Got a friend asking my help to build him a computer for animations and graphics.  He's into stuff like 3d Studio Max (etc.)

First thing i told him was to save his money.  He's gonna need something fast and some decent ram.

Suggestions please:

Any specific MOBO, RAM, CPU, etc. information would be appreciated.  

He's on a budget also.  So definitely trying to keep this project under 1k$.  

I use 3D studio max4
Im just running on a P3 at 700mhz with 512mb of ram and a Prophet II..

[img]http://www.havenofrags.de/skammy/abc.jpg[/img]

My wife and step daughter are Graphic artists, they use 3D Studio Max, InfiniD, Photoshop, etc.

I've been building PC's for them for years, I work for IBM (International Bowl Movement). I work on United Airlines Customer Reservation Systems Network. Just letting you know, I've got a lot of industry experience.

One thing I go for is stability, I will sacrafice a little speed for system stability.

Believe me you will not notice if your PC is a few Milli-seconds slower, but you'll be cusing and screaming when it locks up and dumps 3 hours of work!!!!!

Go to www.tomshardware.com & www.anandtech.com and read the motherboard reviews.

These guys are overclocking nuts, and gamers, but what makes a good gaming system is the same thing that makes a good graphics PC.

I would choose a motherboard that supports at least 1 gig of DDRSDRAM, and at least a 1.6 GHz processor, and preferably an ATA 133 IDE controller.  They should all have AGP 4X graphics card slots.

When I read the reviews to make a decision on a motherboard I always go for the board that they claim is stable and has the features I want.

Remember faster is not always better!!!!

As far as cases go get a good one, it makes a huge difference.  Plenty out there to choose from, and get at least a 350Watt power supply.

Go AMD on the processor, they are not as fast as Intel, but they are infinitly more stable.

As far as hard drives go, I would choose at least a 40 Gig or larger, preferably 80 Gig.  Graphics files are large, so the more storage space you give 'em the better.  The ATA 133 is the way to go, if you don't know what the ATA is, the number that follows is the transfer rate in Mega bytes per second. An ATA 100 has a transfer rate of 100 Mbs per second.  The latest IDE controllers are 133 Mbs persecond on the transfer rate, and the way to go for any new PC.

The biggest performance loss on any PC is the Hard drive, everything on a PC is measured in nano & pico seconds but the read and write performance on the HD which is measured in Mili seconds.  So the faster spinning HDs 7200 rpm is the way to go.

You can go SCSI, which is best, with a 166 Mb transfer rate on the controller, and a 10,000 rpm speed, but it is really expensive for the drives, and a good controller is not cheap either.

As far as Graphics Cards go, I personally like the Matrox Dual head cards, they do not preform like the other cards meant for gaming, but the dual head allows 2 monitors off of 1 card.

The wife has a 19 and a 21 inch monitor on her PC.  She puts her pallets on the 19" screen so she can use the 21" screen for work space.  She loves this set up.

I used to have to run dual PCI cards in her PC, so the dual head cards are great.

Also make sure the Motherboard has 4 USB ports for peripherials, like scanner, printer, etc.  They will probably have a Digital Camara which usually uses a USB port also.

Also, I always like building the system, because buying a motherboard from ASUS, or other manufacturers gives you a great BIOS, which allows you a lot more control over the system from brand name computers like Dell or Gateway.  The PC manufacturers do not want you in the BIOS, so they make it simple, thus taking away your control over the system.

I don't know what else to add at this point!!

Hope I wasn't to lengthy on the post!

Good luck with the system you build!!!!

Thanks for the suggestions!  Keep it rolling.  

(mutter mutter. . . goes to show that having certs doesn't prove a thing. . . .takes certs AND experience)

BTW, apparently some of the animation-software companies are releasing "free" limited versions:
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20020328/tc_usatoday/3977471[/url]