Workstation Build,

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 16:15

Hello,

I am currently in the process of buying a new Workstation and have decided to build my own as it works out a good amount cheaper than having one built and supplied for me.

The machine will be a workstation used for 3D Modelling, Animation, Rendering etc.

The spec I am looking at is as follows,

2x Intel Six Core Xeon 3.33Ghz
1x EVGA Classified SR-2 Motherboard
1x 2GB NVIDIA Quadro 4000
24GB ECC Registered DDR3 Ram
1200W Corsair Pro Gold PSU
2x Prolimatech Armageddon Ultra High End CPU Cooler
2x 120mm AK-FN058 Akasa Apache Black Ultra Silent Fan
1x 120GB OCZ Technology Vertex 3 SSD
1x 1TB Samsung HDD

Now as it is a workstation I need it to be as reliable as possible. I would like to do a minor overclock and see what I could get out of it whilst remaining reliable so am looking for a few tips or pointers really.

What do you think I could run this at reliably and is it easy to do? I.e. just BIOS tweaks?

Many Thanks,

Ben

Tommyzz · 10 Jul 2011 at 16:24

Vertex 3's can be very dodgy, I have heard the M4's are more reliable.

Reaper 392 · 10 Jul 2011 at 17:14

you would probably benefit more with one of the mahoosive OCZ revodrive3 X2 PCIe SSD's for the OS, programs and a scratch disk than you would with the second Xeon. im happy to be proved wrong, but a 2x Xeon build is going to set you back £4000 at least.

are the programs you run good at being multi threaded, because you dont want to buy two very old and expensive processors with 24 threads in total, only to find out the programs can only use 8 of the threads

*edit*
woah, i forgot how expensive those revodrives were. just go for a big crucial M4 if you want OS, programs and a scratch disk in one

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 18:52

Hey,

Thanks for the replies. I will look into the M4's so thanks for that!

I should also say that all the programs I use are great at being multi theaded, it is really the only way to go for a serious Workstation.

£4000 is great, and at around £2000 cheaper than most of the quotes I have had it is going to work out a bargain.

Thanks,

Ben

Reaper 392 · 10 Jul 2011 at 18:59

brobins said:
Hey,

Thanks for the replies. I will look into the M4's so thanks for that!

I should also say that all the programs I use are great at being multi theaded, it is really the only way to go for a series Workstation.

£4000 is great, and at around £2000 cheaper than most of the quotes I have had it is going to work out a bargain.

Thanks,

Ben

it wasnt a quote, it was a guess. i may be completely wrong (i have no idea how expensive those graphics cards are that you need)

*edit*
what operating system are you planning on using?
i believe windows 7 64 bit has a limit of 16GB RAM that it will recognise and linux will go up to 32GB. im not sure how much your programs will be able to use though given an infinite amount

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 19:00

OK then, good guess!

£4000 is pretty much bob on.

Ten points.

Thanks,

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 19:14

Reaper 392 said:
what operating system are you planning on using?
i believe windows 7 64 bit has a limit of 16GB RAM that it will recognise and linux will go up to 32GB. im not sure how much your programs will be able to use though given an infinite amount

Hey,

I will be running Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.

We have been using that at the office on a 24GB, Dual Xeon Rig since before Xmas last year with no issues.

The programs seem to use all they can.

For clarification, I do most of my work in 3ds Max, ZBrush, Modo, Vray, Photoshop and After Effects.

Many Thanks,

*edit*

Ah, I have just had a quick look and it seems it is the Home Premium version has a 16GB limit. The Professional has a limit of 192GB.

Cheers

Reaper 392 · 10 Jul 2011 at 19:18

brobins said:
Hey,

I will be running Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.

We have been using that at the office on a 24GB, Dual Xeon Rig since before Xmas last year with no issues.

The programs seem to use all they can.

For clarification, I do most of my work in 3ds Max, ZBrush, Modo, Vray, Photoshop and After Effects.

Many Thanks,

*edit*

Ah, I have just had a quick look and it seems it is the Home Premium version has a 16GB limit. The Professional has a limit of 192GB.

