I'm thinking of buying a new computer for TurboCad use, a friend has put a list of components together that he thought will work.
If you have any thoughts and ideas and would like to share them that would be good.

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Yoshi3k/saved/

My wife had that Antec case -- too small -- irritating to work with.


Consider an AMD 8 Core system (4GHz -- 8 Core $200) -- cheaper and more cost effective. We got the AM3+ board M5A99FX-R2 that has USB3 -- makes backups a lot faster and far less frustrating. Not sure if that MB has USB3 -- if not -- change it and do your backups.


We had some of those particular memory sticks fail on us. Waiting for return now...

Consider the Seagate 2 or 3 TB drive -- marginally more money -- lots more storage -- not much more power usage. 3TB $129
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=212&item_id=042242

Video Card is OK -- since we use AMD we stick with Radeon. Each to their own.


Check that the card is is the list for the fast rendering.

My wife had that Antec case -- too small -- irritating to work with.


Consider an AMD 8 Core system (4GHz -- 8 Core $200) -- cheaper and more cost effective. We got the AM3+ board M5A99FX-R2 that has USB3 -- makes backups a lot faster and far less frustrating. Not sure if that MB has USB3 -- if not -- change it and do your backups.


We had some of those particular memory sticks fail on us. Waiting for return now...

Consider the Seagate 2 or 3 TB drive -- marginally more money -- lots more storage -- not much more power usage. 3TB $129
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=212&item_id=042242

Video Card is OK -- since we use AMD we stick with Radeon. Each to their own.


Check that the card is is the list for the fast rendering.

WillR

Thanks very much for your information. The overall price of attached unit was on the high side of my budget, so any way the cut the costs is very helpful.

Thanks again.

Here is a link to the AMD fx-8350 system I put together last Christmas Don, I have never had anything that has been a problem rendering since, there are also quite a few good options with the military spec mptherboards now, I went for the Sabretooth which had a good track record, also I would look at a more compatible graphics card than I chose, it is a good card for the price but redway do not appear to include it in the suppported driver list yet.   

Here is the link to my post on the forum last year, no doubt the prices will have come down considerably.

http://forums.turbocad.com/index.php/topic,10495.msg62334.html#msg62334

Here is a link to the AMD fx-8350 system I put together last Christmas Don, I have never had anything that has been a problem rendering since, there are also quite a few good options with the military spec mptherboards now, I went for the Sabretooth which had a good track record, also I would look at a more compatible graphics card than I chose, it is a good card for the price but redway do not appear to include it in the suppported driver list yet.   

Here is the link to my post on the forum last year, no doubt the prices will have come down considerably.

http://forums.turbocad.com/index.php/topic,10495.msg62334.html#msg62334

Thanks for the link Michael.

If yours was on the high side then this will be out of the question:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kangus/saved/2XBu

The SSD drives should be RAID 0 and the bootable drive, the 1TB sled as a backup / archive drive, the dual GTX 780 video cards is to keep this computer running for the next 5 years (and very quick redraw), the power supply, you can never, ever, ever, have enough power. The memory is the highest speed the mother board supports, I made a mistake of 'saving' a few bucks when I built my last computer, the upgrade to the higher speed memory pegged my performance to 7.9 from a 7.4
Drop one GTX780 off for now, you can add it later.

I've been running dual Xeons with dual GTX8800 with a 1500 watt power supply, I'm on my third power supply.
FYI: Going to a 2000 watt supply next, rendering, watching CBS, Youtube and Netflix, 8 CPU's at 98% and the 1500 watt supply quit as in died.

Good luck with your new computer Don.

I don't know much about computer specs but I went and ordered a new computer too. Hopefully it will be ready tomorrow or Friday. Buying off the shelf nowadays is impossible if a user wants to have Windows 7. I ordered from OTV in Saskatoon. My specs don't say 64-Bit and I forgot to ask, but I imagine that all new system are. I better phone to be sure. This is the unit I ordered with a couple upgrades.

Anyway - here are my specs. Please don't comment if you think they are crap because I already ordered ($2K) and I don't want to hear anything bad before I even get a chance to run it.

