Autodesk Flame and DaVinci Resolve Studio build

[AkiraDaarkst]

My parts list (though I did not or am not buying anything from the listed stores, I don't live in North America)

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fg9tRG

 

Initial core components

Parts newly purchased

i7-6900K (new purchase, as listed in the list)

Corsair CPU cooler (new purchase, as listed in the list)

Asus Rampage V logic board (new purchase, as listed in the list)

64GB (4x 16GB) DDR4-2400 RAM (new purchase, as listed in the list)

Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD for OS and Applications (new purchase, as listed in the list)

Samsung 960 EVO 1TB SSD for active project and Flame store (new purchase, as listed in the list)

780T Case (new purchase, as listed in the list)

ThunderboltEX III (new purchase, not in the list)

 

Parts recycled from previous build

nVidia Quadro M4000

GTX Titan X (Maxwell)

850W power supply (mentioned in the part list above)

Extra red sleeved cables I had lying around

 

Parts awaiting installment

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD for CentOS, there's some data on it that needs to be copied to another drive before installing in the new build.  And a few smaller capacity SSDs taken out from older computers for temporary use.

 

Items to be added/replaced in the future after purchase

Quadro P5000 (2-way SLI)

2TB SATA III SSD's

WD HDD's for local/direct archiving

 

So my goal is to build a rig capable of (at least) 4K real time'ish editing in Autodesk Flame (Linux version).  We already have one black cylinder Mac Pro that my fellow DoP is using and while I prefer OSX as my operating system of choice, I don't want to buy the black Mac Pro due to a few reasons:

• I want nVidia GPUs instead of the current FirePro D700.
• I want PCIe and SATA III (at least) expansion slots for additional storage instead of having to connect external Thunderbolt drives.
• I don't like AMD in general (which is why I picked a 6900K instead of a Ryzen).

If Apple came out with a nVidia Quadro based Mac Pro in the future, I will strongly consider buying one.

 

So I decided to build a new machine based on a few spare components lying around until I can acquire the ideal parts I need.  From a previous i7-4790K gaming build, I had a spare Titan X (Maxwell) and since this new build will become the main editing workstation I decided to take the Quadro M4000 it had inside.  Right now the old gaming/editing rig has only a single Titan X left.  But I had to buy a new CPU, logic board, memory, etc.

 

I had leftover red sleeved cables, not enough for everything.  I initially didn't want to make the build stylish in anyway because my first choice for a case was a Define XL R2 (no windows, none of the interior visible).  Since I had spare sleeved cables I decided to make it stylish instead and switched to the Graphite 780T.  Since I was going for the 780T case, I considered making a RGB color build and using white sleeved cables so that the ambient lighting will give the white cables a color hue, but will be using the red cables for the time being until I find the time to order new cables and get RGB fans and additional lighting.  Looking good is not the priority here, being able to use it for work is the priority.

 

@scottyseng  Here are a couple of photos of the completed (for the time being) build.  In the second photo you'll also see a bit of our studio, still a work in progress to get it organized.  The office and editing suites side is finished, the filming side is not.

 

Since I didn't have enough spare red sleeved cables (which are leftovers from my previous build), I still have a lot of black stock cables in use.  And the cables/stuff I can't change color are the CPU cooler water pipes, USB 2.0 header cables to attach stuff like the Corsair Link connection, the Thunderbolt header cable that came with the Asus ThunderboltEX III card, some fan cables.

 

The Quadro M4000 is in PCIe slot 1 and is the main GPU, the Titan is below the Thunderbolt card, and is the workhorse GPU with all the extra CUDA cores and horsepower.

 

I don't think I'll be using the included Asus SupremeFX Hi-Fi DAC for much longer, since I have an USB audio interface at one of my other offices that I will be bringing in to connect my nearfield monitors.  The Asus DAC is currently sitting in the top 5.25" bay, with a DVD drive below it.  The DVD drive is mainly for reading some old archives we have on disc.

 

 

 

 

[scottyseng]

@AkiraDaarkst Oh wow, that build looks great, I bet even better when you get all of the cables the same color. Nice Studio set up by the way. I hope everything goes as planned.

