5 lw8 or 1 lw8 and a new workstation?
 

Well I don't think this is a tech question well maybe but ill put it here.

This year I have to come up with a major animation to support the reason why my school paid so much money for the items supplied to me. Problem I also have to teach Lightwave cause no Teacher teaches it, I basicaly found it on VT3 and fell in love with it and here I am. So I need to teach to 3 people possibly more (HELP ME NO MORE PEOPLE!) and we only have one workstation with lw 7.5 provided by VT3, we have basically no budget left but there is some, I can either get 5 lw8's or get one lw8 and a workstation but like I said budget is low. we have a mac room full of 32 mac counter tops g4 processor ( I HATE MACS they remind me of nagging children that are slow and stupid) but problem is they arent networked and they are basically crap, the only mac I respect is the one in our recording studio G4 tower but even it drives me nuts at times. we also have a room full of crappy dells (which Drive Me crazy also) they are somewhere between 2.4 - 2.8 single processor. So what should I do/ what do I want to do?
I want another workstation with double processor at 2.4 ghz (preferably 3.6 each =) 2 gig ram, 256 mb video card and atleast 40 gigs harddrive I can settle for 20 tho, however I can't make that computer 1,200$ or can I? if any of you know of a good site for comps that give schools discounts plz help mine out. It is a arts dedicated school that deserves money but ANULD doesn't think so.

OR I can get 5 lw8 copies take some dells or those dreaded macs and use them as light modelers ( unless you guys think they work well?) leaving only one workstation to render out major projects Man I wish I had a render farm but those macs don't look like they could render themselves out of a paper bag .

any suggestions or advice will be halpful thanks. (p.s. sorry if everything is incoherent I hate writing and it hates me.)

What are the specs of the Dell machines? cpu-wise it sounds good enough to use.. any chanse you can take 4-5 of them for a renderfarm?
Anyway, If it was my call I would go for the 5 Lw8 licenses, it would give more people the opportunity to work with lightwave at the same time and in a school that would be essential to me.

just my 2 cents.

cheers!

//Matt

For "cheap" PCs, check out http://www.zuke.com. I got mine from them and am pleased as punch!!

mrunion ..... I can not describe in words what you have just done.
I thought a site we were going to buy computers from were low priced, lets just say zuke is beats it's head in. A big sloppery kiss from me to you thanks alot.

No problem. Your Welcome. (And sorry it was a late reply -- I've been busy.)