Building a PC for 3D modeling and rendering

Mohamed_H22

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Jan 23, 2016
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Hello,

I want to build a PC for using programs as (3Ds Max, V-Ray, Revit, AutoCad, Rhinoceros and Grasshopper, Photoshop).

I'll be using Vray for 3D shots rendering and maybe animation video rendering in the future, but I'm confused on the built items:

CPU: I'm confused between Intel i7 4790k 4.0GHz quad core and i7 5930 3.5GHz 6-core. How can I compare a clock speed with number of cores to take the decision? what will affect rendering and using these programs?
I've heard about the overclocking, but it sounds unsafe. Also, is Xeon better?

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTx 970 4GB.

Storage: SSD 120GB for system (samsung is good?). and WD HD 2 TB for storage.

Motherboard: I heard that x99 is the most suitable, but are there multiple types?

RAM: 32GB

Cooler: I concluded that the air cooler is better and safer than liquid cooling, is it right? if so, is Nactua NH-D15 CPU cooler is the best? does it cool just the CPU?!

Power Supply: XFS TS 650W +ATX power supply >>what about it?

Case: NZXT or cooler master?

last, I wanna know the definition of the term workstation and the difference between it and just PC?

Thanks in advance and I hope you can help me in this.
 
Solution
Don't buy that Xeon or the 5930K
The 5820K is about the same price as the Xeon and has 2 extra cores it is also almost the exact chip as the 5930K for less money.
Also most people today are using gaming cards instead of work station cards since a lot of programs have moved to GPU acceleration.
A 120GB SSD is not going to be big enough and the M.2 for factor is going to eat up some of your SATA ports.
You should be looking at a 256GB SSD at the least. I would consider using a 120GB SSD for a scratch drive.
For 3d software like that, you really ought to go for a quadro... barring that minimum of GTX 980
You can calculate how much power you'll need: http://pcpartpicker.com

For things like the old Modo which was completely CPU based, you'd want to go with faster processors... why not just go for an i7-6700k

If you think overclocking is unsafe, then you don't have to spend extra buying the -k version of the intel processors

Xeon is generally for workstations, so it could be better..



 
Okay, here we go. Please let us know what the budget is and if you need any peripherals.

CPU
For video editing/3D animation the order of precedence is: CPU>>RAM>>Storage>>GPU. A gaming build does not have the same requirement. i5's are fine for gaming but not for editing. Lots of cores and multi-core performance is what you want, especially for rendering. So for 4790k (4 cores, 8 threads, 4.0MHz) vs 5930k (6 cores, 12 threads, 3.5MHz) the 5930 wins here, much better multi-core performance

Overclocking is not really that unsafe these days but it does have its downsides and you do need some knowledge to do it, a lot of knowledge to do it well. Xeon's are great for video editing and provide a good price point against i7's.

GPU
There are two types of GPU's, consumer and workstation. The are basically the same at the hardware level but they are definitely different at the software level. Consumer cards are for gaming and workstation for graphics type of applications like CAD, video editing and control systems. You can get into all sorts of software support issues when trying to run consumer cards with graphics applications. Workstation cards are a safer bet (but not guaranteed) and actually work better for the use.

Storage
Storage has to be fast as possible and large. This is because you are constantly reading/writing during the process, especially during rendering

Motherboard
X99 is socket type LGA 2001 v3, this only works certain processors such as the 5930K. The 4790K will not be compatible.

RAM
Lots of RAM, 32GB is a good start but you could even use 128GB.

The rest of the stuff is just preference. So here is a build for you to start the selection process.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZYhVMp
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZYhVMp/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1630 V3 3.7GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($369.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Intel BXRTS2011AC CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock X99M Extreme4 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($168.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung SM951 128GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($118.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($94.78 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: AMD FirePro W4100 2GB Video Card ($159.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1303.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-23 09:07 EST-0500
 
inaq thank you for your calrification.

imsqam thank you, I'm now more aware of how the process goes on. Basically, my budget is around 1300 and can reach up to $1800 maximum. Now I am aware that what I need requires multi-core performance, which tips the balance for 5930K, but regarding the Xeon, is it better than the last even that it has lower cache, fewer cores and less clock speed?
For the GPU, if I go for geforce, should I go for 2GB also? I mean that all the progress will require just high CPU and RAM then last GPU unlike gaming. Thus, the gtx 970 4GB or even quadro will not make much difference?
 
The 5930 is slightly faster but cost another $180 over the Xeon.

