Building my son an animation rig

prouddad48 · Feb 25, 2015

My son is about to graduate from a computer animation school in a couple months. I would like to put together a rig for him specifically design to be a monster when it comes to animation and rendering. I don't know too much about rendering and animation rigs. If I wanted to budget about $10,000 towards the system what suggestions could you folks provide on specs and buildouts? I'm handy enough that I can build a system myself if its better just need some guidance on parts.

wss_003 · Feb 25, 2015

did you really mean 10k or was that meant to be 1000

prouddad48 · Feb 25, 2015

Really mean 10k... he did great in high school and even better in secondary so I wanted to give him a good leg up

Cvdasf · Feb 25, 2015

prouddad48 :

As nice as that is anything over 3-5 grand is overkill and will provide barely any benefit

Cvdasf · Feb 25, 2015

And if you do insist on spending that much then here this will blow anything else out of the water. But believe me when i tell you spending 10 grand on a computer will quickly be outdated and suddenly cost 2k 😉 a decent 2-5k build will do the same thing as this almost (without the extremist benchmarks)

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2W7Yt6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2W7Yt6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($1003.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.75 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme11 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($561.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($1412.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($438.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($438.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar He8 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($739.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Z 12GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($1598.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Z 12GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($1598.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA T2 1600W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($408.59 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.79 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (OEM) (64-bit)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 27.0" Monitor ($429.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: Samsung U28D590D 60Hz 28.0" Monitor ($499.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $9253.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 02:27 EST-0500

wss_003 · Feb 25, 2015

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/R9PxCJ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/R9PxCJ/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($899.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Glacer 240L 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($122.04 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI X99S GAMING 9 ACK EATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($412.90 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($1469.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($539.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($539.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Z 12GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($1598.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Z 12GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($1598.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 900D ATX Full Tower Case ($328.00 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA T2 1600W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($408.59 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro (OEM) (64-bit) ($133.75 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus PB287Q 60Hz 28.0" Monitor ($541.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Asus PB287Q 60Hz 28.0" Monitor ($541.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Asus PB287Q 60Hz 28.0" Monitor ($541.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $9734.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 02:34 EST-0500

i agree this is way over kill but if this is what you want to spend...mines similar to the one above he beat me to the punch lol

mdocod · Feb 25, 2015

Hello Proud Dad!!

First I want to say that you have a very lucky Son, this is a really awesome gesture.

There are going to be some hurdles here that make what you are trying to do more difficult that you may realize. These guys posting builds without ANY information about the specific software being used are just showing you glorified performance tuner/bench-marking and gaming machines, those are not workstations and they have not been purpose designed for anything but to spend a bunch of money on fancy looking stuff.

So lets get right to it:

In a 3D animation and rendering environment, there are often conflicting interests in terms of workload.

1. Viewport performance (modeling and design work)
2. Export/render performance. (which can present as a CPU or GPU workload, or in some cases, both, sometimes requiring specific hardware support).

As it would turn out, the best hardware for these separate tasks often can not be combined in the same computer very well without major compromises.

In *most* cases, the best $10,000 computer for 3D animation/design and export rendering, is 2 or more separate computers adding up to $10,000. The first computer is designed with viewport performance optimization, and will typically cost ~$1500-2500. The remainder of the budget goes towards building one or more render nodes. The viewport optimized machine is built with a fast quad core E3 or E5 Xeon and a workstation GPU that is best suited to the API used in the modeling software's viewport. The render node will sometimes be a multi-socket Xeon machine crammed with as many cores as possible for CPU based renderers like Arnold and Maxon, in other cases, the render node will be a machine with as many Gaming GPU's as we can cram in there, as gaming GPUs provide the best bang-for-buck in CUDA and openCL accelerated rendering engines like v-ray or cycles or octane.

The problem is, without a list of what modeling software and what render engines your son is going to be using, there is absolutely no way to optimize hardware selections, as some of the viewports use DirectX, some use openGL, some use openCL accelerated features, some leverage workstation driver optimizations, some don't, and there is a proper GPU to address each of the many possible requirements. Then of course, there's the render nodes, which can and should be configured with hardware to complement the render engines being used. A $1000 CPU is a complete waste if we're going to use octane or furyball, on the other hand, $3200 worth of GPU's would be a complete waste if we're going to use Arnold or Maxwell or C4D.

