Workstation Build

[anImaru]

Hi this will be my first time building my own system. I will mainly be modeling using Maya and maybe some gaming (Pretty much only SIM3 now and Skyrim when it comes out. Max settings will be a must). I'm in the US (NYC to be exact). Currently using a U2711 and planning to add a 30" monitor (any comments on the U3011 vs hp zr30w vs nec lcd3090 will be appreciated). I've taken a look through some guides and came up with the following list of parts and will be doing some simple overclocking. Any input will be great. Budget: $3000 (excluding monitor). Can go up by 20% if necessary. Ideally this will hopefully last me 2-3 years before I build a new system.

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $210 (Combo with cpu)

CPU:
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K $315

Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL $125

GPU:
2X XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $680 (2x$340) ($620 after MIR)
Should I use these and upgrade when the 28nm cards come out or just go for 2 gtx580s now?

Also will it be necessary to get a couple of ZALMAN VF1000 2 Ball VGA Coolers if I plan on overclocking the gpus?

Storage:
Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH250A2K5 2.5" 250GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $580

HITACHI Deskstar H3IK30003272SW (0S03208) 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $180

Optical Drives:
LG Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 10X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Super Multi WH12LS30 LightScribe Support - OEM $94

LG DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive Black SATA Model GH22NS50 Bulk - OEM $Free with Hitachi hard drive.

Sound card:
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card $90 ($70 after MIR)

PSU:
CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply $165 ($145 after MIR)

Case:
LIAN LI PC-X500FX Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $360
Will this be large enough or should I take the Lian Li PC-X2000Finstead.

CPU Fan:
XIGMATEK Intel Core i7 compatible Dark Knight-S1283V REV.W with ACK-I5361 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler I7 i5 775 1155 and AMD compatible: $53 ($33 after MIR)

Total $2852 Not including MIRs

Updated build below 7/10.

 

[Blain]

Workstation Build

Hi this will be my first time building my own system.

I've taken a look through some guides and came up with the following list of parts and will be doing some simple overclocking. Any input will be great.

I don't know what "guides" you've been reading, but...
* Those video cards aren't appropriate for a workstation machine.
* Overclocking isn't appropriate for a workstation machine.
* You came to right place, we will help correct your course.

 

[dawp]

for graphics work, you would be better served by a FirePro or Quadro video card. I can't really recommend one as I have no experience with any professional type cards.

and if clients are going to visit your workspace, I'd do away with the window on your case.

I'd also consider getting 2 HDD and running a raid 1.

 

[classy]

Well based on the specs of the software, that machine and budget seems to bloated. That looks more like a gaming machine for professional gamer at that.

Here are the specs for 64 bit Maya
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Microsoft Windows Vista Business x64 Edition (SP2), Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (SP2), Apple® Mac OS® X 10.6.5, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5.5 WS, or Fedora™ 14 operating systems
Windows and Linux: Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon processor with SSE3 instruction set support (or higher)
Macintosh® computer: Macintosh computer with Intel-based 64-bit processor
4 GB RAM
10 GB free hard drive space
Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card
Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
DVD-ROM drive
HDD: IDE, SATA, SATA 2, SAS, SCSI
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher, Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox web browsers

Based on some searching, I would get a 2500K, because it appears Maya only maxes out a quad core. The 2500K would allow overclocking, like Blain said I don't recommend it. It is $100 cheaper. Save ($100)
http://mattgadient.com/2009/02/22/make-maya-2009-use-a-multi-core-cpu/

I am also biased towards Asus boards
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131730
$209

I would use one video card as well. Save ($340)

There are better and far cheaper cases. No offense but ain't no way in hell I am paying $300+ dollars for a case.
I would go Antec 1200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129100
$159 Won't be as quiet, but the pc will operate without heat issues. Save ($200)

If you do OC I would use it lightly, so I would not spend for an added cooler, either. Unless my enviroment lacks AC. Save ($53)

Lastly for my Storage
I go Raptor for boot drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136296
$119
I go with 120 GB SSD, the fastest by most accounts, for my work drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227706
$240
Save ($220)

Savings $900+

I could probably tinker to improve speed and save more, but this should provide more than enough horsepower. I think the dual card, way over priced SSD, and way over priced case are just completely unnecessary.

 

[anImaru]

Thanks for the help guys.

I should perhaps clarify a bit more. This machine will be kept at home and will also serve as a home machine. I would probably not trust myself to build it if I was going to be keeping this at the office and it would need to be much beefier. It just takes forever to render scenes with a lot of lighting so to minimize downtime I will be bringing some of that home to run in the background while I do whatever else ie play skyrim. Also the rendering process is very intensive since I literally cannot do anything else on my current 1.5 year old pc when it is rendering.
As for how I came up with those components it was pretty much take the workstation build from techreports guide and make a few adjustments based on personal preferences and price on newegg.

Okay so after the comments I will ditch overclocking all together. That would mean no more need for any after market cpu/gpu coolers right?
Also without ocing get the i5 2500 or stick with the 2600?

Omg thank you dawp for pointing out the window. I had thought I could just stick that side against the wall but a further look shows the drives open on that side. I do like the aluminum look though and would like to keep that and found another one which is $190. LIAN LI PC-A71F Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case.

Also for the hard drive why put the os on the raptor? All the threads I see have people putting it on the ssd. I will be switching to that vertex3 for sure.