UPDATE: There are other Xeons which will take out the 5930. Xeons are designed for server and workstation applications, almost all professional graphics workstations are built on Xeon processors.

Load up on the VRAM. Although low on the totem pole the GPU is not without consequence, higher VRAM levels help take some of the load off the CPU, especially during rendering. The difference between workstation and consumer is that consumer cards are fast but are prone to errors, which you don't want. Workstation cards have greater discrimination (resolution) capability and are far less error prone. Quadro are typically better with DirectX applications and Firepro with OpenGL.

Give me a little time to work on an updated build.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/V9pfNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/V9pfNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($554.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Intel BXRTS2011AC CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock X99M Extreme4 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($168.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung SM951 128GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($118.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($93.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: AMD FirePro W4100 2GB Video Card ($159.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1487.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-23 09:53 EST-0500
 
Yeah I got your point. Xeon and Quadro are for professional works with workstations unlike i7 and geforce made for consumers. However, it seems will not fit to the budget and most likely will exceed it with a large increment. It's a bit confusing for taking up the core i7 5930k or even the 5820k compared to the xeon equal or more quality than these and same goes for the GPU because I prefer Nvidia than AMD.

I know I've confused you more, but if you please can make a part list for the best workstation for these programs and rendering process and you may not pay attention to the budget and another one with maximum about $1800, so I can make up my mind going with full equipped workstation regardless the budget if it worth much or keep upon my budget, but basically it seems I need a workstation because the i7 and geforce are more for consumers, right? So, give me please a list with the Xeon, better than the current i7 and quadro.

Thank you imsqam in advance :)
 
Don't buy that Xeon or the 5930K
The 5820K is about the same price as the Xeon and has 2 extra cores it is also almost the exact chip as the 5930K for less money.
Also most people today are using gaming cards instead of work station cards since a lot of programs have moved to GPU acceleration.
A 120GB SSD is not going to be big enough and the M.2 for factor is going to eat up some of your SATA ports.
You should be looking at a 256GB SSD at the least. I would consider using a 120GB SSD for a scratch drive.
 
Solution
Okay, so if I pick the 5820K still will face the problem of low clock speed at @3.3GHz unfortunately even that the 5930K has extra 0.2GHz only. For rendering, 6-core CPU is amazing, but for both mentioned CPUs they will lack good performance for running many programms at a time, which is something I really wanna get a solution for to keep 6-cores with high clockspeed.

I've thought about it that if I get Quadro with same specs of gaming GPU it will have a very high cost that might equal my budget itself and it will not be better if I get professional quadro or ATI with lower specs than a gaming GPU.

Thanks for mentioning the 250GB SSD, I'm gonna pick that.
 
Mohamed_H22 what are you using right now? Why are you feeling a need for a workstation?

Are you going to be making your living off this machine? What's your workload and where do
expect it to go?

Don't get hung up on clock speeds for rendering just yet. Nor about multitasking capabilities.

32GB of RAM with a quad core lets you do lots of things at once. A 4690K is awesome but
under pressure of a rendering load or editing process it starts to flag. A 4790K carries on
from there and goes until you really load it down, then the waits begin.

Step up to a six core anything, Xeon, 5820 or 5930 and you have a slightly different take
on things because of the extra cores and threads. Speed however goes down on the chips.
The fact of the extra cores and threads makes up for that.

What you appear to want is a mid level workstation to up your game.

The real strength of a machine is balance between components so that they complement
each other. If your workload is going to be 24/7 then it's Xeon that's what they do. If you
need to be fast and do multiple iterations as part of the creative and production process
then the enthusiast 2011 socket babies are on the table. A 5930K is the bang for buck for
an upgradeable machine in the future giving you 40 pci-e channels for extra cards or
multiple fast drives on the motherboard.

imsqam gave you the formula: CPU>>RAM>>Storage>>GPU

So 5930K + 256GB system SSD or M.2 + 512GB x4 SSD + a K42000 OR the 9704GB

Hope that helps.

 
Frapport

Well, basically I have Dell Inspiron 15R laptop with Intel i7-4500 CPU @1.80GHz Turbo 2.40GHz. RAM 8GB. additional GPU: AMD Radeon.

So I'm gonna use the laptop for light works, presentations, internet, gaming...etc. However, the workstation will be for architectural works with 2D and 3D design programs as AutoCad, photoshop and 3ds Max and rendering with Vray on the CPU not the GPU mostly because I didn't experience rendering on the GPU.