Just as a an example: A $350 FirePro workstation GPU, would outperform the $3200 worth of GPUs listed in wss_003's build recommendation in many openGL viewports.

In conclusion, it would be very easy, to spend $10,000, and have the whole effort be a total waste because the hardware is not even remotely well matched to the software. If you can find out from your son, exactly what modeling/design software he has been trained on and intends to use, and exactly what render engines he intends to use, then I'd be happy to help you piece together a proper set of hardware for that software. Without that information, I'm afraid you'd be shooting in the dark.

bambiboom · Feb 25, 2015

prouddad48 :

prouddad48,

Bravo to your son's efforts and to your idea of starting him off with a very good animation system. As it happens, animation is about the most demanding visualization tasks as it involves complex 3D modeling with textures and rendering, and effects processing. The graphics card has to move millions of polygons and super-accurately place particles and reflections. The workstation graphics card needs to be able to run the special drivers that are image quality oriented rather than image speed oriented, meaning NVIDIA Quadro or AMD Firepro. As most industry-standard software e.g., 3ds Max, Maya, Premiere is made by Autodesk and Adobe and these are CUDA accelerated, my recommendation is that you consider a high end Quadro for which specialized drivers for these applications are available.

The hardware for content creation is increasingly specialized and animation software- renderings, effects, editing, can use as many CPU cores as are available and speed is critical, so the suggestion here is to use two, fast, six-core Xeons. These will be fast for modeling and processing and are designed to run full bore days at a time, which is sometimes necessary.

The following system idea is based on a Supermicro 7048A-T "barebones" system. Supermicro specializes in high performing , ultra-reliable server and workstation motherboards, and this system includes one of their best dual Xeon LGA2011-3 boards, supporting up to 1TB of RAM, and includes the CPU heatsinks, fans, and a 1200W power supply. It's also designed to be very quiet, important for a workstation. The barebones system is ideal for your use as everything is more or less already set up, you add the CPU's, RAM memory, graphics card, and drives, which are more or less plug in items.

The Quadro K5200 (8GB) is a recent (9.14) graphics card and one of the highest performing workstation cards and which may be doubled in SLI. -Fantastic!

The drives have some flexibility in choice. My inlcination is to use a fast enterprise SSD with a partition for Windows and the programs and another for the current project files. rom the better safe than sorry department, additionally for storage, an SATA /SAS RAID controller card controls three large drives in RAID 10 which combines performance (RAID 0) and mirroring RAID 1) that protects the files in case of a drive failure. I'm just adding this kind of controller ( an LSI 9212-4i) to my current workstation (HP z420). the drives mentioned are enterprise drives of good performance but importantly, chosen for reliability

BambiBoom PixelCannon Cadarendercompilanimatrographarific iWork TurboSignature Extreme ModelBlast 9900_2.25.15

1. Supermicro SuperWorkstation SYS-7048A-T Dual LGA2011 1200W 4U Rackmount/Tower Workstation Barebone System > $980 (Includes case, motherboard, heatsinks,1200W power supply)

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=SY-748AT

____ http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4u/7048/sys-7048a-t.cfm

2. (2X) Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3 Six-Core Haswell Processor @ 3.4 / 3.7GHz 9.6GT/s 20MB LGA 2011-v3 CPU, OEM > $3,040 ($1,520 ea)

____ http://ark.intel.com/products/81900/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2643-v3-20M-Cache-3_40-GHz?q=E5-2643%20v3

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=E5-2643V3

3. 128GB (SAMSUNG (8X 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR4 2133 (PC4-17000) Server Memory Model M393A2G40DB0-CPB > $1,600 ($200 each) ( Verify compatibility with Supermicro)

_____ http://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/mem.cfm

4. PNY NVIDIA Quadro K5200 8GB GDDR5 2DVI/2DisplayPorts PCI-Express Video Card > $2000

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=PNY-K5200

5. Intel 730 Series SSDSC2BP480G4R5 480GB 2.5 inch SATA3 Solid State Drive (MLC > $300 (OS / Applications Working Files)

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=SSD730_480

6. (3X) Western Digital Se WD4000F9YZ 4TB 7200RPM SATA3/SATA 6.0 Gb/s 64MB Enterprise Hard Drive (3.5 inch) > $681 ($227 each) (RAID 10)

