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Best Platform for Running Maya?
Kieckerjan asks: "A friend of mine, who's an architect, has been appointed a research position at a small university. Along with the job he's been assigned
a budget to spend on whatever he thinks is necessary to get the job done. One of the things he needs is a fast machine to run Maya.
As he is fed up with Wintel systems, he's been looking into alternatives. His eye fell on SGI's Fuel workstation, which costs about 15.000 EURO. For that kind of money you can buy a seriously bad-assed pentium-based system, and run Linux on it. His question to me was: is it worthwhile to shell out the extra money for a SGI system? Since I have no experience with modern SGI's, I am in no position to judge about performance differences, but maybe
someone on this forum does."
The right answer here depends on a lot of stuff that you (the submitter, that's right, I'm talking to you) didn't tell us.
;-)
What's your friend's level of comfort with UNIX? IRIX is a very well documented OS, but there are few places you can go for help if you get stuck. You have to be prepared to sit down and read the manuals (techpubs.sgi.com).
Does your friend want to do anything else with the computer? Like, say, surf the web or read email? If so, he'll be happier with either a Windows XP machine (and you said he's "fed up") or a Mac. Doing basic stuff on an IRIX box-- like word processing or email-- is like chewing on tin foil. Most people I know keep a PC or a Mac next to their SGI system for doing everything other than what they use their SGI system for.
Is a new machine the right answer for this guy? You can get used Octanes pretty reasonably. Fuel comes with V12 graphics (I think V10 is also an option, but I'm not positive), and that's pretty serious stuff, but you can probably get your hands on an MXE or similar system for considerably less than a new Fuel. Consider contacting SGI's remanufacturing division; they sell older systems at a substantially reduced cost. Although I don't know if they sell to overseas customers. Might be US-only.
All in all, I think the best choice is probably going to be a top-o-the-line Power Mac G4 with the fastest graphics card available. Right now, I think that's the GeForce 4 Titanium, for about $400. It's no V12, but it'll do the job. The dual processors are a nice bonus, letting you work at full speed while doing test renders in the background (I use that feature all the time on my dual 1 GHz "Speed Holes" model.) And because OS X is UNIX in all but name, you get all the advantages of running UNIX on your desktop while still being able to run stuff like Microsoft Office should you need it.
I guess what I'm saying is that you should think about the questions I asked, carefully weigh all the factors, and then buy a Mac.
I write in my journal
Has it occurred to you to ask the manufacturer (Alias|Wavefront) rather than asking a bunch of high school and college kids on Slashdot? You're going to spend tons of money on the software, but then ask a bunch of beginners and web typists for advice on the hardware? Please.
Lets see...they aren't tied to any hardware manufacturer...they can use SGI/Sun/IBM/HP systems...they can even use commodity (Intel/AMD) hardware. They can upgrade hardware much more easily...for instance whenever the GeForce 5 comes out, they don't have to take anyone's system from them...it should be nothing more than a hardware switch. And if the unthinkable were to happen and say SGI/nVidia goes under, they don't have to redesign all of their custom software...If they need more power, they can easily upgrade systems without artists having to learn a new interface (artists aren't always the most tech savvy)...
Other advantages...laptops...not for artists, but for executives...how nice would it be to show someone a model of the main character for their new film with the same software your artists are using...
If they move to Linux for all of their *NIX apps, they can save costs on support staff...why keep ppl around that specialize in different *NIX flavors when you can have 1 team that focuses on 1 OS for all of your needs (Web Server, Workstations, Render Farm, etc)...
What if an artist wants to work from home...Linux would make it possible...furnishing an SGI workstation for anyone that wants to work from home would be expensive at best...
I'm sure there are a lot more advantages that I could list, but this should give you some ideas...
The choice is really between a Fuel and a Mac.
Not really...from what I read, the choice was between a Fuel and a Lintel box...the origonal article didn't mention anything about a Mac...
And here's an interesting idea...the companies like Dreamworks and Pixar have their own setups for their Linux boxen...their vendors have all the specs for their systems...why couldn't he contact say Dreamworks and work with them to get a Linux box built to Dreamworks' specs...not only would that be kewl, but I somehow think that some studio is bound to be open to the idea...think about it...at the very least they have a bunch of students that think they're really kewl...at best, they get some good PR and are able to hire students that already have experience on one of their systems...so maybe they don't have the custom internal software, but they would have a system with the exact same specs, distro, etc as a major studio...