Silly and Serious links pages are also available with a great deal more references, but the info on this page is aimed at the requirements of those doing 3D modelling and animation in Strata3D.

The basic questions I pondered while building this presentation were:
What can I do to my existing system to get the most out of it without buying into a dead end technology? What could I do to avoid losing time and money due to catastrophe?

I've skipped over the addition of RAM, if you haven't enough you already know that, so I'll merely suggest that you refer to ramseeker for price and availability. Processor upgrades for older Macs involve many variables too numerous for covering here, please research before creating your FrankenMac. Read the user reviews at Xlr8yourmac.

And... one more thing before we get into the technical stuff:

Wrists

Graphics Cards

Storage

Backing Up

Care & Feeding

What & Why

Take Care of Your Wrists

Working in the digital age requires long hours of virtual immobility, slouching in various poor postures before the glowing screen, hands often locked in a curl over an unyielding soap-shaped mouse or pounding away on a keyboard. In order to remain capable of continuing in this field, we must give our bodies some compensation for this tedious repetition. While I can't promise a cure, I can suggest some exercises to increase flexibility, circulation and strength in one of the most abused areas for any computer professional; the wrists.

The first three of these Aikido exercises are similar to the ones I demonstrated at RRR, although I mistakenly called Nikkyo, Sankyo. Please use these as a guide but make sure you alternate hands to benefit both wrists, sit up straight with your feet on the floor, keep shoulders low and relaxed, make your movements slow and gentle, and breathe deeply into each stretch.

For more information about Aikido, please visit the main website for the Aikido World Web Journal.

Wrists

Graphics Cards

Storage

Backing Up

Care & Feeding

What & Why

Graphics Cards

One way to speed up your workflow is to get the image to redraw faster while offloading that task from the cpu onto the graphics card(s). Today's cards can do this with dual dedicated channels to support 2 displays, thereby also freeing up one precious slot. While nVidia's cards are fast, they are not available through retail, so to get a new one, you have to buy a new Mac or purchase from someone else. There have been reports on Xlr8yourmac about troubles with the GeForce 4MX while running Lightwave, but the GeForce 4 Ti appears to resolve those problems.

Update: there are GeForce 3 AGP cards now available at OtherWorldComputing, but they are single, not dual, and are not manufactured by nVidia, so reliability and compatibility remain untested.

Meanwhile, take a look at ATI's Radeon cards. Make sure you're getting the Mac Edition, it should say that in large print on the box. The 7000 is a 32mb DDR PCI Dual that supports OpenGl, and adequate 2nd card for the budget-minded. For full screen acceleration in Strata3D, you need the 8500, a 64mb DDR AGP Dual with much greater compatibility with OpenGL. ATI offers a trade-in for your older cards, regardless of manufacturer, and is expected to release the 8600 this summer.

Matrox offers a PCI solution for video I/O with a breakout box for analog to digital translations. The RTMac supports one display, but also offers a port for an NTSC or PAL video monitor for checking output. Purchase at the Apple Store or direct from Matrox.

Another good resource on their site: The ABCs of Graphics Cards

While there are several other higher-end cards for those working in video and film, one would do well to consider the Igniter product line from Aurora. These cards support modular upgrading, which means that the card will resist obsolescence, and can increase in functionality as necessary.

When considering purchases of cards or displays, remember to check for compatibility between ports and cables on all hardware involved. Unfortunately, there are 2 year old 17" Apple Studio Display CRTs that have become obsolete due to their need for an ADC connector that can translate from digital to analog. For the majority of displays, there are connectors and adaptors for DVI to VGA, ADC to DVI, and now two solutions for DVI to ADC: Apple's new adaptor and the flexible DVIator from Dr. Bott.

Wrists

Graphics Cards

Storage

Backing Up

Care & Feeding

What & Why

Storage

Another immediate upgrade for your 3D workstation is an increase in storage - you can never have too much hard drive space. Due to the high rate of fragmentation that can occur during the disk-intensive activities involved in creating 3D images and video, I recommend that you keep system and applications on one partition or physical drive separate from project files, documents and renderings. If you are switching back and forth between OSX and OS9 as so many are these days, you will find far greater stability in keeping your OSX and Classic installation on one partition with associated applications, and a separate partition with a working OS 9.2.2 for those times you need to run in that OS. These two partitions should still be kept distinct from your work files. If you have the space for a separate, empty scratch disk for applications like Photoshop and AfterEffects, all the better.