 

Yeah, I do hope apple makes a new Mac Pro and returns to their roots (A good tower with expansion room). They need to have multi GPU support / dual Xeon like they used to.

 

I hope that PC crunches Flame for you. I have little experience with Flame (Other than watching the autodesk demo reels) other than it's pretty much After Effects on crack from what I've seen.

[AkiraDaarkst]

10 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

@AkiraDaarkst Oh wow, that build looks great, I bet even better when you get all of the cables the same color. Nice Studio set up by the way. I hope everything goes as planned.

 

Yeah, I do hope apple makes a new Mac Pro and returns to their roots (A good tower with expansion room). They need to have multi GPU support / dual Xeon like they used to.

 

I hope that PC crunches Flame for you. I have little experience with Flame (Other than watching the autodesk demo reels) other than it's pretty much After Effects on crack from what I've seen.

I like the compactness of the black Mac Pro, the old silver one was just too big IMO.  But I think it's too compact and obviously near impossible to upgrade.  (Also, I don't like using Hackintoshes, in case anyone asks or wonders why I didn't make one.  Too unstable IMO.)

 

The black Mac Pros are dual GPUs, I have two friends/fellow DoPs who use them.  One has had to get his Mac Pro serviced because the FirePro D700 GPUs he got with his first machine was faulty and caused artifacts (among other issues) in any video we edited in Premiere.  The other one (the one currently in our studio), I have a strong suspicion it may have a similar issue with the GPUs but it's not my machine and my friend doesn't want the hassle with getting it service.  I also think it may be out of warranty for him.

 

I have yet to install Flame, but already installed Adobe CC on the Windows drive.  I can edit 8K footage in near real time, just have to reduce resolution to 1/4 or 1/8.  Will install Flame perhaps this weekend when I've had the time to clean out the 500GB SSD waiting to be used as the Linux drive.

[scottyseng]

Just now, AkiraDaarkst said:

-snip-

Well, I think they could make something...sized in between. Offer some upgradability using full sized GPUs at least. Yeah, I don't blame you for not liking hackintoshes, I tried to make one for the lolz, but it did not work at all.

 

Ah, forgot the black ones were dual GPU. Well, I guess I mean not proprietary GPUs. So people can just stick quadros in and go.

Ah, sorry to hear about the issues with the GPUs though.

 

Haha, I don't think I even stand of chance of dealing with 8K footage...4K is hard enough as it is for me. haha. Good luck though.

[AkiraDaarkst]

We don't have a camera capable of 8K in our studio, 4K-6K is the best we can offer.  And honestly, I don't really foresee our clients asking for 8K production, even 4K/6K is pretty rare.  They'd have to pay for the storage of all the acquired files.  In my experience, clients often come to us with dreams of high resolution footage but when we tell them how much it will cost to film and edit, they back away and start thinking about things realistically.  People here (on this forum) may say that a 4TB or some capacity drives are cheap but when you have to make backups in triplicate (for the sake of making sure we have something in case something goes wrong) and the fact that on average we film at a ratio of 1:5 meaning 1 hour of final production video may require around 5 hours of filming (primary footage and B-rolls) storage costs add up.  We're not a data center.  Also in my experience, FHD (1080p) footage editing is roughly around 1:8 ratio.  For every hour of footage filmed we usually end up 8 hours editing it.  With 4K it's double that amount at the minimum.  I've been working on a 5 minute long 4K short docu/infostory for a client for the past 2 months (not continuously, I've been juggling clients and work priorities) and spent already 40 hours on it because there's a lot of back and forth exchanges of concepts/ideas and modifications and additional stuff they want added.

 

Linus and his 1 Petabyte storage, sure we'd like something like that, but realistically... we don't need it for the time being and we can't afford it.

 

Here's my editing desk at the moment, and I'm testing how this machine handles 6K+ RAW footage from RED.

