GPU base rendering build

[neonfields]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for some suggestions about a build that would be primarily for 3D rendering, something not mindblowingly expensive but with a lot of room to upgrade in the future.

 

I have a mouse, 1080p monitor, laptop right now, and I'm looking into building something over the next year that would support this rendering software: https://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/ 

It's GPU based, right now I use CPU based rendering software which naturally runs slow as molasses on my laptop, and so the idea of being able to dramatically increase rendering speed by just adding more video cards is really attractive. 

I like maybe the NZXT h440 case, other than that no real preferences, other than that the specs on this renderer specs state that "OctaneRender requires a CUDA enabled NVIDIA video card" so I guess it has to be that, and a motherboard that supports 3 or 4 GPUs (so I'd start with one and add a new card every once in a while to bump it up). Any suggestions? I would really appreciate hearing the reasoning behind any recommendations as well. 

Budget: maybe, 1200 to begin with, but with upgrading over the next few years with new GPU's. 

 

Thanks in advance!!

[Xineas]

1 hour ago, neonfields said:

Any suggestions? I would really appreciate hearing the reasoning behind any recommendations as well. 

Budget: maybe, 1200 to begin with, but with upgrading over the next few years with new GPU's. 

Making this machine future-proof is taking a toll on the budget. I had to severely stretch it to get something that will last and something you can add on to in the future, IMO. Here's what I came up with for your situation, and why, written in grey per listed part.

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Kc9x6X
 

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2609 V4 1.7GHz 8-Core Processor  ($301.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

You're building a machine for GPU rendering, so why a friggin' Xeon, I hear you ask. First and foremost the Xeon E5 has 40 PCI-E lanes and it's much cheaper than the enthusiast i7 CPUs. Since you're going to add graphics cards as you go, you're gonna need a CPU that can handle 2, 3 or even 4 GPUs. On top of that, loading scenes in Octane does require a little power. Any other CPU will set you back a hell of a lot more, money wise.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 

The Xeon does not come with a boxed cooler. This will keep it cool and it's relatively quiet.
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($193.98 @ Newegg) 

All black, looks good in that NZXT H440 case, but also: This is one of the few boards where the PCI-E X16 slots have 1 slot free in between them and since pretty much all graphics cards are double slot nowadays... You get the point. Furthermore, it has USB 3.1 support if you need it. 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 

With bigger Octane scenes the RAM usage can be pretty hefty, but 32 gigs will be enough for all needs. Unfortunately this motherboard does not support ECC RAM, although that's not an absolute necessity.
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($187.95 @ B&H) 

Fast as hell and reliable, this should keep loading times to a minimum. Oh it's black as well so it'll match the motherboard nicely.
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card  ($429.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

The 1070 has 1920 CUDA cores, compared to the 1080's 2560 CUDA cores. The 1080 is better, but we do have a budget here. If the future additional budget allows, you can just drop in 2 more of these and off you go. Price to performance, this card is great.
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

You wanted this one. It's black and white, I tried to keep the whole theme black on black, sort of.
Power Supply: Corsair 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($168.79 @ Newegg) 

Yes, 1000 watts 80+ platinum. With a build like this, you don't want to skimp on a PSU and at this pricepoint it's a nice choice IMO. Keeping the future in mind, possibly using 3 graphics cards and who knows what else, this will be good no matter what.

Total: $1566.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-07 16:14 EDT-0400

 

I am by no means an expert and have never used Octane Render, but I know how to gather solid components and put them together. I hope this is a good starting point for you, something you can build upon or alter to create the rendering box you need.

[Matias_Chambers]

3 minutes ago, Xineas said:

Making this machine future-proof is taking a toll on the budget. I had to severely stretch it to get something that will last and something you can add on to in the future, IMO. Here's what I came up with for your situation, and why, written in grey per listed part.

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Kc9x6X
 

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2609 V4 1.7GHz 8-Core Processor  ($301.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

You're building a machine for GPU rendering, so why a friggin' Xeon, I hear you ask. First and foremost the Xeon E5 has 40 PCI-E lanes and it's much cheaper than the enthusiast i7 CPUs. Since you're going to add graphics cards as you go, you're gonna need a CPU that can handle 2, 3 or even 4 GPUs. On top of that, loading scenes in Octane does require a little power. Any other CPU will set you back a hell of a lot more, money wise.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 

The Xeon does not come with a boxed cooler. This will keep it cool and it's relatively quiet.
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($193.98 @ Newegg) 

All black, looks good in that NZXT H440 case, but also: This is one of the few boards where the PCI-E X16 slots have 1 slot free in between them and since pretty much all graphics cards are double slot nowadays... You get the point. Furthermore, it has USB 3.1 support if you need it. 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 

