Good Workstation?

#41

get the 4930k, do a slight overclock and you’re going to be happy with that machine. 4960 adds next to nothing and costs twice as much!

#42

The x series i7 are Intels way to maximize profits. They are meant to for people that always want the latest and greatest, regardless the price/performance. They are always priced at $1000 and they are always the worst bang for the buck.

#43

Its nice that you finally realize the person at that site was trying to rip you off. Spending 17g’s on a system especially being a student is insane. If your not in a huge rush you could even wait for the 8 core desktop processors from intel which i think will be out in a few months.

#44

With one reservation: the X series brings one Xeon feature that usually no other i7 has, and that’s the number of lanes and the lane management. If you have the right motherboard and want to run a homebrewn GPGPU computational unit there is a considerable difference between having that many pci-e lanes (40 I believe on the latest Xs) vs having the spinning lane lockout nightmare that you’d have to deal with if you only had 16.

Other than that, agreed, Xs are usually a way to milk the number fetish, since 99% of its customers probably don’t even know what they’re actually buying, nor will build the rest to take advantage of it, or even would make use of the feature at all.

#45

So what should i do?
Wait for the 8 core intel processor
or what?

#46

If you wait for the next technological step, you will eternally be waiting for next year.
Go out, avoid X CPUs, buy a top end K, bump the multiplier, and enjoy the hardware. You’re already going to be like 14 grands below your original rip-off price point anyway, you can always swap in and out something the following year.

#47

Yeah i really don’t want to wait till next year…

So i’m going for this motherboard:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/421105/X79-DELUXE_LGA_2011_Intel_ATX_Motherboard
and a GTX 780 or the Titan one.
Which i7 you recommend? then just over clock the cpu and happy ending? haha
not the 4960X one so the 4930K?
32 GB for now if i need 64 gb later i put more…
2x 4 TB HDD and 1x 1 TB 840 EVO Series SSD
Thank you.

#48

For a GPGPU compute unit i would use a Xeon. You don’t need the CPU speed the x series offers.

#49

Depends on what you do with it, or if you want to double it up as something else.
Personally I still run a ton of stuff host side even on my heavier CUDA work, transfers are still prohibitive in many cases, and keeping things as fast as possible and for as long as possible within a domain makes a huge difference compared to bunny hopping between host and device too much.

The X series is, sadly, still overpriced even in that case, but unlike most xeons it’s fairly OC friendly and offers access to a wider range of mobos and won’t force you into registered ECC RAM.

Edit: I should probably add that I only found out like one or two days ago that all 49s this time around have extended lanes, and that does make the X line kinda scammy since a 4930K is almost equivalent at half the price.

#50

Do you use Mari or plan on using VRay RT or Redshift? Or having a ridiculous amount of polys in a GPU cache? Those are the only situations Joe Average has any use for a Titan. If the answer is no to all of them, get a 780 or a 780ti.

The 4930K is perfectly fine and only a hair above half the price of a 4960X for maybe 5% less performance, and all 49s have 40 lanes if you ever decide to run triple SLI (though the reasoning behind running a triple SLI is, IMO, only explainable through madness or a brain tumor).

Rest is all fine really, though to be honest if you’re splashing out anyway why not get 3 data drives and set them up in raid5 for some data safety? Unless you have external storage to deal with redundancy/safety.

#51

Do you use Mari or plan on using VRay RT or Redshift? Or having a ridiculous amount of polys in a GPU cache? Yep i plan on that :smiley:
(My gaming computer have 2x GTX 780 Ti)

So i7 4930K and then i overclock it?

I got a external hard drive but maybe 3 data drives and set up raid 5 would be better.

Thank you for all your help and time.

#52

Then sure, get a Titan black and bask in the glory of 6GB of RAM, it will eventually make a difference.
It’s not terribly good value for money, but compared to the five digits budget you started with you’re still doing alright.

(My gaming computer have 2x GTX 780 Ti)

Not sure why you’d split a gaming box and a workstation when you’re about to spec it the way you’re going to, but whatever floats your boat :slight_smile:

So i7 4930K and then i overclock it?

Sure, it might take you a bit to get the right settings, and I recommend you don’t get caught in number fetishes and start overvolting and pushing the base clock much, just get a few multiplier bumps with absolute stability and leave it at that.

I got a external hard drive but maybe 3 data drives and set up raid 5 would be better.

Up to you, a local RAID5 doesn’t quite replace the need and importance of regular back-ups, but it’s an added tier of safety, relatively inexpensive, and will usually give file reading a small bump in speed at hardly any cost in write speed (which is usually a lot less performance critical for our tasks), and it’s not as brutal on number of drives as mirroring.
These days software RAID or the RAID available from the motherboard is perfectly competitive with the most expensive controllers, so there’s no real reason not to with storage being so cheap.

Good luck with your build.

#53

I tough that 2 computers would be better because i can have a gaming machine separated of a professional one.
and i don’t really think that the gaming pc cpu will be good…
the gaming machine is a
Intel Core i7 - 4770K
Corsair 16 GB 2x8 DDR3 1866 CL
Asus Z87-Deluxe LGA 1150 AT
2x MSI GTX 780 Ti 3 GB ( http://www.microcenter.com/product/427787/GTX_780_TI_NVIDIA_GAMING_3GB_PCIE_30_Video_Card )

Now i’m thinking about if i really want 2 PC’S i’m getting lazy just of think about the need to chance monitors cable all the time…
And i will be using a Cintiq 24 HD or a Touch …

I’m looking for a monitor too, you think that this one will be good for using the 3d softwares too?
2 monitors of those.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236293

Second idea:

2 1 gaming computer and a professional computer same config with that 1x titan and a motherboard that accepts dual cpu so i can put 2 xenon six core each doing so 12 core with 3.6 ghz.
what you think about?

Thank you again for all the help with this stuff…

#54

Your “not so good” gaming PC is better than most 3D workstations :wink:

#55

Your brain is still caught up in the workstation/gaming machine paradigm. If you’re unbearably itching to buy a second computer, take that money and spec out a couple of barebone render nodes instead and put 2 780gtx in your main box if that makes you feel any better. And since money seems to be burning in your pockets, I’d actually look for a better monitor than that crappy TN panel model. Look for IPS panel monitors from Nec, Eizo, Dell, HP…

#56

He forgot the price of Maya / Max ! He could go another route but if he wants everything to be clean.

#57

Mate.
Stop.
Just Stop.

The computer you have is more than enough to do everything you want. It is already more powerful than what most professionals will be using. Just keep it, use it, do your entire degree on it. You don’t need anything else. You dont need a workstation. You dont need a 24" cintiq, just stop wasting money, it’s almost insulting to all the people sat here reading this thread.

Stop deluding yourself into thinking you need some “pro” branded computer.

#58

So what i can do is a
Intel Core i7 - 4770K Overclock it?
Corsair 32 GB DDR3
Asus Z87-Deluxe LGA 1150 AT
2x MSI GTX 780 Ti 3 GB maybe 3x or 4x? lol jk 2x is good enough i think.
I do think a cintiq 24" is awesome i can draw on photoshop/illustrator!
and i can have some fun with zbrush :smiley:

#59

This was a good build for me:

#60

As my main Offic emachine I use a 4770K slightly overclocked with a simple H80i water cooler. It’s stable and fast.