Server build - questions

How many computers do you need?
3 separate ones is generally much better in terms of value.
What resolution are they rendering at?
Do you need OS/monitors/peripherals included?
Yes it can be done with that budget.

Sounds like i7s will be plenty, what software are you using?

IQlgihtness,

If you could list the programs you'll be using, the suggestions can be better optimized. For example, Solidworks really requires a Quadro GPU, Adobe CS /CC is very unhappy on dual processor systems and is optimum running on 5-6 cores, while Solidworks rendering is fully scalar to use every core. Sketchup is a really difficult program with larger files and as for all 3D modeling programs, needs the best possible single-thread performance plus a super GPU, and so on.

My sense is that the best approach will be three separate systems on simple network for file sharing purposes with one system acting as the server for files. If files are stored on individual systems, there can be chaos of different versions.

The three systems too can be different to suit each use. For example, my uses include 2D CAD, 3D CAD, graphic design, data analysis, simulation, rendering, written projects, and business-related. this resulted in three systems:

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > 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 2.1 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 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z313 2.1 speakers > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16

Business /Diagnostic:

Dell Precision T3500 (2011) (Rev 2) Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.46 / 3.73GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 (2GB) > PERC 6/i + Seagate 300GB 15K SAS ST3300657SS + WD Black 500GB > 525W PSU> Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 19" LCD
[Passmark system rating = 2751> CPU = 7236 / 2D= 658 / 3D=2020 / Mem= 1875 / Disk=1221]

The total cost of these systems is: $1,900 + $1,400 + $350 = about $3,800. The z420 was new/open box and upgraded, and the z620 and T3500 were used and upgraded.

Software includes: Autodesk Building Suite, Solidworks, Sketchup, Adobe CS6, Vray rendering, Wolfram Mathematica, MS Office, WordPerfect Office, and various. Work includes architecture, industrial design, presentation, and written projects.

The HP z420 is essentially the 3D system, the z620 is 2D, compute-intensive, and rendering, and the T3500 is for misc business stuff, plus runs a clone of the z420 HD to act as a backup in case of problems.

Data backup is to individual external HDs in USB enclosures to isolate them from disk failures and virus /malware. RAID 1's that mirror the storage drive and store quick restore system images are pending for the z420 and z620.

I always prefer two monitors on these kind of systems: two 24" monitors are preferable to one 31".

Also:

1. Will you be building these systems yourself?

2. do you object to used components?

3. Also, to verify, what country are you in?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Those systems are outdated, and poorly specced in terms of price distribution, also some prices in the form of a part picker list would be appreciated.
An i7 system is also generally better in this price range due to higher clock speeds and better value, the next step up would be a 5820k, the lower clocked Xeons are not suited to both rendering AND other tasks, only the former.
Post a part picker list below @bambiboom with peripherals, OS and monitors, and OP, a mention of software used would be great!

For $6000 I can fix in better suited server build, but for $5000 it is hard and will have to compromise on performance.

Make a part picker list, imo for comparatively moderate rendering tasks an i7 is good enough, and a better solution than a single server.
Although a NAS might be a consideration.

Chugalug,

If you re-read my post, you might see that the systems listed are not hardware suggestions for IQlgihtness, but are my systems as examples of different workstation specifications for different uses. If all the systems are doing 3D modeling that's one speciifcation, but if the rendering is CPU-based, one system should have more cores and if GPU based a GPU with more memory.

And, if you had seen the specification of the CPU's in the example systems, the 3D modeling system uses a E5-1660 v2 with a base clock of 3.7GHz with a turbo speed of 4.0Ghz which is the not among the "lower clocked Xeons", but in fact is the highest clock speed of any Xeon ever made. The current highest speed Xeon E5 is the E5-1650 v4 which is 6C@3.6 /4.0GHz. The E5-1660 v2 is several steps above an i7-5820K which is 6C @ 3.3 / 3.6GHz and has only 28 PCIe lanes to the Xeon E5's 40 Lanes. In Workstations which can be running dual GPU's, the 40 lanes is important, although GPU's can run reasonably at x8. I never use dual GPU's except in dual Xeon systems- which with E5's = 80 PCie lanes. The Xeon E5-2690 is likewise 8C@ 2.9 /3.8GHz and 3.8GHz is not a low clock speed for a Xeon. The z420, the second highest-rated z420 would be No.15 in z640's- still in very good company. the No. 14 z440 cost $3,300 which = +$1,400.

Passmark CPU benchmarks:

____________CPU Mark __ Single Thread

E5-1660 v2 ___13735 _______ 2078
E5-2690______14245 _______ 1865
i7-5820K ____ 12985 _______ 2011

The HP z420 listed is in the Passmark systems ratings, the second best performing system and the z620 is the highest rated of 465 tested and the z620 is the top-rated z620 of 236 tested. If you think these systems are outdated, the z620 has a Passmark system rating of 5675 and the highest rated z640, the current model using LGA2011-3 is rated at 6302.

