yet another workstation thread...

[Coolhand78]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking to build a new workstation (or have one built) and after trawling through all the threads here I'm looking at the following...

 

Now I have to preface all this with the fact that i really have very little hardware knowledge at all and am relying heavily on the opinions of those here who are far more informed than I... having said that i use 3ds max, vray, photoshop & lightroom and am looking for a machine that can handle relatively large files/scenes... I do not do any RT rendering at present and really am not factoring this in to the equation... here's what i have come up with based on previous threads...

 

Case: Fractal Define (R3/R4) and Define XL

 

Cooler: Noctua NDH14

 

GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 760 4GB GV-N760OC-4GD Rev. 2

 

PSU: Gold/Platinum Seasonic

 

RAM: 32Gb low-profile kingston

 

M Board: Asus P9X79 Deluxe.

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K

 

SSD: Samsung 840 Pro series 2,5" 256 GB

 

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2 TB

 

is there anything else that I might be missing? and how is this looking?

 

thanks

[Zdravko Barisic]

If you are working on large scale designs, with lot of veges, 64GB of ram is woth of it.

egz > 2-3 instances of max, pdf openes, PS opened, cad tool....it easily fit to 64gb with large projects full of veges, grass, objects...

....

Deluxe version of mobo is not so needed, you can go with vanilla X79 mobo, even Asrock is good, or cheap intel dx79to.

and mainly, thats it...

[Coolhand78]

If you are working on large scale designs, with lot of veges, 64GB of ram is woth of it.

egz > 2-3 instances of max, pdf openes, PS opened, cad tool....it easily fit to 64gb with large projects full of veges, grass, objects...

....

Deluxe version of mobo is not so needed, you can go with vanilla X79 mobo, even Asrock is good, or cheap intel dx79to.

and mainly, thats it...

 

hey mate thanks for the reply, what would be the advantages of the "better" motherboard? does that particular model allow for multiple CPU's or something?

[Dimitris Tolios]

All X79 boards are 1P boards.

 

Usually companies like Asus start with a basic model and build up on it with extra features.

 

 

• P9X79 LE or whatnot is the basic model. Stripped down, no fancy stuff, weird PCIe slots.
  
• P9X79 "vanilla" model (i.e. no co-sign). Again, basic, but with a few more features than the LE. Might have intel NIC while the other had realtec, better quality sound card chip etc.
  
• You go to the "Pro" and it has better overclocking potential due to better VRM quality/more phases (better power delivery to the CPU, only required for overclocking in the upper range of CPU potential) and perhaps an extra SATA controller, and all the "higher-end" audio / NIC etc chips. Fancier / better heatsinks on the chipset / VRMs too.
  
• Sabertooth usually is identical with the Pro, but gets higher grade capacitors for longevity, and a fancy plastic cover over it.
  
• The "Deluxe" usually offers extended connectivity. More SATA, more USB 3.0, perhaps Thunderbolt, firewire etc. In this case, you are getting dual GBit NIC, and Wifi (kinda counter-intuitive pairing there). You get more PCIe 16x ports too, tho in a configuration that allows for cards other than dual slot GPUs to be connected. Still 3x maximum. Perhaps better power delivery than the above, but that's not the board of choice for extreme overclocks to make it count.
  
• The "WS" gets even better, with a crapload of extra ports, extra RAID controllers. It is also "bigger" form factor (not ATX any more), so it has room for even more PCIe 16x slots, and can actually mount 4x dual slot cards vs. 3 for the Pro/Sabertooth/Deluxe.
  

As far as speed goes, all are the same give or take. You won't notice a difference running your CPU at the stock/same clocks between the WS and the LE, or any of the X79 "ROG" boards that are the choice for more wild overlclocks (didn't stop me doing 4.9GHz on my 3930K on a Pro, but silicone lottery helps).

 

With the X79 renewal, many Asus boards got replaced/discontinued, so you are looking at stock left in warehouses atm. The Sabertooth X79 is not that much cheaper.

But unless you plan on overclocking etc, there is little reason not to settle for a LE/vanilla P9X79 and save $100 or so.

 

It is kind of weird to go for a really high-end X79 based system today, as in really few months we are waiting for X99, Haswell-E 8-cores and DDR4 to officially launch, using the s2011-3 socket that renders our current 2011 platform incompatible. For sure the X99 will be more pricey, mainly due to DDR4 supply being surely worse than that of DDR3, but...if you have to have it "sooner" than that, I would suggest not to overspend.

 

No i7 can be configured in more than 1P systems atm, regardless of socket.

