power vs. price

[Flux]

Yeah, the Q6600's are good stuff. With a £30 cooler you can run it stable at 3.4Ghz (I do and have done for ages now). I think there's a new line of Quads out now though with more L2 cache, think they're around the same price as well. Not sure how well they perform or how well they overclock though.

Think I've had mine for about 9 months now, 3.4ghz q6600, 4gb 800mhz 4-4-4-12 ram, 8800gts. Prolly keep this for another 2 years and then get a fancy pants Octo-core.

[Ferocious Simplicity]

I do agree with going 64 bit. I wouldnt get a quad core CPU as well no games can take advantage of it and I dont know of loads of apps which do. I would say get a board that supports them to futureproof your computer but dont waste your cash on quad core when you can get a really good dual core for half the price.

[Izzacummin]

Max will use every core you have with Mental ray or Vray and as it is a 3d app and not games machine that he was after a quad core would be a major benefit.

[solarkid]

^ Seconded. He said nothing about gaming. Go quad.

[kenetor]

should really be in the hardware section....

definatly go quad core, i hate waiting for test renders, i would vote against 64bit untill you need to unless you wanna work with alot of particles for which you will need s shed load of RAM.

again save your money untill you guy buy the whole lot, saves on shipping then too and buy online.

untill then i would make sure your modeling as efficiently as possible

Kenetor

[sbcarshops]

not trying to get off topic, but I was wondering about the Q6600 Over clocking Ability vs. Cooling Issue. Can it really be kept cool with Air or does it need Liquid? MY computer is running very hot now due to a small chassis and the honking huge XFX 8800GTS 640MB. Seeing the issues with my computer and in-efficiency at running games and Max, it makes me wonder about Liquid cooling.

and as far as seconding or thirding what people have said. I to agree with waiting until the funding is there. And Kenetor is right, if the budget is tight, I wouldn't spring for the 64bit. If the money is there and its a sale price now, I would go ahead and get it because it does allow room for expansion later on. Upgrading a PC can be cheaper than getting a new one. Well at least the way I build them :P

[Flux]

It can be kept cool with air, yes. I have a Scythe Infinity (wouldn't recommend, pretty good at cooling, better ones out now though)which keeps mine at around 38-43idle and 63-70 tops under load, which is perfectly acceptable; stable with no errors running 4 instances of Prime95 for 12 hours.

The stock cooler at 2.4ghz gives around the same temperatures and mine is running nearly 50% faster for around £30, which is pretty beast.

Water cooling is better, but is a LOT more expensive. My results are using Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste in an Antec P182 Case, which may help a little.

[solarkid]

My chip ran at 32(maximum) degrees celsius while playing Crysis on a day where the outside temperature was 17 degrees celsius. Temperature at idle on said same day? 17 degrees celsius.
Antec 900 chassis
Cooler Master GeminII
AMD 6400+ x2 AM2 3.0GHz

A guy I know who THINKS he knows a lot about computers has water cooling, has the same chip but a different chassis. He spent about $150 more than me and runs at 33 degrees celsius IDLE.

If you're getting a quad-core CPU and 4GB+ of RAM, it makes no sense to go 32-bit.

[budweizzer]

I agree about that Q6600 quad-core cpu and get "only" 4Gb ram for now.

If you're on a budget, I suggest you to keep your monitor (if it's not that old, of course!) and don't buy an ultra high end video card. Mid to high range video card should be fair enough for now especially if you're not a gamer. You could always upgrade it later. By doing that, you can save quite a few bucks and still get a good computer to do 3d modeling.

[sbcarshops]

On the lines of the Video cards.... I had an NVIDIA 7600GT that ran max more than fine, I upgraded for gaming. I did a new egg search, and it ranged from $60 - $100.00 USD for a 7600GT.

Also, I'm looking at getting a Cosmos S case for mine, and as for mobo's I'm looking at some higher end ones... like the Asus Maximus II or similar. - Newegg.com - ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards or the Striker II, OR some EVGA card Newegg.com - EVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI DDR3 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Sorry I actually dont know much about the less pricy end of building computers, most of the times when I custom build a PC its in the 10K-15K range. Course it's half server too :P But These are higher end ones because I plan on adding more to my computer in the future, I just haven't decided if I wnat to turn it into a workstation or a gamer, or a hybrid of the best of both.