Hey Guys!

I'm building a new system for Vue! & I can't decide between i7 950 or i7 870!

Both are great performers! If I go with i7 870 build, it gives same performance, it's cheaper & uses less power but then there is 16GB RAM limit & virtually no upgrades in future!

If I go with i7 950, I can take up my RAM upto 24GB & there is at least a 6 core which I can upgrade to later! I'm not sure abt the advantages of triple channel over dual channel with Vue usage! Can you guys can tell me if you've experienced any difference?

So pls help me out with your experiences! Does i7 950 build has enough advantage over i7 870 build! Oh & I'm gonna use the GTX 460 1GB with whichever build I go & I'm not going for OC or SLI.

Thanx!
~Vish~

depends on price difference :)

Expect a GOOD motherboard/CPU to last no more than 5 years if yer lucky, 3 years for  a "not so good" system.
they can last longer, but most have problems before they hit 5 or 3 years old.
So, why spend $$$ now when you WILL replace it in the future anyway? See what I mean?

On the other hand if the CPU type (socket etc) is rare and iwll not be made....it coudl be hard upgrading in future if just the CPU dies

A good quality motherboard is always the best investment you can make along with a good PC case and PSU. Those are vital

I never see the point on spending on the higher end CPUs are the % improvement is NOT wortht he vast price difference
however, the new, very different CPus nowadays make repalcements/upgrades etc far more ocmplex

Um, you are worried about 16 gig not being enough?! I have NEVER, bar for bugs with dispalcement, gone above about 2 to 3 gigs on my 8 gig system with my usual scenes!
IRIC, my "Rock of Bral" scene,w hich was incredibly complex with dozens of poser folk etc took about 4 gigs of RAM use
So, lol, 16 gigs is NOT an issue ;)
what maybe an issu eis type of RAM, again, like CPUs it has changed so much, new systems use DDR3 RAM and even it there's oddities, some manufactuers warn about not using some poor quality RAM chips that drian too much current as there's soem issues with a few chipsets, from what I've heard shrug

Usually I use ASUS motherboards and have found them extremely good and long lasting, however ASUS has had many complaints about customer service/bad website etc.
Other folk preffer GIGABYTE or ASROCK.
perosnally I like the P6 ASUS series at the moment (if I could afford 'em, lol, still using my first generation Quad core system and hope it lasts many years ot come)

Sorry I cna't be more specific :) need osmeone with more real hard knowledge of the current VERY complex CPU/chipset situation

Quote - depends on price difference :)

Expect a GOOD motherboard/CPU to last no more than 5 years if yer lucky, 3 years for  a "not so good" system.
they can last longer, but most have problems before they hit 5 or 3 years old.
So, why spend $$$ now when you WILL replace it in the future anyway? See what I mean?

On the other hand if the CPU type (socket etc) is rare and iwll not be made....it coudl be hard upgrading in future if just the CPU dies

A good quality motherboard is always the best investment you can make along with a good PC case and PSU. Those are vital

I never see the point on spending on the higher end CPUs are the % improvement is NOT wortht he vast price difference
however, the new, very different CPus nowadays make repalcements/upgrades etc far more ocmplex

Um, you are worried about 16 gig not being enough?! I have NEVER, bar for bugs with dispalcement, gone above about 2 to 3 gigs on my 8 gig system with my usual scenes!
IRIC, my "Rock of Bral" scene,w hich was incredibly complex with dozens of poser folk etc took about 4 gigs of RAM use
So, lol, 16 gigs is NOT an issue ;)

Sorry I cna't be more specific :) need osmeone with more real hard knowledge of the current VERY complex CPU/chipset situation

Thanx for you thoughts, Silver! & you're right! I need some informative answers from the users who own i7 950 or 870! Especially about the triple channel memory, is it useful for Vue? Is it worth paying for?
 
I've both build decided with all the items chosen, but I can't decide which one to buy! :D
Price difference btween two builds is around 180$. But if performance & upgradabilty is worth it then I can go for it! I just need some definitive info! :)

Thanx!
~Vish~

I, too, am oredering a new PC and now wondering if I need the better processor for the future, or is 16 gigs of RAM enough?

drifterlee, the processor determines how fast the render will be, the quantity of ram detemines how complex the scene can be..

