Hi all,

I love my Vue Pro and am considering getting a dualie. If I didn't have such a big investment of dollars and years in Windows PCs, this would probably be the perfect time to switch to a Monster Mac. Alas, it's just not practical right now. So I could use some advice.

Reading the forums here and elsewhere, I got the impression that Dual CPUs with VPro is definitely worthwhile. However, aside from expensive Xeons, I don't see much in the way of pre-fab Dual CPU systems coming from my local "Generic" suppliers where I usually get my stuff.

Is this mainly still a custom or DIY marketplace? Basic Workstations with dual Xeons @ 3MHz are pushing $5K. Is there a more economical way to do this?

I've been customizing systems for years, but have never built one from scratch. I've always had at least a "bare bones" to start with, and the idea of the building a screamer from the board up is a bit overwhelming. Plus, I don't really have the time to do it right.

I could sure use some practical advice here. Thanks.

R.

If you TRUELY want a machine to do what you speak of... Check out this link. This is a friend of mines site who builts these machines for graphics artists. He has sold them to places lie the Si-Fi Channel, Dreamworks, and Pixar. I am sure you will be impressed! Price is not cheap, but these are truely a arists dream machine. Here's the link: http://www.oldies2goodies.com/pages/2/index.htm

Cool monster machines, Xiores! I find dual Athlons work really well in Vue Pro - almost halves the rendering times compared to a single CPU!

Hello rainfrey. There are several motherboard for dual Athlons, and building a PC from scratch is almost a brainless task these days. (Puts people like me out of business.) Basically, if you can find a place like PC Club in your area, the store guys will walk you through it. If not, there are a bunch of us techies here that will help you. It should take you about 3 hours to build a box from scratch and get the operating system installed - and all the latest drivers, of course. If you want us to help, there are 3 things you should tell us now. #1 - Where are you located (so that we can find you a good components store, or make a recommendation for a web store purchase)? #2 - How much money can you reasonably spend on this? #3 - What all would you like to do with your machine, in addition to making Vue renders? If you like, we can take this discussion offline via IM or e-mail. Try sprucefir@earthlink.net. I promise you that you can do this quite easily and you'll be suprised at how little instruction you will need from us. (Oh, and #4 - what do you have in your current box that you'll be able to salvage? Hard disk drive? PCI modem or LAN card? Video card? etc.)

Thanks to all for your input -- and Forester, I'll send you a note separately.

I have two ECS D6VAA Dual PIII Mainboards, and am in the market for a third. I paid about $50 ea. over a year ago, and saw them on eBay last night for $25 and $35! Take one thing into concideration though, only the PIII chips work dualy, not any of the socket 370(FC-PGA) Celerons or CyrixIIIs work that way. Also be sure you have a genuine FC-PGA socket 370 chip, as the socket 370 FC-PGA2 chips do'nt work, without adapting, that I hav'nt tried to terminate with. Termination is when you only have one chip in one socket and then fill the other socket with "Terminator", wich is a chip that just balances electric currents, so neither socket burns out alone, but has no other function at all. Terminators cost about $5. Another catch is it's RAID system, they say they come with RAID and Four IDEs, but this is'nt true for all of the D6VAAs, and not either of mine. You may also be looking for SCSI and/or ethernet cards for 2 of the 5 PCI slots, but other than that it's got most everything!