New Workstation and renderfarm build for Rhino -computational design and viz

[DouonSeuban]

I had my computers stolen last weekend during a home robbery which pushed my timetable for replacing 4year tech to NOW. I was just resigning myself to buying a boxx workstation ($6k+) or a precision T7610 ($7k+) with a dual Xeon e52680v2-similar to what I have at work, after my computers were stolen during a home-robbery this weekend.

 

I was researching any posts on Boxx's renderpro and came across dtolios' site regarding a home renderbox, and after an evening of reading through the threads, have come up with this setup. Im an architecture professor and freelance in design so I do heavy rhino/grasshopper, 3ds max with MR and Maxwell, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, occasionally AE & Premiere (for video) and some sound design with Reason. I would love your feedback on getting this setup:

 

it's obviously less than an amazing Boxx setup, but at 1/4 the price, I could build an armada of render-nodes to handle renders.

 

Workstation

Processor Intel i7-4790K Quad Core 4.0GHz overclocked to 4.5

Motherboard Asus Z97-A

Cooling Stock

GPU Asus STRIX GTX970 4GB

Memory Kingston HyperX Fury 1866 4×8 – 32GB

System Drive Samsung 850EVO Pro-Series 512GB

Storage Drive WD Black 1 TB 7200rpm SATA

Case Fractal Design Define R5

Power Supply Cooler Master V550 80+ Gold

Operating System Windows 7 pro 64

 

2 of these render-nodes

Processor intel Xeon E3-1245V3 – 3.4GHz.

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H

Cooling Stock

GPU Onboard

Memory Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB Kit (8GBx4) DDR3 1600 (PC3-12800)

System Drive Samsung 850EVO -Series 250GB

Case Rosewill Slim MicroATX Case with ATX12V Flex 300W PSU

Power Supply Cooler Master V550 80+ Gold

Operating System Windows 7 pro 64

 

If I understand Dimitrios' reasoning (max and rhino being primarily single-threaded for modeling), am I losing that much power (at under $3k total) for a freelance workstation + render (while i continue working) vs going with the vendor? I've built every one of my desktops since 2001.

[DouonSeuban]

Just to throw in a wrinkle: any thoughts on whether it's with waiting another week for the skylake i7-6700k (supposedly coming aug 5)?

 

At the same price point as the 4790 it's been verified at 5.2 Ghz with air cooling. If that's the case, how expensive would the motherboards be and is it risky being the first to play with a new processor on a workstation?

[Nikolaos M]

Reasonable thoughts. I would wait for sure. Clock for clock the two processors are close to each other (6700K is said to have an average 5-6% lead in general performance and a distinguishable increase in hyper threading performance), but as you mentioned, the oc potential of the skylake is huge, if rumors and leaks are correct. As far as I know, the 4790K couldn't easily surpass 4.5GHz on air, so if a, lets say, 4.8GHz oc will prove to be easy to reach with an air-cooled skylake, the gains are obvious.

 

As for the 1st post, of course Dimitris and others are more eligible to give you advice, but I think you should reposition your priorities.

 

The main WS is solid, in terms of vfm and compatibility, but a I would suggest the addition of a good cooler (4790K is quite "hot" and the stock cooler is inadequate). If you try to be tight in budget and since you are definitely planning to use discrete render slaves, I'd say the 4690K would be a good alternative with minor losses in performance (in fact, hyperthreading is rarely used in everyday tasks). Furthermore, due to the lack of hyperthreading, the 4690K is a better overclocker compared to the 4790K (hyperthreading always causes higher temps).

 

I would argue only with the node-builds. Choosing s1150 would probably limit your future activities, especially when we are talking about RAM amounts. With much less than 2000$ you could build a decent single s2011-3 node which would perform almost equaly fast as the 2xE3 1245 V3's in rendering and would give you the advantage of cpu and RAM upgradability in the future (plus the fact that you're going to be paying for +1 licenses and not for +2).

