Animation Machine

[Megadeth2]

Guys, I'm on the Robotix Team @ my high school and they put me in charge of configuring in finding financial sources to pay for the new animation workstation. We have a target price of $600 and we will go over only when necessary. This machine will only run two programs which will be Word and the animation software. It will not be connected to the internet and all unnecessary services will be turned off (Windows XP Professional performance settings). We have certain requirements which include:

Intel Processor on LGA775 (Preferrably a Celeron D J, P4 is too much)
Good Overclocker's Motherboard (I Run An AA8-Duramax, My Friend)
High-End Overclocker's Memory (Ballistix, XMS, HyperX, 512MB)
Case That Has Nice Cooling, But Is Appropriate For School
DVD+/-RW Optical Drive (I Run An Optorite One, That'll Be Fine, Whoah)
Close To High-End GFX Card (I Run An X600Pro OC'ed)
Media Card Reader (One That Fits All Formats)
Large Hard Drive (60 GB on 7200 RPM Will Be Fine)

Guys, I know I'm asking alot here, but I'm not the only one asking. We have high travel costs to pay for when we go to competitions in other states and we cannot afford to sacrifice that money just to enter an animation contest. I'll be honest with you, I have $700 ready to be used for this and please, I'd appreciate it if you could hit the target of $600 and go $700 if necessary...NECESSARY. Thank You!

 

[ekÆsine]

What kind of animation are you talking about, 2d or 3d? or specifically what program? You're really killing it with that celeron

 

[Nubius]

Yeah, ek is right, depends on what kind of animation, but either way Celerons really aren't for hard number crunching as it is. I know you can get a better processor for a tad bit more, but what I find interesting is that your school is prepared to let you overclock the computer or something? I only wonder since you say you want an overclocking board and memory which high performance, really oc'able memory would be more expensive than the CPU.

we cannot afford to sacrifice that money just to enter an animation contest.

Well, if you don't have a good machine to be able to create the animation, then I guess you won't have to worry about going at all

But yeah, what programs specifically are you going to plan on running

 

[Megadeth2]

Computer Vigilante, this is a separate program that the school has no say in. I got permission from the coordinator about overclocking and he said it was alright. I believe they are going to do CAD and other 3d animation. Program names, I really never asked. But I hope this is enough. What do you recommend, a Celeron?

 

[Nubius]

lol, Computer Vigilante is just my 'Title' like yours is Virgin Techie unless you change it, my username is actually Nubius BTW: You should lessen the width of your signature, it's a little too wide.

Anywho, the celerons are the lowest end of the Intel processors. If you're using 3D Animation and especially if you are using CAD then you want something more powerful than a Celeron. You want an Intel P4 with the programs that you are talking about using.

Check out intels site:

http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/processors/index.htm?iid=ipp_home+desk_processor&

You'll see they have P4 with HT technology EXTREME EDITION! which is expensive as hell, or the P4s w/ HT, or the Intel Celerons, like I said celerons = low end of Intels. I don't know as much about Intel as AMD, so perhaps someone else can give you an actual good processor speed and core you should look into.

Also, try and get the names of some of the programs your using, that could help a little too.

Intel is definitely the way you want to go for CAD work though, as AMD's are generally used for gaming.

 

[Megadeth2]

How about a Prescott 520, but that takes a chunk out of the money we got to build this thing?

 

[5 3 l< 0]

is monitor incluede ?if not thne you can build an AMD64 computer for that money just go on newegg and start putting those part together

 

[Megadeth2]

No monitor, got one that the school donated to us.

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

Ok I listed some part's you could assemble into a system:

Motherboard: Abit AA8-DuraMax:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-180&depa=1
$149.99

Processor: P4 520 2.8Ghz, 800Mhz FSB, HT:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-185&depa=1
$162.00

Memory: Crucial 240Pin DDR2 PC4200 512MB:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-161-401&depa=1
$133.00

Hard Drive: Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-049&depa=1
$63.00

Video Card: SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X600 XT Video Card, PCI-Express
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-448&depa=1
$162.00

Those are your main components. I didn't look on newegg for a computer case. You can go look and see what's appropriate. Anything with 380 Watt's or better..

This system so far would total $669.00 without Case/Shipping. You will have to go over your budget if you want this thing to handle CAD software. I remember being in class running 3dStudio Max on a "Willy" based P4, and it was very very slow.

 

[Leonidas]

if you are not worried about upgrading you can go for a cheaper AMD 64 in 754 pin... this should save you some extra being as money is your biggest problem... i would suggest not worrying about going for a high quality mobo,