3D design and rendering build

[Balve]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to build a workstation for 3d modelling and rendering, using mostly Sketchup, 3DS Max, Vray, Blender, Autocad, Archicad, and some graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator). Possibly some light video editing.
It should be based around AMDs Threadripper 1950X. There will be no gaming.
Budget is not defined but should be close to the class of CPU, reliable and able to work long hours, therefore, feel free to suggest quality cases, power supplies, liquid cooling and everything else you think is necessary.

Also, If you can, post an advice for a good 24-27 inch display for the same purpose.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Eximo]

How professional are we talking? Threadripper is more consumer grade. AMD Epyc or an Intel Xeon would be more appropriate for a machine intended for work. Get yourself some ECC memory.

As for the CAD modeling, are we talking Quadros and Firepros or standard gaming cards? Again you have ECC and driver support to gain.

Typically don't want water cooling for reliable systems, air coolers at least let you limp along with passive cooling. Off the shelf all-in-one water coolers don't have any redundancy. (Basically need dual pumps)

What about storage capacity and performance?

As for monitors: 27" 1440p monitor is fairly typical without going 4K or ultrawide. You'll want IPS panels with some level of color accuracy I imagine.

Very difficult to do a build without a budget, as that leaves a lot wide open. Easy to spend $10k on a heavy duty workstation.

 

[Eximo]

A quick build to give you some ideas. If ECC and Pro grade graphics cards aren't necessary that will drop a little off the cost. I tossed in some different storage options, though that is a config I might use.

An alternative to the Air cooler would be any Asetek style cooler with the locking ring. This would be products like the Corsair H105 and similar. Enermax has a cooler specifically designed for Threadripper that is also recommended, though not as well know since it hasn't been around that long like the Asetek style.

Could probably do with a few fans as well.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 1950X 3.4GHz 16-Core Processor ($934.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U14S TR4-SP3 140.2 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME X399-A EATX TR4 Motherboard ($288.93 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung - 960 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($319.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($453.33 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda Pro 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($219.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PNY - Quadro P5000 16GB Video Card ($1919.20 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($128.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Dell - U2717D 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor ($399.00 @ B&H)
Total: $5368.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-18 15:16 EDT-0400

 

[Balve]

Thanks for your answer! I'll try to be more specific.
Storage wise - no need for more than 2 TB of capacity, still it would be nice to know what combination of SSD and HDD to go for. Using mentioned apps that load a lot of textures, plugins etc.

Regarding the CPU, memory and GPU choice - currently my area of work is architecture, specifically interior and exterior design,and some 2D CAD drafting, therefore you could say the priority is fast rendering.
I am confused and not sure if there is a big risk in choosing either path. EPYC or Xeon, Firepro, Quadro or Geforce since I'm not familiar with the benefits of mentioned series. CUDA, OPEN CL, ECC are the terms that are a bit scary

Regarding the budget, I suppose it's in the 3000-4000$ (with the monitor) price bracket.

*EDIT: Didn't see the Eximo's answer while typing. Thanks for the input!

 

[JoeMomma]

I completely agree with Eximo, except for the video card.
I have worked in professional engineering and architecture offices since the 1980's.
As well as what I use in my own system.

Quadro's and Radeon FirePro's are not required except for super high-end situations.
Every office I worked at used regular Geforce cards and Radeons.
They are not supported by many pro design packages but they work perfectly fine.

The main differences between a Quadro and a Geforce are:
#1. Quadro's sometimes have more memory.
Of course there are other electronic differences to make them more reliable, but they are not much faster.
And regular GPU's are pretty reliable.

#2. Mostly it's 24/7 certified tech support.
When an engineer is using software that costs $5,000 on a system that costs $10,000 and has a problem,
His firm that's working on a $100,000,000 project wants to get someone on the phone to fix it ASAP.
They are losing thousands of dollars for every minute that the engineers PC's is down.
Geforce tech suport can't respond like that.
Also by only certifying Quadro's and FirePro's it makes it easier from tech support to narrow down the problem.
"So, you are having a problem using Solidworks on an HP Workstation with a FirePro? The answer is this."

Most of the cost in a Quadro is insurance.

 

[Eximo]

That is the big question, whether you are being artificially handicapped between Geforce and Quadro by Nvidia. AMD is looser on that, since they favor OpenCL and their Radeon cards are pretty much on par with Firepro. Benchmarks for each product, or their recommended card lists from each vendor, will be valuable here.

