PC sufficient for Adobe AfterEffects CS4?

[Photonic]

Hi Guys,

Need some advice regarding my computer. I recently go into After Effects and do a lot of 3D rendering. But my computer is very slow in the rendering. I am considering should i upgrade certain portion of the computer or should i upgrade the whole computer. Please advice.

My current specs are as follows:

CPU
Intel Pentium 4 524
Prescott
Socket 77 LGA
90nm Technology
Core speed 3059MHz
Core = 1, Threads = 2

DDR2 2Gb @ 266MHz
(1Gb PC2-4300 266MHz + 1Gb PC2-5300 333Mhz)

Video Card
MSI Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS
Integrated RAMDAC 256Mb



If the advice is to upgrade, would the following built be recommended?
AM3-810 with Asus M4A785D-M Pro - $359 (or should i go back to Intel? if so, which?)
6Gb Team Xtreem DDR3-1600 CL8 - $255
Powercolor HD4870 1Gb Stalker - $259
Andyson 550Watt 88%eff - $88


Thanks a lot for the advice.

 

[Lolrence]

Hi Guys,

Need some advice regarding my computer. I recently go into After Effects and do a lot of 3D rendering. But my computer is very slow in the rendering. I am considering should i upgrade certain portion of the computer or should i upgrade the whole computer. Please advice.

My current specs are as follows:

CPU
Intel Pentium 4 524
Prescott
Socket 77 LGA
90nm Technology
Core speed 3059MHz
Core = 1, Threads = 2

DDR2 2Gb @ 266MHz
(1Gb PC2-4300 266MHz + 1Gb PC2-5300 333Mhz)

Video Card
MSI Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS
Integrated RAMDAC 256Mb



If the advice is to upgrade, would the following built be recommended?
AM3-810 with Asus M4A785D-M Pro - $359 (or should i go back to Intel? if so, which?)
6Gb Team Xtreem DDR3-1600 CL8 - $255
Powercolor HD4870 1Gb Stalker - $259
Andyson 550Watt 88%eff - $88


Thanks a lot for the advice.

Anything related to 3d rendering, upgrade your CPU. Go quad core, or best, go for a HP workstation. Upgrade your ram too.

 

[Photonic]

Anything related to 3d rendering, upgrade your CPU. Go quad core, or best, go for a HP workstation. Upgrade your ram too.

Hi Lypklypk,

Thanks for the advice. I checked my mobo user manual. It can only upgrade to Dual core chips, which is much slower compared to Core 2 dual or quad core. I would like to get a new system instead and let this comp be the backup comp.

Would most probably go for AM3 chips if no new comments comes in, and try to get 64bit OS since i Aftereffects are architectured for 64bits.

More advice appreciated though

 

[lichtleiter]

You may want to consider a new set of i-5 3GBSDRAM, , 1GB NVDIA GT220, 640GB SATA HD
Dell got this bundled with 24"LCD WINDOWS7 OS at $1599

 

[Photonic]

You may want to consider a new set of i-5 3GBSDRAM, , 1GB NVDIA GT220, 640GB SATA HD
Dell got this bundled with 24"LCD WINDOWS7 OS at $1599

Hi Lichleiter,

Thanks for the recommendation. Just visited their website and see that their offer really is attractive. But there are few components that i should need to DIY to get,

such as a faster ram speed, HDMI video card, DVDrw with lightscript, and i have an extra monitor already.

Guess i should go back go DIY. Question is mainly, what specs.

 

[Lolrence]

Hi Lypklypk,

Thanks for the advice. I checked my mobo user manual. It can only upgrade to Dual core chips, which is much slower compared to Core 2 dual or quad core. I would like to get a new system instead and let this comp be the backup comp.

Would most probably go for AM3 chips if no new comments comes in, and try to get 64bit OS since i Aftereffects are architectured for 64bits.

More advice appreciated though

If $ isn't a concern, I'll rather get a HP workstation http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e..._us/en/smb/psg/psc404redirect-ot-xx-xx-/chev/

Most of them use Quadro cards (I've not used one before, but they are suppose to be more suited for anything 3d related, ie rendering, viewport display. 6 ram slots on the motherboard (If I'm not wrong, you'll have to read up).

