Any special consideration for Blender3D when building a new computer for it?

I’m planning to try and save up for a first Custom-Built PC and would love to build it really really good for Blending in mind. The priority for this PC would be …

1)Blender3D
2)General computer graphics (Like GIMP)
3)Gaming (Half-Life 2, Portal, Crysis, The Elder Scroll: Oblivion, and similar "High graphic "games)

I already have a few parts picked out but they don’t really impact the power of the PC.

I had seen this case at the local gaming PC store (CompuxParts) and that very case have inspired me to really get into this since I need a strong desktop anyway.

Cooler Master Cosmos 1000. This case is the exact one I saw at the CompuxParts and I’ve really like the extremely large size and weight of it and especially the brushed steel texture on the panels. (Thought I’m a bit curious about this version since the face cover is matching color, but I’m not sure why it is cheaper than the other color option, Cooler Master SC-1000-SSW1-GP)

I do plan to get a Wacom Tablet with this PC and I’m seriously eyeing the Intuos3 12x19. I know that it is very expensive (~$750) but the large size seems like it would really helps with the details of my graphics work and I could always use the tablet with other computers so it has a potential longer use than the PC probably would.

Other than these parts, I only have a few choices that i want to keep,

I simply want to go the max I can with RAM and CPU.

the same goes for graphic card. Now here is the thing, would there be a issue with Blender3D if I use SLI or Corssfire? I would love to be able to use these feature to boost my gaming capability.

I will NOT get wifi for this PC. For a desktop, I prefer to connect with a cable to reduce latency and risks of hacks. I would also like to avoid getting a motherboard with integrated graphics since I will defidently get a graphic card or 2 for this.

Since I’m deaf, I do not really care that much for sound quality since low quality sound about the same as high quality to me most of the time. (though I don’t want a really crappy audio set-up since my family is hearing and may want to listen to musics and videos and whatnot.

Now one last thing I’m stuck on, which should I choose? a flat screen HD screen or a HD projector? I’m defidently a fan of projector but are not sure if there would be any more problems with it compared to simply having a large HD screen?

Right now I’m absolutely broke but I have several Jobs lined up with very good potential of being hired soon with good salary so I’m really curious to see if there is anything I have to watch out for when building my PC so I could keep maximun compatibility and speed with Blender3D.

If you knows of any parts that you think I should check out for this PC, please let me know in this thread :slight_smile: I still need to research some more on different parts and to catch up on info on some of the newer tech and whatnot like the SATA Hard Drive and DDR3 and more.

I gotta go now to pick up some pizza. Hopefully somebody here have experience with this kind of thing and could tell me exactly what I needs to hear and know about :cool:

the nice thing about blender is that it will run on almost any system. Just make sure you dont get windows 95 or windows 98, I hear there is problems with those OS’s.

3D acceleration is a good idea.

Umm, no offense but that kind of info is pretty basic. I already know about that. I’ll be using window XP pro and some of the high end video card.

What I was more worried about is what bleeding edge tech today would have some compatibility issue with Blender3D. For example, is there a known issue with the latest ATI graphic card in crossfire mode? That the kind of things I would like to know about since Blender3D may not have been coded to work with some of the newer stuffs yet. What I want to find out is if there is anything that just happen to work particularly well compared to other stuffs.

Yes, dont use ATI with blender there are a few known issues, sorry about that.

I went:
Nvidia SLI,
Intel
Creative labs soundblaster
crucial memory 4 gigs

I love my system +blender

avoid ATI like the plague… especially if you want to try linux in the future…

Blender has been coded to work with OpenGL. If some vendor’s OpenGL implementation has issues, it’s up to that vendor to fix them.

Nvidia is well known for its high quality OpenGL drivers, so if you are worried about these things, I’d recommend choosing Nvidia.

Hello mate… I’ve been researching on building a PC for Linux, with Blender in mind. It looks like nVidia is the way to go for a graphics card, 9600gt overclocked or sli’d would definitely be good, I haven’t seen any issues. This would definitely handle your games nicely, should run Crysis around medium-high. Don’t do ATI/AMD, from what I’ve seen and heard there are some issues with rendering Blender since it runs off of OpenGL. For CPU I would go with either the Q6660 (I think that is the right amount of 6’s) or the Q9300, depends how much money you are willing to spend, although at stock clocking there is not much of a difference, if you OC then you will get much more bang for your buck out of the Q9300.

I plan on getting the Bamboo Small Wacom Tablet, just because I won’t be needing that much space, and it is not a priority. I am using my extra cash to buy another monitor… I highly recommend doing that as well, because it will increase your productivity a TON! Much easier to follow along tutorials, look at reference image and video, check renders while working, etc.

Any kind of decent DDR2 Ram and a nice big hard drive would work just fine. As for that case, I don’t know much about it. I’m going with the Antec 900 just because all my friends have it and are very satisfied. I don’t really know about mobos, as I am still searching for one myself, although I think I found a pretty nice one. If you have any more questions or anything, just ask, and if you find anything interesting, tell me!

