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Really High End PC Workstation

Tags:
  • Workstations
  • Processors
  • Quadro
  • RAM
  • Business Computing
  • Macintosh
Last response: in Business Computing
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March 3, 2014 12:36:34 PM

I am looking for a really high end PC workstation. Can anyone recommend some specs?

Could someone spec out the PC equivalent to the new Mac Pros?

More about : high end workstation

March 3, 2014 12:50:17 PM

Are you going to be doing any gaming on it?
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March 3, 2014 1:06:04 PM

Thanks guys. No not gaming. Actually, I would be looking for something even more beefy. I work in visual effects for film.
So like 64 gig of ram and needs a Nvidia Quadro card.

Thanks
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March 3, 2014 1:51:04 PM

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($1034.98 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($73.55 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS SSI CEB LGA2011 Motherboard ($359.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($650.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung EVO 1TB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($494.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital WD Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($249.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PNY Quadro 6000 6GB Video Card ($1904.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Cooler Master V1000 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($193.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro (OEM) (64-bit) ($134.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Dell U3014 60Hz 30.0" Monitor ($989.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $6448.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-03 16:50 EST-0500)
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Best solution

March 3, 2014 2:01:38 PM

HP Z820 http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/z820.ht... -- Dual Xeon CPU (something like the E5-2643 v2 for 12 physical cores plus hyperthreading) and ECC memory. Has airflow designed for a workstation and has up to dual Quadros available. Even available with Tesla compute nodes.
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March 3, 2014 4:58:39 PM

Kanewolf is along the right path for your needs. Forget consumer line hardware for this work. If you've got the budget, there's nothing that will compare with the HP Z Workstation or the Dell Precision Workstation series. These are designed specifically for the type of work you are describing and offer greater overall flexibility and performance than standard consumer line hardware. Add to that support: Build your own system and you may get a nice bang for your buck, but it is 100% up to you to support and service that computer if something happens. If you go with a pre-built system for this sort of thing, you are at least getting a business-class warranty from a professional industry which alleviates some of the support requirements for yourself.

While you don't have to start with dual physical processors, I would highly recommend looking into a workstation system which supports dual socket Xeon processors. This gives you even more room to add processing power in the future if you need. Just like Kanewolf states that's 12 physical cores and hyperthreading capable. Plus you will get a much higher memory density due to greater number of DIMMs plus ECC support for greater reliability.
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March 4, 2014 2:58:39 PM

garfry said:
Thanks guys. No not gaming. Actually, I would be looking for something even more beefy. I work in visual effects for film.
So like 64 gig of ram and needs a Nvidia Quadro card.

Thanks



Bet something like this would run Blender pretty decently :) 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/34byX

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March 4, 2014 3:00:47 PM

Bob Mintern said:
garfry said:
Thanks guys. No not gaming. Actually, I would be looking for something even more beefy. I work in visual effects for film.
So like 64 gig of ram and needs a Nvidia Quadro card.

Thanks



Bet something like this would run Blender pretty decently :) 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/34byX


Maybe add more SSD's, they'll help with video stuff.
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March 4, 2014 5:34:29 PM

zeph_yr said:
Bob Mintern said:
garfry said:
Thanks guys. No not gaming. Actually, I would be looking for something even more beefy. I work in visual effects for film.
So like 64 gig of ram and needs a Nvidia Quadro card.

Thanks



Bet something like this would run Blender pretty decently :) 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/34byX


Maybe add more SSD's, they'll help with video stuff.



I'd stick with probably just one SSD for the boot drive. I'd run the 7200rpm drives in Raid, Maybe a Raid 0, and use those as the scratch drives. I'd consider an external source for nightly backups, maybe a NAS solution.
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March 4, 2014 7:39:22 PM

The hardware again listed here is generally consumer grade made for gaming, not high performance production. It may work, but that's really not what it is designed for. If you're running that Xeon processor, you aren't really going to give it its potential (and absolute best stability) running it on a motherboard like that, but instead should be a workstation or server class dual-socket system supporting ECC memory. A RAID 0 array of four 2 TB 7k RPM SATA hard drives seems out of place for a scratch disk system. Even in RAID 0 it won't perform as well as SSDs in RAID 0 for a scratch disk, and you don't need that kind of capacity really just for scratch disk. A set of 500 GB to even 1 TB Samsung 840 SSDs is going to offer the best solution for scratch disk with a very high capacity for scratch disk as well. Usually scratch disks are no more than 120 GB to 250 GB, but for working with full length video files in HD I can understand needing even more space.
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March 13, 2014 9:28:27 AM

I would second Choucove's recommendation for a professional workstation. What isn't mentioned here is that often specialized NLE or other video-editing software require an ISV-certified workstation. While you can sometimes build-out your own "workstation" system, that won't help you when you have to go to the software vendor for help and they tell you that you're running on an unsupported system. Often their software costs way more than the workstation, so it's good to have something that would be supported.

So find out what the software vendor requires first, and then you will know what to get. If they only certify their system on certain lines of workstations from specific vendors, then there's your answer.

As an aside, if you are allowed some choice on components for your system, make sure to get SSD (s). That part alone will save you time on virtually every activity you do on your workstation, and as we all know, time = $. The benefits of a SSD are simply that amazing!
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