16 Core/32 Thread Workstation

[JoexLegacy]

Hey guys,

I am looking to build a workstation for 3D rendering/modeling. I don't follow hardware much so I would really appreciate if anyone could help me plan out the machine. Because I may get funding for the workstation, I would also love to get 2 or even 3 versions to present: High budget (go wild), Mid budget, low-budget (up to ~$2000).

My main priorities are: A) Very strong CPU, the more threads, the better. We are talking rendering here, and you know how CPU heavy it is. My current is only 4 threads.
B) 64GB RAM is a must. 32GB RAM is fine for the low budget

Do not include a monitor, speakers, keyboard/mouse etc. This is already covered.

I really appreciate if anyone would help me with this. I know I'm asking a lot.

 

[getochkn]

What software? A lot is GPU based now, and a workstation class GPU can cost 2k alone. As will a 16core CPU. I think you're asking a lot for the budget.

The absolute cheapest Xeon chip is like 400$ or so, that's a 1/5th of your budget. 64GB of RAM is another $500 plus.

You could build a good desktop for $2000 that will do workstation like stuff, but you don't really have a "workstation" budget with only 2k and was 16cores, 64gb of ram, etc.

 

[DookieDraws]

Have you looked at the new Mac Pros? https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/specs/ There are a few youtube videos on this little beast as well, if you care to look. Just thought I'd throw this out there.

Of course, you certainly could build an awesome Windows machine yourself.

 

[DookieDraws]

What software? A lot is GPU based now, and a workstation class GPU can cost 2k alone. As will a 16core CPU. I think you're asking a lot for the budget.

The absolute cheapest Xeon chip is like 400$ or so, that's a 1/5th of your budget. 64GB of RAM is another $500 plus.

You could build a good desktop for $2000 that will do workstation like stuff, but you don't really have a "workstation" budget with only 2k and was 16cores, 64gb of ram, etc.

He said go wild on the high budget build. I take it money is no object. Given the time, I am sure we could come up with a great build for him. It will be very expensive though.

 

[getochkn]

What software? A lot is GPU based now, and a workstation class GPU can cost 2k alone. As will a 16core CPU. I think you're asking a lot for the budget.

The absolute cheapest Xeon chip is like 400$ or so, that's a 1/5th of your budget. 64GB of RAM is another $500 plus.

You could build a good desktop for $2000 that will do workstation like stuff, but you don't really have a "workstation" budget with only 2k and was 16cores, 64gb of ram, etc.

He said go wild on the high budget build. I take it money is no object. Given the time, I am sure we could come up with a great build for him. It will be very expensive though.

Ok, I read it wrong. 12 hour night shifts get to you. lol. UInlimited budget, sure, can build a monster system. Should really set a "high" budget though so we don't go supercluster crazy. For 10million you can build a nice cluster render farm. Is that "too high" for the go wild budget? They need to define the "go wild" limit.

 

[DookieDraws]

What software? A lot is GPU based now, and a workstation class GPU can cost 2k alone. As will a 16core CPU. I think you're asking a lot for the budget.

The absolute cheapest Xeon chip is like 400$ or so, that's a 1/5th of your budget. 64GB of RAM is another $500 plus.

You could build a good desktop for $2000 that will do workstation like stuff, but you don't really have a "workstation" budget with only 2k and was 16cores, 64gb of ram, etc.

He said go wild on the high budget build. I take it money is no object. Given the time, I am sure we could come up with a great build for him. It will be very expensive though.

Ok, I read it wrong. 12 hour night shifts get to you. lol. UInlimited budget, sure, can build a monster system. Should really set a "high" budget though so we don't go supercluster crazy. For 10million you can build a nice cluster render farm. Is that "too high" for the go wild budget? They need to define the "go wild" limit.

LOL If he's got millions to spend on a damn computer, you and I are going to have to get paid for helping him! :lol:

 

[DookieDraws]

Okay, for starters, here's your 12-core CPU, the Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Ivy Bridge-EP 2.7GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116925&cm_re=12_core_cpu-_-19-116-925-_-Product it's quiet a steal at ONLY $2,749.99!

It doesn't come with a cooler, so we'll have to get one. How about this, the CORSAIR Hydro Series H110 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181035&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=lga_2011_cooler-_-35-181-035-_-Product @ $114.99

Okay, let's find a motherboard for this bad boy to "snuggle" with. Ta-da! This beauty should do just fine. The ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132053 @ $481.99

RAM - CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 64GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233679&cm_re=ram-_-20-233-679-_-Product @ $999.99. There are cheaper options available, but not much cheaper.

SSDs (X 2) - Crucial M550 512GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148792&ignorebbr=1 @ $299.99 each - Not knowing how much space you wanted/needed, I went with the 2 Crucial drives above - one for you OS and programs, one for file storage. There may be better choices out there, but I certainly don't think you can go wrong with these.

If you haven't fainted yet and are still with me your wallet is about to get a whole lot more thinner. Carry on.

GPU - NVIDIA 900-22081-2250-000 Tesla K40 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814132015 ONLY $5,299.99! At this price, I would definitely get 2 of them to run in SLI.

