Humbly asking for help from all you computer experts

[invazn]

I'm a student in need to build a desktop computer capable of running 3D studio max at its best. I've been using school computers to render but it takes far too long (12 hours at most for still images, more for video clips)...and my friends all render at home because they said its faster on their home computers. I'm using a laptop so its not capable for these huge tasks. So now I'm thinking on investing on a good desktop. My budget is around $1600....all I'm asking for is that it doesn't lag when I'm doing 3D modeling and it doesnt take forever to render. I've heard about needing good graphic cards, cpu, rams etc but I'm confused by it. I was looking into a core i7 or something like that.....if its gonna go over $1600 if worth it, I'm willing to spend $1800 tops (there goes my savings LOL)....thanks in advance! Your help is greatly appreciated =)

 

[v8killaz]

check other threads on gaming rigs
same thing u need
i7
good ram
choice of a hdd
and a good video card or cards

someone will jump on this

 

[dude112]

Quadro cards are designed for rendering and realtime cad/cam apps.

GTX/geforce, etc.. are for fast rendering of games that deal will pre renderd textures in memory.

The nvidia Quadros have the ability to do math and work out complex shapes in REAL time. if you want fast, fluid and high quaility rendering for Film making or 3d apps such as CINEMA 4D, 3Dmax, Maya and CAD/CAM apps such as soldworks, autodesk and architect applications.
Hence the high price.

GTX/Geforce cards can only handle pre rendered textures and can display them quickly for game play, but they cant real time render as fast as the quadro.

Get the Quadro.

Dont go with quadro unless your spending $1000+ on each card. we have quadros 4500 and 3450s in our animation studio and we just got a 9800 gtx for a gaming machine and its outperforming the quadros 4500s by more than 2x the performance in most cases(a 9800 costs around a third if what a 4500 goes for). The main difference between quadros and geforce are tweaked drivers, if your going for quadros make sure its worth it with your app.

source GTX vs Quadro

also Geforce gtx 260 or quadro FX1800??

And firepro vs quadro Nvidia Quadro FX vs. ATI FirePro: Professional Graphics Accelerators Roundup - X-bit labs

 

[S0ULphIRE]

CPU - Intel Core i7 920
Mobo - Asus P6T
GFX - GTX 285
RAM - OCZ 3x2GB 1600Mhz

Those are the basics of what you'll need. But like v8 said, check the other threads, this topic has been done many times before.
Here:
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/i7-build-213121/

Just get the GTX 285 and the Asus P6T instead of the gfx card and mobo recommended there. And here's a link to the RAM you'll want.

Newegg.com - OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Desktop Memory