C4D AE and mild Gaming Rig (very high end)

[BigDan]

Hi All,

Haven't been around in a while, but its time for a new computer for me.. I'll answer all the questions below:


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

I will primarily be doing Cinema 4D and Adobe AE work in this rig. Though I must admit I do like my fair share of gaming.

The reason I list Cinema 4D is this software is VERY CPU dependent for all rendering. Although on much larger projects I will farm my rendering out, I do need max speed.

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

5500 - 6000


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

US

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.

Mostly buying from Newegg, but I’m flexible.

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.

Always been more of an Intel and NVidia person. For gpu's I like evga and msi

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

No, completely new build

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

Overclocking a bit, but not crazy.

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

Either dual 2560X1600 or 4k monitors. It will probably be the first due to cost. I own one of the 30" dells now, and may buy another.

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.

Within a couple weeks

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu-Ray playback software?
I need an OEM of windows 8.1 pro (what I decided to work with. I guess it’s time to move to windows 8). Other software I own.



OK with that out of the way, here's what I have so far:

Power supply - CORSAIR AXi series AX1200i 1200W Digital ATX12V v2.31 and EPS 2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready - 379.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139039



Case - Fractal Design Define XL R2 FD-CA-DEF-XL-R2-TI Titanium Grey Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - 139.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811352030



Case Fans - 6x Noctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm Case cooler 173.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608017



Motherboard - Asus Rampage IV Black Edition EATX DDR3 2133 Intel LGA 2011 Motherboard 525.00

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Rampage-I.../dp/B00GIZ3APS




CPU - Intel Core i7-4960X Ivy Bridge-E 3.6GHz (Turbo 4GHz) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80633i74960X 1049.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116938



Heatsink/fan for the CPU - Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 140mm and 120mm SSO CPU Cooler - 84.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608024



Memory - CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 64GB (8 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 Desktop Memory Model CMD64GX3M8A2133C9 - 939.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233363



Primary hard drive - 2X SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD512BW 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - 818.00 (Raid-0)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147194



Secondary Hard Drive - WD BLACK SERIES WD4003FZEX 4TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - 259.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236622



Primary optical drive - ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM - 20.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135204



Video card - 2X EVGA 03G-P4-2884-KR GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support w/EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card - 1460.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814487003



Audio Card: - Creative Sound Blaster Z Series ZXR (70SB151000000) PCI
Express x1 Interface Sound Card - 230.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102050



Operating System - Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit - OEM - 139.00


Total: Roughly $6300.00

Places where I think I can "tone it down":

Memory - This looked like amazing memory, but wow is it expensive. Any other suggestions for memory that would be less expensive, but still allow me to have the full 64GB?

Sound Card - I'm not an "audiophile" - the main reason I wanted good audio is if I need to take this rig to do playback in high quality to a professional audio system when I am playing my animations (to music)

Places where I do not want to budge:

Processor - I'm building this entire system for that 4960x. That part is non-negotiable!

Video Cards - Although I’m willing to look at different video cards, I am sold on the 780 TI so it would need to stay the same.

Places where I don't care about as much:

Case: I do not know these cases at all. I've never used them, but I read some great reviews on it. I do not need anything flashy, in fact for this rig i'd prefer to keep it painfully boring.

DVD optical - I don't care what I have here as long as it's good... I rarely use an optical drive for anything anyway.


Other notes:
1) I may eventually add more TI cards to this pending room.
2) I also may eventually want to get a black magic HD capture card for it (I’m running out of room aren't I!!!).
3) Water cooling - I'm not comfortable at all doing a water cooling setup (heck I’m not a handy man at all. liquids and electronics do not mix for me. - don't get me wrong I’d LOVE to do a sweet single loop or double loop system, but I’m blowing my budget on components and have no experience doing it.
4) Overclocking - please understand the reason I do not want to overclock the CPU much - it’s because my processor is going to get beat to hell on pretty much a 24/7 basis.. Too far of an overclock is going to wear it out fast when rendering.
5) Referring to #4 I understand some people will say why get the rampage extreme if you are not going to overclock much... To that I don't have an answer other than I love the features on it including the OC panel, and wifi/Bluetooth built in.

Thank you for any help you can be! Also, please don't bawk at the price.. this is going to be doing a lot of work so the money invested is well worth it I promise! I almost went to a dual socket CPU/Xenon setup, but decided it wasn't worth it. Like I said for longer renders I'll most likely use a render farm.

Thanks again,

-Dan

 

[fralexandr]

you can save a bit on the ram by going "slower"
$640= 2x $320 4x8gb 1866 9-9-9-27 1.5v Mushkin Enhanced Redline
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226386
$752 = 2 x $376 4x8gb 2133 11-11-11-27 1.5v Corsair Vengeance Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233544

http://forums.adobe.com/message/5519419
you won't get too much of an improvement when going with 2133 cas 9-11-11-31
everywhere I've searched says cinema 4d doesn't benefit from ram speed.

sound card
you could probably do without this unless it has connectors you need?
I would expect a professional to use an external (probably USB) dac/amp, but it'll probably depend on who you go to.

you can also save ~ $200 by going with 2x 500gb samsung 840 evo instead of the pro
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electr.../dp/B00E3W19MO

 

[Cerb]

The really fast RAM will net you extremely little, even when it helps. You can get 1600MHz kit for $600 from G.Skill.

I'm assuming you're choosing RAID for the improvement in large file operations, and running with it. Another SSD option, very fast, 5-year warranty, for $220 less, or a 1.44TB array for a mere $80 more, that should be able to get at or near 1.5GBps:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00COF7E1W/?tag=pcpapi-20
At a 3-year warranty, you could do a 1.92TB RAID 0 with two M500s for about $80 more:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQ8RGL6/?tag=pcpapi-20

The Samsung 840 is a good SSD, but not a good value.

