Powerful PC ~ Low Frame Rate

Something similar to Chosen's setup. If you've been reading the forums for long you know he actually does this stuff for a real life living. Ask him.......he loves to help others who have similar interests as he does. He partially listed his setup earlier in this thread.......but he has more in there I'm sure.

The optimum setup for machinima involves two or more computers, correct?

Can be, depends on what you film. I will use my old computer for editing, and ocasionally a total shot so i can use 2 cams at the same time.

Chantal, the hardware you have in mind sounds great. I assume you're planning on triple channel memory to go with the i7? I've got no first hand experience with it, but from everything I've read, 6GB of triple channel will run circles around 8GB of dual.

I would caution against overclocking, though. Unless you REALLY know what you're doing, overclocking can result in stability problems. It's really easy to end up with an incorrect voltage or an improper timing somewhere, and then you end up with spontaneous shutdowns and/or BSOD's, seemingly out of nowhere. Even so called "factory overclocking", done by the pros at the factories, often ends up causing no end of headaches. I've learned the hard way, it's just not worth messing with.

That said, if you're gonna do it, make sure you've got a really good motherboard so you can easily tweak all the voltages and timings for every component, and well configurable memory which can benefit from said tweaks (Corsair is my brand of choice). A good power supply is essential as well. And perhaps most importantly, invest in a VERY good cooling system. I don't recommend liquid. It's more trouble than it's worth. Air is far less expensive, is MUCH easier to install, and in my experience, works better. Liquid's a gimmick. I love Zaalman 9500 CPU fans (or whatever the current i7 compatible equivalent might be).

Good cooling also requires a good case. Get one with plenty of ventilation, and keep the wiring neat. If the inside of your computer looks like an explosion at a spaghetti factory, with wires strewn all over the pace, air flow will be blocked. Keep wires as neatly bundled as possible, and tuck them out of the way, so that air can circulate freely throughout the case.


Now let's talk hard drives. I recommend WD Velociraptors. They're lighting fast (10,000 RPM), and super reliable. They're pricey in comparison with commercial grade drives, but not really expensive compared to other enterprise class drives. The only downside to them is the capacity is not huge, just 300GB. If you're filming in HD, you can fill that pretty quickly. If price is no object, the obvious solution is just get whole bunch of them, put them on RAID 5 array, and you'll have all the storage you could ever want. But if you're on a budget, you might need to consider some less expensive larger capacity drives. The WD Caviar series is a good choice in that case. as they're also extremely reliable, and come in much larger capcities than the raptors. They're just a bit slower, at 7200 RPM, but that's still pretty fast.

I very strongly recommend keeping your SL cache, scratchdisks, and all other temp folders on a standalone drive, separate from your system and data drives. SL, Photoshop, video editing programs, etc., can frag a hard drive to hell and back in no time flat, as they're constantly writing and rewriting files. By putting all that stuff on a dedicated drive, you ensure that the fragging won't affect your overall system health.

Also, get Diskeeper. Just let it run in the background and do its thing, and your drives will always be in tip top condition (barring any mechanical failures, of course). I can't speak highly enough of that program. It's fantastic.


That's about all I can think of to suggest at the moment. I'm guessing your probably already knew much the info anyway, since you seem to have some knowledge of high end components. But I hope it was helpful.

I'm sure others will chime in to offer additional advice, just as some already have.




By the way, Peggy, thanks for the kinds words.

A GTX 295 already has two GPUs on a single chip. So, running with 2 of them of them would be quad (4) SLI. You need to be 100% sure your motherboard of choice can support this!

Video cards suffer heavily from dimished returns and often, its not worth going past 2. But, please go to google and search for benchmarks before you make any purchases. Then, you can see the scaling for yourself. The 295s also run very loud and very *hot*, so having two of them running together would mean you need to provide VERY GOOD cooling.