We have to feed these power-hungry components!

PSU - This should be enough to power your system, but certainly make sure before buying it for your build. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151140&cm_re=power_supply-_-17-151-140-_-Product @ $399.99

Okay, let's find these awesome components a home, shall we? Well, this really isn't a question, we MUST find a home for these components!

CASE - Cooler Master Cosmos II http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119252&ignorebbr=1 @ $299.99. There were 3 other cases that I considered, but decided on this one because it certainly looks like a workstation case. Sweet looking too!

I'll leave it to you to decide on any additional fans to add to the case.

Subtotal: $10,946.91

I assume all the components are compatible with one another, however, there could be some compatibility issues. I just wanted to quickly throw this together to give you an idea on what a "high budget" build looks like. You certainly can shave some of the cost off by going with cheaper components, no doubt. You can also spend a heck of a lot more on them. Your money, your decisions. There may also be better options for this build, but again, I wanted to quickly throw something together for you.

Hope this helps and good luck with your build. Oh, and post a build log also.

 

[JoexLegacy]

Ok guys let me clarify a few things. First, the Low budget one is <2000 and it would probably include only a change in Mobo, CPU, RAM + maybe a cooler or PSU on my current machine. The high budget build is the best thing you would get now, but at normal consumer standards, so we're talking several thousand dollars, not milions and not render farms. The mid budget is the optimal one. What you would buy if money was important to you, but you were ready to make an investment. So we're talking maybe a normal gaming GPU, but killer CPU and lots of RAM.

Roughly it goes like low~$2k mid~$4k high~$6k so you can understand better.

My main reason for upgrading is rendering in Vray in 3ds Max. No real time rendering so I don't think a 2k GPU is necessary. Other than that I need shitloads of RAM as 16GB is never enough, I get constant freezes when using multiple apps, which I need to do often.

I hope I cleared it up a bit. Please help, I really appreciate it and I know asking for 3 builds is a lot but please understand my position. If one of you guys takes each build it shouldn't be a problem?

 

[JoexLegacy]

Okay, for starters, here's your 12-core CPU, the Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Ivy Bridge-EP 2.7GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116925&cm_re=12_core_cpu-_-19-116-925-_-Product it's quiet a steal at ONLY $2,749.99!

It doesn't come with a cooler, so we'll have to get one. How about this, the CORSAIR Hydro Series H110 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181035&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=lga_2011_cooler-_-35-181-035-_-Product @ $114.99

Okay, let's find a motherboard for this bad boy to "snuggle" with. Ta-da! This beauty should do just fine. The ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132053 @ $481.99

RAM - CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 64GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233679&cm_re=ram-_-20-233-679-_-Product @ $999.99. There are cheaper options available, but not much cheaper.

SSDs (X 2) - Crucial M550 512GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148792&ignorebbr=1 @ $299.99 each - Not knowing how much space you wanted/needed, I went with the 2 Crucial drives above - one for you OS and programs, one for file storage. There may be better choices out there, but I certainly don't think you can go wrong with these.

If you haven't fainted yet and are still with me your wallet is about to get a whole lot more thinner. Carry on.

GPU - NVIDIA 900-22081-2250-000 Tesla K40 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814132015 ONLY $5,299.99! At this price, I would definitely get 2 of them to run in SLI.

We have to feed these power-hungry components!

PSU - This should be enough to power your system, but certainly make sure before buying it for your build. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151140&cm_re=power_supply-_-17-151-140-_-Product @ $399.99

Okay, let's find these awesome components a home, shall we? Well, this really isn't a question, we MUST find a home for these components!

CASE - Cooler Master Cosmos II http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119252&ignorebbr=1 @ $299.99. There were 3 other cases that I considered, but decided on this one because it certainly looks like a workstation case. Sweet looking too!

I'll leave it to you to decide on any additional fans to add to the case.

Subtotal: $10,946.91

I assume all the components are compatible with one another, however, there could be some compatibility issues. I just wanted to quickly throw this together to give you an idea on what a "high budget" build looks like. You certainly can shave some of the cost off by going with cheaper components, no doubt. You can also spend a heck of a lot more on them. Your money, your decisions. There may also be better options for this build, but again, I wanted to quickly throw something together for you.

Hope this helps and good luck with your build. Oh, and post a build log also.

Haha dude this is insane, thanks. I think the Teslas are overkill for what I'm going for Since they really affect the price. I'd rather get 2 CPU's (if that's possible) (sorry I'm a noob) Also, I'd get a single SSD for running stuff, and like an enormous HD for storage since my stuff takes lots of space. What do you think? The rest is pretty cool. What alternative can you think of for the GPU? I don't even know how GPU affects rendering nowadays. My current is like GTX670

 

[DookieDraws]

Aw come on! It's ONLY $10,946.91. You cheapskate!

Kidding aside, go with an SSD (size) that you think will be enough for your OS (and updates) and all the programs you'll be using. Take into consideration that your OS and programs will have updates, so go as big on the SSD as you can. Yes, and get a regular HD for file storage.

