Best Machine for doing 3D Animation

[maclamb]

After a LONG hiatus I am starting to do 3D modeling/animation again. I am hoping to afford a new G5 Dual 1.8 or 2.0 after MWSF - the Rendering sw I use comes both mac and PC.
I know the mac will scream as a rendering box - but I also am thining of a second box - a PC. Now, what are your recommendations -0 while TWO G5 boxes would be nice - I doubt I can afford that - the PC can probably be made cheaper (dual athlons, most liklely)
Any advice/tips/suggestions?

Or... forgo the Mac and get two (3?) Athlon setups for the same price - budget is about what a Dual 1.8 goes for +$1000

Alos, how important is video card, is there a point of diminishing returns on RAM, etc...

 

[Mr. Anderson]

What software will you use? Would you get two copies of the software to run on macs and pcs?

I know Lightwave lets you render on a network, regardless of the machine - you just have to make sure any plugins you're using are available on both machines.

D

 

[maclamb]

good point - right now I am using Strata Studio Pro 3d - and have it for both mac an dpc - so can get the mac dual and my Dell 2.4G running in parrall -but not distributed rendering.
I would like to upgrade to lightwave -

 

[robotrenegade]

Originally posted by maclamb
good point - right now I am using Strata Studio Pro 3d - and have it for both mac an dpc - so can get the mac dual and my Dell 2.4G running in parrall -but not distributed rendering.
I would like to upgrade to lightwave -

I run lightwave on my G5 with ATI 9800 card and I never seen a app run so damn fast. I can't wait for lightwave 8.

 

[etoiles]

If you don't need any plugins that are only available on Windows, then I'd go for the fastest G5 you can afford, with the best video card and at least 1Gb of ram (you can always upgrade...). Set up cheap render PC's on the side if you really need to render lots of frames in a short amount of time. The good thing is: those render PC's can be built pretty cheap, as they don't need big harddrives, videocards or other fancy stuff...

But I guess the G5 will be enough to start off with, you can always let it render overnight.