PC advice please

[Shonuff]

Hey guys, I know this gets posted a lot but I ain’t used a windows PC since XP, usually use MacBook Pro and iMac but I use after effects quite a lot and read that Nvidia cards work better with AE & this also goes for Blender so thinking about getting this PC and wondered if some of you blenderheads that are more experienced in these matters than me wouldn’t mind giving their opinion please on the specs and would it be fine please?

http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=Y6W14EA&opt=ABU&mastersku=Y6W14EA&masteropt=ABU&sel=DTP&

also does anyone use Mac Pro please? (The cylinder new version) and I know this uses AMD gfx cards but any good please?

[Daedalus_MDW]

i personally dont like HP. to many bad motherboards on the low/mid stuff.

currently AMD GPU and blender dont get along, and cycles was optimized for CUDA(an Nvidia Tech).

but the PC you have picked out looks good to me if you dont mind spending that much. you might want to look at Lenovo(ideaCentre), Asus(ROG), or Dell(alienware) for different pricing options. i personally have had good experiences with lenovo and dell.

if you buy a PC with more then 2 GPUs, then make sure you DONT pick the SLI option, most games and software cant, or dont, use it right. if there is no option, then you might have to remove it yourself (very easy).

[Shonuff]

i personally dont like HP. to many bad motherboards on the low/mid stuff.

currently AMD GPU and blender dont get along, and cycles was optimized for CUDA(an Nvidia Tech).

but the PC you have picked out looks good to me if you dont mind spending that much. you might want to look at Lenovo(ideaCentre), Asus(ROG), or Dell(alienware) for different pricing options. i personally have had good experiences with lenovo and dell.

if you buy a PC with more then 2 GPUs, then make sure you DONT pick the SLI option, most games and software cant, or dont, use it right. if there is no option, then you might have to remove it yourself (very easy).

Thank you so much. Yeah I was looking at the asus ROG systems, I was wondering because the HP/dell/Alienware/asus etc are all gaming machines hence being really powerful for that purpose, that means they should be good for 3D software like Blender etc
Am I right to assume this, a powerful gaming system should (with the technical info you gave me) be able to run Blender good?
i am also a gamer so would be great to play on my system as well!

[Shonuff]

i personally dont like HP. to many bad motherboards on the low/mid stuff.

currently AMD GPU and blender dont get along, and cycles was optimized for CUDA(an Nvidia Tech).

but the PC you have picked out looks good to me if you dont mind spending that much. you might want to look at Lenovo(ideaCentre), Asus(ROG), or Dell(alienware) for different pricing options. i personally have had good experiences with lenovo and dell.

if you buy a PC with more then 2 GPUs, then make sure you DONT pick the SLI option, most games and software cant, or dont, use it right. if there is no option, then you might have to remove it yourself (very easy).

Sorry to bother you again, but was looking at this asus PC

ROG GT51CA | ROG - Republic Of Gamers | ASUS Global

looks amazing and dual titan x 12gb, it says 2 way SLI, so is that option ok please?
this system looks very powerful and might be the one I am looking for, specs look good to you?

[zeealpal]

While it won’t be great value compared to building a PC yourself, choosing one with Dual Titan X’s will certainly run well for Blender

[Shonuff]

While it won’t be great value compared to building a PC yourself, choosing one with Dual Titan X’s will certainly run well for Blender

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I could put one together cheaper but prob not much cheaper and it’s a load of hassle which I don’t want lol.
so this spec should be good for blender?

[Daedalus_MDW]

so this spec should be good for blender?

try borderline excessive :ba:

yes, blender will be most happy (no sli remember). ill definitely say building computers is a real PITA, but thats what makes it fun

if it makes you get sli for 2 cards, thats ok, just open the side of the case and remove the bridge between the two cards.

[Shonuff]

try borderline excessive :ba:

yes, blender will be most happy (no sli remember). ill definitely say building computers is a real PITA, but thats what makes it fun

if it makes you get sli for 2 cards, thats ok, just open the side of the case and remove the bridge between the two cards.

thanks
thats what my son said (who is a massive PC gamer) he said it was a little OTT lol
yeah looks like its fully upgradeable so should be easy to remove it. why does it need to be removed if you dont mind me asking please? and will this affect gaming and other software?
sorry for my noobish attitude but like i said i aint used a windows PC since XP

[Shonuff]

i was reading that you can turn off SLI option in nvidia control panel? so OFF when using blender, ON for other stuff?

[zeealpal]

Unless your gaming at 4K or something that requires more than 1 Titan X to run properly, you may as well leave it off

[Shonuff]

Unless your gaming at 4K or something that requires more than 1 Titan X to run properly, you may as well leave it off

Will def be giving 4K gaming a go lol
thank you for replying and thanks guys for your help

[Daedalus_MDW]

i hear some games that support SLI dont even use it properly, lots of unusual performance issues. basically it lets all the cards act like one big multi-core unit.

for blender, turning sli off will let you render as many tiles as you have GPUs simultaneous. never tried it, but i hear bad things about blender and sli.

as far as removing the bridge, in all my years as a techie, you learn to simply not trust a software switch.

[Shonuff]

i hear some games that support SLI dont even use it properly, lots of unusual performance issues. basically it lets all the cards act like one big multi-core unit.

for blender, turning sli off will let you render as many tiles as you have GPUs simultaneous. never tried it, but i hear bad things about blender and sli.

as far as removing the bridge, in all my years as a techie, you learn to simply not trust a software switch.

thanks again for your help taken on board

[Shonuff]

Ok my brand spanking new PC arrived today and I am soooooo happy with it. I got the omen x with 32gb ram, 2x GTX 1080 and intel i7 6700K. It looks and runs amazing and just playing around on blender, I did a test rendering at 200 samples and 200 preview at 16bit and on my MacBook Pro one frame takes around 15/20 mins @ these settings so you can imagine when I am trying to light a scene and see if it looks right in the finished product, this is a frustrating and tedious process. On the omen x it takes about 2/3 secs this is a game changer for me and can’t wait to get stuck into some projects now, oh and a little gaming lol

[Shonuff]

Well so far using blender and SLI seems fine. Just what is meant to be the problem please? Does it render faster with SLI off?

[Daedalus_MDW]

you get two squares and not just one, i think. stability and speed might be affected.

[Shonuff]

you get two squares and not just one, i think. stability and speed might be affected.

Thanks, will give it a quick test later.