Build for 3D Rendering and scientific pourpose

[UnclePecos]

Hi everyone!

I'm planning to building a workstation for 3D rendering, but not professionally, scientific pourpose, such as mathematical calculation (with Wolfram Mathematica and MatLab), and often gaming.

I came up with the following build:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930k - Heatsink: Noctua U14s w/ additional NF-F12

MB: Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4

GPU: Gigabyte nVidia GTX 780 Ti OC

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB (there are two for RAID 0)

PSU: Corsair RM750

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-1600 MHz CL10

Case: Fractal Design Define R4

 

I already have all the peripherals I need.

 

Now, here's the question. Since I'm not going to game a lot, I was thinking about replacing the Cpu with an Intel Xeon E5-2620 V2, which is a lot cheaper than the 4930k. The price should not be more than 1800€ (about 2800 $CAD, and 2500 $USD). Please note that I live in Europe (specifically Italy), and not many retailers will provide international shipping.

Would it be a good idea?

 

 

Thx

[Sheldon_King]

@UnclePecos

On the SSD front, get a single 240GB drive. In 99.999% of cases, all you are adding with SSDs and RAID 0 is failure as they are more than fast enough on their own.

Are you needing a Nvidia card specifically? Or would you be better off with a card that is not gimped on double precision like a 290(x) or Titan Black? How about a workstation card?

PSU, unless my memory is slipping, all you need is about 600-650 watts for a single GPU and CPU. Try the RM650 and you will save some money.

RAM, try looking for something either faster or with lower timings. 1600 CAS 9, 1866 CAS 10 or 2133 CAS 11 will all be about the same.

Motherboard, I would personally go for something like the UP5-TH or the Asus p9x79-ws e for the motherboard (not to say the one you chose is bad, I just prefer workstation boards and laptops).

[UnclePecos]

I chose 2 SSD in Raid 0, just for os, software and project i'm working on. then at the end of the day i save everything on a mechanical hard drive (that i don't have to buy because i have some at home lying around). I'm not sure about the gpu, because i'm using blender, octane and cryengine, so don't know if they work better with nvidia or amd. On the other hand, mathematica and matlab speed up quite a bit by using CUDA cores, so...

[UnclePecos]

I found a replacement for the RAM: Mushkin Stealth DDR3-1600 32GB 4X8GB CL9

So, what about the CPU? On cpubenchmarks.net the E5-2620 v2 doesn't score that well respect to the 4930k. Isn't it going to bottleneck the system?

[Sheldon_King]

I chose 2 SSD in Raid 0, just for os, software and project i'm working on. then at the end of the day i save everything on a mechanical hard drive (that i don't have to buy because i have some at home lying around). I'm not sure about the gpu, because i'm using blender, octane and cryengine, so don't know if they work better with nvidia or amd. On the other hand, mathematica and matlab speed up quite a bit by using CUDA cores, so...

The first thing I would do is ditch teh RAID 0 idea. You are not going to get that much more performance from the drives by using it. Look at RAID and SSDs like this: You have a Veyron with say 1000 HP. It is the fastest car in the world. Then you attach NO2 to for lets say 200HP. Have you accomplished anything? You had the fastest to start with. I am not knowledgeable with those programs, so will research some and report back.

I found a replacement for the RAM: Mushkin Stealth DDR3-1600 32GB 4X8GB CL9So, what about the CPU? On cpubenchmarks.net the E5-2620 v2 doesn't score that well respect to the 4930k. Isn't it going to bottleneck the system?

Bottlenecks are dependent on teh program. If you are mining, a 290x is a 290x no matter the cpu, be it a Pentium 2 or a 4960x, it will not make a difference. Same can be said of CPU bashing tasks like rendering using AerialVision. in that case a 4960x is a 4960x no matter if you use a Radeon 9600 or a Titan Black. With your specific programs, I would stick to the i7. You are likely going to get more form teh speed advantage than you would from the ECC ability of teh Xeon.