Edited May 6, 2014 by dtolios

[juricadragicevic]

hi all,i have the same "problem" in couple of months i'm going to buy new pc. i notice that luke have the similiar config

i use autocad and sketchup for modeling, render in vray (sketchup) and also use lumion and photoshop. at the start i must tell you all that i'm not pro,but i have very good skills.i will use this comp for my personal work and doing some work to students of architecture. i had on my mind something like this :

 

CPU : i7-4930K Processor (12M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz) 6cores/12threads (i wanted i7 4960x but double expensive and performance is just a little bit better than i7 4930k so i decided for cheap choice )

MBO: Asus P9X79 (8 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR3 2400(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory,Quad Channel Memory Architecture,Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)

GPU: ASUS GTX780Ti-D2-OC 3GB-DDR5 (2880 cuda cores) later i will add one more to get 2x 780Ti SLI

CASE : Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl

SSD : SAMSUNG 840 EVO 120GB

HARD DRIVE : 1 TB Seagate

CPU COOLER : COOLER MASTER HYPER 212 EVO

PSU : XFX Pro Series 850W Black Edition

MEMORY : KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST 1866MHZ (4X4) 16GB

+

MONITOR : HP PAVILION 23Xi IPS

 

i dont need any other fancy stuff like on the newest motherboards,and in working process i use only one monitor.i will be gratefull for all sugestions

[hkahk]

Hi Luke,

 

I bought amost the same station some weeks ago.

Just a different cooler and corsair ram.

And I have the X79-Deluxe. It's very comfortable to setup and you don't have to flash it to work with the 4930k.

The station works really well and it's a very good solution.

For that budget it's as good as it can be.

[numerobis]

in couple of months i'm going to buy new pc.

If you plan to wait a few months you should really opt for the upcoming 5930K or 5960X (Haswell-E) which should be released somewhere in June - August. It's not clear if the 5930K will get 8 cores or only 6 but the 5960X will be an 8-core (unlocked). A new socket and chipset will be introduced incl. DDR4. The only problem could be that DDR4 could be more expensive than DDR3. But i think the new platform would be the better choice.

 

And there is really no need to buy the 4960X instead of 4930K. You can just increase the multiplier(s) with a few clicks and get the same clock rates like with the 4960X - or even more if you overclock it further.

[juricadragicevic]

If you plan to wait a few months you should really opt for the upcoming 5930K or 5960X (Haswell-E) which should be released somewhere in June - August. It's not clear if the 5930K will get 8 cores or only 6 but the 5960X will be an 8-core (unlocked). A new socket and chipset will be introduced incl. DDR4. The only problem could be that DDR4 could be more expensive than DDR3. But i think the new platform would be the better choice.

 

And there is really no need to buy the 4960X instead of 4930K. You can just increase the multiplier(s) with a few clicks and get the same clock rates like with the 4960X - or even more if you overclock it further.

 

just i dont know how much will cost that configuration, however, i'm not in hurry can still wait untill october better then post same question later thank you very much

[klonk]

If you plan to wait a few months you should really opt for the upcoming 5930K or 5960X (Haswell-E) which should be released somewhere in June - August. It's not clear if the 5930K will get 8 cores or only 6 but the 5960X will be an 8-core (unlocked). A new socket and chipset will be introduced incl. DDR4. The only problem could be that DDR4 could be more expensive than DDR3. But i think the new platform would be the better choice.

 

And there is really no need to buy the 4960X instead of 4930K. You can just increase the multiplier(s) with a few clicks and get the same clock rates like with the 4960X - or even more if you overclock it further.

 

This is my plan as well, the 5960X seems to be 3GHz and I'm not sure if the speed difference is noticeable vs a 49X0 but the two extra cores should be. Another 4 buckets in Vray. A year later there will of course be new fun stuff (people say Skylake will be a jump) but this seems to be a good time to board the train.

[Dimitris Tolios]

• RAM: don't go for 4x4...you won't see real difference with Quad channel vs. going 2x8. I would not "push my lack" with 8-dimm configuration if you would decide to go for 32GB in the future.
  
• SSD: could be bigger, esp. with current pricing. I think a 250 is far more "comfortable" to work with, fits lots of software suites + allows for some workfile storage space.
  
• In general I don't like oversizing PSUs. But a 780Ti is practically a 300W card. Add two of them (you are mentioning expansion), and you are looking at almost 500-600W just on the GPUs. Along with a s2011 CPU, the 850W will be pushed too much. I would go for a V1000 if I was planning on 2 cards + allowing some room for overclocking.
  

[juricadragicevic]

theoretically : dimitris should you wait for new chipset,ddr4,etc.. or should i stay with configuration like this one? anyone know what can i expect in one year from now? i dont want a story that jurica buy new pc machine,and half year later new becomes "dinosaur"

[Dimitris Tolios]

It will become a dinosaur regardless. This doesn't make it bad, or slow. I have my 3930K and I don't feel penalized in any way for not having a "faster" 4930K, and I doubt the Haswell-E/5930K will be blowing mine out of the water in real life to the extend that I will "suffer" not having it.

 

I had my s2011 for 2 years almost. You/some ppl are tempted to get one now, when it is approaching the end of its line.

