CGI Workstation Build for 1500$

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Naionel

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
6
0
1,510
How's it going guys?

So I've been using a 7-year old PC that has 4 GB RAM for CG purposes. Sounds funny, doesn't it? That's why I've decided to finally buy a new one.

Normally I use ZBrush for creating assets (sculpting characters and modeling environments) so I'm expecting from my new machine to allow me to work on several tens of milions of polygons for detailing. As I'm assuming, this will require a strong CPU as well as a solid RAM

(here are the sys specs: https://pixologic.com/zbrush/system/).

Also, besides from digital sculpting my goal is also to have a possibility to create rendered animations. If this would be possible I want to be able to simulate cloth, fluids, fur and hair. By all of that I don't mean that I want to make CGI movies right away. For those I'm sure that I'll

need something with much more performance and computing power. For the animation purposes I'm using Maya. When it comes to rendering, softwares I'm interested in are KeyShot, RenderMan, OctaneRender, VRay and Unreal Engine 4 for larger scenes.

Approximate Purchase Date: 2-3 weeks

Budget Range: 1500$

Am I buying a monitor? No

Parts to Upgrade: None (I need to buy a new machine)

Do I need to buy OS? Yes

Location: Poland, Europe

Parts Preferences: Intel/Nvidia

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

My Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: The more quiet the PC is the better.
 
Solution
bambiboom
Naionel,

Because the proposed system is using software that needs very good single-threaded performance- 3D modeling, and animation / rendering that will benefit from multiple cores, and animation needs both good memory bandwidth and a fast disk, consider upgrading a used Xeon E5 workstation. These are designed for these uses: they can use two processors with many cores, to be reliable for the very long running time for this kind of work, and have special attention to the cooling and to run quietly.

Importantly, buying a working system and upgrading saves the complications and time of researching, ordering, and assembling the system, plus there is a user manual and a single source for BIOS updates, parts, and etc.

How about...
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logainofhades

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Apr 27, 2009
37,538
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143,290
Here is something to get things started. Does poland use the Euro? I honestly cannot remember. I can do a different build, in Euro's, easily with the German pc part picker.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($118.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk X400 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($149.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($60.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($419.95 @ B&H)
Case: Deepcool KENDOMEN Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.50 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1392.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-23 09:54 EDT-0400
 
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N

Naionel

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
6
0
1,510
No, we have our own currency called "złoty". ;)

I have a sceptical attitude to GIGABYTE. I've heard that it is a company that puts low to medium quality parts in their products and sell them with a higher price. Is that true?
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Apr 27, 2009
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I have not ever heard that one. I have used a couple gigabyte boards, actually using one right now, and not any problems with them. Also, the board, that I chose, was on the lower end of price, for an SLI capable, Z170, motherboard. It is still a decently capable board, and comes with one of the better available onboard audio chips.
 
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N

Naionel

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
6
0
1,510
Alright, I'm guessing that someone has misled me. :D

I was wondering about taking a Quadro instead of GeForce. As I mentioned, I need a workstation which will allow me to render animations with simulations. I'm not sure if RenderMan is a CPU-based renderer only but either way it is a software I'm most interested in.
 
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N

Naionel

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
6
0
1,510
I've heard that i7-5820K is better for rendering purposes. Also, if you have any knowledge about CGI then could you tell me about your experiences with rendering animations? How much time would it require to render a short-movie with this build?
 
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N

Naionel

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
6
0
1,510
So can I just simply replace the 6700K with 5820K? I'm not sure if overclocking this would be risky for an unexperienced user. I've just heard that a not-overclocked 5820K is a waste.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Apr 27, 2009
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5820k would require a different motherboard, and it would be recommended to go with quad channel memory. That and better cooling. It would raise the price of the system, considerably.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($368.82 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG A40 ULTIMATE 83.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($113.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Taichi ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($75.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk X400 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($141.61 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($409.99 @ B&H)
Case: Deepcool KENDOMEN Black ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1577.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-03 14:32 EDT-0400

 
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N

Naionel

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
6
0
1,510
Too bad that I can't really test the rendering performance difference in both systems, to tell if the price of the second one is profitable, especially that the 2011 socket is older which means that I can't really think about a future upgrade, so with time I would have to buy a new PC.
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

Splendid
Apr 7, 2012
2,462
5
21,965
Naionel,

Because the proposed system is using software that needs very good single-threaded performance- 3D modeling, and animation / rendering that will benefit from multiple cores, and animation needs both good memory bandwidth and a fast disk, consider upgrading a used Xeon E5 workstation. These are designed for these uses: they can use two processors with many cores, to be reliable for the very long running time for this kind of work, and have special attention to the cooling and to run quietly.