As for the video card, a workstation video card is recommended for what you're wanting to do. You can look them over at this link http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008333%20600044853&IsNodeId=1&name=GDDR5 Please understand that these type of GPUs aren't designed for gaming, they're designed to do the type of things that you've mentioned.

You could also go with a GTX 780 Ti or a Titan GPU. Check these GPUs out here http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600451269&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=100 You can run 2 of them in SLI, but not exactly sure how beneficial this would be for 3D modeling/rendering, though.

 

[JoexLegacy]

Aw come on! It's ONLY $10,946.91. You cheapskate!

Kidding aside, go with an SSD (size) that you think will be enough for your OS (and updates) and all the programs you'll be using. Take into consideration that your OS and programs will have updates, so go as big on the SSD as you can. Yes, and get a regular HD for file storage.

As for the video card, a workstation video card is recommended for what you're wanting to do. You can look them over at this link http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008333%20600044853&IsNodeId=1&name=GDDR5 Please understand that these type of GPUs aren't designed for gaming, they're designed to do the type of things that you've mentioned.

You could also go with a GTX 780 Ti or a Titan GPU. Check these GPUs out here http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600451269&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=100 You can run 2 of them in SLI, but not exactly sure how beneficial this would be for 3D modeling/rendering, though.

Alright, thanks man! What do you think about dual 8 core xeon's for 16 cores?

I'd think I'd go for the 780ti, from what I can tell reading on the net a bit, GPU's shouldn't affect final image rendering much, but only Vray RT and other realtime rendering. I could be wrong... But still 5k for just the gpu is overkill for me

 

[getochkn]

About $4000 build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3PFLH

64GB RAM, dual Xeon CPU's. I went with a 2 SSD's, 1 256gb for your OS/Programs. 1 TB SSD for rendering too. Eliminate any HD bottleneck and massive head writes to render too, then copy to the 2x4TB drives I included for storage. I would Raid them for backup purposes well.

The video card is a cheapy. VRay uses 0% GPU, it's all GPU. Now there Vray RT GPU that is coming out and getting better, and if that is the path you are choosing, then go GPU over CPU, but it has issues of not working with all models well or rendering certain things bad. It's fast, very fast, blows CPU rendering away, but it's new. With that MB you could add upto 4 massive GPU's if you wanted to go more GPU rendering down the road or the software you uses gets better GPU usage, but for now, a $150 750ti is more than good for your needs. Even a $50 7750 or something is fine, but the 750ti is a good little card, fast and low power so low heat.

For 4K for pure CPU power and RAM though, that's not a bad build I think. I had to add a 2nd cpu cooler and 2nd cpu at the bottom so they are there, just pc part picker doesn't allow for 2 cpus/coolers.

I like to render 3d fractals. The one software I use is CPU bound but has GPU support. Same kind of thing. For the things the GPU does render, its' 100x faster than the CPU but it doesn't work very well. And rendering huge videos does tax my HD, hence the SSD render drive.

 

[DookieDraws]

Alright, thanks man! What do you think about dual 8 core xeon's for 16 cores?

I'd think I'd go for the 780ti, from what I can tell reading on the net a bit, GPU's shouldn't affect final image rendering much, but only Vray RT and other realtime rendering. I could be wrong... But still 5k for just the gpu is overkill for me

Bro, I certainly don't want to give you any bad advice, so please check out this link for 3DS Max workstations. https://config.boxxtech.com/solutions/3dsmax_solution.asp Not so you can purchase one, but rather to give you an idea of the type of hardware being used in these systems. The systems are designed for specific tasks and are listed as such. I think these systems will give you a much better idea as to what would be best for you than I can. Take note of all the components in the systems you're interested in, and design your build around that. Once you have an idea of your build, post it in the 3DS Max forum for some feedback. Once you've decided on everything hit Newegg (or where ever you prefer to shop) for purchasing your components. I used to model in Lightwave a few years ago as a hobby. My renders took forever to do and my system got so hot I could have fried chicken on top off it. So I know rendering takes a lot of time.

Try that link and see what you think. I'll check this thread again soon. In the mean time getochkn has a build for you to check out as well.

Hopefully we'll get some knowledgable 3DS Max users to reply to this thread soon.

 

[JoexLegacy]

Thanks guys for the advice, I really appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

getochkn's build looks good but can anyone tell me if it's possible to get dual xeons to have 16 cores (32 threads)? The one you linked has 6 cores if I'm correct.

Which xeons would that be, how much do they cost and with what mobo, coolers would they go? As for the GPU I'd go for a 780ti or something.

 

[DookieDraws]

Joe,

the CPU getochkn listed is a 6-core CPU. If you really want a dual CPU setup for 16-cores (32 threads) have a look at this Xeon 8-core CPU. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116932 I can NOT guarantee you how well this CPU will perform in what you're wanting to do. Plus, for the cost of 2 of these you'll be looking at around $2,000. Plus you'll need coolers for them.

This listing of CPUs on Newegg feature 8 to 16-cores. Be sure to sort the by highest price and work your way down. Click the view tab to view all of them on one page, that is if you don't know this already. http://www.newegg.com/Processors-Servers/SubCategory/ID-727?MultiCoreMin=8&MultiCoreMax=16