8 replies to this topic

[Kevin Rabenaldt]

Last Computer Upgrade was in 2013 and it is definitely time.  Looking for suggestions for various components.  I build my own computers and order exactly what I want in the components.  I do not buy the the latest and greatest because they cost too much.  Was thinking of the following, Intel i7 7700-8700, Geforce 1050, Memory amount and speed?, and I have always been partial to ASUS motherboards.  

 

Thanks

[Keith Almond]

I too, have always been partial to ASUS boards so that's a no brainer.

 

I'd go with 16GB minimum of RAM ... speed ... the fastest that the final motherboard selection will accept. I don't really think more RAM is necessary at the build stage, but you can always add more later. Unless someone's selling it at a good price, chances are that it will only get cheaper.

 

Having just bought a Solid State Drive for my computer, I'd really recommend that as a needed item - min. 250 GB. The speed difference is astonishing.

 

The GeForce 1050 is a nice card ... probably one of the best "bang for the buck" cards you can get. I'd You can get better obviously, but it will cost you much more. I just put an AMD RX560 in my home machine (I got a good deal on it). Nice Card, It doesn't run Softplan as well as my office machine that has an NVIDIA card, but I suspect that's due to the limitations of the computer not the card.

 

Put in plenty of fans ...

[Steve Haarmann]

There is a GTX 1050 and also 1050 Ti which is higher performance but also more $$

 

The Nvidia 1060 is also a good choice.

 

If you do a lot of ray traced rendering then the Cpu will do a lot more work than the video card (Gpu).

In that case I would give a lot of thought to a 6 core processor rather than the 4 core processor.

 

Solid State Drive is an easy decision now that prices have come down.

 

16 Gb of Ram is certainly adequate. More is a waste of money right now. Put it in the video card and processor first.

[Sam Allen]

I just built a new computer  with an ASUS x299 motherboard, Intel i9 7900x (10 core)processor, a GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, and a Corsair H150 liquid cooling and 5 120mm fans, 64 Gb of ram, two 500 SSDs and one 3 tb drive. The i9 runs so hot when ray tracing that the liquid cooler just couldn't keep the chip cool enough.  I've just ordered an EK-CE560 Quad liquid cooler kit with a360mmX60mm radiator and I'm sure it will get the temps down.  I will say that rendering with the i9 just flies!!

 

I don't think the video card does anything while ray tracing....does anyone know for sure how Softplan uses the hardware?

[Keith Almond]

That's a really nice setup Sam.

[Kevin Rabenaldt]

Sam, I knew I was "way" behind on computer power, I just didn't know how far.  You may have to move to Alaska so you can provide enough natural cooling for that hot rod.  lol.

[Sam Allen]

Hey Kevin...I case your right...does Softplan have an igloo module??

[Kevin Rabenaldt]

Sam, lets make a request for SP to add one.  I am having trouble with my current graphics card so i went to purchase the one I choose for my new computer.  Graphic cards are in short supply everywhere.  Told it has to do something with bitcoin.  I am getting too old, I still don't know what bitcoin is all about. Crazy world. 

[Sam Allen]

I bought all of my parts thru Amazon.....