3D Render Machine - Spec

bloodiedathame · 7 Feb 2011 at 11:13

I am very out of the PC components game, I have no idea what people are using and what seems to be the best in hardware so I hope I can ask what I need in here.

I'm working on a project at the moment which looks increasingly likely as if I'm going to need a very fast PC system to render high def 3D footage from Cinema 4D (modelled on a Mac). Graphics cards are pretty unnecessary but processor (+ cooling), RAM and storage are important.

Would faithful forum members be able to come up with W7 systems to the following budgets please? £500, £1000 and £1500.

Thanks in advance, PC numpty.

bloodiedathame · 7 Feb 2011 at 12:25

Or bite the bullet and go for this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-053-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1801

Have been looking on http://cbscores.com/index.php?sort=rend&order=desc for ideas.

Current machine came in at 7 on the render score.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:13

Seriously no replys, I thought you guys loved these bang for buck threads?

Redmint · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:29

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £249.59
(£207.99) £249.59
(£207.99)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £104.99
(£87.49) £104.99
(£87.49)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
2x G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £85.99
(£71.66) £171.98
(£143.32)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £65.99
(£54.99) £65.99
(£54.99)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 SILENT 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Low Profile Graphics Card £27.59
(£22.99) £27.59
(£22.99)
Zalman CNPS10X-Performa CPU Cooler (Socket AM3 / AM2+ / AM2 / 939 / 754 / Intel 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 775) £27.56
(£22.97) £27.56
(£22.97)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
(£9.99) £11.99
(£9.99)

Sub Total : £773.03
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £156.71
Total : £940.24

Should be pretty fast as a render machine, otherwise you're either looking at a socket 1366 hex core or the dual Xeon option.

Swap these components in for a 'cheap' intel hex core option:

Intel Core i7 970 3.20GHz (Gulftown) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £457.99
(£381.66) £457.99
(£381.66)
Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
(£120.82) £144.98
(£120.82)
GeIL 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Triple Channel (GVP312GB1600C9TC) £117.98
(£98.32) £117.98
(£98.32)

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:35

Excellent, cheers for that.

My current desktop machine has 2 quad cores (Nehalem(?) Xeons at 3GHZ) and 10GB RAM. Do you think your spec would give a noticeable improvement over my current rig?

Brian8bit · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:39

bloodiedathame said:
My current desktop machine has 2 quad cores (Nehalem(?) Xeons at 3GHZ) and 10GB RAM. Do you think your spec would give a noticeable improvement over my current rig?

Hell no.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:43

Brian8bit said:
Hell no.

Thought not.

Err yeah, so back to the drawing board. A 2 CPU rig would be sensible, so maybe 2x 6-core i7s?

Brian8bit · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:54

If you're talking about a pair of i7 970, 980x or 990x then hell yeah.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:59

Which makes me think, why not go the whole hop up to X5650s? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-053-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1801

I could build a rig for about £3k?

Redmint · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:02

bloodiedathame said:
Excellent, cheers for that.

My current desktop machine has 2 quad cores (Nehalem(?) Xeons at 3GHZ) and 10GB RAM. Do you think your spec would give a noticeable improvement over my current rig?

From your machine the only real upgrade path would be the SR-2 board with dual xeons, trouble is OCuk don't have any in stock atm. :rolleyes:

(although somehow they claim to have 10+ of the SR-2 bundles in stock...)

Anyhow I'm suprised your current setup is having issues, you could maybe increase the RAM from 10GB?

Brian8bit · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:09

bloodiedathame said:
Which makes me think, why not go the whole hop up to X5650s? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-053-OE&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1801

I could build a rig for about £3k?

According to cpubenchmark.net the i7-2600k will out perform the X5650. Top of the pile is the 970, 980, 990 and 995 Core i7s.

So it would be cheaper to get a pair of i7-2600k's.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:20

The rig is good (4 year old-ish MacPro) just been told the processors aren't Nehalem.

Brian8bit · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:26

4 years old and 3.0Ghz quad core, they'll be the 65nm Clovertown X5365s which perform pretty poorly compared to 1156 i5s and Phenom IIs according to cpubenchmark.net.

Search for X5365 on here: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html to see the listing.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:29

Just ran a system scanner which indicates the processors are 5400 Quad Core Xeons. The model is an early 08, so not quite 4 years. Will these come under X5400 on cpubenchmark?

Wikipedia says they might be X5450 Harpertown. This branding malark is a pain!

i7 950 looks like a sensible option...

Brian8bit · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:32

The early 08 Mac Pro had;

Two 2.8 GHz (E5462)
Optional two 3.0 GHz (E5472) or
3.2 GHz (X5482) or
one 2.8 GHz (E5462)

So if they're 3.0GHz, they'll be the E5472. If they're X54xx they'll be 3.2GHz.

What does your About this Mac panel say?

psychas · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:36

wait for bulldozer 8 core should be good for render or bulldozer 12 core server chip ?

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:39

Just says 2x3 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.

Crucial scanner says: Apple Mac Pro (8-core Xeon 5400 Series) 2nd Gen. Early 2008 Desktop/PC

So yes, E5472s is right.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:43

psychas said:
wait for bulldozer 8 core should be good for render or bulldozer 12 core server chip ?

When are they released? Need something within about 2 months.

Brian8bit · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:51

bloodiedathame said:
When are they released? Need something within about 2 months.

April apparently. So within 2 months.

bloodiedathame · 18 Feb 2011 at 17:08

Can o' worms springs to mind.

*edit

1 x i7 2600k will perform as well as my current rig (gets roughly the same passmark score).

Am I right in saying the cheapest i7 2600k build would be around £900?