Some advice on building a super computer?

I am looking to build a computer and I am willing to spend 2-4k on it. I need a powerful computer for 3d Animation rendering.





This is about what I am looking at:





1-2 Tar of memory


4-5Gig ram


8900 Nvidia Graphics card


and I have not decided upon a processer.





I am aware that Windows Vista/XP can't handle more then a 3gig ram so I am prepaired to have the computer run Linix. The problem is that I don't know which versions of linix can run that much memory.





So I guess I have three questions:


1: What version of linix can run %26gt;3gig ram (slash which do you recommend?)


2: Is watter cooling worth it? I don't know much about it. Like, does it break often? Is it cost effective? Does it work better then just a fan?


3: Can you forsee any problems.


4: Where can I find some good lit on building my own computer?Some advice on building a super computer?
You're misinformed on a couple of issues.





1) XP and Vista are both capable of using well over 3GB of RAM, you just have to buy the 64-bit versions as opposed to the lesser 32-bit versions, which can only use 3.3 GB of RAM.





2) There is no such thing as an nVidia 8900. The nVidia 8 series stops at the 8800s.





Ok, with that cleared up, here's some other things.





-Water cooling is not really worth it unless you intend to heavily overclock (and I mean REALLY heavily overclock) your components. The risk for leaks that could damage components is too high. It does cool better than fans, but just isn't worth it unless you really, really NEED great cooling.





-Good lit on building your own computer...this is a decent page for beginners: http://static.tigerdirect.com/html/PCbui鈥?/a>





-If you're really looking to build a ';supercomputer,'; a quad-core processor is probably a must. I recommend an Intel Core 2 Quad of the Q6600, Q6700, Q9300, Q9450, or Q9550. These are all great for heavy multitasking and processor-intensive tasks.





-For 3D animation rendering, you'll need a good workstation graphics card, which may cost you quite a bit. Here's a cheaper model that suffices for most tasks: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as鈥?/a> (820$).





Here's a reallllllly nice workstation graphics card that will handle pretty much every 3D task in the world. Only buy this if you need some serious horsepower in the graphics department. (1350$): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as鈥?/a>Some advice on building a super computer?
1. don't know


2. yes, no, if you like your chips not deep fried, yes.


3. no


4. google
Ring up Nasa lol :P





Its only worth watercooling if you are going to Overclock. Otherwise stock fans or some aftermarket air cooling such as the Thermaltake heatsinks ect. Watercooling obviously has more matiance than air cooling %26amp; yes it works better than air. But there is no point unless you are going to overclock.. unless you just want your pc to look pretty.





Also for 2 - 4 k You could get a much better computr than that.





This is what I would go for





A Q6600 With watercooling overclocked to around 4ghz


4 GIG Of corsair dominator ram


2 Raptor x drives in Raid zero


A new Nvidia card or 2 doubt that two would have much more effect than 1 when gfx editing.


Case


Powersupply


Dvd drive





You could get all that for around 2 k which I would think would be more than enough for animation rendering.
Xp on a system may be problematic in the future. To make a big rig such as this and eventually not be able to get drivers.


http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/archiv鈥?/a>


lists the current Vista OS's ram max.


For animation: Try a high-end Quadro or FireGL card (they can get expensive). but that's if you're going to use the box to work on.


If its just going to be a render box, get a low end vcard whatever will display a page and just splurge on a nice Battery Backup, Quad CPU or dual quad.


maya, zb, 3ds, lt can all run in 64bit.. not sure about any others you may use.


I don't have too much experience using linux.. I just use it when fixing M$ systems.
Windows Vista 64-bit Edition can handle more then 3 GBs of RAM. It fact the Business and Ultimate Editions (64-bit ones) can handle ';128GB+';. I believe there's still a glitch when installing though so you have to install with 2 GBs or less then once up and upgraded to SP1 you can install the rest of your memory. I would recommend 4x2GB sticks of OCZ DDR2 800 MHz memory, GeForce GTX280 and as far as CPU I'm a AMD fanboy, but I'm going to leave that one alone :P. Also besure to get a GOOD power supply, do not cheap out on power supplies, a bad one will cause all sorts of problems. Also I wouldn't recommend watercooling for you first build. If you haven't decided on a case a decent case that doesn't cost too much is the Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP. Just remember when building it to not get upset if there are problems, because you will overlook them, trust me lol.
1) You dont 'need' linix to run over 4gb of ram, you just need a 64bit operating system. Such as Windows XP 64bit, Vista 64bit, etc





2) Skip the water cooling unless you really plan to overclock your system. Even with a water/liquid coolant you will still need fans to cool the rest of the system.





3) Linix may make it hard to do 3D applications due to low main stream support. Mac or Windows is the way to go.





4) tomshardware.com offers plenty of research on overclocking, cpu comparing charts.





Bottom line stick with Windows or Mac. Memory is common to hit 8gigs on standard motherboard with a Windows 64bit OS. Grab a quad core something or other, 3D work is one of the few areas that really gain from the extra power.
';I am aware that Windows Vista/XP can't handle more then a 3gig ram ';





First of all, that statement is 100% false. Any 32bit OS is going to be limited to 4gb of physicaly memory it can address, and the first 500ish is reserved for system, so you will see 3.5 gb.





However, Microsoft makes 64bit operating systems and has for some time.





Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit can handle up to 128 GB of memory. Whoever told you Windows Vista cant handle more than 3gb of memory is out of the loop. For a complete list of memory limits within windows, check out this URL:





http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/鈥?/a>





Question 2


Is water cooling worth it?





Unless you are going to overclock, no. The only other advantage watercooling offers is near very low noise, but this can be achieved with something like a zalman flower cooler at about 10 percent of the price. Water cooling has drawbacks as well. Price, complexity, maintenace, case real estate - all things not required by a good old fashion chunk of copper.





3/ Do I forsee problems?


I do forsee problems because, no offence, based on your questions you seem 100% newb at this and want to build a very expensive high end PC. If you dont know what you are doing you could easily turn your CPU into a $1500 paperweight.





I dont want to discourage you from building your own PC , I'm just a little concerned about the amount of $$$ you are talking about spending and, based on your questions, appear to have never built a computer. You might want to spend an extra $50 and have someone do it for you, or do it together so you can learn.





4/ There are tonnes of books, websites on the internet. The best way to learn is through experience, take things apart, put it back together. Which you are talking about which is great - seriously - I just hate to see you wreck such an expensive system.





Just as you wouldnt learn to drive in a Ferrarri Enzo, you probably dont want your first computer build to be worth $4000 :)





Good luck.