A little overwhelmed, looking for optimal BlenderPost Date: 2015-09-03 |
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blendedmark88
Newbie Joined: 03 Sep 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
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Topic: A little overwhelmed, looking for optimal Blender Posted: 03 Sep 2015 at 10:55pm |
Budget:
$4000-$5000 (can push to 6k if absolutely necessary to future proof) Expectations: The best build I can get with the most efficiency and reliability. I'm looking for great GPU acceleration and also CPU power. I want a computer which can easily be upgraded over time and is overall worth the investment. Usage: Primarily using for Blender and other 3D animation, but I also work as an editor and use Adobe Premiere, Avid, and FCP. Special Needs: Would prefer to have a quiet-ish computer, and with all the cooling options, a build that won't give me trouble down the road. Must be able to handle 3D renders very well for big scene projects and variable time length (3 minutes to an hour). I've been incredibly torn because, I must confess, I'm a Mac enthusiast. However, I just can't justify spending the crazy amount on a new Mac Pro with its limited customization. Also, I use Blender and Apple only uses AMD now which does nothing for GPU acceleration. I have been thinking that this is the best bang for my buck, so to speak. I've been looking at the Aventum II or Slade, but as I said, I feel very overwhelmed with all the options...especially in the cooling, power, and motherboard department. |
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DS Veteran Joined: 28 Oct 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1674 |
Quote Reply Posted: 03 Sep 2015 at 11:44pm |
It looks like DS only carries the hot (and pricy) E5-2687W for Xeon chips. I don't see ECC memory as an option in their configurator; you may need to talk to them about that. You do want to go with the M5000 GPU...it has support for ECC in the DRAM similar to the M6000, but significantly cheaper (but only around 2/3's the M6000 in nearly every way)
Configuration URL: https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1275726 Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Corsair Obsidian 550D Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Xeon E5-2687W v3 3.1GHz (9.60 QPI) (25MB Cache) (10-Core) (Ultimate Performance) Motherboard: ASUS X99-E WS (Intel X99 Chipset) (Workstation Class) System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series Power Supply: 500W EVGA SuperNOVA Expansion Bay: - No Thanks Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (250GB Samsung 850 EVO) Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (2TB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi) Storage Set 3: - No Thanks RAID Config: - No Thanks RAID Card: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Graphics Card(s): 1x NVIDIA Quadro M5000 8GB (Outputs: 1x DVI-I DL ; 4x DisplayPort 1.2; 1x Stereo) Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio HPC Processor: - No Thanks Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex 120mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (High-Performance Edition) H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: - No Thanks Airflow Control: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Noise Reduction: - No Thanks LaserMark: - No Thanks Boost Processor: Standard Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Automatic Overclocking Boost Graphics Card(s): - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD) Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value) Office: - No Thanks Game: - No Thanks Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks Portable Gaming: - No Thanks Branded Gear: - No Thanks Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement) If you don't need to absolute reliability, stability, and accuracy of a workstation class processor and memory, you can change the motherboard, swap the CPU for an i7-5820K (have DS overclock it to compensate for losing 4 cores), and go with standard RAM. That can drop the price of the machine down significantly. You want to prioritize the quantity of RAM over speed of it. Video editing, especially high resolution, takes up a ton of RAM. |
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Alex
Admin Group Digital Storm Supervisor Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 16314 |
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 8:16am |
That's a great configuration. We do offer ECC memory but only for dual Xeon configurations. For non-server related work, you don't really need ECC memory nowadays.
