choice for SU, as it has turbo boost and the ability to be overclocked lots, should the wish ever arise.

                                      http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                                      • soloS Offline
                                        solo
                                        last edited by

                                        I did a quick test using a recent very high poly model (which taxes my old dual core @ 3.20ghz)

                                        Using an i7 940 (standard...not over clocked) with a geforce gtx280, 12GB Ram and Vista 64bit, I made a video of how it handles the model then I duplicated the model several times and you can see the poly's, edges, etc and also on the right is the CPU fluctuations as the load and work required to run smooth pushes the clock speed by means of the turbo function, you will also notice that when the load is low the clock speed drops way down to conserve energy.

                                        [flash=900,406:2949y7ky]http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4516551&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1[/flash:2949y7ky]

                                        http://www.solos-art.com

                                        If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

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                                        • N Offline
                                          numerobis
                                          last edited by

                                          Geforce or Quadro? Radeon or FirePro?

                                          Hi,

                                          i'm planning to buy a new card.
                                          so the question is...

                                          • is skp faster on workstation cards? or is it better to buy one of the cheaper workstation cards (200-300€) or a bigger gaming card?
                                          • looking at the latest card series, which one works better with skp - ati or nvidia?

                                          i consider to buy a Radeon HD 4890 and mayby turn it into a Fire Pro.
                                          Or a GeForce GTX 285.

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                                          • thomthomT Offline
                                            thomthom
                                            last edited by

                                            Was that a total of 11 million faces?

                                            Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                            List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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