$2000 Rendering and Calculation Rig. What should I change?

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1

I am looking to put together a rig mainly used for rendering, but also fluid and stress computations. These are both very CPU intensive so a good CPU is a must. I suppose I may do minor, conservative overclocking if I have the thermal headroom. As far as gaming, I may play LoL or Minecraft on it occasionally, but not anything GPU intensive.

I already have boatloads of HDD space in a storage rig, so that isn't a big deal. I already have a keyboard, mouse, moniter, etc. I can get Windows, so don't include it in the budget. I really want an nVidia GPU to take advantage of CUDA accelerated GI rendering.

This rig will be running for days at full load, so reliability is a must.

I am in Canada, but I live on the border and have friends in the US so it's okay if the stuff is bought from US sites I'll just ship it to them.

This is my current build.
[url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HO4i]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HO4i/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HO4i/benchmarks/]Benchmarks[/url]

[b]CPU:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80619i73930k]Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor[/url] ($569.99 @ Newegg)


[b]CPU Cooler:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-cpu-cooler-h110]Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler[/url] ($119.99 @ Newegg)


[b]Motherboard:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-x79extreme9]ASRock X79 Extreme9 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard[/url] ($340.99 @ SuperBiiz)


[b]Memory:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cmz16gx3m4a1600c9]Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory[/url] ($104.99 @ Best Buy)


[b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7pc256bww]Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk[/url] ($159.99 @ Newegg)


[b]Video Card:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx660tidc2o2gd5]Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card[/url] ($276.98 @ SuperBiiz)


[b]Case:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-cc650dw1]Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case[/url] ($159.99 @ Amazon)


[b]Case Fan:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cougar-case-fan-cfv14hb]Cougar Vortex 70.5 CFM 140mm Fan[/url] ($13.98 @ Outlet PC)


[b]Power Supply:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-ax760]Corsair 760W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply[/url] ($159.99 @ Newegg)


[b]Optical Drive:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas124-04]Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer[/url] ($18.98 @ Outlet PC)


[b]Total:[/b] $1905.87
[i](Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)[/i]
[i](Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-05 21:00 EST-0500)[/i]

2

you should build most of the computer for under $1000 then buy a Titan with the extra. The thing is a beast and it does manage rendering really well for a gaming oriented card. The huge number of CUDA cores and vRAM give it an edge against just aboout everything.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HPeG

I've never been a huge fan of the Intel hex-core processors, because by the time they caught on, people were buying Ivybridge and the 3770k is so good that it almost makes it not even worth the huge price difference. If you absolutely must have the cores, please consider an AMD build with the Titan. The FX 8350 is a very nice CPU for rendering.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HPjG

3

Do remember, Titan does not have ECC memory like Quadro GPU's, so Titan will not be as accurate as a PRO GPU and will fail to display certain things on screen.

 

I always recommend getting a GTX 670 and pairing it up with a dedicated Nvidia Quadro for this task...

They will both work in harmony together, Quadro will be used for CUDA accelerated apps, the 670 for your gaming.