3d work workstation on budget

[kangniamevor]

Hi everybody .

 

I'm not new to this forum but this is the first thread I'm posting.

I'm planning on building my workstation but I'm on tight budget. My current system is a lenovo thinkcentre m73 (Core i5 4570T, Intel HD, 120 Gb ssd, 8gb of ram...).

 

The post is a bit long. I hope you will have the patience read to the end.

 

I mainly work on architectural visualizations so most of the things i will say will be related to that, I also do a lot of modeling and sculpting:

 

1. What YOUR PC will be used for: It will be used for modeling/sculpting, texturing (Photoshop, Mari, Substance designer and painter, Quixel suite...), rendering (off-line renderers such as Vray (VrayRT for prewiewing) and Corona, on-line renderers such as Unreal engine), photo editing (...). Im also planning on using Photoscan to produce models from photo-scanning.

A lot of gaming too.

 

2. What YOUR budget is: My budget is around 900€ (monitors, peripherals, hard disk, cpu cooler, graphic card, case and windows OS are not included).

 

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from: I will buy everything from France. http://www.ldlc.com

 

4. IF YOU have a brand preference: I do not have any brand preference. Just want to have the best for my money. I rely on your experience.

 

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are: I will be re-using peripherals such as monitors, keyboard+mouse, speakers, OS and hard disk. I already bought the CPU cooler(Be quiet dark rock 3) and the case (Cooltek W2).

 

6. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds: I'm planning on overclocking.

 

7. IF YOU plan on using Multiple graphic cards: Im not planning on doing SLI or Crossfire.

 

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?: I'm planning on buying the remaining parts from somewhere in November to January. I will be puting everthing together a soon as i have all the parts. I will buy the graphic card after building this system and selling my current one.

 

9. What resolution and settings do you use?: For work and gaming the resolution will be full hd (maybe 2k later). I will use tree monitors setup( but will game on one only). In games i like to put settings at max.

 

So after some researches I come up with those parts:

 

CPU: Intel core I7 6700K. I was tempted by the 5820k but it was over my budget. Im thinking of building render node(s) later (cheap dual xeon in mind or something with AMD cpus)

 

Motherboard: ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER. I know the ASUS Z170-A can be just fine but even if im on budget i would like to take care of the color scheme of my rig (silver and red). But if you think I'm really throwing money out of the window with this motherboard I'm open to suggestions.

 

SSD: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 Go. My "starting" ssd. Im planning on adding another 120 Go for applications caches and maybe a 500 Go one later. I already have a WD 3 To hard disk.

 

Ram: Corsair Vengeance LPX Series Low Profile 16 Go (2x 8 Go) DDR4 2400 MHz CL16. I will add another 16 Go (2x 8 Go) later for a total of 32 Go.

**I can also buy one stick of 16 Go now and add other sticks to have the max of 64 Go at the end but I'm a little worried by the dual channel thing. And I'm not even sure I will need 64 Go of ram on the long run. For Photoscan maybe?

 

Power supply: Corsair RM650x 80PLUS Gold. Will the Rm550x be enought?

 

Graphic card: Gtx 1070 (or 1080 if there a promotion). Maybe overkill for 3ds max viewport but here I have gaming and Unreal engine in mind. I will buy the graphic card later so it is not included in my current budget.

 

Without the graphic card this give me a total of 884,55€

 

I already bought the following parts:

 

Cpu cooler: Be quiet dark rock 3.

 

Case: Cooltek w2 (Silver version).

 

This is quite a long post but i wanted to give you as much informations as i could.

I would like to have your advices about those components and the system.

 

Thank you.

 

**What kind of performance boost do you think I will feel from moving from my current system to this one?

[Dimitris Tolios]

Your configuration looks good. I would probably go for a M.2 EVO myself...if you can wait enough for the new 960 EVO, even better.

 

Both 650W and 550W PSU will work fine if you don't plan overclocking both CPU and GPU. A mild CPU overclocking is actually easily manageable if you don't push the GPU too, which at stock speeds is very frugal with energy - a considerable advantage over the 980Ti that is on-par with a 1070 performance wise, wasting almost 2x the Watts.

 

The performance difference from your current system will be obvious as far as the GPU goes...the CPU not as much, but will be there.

I don't really care for the 1080 at this point, especially with the Titan Pascal and its off shoots coming our way...the 1070 is fine and already stressing your budget. Especially for 1080p that you plan on using.

 

Btw "2K" is 1080p, so going 2K in the future is not an upgrade

- 1080p = 2K

Yes, that stupid flip-flopping between horizontal and vertical resolution approximation...but the "K" goes for the horizontal apparently.

