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Low budget Pc to learn Houdini


Zetha

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Hi!

I have finally decided to start using Houdini.

My computer is:

- 16 Gb RAM

- Nvidia GTX 460

- Intel i7-2600 3,4GHz

- SSD 500 GB + HDD 2TB

- Windows 10

- Monitor is running at 2560 x 1440 resolution, not sure if that can damage the perfomance

 

I was thinking to upgrade the PC, buying 16Gb RAM, and maybe change the graphic card.

But maybe I should buy a new computer and re-use the SSD.

 

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Yeah more ram/HD space the better, if your motherboard can support it. For your current setup, you can totally get used to using Houdini just fine; obviously keep in mind you won't be winning any benchmarks, but for just getting started for as inexpensive as possible, you're pretty close to having something decent to start with; I would replace your graphics card with a 6GB GTX 1060, for $250 USD (I use one on a 2560x1440 screen, works great).

Also, I've found that older 12-16 core (24-36 thread) workstations can be found on eBay for pretty good prices, and are a cost effective way to acquire cpus for heavier sims/renders. Often times these machines can support anywhere from 96GB to 256GB of ram too. I also use Linux Mint.

Good luck!

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/27/2017 at 9:32 AM, haggi said:

For houdini I think as much ram as possible is good. And if you want to do simulations, 2 TB HDD can be a bit low. I'd recommend at least 32GB ram and 6TB HDD.

hi there,

I am currently building a PC and this is the first time I've heard of HDD Size effecting performance in simulations, this is an interesting point..could anyone shed more light on this??

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The size of the hard drive does not affect the performance. The speed does. For mechanical drives get at least a 7200rpm, not 5400, but SSD is ideal because there are no moving parts and you can get faster throughput. This means your files will load faster and you get better performance.

Edited by Atom
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13 minutes ago, vlb6 said:

hi there,

I am currently building a PC and this is the first time I've heard of HDD Size effecting performance in simulations, this is an interesting point..could anyone shed more light on this??

It wont have any effect on the performance. But if you are simulating stuff the files you cache to disk usually takes up a ton of space. That's why he recommended a bigger one, 2TB tend to be eaten up quite quickly depending on what you do.

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19 minutes ago, Atom said:

The size of the hard drive does not affect the performance. The speed does. For mechanical drives get at least a 7200rpm, not 5400, but SSD is ideal because there are no moving parts and you can get faster throughput. This means your files will load faster and you get better performance.

so in the scenario you are talking about you are working off the HDD? could you be working off an SSD and just keep a 7200rpm HDD for file storage? If so, what's the minimum SSD GB you would recommend? (my understanding is that you can choose to work from either? )

Edited by vlb6
clarity
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  • 1 month later...
On 03/05/2017 at 1:58 PM, Skybar said:

It wont have any effect on the performance. But if you are simulating stuff the files you cache to disk usually takes up a ton of space. That's why he recommended a bigger one, 2TB tend to be eaten up quite quickly depending on what you do.

Hi mate,

I've come back to this because I've come to that stage of my build - I tend to work on, what I perceive, as small to mid sized scenes and I've never really had a sim cache more than 1GB - in this case surely a 2TB HDD will do right?
I've had a browse through your vimeo page and I'm wondering what kind of HDD are you working off of? and are you finding you need more?

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8 hours ago, vlb6 said:

Hi mate,

I've come back to this because I've come to that stage of my build - I tend to work on, what I perceive, as small to mid sized scenes and I've never really had a sim cache more than 1GB - in this case surely a 2TB HDD will do right?
I've had a browse through your vimeo page and I'm wondering what kind of HDD are you working off of? and are you finding you need more?

I'm not doing that much stuff at home anymore, but I think I got 4-6TB something - which was enough for what I did. Start with 2TB, and if you find yourself needing more just go and buy another disk.

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On 05/06/2017 at 9:02 AM, Skybar said:

I'm not doing that much stuff at home anymore, but I think I got 4-6TB something - which was enough for what I did. Start with 2TB, and if you find yourself needing more just go and buy another disk.

gotchya - thanks for the reply!

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