Computer Animation Rig

[EvilLemur]

Hello everyone, I’m looking to build a computer animation rig and am looking for feedback and or point out things I may have missed. This build will be used for rendering, so it will be a workstation/gaming as I will also be making in game content and need to test it out. A few other things, I will not be overclocking (for now) and I will not be using a loop water system due to I want the system to be simple and its meant mostly for work. Also all prices are from newegg and in USD$.

Here is a list of things I picked and anything with a < ---- are things I’m not too sure of.

Main Parts

Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011 $497.99

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930k $569.99

Memory: 2x G.Skill Ripjaws X 16GB (Quad Channel) F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL $225.98 ($112.99 each) This is on the QVL list

Hard Drive Configurations

2x Samsung 840 250GB (Raid 0) $339.98 ($169.99 each) OS drive

2x Western Digital Black 2TB (Raid 1) 349.98 ($174.99 each) Storage drive

1x Western Digital Green 3TB $139.99 Backup Drive

Video Card Configurations

2x Asus GTX660 Ti 2GB In SLI (x16 & x8) $579.98 (289.99 each) < --- At this Price Range would it be better to Upgrade to a higher card?

1x Nvidia Quadro K2000 (x16) $599.99

Other Parts

NZXT Switch 810 Black $169.99

SeaSonic X-850 80+ Gold 169.99 < ---- I calculated id use no more than 750w at full load

Thermatake Water 2.0 Extreme $136.99 < --- heard really bad and really good things about this one

ASUS Black Blu-ray Burner $79.99 <--- in my line of work it’s still needed unfortunately

Windows 7 Pro SP1 $139.99 (Going Legit)

Peripherals

2x Asus VH236H Black 23†$339.98

Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard $59.99 < --- Fit the whole red and black look I’m going for, willing to change to something better

Logitech G9x $79.99

Logitech Z623 $134.99 < --- Because I need loud music while I work

Shipping $47.34

Grand Total is =$4,663.12

So any feed back is welcome. thanks

Also Some of the programs being used are 3DSmax, Maya, Maxwell Render, Cinema 4D, Z brush, Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop, and some other CAD programs like Revit Architecture and Auto CAD.

* Note the reason id like to have more than one GPU is so i can set certain programs to use for example Quadro for Compute and one GTX 660ti for Render and speed up my work flow while i use the other 660ti for another work flow. well at least thats the idea.

[ERSCreeper]

I would get an H100i instead of the Thermatake Water 2.0 Extreme. Try buy a single kit of 32Gb (8Gb x4) instead of 2 kits of 32Gb (8Gb x2)

[razersum]

good rig man, but i would try to change certain things. but first i would like to ask, you first mentioned that you do not want to use a water loop system, but then you mention thermaltake water 2.0 extreme? thats a closed loop water cooling system. I assume you were trying to say that do not wish to do custom water cooling. i will get to this point later on.

firstly, the ram config, as marzio mentioned, it will better to get a single 32gb kit i.e. 8gb x 4 as opposed to 16gb x 2. the reason being, in the latter, if one of the ram fails, you will end up with 16gb, where as in the former setup, if one ram fails that you will still have 24gb left with. hence you only loose 25%, as opposed to 50%. and also, replacing will be cheaper, as 8gb chips are cheaper than 16gb chips. I wonder if there is something like a 4gb x 8 ram kit.

next, is the gpu, the total cost for the gpu is around $900, so if possible, you could possibly put in 1000 bucks and get a gtx TITAN. the reason behind selecting a single gpu against multiple gpu setup is that there are chances that it wont work as you imagine them[2xgtx 660ti and k2000] to work in cooperation with each other. it would best to go into those software forums and ask there. or if someone here is expirenced well enough can explain about it over here.

now for the cooler, if want something simple, go for an air cooler, an example would be noctua nh-d14, or the be quite dark pro something, i dont remember. or else, if you are still looking into water cooling, than the h100i[mentioned by marzio] will be excellent.

and finally, if you are spending this much $$ into your rig, why not get some good quality case fans and optimize your rig for good cooling? i dont much about the case, but someone here can surely help you out.

[EvilLemur]

Thanks for the feedback and i switched the memory to 4x8gb for 32gb memory and instead of a titan i will go for the gtx 690, and instead of 2 monitors im going with 1 27" instead thus dropping my price to $4,378.98 saving me $284.14 enough for a new desk which i need big time ( my current one is 11 years old )

thanks for the feed back, when i get the build going ill be putting up pictures.