$3k Workstation Build

[BurchCreative]

Hey everyone, 

newbie here. I know the basics of building a PC but I simply don't have the knowledge to figure this one out. Any help would be much appreciated!

I'm a freelance animator. I work in After Effects, C4D, and the other Adobe products. Doing a wide variety of project from Illustrating to 2D animation to VFX. I need a new build that meets the demands I'm about to put on it.

 

It needs to: 

- support 5 monitors. 3 main monitors, 1 larger one(maybe HDTV?) and my Cintiq, which acts as a monitor. If unfeasible, 4 monitors is fine.

- I would like it to be quick. That's pretty much it. My budget is $3000-$3500. Here's what I've thought of putting in the build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3J0GC

 

CPU:    i7-4930 @3.4GHz

MB:     Asus X79 Deluxe ATX LGA2011

MEM:  G. Skill Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-1600

SDD:    1 x Samsung 840 256GB( for OS)

            1 x Samsung 840 128GB (for After Effects/Project Cache)

HDD    2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (Storage)

GPU:   ??????!!

 

I have no idea what kind of single card can give me 5 monitor support. Or would I have to use 2 cards? what cards would be ideal for that setup? Will the motherboard I selected support that many monitors per card?

I know workstation cards are the preferred hardware in this situation but I think I would like to stick with NVIDIA because of the CUDA support with AE and Premiere. My C4D use isn't that heavy so I would like to prioritize towards hardcore video editing. I pretty much need an exact part list because I know nothing about compatibility of parts and what SLI is. I'm hoping this build turns out super cool and powerful but I need someones help to do so.

 

Thanks!

[Fred Castellum]

Question, what monitors will you be using? 99% Adobe RGB Accuracy rated ones? 

 

10bit / 8bit?

[BurchCreative]

One 99% RGB accuracy. Others regular IPS until upgrading is possible. Not sure on the bit, haven't heard that term before for monitors.

[ross06187]

my thoughts

 

first off get 500gb ssds as they have enough space that you can actual work of the drive allot of the time.  don't get 1tb storage drives it getting small, 3tb main storage drives are the sweet spot right now.

 

The cpu/board/ram/psu all look fine.

 

given your monitor number/budget you could get a titan.  its both a gaming card and compute card.   i think you can run up to 6 monitors of a single display port provided there not all crazy resolutions

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3J2dy

 

edit well apparently a titan can only do 4 monitors http://www.cubixgpu.com/catalog/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan

 

not sure how you go beyond 4 monitors

[BurchCreative]

Good point about the storage Ross. It would eliminate any upgrading in the nearby future. I think the Titan only supports up to four displays at max, which is the problem I've been running into during research.

 

Also, $1100 on a video card is a little high for me.

[d33g33]

FYI I am just about to install a new PC for our marketing department and we are using dual W7000's. This will be driving 4x 40"s, 2x 32"s and a 28" touch panel so it will certainly do what you're after. Mine is spec'd a bit higher at $7k though. I would suggest a lower end AMD Firepro card to get your video outputs. You can do 4 on a single Nvidia card though. You can combine cards to get more video outputs, but you'll be lookng at quadro cards, no GTX series. 

[BurchCreative]

FYI I am just about to install a new PC for our marketing department and we are using dual W7000's. This will be driving 4x 40"s, 2x 32"s and a 28" touch panel so it will certainly do what you're after. Mine is spec'd a bit higher at $7k though. I would suggest a lower end AMD Firepro card to get your video outputs. You can do 4 on a single Nvidia card though. You can combine cards to get more video outputs, but you'll be lookng at quadro cards, no GTX series. 

 

I was actually thinking of getting a W7000 for the monitor support alone. I'm sure it's a stellar card but AMD scares me when it comes to Adobe. They seem to ignore AMD support all together and offer features strickly for CUDA or NVIDIA. 

 

If I were to get 1 W7000 and get another a year or two after, how many PCI slots does my motherboard need to have while still having a couple extra for other random cards?

[Prokart2000]

my r9280x can do 6 moniters

[Musikman]

I was actually thinking of getting a W7000 for the monitor support alone. I'm sure it's a stellar card but AMD scares me when it comes to Adobe. They seem to ignore AMD support all together and offer features strickly for CUDA or NVIDIA. 

 

If I were to get 1 W7000 and get another a year or two after, how many PCI slots does my motherboard need to have while still having a couple extra for other random cards?

