Looking for Feedback - Editing & Graphics Rig

[JQuacker]

Disclaimer: I've spent hours on Google already.

I'm looking to build a nice graphics & editing machine for the small video production company for which I work. Budget is in the $2500-3500 range, though anything beyond $3k will need to be highly justified. I'm currently on a quad-core MacPro4,1, 20 GB RAM & GTX 680. We need to upgrade, and I'm much more fond of building a PC (speed to cost ratio, interoperability, etc) for the task rather than a new MP cylinder or taking an old tower MacPro and upgrading the crap out of it.

Programs/plugins I use consistently:
Premiere CC 2014
After Effects CC 2014 (I rarely use the raytracer 3d)
Trapcode Suite
Cinema4D R16 (default/physical renderer for now, though I'd like to get mentalray/vray/etc as work picks up down the road)

I saw somewhere that once I have an "idea" rig in mind, that posting here will provide valuable feedback if I'm making stupid choices in components, so here I am. I had thought of going with the 2011 or 1155 processor setup, but I'd like to somewhat "futureproof" it (however much you can in our world) with the newer 2011-v3. It's only ~$200 more to do this over the 2011, which is worth it to me. Not so much a specific part list yet as it is a specs list.

I've got highest, high, and low for my options, but for simplicity, I'll post what I prefer from available processors/components. Prices listed are ballparks, as they'll vary +/- ~20 depending on sales, etc.

$500 - Intel 5920k
$230 - x99s MSI board
$980 - 64 gb of Corsair DDR4 (can do 32, if 64 is a waste)
$600 - GTX 980 (don't know if a titan @ 1,000 is worth the leap)
$300 - 256 GB Crucial M550 X2 (one for system, one for cache which could drop to 128 or 64)
$100 - 2 TB WD drive (for media, etc. Most work done on NAS, but I'd like a local drive as well)
$750 - Win8 Pro OEM, CPU fan, KVM (dual monitor, dual-link DVI), case, PSU (1000w)

$3460. Top end. Savings can be had with dropping to a GTX 780 & halving memory. The 5820 is also $200 less, so is that 0.2 Ghz worth the $200?

Thank you for your time & thoughts.


edit, forgot an optical drive. Will see if boss wants BR Burner or not.

 

[SuperRafal]

GTX780Ti will be better for your system than 980 because of more CUDA cores and higher memory bandwith. If you check out the specs it's basically almost the same as Titan Black but much cheaper.

Do you really need 64GB of ram? Try checking out how much you use right now under heavy load and you'll get your answer.

I'd save these $200 by getting 5820K spend it on Noctua DH-14 for 2011 chipset and overclock the hell out of this CPU. This would be awesome .

As for motherboards ASUS is the only brand I trust because of all mb's i had no ASUS mb ever broke - they're fkn immortal. Can't say the same about MSI, Gigabyte or Asrock.

 

[JQuacker]

A few years back I built a machine for the same need for a previous place of employ. I used 32 GB of memory and on some renders from AE, it'd say 80-100% of memory used.

As for the ASUS mobo, do you have a recommendation? Deluxe, Rampage Extreme, WS? (am googling now, myself.)

 

[Anencephalus]

32GB is enough 64 is if you plan on running 4+ monitors with 10+ engineering programs (which you probably won't).

You would probably be fine with the 4790k although i you can I might invest in Intel's 6-core i7-3790k.

I would either get the 780Ti/980 or SLI 970s.

Get liquid cooling. If anything at least get the 212 evo on your CPU.

I would use win7 unless you are required to use win8. A friend of mine is a consultant/project planner for an engineering company and he was told to use win8. After 2 months he said %80 of the people switched to win7 because of how horrible win8 is and it's difficulty to use with that type of software.

I always recommend this because I never know if people are aware but use: http://pcpartpicker.com/
It will tell you all the compatibility of your build and an estimated price based on popular sellers.

 

[SuperRafal]

32GB is enough 64 is if you plan on running 4+ monitors with 10+ engineering programs (which you probably won't).

You would probably be fine with the 4790k although i you can I might invest in Intel's 6-core i7-3790k.

