Help with sub $7,000 3D workstation build

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ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Hello everyone I'm obviously new here and was hoping you could provide me with some feedback/help with a build I'm trying to put together mainly for use in 3D graphics.

First off let me explain my situation, I work as a 3D generalist for a company in LA and until recently was perfectly content to use the workstation that they have provided me as it is a very well specced computer. More recently however I have begun to work on more personal/freelance projects and have realized that my personal computer is far from sufficient to handle the kind of work I need to do (i7 iMac quad). At first I was planning to get a Mac Pro as prefer OSX to Windows (I use a Windows at work) after doing I bit of research however I discovered that the current Mac Pro's are rather outdated hardware-wise and also significantly overpriced compared to many Windows based solutions. After lots of reading I came to the conclusion that my best option would probably be to build a Windows based machine as it will be the most bang for buck option as well as very functional for my specific needs. I've built computers before but not for some time and am therefore somewhat outdated interms of my knowledge of current hardware (although I still understand all the principles to building a machine). I've set aside a budget of $7,000 which I hope will be sufficient to make a very very fast machine! To give a better idea of what I will be using it for here is some of the software I use:

3D suite: Maya, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D
Renderer: Vray, Mental Ray, Octane
Sculpting: Zbrush, Mudbox
Texturing: Mari, Zbrush
Simulations: Realflow, Maya Sim
Game Dev: Unity

As I'm sure you can tell I use a very wide array of software as I tend to work many very different projects, I also do some video editing from time to time with the possibility of editing some 4k/5k in the future so a machine that could handle that as well would be a bonus! My main priority is rendering I need a machine that will spit out renders as fast as possible (mostly in Vray), second to that is graphics performance Zbrush and Mari are very intensive graphics-wise and I need a machine that can handle very very high resolution models as well as very large texture maps. I've done some research and put together what I think will be a decent machine and would like your feedback:

CPU: Dual Intel E5-2670

GRAPHICS: 1. 2x Nvidia Quadro 4000
2. 2x AMD Firepro V7900
3. 1x Nvidia Quadro 5000

HDD/SSD: 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black (File Storage) + 120GB Kingston Hyper X (Operating System+Applications)

DVD/Blueray: LG Black 12X Blueray R=RW

CASE/CHASSIS: Need some help on this as it appears there aren't many options for HPTX sized motherboards

MOTHERBOARD: 1. EVGA SR-X
2. ASUS Z9PE

CPU COOLER's: 1. Thermaltake Frio (Will 2 of these fit without covering the DIMM's?)
2. I was hoping to stay away from Liquid Cooling as it seems to be rather unnecessary unless you plan to significantly overclock (E5's are locked) but if you guys think that would a better option then I can go with that instead.

MEMORY: 64GB GSkill Ripjaws 2X(4x8)

PSU/POWER: Enermax 85+ 1020W

TOTAL: $5873-$6,921 (Roughly)

I think thats everything, I apologize for the rather long post and I appreciate any advice you can give me!
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Thats a shame the Firepro cards to seem to have excellent geometry rendering performance.

So if I were to spend a thousand dollars on a render node what kind of hardware would you recommend? I've set up render farms using multiple computers but I've never built or managed individual node systems so I really have no idea were to begin as far as building one.

The main reason I was going with 2 cards was so that I could run multiple monitors off of one without taxing the other.
 

Draven35

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Nov 7, 2008
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Ok let's do this:

ASRock P67 PRO3 SE $95
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz $310
Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower $30
Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630 W $60
Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500 GB SATA 6Gb/s $80
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) $210
LG 22x DVD Burner SATA Model GH22NS90B-OEM $22
COOLER MASTER Hyper TX3 $28
Windows 7 Professional x64 $140

Total $975

If your renderers don't respond well to hyperthreading then you can cut the CPU down to an i5-2400 and shave $120 from the price. Unless you're using GPU-based rendering, then the system doesn't need a graphics card the onboard graphics will work fine. If you put it in a 1U case instead of the small desktop case, you're going to need a different cooler. Component choices come from the $650 gaming system and the $1250 enthusiast PC, the RAM is the same RAM you specified for the workstation. All prices are from NewEgg or the appropriate previous article.

Note that you can drop another hundred or so from the price by only having 16 GB in the node. Not only is it going to be half the RAM, but you also can use a motherboard which has only two memory slots... all depends on what you need out of the node. You'd need to evaluate if your scenes really take up 32 GB (they likely do not)
 

g-unit1111

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That's because I've mostly built workstations with gaming hardware since my company is too cheap to spring for the higher-end workstation stuff. :lol:

I've built a few 4U servers but server hardware doesn't always make the best workstation hardware.
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Thanks! So if I am to begin building a render farm I think I would prefer to go with something more expandable instead building inside of a standard computer case, what do you think of this server rack-mount case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811182566

At least that way I'll have more room to expand my farm as more funds become available. So with that in mind I've made some adjustments to the configuration that you outlined:

ASRock H61M-VS Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $55
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz $310
ARK 4U-500-CA Black 4U Rackmount Case $85
Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630 W $60
Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500 GB SATA 6Gb/s $80
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) $105
LG 22x DVD Burner SATA Model GH22NS90B-OEM $22
Titan DC-155A915Z/RPW 95mm Z-AXIS CPU Cooler $17
Windows 7 Professional x64 $140

Total $874

Let me know if you think that would be an adequate configuration.

