would appreciate input for building a graphics workstation

smurffart · August 13th, 2002, 01:42 AM

Hi
I'm looking to build a graphics workstation pc and would appreciate any feedback. I have been using a mac for the past eight years or so (in college), but know that I'm out on my own, 4 - 5 grand for a tower system is a little steep at the moment. My main question is whether a single processor cpu machine (Athlon XP 2200+) using pc2700 ram would be more efficient, or a dual processor (Athlon 2100 MP's) using pc2100 ram? I'm open to suggestions on which mobos, etc. I know I want at least a gig of ram and two or three 80gb w.d. hard drives with 8mb buffer (one for a scratch disk). My main programs will be photoshop 7, indesign 2, illustrator 10, corel painter 7, etc. Thank in advance for any help.

daveleau · August 13th, 2002, 01:46 AM

I will say that your applications are some of the few that truly benefit from a dual processor setup, especially if you use large and complex images. My wife, a graphic designer, has a dual rig and she loves its speed.

The rest, I will leave to more knowledgable people. I am a bit rusty on good dualie mobos.

Welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy it here.

Dave

squeech · August 13th, 2002, 01:55 AM

First off...

WELCOME TO TechIMO!!!

There now, I would say that a dual system is always a great way to go. Soyo dragon makes some pretty awesome little dualie motherboards.

However, I would like to point your attention towards possibly looking at a single CPU system running the nForce2 chipset from nVidia. This chipset also supports features like USB 2.0, Firewire, and DDR400 (PC3200) all within the chipset!! All other AMD motherboards use separate chips for that stuff, and most can't quite reach PC3200 yet.

Anyway, if you get a single system, the nForce2 is a truly awsome multimedia chipset.

Dokeman · August 13th, 2002, 02:04 AM

i say go dual..u will love it...especially with what you are gonna do with it.

You might want to think about some SCSI Drives if you are going to have a lot of data and are going to be changing/moving it alot..

FreakyOCR · August 13th, 2002, 02:28 AM

Doke... keep in mind that those wd's are a fast as SCSI... without the premium price.

**Whir** · August 13th, 2002, 02:36 AM

No IDE drive has seek/burst as fast as SCSI 3 man. RAID or not. SCSI will always win because of how it's controlled, or really, how it controls the data. It's all about hardware. That said, IDE is fine for graphic art so long as it's not movie editing (and a lot of people just use IDE/100 for that now because it's fast enough anyway).

I recommend a dualie system. My buddy's dual Celeron 433 with 512MB of PC133 kicks the living tar out of my Duron 900 with 512 of PC2100 on a lot of apps that are optimized (or can be optimized) to work with daulies.

I'm still trying to get them to get me a dualie at work for my AutoCAD junk.

Sorry I can't recommend any hardware. I haven't been keeping up lately, too many other projects going on. Those WDs should be pretty nice though, from what I've heard from friends.

-Whir

NDC · August 13th, 2002, 01:24 PM

Well, for a graphic workstation, I would definetly consider a dual setup vs. a single processor setup if you're doing the following:

* Working simutaneously with multiple applications, which most graphic tasks require... It's so much more repsonsive under SMP environment. It doesn't matter if the single processor system is hugher in clockspeed, it just won't match the responsiveness of a SMP system with lower clockspeed and here is a brief explanation of why...

* Working with actual size images, not web images. Web images are very low in file size and due to its size and resolution. If you're doing graphic work in the field of Desktop Publishing, you'll be working a lot with image outputs of at least 21.0 x 29.7cm which would be 2480 x 3508 pixels. And with all the layers, the graphic file size will quickly grow in size.

And yes, I would definetly recommend a SCSI U160 @ 10K or 15K RPM drive. I've run my systems using IDE RAID-0 under Windows 2000 and XP and I clearly saw a difference in performance under graphic applications.

Here is what I use for my graphic workstation just to give you an idea...

Dual AMD 1800+ on a Tyan S2466N-4M

MrPurple · August 13th, 2002, 02:09 PM

I think that Dual MPs would sufice for you, the lower MPs are not that much more expensive than the higher end XPs, but will give you better preformance for the software you are going to use.

To go off topic a bit I sugest you get yourself a very good case with a good PS. I would sugest the Antec 1080 line, especialy the AMG (Metalic Grey color

).
This line, and I think other ones too, has front USB and FireWire ports, which you will be using if you are playing around with digital images.
It might be price but its worth it.

smurffart · August 13th, 2002, 02:19 PM

Thanks for the suggestions thus far....
I've pretty much made up my mind that a dual system is what I'm after. I work with some very large files (talking gigs here, not megs), as I have been doing work for a local museum making super graphics and banners. I like the idea of having an SCSI drive. Nice system NDC. Mr. Purple brings up a good point...how much power should I get? Also, does anyone have any thoughts on the mobos listed by AMD as being MP capable? Here's a list...

Asus A7M266-D
Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW
Microstar (MSI) K7D Master (MS-6501)
Tyan Tiger MPX (S2466N-4M)
Tyan Thunder K7X (S2468GN and S2468UGN)

Thanks

NDC · August 13th, 2002, 05:29 PM

Well, first of all. AMD XP and MP are same exact chips other than the L5 bridge cut on the XP processors to disable SMP. Before the MP processors were released, XP's L5 bridge were not cut. Now they cut the L5 bridge to sell their MP processors. I'm using dual XP chips and I soldered the L5 bridge to enable SMP support. Saved my self from paying double for the same performance I would get simply by connecting the L5 bridge. Looking at the prices listed in price watch, XP1800 processors can be purchased for $76 vs. MP1800 for $136 which is a big difference in price. However, if you don't want to bother with modifying the chip, MP would be the way to go. As for which chip to buy ranging from MP1800 to MP2000, I would say to go with whatever your budget will allow. The difference in price for these three chips are $20. Personally, I would go with the fastest since faster is always better for graphic tasks. You can never have too much power for a graphic workstation...

As for AMD dual mainboards, I went with a Tyan S2466N-4M. This mainboard is definetly not for someone who likes to overclock or tweak their system. I was more after system stability vs. tweakability because of the purpose I use this system for. The BIOS is pretty much a "use as is" setting. But from personally using this mainboard and seeing the reviews by other users and sites, this mainboard is definetly a rock-stable mainboard. As for the ASUS AMD Dual Mainboards, I was very hesitant to go with because of all the problems I saw posted by users...

In comparison to to the Tyan and GigaByte GA-7DPXDW briefly, the GA-7DPXDW has one less PCI slot but makes up for it quite nicely with onboard RAID controller which you can use for RAID a setup as well as additional IDE channels which is nice to have if you have a lot of IDE devices. As for the Tyan, you can use NON-ECC DDR memory in the first two memory banks which is nice if you don't want to pay the extra cash for ECC memory. The GA-7DPXDW comes with on-board sound which is a plus if you don't have plans to buy an add-on soundcard.

Here is a little review I did for the Tyan S2466N-4M mainboard if you're interested...

Tyan S2466N-4M Review

And here is a review for the Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW that Mntsnow is currently running on his workstation...

GA-7DPXDW Dual AMD Server-Board By Gigabyte