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=HD-W40F9YZ

6AOpt (3X) Seagate Constellation ES.3 ST4000NM0033 4TB 7200RPM SATA3/SATA 6.0 GB/s 128MB Enterprise Hard Drive (3.5 inch) > $777 ($259 each) (RAID 10)

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=HD-ST40NM3

7. LSI MegaRAID SAS LSI9240-4I 4-Port 6Gb/s PCI-Express SATA/SAS Single RAID Controller, Retail > $180

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=LSI-92404S

8. LG Electronics WH16NS40 16X SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter, Bulk > $60

____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=WH16NS40

TOTAL = $8841 or $8937 with Seagate ES.3

You didn't specifcally mention the monitors, which are extremely important. As 4K has arrived, you might look into 27" 4K 10-bit or 12-bit color corrected monitors, but 2560 X 1440 color corrected monitors may be sufficient. I recommend two monitors as there are often multiple programs running and often, one monitor can be the workspace and the other monitors is filled with the controls and menus. I also recommend, if possible, that your son see the monitors for himself before purchase- they're the most subjective component.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six core @ 3.7 /4.0GHz > 16GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K2200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H 2560 X 1440 > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 4918 > CPU= 13941 / 2D= 823 / 3D=3464 / Mem= 2669 / Disk= 4764]

Dell Precision T5500 > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro 4000 (2GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB /WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1440)
[ Passmark system rating = 3339 / CPU = 9347 / 2D= 684 / 3D= 2030 / Mem= 1871 / Disk= 2234]

mdocod · Feb 25, 2015

Bambiboom's build suggestion is a great example of why trying to combine viewport performance and render performance into the same machine is not cost effective at this budget. That machine is a massive performance compromise for render performance (1/2 to 1/10th what you'd get for the same money building a dedicated render node), and will offer no better viewport performance than a ~$2000 dedicated modeling workstation.

prouddad48 · Feb 25, 2015

mdocod :

Thank you for the detailed response. I'm trying to be covert about this as I really want to surprise him with the setup once he graduates. I tried earlier today to prod some information from him but I'm afraid I don't know all the right questions to ask since I work in finance and haven't the faintest clue about these things from a software standpoint.

I found out that his training has involved the following:
1. 3ds Max
2. Maya
3. Blender

I found out that from a preference standpoint He likes 3ds and Maya better than Blender because apparently the interface in Blender is or at least was when he started very awkward for him to learn. He said the two he likes are made by the same company and very similar.

He told me while he learned 3d game design he prefers to work with actual animation along the lines of Incredibles or CGI in movies and would probably try to design a few shorts on his own when he is done with school. He did reference some peripherals he was going to buy himself when he graduates, apparently he really wants something called a Space Pilot..

Does this help? What else should I be asking that won't completely give away my plan?

bambiboom · Feb 26, 2015

prouddad48 :

prouddad48,

As system optimization is so specialized- there is CPU and GPU and CPU+GPU rendering, choosing hardware to suit the software is significantly clarified by visiting the sites of the software makers. In my view, the best tactic is to specify the system for largest foreseeable project using the most demanding application. In this use, it appears a feature-length animation in Maya (re: The Incredibles) could be an example of that kind of governing specification.

Going to Autodesk:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=graphic&product_group=19&release=2015&os=8192&manuf=all&opt=2

> Except for the two highest end GeForce GTX, that Autodesk certifies Firepro and Quadro cards for Maya. I should mention that I tried a GTX a few years ago (GTX 285) and was never able to produce a high quality rendering and it wold almost not run Solidworks, nor the high anti-aliasing drivers for Solidworks (x128) or in 3Ds Max nor Maya. As Autodesk visualization is CUDA accelerated, a Quadro will better respond to the special viewport drivers , and in your budget category, a Quadro K5200 (8GB) would be sufficient for feature animation. I use Maya 2014, but for small scale industrial design animations and in my use a Quadro K2200 has been acceptable. The K5200 would also have excellent performance for GPU-based rendering such as Blender.

If you switch, the certified hardware search to systems certified for Maya:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=system&product_group=19&release=2015&os=8192&manuf=all&opt=1

> It worth having a look at the specifications of these various systems. If you look at the upper level BOXX , Precision T7610, and HP z820, it apparent that these are using dual Xeon E5's and the BOXX 8920 is using a , Supermicro X9DAiMotherboard.