The modeling system has a single-tread mark of 2078 which is still in the top tier and the E5-2690 is dedicated to computation task and rendering where it runs all cores 3.3 to 3.5GHz- and that's also a very good rate.

If you feel those systems are "poorly specced" in terms of price, keep in mind that the E5-1660 v2 in the $1,900 z420 alone cost new $1,200 , the base system new was $2,100, the GPU cost $850, the SM951, $170, the Intel 730 $300. that would've been $6,000+. As for the z610, the two E5-2690's together in the $1,400, z620 cost together new $4,100, the K2200 was $480, a Tesla M2090, $2,600.

Keep in mind that content creation and content consumption hardware is different in important ways. The performance parameters have a wider range of emphasis according to the way the software is written.

If and when the OP lists the software used, a set of parts lists will be forth-coming, but specifying three systems without knowing the direction of software / hardware optimization which (= the cost /performance)- is not a good use of time. For a modeling system, a Xeon E3 as those have very high single-thread rates, but if there is CPU rendering- which has a superior image quality for single images, that system would have a Xeon E5- 8 core. If the modeling is in Solidworks or Rhino, which run viewports/ OpenGL- the GPU has to be a Quadro, and so on.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Here is 3PC setup

3D Modeling PC (x 2)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus B150M-A/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($75.98 @ PCM)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($75.98 @ PCM)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($43.86 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital RE3 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($31.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: NVIDIA Titan X (Pascal) 12GB Video Card ($1200.00)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ B&H)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" 1920x1080 Monitor ($125.99 @ B&H)
Keyboard: Logitech MK200 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2058.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-07 10:29 EST-0500

Main Data Server

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 V4 2.2GHz 10-Core Processor ($649.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Intel BXTS13A CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z10PA-D8 ATX Dual-CPU LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($205.99 @ Jet)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($205.99 @ Jet)
Storage: Crucial MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($244.99 @ Jet)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($90.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GT 710 1GB Video Card ($32.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT Source 530 ATX Full Tower Case ($84.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.88 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Dell SE2416H 23.8" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($158.99 @ Jet)
Keyboard: Logitech MK200 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2228.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-07 10:31 EST-0500

That 3D PC Setup is only for creating 3D Models and has limited amount of storage space. Get two of them. Comes with TITAN X PASCAL which is best GPU available to fulfill your needs of creating 3D models. i7-7700 gives good support to GPU for processing smoothly. RAM is up-gradable to 64GB you can add extra 34GB down the lane as per the requirement.

The main setup is mainly for Storage and other CPU based calculations and rendering it is very powerful and is highly up-gradable. You can add second CPU down the lane as per the requirements and even RAM is highly up-gradable. Comes with 1.1TB SSD which is good enough to fit in lot of stuff.

Both the setups comes with 1080p monitors as you probably won't be needing higher resolution for the stuff you gonna be doing. Both the builds have DVD Writer to store your data on DVDs if required.

I can also provide 2PC setup instead of this 3PC setup if you require or plan to.

$5,000, for 3 workstations and a central server, plus networking hardware, monitors, and software(?) is pretty slim.
Is your application software (x3) included in that price, and what specifically will you be using?

You've also not mentioned any backup procedures and hardware....all that other stuff that you really, really need. But no one ever considers until it is too late.

Without any specific parts list, figure maybe $1500 for each workstation. Which leaves little else for all those other necessary things.

Don't concentrate on parts lists quite yet.

First, map all the functions you guys will need.
Then you look at parts that will meet those functions, within that budget.

Here's an alternate thought:

What are you personally using now for doing this 2/3D graphics work?
Possibly donate that to 'the company', and devote that $5,000 to building the other infrastructure.
The central server, peripherals, networking, etc, etc...

Once everything is going and you are actually pulling in some $$, then upgrade your individual workstations.

For $5,000 you'll have enough money to build 3-4 computers with solid graphics cards + peripherals, as well as a used server off eBay or Craigslist. If the server would only be used for sharing, storing, and backing up content, then I highly recommend buying a used server. Virtually every large company in America has an old Dell T310 or something laying inactive in their server room that they would love to get rid of. It shouldn't be hard to find a functional server for a very cheap price. As for the workstations, just pick out the parts you want. As long as you get high end NVIDIA GPUs, and Intel Core i5's or i7's, you'll be fine. I highly recommend Intel CPUs and INVIDIA GPUs. Oh.. also make sure all of the workstations have an SSD. You can often get a 1TB SSD for like $260 on Newegg. For the Graphics card I would go with NVIDIA GTX 970's, 980's, 1070's, or 1080's. When you're picking out your motherboards, make sure they have built in Wifi if you don't intend to ethernet all of the workstations. Make sure the motherboard has enough USB ports and make sure it's the same chipset as the CPU you choose. Don't worry too much about RAM. You're going to want at least 8GB in each machine but obviously you can always add more later.