The confusion to me comes from the point that to build a workstation for 3d modeling and rendering I should get 6-core i7 or it would be better to get Xeon that I'm not aware how Xeon works or what is its concept. Also, many people stating that Quadro is made for that work of rendering especially for professional effects unlike geforce made for gaming consumers.

My current plan based on what imsqam adviced me is

5930K + 32GB RAM + 250GB SSD & 2TB WD + GeForce GTx 960 Ti 6GB >>>>should I increase the RAM to 64GB that I will not need to overclock or that doesn't make sense and I've mixed everything together xd

However, if I go for the devices designed especially for rendering I will be changing to

Xeon "xxx" + + 32GB RAM + 250GB SSD & 2TB WD + Quadro "xxx"

NP. xxx means I don't know which version is better, for the workstation devices, than my plan to provide professional work with same or higher specs than my plan.
 
You're starting out in this and don't have a guide like working in a shop with Dells or HP's. Xeons are for 24/7 workloads and Quadro
cards are for double precision calculations. For freelance use you want something fast and balanced to what your workload is. Video
encoding is the CPU.

http://ppbm7.com/index.php/tweakers-page/92-what-video-card-to-use


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($554.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($251.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($70.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card ($587.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($95.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $2056.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-23 18:57 EST-0500
 
Okay, we are getting down to system recommendations. You know, my first build has items thrown into it more for discussion purpose than actual value selection at that price point. So you might be surprised at my recommended build.

Actually I agree with Zerk2012, the 5820K is the best choice here over the 5930K and 1620. The 1620 is only 4 cores and the 5930K is $180 more with marginal performance improvement. As well, the 5820K can be overclocked, something you cannot do with the Xeons. With a good CPU and lots of ram the next is the storage. Here I think it is worth spending some money to speed things up, 7200RPM drives just don`t do it IMHO. Set up a RAID configuration for these SSD's. You could opt to include an AHCI M.2 drive and run off the programs off that, really not sure about this one.

The big one, the GPU. I went with the GTX over a Firepro/Quadro because at this price point because I don't believe your usage requires the benefits of a workstation card, thus you don't need to pay the premium. You will have to be the judge of that one, price comparable cards are Quadro K1200 and Firepro W5100. But you will want to start looking in the $600-700 range. So this is my build, warts and all.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vk87mG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vk87mG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($374.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($184.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Reactor 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Reactor 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($309.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($46.39 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1751.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-24 08:52 EST-0500
 
So between a starter and a mid point because none of the suggestions is a high
end effort there's $300'ish. I'm feeling that the OP is just getting into this and is
looking for something that will a.) perform and b.) support him well into the
future, three perhaps five years with upgrades. Either option does that.

Let's go through the components and flesh it out some more:

A workstation earns money and has a mission critical designation. Everything
is sturdy and trends towards reliability as well as capacity.

CPU: choosing one family will determine the rest of the path for hardware.
Xeons and Haswells aren't all that different but with your use case you do not
need the built in graphics processor. Speed is good but then so are cores. The
Xeon's don't overclock like the 2011 socket chips but they chug onwards
hour after hour day by day with heavy workloads.

Confused? We've just eliminated the 4790K and 6700K. Fast is great but the
cores are limited.

The 5820K allows 28 pci-e lanes and the 5930K allows for 40 pci-e lanes. As you
run more projects over time you're going to need more storage and GPU power to do
the same thing faster or more often or at the same time. There is headroom with
the 5930K. You would already know if you needed a Xeon based workstation to
complement your laptop. Also it's about bang for the buck. Xeons of the same
capacity, cost. By then however you need 10 cores/20 threads.

I'm opting for the extra lanes now versus having to find other solutions in the
future when you might want a couple of pci-e 4x cards for scratch disks and/or
a second GPU and things like a Thunderbolt card.

CPU Cooler: I opted for the slightly heavier duty Noctua because it will support
a modest overclock and it will follow your CPU upwards on heavy processing.
I also favor air over water because you can fix an air failure with another fan.
I don't think a compromise over price is appropriate with a work machine.

Motherboard: You can go up to a $1000 for a motherboard. Talk about bells
and whistles and in the case of a dual CPU a train horn. I built a dual Xeon
box of some capacity, it wasn't superfast but could mount 192GB of ECC
RAM and had 8 pci-e 2 slots. It also gave me 8 cores/16 threads.

