Hello, I want to be up front and apologize for my grammar and run on sentences..
here we go, I have wanted to build a computer for vfx, simulations with particles and fluids in Autodesk Maya. I been looking at intel xeon for weeks now..I have been building rigs for vfx on pcpartpicker but most of the build run over $2400 USD. but in my travels it mostly lead me down a path geared towards builds designed for games not vfx. on these forms they had builds for video game rigs or rendering 3d and if you brought up Intel xeon and nvidia quadro cards they would laugh you off. I looked up some builds of "professional grade" industry computers and they all have intel xeon and quadros in them. while at a used corporate liquidation store I found a hp workstation z800 for about 300$ and it has test and it worked. I want to upgrade this workstation solely for VFX related simulations, I have a separate pc for gaming. I am using Autodesk Maya for this along some other programs later like Houdini or C4d. I got a few other things from ebay to try and get this beast ready here are the base stats that came with the computer and the other items I got. my main question is what kind of things should I look for to upgrade this workstation for VFX or any good resource you would recommend to look into. I have pretty small budget, I recently graduated from Art school and trying to break into VFX industry I don't know much about gearing a computer for this kind of performance; any help would be greatly appreciated!!
___Base____
(1)Intel Xeon e5630 Dual Quad Core 2.53GHz
socket 1366 lga
Ram 12gb (6 x 2gb ECC server Ram)
Nvidia Quadro FX 1800 (768 MBytes)
2tb 3.5 sata Hdd
(side note I read about the boot block data and its the one that supports the 55xx and 56xx)
The Tinkering I have done so far, parts are still in the mail mostly.
Extra Intel Xeon E5630 Dual Quad Core 2.53
Extra Z800 Heat Sink
(2) Nvidia Quadro FX 5800 4gb (for Sli)
(12) X 4gb ddr3 10600r CL9 ECC Registered Server Ram
Nvidia K600 (1024mb for Physx)