  1. Go definitely for a nvidia card
  2. Use a 64 bit OS
  3. Buy as much ram as possible (4GB and upwards)
  4. 4 Cores are better than two.

Stay away from ATI at this point in time. ;>

There was a book I took out from my library called Build your own gamers mod pc by edward chen. I never buit the pc though. But If you want ultimate blending go with the BEST video card that exists. Processor, 3.2 Ghz. RAM, 32 GB. If you can afford this you will probably have the best workstation for blender ever. :wink:

Actually multi-processor would be better but I have no clue how that works. : no :

If you want to be able to access a lot of RAM, you’ll need a 64 bit OS. On windows (32), you are limited to either 1.5 or 2 GB of RAM for your applications even if you have a lot more.

im on ATi on vista and its fine :slight_smile:
i honestly dont see how people manage to have problems…?
maybe its an issue with older cards, but the new ATI’s are fine :):slight_smile:
wooo :smiley:

//charlie

If you go 64 bit, beware that you cannot import/export .blend files with 32 bit users, which would be a big hindrance if you ever want to use pre-made materials or use other people’s rigs.

I wrote up a long post, last night and posted it in this thread, but now that I am back here, it disappeared. That is too bad because it had a lot of good information, since I am currently building a PC for Linux to run Blender.

If you are coming into money, look at the “god box” part of arstechnica.com recomms, haggle down from there. And loose priority 3), don’t waste your life on gaming (the name “Oblivion” should give you a clue (and yes, I speak of experience)). If you have space on your desk for 12x19 wacom, you might as well get a cintiq, am I right?

Here is my possible choices :slight_smile: This list is only here to be refined over time from your suggestions and to help improve my understanding of the set-up.

2 GeForce 9800 GX2 (or GTX, not too sure if it is better) (3 or 4 if possible to set up 3x or 4x SLI) (NOTES: I don’t really knows what is different between the normal graphic card and the workstation graphic card like the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600) (Any cards I get MUST be able to output HD due to desire for using a large HDTV with this PC))

NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP (not sure if this is the best choice, just seems to be to the inexperienced me)

Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 (~$200)

top CPU : possibly Intel Penryn (Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Quad Core Processor) (~$1000-1400)(would be overclocked to 3.8Ghz)

one of the 2 CoolerMaster PSU (I chose CoolerMaster PSU to ensure best fit and compatibility with the cosmos1000 case and possible the nvidia board), not sure which one would work the best with the PC set-up,
Real Power Pro 1250W
Real Power ESA 1000W

I’m seriously thinking about getting one of those huge flatscreen (widescreen) HDTV with PC input.

ElAkimein,
The gaming is only a bonus. if my set up would give me the best graphic-creations performance but can’t play games like fears for it’s life, I would still be happy with the PC. I don’t really need the cintiq since I have a convertible laptop that I could use in similiar way. I just want the Intuos3 12x19 due to it large size. I don’t want a display to write on cause the way I draw (I draw left-handed hooked) blocks parts of the drawing itself and beside I’ve had the wacom graphire in the past and like it. having something along that line with a huge working surface is a better bonus than the cintiq right now, especially since I could use the saving to purchase a huge screen flatscreen widescreen display lol.

sebbonaparte,
I didn’t know that about the 64-bit XP. though I probably would still need it anyway to up the amount of usable RAM.

I’m seriously thinking about getting one of those huge flatscreen (widescreen) HDTV with PC input.

Do some research on the refresh rate. Some HDTV’s are only at 60 FPS, some are up to 132 FPS… More is better here. That is only needed if you are playing games. If it dose not refresh fast enough you will get tearing, and flickering.

Windows XP 64 is very nice, I suggest either this or a 64bit flavor of linux. The 64bit Vista is complete trash, and full of bugs. Plus there are not many companies supporting 64bit vista drivers.

Why, oh why …

Don’t do it. Save your money, buy a resonable processor and a new computer next year. It doesn’t matter what you buy, next year it will look kind of old.

And get yourself a device for HD-TV that you can use more than one year and concentrate the PC on the computing aspect.

Your proposal will be extremley expensive (to expensive for it’s computing power), power consuming and probably to noisy.

Just my 2 cents …

I love the macbookpro and using it.

You might want to also have a mini PC simply only for rendering.
This way you main pc is not blocked when rendering.

How is the install on a Windows machine? Can you also install several Blender app repertories? This helps to go on working while 1 or more Blender copies do the renders…

So how would you set up my pc? Just curious. I know that some of the parts I’ve listed are very expensive but that is mostly so I could encourage other peoples to offers suggestions that would still stay strong but for lot cheaper. I do want the top of the line stuff and see willing to take the time to work for it but anything cheaper and still nearly as strong would be great :slight_smile:

Though there is a few things I still want to keep an eye out for the best if possible, such as PSU, motherboard, HDTV and tablets.

I will still use the same case I’ve linked to no matter what because I haven’t seen any better one for my particular taste and preferences.

Hopefully more peoples would suggest more stuffs with a better performance to price ratio.