 

So, as you wait for more answers in this thread, I'll post two different setups, one for the WS and one for the render node just for "pushing" things forward and giving you an alternative:

 

WS

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($67.99 @ Mwave)

Motherboard: Asus Z97-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($148.89 @ OutletPC)

Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($269.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($168.68 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($318.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe ATX Full Tower Case ($142.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: Cooler Master VSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($66.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1466.50

 

Render node

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($368.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($125.89 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($254.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($229.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($83.99 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: Cooler Master VSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($66.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1220.83

 

Total cost under 2700 US$

 

The 5820K oc'ed at 4.3-4.4GHz (it's not so difficult to achieve with a top AIO like X61) has a Cinebench R15 score of almost 1300cb. The 2 Xeons E3-1245V3 should perform just under 1500cb. It's a 15% difference but the cost for 2 nodes is proportionally bigger.

 

[With 600$ more you could build the same single render node but with the 5960X (8c/16t) which at 4.3-4.4GHz would give a 35% boost in rendering power compared to a 5820K (~1750cb in Cinebench R15).]

 

My 2 cents.

Edited July 30, 2015 by nikolaosm

[DouonSeuban]

great points. I'll probably stick with the 4790k unless I can hold off for another week and see if the 6700k+mb+ram config is a. not super expensive (since it runs ddr4) and b. it's stable! Thanks for the heads up on getting a cooler for overclocking.

 

I like the idea of a single node (less nodes = less components going haywire), but I'm wondering if one can use different cores for distributed rendering. For example, If I go with the 5820k and decide that I need just a bit more oomph and build one of the e3-1245v3 nodes, will Max (MR/Maxwell) give unpredictable results? I remember that in days past (granted this is about 10 years ago when I ran backburner on max5), it was a bad idea to mix chips across the renderfarm.

[Nikolaos M]

Well, I think it can be done but I can't say for sure that it will be without problems. Wait for more input on that.

[DouonSeuban]

saw the initial test results for the skylake and it doesn't seem to be that impressive and more importantly, worth the money. I'm thinking I'll go the i7-4790 for the workstation but can't decide yet on a single rendernode at $1200 vs one of dimitris' $600 render nodes from pcfoo.com

 

http://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-core-i7-6700k-cpu-review-processor-gaming-performance/

[lindsaybutler]

I am looking to build additional render nodes for vray for rhino for small arch office so happened upon this thread, though I would share our setup-

 

We have a total of 6 comps, and typically do distributed rendering during office hours while everyone is working on said computers in Revit or Autocad. I have a 4770k workstation, as well as one other in the office, both with 32 gb ram. We have 2 amdfx6300 / 16 gb ram and 2 amdfx4300 / 16 gb ram. Occasionally a render craps out because one computer kind of 'eats it' and all render buckets turn black, but generally this set up works really well. Of course the hyperthreaderd intels blow the amd's out of the water rendering, but it's what we've got that balances rendering needs with general office needs. We run software in the background to limit how much cpu & ram the DR spawner can use on the nodes, (especially if its a node where user is working in a large revit file). I think intel hyperthreading is a must for the workstation, especially if you intend to keep working while you are rendering. Though the workstations have 32 gb ram, we always limit vray in the options to 8gb ram. DR spawner seems to take a lot, and we've realized that if we want the ability to do cpu rendering while working in other 3d applications, that is the magic number. In contrast, I personally have a 5820k at home with 32gb ram and nvidia gtx 970, which handles big files and grasshopper better than work comp, and handles unreal engine really well also (though I think you are better with 4790k, as that is fastest for single threaded applications). After working in the offfice, its painful how long renders take on one machine, even with 12 hyperthreaded cores. My boss paid $600 or so for each AMD machine in the office, and I am definitely of the mindset that the more cores you can get for the dollar the better. Anyway, different cpus seem to work fine together, the comp that gives us the most trouble is one AMD6300 running windows 8 (we just got it, but will be buying a win7 license bc of autocad/revit issues on it), but even it does what it is supposed to 80% of the time for distributed rendering.