Although I've maintained a second system for rendering for the last five years In my view, recent CPU advances and especially the recent (9.14) Kx200 Quadros, have convinced me to concentrate on a highly competent single system. It's better to focus all the assets on the highest quality and performance in a single solution rather than compromised redundancy and I recently bought a new HP z420 with an E5-1660. The other aspect is that with animation,the most time is spent in modeling and animating, and in which multiple applications need to run simultaneously- which can't done on separate systems. I'm going to be selling my second system and putting all my efforts into the HP z420- which by the way you will see on the list of systems certified for Maya and 3ds Max.

While I'm attracted in general to the idea of building a system, as I should be able to refine an optimal specification and partially model the system by reference to system benchmarks, and a higher specification is achieved for less cost as compared to a proprietary system, you might consider careful specification of a BOXX, Dell Precision, Or HP z620 or z820. These systems are designed and configured for exactly this kind of work.

The tactic I've used for my last two systems is to buy a new, but lower specification system at large discount and then change some critical components. The HPz420 I have now was purchased for $1,000 with a low end Quadro K600 and WD Blue 500 GB HD. I swapped the Quadro K2200 ($350 used ), Intel 730 480GB SSD ($200 after Xmas sale), and WD Black 1TB ($80) from my previous HP z420 and the result is the highest scoring HP z420 on Passmark for a total cost of about $1,800. As a financial analyst you might appreciate that the E5-1660 v2 in the new system cost almost $1,100 alone, the Intel 730 cost $440 ordinarily and the HP z420 I have left over -which cost me $600 new- can be sold after one year's use for more than $800. I then have a resultant cost of my carefully designed and configured and under warranty proprietary system - and the fastest of 200 such systems- of about $800, and I didn't have to research, order, assemble, configure, and troubleshoot a new system. Cost / benefit, Cost / benefit, Cost / benefit.

Still, I respect the idea of building and in that case, my tendency would be to use the above systems as models for choices and continually refer to Autodesk, Adobe, and Blender for their recommendations, or approach the careful upgrading of a proprietary system.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six core @ 3.7 /4.0GHz > 16GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K2200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H 2560 X 1440 > Windows 7 Professional 64
[ currently adding an HP/ LSI 9212-4i SAS / SATA RAID controller and RAID 10 of WD Se Enteprise 1TB]
[ Passmark Rating = 4918 > CPU= 13941 / 2D= 823 / 3D=3464 / Mem= 2669 / Disk= 4764]

Dell Precision T5500 > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro 4000 (2GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB /WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1440)
[ Passmark system rating = 3339 / CPU = 9347 / 2D= 684 / 3D= 2030 / Mem= 1871 / Disk= 2234]

jollypirate · Feb 26, 2015

Really over 4-5k is overkill with little real world bennefit, if you want to encourage him you can tell him you will buy him a new pc when this one gets too old.This is what i would suggest with that price range:
Cpu: i7 5960x
Cpu cooler: 280mm water cooling
Ram: 32gb ddr4
Gpu: 2x 980 in sli
Psu: evga 800w 80+ gold
Case: really depends on prefferance but a generally something in the 150- 200 range would provide good airflow and cooler slots
SSd: 1tb ssd
HDD: wd caivar black or seagate barracuda
+some ectra case fans

Bossyfins · Feb 26, 2015

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2650 V3 2.3GHz 10-Core Processor ($1168.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.99 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 WS EATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($255.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($377.27 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Mushkin 480GB PCI-E Solid State Drive ($532.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: AMD FirePro W9100 16GB Video Card ($3001.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $5929.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-26 11:37 EST-0500

This would probably be the best bang😛erformance build.

You could go dual socket, but I would look into a nice monitor or 2..

mdocod · Feb 26, 2015

Actually, based on the program list and the type of work he is interested in doing (CGI and animation) we can extrapolate the following:

1. 3DSMax: DX11 viewport, favors nvidia DX11 implementation (quadro or geforce) but will also run well on FirePro/Radeon, Will bottleneck on the CPU once the GPU is of sufficient render strength. Requires stronger AMD GPU solution to equal weaker nvidia GPU solution. Supports MANY 3rd party standalone export renderers for network rendering on CPU's and GPU's.