 

1070 is fine for 1440p & "ok" for 3.5K. 1080 is probably the 3.5K recomendation...4K is still a SLI thing me thinks.

I game @ 1440p on a single 1070 just fine, hitting 100+ fps avg in BF1 even with early drivers. For 1440p a Gsync monitor is more important than going 1080 over 1070.

[kangniamevor]

Thank you for your advices Dimitris. I will look into the M.2 EVO. If it can fit into my budget I will take it.

 

Concerning overclocking I'm not going to overclock the GPU, I think it is powerful enough at stock clocks. Only the CPU will be overclocked. Do you think I can hit stable 4.5 GHz with the Dark Rock 3 and a RM650x?

 

What do you think about the dual channel thing? Can I buy one memory stick of 16 GB now, another one later and so on?

 

For the GPU I will go for a 1070 as you suggested.

 

Those screen resolutions do confuse me sometimes [emoji3]. I own a 2k monitor right now so it is the screen resolution I will work on.

 

Thank you again.

 

 

Envoyé de mon SM-N910T en utilisant Tapatalk

[Dimitris Tolios]

I have no experience with the Black Rock 3 but looks beefy enough. I could do 4.5GHz on a 4770K and 4.6GHz on a 6700K on a Thermalright SilverArrow without breaking a sweat...but I was lucky and had relatively low vCore (silicon lottery, not all chips clock the same). That same 6700K is in a ITX rig now with a 240mm CLC getting much more restricted airflow, and actually runs hotter - tho nothing to worry about.

 

The 650W PSU will have no issues, and neither would the 550W most likely...the overclocked 6700K will be below 200W under intentional stress testing...realistically will be in the 150-160W range in real world rendering applications, or less. The 1070 will be in the same range with stock clocks, so even the 550W has more than enough headroom. SSDs and HDDs consumption is negligible imho.

 

Dual channel is not really important for rendering / modelling, but it is for gaming. If you don't plan on 64GB, I would rather go 2x8GB over a single 16GB...but in your place I would again wait to save 50 euros more and just squeeze a 2x16GB kit in. I got a good deal on Corsair LPX 3200 2x16GB kit (like $145) so that's what I have in that said ITX rig, but RAM speed is not that crucial...games like it faster, but it is like the last bottleneck there is.

 

For games it is like (personal feeling):

 

#1 GPU - the most important bar none. Even if you had your old tower, changing nothing else, the 1070 woould get you most of the performance in games you need

#2 CPU single core performance.

#3 CPU multicore (on certain games)

#4 CPU overclocking (feeding #2 and #3)

 

and then we start with less important stuff

 

#5 RAM speed - after you have the really fast GPU and the really fast CPU (most likely overclocked) you will hit a ceiling without really fast RAM - but that means you are already really high in FPS and you just go for bragging rights, not playability. Again, a G-Sync / Freesync 100-120+ Hz monitor adds much more to playability. Rather have a G-Sync 100-120Hz panel and doing 80-90 fps, than having a asynchronus panel (even 144Hz) and trying to go above Vsync...it just cannot work with many games that often have deeps in fps.

#6 SSD - just to load stuff faster

#7 RAM disk / M.2 Nvme - to load things even faster

# 99 RAM capacity - unless it is for the RAM disk, most games run happy on 8GB systems, rarely using more than 4-5GB themselves.

Edited September 26, 2016 by dtolios

[kangniamevor]

Thanks Dimitris. This has been very informative for me. I will wait for the opportunity to buy a 2x16GB kit as it really seem to be the best option.

 

So i ended up with this.

 

CPU: Intel core I7 6700K

Motherboard: ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER

SSD: 850 EVO or M.2 EVO

Ram: Corsair Vengeance LPX Series Low Profile 32 Go (2x 16 Go)

Power supply: Corsair RM650x 80PLUS Gold

Graphic card: Gtx 1070

Cpu cooler: Be quiet dark rock 3.

Case: Cooltek w2

 

Thank you for your help.

[joelmcwilliam]

Great openingpost Kangni.

 

To get some kind of idea what your performance boost will be, have a look here:

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1368?vs=1543

 

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/940-9/cpu-rendu-3d-mental-ray-v-ray.html

[kangniamevor]

Great openingpost Kangni.

 

To get some kind of idea what your performance boost will be, have a look here:

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1368?vs=1543

 

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/940-9/cpu-rendu-3d-mental-ray-v-ray.html

 

Thank you Joel. I will take a look in that.

[kangniamevor]

Hi guys,

 

It is me again . I wasn't able to buy the components when i was planning to do so. Since then my config change a little bit. Just choosing the i7 7700k and the asus z270E instead of the 6700k and Maximus ranger. I wanted to order all of the components in march... and ... then Ryzen rises.

