planning *Planning* Dual Socket build

[JonU]

So I'm currently planning out a future build (probably won't make any purchases until I get work bonus early next year), but I figured I would post up my thoughts and ideas and see what you guys think and get some input on my ideas.

1. Budget & Location

  I'm ok with spending ~3k USD, right now the build sits ~3.4k on PCpartpicker.

2. Aim

I'll be using this computer for a variety of things. The main reason I'm looking at the dual socket boards is to reduce times spent rendering in Solidworks. I know that most tasks the processing power won't be needed, but with the rendering it scales extremely well as you increase processing cores. I've also started using VMs running all sorts of different OS setups. Finally, it'll also be used for gaming. Most of the games I currently play are fairly mundane, but even games like ARMA 3 with a bunch of mods or The Division, this is definitely not needed. I also do some very mild audio editing, but it isn't the primary reason for this build (or even a secondary).

3. Monitors

Currently, I'm running an Asus 27" 1080p monitor as my primary monitor. I also have a 55" 4k TV that I use when watching videos or playing games with friends (i.e. FIFA17 and NBA2k17). I would like to eventually grab one of the LG ultra wide monitors, but that is back burner right now.

4. Peripherals

There aren't really any peripherals that I feel need upgrading. I'm pretty happy with how my current keyboard/mouse work and my headphones are a relatively recent purchase and sound great.

5. Why are you upgrading?

If I'm honest, this build really isn't needed since my current computer is more than capable of doing 95% of what I want to do. This build is more because I enjoy building computers and I will have the time and money to do what I want. That said, I'm happy to hear what you guys think about the list of components that I've got picked out so far:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 V4 2.2GHz 10-Core Processor  ($649.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 V4 2.2GHz 10-Core Processor  ($649.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 37.8 CFM CPU Cooler  ($56.88 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 37.8 CFM CPU Cooler  ($56.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Asus Z10PE-D16 WS SSI EEB Dual-CPU LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($469.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory  ($211.98 @ Directron) 
Memory: Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory  ($211.98 @ Directron) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Samsung 750 Evo 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($149.75 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro M4000 8GB Video Card  ($766.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic PRIME 750W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($155.98 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $3380.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-15 17:56 EST-0500

 

I'm actually working on the case in Solidworks and was planning on getting it made by Protocase. I can thank Linus for this, but it also would go along with a lot of my audio stuff I already have on racks. This is a render I made in solidworks of my idea last night. Each end of the L would have a rack mount enclosure with a door. I haven't quite decided on how the door should look but I'm definitely going to have a mesh insert so that air can circulate with the door closed. The back will be open to allow access to the rear of the components that are in the enclosure. I know that the render shows the other end having a second case, but that is only because I was being lazy and copied the entire enclosure over to that end. In reality, it will most likely be used for extra storage using rack mounted drawers. Each enclosure is 16U in height, which puts the desktop right around 30-31 inches. In the right side enclosure I'll have my PC (4U), mixer (3U), power amp (2U), drawer 3U, and an undetermined rack mounted UPS (2U). Assuming I have everything installed in that order top to bottom I would have .25" gap between the top of the case and the top of the enclosure, I could then leave a 1U opening (~1.75") between it and the mixer and another 1U opening between the mixer and power amp. With what I have right now, that would leave the other enclosure empty for more expansion later on. Anyways here is the render of the desk. The desk length along the long leg is 96" and the short leg is 78" depth is 30" with a 1" overhang on the front side of the enclosure. Once I come up with the door design, I'm going to try to make it as close to flush as possible with the top while keeping the numbers easy to measure with a tape measure. Still have a few other things to work out with the desk design, but it's getting close. The big thing with the PC stuff is that it will all need to fit inside this rack mount enclosure that is 17"x27". I do know from doing mockups in solidworks that the SSI EEB motherboard and a standard ATX PSU will fit side by side as long as the PSU is on it's side. There is also a ton of room between the front edge of the board and the rear side of the front panel. Anyways, now that you guys have seen what I'm planning on putting this into and seen the specs, I want to hear some opinions on things you would consider.