Intel i7 4820K
4 x 3.7GHz, 3.9GHz Turbo
8 x Threads with Intel HyperThreading
10MB Smart Cache

Memory   
16GB Quad Channel 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
128GB Upgradable

Video   
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video
Nvidia 3D Vision, 3D Vision Surround, CUDA, DirectX 11, PhysX, TXAA, Adaptive VSync, FXAA Compatible

Storage   
500GB Samsung 840 EVO Series SSD (Upgraded from 120GB)
540MB/s Read, 410MB/s Write, SATA 6GB/s
1TB Hard Drive 6Gb/s SATA

Optical-drive   
DVD Burner
24x Super-Multi

Motherboard / Connectivity
HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort Connectivity (Quad Display support)
7.1 High Definition Audio
Coaxial/Optical SPDIF Audio with Front Headset/Mic ports
USB 3.0 (Front & Back), USB 2.0 (Front & Back)
10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN

Dual EZ swap bays (upgraded from 1)

Case   
Mid-Tower Case w/ 500w Power Supply

Modern Styling, Silent Operation, Future Upgradeable
80+ Bronze Certified PSU
High density noise-reducing material

Windows 7 Pro

Don this is the SPEC from Nvidia on the 760:
Thermal and Power Specs:
  97 CMaximum GPU Temperature (in C)
  170 WGraphics Card Power (W)
  500 WMinimum Recommended System Power (W)
  Two 6-pinSupplementary Power Connectors

 That is the minimum 500W with NO head room, if it were me I'd ask for a 850 Watt to give  some head room, besides, that CPU in turbo mode at  3.9Ghz sucks watts and if you do add memory you will need the watts.
heck of a SSD! I'm green 

How does the Render Test benchmark perform on these hi-spec machines?

Don what is the name of the motherboard? I can not find any workstation/desktop motherboard that supports 128GB   

Don what is the name of the motherboard? I can not find any workstation/desktop motherboard that supports 128GB   

This is what they used:
X79A-GD45 Plus
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/X79A-GD45-Plus.html#/?div=Overview
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/X79A-GD45-Plus.html#/?div=Detail

How does the Render Test benchmark perform on these hi-spec machines?

The 800x600 render test took 1 minute 43 seconds on my new rig. I thought it would be better, but I think I read in a previous thread about this that this render test uses RAM and I still have the same as my previous computer which is 16GB. I can put up to 128GB in my new rig, so maybe I will see if an upgrade sometime in the future makes a difference. But not today, since my new rig already cost me $2282.33 with tax included. I sure hope work continues to come in :-)

$2,200? (Canadian, I assume... close to U.S. $)  I'm still in the mode of thinking that $800 is an expensive system; I'm obviously way behind the times.

----
With a professional system like that Don, what are the specs. (and cost/expected cost) of your monitor(s)?... or desired monitor(s)?

As I discussed in a Topic I started on the subject a few months ago, I'm very disappointed with my purchase of an ASUS 27" 1920x1080 monitor-- to little DPI (or at least, that's the effect I am experiencing-- could be my [$500/HP] laptop's lack of video-card).

Quote from: lemel_man on November 27, 2013, 11:11:55 PM

How does the Render Test benchmark perform on these hi-spec machines?

The 800x600 render test took 1 minute 43 seconds on my new rig. I thought it would be better, but I think I read in a previous thread about this that this render test uses RAM and I still have the same as my previous computer which is 16GB. I can put up to 128GB in my new rig, so maybe I will see if an upgrade sometime in the future makes a difference. But not today, since my new rig already cost me $2282.33 with tax included. I sure hope work continues to come in :-)

See reply #22 in this thread.... done with the $500 machine shown in my sig. 

http://forums.turbocad.com/index.php/topic,856.msg51497.html#msg51497

[done with the $500 machine shown in my sig. 

$500 is about what I paid for my very first car. So my computer cost me more than fours time what my first car did. :-) I wonder which has more power. :-)

monitor(s)?... or desired monitor(s)?

I purchased dual monitors a couple years ago that I like. Samsung SyncMasterBX2450 They have given me no problems.

Quote from: GregT on November 29, 2013, 12:24:47 PM

[done with the $500 machine shown in my sig. 

$500 is about what I paid for my very first car. So my computer cost me more than fours time what my first car did. :-) I wonder which has more power. :-)

My first car cost me $300... a '65' Chevelle... used of course. It had 2 Holley 600 dual line double pumpers on it. Drank gas faster than I could fill it up... used to tilt the gas pump.  Of course... gas was 30 cents a gallon then too

Quote from: Alvin Gregorio on November 29, 2013, 11:50:29 AM

monitor(s)?... or desired monitor(s)?

