workstation Rendering|Productivity + Gaming Workstation

[Christopherxavier]

 

Hi guys, 

I'm a creative professional who specializes in industrial design. Essentially, I design and make products such as furniture and appliances. Additionally, I am currently Exploring the idea of expanding my workflow by getting into 3D CAD, doing my own photography work, and experimenting with cinematography. Up to this point, I've been doing my work on a 15" MacBook Pro. I have saved up some money for a photography studio, storage, video equipment, and a workstation build; and would like some input in terms of what components to choose for my workstation build. Below are some more details. 

Workflow:  In order of use frequency
1. Photography: will be using Lightroom, and photoshop. Will be working with large amounts of raw files. May be using advanced features and or codex's within these applications 
2. Cinematography: Will be experimenting with Premier Pro, After Effects, Media Encoder, and possibly CineForm
3. 2D/3D CAD: will be experimenting with CAD software. Software I'm looking into is AutoCad and Solidworks; or possibly a more affordable option (turbo cad or equivalent) 
4. G elsGraphic Design + Publishing: will be designing graphics and publishing marketing material (catalogs, webpages, Cards, billboards, magazines etc.) using illustrator, in design, muse/dreamweaver, etc.
5. Gaming: i have given up gaming years ago until I could build a capable system so that I could experience all the cool new (new when I gave up gaming) titles at higher resolutions and frame rates. I'm looking forward to checking out Shadow of Mordor,  The Witcher, Crysis 3, Star Wars Battlefront; and replaying Skyrim with a gazillion Mods

Objectives+Priorities: In order of importance
1. Speed: I'm a one man operation so speed is paramount. The more I can Accelerate my workflow, the better. This means speedy render times and no lag on anything else
2.  Versatility+Multitasking: the ability to still have a working editing machine while I'm rendering video would be nice. With stuff like video conferencing, email, web browsing, writing, and commerce; I'll probably go between this workstation and my MacBook hooked up to a large display—as I like Mac OS' UI and integration with my iPhone and iPad better for that type of productivity work.
3. Silence+Aesthetics (50/50 Tie): Ideally I'm looking to achieve a very quite setup without comprising on component life, power, and aesthetics. I've wanted to build a kickass custom waterholes gaming rig since I was a teenager so why not go for a custom water cooled loop and an all black color scheme with clear hardline tubing and some RGB lighting.
4 cost: I'm trying to keep my total costs at $8,000 US or preferably [much] lower. This would include peripherals. It is important to note that I live in the states (California) where we have one of the highest sales tax rates (8%) so that would also have to be included.

Chosen Components: 
1. Motherboard: ASUS X99-E WS
2. Ram: 64GB DDR4 in matte Black (likely going with Kingston HyperX)
3. Power Supply: SeaSonic Prime 80+ Titanium. Wattage depends on what cpu/gpu(s) I end up going with.
4. Storage: 500GB Samsung 950 pro m.2 for boot/applications and 1TB Intel 750 Series PciE SSD as working drive (Mass storage on separate file server)
5. Networking: Intel dual link 10Gb Network Card (building 10gb FreeNas file server)
6. Cooling (custom water cooling with Lots EK parts)
7. Peripherals I'm going with an Acer Predator x34 21:9 monitor for its color accurate IPS display, high refresh rate+ Low response times, and high productivity aspect ratio. Likely going with a wireless mouse and some type of non mechanical keyboard (I weirdly enjoy typing on flat objects like touch displays.)

Possible Components:
1. CPU: I'm torn as to what CPU to use. I am considering the Broadwell-E HEDT 8 and 10 core parts; but leaning toward getting one of the higher Clocked 12/14 core Xeon parts. The biggest contenders for my pick are currently the 12 core Xeon E5-2687w V4 and the 14 core Xeon E5-2690 V4. I'm open to suggestions and would appreciate some insight into what level of features like core count, clock speed, and large cache are appropriate for my workflow (specified above)
2. GPU(s): another difficult choice due to my lack of experience: I see Quadro cards as sort of a ripoff these days considering the lack of double precision (Which I can't even Imagine needing anytime soon anyway). As such, my choices are 1 or 2 Pascal Titan X cards or 1 or 1 or 2 1080Ti  cards (if such a card exists). I don't feel that I can make a decision until I get some insight from someone more experienced with GPU Acceleration in the applications specified above. I would appreciate any suggestions and information you guys can come up with.cDown the road, I do plan on eventually powering an additional 4K monitor; so that I could work on 4K Footage in its native resolution. I would also likely upgrade to a new 21:9 monitor if they ware to come out with a 4K version—though who knows if that would ever happen.

Disclaimer: please take into consider the intended use and workflow for this build (specified above). Also, please refrain from the old [NO ONE IN EXISTENCE NEEDS THIS TYPE OF PC/ YOU ARE STUPID IF YOU SPEND OR ARE ABLE TO SPEND THIS MUCH MONEY/ MY CAR COSTS LESS THE THAT BUILD] comments I seem to see In the YouTube comments section (I'm sure this community would never say such things )

Conclusion:  In short, I am trying to figure out the optimal components for building the most efficient high performance Workstation PC for my specific end use; while minimizing diminishing returns on real world performance vs cost. Sorry for the super long post— I like to be thorough and detailed. Im really looking to hearing you guy's insight and suggestions for the build. I do intend to post a detailed build log with hi-res photos of the machine once I get the ball rolling on this build.

[Alexcalibur]

I would recommend the 6950X, and 2 1080s instead of the Titan XPs 

[Kuri]

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bdZJM8

 

6950X should be a good bet as you are going for a custom loop anyway.

I put in close to everything you mentioned (as long as I found it) to see in

what price range we are.

 

Personally you should get two 1080s as they (should)

outperform a single Titan X for the same cost. The only thing where the Titan 

has the advantage over two 1080s is when a game doesnt support SLI or has bad

scaling.

 

Depending on what RAM you want you can pay anything from 200 to 600$.

 

You can probably save a few bucks here and there this list isnt supposed to be

final anyway.

 

I added a good 4K monitor and (probably) the best 21:9 monitor on the market right

now for gaming.

 

Keep in mind that your custom waterloop will cost you around 1000-1200$ if you wanna

watercool your cards which imo isnt needed on the 1080s but it's your decision. So as 

of now you are probably in the 8200-8500$ range with the build I linked you + the rest.

[Christopherxavier]

Thanks a lot for the insight guys. It's nice to get some perspective will definatly consider two 1080s and the 6950x