Building PC for cpu and gpu 3d rendering

Dante16

Junior Member
Mar 20, 2013
6
0
16
Hello I am planning to build a workstation for 3d cpu and gpu rendering. I know usually people use Xeon's and Quadro's for 3d workstations but I have been doing some research into this. I am curious if dual I7 3930k's with possibly dual Gtx Titans would suffice as a decent workstation. The 3930k can be oc'd and outperform nearly all but a few Xeon's. Whereas the gtx titans have 6gb of vram on them. With two that would equal 12gb of vram. The most ram the mobo to my knowledge would hold is 128gb. I was curious if the above with maybe dual ssd's in raid would suffice as a good workstation. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
71
www.mfenn.com
You can't do dual 3930K's in a single machine, they support uniprocessor configurations only. You need to get Xeon E3-2xxx series CPUs if you want to do that.

Really though, it depends on what exactly you are wanting to do. Some of that stuff might be critical or it might be useless depending on your exact use case.
 

Sleepingforest

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 2012
2,375
0
76
Could you answer the sticky questions?
PLEASE when you POST threads asking for input on system builds tell us...

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. Try to give specific programs.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?


At the end of the day it's your money. There's only so much we can do. :p
Some won't apply to you since it's a workstation rather than a gaming rig, but many questions are still valid.
 

Dante16

Junior Member
Mar 20, 2013
6
0
16
1. The pc will be used for 3d cpu and gpu rendering.
2. I dont really have a set budget yet. But ill go ahead and say $8000
3. Was thinking in the usa such as tigerdirect or newegg
4. N/A
5. No brand preference
6. Complete new build so no current parts.
7. I wouldnt mind overclocked but im not going to rely on it.
8. Wouldnt mind using dual 24inch monitors or 46inch+ tv.
9. I plan to build it within the next several months
10. Software I use is Maya 64bit with mental ray and vray as the cpu renderers. Possibly may use octane for gpu renderer.
 

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
4,902
0
71
Is the render time extremely important to you? In other words, will you be able to make more money if you can render faster?

Otherwise it's hard to see spending anything approaching $8000 on a machine, and I certainly wouldn't overclock a platform that I'm using for business.

Also, you need to nail down your build date a little bit more. "The next several months" could be anywhere between now and August, and that's an unwieldy chunk of time in the computer parts world. We wouldn't be able to give you specific parts recommendations (like the kind you could actually use as a shopping list and order right away) until two weeks before the build date or less.

Also, there are several different types of RAID. What did you have in mind?
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,481
4,329
75
Possibly may use octane for gpu renderer.
If that works, the hardware at least should be much faster and much cheaper than many many-core CPUs. 4 GTX 670s would be about $1400, and could fit in a standard LGA1155 machine (with high-end mobo). But I don't know - does Octane work for everything the CPU can do?