If you just need quality stereo output for sound, check out the ODAC, as built/assembled by JDS labs.

 

[ZGR]

Go for Titan BLACK instead of the 780 ti's.

http://www.evga.com/products/Produc...e+TITAN+Series+Family&chipset=GTX+TITAN+BLACK

 

[mfenn]

Rather than spending a bunch of money on "gamer" parts, why not get a real workstation?

Xeon E5-2630 v2 x2 $1300
SuperMicro X9DAi-O $465 AP
G.Skill DDR3 1600 32GB kits x2 $570
GTX 780 SLI $1000 - the 780 Ti does not make sense because it's 50% more cost for 20% more performance
Seagate 600 480GB x2 $520 - great performance consistency
Seagate 7200RPM 3TB x2 $210 AP - the cost per gig of 4TB drives is horrendous
Lite-ON DVD Burner $20
Seasonic M12II 850W $110 AR - the Xeons are incredibly efficient, the pair of them uses about the same power as a 4960X
Fracal Design Define XL R2 $140
Noctua U12S x2 $140
SLI Bridge $15
Total: $4490 AR AP

This config will stomp the 4960X into the ground when it comes to rendering, but costs $2000 less. You could even get the GTX 780 Ti's and stay under budget if you really wanted to.

 

[Cerb]

OT: Those 600s back in stock, again? They need to quit tempting me with those things.

 

[BigDan]

Rather than spending a bunch of money on "gamer" parts, why not get a real workstation?

.....

This config will stomp the 4960X into the ground when it comes to rendering, but costs $2000 less. You could even get the GTX 780 Ti's and stay under budget if you really wanted to.

Hey MFenn, nice to see you are still advising. I believe you helped me on my last build a few years ago!

In any case, with the xenon processors do you think I can overclock them at all that that motherboard? I'm just a little concerned the clock speed is a little slow (ok a lot slower) than what you can do with an individual core on the 4960. Granted, there are MORE of them which is great but would be better if I could get a bit higher clock speed out of them. I have no experience with server motherboards.

Thanks for the advice!

Also, if you noted my resolution.. I plan to work with 2 30" dell 2560X1600's most likely, will 2 780's push those screens no problem? Keep in mind I DO want to game now and then, its just not my priority.

Thanks!

 

[mfenn]

Hey MFenn, nice to see you are still advising. I believe you helped me on my last build a few years ago!

In any case, with the xenon processors do you think I can overclock them at all that that motherboard? I'm just a little concerned the clock speed is a little slow (ok a lot slower) than what you can do with an individual core on the 4960. Granted, there are MORE of them which is great but would be better if I could get a bit higher clock speed out of them. I have no experience with server motherboards.

Thanks for the advice!

Also, if you noted my resolution.. I plan to work with 2 30" dell 2560X1600's most likely, will 2 780's push those screens no problem? Keep in mind I DO want to game now and then, its just not my priority.

Thanks!

Glad to help (again)!

Xeon, non Xenon. No, you cannot overclock them, but IMHO it would be just plain dumb to overclock a machine that you rely on to make you money.

Pretty much any single add-in card can push two 30" screens for normal productivity work. Gaming is more stressful of course, but you're not going to be gaming across both monitors because there would be a bezel right in the middle of the view. GTX 780 SLI performs quite well at 2560x1600, GTX 780 Ti SLI performs 0-20% better for way more money.

 

[MichaelD]

Excellent advice so far, but I'd like to throw my two cents in. You have a great budget, so this is in your grasp.

Being this is mostly a work machine, I'd not get "gaming parts". I'd get a single-CPU workstation/server motherboard, a 4 or 6-core Xeon with HT, at least 32GB of system RAM and a Workstation GPU and roll with that.

You want stability in a workstation. No overclocking, no SLI or Crossfire, etc.

Of course, you'd have to ensure said MB had enough PCI-E slots, etc. Generally, workstation/server MBs take ECC memory, which these days isn't that much more expensive than standard DDR3 and is inherently more reliable than non-ECC memory.

Not saying a "gaming box" cannot be used as a workstation (I've done it). But workstation/server MBs with ECC are a much better bet for what you're doing, IMO.

As for "Buy a workstation vs. building one", IMO if you have the budget to build with quality parts and the experience to be your own tech support, your money is much better spent building it yourself.

 

[BigDan]

Glad to help (again)!

Xeon, non Xenon. No, you cannot overclock them, but IMHO it would be just plain dumb to overclock a machine that you rely on to make you money.

Pretty much any single add-in card can push two 30" screens for normal productivity work. Gaming is more stressful of course, but you're not going to be gaming across both monitors because there would be a bezel right in the middle of the view. GTX 780 SLI performs quite well at 2560x1600, GTX 780 Ti SLI performs 0-20% better for way more money.

Ahh yes, sorry for the extra "n".. I know better

I'm following where you are going with this. I'm not truly pushing multiple high res monitors.. just one when I game (and to be honest I don't even have a "game" I play right now so i'm not too worried about it.. Cinema 4D is all I play with).

I will take all you gave into consideration and figure out the best build for the buck (gosh those E5-2697 xeons look beautiful... too bad it would be almost 6 grand just to buy two of them! hah!).

As I did last time i'll try to post some pictures when I am done.

Love this community, always so helpful

-Dan

 

[mfenn]

Glad to help. Let us know if you have any more questions.