 

Draven35

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Sure, but generally 'expansion' with a render node is a matter of buying another node... Maybe in a year or two you'll want to add a graphics card to the box if you're going to be using GPU-based rendering... a render node really is just for rendering and so you want it to be as low footprint as possible. It doesn't need lots of onboard storage, because it should be reading the project files from a central location (whether the workstation or a seperate fileserver)

Also you should plan to use wired networking. wi-fi isn't great for moving large files to and from nodes.

You should alsp be ready to bootcamp your mac so you can use it for rendering as well, or run a windows 'box' under parallels...
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Yeah thats what I meant by being able to expand. I was planning to setup a NAS for file storage that way I dont need to transfer project files when I'm ready to render. Luckily I already have network render software on my Mac's that will communicate between both OSX and Windows so hopefully there will be no need for a Windows install.
 

ColeHarris

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I thought I read somewhere that sharing locally can be very taxing on your workstation especially for very large renders, either way I'd still feel more comfortable about having my files somewhere other than my desktop where things have a higher probability of going wrong.
 

Draven35

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It isn't very taxing if you're only sharing with a few nodes. But sure, an NAS or a drobo or a small linux box would be better... but you still shouldn't be 'transferring' the files to and from your NAS, you should be working with them on the network, especially since you'd be the only person generating the heavy network traffic.
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Yeah I guess what I meant was that if I have a networked storage device then I'll be able to work with the files during the entire project and therefore have no need to transfer files at render time, I must not have explained properly.

So would it be possible to overclock individual nodes or would that generate to much heat given the smaller enclosure/s? Also how does licensing windows work across multiple nodes, I thought read that you can just install to your first drive and then make a clone of that drive for every following node? Or do you need a network license?
 

g-unit1111

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That won't if you plan to do any sort of rendering - with H61 you forfeit access to the multiplier on your CPU which makes overclocking useless. You also forfeit RAM slots and SATA ports for drive expansion. And that extra CPU cooler is no better than the stock fan.
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Ok hmmm... Thanks. It looks like maybe I'm better off waiting to invest in a render farm until I can afford to really do it properly, or maybe not I don't know. I'm simply trying to get the most bang for my buck so to speak and I'm still unsure as to how to do that. Should I spend the extra thousand dollars on my workstation or am I really better off building a render node? So many choices....
 

g-unit1111

Titan
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I'd personally spend it on the main workstation - that's the computer you'll use the most and it helps to get the most out of it - some people will try to convince you otherwise and I wouldn't bother 4U until you can get proper workstation / server hardware to go with it.
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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So what should I spend that extra $1000 on? I was thinking of maybe going with a Quadro 4000 in addition to the Firepro v7900 that way I could run my monitors off the Firepro leaving the Quadro for more taxing things like Mari and Zbrush, or would I be better off upgrading the CPU or RAM?
 

Draven35

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Serving files to a single render node off of his workstation isn't going to cause that much of a system load. Three nodes, maybe. Five nodes, sure, ten nodes, definitely. One? No, especially if the render times are long. 3d rendering doesn't depend on disk access once the scene is loaded it depends on CPU power. Unless he overclocks the system into the stratosphere, there isn't anything he can do to the workstation at this point to increase rendering speed that wouldn't be surpassed by buying a single render node, especially if he moderately overclocks the node.

Having a render node also means he can be working on something else while one thing is rendering. The ability to build a render queue cannot be understated. Put things in the queue while you work on the next shot in the sequence, when you lay off for the night, throw the workstation into the queue (any decent render queue manager will support dynamically taking systems in and out of the queue) then pull the workstation back out when you need to use it... you can even schedule the workstation to be released from the queue before you need it with some network render managers. He could likely even set it to use one processor (or a certain number of cores) on the workstation so he can still work while rendering in the background (serious crunch time CPU usage).

(Or you could save the $1000 and use it to buy time on a commercial renderfarm as you need it, but that's a lot of uploading/downloading...)
 

g-unit1111

Titan
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Well you can't run a Quaddro and a Fire Pro simultaneously. You will need either 2 x Fire Pro or 2 x Quaddro in order to utilize the full power of the GPUs. That's where I would recommend spending the money.
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Really I thought I read somewhere that Windows 7 supported multiple cards and multiple drivers.

I guess I have a bit of a decision to make, I really wish there was some way other than water cooling to cool CPU's on the SR-X, that would save me a fair bit of money which I could use to invest in a render node as well as afford 2 GPU's.
 

Draven35

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Just want to make sure you all understand, two GPUs will NOT accelerate rendering unless you use iray or VRayRT, and both have pretty severe limitations (in iray: photometric lights only, materials are limited to a restricted list, and your scene must fit into the GPU memory)
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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I was more thinking along the lines of high polygon modeling and very large texturing painting as well as very detailed sculpts in Mudbox or Zbrush (500 million+ polys). My machine has a rather decent(ish) GPU and yet it still has trouble handle anything upwards of 400,000 polygons.
 

ColeHarris

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Apr 17, 2012
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Both, I due the majority of my Polygonal modeling in 3DS Max or Maya and if sculpting is required on those meshes I send them over to either ZBrush or Mudbox. I also do a bit of Nurbs modeling which can also be rather demanding.
 

Draven35

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What about subdivision surfaces? those too?
 

ColeHarris

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Sometimes, more often though I just end up modeling with Polys and then adding a smooth modifier (turbo smooth in Max) prior to rendering.