Need Help in selecting PC parts for $4000.

DIYNoob,

My particular emphasis is stability in rendering and not to hobble the work use for gaming. To balance the system as a rendering workstation, this proposes a 6-core Xeon @ 3.5 /3.8GHz, 32GB RAM, 2X GTX 970 (4GB), M.2 NVMe main drive, Blu-Ray optical drive, and Enterprise 2TB storage drive. A very important feature for this use is the monitor quality and this idea includes 2X 28" 4K monitors. the i7-5930K is 6-core @ 3.5 .3.7GHz. I don't recommend overclocking nor watercooling which is unnecessary and noisy. A quiet workstation is extremely important. The pair of GTX 970 provide, 3,328 CUDA cores for GPU rendering.

BambiBoom PixelCannon Modarendergraphogamarific iPlonk TurboBlast ExtremeSignaure SuperModel 9900 ®©$$™®£™©™_ 2.11.15


CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 Six-Core Haswell Processor 3.5GHz 0GT/s 15MB LGA 2011-v3 CPU w/o Fan, Retail > $570

___ http://ark.intel.com/products/82765/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1650-v3-15M-Cache-3_50-GHz___ http:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117403&cm_re=i7-5930k_processor-_-19-117-403-_-Product

Motherboard: ASUS X99-WS/IPMI LGA2011-v3/ Intel X99/ DDR4/ Quad CrossFireX & 3-Way SLI/ SATA3&USB3.0/ M.2&SATA Express/ A&2GbE/ ATX Workstation Motherboard> $400

___ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-X99WSIM

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler > $80

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

RAM: Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Server Memory Model CT2K16G4RFD4213> 225

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP3R87092

GPU: (2) EVGA GeForce GTX 970 04G-P4-2974-KR 4GB SC GAMING w/ACX 2.0, Silent Cooling Graphics Card> $688 ($345 each)
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487160&cm_re=gtx_980_ti_6gb-_-14-487-160-_-Product

Drive 1: SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 512GB PCI-Express 3.0 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZHPV512HDGL-00000 - OEM > $316

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA12K3GB5852&cm_re=sm951_m.2-_-20-147-426-_-Product

Drive 2: Seagate Constellation ES.3 SATA 6Gb/s 2TB Hard Drive 7200RPM 128MB Cache > $164
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G15V7993&cm_re=Constellation_Es.3_2tb-_-00A-00E9-000K5-_-Product

PSU: SeaSonic G-750 SSR-750RM 750W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply > $120

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151132

Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case > $160

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139024&cm_re=corsair_obsidian-_-11-139-024-_-Product

Optical Drive: LG Black 16X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner WH16NS40 - OEM > $59

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136269&cm_re=bluray_burners-_-27-136-269-_-Product

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM > $140
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TOTAL = $ 2,942

Monitors: (2) SAMSUNG U28E590D Black 28" 4K UHD Widescreen LCD Monitor; AMD FreeSync 1ms Response HDMI 2.0 60Hz > $1,000 ($500 each)

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824022246&cm_re=4K_monitor-_-24-022-246-_-Product

______________________________

TOTAL= $3,942

I have eccentric tastes in keyboards, but after 20 years, using them for up to 20 hours a day I discovered I really like:

Keyboard: Dell SK-8135 wired NOS about $40

Mouse: Dell OCB639 wired NOS about $15

This solution should strike a good balance for the various workstation uses and the pair of GTX 970's with two GPU's, 8GB and 3,300 CUDA cores should run games just fine. The GTX 970 is the darling of professional Premiere CC users and if you're GPU rendering it should fly, while the Xeon E5-1650 v3 has excellent single-threaded performance for modeling. If you are primarily CPU rendering, then this system should be changed to a dual Xeon configuration. The Samsung M.2 SM951 is astoundingly fast. I think dual monitors are essential as so often there are several applications running at once and you can a much larger view window on one and all the menus on the other.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

Rendering:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3500 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)