What component priority when upgrading PC? (Houdini, zbrush, mari and vray focus)

#1

This is what i have at the moment.

Motherboard Name Asus Rampage III Extreme (1 PCI, 1 PCI-E x4, 4 PCI-E x16, 6 DDR3 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Tylersburg X58, Intel Westmere
DIMM1: Corsair Dominator CM3X2G1866C9D 2 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM (9-9-9-24 @ 666 MHz) (8-8-8-22 @ 592 MHz) (6-6-6-16 @ 444 MHz)
CPU Type HexaCore Intel Core i7-970, 3200 MHz (24 x 133)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB)
Disk Drive OCZ-VERTEX2 ATA Device (SATA-II)
Disk Drive WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device (1 TB, 7200 RPM, SATA-III)

Ofcourse there is also SSD and HDD drives and case
(Coolermaster Cosmos S).

My question is:
If focusing on 3D Houdini, zbrush and Mari
what components are most important to upgrade?
When getting 128 gb ram does int make a lot of difference when having 64bg for example?

If you make priotirity list what is speedning up the rendering most?
When using Mantra for example.
For lighting vray.

CPU?
RAM?
Graphics card?

#2

ZBrush and Vray are cpu heavy, Mari is mainly gpu bound, while Houdini mainly uses the cpu and the gpu comes in in some effects and simulations (as far as I know), so it really comes down to what you need the most and how much you’re willing to pay for the new system. I think you need both a good multi core cpu and a gpu with the largest Vram you can afford. You can keep some parts from the previous system, like ssd and hdds, chassis and maybe the psu (if it’s still OK).

The question is, what’s the budget?

#3

I got this info:
from another forum:
Houdini does have some GPU acceleration, for Pyro FX and Fluid simulations, so a better GPU with more vram would be a good idea. More vram is a good idea in general for high resolution displays as well.

Vray and Mantra are CPU based renders, so get the biggest CPU with the most cores you can afford. That is probably your first priority, probably the 6800k, but might also want to look at AMD’s latest offerings and the 1800X, which is a faster chip on CPU benchmarks, but I’d want to see actually tests in Vray and Mantra if you can find any.

i have not used so far vray
I have used Houdini and Mantra and yeah well rendering out hd quality tif sequence images for one short clip took one week.
ofcourse my chaders were also not perfect having too many rays etc.

But eaven when i try to create a explosion in houdini. Tweaking a small parameter and then looking at render view image it takes more then 4 minutes to render the pic.

My budget is currently 2000 euros.

I received offer to buy:
Gigabyte Socket 2011-3 GA-X99-Ultra Gaming for 230 euros
and
i7-6800K processor for 350 euros

Ram sticks i have to find.
I have average cooling on my cpu and i am not sure that the new i7 comes with the cooling and is it the best for this kind of stuff.

I do some times play pc games (world of warcraft and world of tanks or Hon) but most of the time i sxulpt and try to make stuff in Houdini.

#4

The combo 6800K/GB X99 UG for 580€ is quite decent as a base. Go for it, imo.

Keep the Chassis, ssds and hdds. We’re left with almost 1.5K for gpu, psu (if your current psu is old, it’s better to put a new one in the new system), RAM and cpu cooling.

For gpu I would look at a gtx 1070. I have this one https://geizhals.de/asus-rog-strix-geforce-gtx-1070-oc-90yv09n0-m0na00-a1450613.html?hloc=at&hloc=de and it’s a beast of a gpu. There are good alternatives from Gigabyte and MSI too, for around 400€.

For RAM, it’s better to get 64gb now because prices are getting higher day by day. Get two of these https://geizhals.de/g-skill-trident-z-silber-rot-dimm-kit-32gb-f4-2800c14d-32gtz-a1337229.html (4 dimms in total). You’ll have room for another 64gb kit if you need it in the future.

For the psu, this would be enough https://geizhals.de/evga-supernova-g1-650-650w-atx-2-3-120-g1-0650-xr-a1139880.html?hloc=at&hloc=de (10 years of warranty, after registration).

And last, the cpu cooler. This one is very good for the money https://geizhals.de/cryorig-a80-cr-a8a-a1353128.html?hloc=at&hloc=de. It will allow you to oc your cpu at 4.2-4.4GHz (depending on the chip) if you decide to try overclocking (it will boost your system’s performance by a great deal with almost no effort).

The total cost would be around 1700€.

Of course, the best system you could build with this budget would be an AMD 1800X based system, which is faster in rendering compared with the 6800K (on par with the 6900K) and decent in single core performance. But, the AMD AM4 is a new platform, and there are still some bugs to get fixed, so I can’t really recommend it right now, since there isn’t enough feedback yet about its real life behaviour, and availability of motherboards is still very low in some countries.

#5

My question is will the x99 support the new AMD 1800X
As my goal later is to get my system ram up to 128gb
as i do not hant to use render farms often and for learning houdini simulations etc it is better to have own strong system rather then get it via render farm. (i think).

Atm i am thinkinh Cintique or system update:D
Hard to choose :smiley:

#6

No, the 1800X belongs to a totally different platform (AMD AM4) and has nothing to do with the x99 motherboards. Don’t get them confused. The 1800X is an AMD processor, while the i7 6800K is an Intel processor.

As for the RAM question, no, the new AM4 motherboards can hold up to 64gb of RAM (4x16gb). If you think that you’ll need more than that, then the Intel X99 chipset is your only choice.

#7

Yeah this why i started to google and search for more info.
as i understand Houdini simulations for example (particles, fluids, explosions) and mantra over all need ram.
More is better and same goes with Mari for texturing.

6bg ram that i have atm i am not sure how well it will help me to create 4k or 6k textures
How much difference will i actually get.

As i am beginner in this CGI thing
Been sculpting from last year September and messed around in Houdini from last year June.

Things i have noticed:

  1. In houdini when having bigger animation with more complex shaders it will render a long time. (my one render was 1 week).
  2. simulations like explosions ect take long time to load eaven when only changing simple parameters
  3. Same time i do enjoy sculpting.
    I have Intuos Pro (medium) but was thinking that may be cintique 27 qhd (pen only) will help me more in this.

As i feel that i cant be so precise with intuos when sculpting especially when sculpting details (eyes etc).
Also feel that there is a lag between my eyes and hand movement as i do have to look forward but hand is drawing on table.

I don`t know how many are actually using cintique 27 and how many use it in other 3d applications

I think i should create a poll :smiley:
Cintique 27 QHD (Pen only)
or
Update current pc

Hard decision :smiley:
As what i am looking for increase quality and feel when creating something.
Will i feel more increased quality / experiece creating stuff with cintique 27 qhd or with better pc.
As most of my time i sti in z rbush and sculpt some kind of orc or ogre
and then i try to texture it
And after that i start to build some effect in Houdini.

#8

Please see my build recommendation on a Houdini forum. It would excel at all of the tasks you’ve listed. I would get a different GPU like a GTX 1080 Ti or a Titan X (Pascal) but otherwise everything for the build is still valid.

http://forums.odforce.net/topic/26218-pc-build-for-3000€/?do=findComment&comment=152241

A slightly scaled back version is this which is still very respectable.

http://forums.odforce.net/topic/26218-pc-build-for-3000€/?do=findComment&comment=152157

#9

So for houdini most important is how many cores and Threads and MB cache?