I purchased dual monitors a couple years ago that I like. Samsung SyncMasterBX2450 They have given me no problems.

Yeah, like I summed up in the Topic I started when I was researching for my monitor purchase: I think my 27" is too big for 1920x1080-- too little "dpi".  Dual 24" makes more sense; or the $1,200 (starting price) 27" higher-resolution monitors.  Though, I am curious what my monitor, on a system like your new one, would look like.  I just didn't think it through fully before I made the ($380) purchase.  And in the store-- next to all the other monitors-- all I could think of was bigger is better.

Thanks for the reply Don.  Enjoy your new system.

I have read a few times on the forum about peoples render test benchmarks, but have never gone into it as yet, but do we have a set of test files that we use for the render test, if so can anyone point me to the test files on the forum?.


Thank You!.

I think this is the topic with the Render test.zip file Michael - http://forums.turbocad.com/index.php/topic,856.msg4694.html#msg4694

Quote from: GregT on November 29, 2013, 12:24:47 PM

[done with the $500 machine shown in my sig. 

$500 is about what I paid for my very first car. So my computer cost me more than fours time what my first car did. :-) I wonder which has more power. :-)

Memories from your first car = priceless.

Quote from: Don Cheke on November 29, 2013, 01:16:44 PM

Quote from: GregT on November 29, 2013, 12:24:47 PM

[done with the $500 machine shown in my sig. 

$500 is about what I paid for my very first car. So my computer cost me more than fours time what my first car did. :-) I wonder which has more power. :-)

My first car cost me $300... a '65' Chevelle... used of course. It had 2 Holley 600 dual line double pumpers on it. Drank gas faster than I could fill it up... used to tilt the gas pump.  Of course... gas was 30 cents a gallon then too

Yes, but it must have been nice to have a little muscle with your first car though.  Was it a hit with the ladies?

Dan

Quote from: Don Cheke on November 29, 2013, 01:16:44 PM

Quote from: GregT on November 29, 2013, 12:24:47 PM

[done with the $500 machine shown in my sig. 

$500 is about what I paid for my very first car. So my computer cost me more than fours time what my first car did. :-) I wonder which has more power. :-)

Memories from your first car = priceless.

Quote from: GregT on November 29, 2013, 01:54:48 PM

Quote from: Don Cheke on November 29, 2013, 01:16:44 PM

Quote from: GregT on November 29, 2013, 12:24:47 PM

[done with the $500 machine shown in my sig. 

$500 is about what I paid for my very first car. So my computer cost me more than fours time what my first car did. :-) I wonder which has more power. :-)

My first car cost me $300... a '65' Chevelle... used of course. It had 2 Holley 600 dual line double pumpers on it. Drank gas faster than I could fill it up... used to tilt the gas pump.  Of course... gas was 30 cents a gallon then too

Yes, but it must have been nice to have a little muscle with your first car though.  Was it a hit with the ladies?

Dan

I was already dating the girl that I later married when I got it... she liked it though. Wow... that was 38 years ago... how time flies.

I'm thinking of buying a new computer for TurboCad use, a friend has put a list of components together that he thought will work.
If you have any thoughts and ideas and would like to share them that would be good.

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Yoshi3k/saved/

Looks like a good configuration. I'm going for the AMD FX8350 because its cheaper. If gaming is not a priority for you, then go for a professional graphics card such as the AMD Firepro V3900 or V4900. These are MUCH better at handling Redsk and CAD workloads than gamer cards.

Regds
Mike

In my dreams:
http://www.geeks3d.com/20131118/nvidia-tesla-k40-announced-tesla-k20-amd-firepro-s10000-best-performance-watt-solution/
and you can purchase from:
http://www.amazon.com/900-22081-0040-000-Tesla-K40-Passive-Computing/dp/B00GPAWTE4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1385989654&sr=8-8&keywords=tesla+nvidia
The Nvidia card sucks 235 Watts, PCIE 3.0, shipping weight 6 pounds while the AMD FirePro 10000 consumes 375 Watts, doesn't list PCIE compatibility, shipping weight 19 pounds!