 

[AkiraDaarkst]

33 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Well, I think they could make something...sized in between. Offer some upgradability using full sized GPUs at least. Yeah, I don't blame you for not liking hackintoshes, I tried to make one for the lolz, but it did not work at all.

 

Ah, forgot the black ones were dual GPU. Well, I guess I mean not proprietary GPUs. So people can just stick quadros in and go.

Ah, sorry to hear about the issues with the GPUs though.

 

Haha, I don't think I even stand of chance of dealing with 8K footage...4K is hard enough as it is for me. haha. Good luck though.

I don't really foresee Apple going back to make things a bit more convenient and "user friendly".  I'm hoping they will change their minds about the touch bar MacBooks (though I doubt they will) because:

• One of my friends bought one (via his office for work use) and the touch bar is already ruined after a week or arrival.  Some sort of liquid crystal fluid seepage though the touch bar still works.
• Removal of SD card slot.
• No USB Type A connectors and removal of magsafe power connector.
• I liked having physical F(unction) keys, they were very useful to me.

What I like about the touch bar MacBooks and probably the only thing(s) positive about them:

• improved color gamut on the retina display.
• workstation grade graphics card, though it is from AMD.

But for now I will keep using my 2015 MacBook pro as the portable/field workstation.

 

 

 

Only media groups like Linus (I guess primarily for bragging rights because I honestly don't see any realistic point in them using an 8K camera) and high budget movie makers will buy or can afford working with 8K.  Production houses like ours, it's not a priority for us.  The 8K RED sensor is supposed to have a fantastic dynamic range, but if LTT is using the camera to film indoors, they're never going be filming any scene with such a wide DR so the camera's potential is being wasted.

[scottyseng]

15 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

-snip-

Hmm, I wasn't aware the touch bar had that many issues...I though they worked (Though I don't look into MacBook much...I've got very little experience with Apple in general). The laptops look great / feel great though.

 

I also think they messed up by removing mag safe. That's one of the coolest features macbooks had. I'm curious at what they bring for the new MacBook Pros though. I also hope they refresh the Mac Pro as well...it really needs one badly, trash can design or not.

 

Yeah, I figured 8K wasn't for the normal people. Very informative about 8K cameras. I'm mostly a noob at photography myself. But haha, there's a lot of things I think LTT uses that gets wasted...or will have a short life (waiting for that water cooled server to spring a leak)...or that questionable sound proofing job to fall apart.

[AkiraDaarkst]

16 hours ago, scottyseng said:

Hmm, I wasn't aware the touch bar had that many issues...I though they worked (Though I don't look into MacBook much...I've got very little experience with Apple in general). The laptops look great / feel great though.

 

I also think they messed up by removing mag safe. That's one of the coolest features macbooks had. I'm curious at what they bring for the new MacBook Pros though. I also hope they refresh the Mac Pro as well...it really needs one badly, trash can design or not.

I think the touch bar was a good idea on paper, but in practice there are still a lot of kinks to be ironed out.

 

Apple has some of the best product and packaging designers on their teams, but I think they may be going a bit too far with focusing more on design and less on practicality that they're shooting themselves in the foot.

 

The changes they introduced in the 2016 touch bar MacBook Pro went a bit too far, they didn't need to make the machine thinner and more compact.  Hence the removal of the USB type-A, HDMI and SD card ports, these ports would've prevented Apple from making the MacBook thinner.  The MacBook Pro is not an ultrabook (they have the Air and new MacBook for that, or the 13 inch MBP), there are people who use the 15" as their portable productivity machines and workstations.  The 2012-2015 retina MacBook Pro size and weight was already ideal, at least in my opinion.

 

I wouldn't have minded if they kept the form of the 2015 rMBP, replaced one of the USB type A ports with a USB type-C because we can still use hubs if we need more ports.  Or replace one of the Thunderbolt 2/DisplayPort ports with a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port.  Keep the HDMI, SD card readers and the magsafe, because the magsafe IS the coolest feature.  I don't have to worry about tripping over a power cable and either pulling the machine off a desk or damaging the connector.

 

I'm going to wait and see what 2017, 2018 brings from Apple.