ECC memory just makes a computer more stable. This is what you find in servers and gives them up times measured in months. Basically a small increase to memory latency to check the data as it goes through for errors. Quadros and Firepros also have ECC memory on board (and usually double the amount of consumer cards)

If 2TB is your working capacity, then the above is not a bad recommendation. That is a very fast and durable SSD for the main OS and some or all of your applications, then a slower, but still fast, 2TB SSD to use for a workspace. Then daily backups to that spinning disk or an external data storage.

 

[Eximo]

I completely agree with Eximo, except for the video card.
I have worked in professional engineering and architecture offices since the 1980's.
As well as what I use in my own system.

Quadro's and Radeon FirePro's are not required except for super high-end situations.
Every office I worked at used regular Geforce cards and Radeons.
They are not supported by many pro design packages but they work perfectly fine.

The main differences between a Quadro and a Geforce are:
#1. Quadro's sometimes have more memory.
Of course there are other electronic differences to make them more reliable, but they are not much faster.
And regular GPU's are pretty reliable.

#2. Mostly it's 24/7 certified tech support.
When an engineer is using software that costs $5,000 on a system that costs $10,000 and has a problem,
His firm that's working on a $100,000,000 project wants to get someone on the phone to fix it ASAP.
They are losing thousands of dollars for every minute that the engineers PC's is down.
Geforce tech suport can't respond like that.
Also by only certifying Quadro's and FirePro's it makes it easier from tech support to narrow down the problem.
"So, you are having a problem using Solidworks on an HP Workstation with a FirePro? The answer is this."

Most of the cost in a Quadro is insurance.

Indeed, at my company it is all Quadros and a smattering of Teslas. We use a good chunk of the autodesk suite, PTC products, Matlab, and others. We've had one occasion where we got Autodesk and Nvidia on the phone, had a new driver in a day.

The quadro could be dumped for a compromise:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/titan/titan-xp/

Probably still overkill, but would last a very long time before needing to be upgraded. There are also cheaper Quadros. Pascal is pretty darn good for the money, but the prices on Maxwell Quadros is down a lot (We will be upgrading to P5000 here in a few months, I think they disliked the single slot nature of the P4000, because we usually do buy 4000 series cards)

 

[Balve]

Thank you both!

 

[brightsonchirackal]

how did you config your storage ?
is it 512GB m.2 as boot drive and 2TB as caching drive for 6TB ?

 

[brightsonchirackal]

I completely agree with Eximo, except for the video card.
I have worked in professional engineering and architecture offices since the 1980's.
As well as what I use in my own system.

Quadro's and Radeon FirePro's are not required except for super high-end situations.
Every office I worked at used regular Geforce cards and Radeons.
They are not supported by many pro design packages but they work perfectly fine.

The main differences between a Quadro and a Geforce are:
#1. Quadro's sometimes have more memory.
Of course there are other electronic differences to make them more reliable, but they are not much faster.
And regular GPU's are pretty reliable.

#2. Mostly it's 24/7 certified tech support.
When an engineer is using software that costs $5,000 on a system that costs $10,000 and has a problem,
His firm that's working on a $100,000,000 project wants to get someone on the phone to fix it ASAP.
They are losing thousands of dollars for every minute that the engineers PC's is down.
Geforce tech suport can't respond like that.
Also by only certifying Quadro's and FirePro's it makes it easier from tech support to narrow down the problem.
"So, you are having a problem using Solidworks on an HP Workstation with a FirePro? The answer is this."

Most of the cost in a Quadro is insurance.

Indeed, at my company it is all Quadros and a smattering of Teslas. We use a good chunk of the autodesk suite, PTC products, Matlab, and others. We've had one occasion where we got Autodesk and Nvidia on the phone, had a new driver in a day.

The quadro could be dumped for a compromise:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/titan/titan-xp/

Probably still overkill, but would last a very long time before needing to be upgraded. There are also cheaper Quadros. Pascal is pretty darn good for the money, but the prices on Maxwell Quadros is down a lot (We will be upgrading to P5000 here in a few months, I think they disliked the single slot nature of the P4000, because we usually do buy 4000 series cards)

how did you config your storage ?
is it 512GB m.2 as boot drive and 2TB as caching drive for 6TB ?