Cheers

ah cool. i didnt realise it was just home premium with the 16GB limit. however, do you think you could cope with just 192GB

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 19:20

Reaper 392 said:
ah cool. i didnt realise it was just home premium with the 16GB limit. however, do you think you could cope with just 192GB

Ha ha. I tell you I have had my office machine crawling even with the 24GB during Realflow simulations! I am leaving enough expansion for up to 48GB in my new build, just in case

Thanks,

Reaper 392 · 10 Jul 2011 at 21:31

brobins said:
Ha ha. I tell you I have had my office machine crawling even with the 24GB during Realflow simulations! I am leaving enough expansion for up to 48GB in my new build, just in case

Thanks,

in that case i dont feel stupid in speccing one of those super expensive revodrives, because your programs could really use the speed i expect. however, youve probably noticed that this isnt a subject im too knowledgeable in computer spec wise, so i'll leave it to someone else to recommend you stuff, unless no one else recommends anything then i will give it my best shot

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 22:01

Reaper 392 said:
in that case i dont feel stupid in speccing one of those super expensive revodrives, because your programs could really use the speed i expect. however, youve probably noticed that this isnt a subject im too knowledgeable in computer spec wise, so i'll leave it to someone else to recommend you stuff, unless no one else recommends anything then i will give it my best shot

I will certainly look into them. Do they offer much more speed advantages over a standard SSD?

Thanks,

Reaper 392 · 10 Jul 2011 at 22:13

brobins said:
I will certainly look into them. Do they offer much more speed advantages over a standard SSD?

Thanks,

just a bit. heres a comparison between the crucial M4 and the revodrive3 X2:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/397?vs=355

the crucial M4 is the OcUK favourite SSD right now because its one of the fastest on the market and it doesnt have any of the OCZ vertex 3's and agility 3's problems

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 23:02

Wow, pretty impressive.

I don't think I can stretch to the 480GB one but I might be able to get the 120GB instead of the 128GB Crucial!

Will keep these in mind for future upgrades though. When the prices come down I may consider swapping out a smaller SSD for a larger revodrive.

Thanks,

R088ieS86 · 10 Jul 2011 at 23:08

Just a couple of ideas:
Don't pay the premium on the Intel Xeon X5680's espcially if your thinking of overclocking. Get 2x 5650's, they can nicely hold 3.8/4Ghz.
I haven't built a rig using the SR2 but i'd almost be worried about having 2 huge heavy coolers on the board. not sure if this has been stress tested or not.
My friend has 2x Corsair H50's cooling them instead, which the rads are attached to the case instead.

Speaking of cases: Lian Li PC-P80N Full Tower Case - Black

For rendering the Revo3 X2 will be one of the best drives (in the world) to pick. its IOPS is almost 6x that of the M4. The part where you see it start to shine is when rendering with large file sizes. Of course they are stupid ££ at the mo so only get it if you can get it into the budget!

Of course it might be cheaper to actually build a DIY render farm rather than one super computer.

Also have a look at the quadro 5000 card. Its got a bit more VRAM and performs quite a bit better. (if progs actually supported SLI then 2x 4000's would be perfect for the same cost. shame)

brobins · 10 Jul 2011 at 23:15

R088ieS86 said:
Just a couple of ideas:
Don't pay the premium on the Intel Xeon X5680's espcially if your thinking of overclocking. Get 2x 5650's, they can nicely hold 3.8/4Ghz.
I haven't built a rig using the SR2 but i'd almost be worried about having 2 huge heavy coolers on the board. not sure if this has been stress tested or not.
My friend has 2x Corsair H50's cooling them instead, which the rads are attached to the case instead.

Speaking of cases: Lian Li PC-P80N Full Tower Case - Black

For rendering the Revo3 X2 will be one of the best drives (in the world) to pick. its IOPS is almost 6x that of the M4. The part where you see it start to shine is when rendering with large file sizes. Of course they are stupid ££ at the mo so only get it if you can get it into the budget!

Of course it might be cheaper to actually build a DIY render farm rather than one super computer.

Also have a look at the quadro 5000 card. Its got a bit more VRAM and performs quite a bit better. (if progs actually supported SLI then 2x 4000's would be perfect for the same cost. shame)

Hey,

I was considering the Quadro 5000 but at 2.5 times the price of the 4000 it is going to take me way over budget

4000 will be fine, that's what I have been using in the office machine for a while.

We already have a render farm, this machine is just a single workstation that will aid the farm when its not being used.

Its not really a super computer I am looking to build here. Just a very good workstation.

A recently saw a machine with 4 or 8 six core cpu's for sale, was obviously ridiculousness expensive but I bet it was damn quick!

I will look into these revodrives a bit more, they sound great.

Thanks,

R088ieS86 · 10 Jul 2011 at 23:26

brobins said:
have a render farm, this machine is just a single workstation that will aid the farm when its not being used.

Makes things a lot easier on the build then.