Vishw - I reccomend you look at the intel site for a full comparison of the two processors

http://www.intel.com/en_uk/consumer/products/processors/corei7-specs.htm

And also visit some sites like toms hardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Core-i7-Nehalem,2057-13.html

http://xtreview.com/review232.htm

seems that theres not much in the difference between dual/triple channel (i would still go for triple if i could afford it though - but thats just me, and probably explains why I cant afford it... :D)

Im afraid im still not a user of those processors or triple ram though, so im probably not that much help :)

I think I'm going with the i7 860 processor which only supports 16 megs of RAM. I am going to get 16 megs of RAM, which should be plenty for a few years.

16 mb of ram? :) tee hee, ahem, sorry :D

Quote - I think I'm going with the i7 860 processor which only supports 16 megs of RAM. I am going to get 16 megs of RAM, which should be plenty for a few years.

16GB is overkill! 12 GB is more than enough for Vue!

Quote - drifterlee, the processor determines how fast the render will be, the quantity of ram detemines how complex the scene can be..

Vishw - I reccomend you look at the intel site for a full comparison of the two processors

http://www.intel.com/en_uk/consumer/products/processors/corei7-specs.htm

And also visit some sites like toms hardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Core-i7-Nehalem,2057-13.html

http://xtreview.com/review232.htm

seems that theres not much in the difference between dual/triple channel (i would still go for triple if i could afford it though - but thats just me, and probably explains why I cant afford it... :D)

Im afraid im still not a user of those processors or triple ram though, so im probably not that much help :)

Hey Rich! I know all the specs & I've read many reviews but I want some definitive info from someone who is using Vue on i7!

I emailed the techs at Magicmicro who built my own machine, and they are the ones who said teh 860 only supports up to 16 megs of RAM. The 950 supports up to 24.

From my knowledge (so take all this with a grain of salt)...

the i7 860/870... motherboards only have 4 ram slots on them (dual channel). The biggest ram chips about at the moment are 4gb, so thats where the i7 870 only supporting 16GB comes from (4x4).

The i7 920/930... motherboards have 6 ram slots (triple channel) so thats where the 24gb for a i7 950 comes from (6x4).

I have an i7 860 with 8gb ram and it seems fine. The furtherest I've got into that 8GB was about 4GB being used by Vue - that was for a scene with some pretty large ecosystems of imported complex meshes. Only issue I've had is a few warnings abuot running out of video memory (have a 1gb card) and having to enter a reduced display mode for ecosystem instances.

Unfortunately I haven't had access to a triple channel setup to compare my dual channel one too so can't shed any light on that. I would expect that triple channel with larger bandwidth should help a little in rendering... but not sure how much. Something that almost made me get a 920 was that with triple channel (6 slots) you can get to 12GB of ram fairly cheaply using 2gb sticks (last I looked the 4gb sticks were a bit expensive).

I ended up getting (for right reason or wrong) an 860 for its alleged reduced power/heat output over the 920 as I live in a hot house.

edit - oh, and you might want to think about a 3rd party cpu cooler. When Vue renders, it uses all the cpu cores so things might get a bit warm/hot if you leave it rendering for 10 hours.

Thanks!

I'm about to order my new PC and as far as upgades, I have no idea now if I should order an 870 or a 950. If I get the 950, i can only afford 12 gigs of RAM. I can get 16 with an 870. I am also considering getting the GeForce 9800 GT graphics card because a tech at E-on said it would be good, What do you folks think?

i use a 9800 GTX+ 1gb ram, and its fine,

but its kinda dated now about 2-3 years old or more I believe...

Is the GTS 250 a newer card and does it work with Vue 8?

it is newer, yes.  

if you have infinite, please look at this page

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_8.5_infinite/?page=15

complete this page

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_8_complete/?page=18

and scroll down to the bit where it says "reccomended video boards"

Well, the 250 is not mentioned speciffically. I'm getting more and more confused about cards.