When you are dumping as much money to any system (cause I don't see the 4930K / X79 boards becoming cheaper over time) you want at least psychologically to feel current.

 

If possible, according to your current needs, I would wait for the X99/5930K to launch, and then make an educated decision.

The price difference will be probably in RAM. Boards should be more or less the same, and if you were prepared to go for a $300~350+ X79 board today, you will probably find a decent X99 board in that price range.

 

Some doubt the 5930K will be an 8-core, but others disagree and I think I ally with them too: we already know that the Haswell-E won't be amazingly faster than the 4930K, which in turn wasn't that much better than the 3930K.

 

The Haswell-X will remain the "halo" product, in the $1000 range, to top the charts and benchmarks @ stock speeds, but the real work & profit through volume of sales will come from the slightly slower K version, that will probably need to be an octacore in the $600 range (much like SB-E/IB-E 6-cores before it). There needs to be a substantial incentive for lots of people to adapt the s2011-3 platform, and this is hard to achieve with just a $1000 octacore.

 

So if CPU and Boards will most likely be closely priced to what we have now (or we had when the products just launched) it boils down to RAM more or less.

Unless we are talking insane pricing, which might be the case for the first months, normalizing around the end of Q4 2014, the new platform won't be that much more expensive. Especially if you are going for just 16GB of RAM for starters.

 

Someone that already has a X79 and 32GB or more, surely has to pay a bigger premium just to "match" the ram he/she needs, but paying $100-150 more to get the latest and greatest - with a couple of cores more, not just IGP improvements, is not that bad of a deal.

Edited May 9, 2014 by dtolios

[juricadragicevic]

It will become a dinosaur regardless. This doesn't make it bad, or slow. I have my 3930K and I don't feel penalized in any way for not having a "faster" 4930K, and I doubt the Haswell-E/5930K will be blowing mine out of the water in real life to the extend that I will "suffer" not having it.

 

I had my s2011 for 2 years almost. You/some ppl are tempted to get one now, when it is approaching the end of its line.

When you are dumping as much money to any system (cause I don't see the 4930K / X79 boards becoming cheaper over time) you want at least psychologically to feel current.

 

If possible, according to your current needs, I would wait for the X99/5930K to launch, and then make an educated decision.

The price difference will be probably in RAM. Boards should be more or less the same, and if you were prepaired to go for a $300~350+ X79 board today, you will probably find a decent X99 board in that price range.

 

Some doubt the 5930K will be an 8-core, but others disagree and I think I ally with them too: we already know that the Haswell-E won't be amazingly faster than the 4930K, which wants that much better than the 3930K in its turn.

 

The Haswell-X will remain the "halo" product, in the $1000 range, to top the charts and benchmarks @ stock speeds, but the real work & profit through volume of sales will come from the slightly slower K version, that will probably need to be an octacore in the $600 range (much like SB-E/IB-E 6-cores before it). There needs to be a substantial incentive for lots of people to adapt the s2011-3 platform, and this is hard to achieve with just a $1000 octacore.

 

So if CPU and Boards will most likely be closely priced to what we have now (or we had when the products just launched) it boils down to RAM more or less.

Unless we are talking insane pricing, which might be the case for the first months, normalizing around the end of Q4 2014, the new platform won't be that much more expensive. Especially if you are going for just 16GB of RAM for starters.

 

Someone that already has a X79 and 32GB or more, surely has to pay a bigger premium just to "match" the ram he/she needs, but paying $100-150 more to get the latest and greatest - with a couple of cores more, not just IGP improvements, is not that bad of a deal.

 

thank you very much dimitris on this detailed report ) great great great explanation

[juricadragicevic]

thank you very much dimitris on this detailed explanation

 

edit : i'm embarrased what to reply big thank to you,i could say that i'm waiting this response for whole night and it worth it thank you again

Edited May 6, 2014 by juricadragicevic

[beestee]

I am waiting for Skylake to do a new build with DDR4 to replace my Nehalem i7-920 DDR3 desktop. I likewise feel the DDR4 implementation for Haswell-E will be only a minor improvement.

 

I have a budget LGA 1155 build that I did 3 years ago that I plan to update with a i7-3770 and a good graphics card so that I can play with all of these newfangled GPU renderers...and unreal engine 4.

[mi75]

Looks good........... will you be buying locally or down south

[everstefan1]

Besides the posted specs I think you are forgeting the advantages of a raid configuration. Almost any new motherboard will offer raid in at least 2 sata3 ports and 4 sata2 ports both with raid config. So for a single workstation Ill set up 2 sata3 Samsung EVO 840 120gb in raid 0 to have double the speed and write in a single volume of 240gb for OS. And for storage Ill set up 4 sata2 HDD 1TB (those are cheap now) in a raid 0+1 config so you can have 4 times speed, 2 times write and 1 drive to failure and a 2tb volume.

 

Also usb 3.0 is almost in any new MB, this is usefull to set up external back ups.