2. Maya: Advanced openGL viewport, favors AMD FirePro openGL implementation, Will bottleneck on the CPU once the GPU is of sufficient render strength. Does not work well with radeon/geforce. Requires stronger quadro to equal weaker firepro GPU solution. Supports MANY 3rd party standalone export renderers for network rendering on CPU's and GPU's.

3. Blender: Basic openGL viewport, favors AMD's openGL implementation (firepro or radeon), but will also run well on quadro/geforce. Will bottleneck on the CPU once the GPU is of sufficient render strength. Requires stronger quadro/geforce to equal weaker firepro/radeon GPU solution. Uses Cycles render engine, which can run on CPUs and GPUs (simultaneously), but currently favors Nvidia CUDA. Blender and cycles is an open source project that is still working out some growing pains. Last I checked, standalone/network rendering was not well implemented.

4. For animation projects with fictional appearance (cartoony), GPU accelerated biased renderers (or optional biased rendering modes in renderers) are the popular choices (like furyball and vray). Pretty much all of them are exclusively developed with CUDA, or favor CUDA for performance. Best bang-for-buck for these rendering engines is going to come from geforce gaming GPUs with large VRAM frame buffers.

5. For photo-realistic CGI work in movies, rendering is typically performed with unbiased renderers (or optional unbiased rendering modes within the renderer), like Mental Ray, Maxwell, Vray, Octane, and i-ray. Some of these run on the CPU only, some of these are CUDA accelerated. Haswell-EP E5-2600 V3 series CPUs with many-cores for CPU based production rendering is best, otherwise, the GPU accelerated renderers are pretty much all CUDA accelerated and work best on GeForce GPU's.

If #2 were not on the list above, you could technically get away with building a single many-core workstation crammed full of GeForce GPUs and everything would work reasonably well. Unfortunately, the Maya viewport demands a workstation class GPU for good performance.... Even a flagship gaming card ($500+) or Titan is worse in Maya viewport performance than a $160 FirePro W4100. This creates a good excuse to split the build plan into 2 machines to optimize viewport and render performance for the money.

Splitting the budget into separate modeling and render machines provides benefits to workflow regardless, so even if Maya weren't on the list, it would still be a good idea. When a machine is bogged down with export rendering, the interactivity performance in the modeling viewport falls apart. When viewport hardware is being hammered with another job, performance in the viewport tanks. By only using the modeling machine for modeling, and offloading all preview/export/final rendering to a separate render node, the modeling machine remains responsive. (from a user standpoint, the modeling machine is still the only machine that is regularly interfaced with, the results of the offloaded work all appear right there in the export viewer on the modeling machine, but the compute work to achieve the results in that viewer are performed on separate hardware).

The downside to splitting the machine into 2, is that blender may not benefit from this arrangement of computing resources as much as running one machine, but since Blender is a lower priority I don't see this as a significant problem, it doesn't make sense to optimize a $10,000 budget of computing hardware around the least-favored piece of software. Blender is a work-in-progress open-source project, it will eventually develop better support for network/cluster rendering.

---------------

Anyway, moving on to how to do the build/s.

The modeling/design machine would look something like this:

CPU: E3-1231 V3 ~$250
HSF: Noctua NH-D9L ~$55
MOBO: ASRock Rack C226M WS ~$180
RAM: 4x8GB DDR3 ECC UDIMM's ~$300
GPU: FirePro W7100 ~$650
SSD: Toshiba Q Pro 256GB ~$130
Storage: Seagate 3TB ST3000NM0033 ~$200
PSU: Seasonic SS-460FL2 ~$120
Case: Corsair 350D ~$90
Monitor: 2 X BenQ GW2765HT ~$800
Windows 8.1 Home: ~$100

The render node would look something like this:

CPU: 2 X E5-2650 V3 ~$2300
HSF: 2 X Noctua NH-U12S ~$140
MOBO: ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS $550
RAM: 8X8 GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM's ~$800
GPU: 4 X EVGA 04G-P4-1982-KR GTX 980 ~$2240
SSD: Sandisk X110 256GB ~$130
PSU: EVGA 120-G2-1600-X1 1600W ~$300
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro $90
Monitor: Basic $50-100 LCD monitor for software install, server configuration, and hardware monitoring purposes, nothing fancy.
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro: ~$135

----------

That should be in the neighborhood of $10,000, and is a great balance of quality and performance for the intended use.