In general, anything display related requires you to have a better gfx card (e.g, if you scrub through the timeline in real-time alot), anything rendering related requires more CPU power. More ram = easier for you to multi-task.

Don't expect a whole load of decrease in rendering time though. I think 10-20%+++ increase in speed is already good.

 

[giantcanopy]

it will definitely be slower on your system. Most of the fellas are working on quad cores with lots of ram ( check the adobe forum ) - this will enable you to have a smooth preview. mine was a simple dual core with 4 GB ram and the preview was super jerky *( oh well what to do )

Graphics card accelerates AE4 a little. I ran into some little error with my xfx 9800 gtx black which had to be patched so make sure u get the latest drivers along.

If you need to upgrade for serious 3d and ae4 work, just revamp the whole system.

Ryan

 

[lichtleiter]

If $ isn't a concern, I'll rather get a HP workstation http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e..._us/en/smb/psg/psc404redirect-ot-xx-xx-/chev/

Most of them use Quadro cards (I've not used one before, but they are suppose to be more suited for anything 3d related, ie rendering, viewport display. 6 ram slots on the motherboard (If I'm not wrong, you'll have to read up).

In general, anything display related requires you to have a better gfx card (e.g, if you scrub through the timeline in real-time alot), anything rendering related requires more CPU power. More ram = easier for you to multi-task.

Don't expect a whole load of decrease in rendering time though. I think 10-20%+++ increase in speed is already good.

I'd rather go for i-5 or i7 if money is not a problem. This new processor is 25-60% faster than Core2Quadro.
See it here. Dell's offer for i-5 is really tempting @ $1599

 

[Photonic]

I'd rather go for i-5 or i7 if money is not a problem. This new processor is 25-60% faster than Core2Quadro.
See it here. Dell's offer for i-5 is really tempting @ $1599

Whao, HP workstations are ex! haha

Anyway, thanks everyone for their advices! really appreciated it.

I read up quite a number of reviews and compared AMD with Intels, i5 with i7s, and decided to get the following:

Intel i7 860 Quad 2.8ghz + MSI p55cd53

Team elite 4gb ddr3 kit = 8Gb

Palit GTX 260 (comes with hdmi port)
Andyson F550 $86 on promo

Seagate 1Tb Hdd

Coolermaster elite 334 case

LG dvd lightscribe writer

TPlink wireless pci card

I will be using my existing monitor: Philips 221E with hdmi.

Any comments? else i getting it tomorrow

 

[viix]

ae will benefit from the quad core if you can afford it.. using multi processor rendering under ae will require 2gb per core so 8gb is minimum.. else do not enable MP or you'll have some problems with your render..

If you are using openGL accelerated effects, get a good GPU (the best you can afford) and it will help with the preview when you work..

To speed things up with the workflow, you must learn to use proxy and render your precomps.. cos trust me, once you get a fast computer, you'll do more layers of comps and overtime it'll lag..

My renders use to fly on the 8core mac pro when I switch from the dual g5.. now it's crawling.. :embrass:

As for your setup, the spec looks good to go..

 

[Photonic]

ae will benefit from the quad core if you can afford it.. using multi processor rendering under ae will require 2gb per core so 8gb is minimum.. else do not enable MP or you'll have some problems with your render..

If you are using openGL accelerated effects, get a good GPU (the best you can afford) and it will help with the preview when you work..

To speed things up with the workflow, you must learn to use proxy and render your precomps.. cos trust me, once you get a fast computer, you'll do more layers of comps and overtime it'll lag..

My renders use to fly on the 8core mac pro when I switch from the dual g5.. now it's crawling.. :embrass:

As for your setup, the spec looks good to go..

Hi viix, Thanks for your advice. I didnt know rendering under ae will require 2gb/core, and i chose 8gb simply cos i wanted 2 pairs of rams, so 4X2gb was a nice number. But now that you adviced, i am made a right choice.

Can you elaborate the openGL accelerated effects? I am new to AE too, but intend to go much more into it. I will be playing with more of the 3D effects, does that require the openGL accelerated effects you mentioned?

Yes, i tried using proxy and it helped. But cos my original files were already small, it was still too slow for me. I just needed a better comp. Can i pm you at a later stage when i seriously start learning AE and need advice?