Faster drives mean less bottleneck when reading and writing data, so it makes sense to buy the fastest drive you can afford. This also increases the length of time a drive will be useable, as you can continue to use your drive when you upgrade to a newer machine. For reasons of cable length, data integrity, and temperature control, consider using high speed ATA internal drives, and use Ultra160 or higher SCSI drives for external devices. Both IBM and Seagate are offering 15k and 10k RPM Ultra160 SCSI and 7200 RPM UltraATA drives with 5 year warrantees and large disk caches. The IBM UltraStar is slightly faster according to spec, but noise levels are lowest on the Seagate Cheetah. Both perform well and have a reputation for reliability. Look for reduced prices at online resellers.

Anyone considering adding a SCSI card to their existing machine with an eye towards video, film, and future larger storage solutions, should look at the ATTO Express SCSI Host Adapters. They need no drivers, offer RAID support and simultaneous I/O on internal and external channels.

Backing Up

You've heard it billions and billions of times. Back up your data. Stop and make a plan today. Get a second drive, boot from a startup disk and drag a copy of your entire system drive to another drive. If that sounds like too much trouble, buy a copy of Retrospect Backup and let Easy Script help you create a plan. It's scalable, it's cross-platform and it's ready for OSX. You can replace your hardware, but you can't replace your data. Back up your data. When you're done with that, make another backup and take the media it's on to another location.

Double-check that the version you're getting matches your configuration and OS, and if you are planning on using CD-RW or other rewriteable media, that your drive is compatible.

Wrists

Graphics Cards

Storage

Backing Up

Care & Feeding

What & Why

Care & Feeding

Part One: Tha Roolz

Save early, save often, save a copy as.

Thou shalt backup thy data.

Make TWO copies.

Keep a bootable rescue disk on hand at all times.
(Thanks to Brian F. for suggesting duct-taping it to the side of the machine.)

Invest in a surge supressor and UPS.

Keep antivirus software updated.

Do system maintenance regularly.

Part Two: Maintenance

Rebuild your desktop at least once a month, or anytime your icons look like this:

About once a month, boot from another disk and run Disk First Aid repeatedly, until it says there are no problems found.

Use a directory repair/optimization utility tool: Any time you are between projects, have thrown away a lot of old files, if you've had random crashes, files seem to be missing, or the system feels sluggish.

If you're having problems, do each of these steps in order.

Part Three: Which Tools?

DiskWarrior: Non-invasive directory repair. If you have only one utility, make it be this one.

TechToolPro: Extensive repair functions, technically complex, powerful.

Norton Utilities: Another powerful tool, but can do damage if the version doesn't match the OS.

Mcafee Virex: Reasonable, scalable solution for 1 machine or a LAN.

Intego Virus Barrier: Intego has a suite of solutions for protecting your Mac, this is just one of them.

Wrists

Graphics Cards

Storage

Backing Up

Care & Feeding

What & Why

What and Why?

Deciding when to buy a new machine can be as overwhelming and confusing as deciding which machine. There will be new hardware announced at Macworld in a few weeks, but this company might be worth looking at for an alternative to that desktop workstation while you wait. The GVS 9000 is a modular, scaleable, rackmount G4 with an intriguing array of options. Click the link about the advantages of this configuration over Apple's G4 Tower for some thought-provoking specifications.

Some thoughts to consider while in the decision-making stage:

If the newest machine is a significant leap from the last model, do you have the time, technical savvy and energy to spend solving the inevitable unforeseen problems inherent in all "bleeding edge" technology?

Will the reduced price on the previous model offset any anticipated gains from taking advantage of the latest technology?

Would your present hardware handle an increased workload or greater functionality with a modest investment in upgrades such as peripherals or cards?

If you added a new machine, could an older machine be repurposed to isolate specific tasks, so that your workflow could be streamlined? For example: a printing station, a scanning station, or one machine that handles several tasks not normally running at the same time, such as cdrom-burning and dedicated backup server.

I hope this information has been of some use, please feel free to write and ask questions.