Ok I am in a cool situation. I have pretty much unlimited $$$ for whatever I want for a renderstation for carrara. Should I be going for a dual p4 type of system or a server type of system? I have been looking and the quad processor servers seem to all be p2 xenon based systems while the new workstations all seem to be p4 xenon dual based. I am looking at getting at least 1.5 gigs of ram..anyone have any dream systems out there to recommend?

If I had unlimited $$$ to spend on a computer right now, I'd probobly look into one of the SGI NT workstations. Thats just my opinion, cutcopypaste has very valid points too. We live in a great time to be buying a computer, unreal power for the money. Must be nice to not have to worry about $$$. I would definately make sure Carrara will get along with a quad processor before i bought on, I know it works fine with duals, but quads are in question here. Good luck and enjoy whatever you end up with. kaom

Well it looks like most of the vendors we can deal with dont have very fast quad systems..they are server systems so they are built for high reliablity rather than speed. I guess if you need to go faster you are supposed to just add more servers...to bad carrara doesnt support network rendering :) So it looks like I am getting a dual p4 based 1.7ghz system with like 2 gigs of ram and 140gigs of HD. Now I just need to find a good video card that supports duel head flat screens :) How come my salary can't be used as a captol investment..silly buisness rules.

About the Quad Processors. One thing that you'll want to keep in mind is that Win 2k DOESN'T support quads (it supports duals, but not quads.) If you want to run quads, you're going to have to go up to Win 2k Server or Advanced Server (both are VERY pricey). Also, Carrara doesn't have multiple processor support. So Carrara will only be utilizing one processor rather than both. So even if you have a dual p4 1.4gig it will still render like it was just using a single 1.4gig...because it is. But you'll be able to run multiple instances of C or any other program :) fairly smoothly. Are there actually any boards that support dual P4s? I haven't seen any out there...you might also want to consider Dual Athlons. The board is a little high $600, but unlike the Pentiums, intels have 3 floating points rather than just 1. This makes for a good deal of increased performance, especially when it comes to Direct Draw and other graphics engines. Well...that should keep you busy and thinking for a while :) Hope that was helpful! Jared

One last thought...if you could...tell them that you need to send your buddy Rockjockjared about $4000 so he can build up a nice little computer for himself...or...just build up two and send one to me :) Tell them you need the second for listening to mp3s or something... Just a thought 8-) Jared

Yeah, also tell them I need a new one too. About $3000 should do it. Tell them they can write it off on their taxes as Charity. Just instant message me and I'll give you mailing address. Thanks, I'll be waiting. Be sure and tell them to pack it in lots of packing padding so it doesn't get damaged during shipping. Just send it to: Kaom 123 Invisible Road Right Here, Co USA 24680

Attached Link: http://www.eovia.com/index.htm?carrara/prod_features.htm&0

At what point did Carrara cease to have multi processor support? The Windows version has had multiprocessor support for quite some time..its the mac variation that is having troubles. go look on the site..its the first feature listed..you just have to enable it.

Attached Link: http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderi860.html

I stand corrected! I never knew carrara supported that! Guess I'll be utilizing that in my next system. Oh, one last thing...I was checking out some boards and processors and such and stumbled onto a dual Xeon 4 board! The board is a little steep, as are the processors, but if they're giving you the cash, might as well go for the top of the line Intel processors! The link above has more info on the board...and it supports 8gigs of RAM!!! Thanks for setting me straight about the Dual Processors! Jared Jared

It looks like I am getting something similar to that..except its from compaq (need the service contracts)and it maxes out at like 2gigs of ram...its going to scream tho.

I don't know what I was thinking about...obviously not carrara...I appologize for my stupidity.