So far your looking @:

YOUR BASKET
2 x Intel Xeon X5650 2.66GHz (Westmere) (Socket 1366) - Retail £749.00
1 x EVGA Classified SR-2 Intel 5520 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard (270-WS-W555-ER) £599.99
1 x Lian Li PC-P80N Full Tower Case - Black £349.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX750 High Performance 750W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-750AXUK) £144.98
2 x Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9) £109.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £2,844.95 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Last check the 4000's were coming in at around £500ish?

£3400. leaving you £600 for HDD's and cooling. Sadly the Revo might be out of your price range. (and most other peoples) A couple of M4's should be good though!

A recently saw a machine with 4 or 8 six core cpu's for sale, was obviously ridiculousness expensive but I bet it was damn quick!

AMDs bulldozer cores are boasting 16 cores per CPU. should make rendering a bit more fun

Reaper 392 · 11 Jul 2011 at 00:02

above build wont work. the PSU does not have enough CPU power leads. the SR-2 motherboard needs 2x 8 pin CPU power cables (and 3x 6 pin PCIe power cables)

took me forever to find a power supply that would cut it, but heres something that will work:

YOUR BASKET
1 x OCZ RevoDrive3 X2 480GB PCI-E SSD - (RVD3X2-FHPX4-480G) ** PRE-ORDER** £1499.99
2 x Intel Xeon X5650 2.66GHz (Westmere) (Socket 1366) - Retail £749.00
1 x EVGA Classified SR-2 Intel 5520 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard (270-WS-W555-ER) £599.99
3 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 FLEX 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with upto 5 Monitor Support & with FREE DIRT3 Game £224.99
1 x Cubitek HPTX-Tank Aluminium Big-Tower Case - Black £169.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 24GB (6x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel (KHX1600C9D3K6/24GX) £155.99
1 x Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750HXUK) £128.98
2 x Antec Kúhler H2O 920 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM2+/AM3+) £84.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
Total : £5,129.53 (includes shipping : £14.75).

very expensive, but its still almost £900 cheaper than you have been quoted so far, and gets you the super duper SSD

a couple of things to note though:
- the 3x 6950 graphics cards are there to represent the quadro 4000 graphics card (**)
- the two watercoolers will need 140mm to 120mm fan adapters. . they will fit onto the top two fans quite happily i would have thought
- i have no idea how much storage space you need, so i put a 1TB storage drive in there

** No Competitor hinting **

brobins · 11 Jul 2011 at 09:34

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

Ok, I am having trouble finding one of these EVGA SR-2 Motherboards in stock anywhere so what is considered another good Motherboard for the Xeon's?

Please remember that I am not really looking to overclock this system much, it needs to be a reliable Workstation. It is 100% going to be used for Working and paying for itself ha ha.

I have got a good deal on the 2 Xeon 3.33Ghz's, that is why I am going with them. I am also keen to use ECC Registered Ram as that is what we always have used in our Workstations.

As time is of the essence I am going to need to find a different motherboard

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Brian8bit · 11 Jul 2011 at 10:34

Anything Supermicro or Tyan. Unfortunately OCuK don't stock anything like that and we can't provide links to competitors.

But google; Supermicro X8DTL-3F

The SR-2 is complete overkill. Especially since you're only intending to put one card in it and have access to a render farm to do proper grunt work.

brobins · 11 Jul 2011 at 13:04

Thanks for all your replies and suggestions.

I have now placed my order and am looking to assemble everything tomorrow.

2 Intel Xeon X5680 3.33Ghz
1 SUPERO X8DA3 X58 MOBO
1 2GB NVIDIA QUADRO 4000 PCI-E
1 Hynix 24GB (3x8GB) SERVER DDR3
2 Prolimatech Armageddon INTEL
2 120mm APACHE Black OEM PACK
1 128GB Crucial CT128M4SSD2 M4
1 1TB SAMSUNG HD103SJ SATA F3
1 CAIR 1200W CMPSU-1200AXUK
1 CM HAFx FULL TOWER WINDOW
1 Ssung 12X BDROM SH-B123L/BSBP
1 27 Dell U2711 WQHD TFT
1 Keysonic KSK-8004U USB KEYB
1 MS Basic Optical Mouse Black
1 MS Win 7 Pro 64bit OEM

Totaling £4541.03 inc VAT and Delivery (I got a very good deal on the CPU's).

All in all should be a great little workstation.

Now, it has been a while since I built a custom machine so any tips, advice or links to an up to date step by step would be great. The heatsinks these days look like monsters!! They were tiny little things last time I built my own machine.

Any advice appreciated.

Many Thanks,