3d workstation / render

[Stylex]

Hi All, I'm putting together a pretty insane build for work. I do a lot of work with Cinema4D and the adobe suite (ps, ai, dw, in).

Only downside is it HAS to be an HP due to company policy/contracts

This is what I have spec'd out so far:

Workstation
HP B2C10UT
Intel® Xeon® 2x E5-2650 (2.00 GHz, 20 MB cache, 8 cores)
4GB DDR3 ECC RAM
500GB HDD

RAM
8x 4GB DDR3-1600 ECC

SSD Hard Drive
520 Series Solid State Drive, 240GB

Monitors
2x HP ZR2440w 24-inch LED Backlit IPS Monitor

Video
GTX 560 (c4d does not use gfx for rendering, so nothing insane is needed here like a firepro or quadro)

Do you guys think faster dual 6 core cpu's would be a better idea? Is 2 ghz too slow for lightly threaded apps like PS/AI?

Is there a different build I should go with?

My only guidelines from above are "It has to cost more than $5000"

And it has to be available in Canada

 

[mfenn]

My only guidelines from above are "It has to cost more than $5000"

LOL, gotta love corporate buying policies.

Given that you pretty much have to go with the Z820 to get something over $5000 without being really silly on some parts, I think that your base chassis choice is fine.

A 2.0 GHz Sandy Bridge isn't exactly slow, but it's not as fast as it could be either. I mean, this system will be slower than your typical i5 2500K desktop build for most usual tasks. Going to the 6 cores probably won't actually hurt you overall in heavy processing, but it will help your general usage performance.

Let's say that Cinema4D scales perfectly with the number of cores (it probably doesn't, but this is the best case for the 8-core CPUs). That means that you are getting 32 times the performance of an imaginary 1 Ghz Sandy Bridge single core. If you were to instead grab the E5-2640 2.5 Ghz 6 core processors for roughly the same cost, you would have performance 30 times that of a theoretical 1 Ghz Sandy Bridge single core. So you would only lose about 6% of max theoretical performance in heavily threaded apps but would gain 25% greater performance in lightly threaded apps. A worthwhile tradeoff IMHO.

The SSD and memory look fine to me, though you may want to consider adding some more mechanical storage if you don't have a big network share for long-term project storage. I also don't see the GTX 560 as an option online?

As for the monitors, I would seriously consider the ZR2740w 27" and ZR30w 30" monitors. One you've used a 2560 wide monitor (or two), you will wonder how you even got by with 1920 wide ones.

 

[Blain]

Moving up to an Intel 910 series SSD will help you burn through some cash.

 

[Stylex]

Yeah, I submitted one that was $4500 and was told it was not enough, crazy. Guess if it's over 5k it goes out of a different fund or something.

Thanks! I'll bring up the E5-2640 and see what they can do. That's a great suggestion. That was my only red flag.

We have a very robust network storage system for storing stuff, so 500gb is more than enough for local storage, we archive all old projects we are not working on off our workstations.

With regards to the video card, I will probably just carry it forward from my current machine. That's what I have now, and it seems to be more than adequate for what I am doing. Sorry, forgot to mention that.

I tried pushing for bigger monitors, but there seems to be some institutional aversion to them for some reason. I'll try again 😉

And blain, I'd love to, but I don't think HP sells them 🙂

 

[Blain]

HP sells UPS.
Is your company up for some power protection on their new purchase?
HP doesn't sell crazy high capacity UPS, but you can dump close to $500 on one.

 

[mfenn]

With regards to the video card, I will probably just carry it forward from my current machine. That's what I have now, and it seems to be more than adequate for what I am doing. Sorry, forgot to mention that.

Given the lack of budgetary constraints and the corporate environment, I would most definitely not go and put non-certified parts into a brand new workstation. Just ask for a Quadro 2000 and call it a day. As you say, there is no need for an insane card and a Quadro 2000 is not that much slower than a non-Ti GTX 560, especially in OpenGL apps.

I tried pushing for bigger monitors, but there seems to be some institutional aversion to them for some reason. I'll try again 😉

Keep fighting the good fight. :awe:

 

[Stylex]

Given the lack of budgetary constraints and the corporate environment, I would most definitely not go an put non-certified parts into a brand new workstation. Just ask for a Quadro 2000 and call it a day. As you say, there is no need for an insane card and a Quadro 2000 is not that much slower than a non-Ti GTX 560, especially in OpenGL apps.

Thanks, I never thought of that. I don't know if I'll ask for the Quadro, but I'll get them to throw in some kind of video card.

 

[Stylex]

So this is what I ended up submitting for, HP was great to work with once they got back to me 🙂 Summer vacations and all.

HP Z820 Workstation
HP Z820 1125W 90 Efficient Chassis

Xeon E5-2667 6C 2.90 15MB 1600 CPU-1
Xeon E5-2667 6C 2.90 15MB 1600 CPU-2

HP 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-1600 2-CPU Reg RAM

NVIDIA Quadro 600 1GB GFX

HP ZR2440w 24-in LED S-IPS Monitor
HP ZR2440w 24-in LED S-IPS Monitor

HP 160GB SATA 1st SSD
HP 1TB SATA 7200 2nd HDD

HP USB Standard Keyboard
HP USB Optical Mouse
16X SuperMulti DVDRW SATA 1st ODD

HP Dual Processor Air Cooling Kit

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[mfenn]

No prob, glad to help! What was the delta for the Quadro 600 vs. the Quadro 2000?

 

[Stylex]

not sure, they just offered the 600, I plan on making the 560se the main card and having the quatro for a third monitor 😉

 

[Stylex]

Got the box today, it's amazing! Thanks again for all your help guys!

 

[mfenn]

You know you have a sweet workstation when you have to upgrade your monitor in order to fit your CPU graph on the screen. :awe: