Very best machine to run Daz?
Glampfire Girl
Posts: 25
Hi Guys,
I *may* have the opportunity to purchase a new laptop. Prices aside, what is the best machine (brand and specs) to run Daz?
It is my main program now. I also run the latest Photoshop and Motion Artist. Battery life matters too. Screen size should be at least 15"but bigger is good too. I am open to Mac or PC.
I'm kind of interested in dual laptops (with tablet screens, paticularly the kind you can draw on), but are they advanced/glitch-free enough yet to bother with when it comes to using Daz?
Thanks in advance for any input.
AngB in AZ
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Comments
I have a quad-core 8GB of RAM and nvidia graphic on my Sony VAIO and never had an issue. I can handle pretty decent size scenes. I think I paid $1100 2 years ago for it.
A desktop would be best - the machine will work hard while rendering and cooling cannot be as good in a laptop as in a desktop (assuming the ventilation is well set up, of course).
Touch tablet screens and Studio are not a match made in Heaven at this time. If you're like the rest of us and money is an object then I suggest Dell Precision or Mac Book Pro running windows.
If money is no object then get you some Eurocom Scorpios, it's a beast.
They can actually fit all of that in a laptop package and not have it melt into a pile of goo?
That looks like an overheating problem waiting to happen. Or does it pass for an axillary heater for your old air-colled VW bugs?
They can actually fit all of that in a laptop package and not have it melt into a pile of goo?
That looks like an overheating problem waiting to happen. Or does it pass for an axillary heater for your old air-colled VW bugs?
Very highly rated laptops but if you can put your desk in a meat locker and type with an Eskimo parka on it wouldn't hurt.
they're not going for 1/3 of a mm thinner than the tablet style chassis, they're actually twice as thick as you might expect and humming with fans. Out of my price range but a 3D modeler and gamer can dream...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/eurocom-panther-5d-notebook-review,3685.html
I echo the recommendation of a desktop. I have rendered on both this laptop and my main - the laptop was bought long after I built the desktop so their stats are similar (16gb RAM, Quad core Intel i7 processor; in native 3Delight graphics card is irrelevant). The laptop performs uniformly worse even sitting on a cooling pad.
One day I dream of building a dual six-core rig on a server motherboard for rendering to 3Delight external, but we'll see if I ever have the budget (at that point if I can afford the hardware the license will be peanuts). ;)
if portability is non factor then desktop is going to give you more bang for the buck especially if you can build it. Laptops = smaller/compact parts that perform with less power but cost more money vs their desktop counterparts and limitations on cooling so generally weaker CPU's that can run with smaller fans and less headroom Desktop vs. laptop is a tradeoff that comes down to power vs. portability at a price, but if power is the object go desktop and you'll be much happier with performance.
If you want great performance and great cooling I'd recommend looking at laptops designed for gamers. They will be more expensive than general use laptops, but they are designed to run and stay "cool" under heavy loads for extended periods. I used high end "general use" laptops for years until I happened to need a replacement ASAP, and stumbled into a great deal on a Gateway FX gamer. It was a great performer, and ran cooler under load than anything I'd ever used. In fact, for a presentation one time, one of the people I was presenting with couldn't get his 3D app to perform acceptably on his brand new high end "workstation" professional 3D laptop, It performed flawlessly on mine. Now, if at all possible, I will only get gamers for doing 3D.
I currently have an MSI (GT70 series) that replaced the Gateway and have been very happy with it. It has a quadcore i7, 24Gb of ram, and Nvidia Gerforce 670M with 3Gb dedicated vram. It has an outstanding cooling system for a laptop, and I run DS (Daz Studio), Carrara 8.5, Poser 2014, Hex, several other 3D apps, and use both Lux Render and Octane Render (GPU renderer). They all perform very well, and I haven't had any heating issues in over a year of use (I've had renders running for over 70 hours non-stop on it). In fact, Octane runs cooler than CPU rendering. Under no/low load, the video card runs between 47-54 degrees, under full load with cooler boost enabled while running Octane it stays between 58-61 degrees (about 25 degrees below operating thermal max). MSI Gaming laptops have cooler boost, a button activated high speed cooling fan that keeps them from getting hotter like other laptops I’ve owned. You can find out more about cooler boost here:
http://event.msi.com/nb/faq/q11.html
I'd stay away from the thin/light laptops, as they will either have poor cooling or have the components running at lower clock speeds to reduce heat issues. Most gamers have larger cases - that's to aid in keeping the components cool. There are probably other gaming laptops available with equally good cooling systems, just make sure you check out both the customer and professional reviews to ensure that heat isn't an issue with them.
Like others have suggested - You get more performance for your investment with a desktop. But if you need the portability of a laptop, well designed/built gamers are great for DS, Carrara, Poser, etc., In the long run, IMHO gamers are worth the extra investment because they will last longer. I used my first gamer for 4 years, and would still be using it if I didn't need to increase the RAM past 4Gb.
I been using a dual core gateway with 3G for about 6 years - it does have its own graphic 1G - runs great - and I do animation .
I use DS - Carrara - Bryce - Vue - well you name it .
So you don't have to spend a ton of money .
General guidelines when considering a PC to run DAZ Studio...
Two main priorities are CPU and Memory. 3D rendering will consume just about as much of either one as you will give it. Don't worry too much about the graphics processor. As long as it is current on the support for Open GL and not a total "bargain basement" card, you should be fine.
On the CPU, multiple cores is a very good thing. The DAZ Studio rendering engine will spawn multiple threads for each CPU core to be rendering multiple "buckets" of your image at the same time. You'll probably want at least 4, but 6 or 8 cores would be better. Obviously, faster clock speeds are also nice.
The more RAM you can put into the machine, the better off you'll be. :) Especially if you're running a 64-bit Operating System. How much RAM does DS want? ... More! :coolsmirk:
As for laptops, two main concerns to watch out for..
The first is heat. I've had laptops which could handle 3D rendering. But you wouldn't want to keep them in your lap for very long! And in fact if I worked on them for more than an hour, they'd overheat without some sort of a "cooling pad" underneath them.
The second is that some lower cost laptops, in order to save money, use a "shared memory" architecture. By that I mean that the graphics chip actually uses some of the system memory for it's video memory rather than having dedicated video ram of it's own. This can cause significant performance issues. So you definitely want to read on the specs and verify that the video chip has dedicated memory just for video.
If you are a heavy gamer then you need to get a decent graphics card as well
Get 64-bit, not 32-bit. (can you even buy 32-bit PCs anymore these days?) The 32-bit application will hit the memory limit and go horribly wrong pretty quick. 64-bit buys you a lot less crashing. Assume whatever you buy will get obsolete and need to be replaced yesterday, so don't bother chasing the lastest and greatest expensive stuff unless you have wads of cash lying around crying to be set free. In fact, an excellent plan is instead of going shopping, find a friend with a decent machine that's better than yours and convince them they want to upgrade to the lastest and greatest, then be there to buy their old PC on the cheap now that they don't need it.
I just bought a Lenovo Y510P to replace my old Toshiba laptop. I used the old one primarily for 3D modeling and rendering. Since I travel a lot, needed a portable computer for my hobby. The old laptop was great but would turn itself off during rendering occasionally (once or twice a week maybe) due to overheating, but in recent months it was happening far more often, just about every day. SO I had to upgrade.
So far the Lenovo handles DAZ Studio well. You need to be careful when buying a laptop that the Intel i7 can sometimes come in dual core configuration rather than the expected quad core. I wanted the Lenovo because it had the full four cores and it was pretty affordable for a laptop in this config.
My issue with notebooks is they overheat alot faster/easier than a desktop, and in turn reducing performance vs. a desktop with same specs running at a decent temp
This may sound weird, but if you need to move around, travel and generally have a portable machine, maybe take a look at Lenovo laptops. At least in my country, they are one of the cheapest - probably not fashionable enough to compete with Apple and such - but they can serve a variety of purposes. One can find different specs for them, but I'm currently on Lenovo Y580 with the following stats: Intel(R) CoreTM i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.40 GHz with 16GB of RAM, it's a 64-bit version with x64 processor. And it's shipped with 1TB of storage space, which means a lot in terms of content ;). My previous laptop was Lenovo Y530 and it worked very well with DS, although I can see a huge improvement in the current one. Now rendering takes a few minutes, even if I use UberEnvironment lights, my own textures and render like 2000x2000.
It depends on the other uses for the computer. I don't think you will ONLY use DS - so think about other features.
Since laptops vent heat mostly out the bottom (ironically making them terrible too use in your lap) I have found those laptop cooling pads don't work well. Using a stand like the one shown bellow and having a small desk fan blowing across the laptop works much better.
Or just make a wooden frame to match your machine's size, add at least three legs (this way even if their dimensions differ they will not tremble) and you are set.
I would echo the advice of those who are saying if you are looking for a laptop to go for the "Gaming" laptop as they are designed for high load and ease of cooling.
I bought into the hype and got an Alienware several years ago, even paid the large amount for the super "If anything at all, up to and including an elephant stepping on it happens we will replace it" warrantee and it was worth every penny as my graphics cards failed after 2 years, they were out of stock and had a six month wait, so they replaced it with this years new model, with higher all round specs than the one that died on me, so I am quite happy.
That being said it runs like a beast, duel 770 gtx sli 3g cards 4 core i7, 16gb ram. runs warm but well under max temp. I work out of town so need the portability. I also work in my vehicle a lot so if I think its too warm I crank the ac and blow it onto the back of it. But with the temp monitor I have not noticed any issues at all. even rendering 12 hours.
I do recommend a cooling pad, it does make about a 7-10 degree difference. if you can save your cpus 10 degrees of heat over long periods, why not do it.
Though not a fan of Dell and the fact Alienware is not like they used to be before they became Dell, it is still not bad. I have been eyeing Digital Storm as the "next" Alienware