Workstation for video editing/ 3D animation/sculpting/motion graphics

[mihnea26]

Hi there!

I will use this workstation for video editing (Adobe Premiere) and video manipulation (After Effects). My main goal though is to get into 3D software like Cinema4D or Maya for motion graphics, sculpting and animation. I don't actually have any experience with this software (just a tiny bit). I'm still getting familiar with the terminology and the computer science behind 3D applications.

PCPartPicker part list / /yW76jc/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($378.50 @ Jet)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9DXi4 37.8 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($189.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($604.97 @ Jet)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow UV400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($81.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($177.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital RE4 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($165.98 @ PCM)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition Video Card ($727.98 @ Directron)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($60.59 @ Jet)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $2557.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-30 07:47 EDT-0400

From that research that I've made by now, I've found out that from start there are two kind of systems when dealing with 3D software.One that is using fast cores and GPU power (more like a gaming machine) and the other one being oriented on a multi-core CPU.

What I think I'll want or I'll be doing: - I want to be able to have fast previews of what I'm doing (like RAM preview from After Effects) - I don't know if it is of any relevance from a computing stand point but I guess I'll be playing more with particles, light, texturing and animation rather than building open spaces or having extremely detailed 3D models with trilions of poligons.

My dillemas are:

1. I don't know if that graphic card suits my needs, therefore if it's worth getting it (i chose it based on CUDA Cores). I'm afraid of paying extra on things that i don't need or the applications that I'll use will not use its features. Should I invest more into the CPU?

2. Same goes with the CPU. For now I went with a 6 core CPU instead of the i7 7700K 4.20GHz with 4 cores. Which one is more appropriate? Should I invest more into the GPU?

3. Should I get PCI SSD? How much will it affect the GPU's performance from eating the bandwith? Does it improve 3D work or is it more a thing for video editing builds?

4. Would a Quadro be more fast or is it the way to take when one is looking for 10bit color, stabilty, endurance?

5. Is it better in this context to have a balanced system or to have a main muscle (GPU/CPU)?
Thank you!

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Your choice of graphics card is not an issue in any way. CUDA count is what matters but even something like a GTX 970 will run programs reasonably so a 1080TI is frankly a bit of overkill but not a horrible idea in any way. A gaming built card in the high end is a great choice for content creation and Quadro cards are really only suitable for very VERY intense work. And if you are in the industry any system you work with that needs that horsepower is not something you buy yourself you will be supplied it. As for MAYA Blender 3dmax and other modelling programs they benefit more from 4 fast cores than any number of slower cores but most video editing or other media programs love those extra threads. So a 6 core with good clocks like your choice is great

Therefore your cpu choice is just fine so long as you don't need anything new offered by 6th and 7th gen Intel chips. Moving up to a 6800k would be the next logical jump but that's a large price change for not a huge improvement. At that point finding a suitable Xeon would he a better deal.

Your ram is what defines modelling render times not Storage so a PCIE SSD is not critical if you want it go for it. I would suggest a high cap M.2 instead though

Back to Quadro they are only meant for very extreme situations and a high end gaming chip is better rounded and actually much better for GPU acceleration

 

[imsqam]

For your questions

■ The 1080 Ti is the fastest GPU out there and is overkill for this build. A plain 1080 is fine for this build.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-11GB-Performance-912/
■ Okay, you define the workstation for Adobe Premier Pro plus Maya and/or Cinema4D. This is significant in that they have competing requirements, multi-core for PP and single core for Maya and Cinema4D.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Premiere-Pro-143/Hardware-Recommendations
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Autodesk-Maya-165/Hardware-Recommendations
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Cinema-4D-166/Hardware-Recommendations

So whatever CPU chosen should have a reasonably high core speed while still having enough cores. So I see the best compromise here as being the i7-6850K with 6 cores running at 3.6GHz.
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/7qyxFT,VKx9TW,6tXfrH,4RvZxr/

If it was just for Maya and Cinema4D the i7-7700K would be your best choice.
■ Storage is actually far more important for video editing than many realize, poor selections can mean long wait times. Best configurations should include a very fast SSD to be used as a scratch disk should the RAM not be enough. Second, you should have your programs on an SSD and last large HDD's to store files.

Use of the two SSD's here should not affect the GPU's performance
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3270657/amount-gpu-pcie-lanes-affected-nvme-wifi-card-simultaneously.html
■ Firepro and Quadro cards at the hardware level are very much like consumer cards, the real differences are in the driver optimization and the precision of the card. Unless you are using AutoCad or something similar then they are not warranted. These types of programs require high levels of image resolution and error checking which you don't require.
■ You should always balance your systems but the use of the system will define what is balanced. For video editing the paradigm is CPU>>RAM>>GPU>>Storage while in gaming it is GPU>>CPU>>RAM>>Storage.

So my suggested build is this. Use the 128GB SSD as your scratch drive, the 275GB as your OS/program drive. If you want to protect your data from HDD failure then put the two HDD's in a Raid 1 setup. Since core speed is important I included a good AIO cooler so that you can overclock your build.

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CMnFyf
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CMnFyf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-6850K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($569.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING FROSTFLOW 240L-W 84.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Taichi ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($464.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung SM951 128GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($115.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($92.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.69 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.69 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Xtreme Gaming Premium Pack Video Card ($554.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $2496.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-31 08:09 EDT-0400

 

[mihnea26]

Thank you very much for your answers

I have two questions regarding your advice.

1. Why do you think the 1080 gtx Ti is and overkill? It has a siginificat number of extra CUDA cores and from what I understood, for some time, the render applications for 3D are more GPU oriented.

2. What do you think about the AMD Ryzen x1700? It seems like a good deal in this context, having 8 cores at 3.4 speed.

 

[imsqam]

■ Rendering method is program specific and sometimes can be set in the program, but many programs still do not use the GPU.

The 1080 Ti is literally the fastest card out there
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-11GB-Performance-912/
and is more appropriate for an ultra high end system using a 6950X.
■ The 1700X is a good CPU with reasonable performance, prices are really good.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-AMD-Ryzen-7-1700X-1800X-Performance-909/
The one thing is that there is still a lot of optimization to occur with software vendors so it is hard to say where the dust will settle.