The Quadro series are perfect, if you want to save money, switch to GeForce GTX, those apps should work fine with them. |
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blendedmark88
Newbie Joined: 03 Sep 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7 |
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 3:51pm |
Thanks for the build recommendation! I just had a few questions to gain a little more insight:
Is there any particular reason, other than price, you recommend the Slade instead of the Aventum II? I've heard the Aventum has better cooling and airflow...is that true? In terms of GPU, in looking at 1x GTX Titan X 12GB or even 2x GTX 980 ti vs the Quadro M500, it seems the GTX is much faster (at least in terms of benchmarks) and cheaper. Is there any particular reason you recommend a Quadro? Is it a reliability factor? |
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DS Veteran Joined: 28 Oct 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1674 |
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 4:08pm |
If you need 10-bit color, then you will need to go with the Quadro, unfortunately. The drivers are also optimized and do provide a performance benefit to some professional workflows. Some CAD programs see large gains moving from a GeForce GPU to a Quadro one. I'm not sure about video workflows...you'll want to look up benchmarks for that. As far as multiple GPUs go, compute workflows will scale better than graphics workflows, so take a look at the raw performance of the GPUs and add it up. Figure there will be a little bit of loss, but I would think it would be minimal.
The Aventum has much better cooling, but that is because it is designed to use a full water-cooled solution. That right there will take well over $1000 of your budget. The performance gain there is minimal compared to getting better components, especially if you're getting enterprise hardware that cannot be overclocked. Slade will be quieter, too. |
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db188
DS Veteran Joined: 29 Jul 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2115 |
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 4:18pm |
quadro's have some under the hood work station specific tweaks done to them that make them a little better for rendering, but to be completely honest, you aren't going to have any issues with a more gaming focused Titan or 980ti. same goes for the Xeon vs. X99 based system.
if this rig were never to be used at all for gaming, then build more towards the work station (xeon+quadro based system). if you think you might game on it some with mostly rendering workloads then choose the X99+GTX based system. as for total system cooling, the Aventum III (Aventum II discontinued) will be unmatched by anything else DS offers. of course, it will be unmatched in price as well Edited by db188 - 04 Sep 2015 at 4:19pm |
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DS Veteran Joined: 28 Oct 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1674 |
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 4:25pm |
The Aventum II Pro is still offered under workstations. They might be keeping that around for larger dual-socket configurations.
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Alex
Admin Group Digital Storm Supervisor Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 16314 |
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 5:53pm |
For your needs, the Slade is perfect. You don't really need an AVENTUM. The AVENTUM is best served for dual socket configurations or systems with 4x GPUs, or liquid cooling configs, etc...
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DS Veteran Joined: 28 Oct 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1674 |
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 6:39pm |
I'm curious, Alex...would you guys liquid cool high-end Quadro cards?
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db188
DS Veteran Joined: 29 Jul 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2115 |
Quote Reply Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 3:07pm |
i noticed that DS has the K5200 on clearance sale. that should be more than sufficient for high end rendering work. however, if you're doing large modeling work clock speed is king and the core I7 is still decent for rendering. i've seen benchmarks favoring a fast oc'd 6-core over all of the Xeons on a mainstream K2200, at least in 3DS Max and AutoCAD.
also, why no 10-core Xeon, Alex? Edited by db188 - 05 Sep 2015 at 3:35pm |
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Alex
Admin Group Digital Storm Supervisor Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 16314 |
Quote Reply Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 6:31pm |
@, we don't liquid cool Quadro as they are quite power efficient and don't get that warm. Plus, NVIDIA does not like us doing this on them.
@db188, we do offer a 10-core Xeon! It's a great option for that extra computing power, as long as your application use maximizes multiple cores. |
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DS Veteran Joined: 28 Oct 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1674 |
Quote Reply Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 6:59pm |
That's what I assumed That and the assumed risk for changing the cooling on the $5000+ GPU would be quite high. The M6000 are still fairly power hungry as they are fully unlocked GM200 chips. |
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db188
DS Veteran Joined: 29 Jul 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2115 |
Quote Reply Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 10:55pm |
the way i understand it, modeling favors a fast core and rendering favors more cores. |
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Alex
Admin Group Digital Storm Supervisor Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 16314 |
Quote Reply Posted: 06 Sep 2015 at 4:35pm |
Even being fully unlocked, the GM200 chips are not hot running cards. Air cooling is plenty.
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Alex
Admin Group Digital Storm Supervisor Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 16314 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Sep 2015 at 3:54pm |
We added a few more Xeon CPUs under the X99 configurations now.
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