 

Im able to go over my previous budget and take the ryzen 1800x (for future proofing and more rendering power) but i don't really know if it worth it. The 1800X rendering performance is great but i dont know if I should put more money for it against the i7 7700k (i7 7700k €364.99 against 1800X €559.90).

 

So please give me your advises on this. Should I go for:

 

- i7 7700k (and add later rendering nodes like the "cheap" dual xeon with used xeon or a cheaper 6 or 8 core ryzen)

 

Or

 

- Ryzen 1800X (And MAYBE a dual xeon again or a cheaper Ryzen just for renderings)

 

Note: It'is true that i also do a lot of multi-tasking (sometimes, two instance of 3ds max opened, photoshop opened, chrome... and some other apps...). I play too but i don't really care about ryzen 1800X performance as i find them to be more than enought in gaming for a 8c/16T.

 

I really need your expertise on this.

Thank in advance for the time you're taking to help me.

Edited March 3, 2017 by kangniamevor

[jonasmotiejunas]

you could also consider 1700x (which is the sweet spot performance per dollar) or even 1700 (~350€). add a cheap B350 motherboard (~100€ ?) if you dont have plans for overclocking or multi gpu setups. and there you go a cpu + motherboard + stock cooler for a price of 1800x. ryzen would have better rendering performance, but probably lesser viewport performance compared to 7700k.

[kangniamevor]

Hi Jonas.

 

After reading more reviews I also came to the conclusion that the 1700x and 1700 have the best performance per dollar ratio...

 

Thank you for your advices. I will look into that.

[joelmcwilliam]

 

If you planning on doing some serious multitasking or rendering, where it is all about crunchng numbers, go with the amd. Because of all those threads the amd offers.

 

If you planning on doing mainly specific tasks like modelling, or gaming go with the intel. Especially if you game on 1080p with not the most powerfull gpu. For serious multitasking where you switch between software and keep your focus on each software, the intel is also a good choice. Because of the high single core clockspeed the intel offers.

Edited March 9, 2017 by joelmcwilliam

[vaughnforman]

Just food for thought but if you go with an AMD processor, vray won be able to use "embree static accelerator" when rendering.

[Zdravko Barisic]

https://corona-renderer.com/benchmark/?cpu-type=RYZEN&submit=Search

[jonasmotiejunas]

 

with or without embree ryzen 1700x on 3.99 scores the same as 5960x on same clocks. Same amount of speed and memory (64gigs). Its just intel has waaaayyyy more oc headroom

 

edit:

as well as ryzen 1700:

 

3 00:02:11 tabbycph AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Eight-Core Processor Win 3.99 8 16 16 2017-03-03

[kangniamevor]

Hi Alan.

Amd ryzen R7 1800x ($499) offer the same performance as the i7 6900k for half the price. And you can even save more money by choosing the r7 1700x ($399) or 1700 ($329) without really losing performance against the $1049 i7 6900k.

 

You can take a look at this

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11170/the-amd-zen-and-ryzen-7-review-a-deep-dive-on-1800x-1700x-and-1700/18

 

I hope it help.

[kangniamevor]

Thank you Joel.

 

I will go for the amd. The 1800x give nearly 50% less render time than the i7 7700k. Here is a link if you are interested: http://www.hardware.fr/articles/956-17/rendu-3d-mental-ray-v-ray.html

 

Even if I'm going with the 1700x I'm not loosing a lot.

 

Edit: or the 1700... But I don't know if I want to/should overclock. The computer will be usually running 24/7.

Edited March 11, 2017 by kangniamevor

[dodorafael]

hi there...

I'm also starting a build for modeling and rendering workstation, and researched the issue for the past few weeks.

for me the 1800x/1700x, is the best choice. and for gaming too (moor game are coming out with multi-threaded support like bf1, so for the long run its the smartest choice).

for now, this is my build (feel free to comment):

 

1800X cpu

ASUS CROSSHAIR-VI-HERO mo

1080ti (i'm waiting for asus after market model)

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3000MHz CL15

SSD Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

and the Fractal Design Define S case or the NZXT Noctis 450 Black

 

I'm not sure about what kind of cooling to get, didn't to the research yet. maybe the H115i (probably an overkill). i don't know how important the cpu cooling quality is for rendering and modeling, mybe a 40$ cooler will do the same job.

 

good luck! (-:

[jonasmotiejunas]

I'm not sure about what kind of cooling to get, didn't to the research yet. maybe the H115i (probably an overkill). i don't know how important the cpu cooling quality is for rendering and modeling, mybe a 40$ cooler will do the same job.

 

good luck! (-:

 

Ryzen 7 1800x meets AMD Wraith Cooler