Currently, the fastest single GPU chips are the Radeon 5870 (#1), the Radeon 5850 (#2), and then finally the GTX 285 (#3). But again, with the claimed-issues of 'OpenGL' and ATI cards, I can't say if it would be better to stick with nVidia here or not. (For Second-Life only)

Triple channel memory is definately recommended. DDR3 is not really that expensive. Unless you plan to be doing *heavy* video editing (which it sounds like you might), then I would get 12 GB of DDR3 ram. Otherwise, you won't even come close to using half of that at 6 GBs for normal use/gaming. Also, lower timings are better! (For example: 7-6-7-19 is better than 9-9-9-24)

Memory speed is a bit confusing for the i7s. Triple channel memory defaults to 1033mhz regardless of which speed you buy. Manufacturers put out higher rated memory, but its your responsibility to set it up in the BIOs first, otherwise it won't run that quick. 1600mhz is generally the enthusiast choice for i7 920 builds. It allows for overclockers to hit the CPU numbers they need without bottlenecking.

TomsHardware (.com) is an excellent resource for all things hardware. If you do plan to overclock, get a motherboard that can handle the additional stress and heat. ASUS P6T Deluxe and ASRock X58 Extreme are both reliable choices. The ASRock is an Asus-owned company. Its the cheapest, full feature, board you can get. It does run a 'little' hotter than most boards but that wont be an issue unless you're trying to bring a 920 over 4.5ghz on air.

As far as i7s go... I am not sure if this applies to the 940's. But for the 920's, you want to be sure to get a "d0" stepping processor. The original batch "c0" does not overclock anywhere near as well and runs a little bit hotter. A d0 should easily be able to hit 4.0 ghz on air cooling.

And this is important.. AFTERMARKET coolers! The stock CPU cooler is junk. I personally invested in a Scythe Mugen-2. It is amazing! But, installation was a little stressful. You have to physically remove the old CPU backplate and install a new one. Its not too bad once you understand the instructions.

I also feel that liquid cooling is not necessary. Its definately not a gimmick though. However, if you aren't pushing the system very hard (overclocking to ludacris numbers) then you have no need for it.

Chosen is spot on when it comes to cases. Air flow is imperative to keeping these components cool. Coolermaster makes brands such as the HAF (High Air Flow) mid and full towers that are very popular. They use large fans to move large quantities of air. Since they are big (200-230mm) they spin slow which means they are quieter. The Antec 1200 and Antec mid-towers 900 or 902 are also good choices. There's a few others, do some research. Generally, a fan on the front and side for intake. And then a fan system on the back and top for exhaust. And.. LEDs do not make your computer go faster! But yes, do practice cable management. Most of these towers allow you to route all the wires behind a metal tray that you screw the motherboard in. So, you essentially see NO wires at all when you are done.

If you really are serious about wire-management. (As you should be) - Get the HX version of the Corsair power supplies. A big rig will need a big power supply, especially if you are running quad-SLI. (Fortunately, the new ATI cards use very little wattage!) But, if you don't want to shell out the extra cash, then the TX versions are my recommendation. They are just as good but the wires are not modular. If you have a good case, you can tuck them away under the bottom bay of the HDD cage.

The Velociraptors are awesome! But most people seem to use them as a base for their operating system and core files. They are also expensive. The Western Digital Caviars are an excellent choice. However, I'd like to recommend the Samsung Spinpoint F3 instead. Its newer technology that is only a few months old and alll benchmarks have shown it to be significantly quicker. (The 1TB uses 2x500gb platters opposed to WD 3x300gb). Do not confuse it with the F1, as that is about the same as the WD Caviar. All are good choices regardless. The other option is SSD hard disks. Though, these are very expensive.

And last minute thought. I'd recommend getting some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste as the stock CPU paste is generally garbage. I prefer to apply it with a thin layer evenly. Though, there are various methods and I don't think there is a universal 'best' way. You can check youtube for various methods. But too much is bad!

Hope some of this information is helpful!

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Edit: I also want to point out that computer hardware prices are slowly increasing at this point in the year. The reason is due to cost of production in relation to good old supply & demand. So, research the prices of each item before purchase. A lot of people claim that its best to wait until "black friday" which may be true now. But, those prices generally match the prices from a few months ago, maybe a little cheaper. Either way, be aware and be a smart buyer!

If you have Vertical Sync enabled you will always see around the same FPS. Did you try with VS off? ^.^