Editing / Compositing Workstation

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Looking for some critique of my new workstation build:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/nem2k/saved/XJLFf7

Does it all work together? Is there anything that you would change around?

My budget is $2500 (CAD) for the parts listed in the link - this must include both tax and shipping costs (to vancouver, canada). There is no cpu cooler in the list because I have a custom water loop planned. So $2500 for the machine minus the cpu cooling

Water cooling loop can be found here if it helps: https://teksyndicate.com/forum/cooling/water-cooling-loop-critique/186430

I will be using this mostly as a compositing and video workstation, with some 3D modelling/texturing at times. Programs include Nuke (primarily), Zbrush, Maya and Mari

The goal is to try to minimize rendering times and maximize viewport performance

All parts (cpu, gpu, ram) will be overclocked. Would prefer to stick with the i7 series instead of going xeon. And I will be reusing the SSD in my current computer as a cache/swap drive (on top of the SSD and HDD in the list above)

 

A few questions I have:

1. Is the 750w PSU enough to power this machine?

2. Are the quiet edition Corsair fans enough for cooling? CPU will be cooled via water

3. Should I jump back a gpu generation and grab a 6gb card to handle larger texture files? workstation cards are out of the question as they eat heavily into my budget (none of my programs are particularly gpu intensive anyway)

4. When do you expect DDR4 prices to begin dropping a bit? Are we looking at a few weeks or a few months?

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maybe Im missing something here but I don't see how that build is any better than the one I listed...for starts theres half the amount of ram in there

It seems that building the same level of computer on that site leads to a more expensive computer than if I just built it myself

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I think he works for titan computer .. Lol 

Your build is fine. I would look to see if you can get a higher certificate like platinum power. Also I would skip out on all the extra fans unless there for a radiator. You could also get a cheaper case if you wanted to the one you have picked is pretty nice.. 

Just shop around now for the parts and see if you can save 5 dollars here 10 there 

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Swap the Kingston SSD (very slow ) for a Samsung 840 EVO for the budget mined or an Samsung 850 PRO that has a ten year warranty and recommend another hard drive for backup .... it would suck to lose a months work because you didn't back it up.

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as for your questions

  1. your estimated system wattage as stated will be about 433w well under the 20% headroom that you need
  2. you have more than enough fans to cool the system ... maybe too many (may be louder than you want)
  3. the Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card is plenty card
  4. I would not expect the DDR4 prices to drop much at all this year
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If you plan on upgrading to dual GPUs in the future ... you should jump up to the 5830K CPU it has a PCI bus that is 40 lanes compared to the 28 lanes supported by this 5820K CPU

http://ark.intel.com/compare/82932,82931,82930

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http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Yw9WK8

add more ram if you need it but that should be pretty good

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@OP ... the ram you have selected is not on Asus's QVL for the mobo


http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/X99-PRO/X99_Series_DRAM_QVL_0930.pdf

but this is

G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f42400c15q32grk

 

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+1 much better build than OP and I checked the ram and it meets the QVL .... well done!

- 1 point ... still needs a backup drive ... lol

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You dont need a 750w psu and you 100% for sure dont need a 850w for a single card system like that. I will also say there is very little reason to get the 980 unless you just want to use every dollar of your budget. The 970 pretty much the way to go right now.

edit. just saw you have a watercooling loop. so yeah less wattage psu better ssd and your system is mostly good. people have different tastes in cases and at a quick glance it looks layed out well enough.

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Is this really supposed to be primarily an Editing rig? If so, I would defenitely throw in a second HDD for Raid 1 to have some data redundancy. And since we are moving towards the 4k era I'd make that at least 2TB each. I just assume that you are talking about Video editing.

As for the videocard, this is not listed on pcpartpicker for some reason, but the PNY Quadro K2200 is a 4GB Maxwell-based card just like the 970 that will cost you just a like bit more than the 970.
If this is not just a hobby, the special drivers an the extensive testing that the workstation cards have gone through will benefit you in your daily work.
You can even do some gaming with them if you want to. I tried games like DayZ and Far Cry 3 on the CAD-Workstation I build for my wife with a 2Gb FirePro W5000 and the experience was actually quite impressive.

Again, if this is what you will be working with, then also stay away from overclocking it. You probably saw the Video where Linus overclocked a 12-Core Xeon just to see if it's possible. It works, but for daily work when you cannot afford failure I would not recommend it.
If you are going with an Asus Board you might want to consider the X99-E WS, since the WS Boards are just crazy stable and reliable and give you so much room for expansion.


