Hardware

IceT

Hello,
If you read this please post a reply with your hardware info and your opinion.
I am planing on buying a new computer therfore I would like to hear your opinion/thoughts about anything related to this.

So currently I am looking at:

i7-3770 # of cores 4 # of threads 8 clock speed 3.4 ghz max turbo frequency 3.9 ghz intel smart cache 8 mb
MSI GeForce GTX 680 OC, 2GB DDR5 (256 Bit), HDMI, DP, DVI
asrock/gigabyte/msi s1155 B75 ddr3 usb3 sata2 matx
8192mb, kingston technology 2x4gb 1600mhz ddr3 non-ecc cl9 dimm kit2 HyperX
1tb, wd western digital caviar green 3. 5" sata3 ip 64mb
sony opti 5280s, dl dvdrw 24x black sata
jns output power 750 watts 14cm fan
gigabit, 10/100/1000 mb/s
hd5. 1, high definion audio 5.1 channel

I might be looking at GTX 660 as well.

How much RAM would be the best case for vray? I read that windows can only use up to 8 GB of RAM.

Also I forgot to add that I'm planing on using it for animations as well as image renders.

Have a nice day!

valerostudio

The i7's are the best way to go for rendering horsepower. I have a 6 core (12 threads) at home and it was well worth the few extra bucks to get the additional threads. At work, I have an Intel Xeon E5-2665 @ 2.4Ghz which gives me 16 threads but is really only a little faster than my i7 at home.

IceT

@valerostudio said:

The i7's are the best way to go for rendering horsepower. I have a 6 core (12 threads) at home and it was well worth the few extra bucks to get the additional threads. At work, I have an Intel Xeon E5-2665 @ 2.4Ghz which gives me 16 threads but is really only a little faster than my i7 at home.

Do you have Intel Core i7-3930K at home? Or 3770? And what about your video card and RAM?
Are you just rendering images or also videos?

Thank you!

IceT

Anyone else please?

panixia

@valerostudio said:

At work, I have an Intel Xeon E5-2665 @ 2.4Ghz which gives me 16 threads but is really only a little faster than my i7 at home.

seriously?? everyone i know says multiple xeon is way faster than i7.. but i don't know.
i only work on 3 computers and they are all quad core i7.
actually i've never seen a couple of xeon in action.. i'm curious..

valerostudio

This is the resource I used when building my machine http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

IceT

@valerostudio said:

This is the resource I used when building my machine http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Ok thank you. I'm using it as well when I want to compare things.

FOR EVERYONE: Do you have a SSD? How does it help vray and does it help rendering as well? Does/Could it play a similar role like RAM just a bit slower?

And what are you experience with SSD?

Thank you in advance.

jiminy-billy-bob

It helps :

When loading heavy bitmaps at the beginning of the rendering.
When you run out of memory, and vray has to swap a lot on the hard drive. (It's easy to see, your CPU is not at 100% in that case. It's limited by the HDD)