High-End Workstation Configuration for 3D Architectural Rendering required!

[polfromthehill]

Hey guys (and specially Dimitris),

 

Like Dhaivat Films in another thread, I'm looking for a High-End workstation config for 3D architectural rendering.

 

Use:

-90% 3DS Studio / 10% Photoshop-Acrobat Suite

-Render Vray RT (GPU) only for previewing purposes

-Production mode (CPU) for final render

-0% Gaming.

 

 

 

Budget: $5-6K (Note that prices in Switzerland are pretty similar to the US)

Only Intel Chips

 

Maybe you can do some minimal changes in your previous list (Dimitris config for a $8.9K workstation):

 

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon E5-2687W v3 10C/20T, 3.1~3.5GHz

Cooler: 2x Corsair H90 Hydro

Mobo: Asus Z10PE-D8 WS

RAM: 2x Crucial 32GB Kit (8GBx4) DDR4 2133 ECC

GPU:PNY NVIDIA Quadro K5200 8GB

OS Drive:Samsung XP941 512GB M.2

Storage Drive:Samsung 840 EVO 1TB

PSU:Seasonic PLATINUM-1000

Case:Corsair Obsidian 750D

 

 

- What is are the best cooling components necessary to overclock the workstation? Do you recommend it?

 

-Which set could give me a powerful machine and allow me to work with Photoshop while 3Ds Max is in production mode?

 

 

 

 

Monitor is another issue.

 

What are you suggestions for a high-efficient one with at least :

- Resolution: 2560x1080p

- Size: Min 27"

- True RGB color representation (I'm gonna be rendering and editing 3D Architectural views from 4K pictures)

- Budget: 500-700$

 

Thanks for all your help, time and wise advices!

Congrats for all the passion and professional opinions you show here.

 

Pol.

Edited December 2, 2014 by polfromthehill

[Dimitris Tolios]

GPU + Morning Rant: The Quadro K5200 is not required. Was more of a "show-off" move for that "budget-less" workstation.

 

 

A GTX 970 would do "ok" in 3DS for most viewport stuff.

You could wait for the 8GB versions that will come out during the xmas season or Q1 2015 just so that it won't be "buggin" you that you've spent all this money and a month later something new came out.

 

 

I would start with a single GPU, and add a 2nd if GPGPU rendering does indeed suite my workflow.

970s are already down to $300-320, with MSI Gaming & Asus Strix versions (probably my top choices) floating around $350 when in stock. The Gigabyte G1 Gaming versions are the best for overclocking, but being longer than 12", will be hard to fit in many cases. I cannot if one in my watercooled AIR 540 for example, not without taking the pull fans out from my 360mm front rad.

The 8GB versions should retail for $70-100 more.

 

 

The 980 will be faster for RT GPU, but not so much for viewports.

That 20% speed advantage will cost you $200 (60%) or so more, so I would definitely go for a 2nd 970 if I had to have the best bang for my money.

 

 

The GM204 is a much bigger die than the GK104 (680/770) so when the "big Maxwell" comes around, I doubt you will see that big of a jump in performance as the one we saw between GK104 and GK110 (GTX Titan, 780Ti etc), unless we see a switch to 20nm lithography by that time which will allow for packing massively more transistors per unit area. Trying to say that whatever you buy now, won't be the fastest a year from now, but I doubt that you would expect a $300-350 2014 card to fair equal vs. a $700-1000 2015 card. 970s are a good value and will be for at least a couple of years.

 

 

Cooling: You have to have a cooler as those Xeons don't come with one. Who told you that those can overclock well to begin with?

Well, Xeons are multiplier locked, so you won't get too much out of then...you do get to pump the BLCK frequency up a bit tho, and a 110MHz BLCK is not that tough, so you can yield a 10% overclock. Better than nothing I guess. Some ppl do 113~115Mhz but that is down to silicon lottery and the particular chip. Not everybody is lucky to get that.