 

[SLAYR]

15 minutes ago, JonU said:

I'll be using this computer for a variety of things. The main reason I'm looking at the dual socket boards is to reduce times spent rendering in Solidworks. I know that most tasks the processing power won't be needed, but with the rendering it scales extremely well as you increase processing cores. I've also started using VMs running all sorts of different OS setups. Finally, it'll also be used for gaming. Most of the games I currently play are fairly mundane, but even games like ARMA 3 with a bunch of mods or The Division, this is definitely not needed. I also do some very mild audio editing, but it isn't the primary reason for this build (or even a secondary).

It will definitely kick ass on Solidworks, but the low frequency of those xeons definitely be an issue for gaming.

 

If you are gaming on this as well you might want to consider some higher frequency xeons at least 3GHz, but they will be pretty expensive.

 

EDIT: a 6950x gets a little less performance on cinebench r15 multithreaded compared to the xeons (2300 vs 2600) and has a higher frequency, but you lose ecc, and dual socket support, but it would be able to game still.

[JonU]

6 hours ago, SLAYR said:

It will definitely kick ass on Solidworks, but the low frequency of those xeons definitely be an issue for gaming.

 

If you are gaming on this as well you might want to consider some higher frequency xeons at least 3GHz, but they will be pretty expensive.

 

EDIT: a 6950x gets a little less performance on cinebench r15 multithreaded compared to the xeons (2300 vs 2600) and has a higher frequency, but you lose ecc, and dual socket support, but it would be able to game still.

Good points. I'm not sure that I can really jump up that high in clock speeds. I'll probably end up getting my tax return around the same time my bonus comes in, but I doubt that it'll be enough to cover the cost of two of those at 3GHz. I could probably bump it up to two 2.4GHz models, to get up to 3GHz plus requires ~2k per CPU. 

 

 

[Arebrot]

Hi.
Very simular to what i have used 3 months to build used for MS labs. Ever considered Samsung 960 PRO 512GB M.2 as OS disk? 

I guess Solidworks need a lot of I/O and are wondering if the rendering times is any different.. 

For my case, i just need a lot of CPU for servers running on VMware.

 

 

[JonU]

Honestly not sure how much of an impact an m.2 drive would have. I should check it out though. One thought I had was to possibly try a RAM disk. With 64GB of RAM i should be able to run Solidworks on it depending on how large the file is that I'm working with.

[JonU]

Still not too sure how the m.2 drive would impact it, but I know it certainly can't hurt it. I've been talking to protocase about getting a pc case put together and I think I'm pretty close to having the final design. Unlike the design Linus used, I'm planning to stick with air cooling. I made the front cutout to fit 3x 120mm fans, but I need to see if I can get 3x 140mm fans across the front. I also think there may be enough space at the rear for 1x 120mm fan above the rear I/O panel. The PSU is set to be placed on it's side with it's fan pointed out the side. It's a tight squeeze with the SSI EEB size of the motherboard, but they just fit. There is just enough room for a double slot PCIe card to fit in the slot closest to the edge, and then there is a little less than an inch between the motherboard and PSU. There are ventilation holes on each side and the top so that the PSU and the GPU have access to more fresh air than just what the front fans bring in. While i'm not too sure on how correct the motherboard is (got it off grabcad), it certainly illustrates one issue that could arise with the Z10PE-D16 WS. Longer PCIe cards would conflict with some of the RAM slots. The D8  doesn't have this issue, but until i can either find a decent model of the D8 or make it myself, it's what i'm using.

 

 

 

On the desk side of things I'm planning on using 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood for the enclosures and a 1.75" butcher block table top for the top of the desk. I still need to decide on how I'm going to support the desk top as it gets away from each enclosure, but i have some ideas