That said, it would be nice to wait till march for the release of 8GB versions of the GTX980, if possible.

--------------------

Jolly Pirate
We don't use SLI for export rendering, it just makes things slower, and it is not supported in most modeling viewports so that's pointless. The GTX980 doesn't work correctly with the Maya viewport. Sorry, your build gets a D-

BossyFin's
The W9100 for $3000 is basically $2000+ down the toilet for this build. Very few of the mainstream GPU accelerated export renderers support it, and those that do will still get better performance from $300 GeForce card. The same $3000 spend on GeForce cards would buy 5-10X better export rendering performance. Viewport performance will bottleneck on the CPU before ever scaling into a W9100 anyway. D-

BamboBoom,
Trying to concentrate this into a single system would require unsupported software hacks to get any good value out of (mixing workstation GPUs for viewports and gaming GPUs for good value export rendering), or require taking a huge compromise on performance (using quadro cards for export rendering, which cost 5-10X as much for the same performance as GeForce in these workloads with absolutely no benefit). C-

prouddad48 · Mar 2, 2015

Jolly - I'm not worried about breaking this up. I set aside the money when he started school with this intention. If the equipment becomes obsolete down the road either he'll have the money to buy himself a new system or if he is successful with his endeavors I'd be open to doing this all over again.

mdocod - Judging from his responses I would say Blender isn't even an option unless a potential employer requires it.

I have a couple questions regarding your suggested builds. Some of this may be obvious however as I stated in the beginning I know how to build a system to kick butt in gaming however this is a slightly different animal.

1. Aside from cost why wouldn't I want to go with a 5930 i7 and overclock it to say 4-4.5ghz for a performance boost on the design machine?
2. You suggested the w7100 for display, when I checked compatibility on Autodesk's website it looks like that card failed for Viewport 2.0 in one column but then passed it in another. Is this a concern?
3. Storage - would it be better to offload the 3tb with NAS or does it function better if I keep it on the design machine?
4. 8gb GTX - why wait for this if Maya doesn't play well in that sandbox? Or if from looking below your looking at stacking those GPUs in the render node? How much of a difference will this card make?

I don't actually need to start purchasing this stuff until April (need it completed for early May) so I have flexibility if there is something worth waiting for.

mdocod · Mar 2, 2015

prouddad48 :

Good question.

Viewport performance doesn't scale up with the extra cores or PCIE lanes offered by the 5930K. On the other hand, the 5930K certainly won't hurt performance...

Viewport performance will scale with clock speed, so if you wanted to trade off the stability and reliability advantages of using a locked clock Xeon build with ECC memory in favor of maximizing view-port performance, then the best value CPU's to do that with would be the i5-4690K or i7-4790K on Z97, or i7-5820K on X99. The ~$200-400 price premium above these chips for the 5930K doesn't "buy" anything useful for the modeling machine as it will be largely running heavy workloads on only 1-2 cores at a time. If you want the computing headroom (for multi-tasking) of a hex core in the modeling machine, the 5820K is an amazing value option, as you get the 6 cores without paying the premium for all the extra PCIE lanes (comes with 28, which is still a lot more than will be used on the modeling machine).

At a fixed 4.4ghz overclock, any of these haswell i7-K's will offer up to ~15-30% higher viewport performance than the stock clocked E3-1231V3. (It will be closer to a 15% advantage in most conditions, especially with an aftermarket heatsink on the E3, it will maintain turbo speeds near 3.8ghz in most conditions). As I mentioned before, the tradeoff is in stability/reliability. Overclocking + no ECC introduces a greater chance of throwing compute errors, and non-ECC system memory has a higher rate of failures.

2. You suggested the w7100 for display, when I checked compatibility on Autodesk's website it looks like that card failed for Viewport 2.0 in one column but then passed it in another. Is this a concern?

No, it's not a concern. It's not possible for the card to pass a viewport 2.0 specific test when the viewport is running in a different mode (openGL column). You'll see the same "failed" markings for every card they have tested. The W7100 is specifically designed and targeted for these types of applications and use.

3. Storage - would it be better to offload the 3tb with NAS or does it function better if I keep it on the design machine?

The performance will be much better if installed directly in the machine.

