Hello all…I’m at the point of realization that my system is just not capable of taking advantage of Zbrush. I need some info on what types of systems to look into and what components are important in terms of performance. I have been eyeing “Alienwares” systems. They look nice for gamers but does that translate into a good graphics machine? I am trying to stay under 4k for the system and would like some advice on what monitor displays you would recommend. I did purchase a “Wacom Intous 3” tablet and am VERY happy with it. Actually I can’t imagine sculpting without it now. Thanx for any advice…
hm, I wouldnt suggest Alienware if you are looking for value for money, most of the real top end stuff I would say you do not need for even Zbrush tbh
I think the important thing would be memory/RAM, it won’t need to be as fast memory as you would need for gaming though. My PC is 4 years old and I got it cheap at the time, it ran Zbrush ok with the onboard graphics card (was like a radeon x200) but chugged a bit at higher subdivisons, now I’ve got myself a new card but the rest of the PC is all the same and I really don’t have any problems with zbrush.
Then again, I never go over about 2.5 ish mill polies though, depends on what your criteria is, I think 2 mill is enough for most models I do. But if you facor in that it was a low-range PC 4 yrs ago and todays equivalent are going to be much better by comparison and theres newer drivers, then should be ok hopefully! =p
Maybe’s you work with more polies and need something better, I’m sure other ppl with have something to say too if I’m no help (which I suspect!), but I doubt you’d ever need a top end gaming PC to run Zbrush sufficiently =]
I would recommend against buying anything Alienware. You pay way more than you every should for what you actually get. It is so much cheaper to build a new system yourself or find someone who can do it for you.
Get a Quad Core intel, doesn’t have to be an I7, just a Q6600 or better, 8 to 16 gb of ram (current version of Zbrush can only use 4gb as far as I know plus ram is super cheap at around $10 a gb), Vista 64, a decent video card (only get a Quadro or something like that if you plan to do huge scenes in 3d apps like Max/XSI), a terabyte or so of harddrive space and whatever else of the minor components you need.
With Alienware, you’re paying an outrageous amount for the name, decent tech support, and a case with lights and crap on it.
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I am hearing great things from Digital Storm customers… The best prices, great technical support, and awesome warranty. Just Google Digital Storm reviews and read for yourself.
I got my computer from Ibuypower.com, and I can go up around 10million polygons and be able to sculpt and move around smoothly. I paid for just the computer, not the keyboard, mouse, external drives or monitors 1800 bucks
runs everything well, fast, zbrush works great on it. For games its fantastic, crysis runs fantastic on it.
heres the specs,
Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83Ghz
4 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4870 x2 2GB video card
WD 750GB HD
WD 1TB HD
CoolMaster Cooling System
Dual 22" widescreen monitors
1000w Power Supply
Saitek Eclipse 2 Keyboard (Keys Light up I love it at night)
Razor Death Adder Mouse
3 500GB External Drives
1 60GB portable External Drive
Wacom Intuos 3 tablet
Windows Vista 64 Bit
Best advice–build your own computer, you can save tons of money. Zbrush works really well already, so you don’t need to pay $4,000. A $2,000 computer would run really really well.
The new i7 processors are really good and the cheapest one isn’t that expensive. The motherboard supports up to 12GB of memory too which is nice.
As far as graphics goes, I don’t really know if Zbrush benefits more from workstation graphics cards or gaming graphics cards. You can get really good gaming graphics cards for pretty cheap–in fact the best one out right now costs around $520 which isn’t too bad.
I figured I through in my 2 cents for this discussion.
- Z brush benefits from two meager elements
a. RAM, more RAM better performance right now the program only understand up to 4 gis but remember that if your going 4 gigs you need a OS that supports that so Vista 64 bit will take another 1-2 gigs to run smoothly. My advise sens ram is so cheap go for 8 gigs and call it good.
b. Hard drive speed. Yep that’s right guys it is not the video card though that dose help in keeping your models to not get jagged edges in close up zoomes wile modeling but the hard drive speed will directly affect the amount of time it takes the program to compress your files. Now here is the trick you can do a raid set up or get a static drive that will spin over 7200 RPMs this will directly decreese the time it takes for your ZBrush to compact memory as it will always do this to handle large models.
