Will these specs be good for Zbrush 4?

[system]

Hi guys!

I’m planning a computer purchase, and since I’m completely new to the 3D field I have no idea which computer specs will be good / which hardware features are most important for Zbrush. I realize both combinations below are over the minimum requirements, but I don’t want just minimum performance. I want this to work smoothly even if I am working on full body high poly models of human characters.

So basically I’m currently comparing these computers;

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 Processor 1035T 2.6GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR3
Hard drive: 1.5TB S-ATA (5400rpm)
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB

Processor: Intel Core i7-870 processor 2,93GHz
RAM: 6GB DDR3
Hard drive: 1000GB (7200 rpm)
Graphics card: Nvidia GTX460 1GB DDR5.

Both run 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium.

Questions:
a) Which of the above combinations is better, if any?
b) Does ZBrush utilize mainly RAM, the graphics card, or processor capacity? Which is “more important” in this case?
c) Is Zbrush only capable of using 4GB RAM maximum? (Read this on the forum, just want verification on this one really)

Also please tell me if any of the options I listed are obviously bad choices or anything like that. I’ve tried googling but quite honestly that just confuses me more since I don’t know what to look for. :lol: Help?

[goast666]

both computers are fine. But it all really comes down to what you want to do with the computer. If modeling and texturing is the only thing you want to do then either of those computers will do the job. If you want to start working with animations, rendering, and video post work then you’re going to want more RAM. Most modeling packages aren’t that intensive if that is all you’re going to be doing with them, so almost anything will work.

sidenote.

Fast HDD is important, do not get the 5400rpm HDD. Zbrush and almost every thing will be accessing that harddrive, if you don’t mind waiting for scratch disk, cache times, loading times, saving times, etc then get it, but I don’t recommend anything under 7200…and I prefer a 15k, but to each his own.

the more RAM you can get the better. DDR3 isn’t that much faster over DDR2, but it does cost a bit more. If you can, make sure your MB will support both DDR2 and DDR3. You can pick up a 1GB dimm of RAM for like $20 on newegg, depending on your manufacturer tastes and all that. If you can afford it, shoot for 12GB of RAM minimum if you like to have a lot of crap open at the same time. Zbrush, Painting app, 3D app, browser (lots of tabs), Music, movies, screen cap app. If you’re working with an intense scene you’ll appreciate the extra RAM, if you don’t have it, you’ll wish you did.

Make sure your MB can support extra RAM so you can install more as needed.

Graphics cards are all pretty much the same if you’re working on Game stuff, you typically don’t have more geo in your scene that can be supported by the card, textures on the other hand can be a different story. Both of the cards you put up have at least 1GB of RAM to them so they should be good for heavy scenes.

The processors are fine, either one. It all depends on how much rendering or baking you’re planning to do. The bigger the processor the shorter the render times. Baking can be a huge time eater if you’re working with 4k or 8k image maps for your AO, displacement, etc. We have a render server here so it isn’t a big deal but I refuse to render anything on my home systems. Some renders will take 2-3hrs with a single quadcore.

Zbrush uses RAM, then CPU, then Graphics card. zbrush will only use 4GB RAM at most. (it is 32bit still for some reason).

[zber2]

I think #2 would be a better choice. Even though the AMD Phenom II X6 Processor 1035T is a 6 core CPU and the Intel Core i7-870 CPU is 4 core, benchmarks indicate that you will get more performance out of the Intel CPU. AMD is selling their 6 core cheaper than a 4 core which doesn’t make any sense to me and in my estimation, you get what you pay for. The 6 core is still relatively new and who knows what bugs are lurking within. Intel is still the most popular CPU.

[system]

both computers are fine. But it all really comes down to what you want to do with the computer. If modeling and texturing is the only thing you want to do then either of those computers will do the job. If you want to start working with animations, rendering, and video post work then you’re going to want more RAM. Most modeling packages aren’t that intensive if that is all you’re going to be doing with them, so almost anything will work.

sidenote.

Fast HDD is important, do not get the 5400rpm HDD. Zbrush and almost every thing will be accessing that harddrive, if you don’t mind waiting for scratch disk, cache times, loading times, saving times, etc then get it, but I don’t recommend anything under 7200…and I prefer a 15k, but to each his own.

the more RAM you can get the better. DDR3 isn’t that much faster over DDR2, but it does cost a bit more. If you can, make sure your MB will support both DDR2 and DDR3. You can pick up a 1GB dimm of RAM for like $20 on newegg, depending on your manufacturer tastes and all that. If you can afford it, shoot for 12GB of RAM minimum if you like to have a lot of crap open at the same time. Zbrush, Painting app, 3D app, browser (lots of tabs), Music, movies, screen cap app. If you’re working with an intense scene you’ll appreciate the extra RAM, if you don’t have it, you’ll wish you did.

Make sure your MB can support extra RAM so you can install more as needed.

Graphics cards are all pretty much the same if you’re working on Game stuff, you typically don’t have more geo in your scene that can be supported by the card, textures on the other hand can be a different story. Both of the cards you put up have at least 1GB of RAM to them so they should be good for heavy scenes.

The processors are fine, either one. It all depends on how much rendering or baking you’re planning to do. The bigger the processor the shorter the render times. Baking can be a huge time eater if you’re working with 4k or 8k image maps for your AO, displacement, etc. We have a render server here so it isn’t a big deal but I refuse to render anything on my home systems. Some renders will take 2-3hrs with a single quadcore.

Zbrush uses RAM, then CPU, then Graphics card. zbrush will only use 4GB RAM at most. (it is 32bit still for some reason).

Thank you for your very detailed answer! It’ll be really helpful, I’m going to have to write these things down in a checklist or something.

I didn’t realize that about the hard drive speed - good to know! I’ll look for 7200 and above then, apparently starting today there is a clearance sale on the 5400 rpm hdd computers in my store so newer models should be in after.

Thanks again!

[system]

I think #2 would be a better choice. Even though the AMD Phenom II X6 Processor 1035T is a 6 core CPU and the Intel Core i7-870 CPU is 4 core, benchmarks indicate that you will get more performance out of the Intel CPU. AMD is selling their 6 core cheaper than a 4 core which doesn’t make any sense to me and in my estimation, you get what you pay for. The 6 core is still relatively new and who knows what bugs are lurking within. Intel is still the most popular CPU.

The reason the i7-870 is benchmarked higher is that it’s a quad core with hyper threading so it simulates the equivalent of an 8 core processor.

I would go with the Phenom II x6; it’s cheaper with comparable performance. The current bottle neck for computers is the hard drive. Not only are AMD processors cheaper, but the mother boards are a bit cheaper too being that AMD chip set is not the standard for “high performance gaming machines.” You can build a comparable machine and with the money you saved pick up a 15k hdd or a solid state drive or a video card with more onboard memory or more memory for the system itself.