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Ok so a lot of comments here, some useful and some not so much. Let me just address a few of them in regards to the build I originally put up.

Those that made suggestions regarding the storage - thanks for the advice, point noted. I will change out the boot drive and expand on the backup drive. Although most of my old project files get stored on a NAS anyway so I'm not too worried about how much storage I have on the machine itself. An extra tb probably won't hurt though

Regarding watercooling. I agree that air cooling is just as efficient, especially in terms of price/performance ratio, but I figured that I'd go with WC here as I'd never built a custom loop before so would be an interesting experience. And more importantly, I don't see what else I could spend the money on that would improve my performance in THIS use case.

So now regarding this particular use case and the comments offered up by westcoastbadboy.

I disagree with most of your comments regarding the build you put together because it just doesn't make sense for what I'm using it for. And while disagreement isn't necessarily enough to warrant a comment, your zealotry is:

1. Your build has HALF the ram, and double the POTENTIAL ram. Big difference. 32gb is useful to me now within the budget I have. Your 16gb is not as useful to me now, and even though the potential to have 128gb ram is interesting that would certainly blow the budget no matter when I buy that extra ram

2. What exactly is a 5920k/x? I would love to see a link to that thing

3. pcie lane count. I have debated this myself, but as of right now I have no additional pcie cards that would requite the extra lanes. But extra GPU you say...

4. I don't know why you even mentioned the possibility of running triple SLI. I agree that higher lane count is going to help me run more graphics cards, but I think you're missing the point which is that none of my applications are particularly GPU intensive. Zbrush is entirely software rendered. Nuke, is heavily cpu and ram bound and the only real place where a gpu comes in is GPU acceleration of a FEW nodes in the application. Triple SLI does not help me in the slightest with what I will be using most.

5. The company that you are so zealous about are based in the US. Maybe they have great customer service and warranty but a lot of that would be offset by the fact that I'd have an easier time dealing with canadian companies given that I am in canada

Now, I came here looking for a logical discussion regarding the build I put together and I appreciate the input of those who have tried to help in earnest. But badboy, if you're going to spew your titanus crap then at least have it make sense for the intended application.

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Ok ok, I think we need to cool off this discussion by a lot. No need to call people noobs or little girls or whatever BS that DOESN'T BELONG HERE. I hate it when threads become so agressive for NO reason. That's just pointless. If someone asks for advice aboout his build or whatever we can all just give our two cents to the matter, but what someone does with the advice later is completely his own business.

That said, let me sum things up a litte bit.

nem2k, I can totally understand why you would like to try a WC-build just to see how it goes. I'd personally like to try it out myself, I'm just too lazy to do it. Apart from that, I'm just generally uncomfortable with water right next to my electronic gear whatsoever.

I took the time to look at the system requirements for all the programs you listet in the OP. You're right, Nuke and ZBrush are not very GPU bound. But Mari and Maya are. And the only recommended cards are the Quadros and FirePros. I'd keep that in mind, although it will probably work on a consumer card as well.

As I already wrote earlier, I'd swap the X99-A for an X99-E WS. CPU-wise, the 5930k and its Xeon-sibling the E5-1650 v3 cost pretty much the same at this point, so again it's up to you to go with overclocking or improved stability. (NOTE: Talking about stability, the X99-E WS does not seem to support ECC Memory like its predecessor, the P9X79-E WS did. Maybe it will at some point, since there's is simply no unbuffered DDR4 ECC out yet)

So have fun with your build and let us know how it turned out.

 

 

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don't ever go firepro for 3d --- amd's "drivers" are crap - they will leave artifacts and glitchy/bleed through lines all over the place - I have a k5000 and my friend has a 780ti and to tell you the truth only in certain unique situations dose the k5000 display things cleaner then the gaming card - but in no way is the gaming card gimped

sorry about the tool trolling your request for advise 

the only thing I would look into beyond what you have is if spreading your 32 gb of ram across 2 kits of 4 might be better.  I've done both for the 2011 ddr3 when I had better benchmarks with them spread out but nothing noticeable when working. I wonder if the difference for dd4 will make a noticeable difference  

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We are using FirePros for CAD-Design here and they work just fine. Rock-solid, fast and attractive in price.

No complaints.