G'day CG folk. Assembling the following soon... feedback and ideas are greatly appreciated.
My Questions:
•Is putting 128GB RAM overkill?
•Is supermicro the better motherboard to use? should I go ASUS Z9PE ?? Has anyone used supermicro or (talus) in thier workstation???
•Fitting a two NH-D9DX cooling radiators to a dual motherboard( ASUS or supermicro) with RAM installed, has anyone tried this? Will they fit?
•Case recommendations please! so many out there!! -simplest, most functional and accessible design – no pretty candy needed. So far "corsair 750d" tickles my fancy.
•Whats the go on sealing un-used case openings / holes -Is there a standard methods to reduce dust and improve heat management?
WORKSTATION
-Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X10DAX | Dual CPU, 16 RAM slots
A toss up between the above and the Asus-Z9PE ensued. I decided the X10DAX because the cpu cooler planning to use is quite large and seems it will fit the supermicro with all the RAM installed.
-CPU: E5-2650V3-10X, 25Mcache,2.3GHz,105W,DDR4-2133Mhz
at 2400AU$ a pop, this is all I can afford at the moment. I'm thinking two 2650's will get me across the line for most still and animated CG work . I figured going with 6 or 8 cores would be wasted on a dual cpu motherboard since a single I7 5820k CPU has great performance (evermotion ) for its price of 500AU$ and the 200AU$ difference between single and dual core motherboard.
-CPU cooling: Noctua NH-D9DX I4 3U
I know the water cooling systems are the rage right now but for reliability( less moving parts to fail) and its impressive cooling performance and impressive 6 year warranty... noctua makes sense. It is LARGE ( 110x95x95mm) so im a bit concerned it wont fit on the motherboard with all the RAM installed. I'd like to face the motherboard ports and CPU fans upwards so heat travels up and out of the case efficiently.
-RAM: Corsair Black Vengeance LPX| DDR4 2400MHz | 8x8GB + 8x8GB = 128GB
The 2650 CPU has max memory type ( intel ) of 2133MHz. Its my understanding higher Mhz does improve render times but only over longer periods ( longer than 24 hours) so i'm going with cpu recommended 2133MHz here (or 2400MHz -close enough )
-Drive for Windows 7: 240GB Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe SSD (SHPM2280P2H)
An SSD plugged into the PCI slot vs the usual SATA3 cable has significant speed difference and less internal case cluttering. SATA3 speeds at 200 to 500MB/s vs 1000 MB/s is a no-brainer for me. Faster data access – yes please.
-Drive for storage: Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB
Standard 7500rpm disk hard drive
-Graphics Card: K2200
Im using what I have already.
-PowerSupply: Corsair650
Again, using what I have already.
-Windows 7 Pro x64
thanks, T2Q.