Need to build new computer live in Toronto

[iconboy]

Hey guys! :)

I use to be really into building pcs years ago until I got a mac and then suddenly I stopped caring about new hardware and wanting to build another pc so clearly I am out of touch with the latest and greatest on a budget and humbly ask for assistance from the neowin community :)

my brother is in his second year of a very intense 3d animation program and his laptop just doesn't cut it anymore he asked me to help him build a pc he already has a sweet 24" LCD and keyboard and mouse

he showed me the specs of something he called an i7 pc (WTF!?!??) which had like 6 gigs ram and a crazy powerful video card and blah blah blah sorry the specs slip my mind at the moment

so please help me!! His budget is $1000 taxes included but I think he would be willing to goto $1100-1200 if the difference is worth it, remember he needs a computer for 3d animation and we would live to be able to get the parts local in Toronto

Thanks in advance! Here are a couple of my own questions now...

I7?!

Ati or nvidia?

Amd or intel?

I have an older antec sx120 server case can he use this or do newer motherboards not work in this case?

I also have an older 400 power supply is that enough!?

[tsupersonic]

i7 is a lineup of Intel CPU. They are very powerful, and are generally expensive. I would look at either Intel Core 2 Quad for a CPU (or an Intel Core i5) or AMD Phenom II x4 (quad core), both offer great performance and value. i7's are tough on that budget, just be careful if you decide to go the i7 route, since they come in 2 sockets: 1156 and 1366, get an appropriate motherboard! 6GB of RAM is decent, more will allow you to multitask more and can accommodate RAM hungry programs. Both ATI and Nvida are good, in terms of gaming ATI has a slight edge now due to DX11, don't know about 3D animation programs.

If that case lets you use ATX motherboards, you should be all set, otherwise, you'll need a new case. You'll most likely need a new PSU, if you're going to put a powerful graphics card in there, make sure the PSU can handle it.

[shihchiun]

CPU: Intel. i7 is best, but i5 may be more realistic. The main advantage of i7 is that it offers hyperthreading, which should help somewhat with 3D rendering.

GPU: nVidia Quadro or ATI Firepro. These are workstation-class cards. I'm not sure of the details as to why, but they're better suited to what your brother is doing than standard graphics cards. No idea whether ATI or nVidia is the leader in this market; take a look at some benchmarks.

PSU: Get a new one.

If you don't mind, could you post the specs of his laptop and whatever he showed you?

[yawza]

CPU: Intel. i7 is best, but i5 may be more realistic. The main advantage of i7 is that it offers hyperthreading, which should help somewhat with 3D rendering.

GPU: nVidia Quadro or ATI Firepro. These are workstation-class cards. I'm not sure of the details as to why, but they're better suited to what your brother is doing than standard graphics cards. No idea whether ATI or nVidia is the leader in this market; take a look at some benchmarks.

PSU: Get a new one.

If you don't mind, could you post the specs of his laptop and whatever he showed you?

ALoha

The Laptop:

Acer Aspire 6920G

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHZ

Nvidia Geforce 9500M 512MBs

3GB Ram

320GB HDD

Blu Ray Drive

The Specs for the new rig

i7-920 (2.66 GHZ)

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R

OCZ GOLD 6GB RAM

Corsairs PSU 750TX (PSU)

Antec 900 Case

Western Digital Cavair Black (WD1001FALS) 1TB

[gnuman]

For better performance he should get his HDDs setup in Raid 0 setup and maybe purchase a RAID card and put additional memory. 6GB of ram is nice but I don't think it would be enough and maybe would be beneficial to have 9 or 12GB of ram.

You didn't state what programs he is using and your specs for the new rig is missing a graphics card.

[yawza]

Maya 2010

Mudbox

Zbrush

Fusion

Nuke

After Effects

Geforce 275 896Mbs