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Rendering Workstation Builders


Vizn

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Hello!

Work has given me the go ahead to upgrade my rendering workstations. I would like to consider some pre-built options. While I have built all of my own computers since 1995, I am not really a technophile. I have always just stuck with reputable brands and picked the parts based on reviews and my budget. I am wondering if there is any real benefit to pre-built workstations in terms of increased performance and stability for 3d Arch-Vis rendering in particular? Which builders should I check out, or seriously consider?

 

Unfortunately, I will be moving back to 3DS Max with VRay, with C4D remaining to do conversions, access old projects, etc.  It's time to get back to Arch-Vis industry standards! 😉 

 

TIA

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I'm of still of the old school build-it-yourself mentality, and it is easier these days than ever before, but I wouldn't object to buying a bare bones system if it had my preferred combo of Motherboard, processor and RAM. A few people let you specify each component in a nice custom sort of way. What I would avoid is a completely pre-built system, so that you only install the software you want and not a load of superfluous fluff that people like Alienware feel the need to install for you, and which may conflict with or cause problems for other things later down the line...

 

CBR

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My main machine (which is a few years old now) was built by AVA Direct and it's been excellent.  I had a custom laptop made by Digital Storm, that is a good machine, but has crazy fan noise and seems more Gamer oriented.  I looked long and hard at Puget Systems too when I built the tower and I think I would try them for the next one., though nothing against AVA.

evanalexander.com     Abusing chromatic aberration heavily since 2011....

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I would highly recommend a look into Puget Systems. They have pre-configured systems for rendering or modeling and you can customizer your own or start with a pre-configured and modify them. My last two systems are from them and if you follow Grayscalegorrilla, both have relatively new systems from Puget Systems. 

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Honestly depends what you can get for the money. Personally im always going for the self build option, if something goes wrong then im completely capable of swapping out a component myself. Depending which prebuilt you go for, you can end up with non-standard parts which can be a real pain to replace; eg Dell with their non-ATX motherboards and non-ATX power supplies.

 

If you want prebuilt then Puget have shown they know what they're doing, just avoid the big box manufacturers, Dell, HP etc, thyre fine for cheapo office machines or high end server machines but they're terrible at the mid-ground.

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PC's are ridiculously easy to build these days and you need to be capable of replacing/upgrading the components.  So with every build, I use sites like Puget to learn about the latest tech and what works with some of your favorite aps (they actually had articles on how Redshift performs with certain GPU's).

 

But then I always go for two things:  price and warranty.  Relative to price, I compare the cost of the components to the total price from a PC vendor and the warranty that vendor offers.  Now, OEM's (original equipment manufacturers) usually offer a 1 to 2 year warranty on their stuff.   You can get up to a 3 year warranty on the  nVidia cards.

 

So if you build your own, you then have to register all the components to get the warranty.  If you buy a pre-built PC, you register just that PC. By itself that is not much of a benefit to push you towards buying from a PC vendor.

 

But....

 

If you can get a 5 year warranty for just a few dollars more from a PC vendor over the total cost of the individual components, should you decide to build your own, then that is the choice I make.  If I can get someone else to build the machine and give me the extended warranty (it has to be more than 3 years) for less than 10% over the cost of the individual components, then that it is the path I follow.

 

Dave

 

BTW:  I do keep my machines a long time and those extended warranties have paid for themselves for each of the 3 workstations I have purchased over the last 17 years.  I recently just purchased a new workstation (with a 5 year warranty) to replace my 2015 machine (it runs great....but it's GPU cannot run Redshift GPU anymore).  Unfortunately, that machine won't be here until February.  

Sorry...but I simply do not have enough faith to be an atheist.

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For me low noise is a important feature, too. and Workstations like Dell or HP are always to loud for me. therefor I build my own Workstations myself. I have no experience with Puget systems, but from the components they use they should be better then the others but not optimal ether. 

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