[smalbrain]

which is a better graphics computer for animation? if im on a bit of a budget? like AUS$3000?

[Rinaldo]

If you've only got 3k then you can't afford the MAC or SGI.

What kind of animation?

[dreddawg]

The distinction between the PC and Mac are largely small in my opinion. It all depends on what you want to do and how much you want to pay. I put down a few of my ideas. Keep in mind that prices change and you need to research. Go to www.pricewatch.com

PC: So at 3k you could either put $1200-1500 dollars on an upgradable PC and the rest in software and hardware such as a Wacom tablet (6X8 w/Painter Classic) and Photoshop. Of course if you want to do animation then spend the remaining funds on Afterfx and perhaps even an inexpensive non-linear editor (DVRaptor $400? bundled with Premiere) The 3d part has changed somewhat as there is actually free powerful software available (Blender) Of course you would need to upgrade somewhat in a few months (Ram, etc.). But, you would be in the game which is the objective.
Mac: At 3k I'd spend, similar to the PC, about $1500 on a basic G4 (it's all upgradable later) and the rest on a tablet, Photoshop and Painter. The animation parameters are virtually the same as the PC (Read that list). The convenience of a Mac is that the G4 comes with Firewire on the motherboard so perhaps get Final Cut Pro for editing. The only shortcoming is that there are not as many options for 3d on the Mac. But this will change soon enough as Lightwave, Animation Master 2k, Maxon Cinema 4d, and Maya (comes out in Jan. I can't afford it:-) all run on the Mac.

Just remember to do your research. Remember the more ram and storage you get the easier work will be. And lastly, don't let anyone push you into making a purchase you don't feel comfortable with. You can always say no.

Good luck

[AKIRA_x]

Why did you post this twice???

For 3000$ aussi dollars your can forgett two things..a MAC and SGI.

Do you have ANY hardware from before in a old PC??? Try and reuse as much as possible.
Things like:
Floppy drive
Harddrive
Cabinet
CD rom drive

If you have those things you can spend more cash on CPU, RAM and graphics board.

Do you need a monitor? They cost ALOT and is SO important. Remeber, its not the keyboard, cabinet or mouse you look at al day...its a the monitor, and a bad one can damage your eyes. 17" is bare minimum, but I recomend a 19", but then again that would cost you half your budget...so I am guessing a 17" will do.

CPU: didnt think I would say this.....but AMD has more bang for the bucks...SPECIALLY since your on a thight budget. Anyone out there wanna argue against it..read up on test ALL over the net...its true.

RAM: get as much as you can aford...guessing you cant aford more then 128...see if you can get 256.

Graphics board: For 90% of the Geforce 2 performance at 60% the price..get ATI RADEON 64 MB DDR.

And as you see here..what you get is a NORMAL home computer. You want a race car for the price of a street car.....you GET a street car. For a budget for a REAL animation compture..for a minimum system...try doubeling your budget, and quadruple it for a kickass system.

Hope this helps...

AKIRA



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Whos ya dady!!

[kig]

Following on AKIRA_x's graphic card recommendation: GeForce2/Radeon is a bit of an overkill for budget 3d usage. a GeForce1 SDR or a GeForce2 MX will do just fine for budget systems. If you're doing 2D animation, I'd recommend a Matrox card instead, since they have a higher image quality especially at high resolutions.

And for 3D work AMD Athlon/(Duron) is the king of the hill atm. But if you are going to use only Photoshop, P-III is the way to go.

As far as RAM goes, the more the better. If you're getting a Pentium 3 system, don't get a RDRAM mobo, since RDRAM is a) very expensive and b) not worth the price. PC-100 SDRAM will do fine.

hajaj j��j

[TheMilkMan]

I can tell you what you will get for 3000$
if you put together your own PC

1.2G Athelon
256 MB SDRAM
38 GB Hard Drive
32MB Geforce Ultra video card
250 MB internal zip
12X burn proof cd burner
19 inch monitor
Optical Mouse
Windows 2000


I know because my freind just bought that same speced computer for like 2900.00

[[Shizo]]

Definately AMD PC system
If i were you, i would wait a few months for new DDR motherboards coming out for Socket A cpus!! Can you imagine how fast that will be? DDR motherboards on AMD 760 chipsets already being sampled and are this close to production. I saw Viking sending out sample DDR SDRAM sticks. KICK ARSE. Add a DDR GeForce2 64Mb to it and off you go.. You'll have the very high end system for less than $2000 (american). Or maybe even less. Remember Socket A processors are best overclockers, especially with new 133/266 FSB on AMD 760 chipset mobos!!!

So you buy Duron 600 and easily o/c it to say 1GHz with nice heatsink.
Or spend $200 more for a default clocked 1GHz Athlon if you don't like overclocking.


O ya, can somebody give me more info and pictures of SGI computer? Like what hardware do they use (prolly all SCSI) because i heard NOTHING about them. Do they make their own SGI cpu's?

[[Shizo]]

PS: of course that'll be much cheaper if you built it yourself, cause pre-built computers usually have SH**LOAD of things you don't even need and that build up price. And of course you'll want to run Win2000Pro
Because win9x doesn't make use of more than 128Mb of ram, plus win2k is hard to crash
(also it makes use of DUAL processors in case you decide to go with that)

[Void]

Well, I just got a AMD 1 ghz T-bird, 512 mb RAM, Oxygen GVX-1, 30 gb hd, and a 19" mon. for about $3200....

[AKIRA_x]

quote:

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Originally posted by [Shizo]:
O ya, can somebody give me more info and pictures of SGI computer? Like what hardware do they use (prolly all SCSI) because i heard NOTHING about them. Do they make their own SGI cpu's?

---

http://www.sgi.com/

SGI = Silicon Graphics

They where the big boys and ONLY way to go 5 years ago, both for render farms and workstations. Theire O2s are still quite popular. They tried to make a NT based system 2 - 3 years ago...but it was a big flop. Intergraph (the underdog) had way faster computer, mostly because of better graphicsboard. SGI had a deal with #9 graphics boards..and they have NEVER had good 3D suport. The NT boxes ran standard Intel CPUs, but rest of the system is custom, meaning you cant upgrade it with anything but SGI stuff, and they are expencive.

SGI still have the best realtime 3D graphics Servers...mostly used for TV. But they are falling behind on the workstation area on NT systems. Theire IRIX system still is very good.

New from them now is to try and shift theire NT system to Linux.

there..enough for ya?

AKIRA



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Whos ya dady!!

[[Shizo]]

Ye AKIRA that's enough.. so i guess SGI is out of my world I really liked that lil computer they made Terminator 2 on.. Silicon Graphics is a cool name too!

here i scooped something up here.. definately not a $15000 waste of money hehe

1GHz t-bird + motherboard - $350
PC133 256Mb SDRAM - $100
30Gb IBM 75GXP ATA100 7200rpm - $180
Case with 300W PSU - $100
GeForce2 GTS 64Mb - $290
Monitor 19" .24 - $280

Total = $1300 (USD)

Alternative would be to wait for DUAL Socket A mobos based on AMD 760 chip and DDR ram. Also NV20 coming out soon. Still would be less than $2000

[This message has been edited by [Shizo] (edited November 10, 2000).]