I don't really see any differences between the asus and gigabyte motherboards but will trust your suggestion on that since I was looking at it originally anyways and picked the gigabyte one only because it was bundled with the cpu.

Any firepro or quadro gpu with 2gb of memory seems to cost more than the dual graphics cards I have selected so I'd really like some input there before I switch.


The updated build so far:

Motherboard:
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $210

CPU:
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K $314

Will I be needing any thermal past/compound?

Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL $125

GPU:
2X XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $680 (2x$340) ($620 after MIR)

Storage:
OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $240

HITACHI Deskstar H3IK30003272SW (0S03208) 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $180
Will raid1 really be necessary. If so should i switch to a couple of 1TB samsung spinpoints?

Optical Drives:
LG Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 10X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Super Multi WH12LS30 LightScribe Support - OEM $94

LG DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive Black SATA Model GH22NS50 Bulk - OEM $Free with Hitachi hard drive.

Sound card:
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card $90 ($70 after MIR)

PSU:
CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply $165 ($145 after MIR)

Case:
LIAN LI PC-A71F Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case $190

Total: $2178 with the MIRs priced in. Nice savings =]

 

[dawp]

the benefit of raid 1 is data protection. it wont improve performance but if one drive should die you will have all that data available immediately. Backing up regularly helps but that is only as good as your most recent backup.

 

[betasub]

^ RAID1 is not protection against data corruption. It only provides hardware redundancy, allowing continuous up-time should one of the drives in the RAID1 array fail.

 

[dawp]

I never said it was

 

[betasub]

But you did say "the benefit of raid 1 is data protection", so it was worth clarifying.

 

[Blain]

But you did say "the benefit of raid 1 is data protection", so it was worth clarifying.

And his very next words were... "it wont improve performance but if one drive should die you will have all that data available immediately"

 

[mfenn]

And his very next words were... "it wont improve performance but if one drive should die you will have all that data available immediately"

You forgot the period, which generally indicates a separation between two thoughts.

OP, your idea of rendering while gaming is probably a pipe dream unless you restrict Maya to only using say, 2 of the 4 cores. That'll of course make the render take longer, somewhat defeating the purpose of the new machine altogether.

As for the actual parts, you've got a lot of stuff in there that adds to the cost without really adding to the performance. Let me go down the list:
- Mobo: There is no reason to pay $210 for a Z68 mobo. This GA-Z68X-UD3 can do Crossfire and is only $140.
- CPU: Fine, no you won't need any paste
- RAM: Normally I wouldn't recommend that kit, but it's not bad after promo
- GPU: The 6970 isn't that much faster than the 6950 2GB so I'd get to of those for $500 AR total
- SSD : Fine
- HDD : If these drives will be used only for storage, get these 2TB Samsung F4EG for $70 each. I wouldn't RAID them, but instead would use one to back up the other. If the drives will be used for rendering, scratch files, etc., then spindle count trumps all. Get Samsung F3 1TB drives for $50 each.
- DVD : Get whatever $20 one
- Sound card: Probably not necessary. If you have good speakers or headphones, you should be going digital to a receiver or DAC anyway.
- PSU: Way overkill. This XFX 650W has plenty of power for 6950s or 6970s.
- Case: It's nice, but damn expensive. I'm not sure that it's worth it over the P183.

 

[anImaru]

Thanks mfenn!
Okay so will be switching Deskstar to two Samsung F3 1TB drives. Also downgrading the soundcard to a sonar dg instead as still want my bose speakers/sennheiser ie8s to sound good without a complicated audio setup. That mobo also looks pretty good value wise.
Lowering the psu will probably good but I'll look for a 750W option just in case I might want to stick a couple more hdds in in the future.
As for the gpu's I'm not sure if I want two 6950s or a 2gb quadro or firepro card instead which seems like they will work better with maya. Build looks pretty much finalized now. Just need some solid advice on what to do about the graphics. Hopefully someone here has experience with the professional cards.
Probably will order the parts tomorrow and will just go with the two 6950s unless someone gives some compelling reasoning for another card/cards.

 

[Modelworks]

If rendering times are the problem there are a couple ways to solve that.
First you need to go with Nvidia GPU not ATI. There are quite a few good GPU based renderers that support Maya and other soft and almost every one of them uses CUDA. You don't have to have pro level cards to use it but the card must be nvidia because OpenCL is rarely supported in these applications. GTX460 is the recommendation, the more cards the better.

No matter what processor you use the machine will have to wait for rendering, it is just a fact of life with 3d. What I like to do is build a modest pc for the workstation and use the rest of the money to build a render box. The render box houses the majority of the GPU, the most ram, decent HD space. After completing the work I send that work to the render box where it can churn away for days if need be and not have an impact on my workstation.

If you are thinking you can build a box that will render and play games at the same time, forget it, that isn't going to happen.

 

[Blain]

Thanks mfenn!
Okay so will be switching Deskstar to two Samsung F3 1TB drives.

If you're going with a RAID 1 array, at least get the F3R raid version HDs.

 

[anImaru]

If you're going with a RAID 1 array, at least get the F3R raid version HDs.

Thanks for pointing that out.
Okay all parts are ordered. Hopefully I won't encounter any problems putting it together.

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for pointing that out.
Okay all parts are ordered. Hopefully I won't encounter any problems putting it together.

I guess I missed my chance, but I'd like to point out that at ~10W each, you'd have to add a lot of hard drives to make a 750W worthwhile on that basis.