If you were to go with this upgrade path, you would not need to change your motherboard from the choice listed above. Normally, I would recommend a Quadro card but considering the number of outputs you need, you'll need to go with a FirePro card unless you are willing to bite the bullet and SLI two Quadro cards. 

[Joshua Ondangan]

I opt for 2 quadro my friend. ima edit this and see what I can come up with. also for the ssd I think a 250gb one should be fine but for the HDD I'd opt for the red drive 3tb if not something like a green drive. just for storage.

 

I was thinking of something like this but it's a bit over budget. I'm kinda still kneeling over the quadro 6000 but the 5000 one would put the price down a lot.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor  ($565.25 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler:  Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 CPU Cooler  ($60.86 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard:  Asus X79 Deluxe ATX LGA2011 Motherboard  ($324.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory:  G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($299.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage:  Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  ($139.00 @ Amazon) 

Storage:  Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($124.00 @ Amazon) 

Video Card:  PNY Quadro 6000 6GB Video Card  ($1604.99 @ Amazon) 

Case:  Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case  ($182.98 @ Best Buy) 

Power Supply:  SeaSonic X Series 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($144.50 @ Newegg) 

Optical Drive:  LG UH12NS29 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer  ($54.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($187.97 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $3689.51

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-13 12:11 EDT-0400)

 

 

but maybe we could tone down the quadro.

 

edit just around your budget of 3k

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JdRD

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor  ($565.25 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler:  Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 CPU Cooler  ($60.86 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard:  Asus X79 Deluxe ATX LGA2011 Motherboard  ($324.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory:  G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($299.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage:  Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  ($139.00 @ Amazon) 

Storage:  Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($124.00 @ Amazon) 

Video Card:  PNY Quadro 5000 2.5GB Video Card  ($994.99 @ Amazon) 

Case:  Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case  ($182.98 @ Best Buy) 

Power Supply:  SeaSonic X Series 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($144.50 @ Newegg) 

Optical Drive:  LG UH12NS29 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer  ($54.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($187.97 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $3079.51

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-13 12:14 EDT-0400)

 

then add in like a titan or something later.

[BurchCreative]

If you were to go with this upgrade path, you would not need to change your motherboard from the choice listed above. Normally, I would recommend a Quadro card but considering the number of outputs you need, you'll need to go with a FirePro card unless you are willing to bite the bullet and SLI two Quadro cards. 

That's good to hear. Would I need to up my 850W power supply when I get the second card or do you think 850 is adequate? 

[Joshua Ondangan]

That's good to hear. Would I need to up my 850W power supply when I get the second card or do you think 850 is adequate? 

850w psu and 80plus gold = pretty much all you need with a huge amount of headroom unless you cram in like 2x r9 295x2 in it with a 9590 oc to 20ghz or something.

[BurchCreative]

850w psu and 80plus gold = pretty much all you need with a huge amount of headroom unless you cram in like 2x r9 295x2 in it with a 9590 oc to 20ghz or something.

Thanks Joshua! 

As for the build you suggested, I like the drive setup and the specialized drivers for the quadro but none of the quadro you listed support more than 2 monitors. Let me know if I'm mistaken.

 

The FirePro W7000 seems to be what I'm leaning towards at the moment due to its 4 monitor per card support. I could almost by two of them for the price of one of these top line quadros and get as many displays as I wanted. 

[Joshua Ondangan]

Thanks Joshua! 

As for the build you suggested, I like the drive setup and the specialized drivers for the quadro but none of the quadro you listed support more than 2 monitors. Let me know if I'm mistaken.

 

The FirePro W7000 seems to be what I'm leaning towards at the moment due to its 4 monitor per card support. I could almost by two of them for the price of one of these top line quadros and get as many displays as I wanted. 

I see then it should be good.

 

I'd actually love to get one of those firepro but my work is related to cuda and I guess you could see quadro's are expensive as fuck 

 

but they do work well with my work.

 

IMO your setup is fairly good but I do recommend the caviar red from western digital (2tb or 3tb on a single hdd) then just add in another one when needed.

I'm using 3 greens and they are pretty good for my use of storage. I haven't tried any red yet but soon when I need more storage.

[BurchCreative]

Well, after doing some searching I've found that you can apply for a 50% discount off the MSRP of a FirePro card if you are a business or freelancer. I think it's part of a first time buyer incentive.

If so, getting a W7000 for $400-$500 would be awesome! If I do go that direction I'll be sure to update this board for the details. Thanks everyone!

 

50% off FirePro - http://www.fireprographics.com/experience/us/apply.asp