Thanks

 

[viix]

Well, the OpenGL will help when using lighting, blending modes and motion blur in your comps.. you can set the comp's to preview using openGL acceleration and it will speed up the preview.. Some plugins like zaxwerks and trapcode's will help with a solid graphics as more 3rd party plugin now moving into 3d within ae and not fake 3d in a 2d layer..
Same for 3d layers.. as for 3d effects, not too sure what you mean here..

well, feel free to ask if you need further queries answered and i'll try my best to assist.

 

[Zohan]

Hi!

I just visited a friend running core i7 920 (oc 3.66ghz), 12gb ram, etc. He says that RAM is a bottleneck for him at the moment. If you are doing serious AE work, every min saved is a dollar earned. Best to go for the best equipment and earn the investment back quickly.

Z

Hi Guys,

Need some advice regarding my computer. I recently go into After Effects and do a lot of 3D rendering. But my computer is very slow in the rendering. I am considering should i upgrade certain portion of the computer or should i upgrade the whole computer. Please advice.

My current specs are as follows:

CPU
Intel Pentium 4 524
Prescott
Socket 77 LGA
90nm Technology
Core speed 3059MHz
Core = 1, Threads = 2

DDR2 2Gb @ 266MHz
(1Gb PC2-4300 266MHz + 1Gb PC2-5300 333Mhz)

Video Card
MSI Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS
Integrated RAMDAC 256Mb



If the advice is to upgrade, would the following built be recommended?
AM3-810 with Asus M4A785D-M Pro - $359 (or should i go back to Intel? if so, which?)
6Gb Team Xtreem DDR3-1600 CL8 - $255
Powercolor HD4870 1Gb Stalker - $259
Andyson 550Watt 88%eff - $88


Thanks a lot for the advice.

 

[xiaoshun]

If $ isn't a concern, I'll rather get a HP workstation http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e..._us/en/smb/psg/psc404redirect-ot-xx-xx-/chev/

Most of them use Quadro cards (I've not used one before, but they are suppose to be more suited for anything 3d related, ie rendering, viewport display. 6 ram slots on the motherboard (If I'm not wrong, you'll have to read up).

In general, anything display related requires you to have a better gfx card (e.g, if you scrub through the timeline in real-time alot), anything rendering related requires more CPU power. More ram = easier for you to multi-task.

Don't expect a whole load of decrease in rendering time though. I think 10-20%+++ increase in speed is already good.

i using hp.. good.. reliable...

I'd rather go for i-5 or i7 if money is not a problem. This new processor is 25-60% faster than Core2Quadro.
See it here. Dell's offer for i-5 is really tempting @ $1599

getting Dell is u dont mind their power supply noisy...

 

[viix]

Hi!

I just visited a friend running core i7 920 (oc 3.66ghz), 12gb ram, etc. He says that RAM is a bottleneck for him at the moment. If you are doing serious AE work, every min saved is a dollar earned. Best to go for the best equipment and earn the investment back quickly.

Z

Could be the ram's clock speed and the OS.. the more ram you have, the system will feel slow due to latency.. My AE start up slower than before but the throughput is improved :thumbsup:

 

[Photonic]

Hi All,

Apologise. I had a really busy day and didnt managed to get my comp today as planned, will update again soon. Thanks

 

[Zohan]

Could be the ram's clock speed and the OS.. the more ram you have, the system will feel slow due to latency.. My AE start up slower than before but the throughput is improved :thumbsup:

He experimented with AE. Apparently, it's the size of memory being a bottleneck, not the speed.

Z

 

[Photonic]

Hi all, thanks for all the help and advices, i had finished the computer and is still installing the extra softwares to suit my future needs.

the hardware specs are as follows:
Intel i7 860 Quad 2.8ghz + MSI p55cd53

Team elite 4gb ddr3 kit = 8Gb

Palit GTX 260 (comes with hdmi port)
Andyson F550

Seagate 1Tb Hdd + WD Green 1Tb

Coolermaster elite 334 case

LG dvd lightscribe writer

TPlink wireless USB

Logitec Wireess laser KB Mouse

The system is flying fast, but i have no good benchmark to compare.

Cheers to all