Blender Workstation

[dannymout]

Budget (including currency): $10K CAD

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Blender

 

I'm working on putting together a new workstation for a Blender artist at the studio I work for.  The current PC has: 5950X, 96GB RAM and 2x3090FE. The budget is roughly $10K CAD, but willing to stretch it if needed.

For the next PC, I'm looking to do dual 4090, and possibly 3 of them if there's a way to fit them. I've been asking around and on Reddit and have come up with this initial list:

• CPU: AMD Threadripper 7960X
• Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
• Mobo: Asus Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI
• RAM: 128GB GSKILL Zeta R5 Neo 128GB
• SSD: 2 x 2TB 980 Pro, 1 x 4TB 990 Pro 
• GPU: 2 x 4090 FE (open to change)
• Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 Server
• PSU: SeaSonic PRIME PX-1600 ATX

 

I'm completely new to workstation and server grade hardware, so I'd like to get another set of eyes to see if I'm making the right deicisions parts-wise. Also some questions:

• Would if be possible to fit a third 4090 card in here without resorting to a custom water cooling loop? Possibly using AIO?
• If not, am I better off going with an i9 or 7950X? Do those chips have the bandwidth to handle two of these cards. Seemed to be no issue with the 5950X and 3090s. How does the Threadripper compare to a 7970x or i9 in terms of single-core performance?
• Is a 1600W PSU enough to power both cards and the Threadripper? If I add a 3rd 4090, will I need an additional PSU and how would I go by setting that up in a build?

[igormp]

17 minutes ago, dannymout said:

• CPU: AMD Threadripper 7960X
• Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
• Mobo: Asus Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI
• RAM: 128GB GSKILL Zeta R5 Neo 128GB
• SSD: 2 x 2TB 980 Pro, 1 x 4TB 990 Pro 
• GPU: 2 x 4090 FE (open to change)
• Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 Server
• PSU: SeaSonic PRIME PX-1600 ATX

Looking good.

21 minutes ago, dannymout said:

Would if be possible to fit a third 4090 card in here without resorting to a custom water cooling loop? Possibly using AIO?

Yup, you can either go with those AIO ones (like the Suprim Liquid), or go for one of the thinner models, like the windforce v2. Someone else was looking after a similar scenario, you can see it here:

 

23 minutes ago, dannymout said:

Do those chips have the bandwidth to handle two of these cards. Seemed to be no issue with the 5950X and 3090s.

Two of those, yes, at x8 each.

 

23 minutes ago, dannymout said:

How does the Threadripper compare to a 7970x or i9 in terms of single-core performance?

Do you mean a 7950x? It's a bit slower due to lower clocks, but I don't think it's that much of a difference.

24 minutes ago, dannymout said:

Is a 1600W PSU enough to power both cards and the Threadripper? If I add a 3rd 4090, will I need an additional PSU and how would I go by setting that up in a build?

You can just power limit each 4090 to 350~400W (max 1200W) without much of performance difference, then those 1600W will be more than enough.

[dannymout]

19 minutes ago, igormp said:

Yup, you can either go with those AIO ones (like the Suprim Liquid), or go for one of the thinner models, like the windforce v2. Someone else was looking after a similar scenario, you can see it here:

Windforce seems a little bit pricey at $3000CAD, but I found this PNY one which seems to be the same or thinner: https://www.pny.com/pny-geforce-rtx-4090-24gb-verto-triple-fan-led

So either thinking going with the PNYs, which I think I can fit 3 on this mobo. Otherwise 1 AIO and 1 air-cooled. Thanks for the feedback!

[igormp]

7 minutes ago, dannymout said:

Windforce seems a little bit pricey at $3000CAD, but I found this PNY one which seems to be the same or thinner: https://www.pny.com/pny-geforce-rtx-4090-24gb-verto-triple-fan-led

So either thinking going with the PNYs, which I think I can fit 3 on this mobo. Otherwise 1 AIO and 1 air-cooled. Thanks for the feedback!

Be aware that those PNYs are a bit thicker than the windforce v2, but they'll still fit nevertheless (they are exactly 3-slots, the windforce is "almost" 3-slots). Not sure how thermals will be since they'll be really close to one another in this case, but idk how much you care about that.

[dannymout]

11 minutes ago, igormp said:

Be aware that those PNYs are a bit thicker than the windforce v2, but they'll still fit nevertheless (they are exactly 3-slots, the windforce is "almost" 3-slots). Not sure how thermals will be since they'll be really close to one another in this case, but idk how much you care about that.

The case has a bracket that holds fans that can blow directly on the GPUs, and I plan to maximize the amount of fans. So hoping that might be enough to overcome that?

[igormp]

18 minutes ago, dannymout said:

The case has a bracket that holds fans that can blow directly on the GPUs, and I plan to maximize the amount of fans. So hoping that might be enough to overcome that?

If you also power limit the GPUs then it shouldn't really be a problem. The cooling in those 4090s is really overkill, so there's that.

[brob]

2 hours ago, dannymout said:

Windforce seems a little bit pricey at $3000CAD, but I found this PNY one which seems to be the same or thinner: https://www.pny.com/pny-geforce-rtx-4090-24gb-verto-triple-fan-led

So either thinking going with the PNYs, which I think I can fit 3 on this mobo. Otherwise 1 AIO and 1 air-cooled. Thanks for the feedback!

The motherboard GPU slot spacing, (metal sided slots ), is for 2-slot wide cards.

 

 

The PNY card linked is 3 slots wide, from https://www.pny.com/pny-geforce-rtx-4090-24gb-verto-triple-fan-led

 

"MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

PCI Express-compliant motherboard with one triple width x16 graphics slot

Four 8-pin supplementary power connectors

850 W or greater system power supply2

Microsoft Windows® 11 64-bit, Windows 10 (November 2018 or later) 64-bit, Linux 64-bit

Internet connection1"

 

Two PNY GPU would fit, not three.

[igormp]

26 minutes ago, brob said:

The motherboard GPU slot spacing, (metal sided slots ), is for 2-slot wide cards.

 

Ooops, in a quick glance I thought those were 3 slots, my bad

[dannymout]

18 hours ago, igormp said:

Ooops, in a quick glance I thought those were 3 slots, my bad

I think if I go with one AIO Suprim Liquid in the top slot, that should leave room for 2 air cooled underneath?

[igormp]

30 minutes ago, dannymout said:

I think if I go with one AIO Suprim Liquid in the top slot, that should leave room for 2 air cooled underneath?

You would need to go with two of those on the top slots, otherwise the slot right below will be blocked.

 

Asrock does have a TRX50 mobo that seems to be able to handle 3 GPUs spacing-wise, as long as you have some extra space in your case (which seems to be the case for the one you chose):

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/TRX50 WS/index.asp

 

 

It'd still require a dual slot GPU in the middle.