 

 

The E5-2687W v3 is already a 160W rated CPU, so I would expect it to flirt with 200W when overclocked and pushed to 100%. A H90 can keep up with that, will do ok. Air coolers like the Noctua NH-D14 or NH-D15can do that too, perhaps @ lower noise levels, but I don't know how comfortably you can fit them in a 2P system. For that you could go with a Noctua i4 - but perhaps the bigger twin towers cane be fitted - perhaps rotated 90 degrees (exhaust up)

 

 

Photoshop while Rendering: well, Vray renders with threads @ low priority, so you can fire up other apps and perhaps even force them to above normal priority for the OS/CPU. With that many threads, you will probably do ok, but there will be a performance hit on both 3DS & PS while doing it. It boils down to how demanding the PS work will be I guess.

 

 

For the long run, I think nothing can beat a render-farm as far as flexibility goes. And the budget is there for you to built a 2P rendering node (or two?) with 2x 10C Cpus that don't need to be the "W", and a dedicated workstation with a 5820K that you can overclock to 4.5GHz and whatnot.

 

 

Monitor: you cannot go wrong with Dell 1440p 27" monitors, but if I had the budget I would definitely go for a 21:9 1440p for my main screen. Doesn't need to be the curved LG 34UC97 or the upcoming Dell U3415W that will be sharing the same IPS panel (all IPS are LG, in Dell, Apple Cinema or cheap Korean models). I would be happy with a "vanilla" flat 3440 x 1440p

Edited December 2, 2014 by dtolios

[bryanwong]

Sorry if this considered hijacking a person's thread, as I did post thread on this forum twice, but never came out on the forum. And I really want feedbacks from Dimitris for my build. Sorry in advance to Pol From the hill

 

Hi Dimitris,

 

I am building a workstation for the first time. My main program would be from Autodesk (Revit, 3DSMAX, and Autocad). I do use other Adobe CC programs, Rhino and SketchUp sometimes but not daily use as Autodesk. I will Render in Revit (CPU render) but I guess should change to render in 3DSMAX using GPU-render.

 

I have 2 builds. 1150 Socket and 2011-v3 Socket.

 

2011-3

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/Y2rgpg

 

1150

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/WKhpNG

 

1) Which one would you recommend me to go with ? And would be great to let me know the reason behind your choice.

 

2) For the Socket 2011-3 build, is the extra A$300-400 worth it ?

 

3) I haven't decide on the GPU. GTX970 seems like the best buck (as you mentioned above). But I do hear that Kepler (780Ti and Titan series) are better at Revit/3DSMAX. Or do you think I should wait for 970 with 6gb/8gb ? Or 980Ti ?

 

I hope to hear advice from you as I saw you given really good explanations in this forum.

 

**Just wondering, I read that you are trying to build something with x99 mobo with 5820K etc. And that you mention you would blog about it. I did not find that particular blog. Did you build the it? **

 

Thanks in advance and sorry if this consider hijacking threads as my thread did not appear on forum - Not sure why

 

Thank you

 

Bryan

[Dimitris Tolios]

They do stick it in $AU I see, much like in EU

 

The S2011-3 does worth it if you will be rendering stuff.

 

You could easily shave some money going Asus X99-A instead of Pro (same performance, same potential overclock + stability)

 

PSU is nice but you don't have to go Platinum, 80+ Gold is fine = that will save some $ too.

 

Case is kinda overkill / overpriced if money is of concern too.

 

If I was to go with 16GB of RAM but having 32GB as an open option for the future, I would forgo the quad channel temporarily in favor of going 2x8GB DDR4 instead of 4x4GB sticks, although this is a X79 inspired suggestion. I don't know how X99 handles 8-stick configurations.

 

Had the list for the blog ready for some time, but I did not write the full rant on why and how I chose each part. That's work in progress, tho most of it has been discussed by my posts in threads like this one over the last few months in CGarchitect (yes, I write here more than I do in my blog apparently!)

 

http://pcfoo.com/2014/12/cg-workstation-the-pro-q4-2014/