Do these components look OK for a new build?

[kendoubleu]

So I posted here on this great forum in late 2010 back when I was building my first and only workstation for myself. It turned out great and haven't had any issues with it. Now, attempting to build a workstation for my girlfriend and I would be grateful for any advice or comments to the components I have picked out below. This computer will be mainly used for after effects and some 3D applications. Sometimes deal with large resolutions for corporate events, 5760x1080, etc. She's currently using a mid 2010 iMac 27". Budget is about $3500.

Case: NZXT H630 CA-H630F-W1

Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X9DAi-O Extended ATX

Processors: 2 x Xeon E5-2630 v2 -- Dual CPU Benchmark: 15980 with the potential of upgrading to 2 Xeon E5-2697 v2 -- Dual CPU Benchmark: 23584 (if the price goes way down in say 3-4 years?)

CPU Coolers: 2 x Titan TTC-NA43TZ/CU35 95mm Z-AXIS

Video Card: Gigabyte GeFroce GTX770 4GB

Ram: 2 x Kingston 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 -- So 32GB total to start with only half the slots filled. I still think this enables 4-channel memory but not sure.

Power Supply: Corsair AX750 (already own)

Hard Drives:

TOSHIBA PH3300U-1I72 3TB 7200

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for OS, Applications, and After Effects Cache


Really appreciate any comments or suggestions. Thanks.

 

[Blain]

Ask her if she'd prefer a Mac Pro.

 

[kendoubleu]

Thanks for your reply. She has already considered the mac pro but the raytracing features within after effects will not work with the amd graphics cards.

Additionally, she's tired of only having one hard drive and does not like the idea of using various externals. There will also be other backup hard drives in the system but just didn't list them. Thanks.

​

 

[mfenn]

The question that you need to ask your girlfriend is how much time does she spend waiting for things to render out versus how much time she spends working with the preview. If she doesn't spend a ton of time waiting for big renders, then doing for a dual-processor (DP) system isn't worth the expense.

Also, how much does it cost her for the system to be down? If it costs a lot (in terms of missed deadlines, lost clients, etc.) then it makes sense to get a workstation from an OEM who can offer next day parts (or full machine replacement) like Dell, HP, or Lenovo.

 

[kendoubleu]

Cool. Valid comments.

She would like to improve both final render times and previewing times within after effects. Seems both are mostly CPU-driven. Some things in after effects are GPU-driven but not much. Goal is to pickup more 3D work as well. She's getting into playing around with particles which is difficult to work with on her current iMac.

Downtime isn't a big deal as we work together and have other computers to fall back on.

 

[kendoubleu]

Do you feel that a single Intel Core i7-4930K would be a better option since the performance is close to the dual xeons? The hesitation is that it reduces upgrade options a few years down the road. Thanks.

 

[mfenn]

Looking at things very roughly, the i7 4930K gives you 3.4 GHz * 6 cores = 20.4 "units" of performance. The dual E5-2630 v2 system gives you 2.6 GHz * 12 cores = 31.2 "units" of performance. I say "units" because you can't really compare core counts that way, the higher-clocked cores are always more valuable, computationally speaking.

Looking at it from a value perspective, the dual Xeon system gives you no more than 50% more performance for 136% more cost in CPUs alone. The value is even worse when you count the increased platform costs. At that differential, you could buy a whole new $500 i7 + motherboard in 2-3 years and still come out ahead.

So, in my view, the only reason to go for the dual Xeon system is if you need absolute maximum performance today, no matter the cost. It loses the instantaneous value and value over time competitions.

Whether or not you need the performance no matter what isn't something I can answer for you. You'll have to ask your girlfriend if going up to 50% faster is worth spending ~$3000 on a machine instead of ~$1800.

 

[kendoubleu]

Thanks for the comments. Yea, we decided to go with the single Intel Core i7-4930K and changed the motherboard to the ASRock X79 Extreme6

The extra $1,000 not spent on the computer we're probably going to invest in another GeekDesk which are great by the way.

 

[mfenn]

Good picks. Keep in mind that that the 4930K doesn't support ECC memory, so get some normal RAM like a pair of these Crucial 1.35V DDR3 1600 2x8GB kits.

You can also get a quieter cooler like the Noctua NH-U12S.

 

[kendoubleu]

Thanks for your reply again.

I neglected to mention in my last reply that I did change the ram to 2 sets of HyperX 16GB (2 x 8GB).

I was having issues finding a 4-channel kit of 8GB sticks that were recommended/tested with the motherboard. I'm hoping the two separate sets of two sticks won't alter performance? I read that it's best to buy it in kits but not sure how important it is.

Thanks for the tip on the cooler. Unfortunately I already purchased everything. Since the case touts itself on being really quite hopefully the cooler won't be noticeably loud. Thanks again for your help! I might bug you again if I run into issues I can't solve from searching

 

[Cerb]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/145?vs=702

The improvements over the last few generations have been substantial. Not an ideal comparison, but x264 is probably somewhat comparable to a render, while 7-zip and the games can't use all the cores very well.

Even if her iMac is the i5-680 (best one at the time, for single-threaded work), you'd be looking at a typical 30-50% improvement when you can't use all the cores from a new 4-6-core CPU, and much, much more, when you can.

From what I can find, a GTX 760 or 770 seem to be the best video card bang/buck, if you can use them to help rendering, so it looks like you're good there.

On top of what's been said, though, how often is the HDD a bottleneck? A nice, bigger, MLC SSD might be a good use of a small part of that leftover budget from going single-CPU .

 

[kendoubleu]

Thanks for the reply. Well, put everything together and everything is working great. Temperatures are pretty low so maybe I'll look into overclocking down the road? Thanks for the help and suggestions.

 

[mfenn]

Glad it's working well! Enjoy those low temps, and definitely don't overclock a machine that you're building for a client. It's not worth the (future) headache.

 

[kendoubleu]

Thanks! The computer is for my girlfriend, not a client though. We both work together from home. Same opinion on not overclocking?

 

[mfenn]

Thanks! The computer is for my girlfriend, not a client though. We both work together from home. Same opinion on not overclocking?

Well, if you're building it for somebody else, they're your client. And no, I would not overclock it unless you enjoy having her be out of work while you debug.

 

[crashtech]

I don't think a mild overclock, like locking all cores to 4.1-4.2GHz, will present much in the way of problems unless the thermals get out of hand. At the very least, locking all 6 cores to the max stock bin of 3.9GHz will result in measurable time savings without needing to consider voltage, etc. at all.

 

[toughtrasher]

If you're with her a lot, I'd go with overclocking if you know how.