Dedicated Rendering Machine

[AthlonPhantom]

I'm currently a college student and need a system, aside from my main one, that would handle my rendering while I work on other assignments and projects. My main build that I use for the rough work uses an i7 4790 & GTX 970, and they handle what I need pretty well (Maybe upgrading to the 1080 when it gets released). My old rendering machine used dual Xeon 5160s, and a VERY old Raedon card

Approximate Purchase Date: July

Budget Range: Preferably around $800

Programs Used: 3DS Max, Maya, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Unity, Unreal Engine, Keyshot, Marmoset Toolbag, Quixel Suite, Nuke, Mari.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3D modeling, concept arts, gaming, photo editing, video editing

Parts Not Required: Video Card (being given either a Quadro 420, or Quadro M4000), Monitors, Keyboard, mouse, OS.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Whichever has it for cheapest!

Country: Canada!

Parts Preferences: No preference,whichever will run with the most stability

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: All my monitors are 1080p or 4K

Additional Comments: Need a case with great airflow while keeping it great and quiet (Quiet takes priority!). Large storage is not needed, store most of my work across multiple external drives, but an SSD for the current render jobs would be great.

 

[bambiboom]

I'm currently a college student and need a system, aside from my main one, that would handle my rendering while I work on other assignments and projects. My main build that I use for the rough work uses an i7 4790 & GTX 970, and they handle what I need pretty well (Maybe upgrading to the 1080 when it gets released). My old rendering machine used dual Xeon 5160s, and a VERY old Raedon card

Approximate Purchase Date: July

Budget Range: Preferably around $800

Programs Used: 3DS Max, Maya, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Unity, Unreal Engine, Keyshot, Marmoset Toolbag, Quixel Suite, Nuke, Mari.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3D modeling, concept arts, gaming, photo editing, video editing

Parts Not Required: Video Card (being given either a Quadro 420, or Quadro M4000), Monitors, Keyboard, mouse, OS.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Whichever has it for cheapest!

Country: Canada!

Parts Preferences: No preference,whichever will run with the most stability

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: All my monitors are 1080p or 4K

Additional Comments: Need a case with great airflow while keeping it great and quiet (Quiet takes priority!). Large storage is not needed, store most of my work across multiple external drives, but an SSD for the current render jobs would be great.

Athlon Phantom,

The programs listed are demanding over such a large range that all the subsystems have to be good- you need a high single-threaded performance (3D modeling), a good core count (CPU rendering, video processing), a lot of RAM (animation), a strong video card ( take the Quadro M4000!), and a fast disk with a good amount of storage (video processing)http://

The problem is that the sophisticated visualization software is disproportionate to an $800 system, but you can go quite a ways with a good used workstation.

Consider buying a used HP z420 or Dell Precision T3600 with a low specification CPU. Buy one with a minimum of 16GB DDR3 1600 and a 1TB HD. For example:

HP Z420 Intel Xeon Quad Core E5-1620 3.60GHz/16GB/1TB SATA > sold for C $350.49 (22 April 16)

If you can find a suitable HP z620 or Dell T5600 within the budget, those can add a 2nd CPU and in future you could have a dedicated modeling/ animation system with a brilliant 4 or 6 core and the dual CPU system with 16 cores /32 threads could sit in the corner and work on rendering /processing. This was my approach: see the systems listed below.

The E5-1620 in the example system has a very good single-threaded performance but is a 4-core. Take this out and sell it for about $75.

Buy an 8-core Xeon E5-2680 (2.7 / 3.5GHz) for about C $120. This provides 8-cores at a decent speed for multi-threaded tasks and the 3.5GHz turbo speed is sufficient for 3D modeling- especially if you have a Quadro M4000.

Add a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD for OS / Programs.

Add a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD for active projects.

With patient shopping, it's possible to find something quite close to the mark more or less ready to go:

Dell Precision T3600 Workstation E5-2680 2.7GHz 16GB 256GB SSD Quadr 400 Win 7 P > sold for C $712

HP Z420 WORKSTATION E5-2680 16GB NO HDD NVS 295 NO OS INSTALLED > sold for C $ 650

This should be possible within the C $800 and be quite capable in the programs mentioned.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555]
[Passmark V9.0 Beta Rating = 5019.1 > CPU= 14206 / 2D= 779 / 3D= 5032 / Mem= 2707 / Disk= 4760] 3.31.16
[Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

Rendering:

I purchased a Dell Precision T5500 for US $171:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Original): Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1333 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB and 300GB > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating = 1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]

And buying the CPU riser, CPU, RAM, and using parts left over from another upgrade, for a total of about $1,000:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)