With bigger Octane scenes the RAM usage can be pretty hefty, but 32 gigs will be enough for all needs. Unfortunately this motherboard does not support ECC RAM, although that's not an absolute necessity.
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($187.95 @ B&H) 

Fast as hell and reliable, this should keep loading times to a minimum. Oh it's black as well so it'll match the motherboard nicely.
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card  ($429.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

The 1070 has 1920 CUDA cores, compared to the 1080's 2560 CUDA cores. The 1080 is better, but we do have a budget here. If the future additional budget allows, you can just drop in 2 more of these and off you go. Price to performance, this card is great.
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

You wanted this one. It's black and white, I tried to keep the whole theme black on black, sort of.
Power Supply: Corsair 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($168.79 @ Newegg) 

Yes, 1000 watts 80+ platinum. With a build like this, you don't want to skimp on a PSU and at this pricepoint it's a nice choice IMO. Keeping the future in mind, possibly using 3 graphics cards and who knows what else, this will be good no matter what.

Total: $1566.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-07 16:14 EDT-0400

 

I am by no means an expert and have never used Octane Render, but I know how to gather solid components and put them together. I hope this is a good starting point for you, something you can build upon or alter to create the rendering box you need.

It would actually be better to go for the 980 Ti because it has more CUDA cores which help in rendering. 

[Matias_Chambers]

6 minutes ago, Xineas said:

Making this machine future-proof is taking a toll on the budget. I had to severely stretch it to get something that will last and something you can add on to in the future, IMO. Here's what I came up with for your situation, and why, written in grey per listed part.

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Kc9x6X
 

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2609 V4 1.7GHz 8-Core Processor  ($301.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

You're building a machine for GPU rendering, so why a friggin' Xeon, I hear you ask. First and foremost the Xeon E5 has 40 PCI-E lanes and it's much cheaper than the enthusiast i7 CPUs. Since you're going to add graphics cards as you go, you're gonna need a CPU that can handle 2, 3 or even 4 GPUs. On top of that, loading scenes in Octane does require a little power. Any other CPU will set you back a hell of a lot more, money wise.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 

The Xeon does not come with a boxed cooler. This will keep it cool and it's relatively quiet.
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($193.98 @ Newegg) 

All black, looks good in that NZXT H440 case, but also: This is one of the few boards where the PCI-E X16 slots have 1 slot free in between them and since pretty much all graphics cards are double slot nowadays... You get the point. Furthermore, it has USB 3.1 support if you need it. 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 

With bigger Octane scenes the RAM usage can be pretty hefty, but 32 gigs will be enough for all needs. Unfortunately this motherboard does not support ECC RAM, although that's not an absolute necessity.
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($187.95 @ B&H) 

Fast as hell and reliable, this should keep loading times to a minimum. Oh it's black as well so it'll match the motherboard nicely.
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card  ($429.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

The 1070 has 1920 CUDA cores, compared to the 1080's 2560 CUDA cores. The 1080 is better, but we do have a budget here. If the future additional budget allows, you can just drop in 2 more of these and off you go. Price to performance, this card is great.
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

You wanted this one. It's black and white, I tried to keep the whole theme black on black, sort of.
Power Supply: Corsair 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($168.79 @ Newegg) 

Yes, 1000 watts 80+ platinum. With a build like this, you don't want to skimp on a PSU and at this pricepoint it's a nice choice IMO. Keeping the future in mind, possibly using 3 graphics cards and who knows what else, this will be good no matter what.

Total: $1566.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-07 16:14 EDT-0400

 

I am by no means an expert and have never used Octane Render, but I know how to gather solid components and put them together. I hope this is a good starting point for you, something you can build upon or alter to create the rendering box you need.

You will also want to add a 1 TB HDD atleast. 

[Xineas]

16 minutes ago, Matias_Chambers said:

It would actually be better to go for the 980 Ti because it has more CUDA cores which help in rendering. 

My thoughts on this were that the 1070s higher clock speed, more memory, faster memory and better floating point performance would make up for the lower amount of CUDA cores. It's also a lot less power hungry and a last gen card. Then again, I don't do video rendering at all, so I don't know exactly how much of a difference this makes.

 

And yes, if you need more storage, you should add additional drives. As I don't know exactly what the OP renders and how much storage is necessary, I did not add any.

[Matias_Chambers]

Just now, Xineas said:

My thoughts on this were that the 1070s higher clock speed, more memory, faster memory and better floating point performance would make up for the lower amount of CUDA cores. It's also a lot less power hungry and a last gen card. Then again, I don't do video rendering at all, so I don't know exactly how much of a difference this makes.

Well the 980 Ti performs about the same as the 1070 and has more CUDA cores. I don't assume he is gaming so the best option is the 980 Ti.