Hi Guys,

I started to learn houdini and I'm not really sure about my hardware.
I'm a motion graphics guy who is used to AE/C4D, mainly working at agencies on their equipment (most of the time macs).
I was really into gaming like 10 years ago and still have got this hardware(imgs attached).

My question now is, if I should invest into that machine, or go with a new one?
The whole process feels slow and I don't want to invest too much money right now.
I know it's pretty old, but could someone tell me what would be the “most cost efficient” way for now?

A huge bottle neck is your Ram. 6GB for sims is not much - think at least 16, hopefully 32 but 64 is the sweet spot.

I agree with Artye, even though I find Houdini is very good with RAM, 6GB is probably a bit too limiting. Not just an issue for simulations but rendering with Mantra will start using the scratch disk if you run out of RAM.

If you want to upgrade your current setup, I'd recommend more RAM. (as much as possible) If you need faster renders without replacing the CPU, you could look into GPU rendering with a graphics card like a GTX 980ti, Titan, 1080, 1070 and GPU rendering software like Redshift, Octane etc. (Cheaper than buying a whole new pc, but debatable if you are able to replace the CPU yourself)

Or, if you want to build/buy a new pc, this thread is fairly new and related to the new i7 Broadwell-E: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/44852/ [sidefx.com]

hope that helps
Rob

Thanks guys, I will have a look into your suggestions.
I think I'm going with more ram and a new video card, although the MB can just hold 24GB ram.
But I hope that's enough for the moment

Hey it's me again =P

I'm going with the more cost effective way for now and will update my stystem slightly=P
What do you guys think:
Go with an i7-980(x) or with an X5680?
I'm not really planning on going dual-cpu.

Heya,

Here's a link comparing those two and the two others from the thread I linked previously. http://ark.intel.com/compare/47916,47932,82930,94196 [ark.intel.com]

The advantage of the Xeon is more RAM (and dual socket) but the i7's are cheaper and you can overclock them.

I've found that having adequate RAM for the work is worth more than a slightly faster cpu. ie. Rendering with Mantra, if you don't have enough RAM, it will start using the scratch disk which is extremely slow. (so it won't matter how fast the cpu is)

hope that helps
Rob