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Graphics card. Aw yes the graphics card first thing you need to ask your self it “Do I want to game on this too or just do Art?” Well if its Art I recomend looking into the Quadros series for a mid lvl range card. If you want to game also go look into the FX remember also that Radion has some good cards and tend to be cheaper then any thing Nvidia puts out. Both company released what they call “Work station” cards but mostly these are for High render scenes in 3D programs that have alot going on or real time fluid dinamics. They can help cut down on pixalation you get in models when zoomed up but by all means DONT go this path if you want to game with your machine.
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Processor. Yep the hart and soul of any computer a fat processor will cut down on divideing time as it is used to calculate hideing models and divideing models as well as generating your maps for other programs like normal maps, cavity maps, spec maps, and Displacement maps. I would recomend going either with the i7 which vertualy is 8 cores in one CPU or going with two Quad cores which is also 8 CPU in two chips instead of one. Either way invest wisly and go for the mid range getting a few exstra .4 GHz is not worth the price look at the price break when you deside. Right now Intel is smokeing AMD so dont bother looking at AMD for now.
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Mother board. This will dictate alot for you like wether you want to go with duel processors or go single processor. I will tell you right now that there are ups and there are downs to this choice.
-Server board-
-1. they cost more and every thing on them will cost you more like your CPU and Memory we are talking about $100 differences here not a few $10’s
-2. They can support duel CPUs. This is great when you realy want your machine to push the limit as it will relive the stress on one unit and divide it to two units increasing the life span of the CPU and allowing you to have more powerfull CPU all together then any other board will allow.
-3. Greates amout of RAM allowed. Most Server boards allow 32 to 64 Gigs of RAM no noraml board will allow this as the highes I seen is 16gigs
-4. Lack of crossfire or SLI with graphics cards. Vary few server boards if any allow for either of these so if your looking to do this dont bother with them.
-5. Lack of PCI 2 x16 speed. As you will notes moset only allow 1 PCI 1 x16 and one PCI 1 x8 slot wich is sad sense you wont milk the most you can out of fast slots for raid hubs or duel video cards if you want 3-4 monitors like I use.
-Normal Board-
-1. There MUCH cheaper! These boards are arcatected to allow fo rthe comment takss of a every day uyser supporting faster bus speeds and generaly cheaper then a server board by alot.
-2. More SLI 2 x16 slots. From what I seen you can get boards with 3 to 4 slots all preped and ready at the top speeds for your computer. This can allow a much more satisfieng exspation down the road as you never know what you will want for your machine to do or get into. Sadly a server board is not biult for graphics primarly and has wasted slots like X Slots or slow Bus speed old PCI slots.
-3. Cross fire or SLI ready! As they say if one is good then 2 is beater 
Sadly most Work station graphics cards liek the Quadros are not built for SLI but most Gameing cards are so you can rly supe up a graphics cards for more of a all purpose feel to it that will run head to head with a quadro for 1k or less.
So my closeing statment to you is this. First MAKE YOUR OWN dont go and buy a pre biult its cheaper and you will learn more along the way. I would recomend makeing a list before spending th emoney and do your reaserch.
List to biuld a computer:
-What is my current budget?
-What programs am I going to run?
-What is its main function?
-What ells do I want to do on it?
I hope that helps you on your journy if you have any question just post them and I am sure some one will be up for the taks to answer them. My personal machine I whent hte server board geared towards a all in purpose machine and so fare it dose great as I been running it for 3 years with no problems. Now mind you I am in the process of updateing some of the hardware sense the prices have dropped but for Zbrush, Max, Photoshop, and any of my games it runs great
just a quick thought in response to echo’s post:
if you’re just building a machine for ZBrush, don’t buy a quadro or you’re flushing money down the toilet. Zbrush doesn’t use your video card at all, except to display the image on the screen. My laptop has a crappy little integrated Intel 945 video card that I can’t even play the weakest games on, but I can sculpt in zbrush without any slowdown or pixelization at all.
Other applications will make use of a quadro sure, but zbrush does not.
just my 2 cents, carry on 
You are right the Qudro dose not do much for Zbrush mines bringing down the anti aliasing you get when you zoom up on your model that graphic card is more for other applications then Zbrush to be honost.