4. 8gb GTX - why wait for this if Maya doesn't play well in that sandbox? Or if from looking below your looking at stacking those GPUs in the render node? How much of a difference will this card make?

The GeForce cards are not being used for the Maya Viewport, they are there in the render node for CUDA accelerated export rendering using popular plugins... like Furyball, Octane, V-ray-RT, etc. IIRC Iray should also be included with mental ray in Maya as one of the built-in export render options.

The FirePro offers the best value in viewport performance. The GeForce cards offer the best value in export render performance, but they can't co-exist in the same machine together in any officially supported fashion, thus, we put the FirePro card in the "workstation" and the GeForce cards in the separate render node.

I don't actually need to start purchasing this stuff until April (need it completed for early May) so I have flexibility if there is something worth waiting for.

Excellent. At this budget, 8GB GPUs would be much better. With some of these popular export renderers, the entire scene must fit in VRAM for it to be rendered by the GPU, so more VRAM allows for GPU accelerated rendering of higher resolution scenes with greater complexity.

volcom912003 · Apr 26, 2015

I am in the industry and here is my 2 cents if you have not got the parts yet.
Go for a workstation cord over GTX cards always. they are meant for this specific purpose. They are made for VFX, video game companies, schools, film and many other industries. If your son is also going to be sculpting i would suggest either a cintiq monitor or if he prefers a wacom tablet. they perform the same functionality, just the cintiq is a monitor instead of a tablet. All industries use the Cintiq for their art teams. that includes 3d artists, animators, concept artists, vfx and film.
so for a basic spec :
CPU: i7 4790k or equivelant. OC to 4.4ghz
Motherboard: Intel Z97
Cooling: Corsair H60 or better
Ram: G. Skill Trident X series 2133 or better 8GB x4 for 32Gb of ram. max that motherboards can handle at the moment.
power supply: EVGA 1000 watt minimum
Graphics card: workstation Nvidia quadro 4000 or better
Case mid or full towers only! need the space that normal cases do not provide
Storage: get a SSD for the OS to be installed on as the master (Primary) and a hard drive, Seagate raptor 7400 RPM at 1TB or western digital 3TB. Any hardrive will work. It will be set as the slave. By doing this the ssd will be the OS and the hard drive will have all the files. this will make the computer run at ridiculously fast speeds.
Monitor: any LED monitor will work just make sure it is LED all other displays will strain your eyes after days and hours of constant use. I learned that the hard way. I am light sensitive now.
If your sun is a 3D sculptor get a cintiq monitor. the black ones not the gray. the gray use DVI and black use HDMI. resolution difference 480 SD vs 720/1080 HD. The color profiles are drastically different on the SD monitors vs the HD.

Programs:
Sculpting: Zbrush (very well known)and Mudbox (not many companies use)

3D modeling: Maya ( most widely used), 3ds Max (some use), Blender (none use in top professional companies. only low, small companies that are starting out use it.), Cinema 4D( some companies use it for film and games), MODO ( second most widely used for modeling), Rino(only used in Europe)

Redering: V-ray,Mentalray, iray,Octane,Beast,Furry,Renderman,Arnold and more. (most mainly used) all are GPU and CPU intensive) ( this is where Nvidia CUDA comes in)

VFX:
Compositing: Adobe Aftereffects, Adobe Premiere, The foundry Mari, The foundry Nuke
3d modeling: (create the VFX here): Maya,MODO, 3ds max, Cineme 4D

Video/film editing:
Avid,Premiere, FInalcut pro.

Overall:
CPU: the more cores are only used when rendering. If he only will render occasionally then do not the a CPU with more than 4 cores. Most companies have a render farm with a network of computers working together to render the scenes. they all have 4 CPUs mind you.

storage: SSD as primary and any other drive as a secondary.
Ram: 32GB 4 channels all 8GB sticks.
Monitor: only get the Cintiq if he will be sculpting. very good at precision work.
motherboard: any Z97 will do. make sure it can handle 32GB of ram. if it lists more it will not work for him. Motherboards that handle more than 32GB of ram are meant for servers nor desktop computing.

Last note:
GPU is only for rendering and what is being displayed on monitor. CUDA is only used during renderings.
CPU and Ram: for speeding up processes on the computer and how smooth a task is running. This means anything you do on the computer will be fast or slow depending on the CPU speed.

Building my son an animation rig

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