Since this is where a lot of smart people hang out, I'd be interested in opinions on this.

I am about to buy myself a laptop, and running Houdini will be one of its tasks. But this isn't production-level stuff, more like creating simple test files, rendering single frames, etc.

The question is: it seems to cost roughly the same to get either
- dual core with 1GB or
- single core with 2GB

Any opinions about this tradeoff, in terms of which is likely to perform better? Although this will be a dual-boot machine, I will spend about 90% of my time in linux, probably running FC4 (or maybe FC6, as that now seems to be current!)

The Houdini apprentice edition only uses a single core, but that may change in the future, and 3d programs in general benefit greatly from dual CPUs. I say go with the dual core. I currently run a core 2 with only 1 Gb and it's great.

I'd second that. Go with dual core, seems like Core 2 Duo is the best option out there right now. You can always add a second gig of ram later - it's dirt cheap, esp. in the US. Plus, Newegg are nearby, if i remember correctly ;-)

Go with both.

Vendors generally way over charge for laptop RAM. I would go with the dual core option with as little as RAM as possible. Then once you get the laptop purchase the RAM it needs from some other place (like mushkin).

That's what I did for my Dell M60. I got 2 gigs from another vendor and the money I saved from that I went with the upgraded hard drive and CPU. Plus its a lot easier to upgrade the memory than the cpu.

Craig,


An Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GHz, and 2 GB RAM will provide a value
that Core Duo and Single-core with 1GB RAM will not.

In selecting a system with 1 GB RAM, it will, most likely contain 2 slots with 512 MB in each slot. When RAM is upgraded to 2 GB or more, the 512 sticks will no longer be useful as the slots will need to be populated with a 1 GB stick in each slot.
2 GB RAM will provide better expandability options.

Intel Core 2 Duo adds support for 64-bit, up to 4MB L2 Cache, and virtualization support. Specific model numbers apply.

Intel Core Duo and Single-core do not support all of these features.

A mobile solution that povides PCI-Express with nVidia QuadroFX 2500M or 1500M will supply the requisite GPU with 256 MB on-board RAM.

A Seagate Momentus mobile HDD at 7200 rpm is preferable to a 5400 rpm drive as it will provide a data storage and data retrieval environment more suitable to VFX.

Monitor technology that provides the best approximation of color is another consideration to address.

Happy New Year!

Philip

I wrote to SideFx and talked to them at the London roadshow.. but had no reply at all about this… but I'm having lot of “system freezes” on my dual core Thinkpad… in fact… i'm using it with single core enabled only…

when using dual core in BIOS… houdini often freezes the machine when cooking sop networks… usually with lot copy/stamping cooks…. and this happens with no particular scene… and I'm not allocating 2gb ram neighter… so i really have no clue on what can be the problem.. but I'm sure its houdini… cause this doesnt happens when using others apps….

I'm on Linux Fedora… and I know SOPs arent threaded… but my machine hangs anyway …

sum][one
i'm using it with single core enabled only… when using dual core in BIOS… houdini often freezes the machine when cooking sop networks…

That actually sounds like a problem I had with some nVidia drivers. They had started multi-threading their video drivers and had a bug where Houdini's method of outputting *text* would cause the video driver to crash. <sigh> This manifested itself randomly, occurring more frequently when there was lots of text written to the status bar.

The workaround was exactly the same as you described for the BIOS. In my case, I had to turn off hyperthreading.

However, I believe it was subsequently fixed.

…sadly not. (fixed) … and sadly i cant see why it should be related to grahics drivers… first reason is I'm using ATI card (oh well… this sounds like -it is- a graphics drivers problem then ).. second.. this happens even using the standalone shell command “hrender” and pointing at a Geometry ROP (even if less frequently)… also … i dont see then, if this is a graphics drivers problem, it shouldnt freeze my machine with XSI .. maya or shake too … it just happens with Houdini. sadly.

I dont care too much until it runs smooth in Single core mode.. but still… this is annoying since no Sesi interest has been put on this (I did posted few times on forums.. and talked personally to sesi people in London)… but.. nothing… maybe it just happens to you and me

I just hope H9 will be out soon … well.. i know it wont happens -that- soon… but also I'm talking about a personal Laptop were I do learn using it… sad thing is that it happened on workstations I worked on .. and those werent dual Core.. but Dual CPU…

Using a single cpu (or core) machine never gave me such system hangs, in fact i'm now on the t60p thinkpad (dual core) but I have a t43p as well.. which never gave me such problem.. and loading same scenes on this t60p often hangs with I have dual core enabled.