Computer Configuration
 

I am going to get another computer. My present system is old and too slow. My wife works for HP and can get a discount. I've been looking at systems that can be configured to your on specifications but not exactly sure as what I should really get. Want to really get into 3D animation.

Any Suggestions as to what is a good processor size, graphics card, operating system and especially how much memory. Saw a system ton my wifes HP site that can have 24GB of memory. WOW!

Obviously the faster the cpu you get the better performance but i would suggest at least a dual core since Maya is at last multi threaded, i personally have a quad core .
Make sure your case has very good ventilation since rendering and simulation make the cpu run at 100% and overheating can be an issue if you are not well ventilated.

You can get by on 4 gigs of Ram but ideally at least 6 or 8 would be preferable or more if you can afford it if you plan to do animation.

As for Graphics card ..Maya will run on budget cards and gaming cards but you really need a workstation card with open GL with at least 512MB onboard ram but better with 1GB or more .In my experience Nvidia cards have less issues and tend to run smoother i suggest the best QuadroFX card you can afford.

Lastly to take advantage of more than 4 gigs of RAM you will need a 64bit OS so either XP64 or windows 7 64bit.

Current System Sp0ecs for me are
AMD 2.7 gig single core overclocked to 3.1 gigs
( will be getting a 3 gig dual core soon and probably over clock it to around 3.5 gigs )

MSI mobo
6 gigs ddr 3 1066 ram.
Nvidia GTS 250 1 gig video card with dual dvi out ( running dual 32 inch Sony Bravia's at 1080 P with no problems )
650 watt antec PSU
with Win 7 64 bit

for cooling i have 8 80 mm variable speed fans on the side of the box, turned up all the way for exhaust. One 120 mm fan in the back for exhaust, 2x 80 in front of hard drive bays for intake
I have a zalman z12 cpu cooler, and also Thermal take Cyclo Hdd coolers on all of my internal hdd's.

Have refcently purhcased another 120 mm fan to place in the top of my case when i get time to cut a new hole in it and flush mount it for intake.
and i have a Thermal take dual 20 mm fan dimm socket cooler for my ram.

i can run a 2 mil poly model at around 30 fps with my system, and my core temp stays around 90-100 degrees, depending on what i am doing ( at boot up and idle i run a stable 82 degrees ) ...all temperatures are Fahrenheit
The case i have is a In Win B2,
i dropped around 700$ on this rig, and it runs like a charm. Maya has only crashed on me one time, when i was trying to push it to the limit to see what it would do, i created a sphere and smoothed it about 20 times, it smoothed it fine, but when i tried to move it, maya died on me.

Hope this helps

g-man