Importantly, buying a working system and upgrading saves the complications and time of researching, ordering, and assembling the system, plus there is a user manual and a single source for BIOS updates, parts, and etc.

How about:

HP z620 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-2620 2.0GHz, 8GB RAM, 250GB, Quadro FX1800 > EUR 532,00 / 2 324,61 zł

To this system:

1. Change the CPU to Xeon E5-2680. These are 8-cores @ 2.7 / 3.5GHz with quite good single-thread performance"

Intel Xeon E5-2680 Eight Core 2.70GHz 20M Cache FCLGA2011 Processor CPU SR0KH > 750,27 zł

2. Add 32GB of DDR3-1600 ECC registered RAM:

32GB KIT 4X Samsung 8GB 2Rx4 PC3-12800R DDR3-1600 Server Memory M393B1K70CH0-CH9 > 305,87 zł

3. GPU: For this use, I recommend Quadros as they provide a higher level of anti-aliasing that is important for clean textures. The Quadro M2000 )4GB) is an excellent new design that performs as well as a Quadro K4200- very good value:

Brand New,Dell NVidia Quadro M2000,4GB GDDR5,128Bit,12 Months Warranty,P/N:W2TP6 > 2 188,24 zł

4. Disk 1: Samsung 850 Evo 250GB. These are about $90 in the US or 350zł, Very fast

5. Disk 2: Western Digital Blue or Black in the size needed. 275zł

This totals about 6 231 zł or close to $1,600 US. Over the budget but the benefit is that you can use this system for the next 7 years and add a second CPU or change to faster Xeon E5 v2.

I recently upgraded an HP z620 with very goof performance results and it is the quietest computer I've had.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + 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 = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (Rev 2) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 40GB DDR3-1600 ECC) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) / 800W > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5322 / CPU= 19777 / 2D= 741 / 3D = 3887/ Mem =2290 / Disk = 13426 ] 9.2.16





 
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Solution
logainofhades

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Apr 27, 2009
37,538
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143,290


The 6800k is the only other option, but the cost is a good deal higher. Yea, the 2011-3 socket is probably not going to see anymore updates. 1151 should see at least 1 more CPU gen, but I do not expect it to be vastly superior to what is out now. Intel has not been making major performance leaps, from generation, to generation. Hence why so many still are holding on to their older 2nd and 3rd gen chips.
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

Splendid
Apr 7, 2012
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logainofhades,

LGA2011-3 does have some way to go, as there are still a number of Xeon E5-2600 and most of E5-4600's still to be released and Intel has mentioned there will be an E5 v5 in late 2017. How about a E5-4669 v4 22 core for $7,000? - I can't wait !So, in their gradual slowdown of advancement LGA2011-3 may have possibly 4-6 years. As 7nm lithography is about the minimum for CPU's, there will be a 10nm and then 7nm and then who knows- carbon nanotube or something.

You bring up a favourite rant of mine- that Xeon E5 peaked with the v2's. Both E5 v3 and v4 has some important performance gaps but the v2's inlcuded 4, 6, and 8, core Xeons both single and dual with really strong single thread performance. There is no real successor to the E5-2687w v2 8-core @ 3.4 /4.0GHz. For me, The push for more cores has been good for rendering and analysis, simulation, and scientitic, and servers, but multi-coricity far outpaced visualisation software's ability to use it: Sketchup, Maya, 3ds, and Solidworks modeling are essentially single-threaded- although Solidworks has the highly scalar rendering, Adobe doesn't run well on dual CPU's and the multi-threading of Premiere came- and peaked efficiency at about 6-core, went away, and is back but still doesn't good dual CPU's and so on.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 
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