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3D Sculpting and Video Editing Workstation Build.

JasonBurns
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Hello everyone!

 

I'm planning on upgrading my workstation for the following applications. I'm a freelance 3D artist specializing in 3D sculpting so I spend a good deal of time in Zbrush, Maya, Photoshop, Mari and Octane ( for all my rendering ). I also do a fair bit of motion graphics work in After-Effects and video editing in Premiere. I also have 3x somewhat old and miss matched 1920/1080 monitors, however, I'm hoping to upgrade to a primary 4k IPS display soon.

 

My budget is around 3,000 USD

I don't plan on doing any manual overclocking.

I shopped for this build on Newegg as I have had many good experiences with them in the past.

 

Here is what I have so far...

 


 


 [  Might be a bit overkill for not overclocking but I run my workstation fairly hard so I wanted a nice heatsink. I also like what Linus did in the silent build guild, I'm not necessary going for an ultra silent rig but it would be nice to have things be a little less noisy. Maybe I could get away with removing the outermost fan?  ]

 


[ I'm having a bit of difficulty deciding on which board I should get. I like the idea of having USB 3.1 if there is another board that I'm overlooking that has better comparability with the rest of my build and higher reliability I'm willing to walk away on the USB 3.1 ]

 

RAM - CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 64GB (8 x 8GB) 2133 _ or _ 2400 ( Right now these are stupid expensive, about double from the lst time I looked at it, but I think that's just because it's out of stock on Newegg )

[ Again not really sure which one is the right choice here, I don’t plan on doing any overclocking, but they are close to the same price. ]

 


[ I will be adding a second card once I can afford it, the main reason for this is that Octane and Mari use a lot of GRAM ]

 


[ OK so this is the one part of this build, besides the motherboard, that I have gone back and forth on the most. At this pint, I really don't know whether or not the PCIe SSD will grant any significant performance improvements over a traditional SATA 3 SSD for my work. And if it's not I really don’t want to take up any PCIe lanes given that the i7-5820 only has 28 and I want to run 2X GTX 980 Tis. ]

 


 


 


 


[ This has become more important recently because apparently Thor and Zeus are having some sort of grudge match over most of NY State this summer leading to frequent strong electrical storms... ]

 

OS - Microsoft Windows 10 Professional - Full Version (Download)

 

I think that just about covers the build so far...

I really appreciate any advice you guys might have on this. I have been really out of date with what's been going on in the realm of hardware for quite some time and things have changed a good deal since my last build about six years ago.

 

Also, because this is my fist post on the forums, I wanted say how much I have enjoyed watching the LinusTechTips YouTube channel, it brings back memories of watching shows like The Screen Savers on ZD/Tech TV when I was younger.

 

Thanks for your time!

Jason Burns

 


 

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Posted

Go for a 1000 watt EVGA. The Rm series aren't the greatest. 

Spoiler

 

LTT's Fastest single core CineBench 11.5/15 score on air with i7-4790K on air

Main Rig

CPU: i7-4770K @ 4.3GHz 1.18v, Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Mark 2, RAM: 16 GB G.Skill Sniper Series @ 1866MHz, GPU: EVGA 980Ti Classified @ 1507/1977MHz , Storage: 500GB 850 EVO, WD Cavier Black/Blue 1TB+1TB,  Power Supply: Corsair HX 750W, Case: Fractal Design r4 Black Pearl w/ Window, OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit

 

Plex Server WIP

CPU: i5-3570K, Cooler: Stock, Motherboard: ASrock, Ram: 16GB, GPU: Intel igpu, Storage: 120GB Kingston SSD, 6TB WD Red, Powersupply: Corsair TX 750W, Case: Corsair Carbide Spec-01 OS: Windows 10

 

Lenovo Legion Laptop

CPU: i7-7700HQ, RAM: 8GB, GPU: 1050Ti 4GB, Storage: 500GB Crucial MX500, OS: Windows 10

 

 

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Instead of going SLI, try to opt for a Titan X.

Rig: Thermaltake Urban S71 | MSI Z77 G45-Gaming | Intel Core i5 3570K (4.4Ghz @ 1.4v) | CM Hyper 212 EVO | Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB | MSI GTX 660 | Kingston 120GB SSD | Seagate 3TB HDD | EVGA 850W B2

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Posted

Instead of going SLI, try to opt for a Titan X.

Sli 980ti will kick a Titan x's butt. For only a couple hundred more than a single Titan X

Spoiler

 

LTT's Fastest single core CineBench 11.5/15 score on air with i7-4790K on air

Main Rig

CPU: i7-4770K @ 4.3GHz 1.18v, Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Mark 2, RAM: 16 GB G.Skill Sniper Series @ 1866MHz, GPU: EVGA 980Ti Classified @ 1507/1977MHz , Storage: 500GB 850 EVO, WD Cavier Black/Blue 1TB+1TB,  Power Supply: Corsair HX 750W, Case: Fractal Design r4 Black Pearl w/ Window, OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit

 

Plex Server WIP

CPU: i5-3570K, Cooler: Stock, Motherboard: ASrock, Ram: 16GB, GPU: Intel igpu, Storage: 120GB Kingston SSD, 6TB WD Red, Powersupply: Corsair TX 750W, Case: Corsair Carbide Spec-01 OS: Windows 10

 

Lenovo Legion Laptop

CPU: i7-7700HQ, RAM: 8GB, GPU: 1050Ti 4GB, Storage: 500GB Crucial MX500, OS: Windows 10

 

 

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Posted

Please use pcpartpicker.com. You can limit choices to a particular merchant.

 

Other than the psu, the build looks pretty good. If you are aiming for a very quiet system consider something like the SeaSonic Snow Silent 1050. Otherwise EVGA 220-GS-1050-V1 or EVGA 220-PS-1000-V1 are good psu.

 

If you would like a quieter system you might consider using a case like the Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case.

 

The Noctua NH-U12S and Noctua NH-U14S are also very quiet cpu coolers.

 

The 28 PCIe 3.0 lanes are enough to support a x16, a x8, and a x4 PCIe slot. Two gpu and a PCIe storage device. I would suggest either an Intel 750 Series 400GB PCI-E Solid State Drive or Samsung SM951 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive. The performance is significantly better than a SATA III interface ssd. Theoretically over five times faster. If you are working with models that do not fit entirely in memory, you should realize a measurable performance improvement.

 

G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory is very good memory and less expensive.

 

Consider getting a Titan X. It has 12GB of memory. (Adding a second GTX 980 Ti would not double gpu memory, just the number of processing units. Each set of processing units would only have access to the memory on the gpu card.)

 

Unless there are particular features in Windows 8.1 Pro that you need, the standard version should be fine.

80+ ratings certify electrical efficiency. Not quality.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I am planning on a built like this too! More for rendering/editing of video in Adobe CC (Cuda). This will be my very first built and I will be leaving Mac OS behind. Is there a way to add Thunderbolt 2.0 to this built? I have a backup raid that I don't want to abandon. Is this a viable option?

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ThunderboltEX_II/

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