The moral of the story: you want something you can expand on. When 32GB
of RAM becomes a limitation you have the ability to go to 64GB. If you need
more then you are in the range of a faster, newer machine as opposed to
an upgrade. Until that point you can add in extra capability.

A full featured motherboard with allow you to clock your RAM to their potential
and make your CPU run at turbo speeds all the time with nothing more than
some settings if the EUFI bios which ASUS makes easy.

RAM: In the case of a work machine it is usually more RAM not faster RAM.
Since it is quad channel on the motherboard buy a kit of four. 32GB will
either be enough or will not. I idle at 14.7 GB use out of 32GB. The board
I chose when my dual crapped out was a temp solution and there was no
foresight about upgrading, it was to fill a hole. Now at 4790K up from a
4690K and maxed out in RAM I face a small dilemma because a 2011
socket would be a bump not a real jump. I'd have to rebuy a motherboard
for more RAM capacity.

GPU: Quadro cards are for double precision output and heavy workloads.
there's a massive debate on what is better GTX or Quadro. On the one
hand you get dedicated drivers and a higher price on the other you get
extra VRAM and more CUDA cores. In this case the recommendation is
to get the GTX because of your use case. It will have more capacity than
any equivalent priced Quadro.

Storage: An m.2 drive gives you speeds that make your machine
very responsive. You want and it does. I built my xeon box with SAS drives
which were 15,000RPM and server standard for reliability. They were small.
I was finally persuaded to try SSD and it changed my outlook immediately.
Things leapt to the screen. Picasa is my photo library app because it is
free and I'm thrifty. I only keep my current project on the drive but it
is instanteous with thousands of photos. As you start out you can get a
system and application drive and then later add a larger capacity scratch
and work drive. I also added a hot swap drive bay to be able to switch
out drives as my archives grow. I also have 10 TB in the machine with
only one SATA connection left. You need to plan for the future and have
that capacity so that you do not need to do rebuys to cope.

PSU: With this use case I'd usually start out at an 850W but a solid Tier One
650W will do here. I just had a Tier One 850W crap out after 3 years and
I'm not so much on forever anymore. If you upgrade to a second GPU then
it might be an idea to upgrade the power supply at that time.

CASE: That's where the motherboard, the GPU and the cooling solution live
along with your storage. You want cooling, cabling, expansion and looks.

 
I agree now with both of you that the GeForce is worth buying and there is no need for the others even that the GeForce will provide better performance in my case.

speaking about the future and the CPU, I think that I'll have to break the budget for that. I mean that it is true that I don't really want to make changes in near futures, but just additions of RAM or GPU in case it was needed, so I'd like to go for a CPU that last long for many years. Hence, I'll go for the 5930K or break my budget and go for the 5960x with 8 cores and 3.0GHz. Thus, eliminating the other i7 editions and xeon too. The point is that more cores will help in rendering, and video rendering in the future, even it will might cost extra $400. Is it right that with 8 core I might not need to overclock for the 5960x? The point is that I'm looking for something with high cores and high clockspeed because I'm not so aware of PC stuff and I've no idea about how to overclock. The 5960x has 20mb cache and all same specs of the 5930k except cores too.

So, the question now is does it worth for the future to break the budget and invest for the 5960x? Will it need to overclock or 3.0GHz with 3.5GHz turbo is enough and the difference after overclocking will be just few seconds? Could you explain to me please what threads do?

I'm gonna pick the air cooler yup for its safety in case of failure you are right.

Any advice on display monitors?

I'm about to get all info about what I'll do and I'm NOT looking forward to make changes in the future, so please advice me.

Thanks to you all.
 
Hello all,


I am also building a pc for 3D modeling and rendering images. Is this build balanced, or should I improve something? Also do you think I can save some money somewhere?


- AMD Ryzen 7 1800 X
- Motherboard GIGABYTE AORUS AX370-GAMING 5
- 2 x RAM Kingston 16 GB KIT DDR4 3200 MHz
- Cooling Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H110
- SSD Samsung 960 EVO 250GB
- power supply EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 W
- 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX780 Ti
- case Fractal Design Define S

Thank you a lot guys

Martin
 


Hi Martin

I Am also looking along the lines of your build and would be interested in peoples response to your list. Its tricky to get the real balance between cost and performance in real terms. I would be using this purely for 3d modelling, animation and rendering, no games. Will keep my eye out for responses.

Also the wait to see what AMD are going to release in regards to server boards is dragging, two AMD Ryzen 7 1800 X would be a real bonus!

Thanks for posting