I would either get the 780Ti/980 or SLI 970s.

Get liquid cooling. If anything at least get the 212 evo on your CPU.

I would use win7 unless you are required to use win8. A friend of mine is a consultant/project planner for an engineering company and he was told to use win8. After 2 months he said %80 of the people switched to win7 because of how horrible win8 is and it's difficulty to use with that type of software.

I always recommend this because I never know if people are aware but use: http://pcpartpicker.com/
It will tell you all the compatibility of your build and an estimated price based on popular sellers.

Useless advice. You never know how much RAM professional uses. It depends on how much software he uses and what he does, it could easily be way more than 32GB. SLI doesn't work with software mentioned - what's more it can only cause problems. Liquid cooling in a company PC? If i've ever heard of it first i'd be shocked but than i'd just think it's a dumbass company. And as for Win7. C'mon, this is not a PC for spreadsheets and documents for accountant but workstation for engineer/designer - of course go with Win8.1!

 

[Anencephalus]

Useless advice. You never know how much RAM professional uses. It depends on how much software he uses and what he does, it could easily be way more than 32GB. SLI doesn't work with software mentioned - what's more it can only cause problems. Liquid cooling in a company PC? If i've ever heard of it first i'd be shocked but than i'd just think it's a dumbass company. And as for Win7. C'mon, this is not a PC for spreadsheets and documents for accountant but workstation for engineer/designer - of course go with Win8.1!

I'm not sure what you mean by "professionals" that's a bit of a broad and idiotic statement...

Yes it does depend on the software used which is why I said 32gb will probably be enough unless you are running a plethora of programs.

My father and many of my friends use engineering programs on a daily basis. Being techies we have had numerous discussions about their machines and how they work. Most of them, which I think in your definition would be "professionals", only have 32gb and say they have monitored their memory usage. It hardly ever exceeds 25-26gb.

Obviously opening 100 projects at once will probably crash your computer.

Do you even think of things before saying them? Almost every person I know who uses highly demanding engineering software have liquid cooling. Yes it's not required but they say it's so much better in terms of efficiency.

I don't know personally whether 7 or 8.1 would work better, but from my personal acquaintances who have all used engineering software for the past 5-10 years say 8.1 is horrible.
The software he mentioned are compatible with 7 and 8. 7 is much easier to navigate to perform tasks on.

SLI/crossfire is helpful when you have multiple displays.

Yes I understand I have mentioned my resources (other than the internet) are all engineers. Many engineering programs are equal or in most cases more demanding than the software he has listed above.

Please do your research before flaming people and providing no additional advice

 

[SuperRafal]

By professional i meant someone who earns money on his PC with specialized software. Yes it's broad because it is. You may edit videos, develop software, host websites or mine bitcoins and everytime everyone may do these things diffrently. If you'd read previous replies you'd see that JQuacker already had a machine with 32GB or RAM and he used up to 100% of it! Long enough 4K clips in adobe, 3d models in trapcode, bunch of additional tools + few websites opened and it seems possible. I did my reserach and there's no point in SLI for Adobe. New versions of CC suport it but in so little useful stuff that it's pointless like rendering with one specific codec that is not really used anymore and older version users like CS6 only seem to report bugs and no gain. Everyone hated 8.1 at first because of change in user interface but choosing older OS for highend workstation just because you're too lazy to learn new things is just dumb. I hated 8 too at the beginning but after a while you know it's better. And it's obvious companies like Adobe or Red Giant are more focused on 8.1 right now! Please do your research before flaming people and providing no useful advice.

 

[JQuacker]

For some clarification, I'll often have After Effects, Premiere, and Cinema4D all open at the same time, doing various things. As SuperRafal alluded to, 4K is on the rise, and unlike 3D, we feel it's something that isn't going to be niche/fringe. We're looking to get a 4K camera in the near future as well, so a machine that can "decently" handle it would be good as well.

The 780ti vs 980 is something that intrigues me, and that I need to look up more for real-world Adobe application use.

Liquid cooling is something I'd never do on a company machine.