Blackstarz :
Let me start by saying , Happy new year everyone!!!!
I'm trying to build from scratch a powerfull computer to do some 3d compositing , animation and ALOT of simulation ( fluid , crowd , fire , etc ) .
I will be using program such as Houdini , Nuke , Maya and more . And i need something great for rendering .
Can you help me to find the best set up, not too expensive . My looking at a budget of max 2500-3000$ for something that can last me for years .
thank you for your help
Blackstarz,
My inclination with this kind of system is towards workstation components, especially with regard to the graphics card. It's an older comparison, but have a look at the results for Maya in "Workstation Graphics: 14 FirePro And Quadro Cards", published on this site in 2013:
And you can see that a $150 AMD Firepro V3900 is 3X faster than a $1,000 Titan. The drivers are fundamentally different, the GeForce are meant for fast FPS and the Quadro finsh every frame. As animation uses so many complex textures, there are Quadro drivers with 128x anti-aliasing whereas I think the highest AA rate for GeForce is 16x. As the resolution becomes higher this becomes more important. Yes, the higher sampling rate takes time so the frame rate is lower, but the point of the workstation driver is image
quality to the GeForce emphasis on image
quantity.
Here is a suggestion based on the Xeon E5-2640 v3 Eight-Core 2.6 / 3.4GHz CPU on an ASRock X99 motherboard, 32GB RAM, M.2 SSD, and the recent Quadro M4000 8GB GPU which has excellent performance:
BambiBoom CaluCannon Cadamodelanimasimugrapharific iWork TurboBlast ExtremeSignature SuperModel 8800 ®©$$™®£™©™_1.2.16
1. CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2640 v3 Eight-Core Haswell Processor 2.6 / 3.4GHz, 20MB cache, 8.0GT/s 20MB LGA 2011-v3 CPU w/o Fan, Retail > $910
http://ark.intel.com/products/83359
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=E52640V3BX
2. Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler > $31.
3. Motherboard: ASRock X99 EXTREME4 LGA2011-v3/ Intel X99/ DDR4/ Quad CrossFireX & Quad SLI/ SATA3&USB3.0/ M.2/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard > $190
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-X99EXM4
4. Memory: 32GB (4X 8GB) Samsung DDR4-2133 8GB/1Gx72 ECC/REG CL15 Server Memory > $268 ($67 each)
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=D4218G4S1
5. GPU: PNY NVIDIA Quadro M4000 8GB GDDR5 4DisplayPorts PCI-Express Video Card > $798
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=PNY-M4000
6. Drive 1: SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 256GB PCI-Express 3.0 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - OEM > $178 (OS, applications, working files)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA12K3G96790&cm_re=samsung_951-_-20-147-425-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA12K3GB5852&cm_re=samsung_m.2-_-20-147-426-_-Product
8. Drive 2: WD Black 3TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD3003FZEX> $150 (Files, Backup, System Image)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP31F3422&cm_re=Wd_black_3tb-_-22-236-623-_-Product
9. Power Supply: SeaSonic S12G S12G-650 650W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Active PFC Power Supply > $90
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-S12G650
10. Optical Drive: LG Electronics WH14NS40 14X SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter w/ 3D Playback & M-DISC, Bulk (Black) >$49
11. Case: Cooler Master Silencio 652S Computer Case Model SIL-652-KKN2- Silent Mid Tower Computer Case with Sound Dampening Panels, Three Silencio FP 120 Fans, and Multiple Removable Air Filters > $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1K635A0359&cm_re=Cooler_Master_Silencio_652S-_-2S7-0095-00046-_-Product
12. OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit w/ SP1 (1-Pack, DVD), OEM MSFQC04649 > $138.99
________________________________________________________
TOTAL = $ 2.959
Sorry, very close to the maximum budget, but having an 8-core / 16 thread CPU- with 200% advantage over a 4-core and 50% advantage over a 6-core in rendering and 8GB Quadro I believe will be useful for a long while. With rendering, more cores and higher memory bandwidth is more important than a higher clock speed. An i7-6700K for example has a memory bandwidth of 34.1 GB/s supporting 64GB of RAM while the Xeon E5-2640 v2 's bandwidth is 59 GB/s, supporting 768GB of RAM. On Passmark Performance Test, the E5-2640 v3 has an average rating of 10230. The Samsung SM951 is quite amazing with "Max Sequential Read: Up to 2150 MBps / Max Sequential Write: Up to 1500 MBps" and those rates are 3-4X an SATA III Samsung 850 which is amng the faster conventional SSD's.
This system could be built with an E5-1650 v3 6-core 3.5 /3.8GHz for about $2,702
Another tactic, which can release funds for other uses is to upgrade a used workstation:
Purchased for $171:
Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (
Original): Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1333 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating =
1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]
> And with an additional expenditure of about $1,160:
CPU 1: $230
RAM: $120
GPU: $320
SSD $60
HD: $75
2nd CPU riser board: $70
CPU 2: $170
2nd CPU RAM: $53
PERC H310 6GB/s controller: $60
A very good performing system for $1,350:
Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (
Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 48GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 RAID controller/ Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating =
3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3500 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)
Yes, mostly used parts, but 12 cores / 24 threads @ 3.33 /3.6GHz, 48GB RAM and a very competent 4GB Quadro for a total of only about $500 more than the CPU in the above list. I have had 4 used Precisions in the last 5 years (390, T3500, T5400, T5500) and have never had a failure.
This can be done with Precision T7600 and T7610 "barebones" systems- about $600-700- and these can use 2X Xeon E5 such as the amazing E5-2687w 8-core @ 3.1 /3.8GHz selling now (1.16) for about $900 each. Having 16 cores /32 threads at those speeds will really move animations!
Cheers,
BambiBoom
HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15
Current Project:
Purchased for $52.52 + $25 shipping:
Dell Precision T3500
(Original) > Xeon W3530 4-core @ 2.8 / 3.06GHz > 4GB DDR3-1333 ECC (2X 2GB) > GeForce 9800 GT > 500 GB
[ Passmark system rating =
1962, CPU = 4482 / 2D= 609/ 3D=805 / Mem= 1408 / Disk=972]
Expenditure:
8GB RAM: $43
Quadro 4000: On shelf
TOTAL = $115
Precision T3500 (2009) (
Rev 1) Xeon W3530 2.8 /3.06GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 > WD Black 500GB
[Passmark system rating =
2330, CPU = 5587 / 2D= 597 / 3D=2008 / Mem= 1639 / Disk=962]
Pending upgrade: Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz ($60)