workstation First Workstation build - Advice?

[Sasbom]

Hey guys, I'm a bit new here. I hoped to get your advice on a couple of things

 

I'm an aspiring 3D animator/renderer/general art person and I like doing my rendering at home,

no fussing about with external render farms.

Currently, I have a laptop, great for portability, not much so for hardcore rendering. I want to be able to make deadlines with overnight rendering and the like.

I use CPU render engines mostly (arnold/vray), but would like to get into gpu (or at least gpu assisted cpu-) rendering.
The time has come to finally invest in a solid piece of equipment but I have no clue where to start.

 

I have a budget of around 2500 euros, which google says is about 2700 dollars of the US kind

 

The things I know I want out of this machine are:

- NO rgb gamer stuff nonsense (I'm sorry RGB lovers)

- Must be/stay silent (I also do some audio stuff and I constantly struggle with that as my laptops exhausts are never ever silent)

- Must have proper read-write speeds

- Must actually render stuff

- Must have a lot of I/O (preferably usb3.0)

 

For the silent bit, I don't want to invest in a water cooling system, I'm simply too inexperienced with pc building to put the time and effort into such a system

I'd like to have at least a gtx 1080ti in there, to stay future proof, and a solid high clockspeed/ lots of cores processor.

 

I'm a bit stuck on the motherboard/case/SSD/HDD (maybe optane?) part, what are some viable options?

I don't need a gamer-y case, just something that has nice cable management support and room for io, and preferably some filters for dust (or any other way to keep it out)\

 

Thanks in advance!

[The Sloth]

5 minutes ago, Sasbom said:

solid high end Intel processor.

why? 1700 would be much better for a cheaper price. 

[Sasbom]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

why? 1700 would be much better for a cheaper price. 

Are you talking AMD?

I don't know, I've had some unfortunate experiences in the past combining a nvidea card with an AMD cpu, that's why I tend to stay away.
You're right though. If the new ryzen things are as great as they say they are then maybe it's worth a shot.

I always hear people complaining about AMD cpus get way too hot because the thermal throttling works different or something like that

[The Sloth]

Just now, Sasbom said:

Are you talking AMD?

I don't know, I've had some unfortunate experiences in the past combining a nvidea card with an AMD cpu, that's why I tend to stay away.
You're right though. If the new ryzen things are as great as they say they are then maybe it's worth a shot.

I always hear people complaining about AMD cpus get way too hot because the thermal throttling works different or something like that

 

not really the case right now, a 1700 can keep up with an i7 6900 for a fraction of the price. 

[PCGuy_5960]

1 minute ago, Sasbom said:

I always hear people complaining about AMD cpus get way too hot because the thermal throttling works different or something like that

That ain't true anymore. Ryzen runs extremely cool

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, Sasbom said:

Are you talking AMD?

I don't know, I've had some unfortunate experiences in the past combining a nvidea card with an AMD cpu, that's why I tend to stay away.
You're right though. If the new ryzen things are as great as they say they are then maybe it's worth a shot.

I always hear people complaining about AMD cpus get way too hot because the thermal throttling works different or something like that

Forget everything you heard about AMD. Their latest generation is very solid, high performance, and costs half the Intel equivalent for the same performance. The CPU here is as good as an i7-6900K but costs 300 EUR instead of 1000.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (€339.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 51.2 CFM CPU Cooler  (€47.50 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-AB350-GAMING 3 ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€122.93 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Kingston 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (€206.22 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 960 Pro 1.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (€576.94 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€121.85 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€121.85 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€121.85 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card  (€417.31 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Case  (€113.47 @ Mindfactory)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€85.22 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €2275.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-26 21:24 CEST+0200

[RAM555789]

1 minute ago, Sasbom said:

Are you talking AMD?

I don't know, I've had some unfortunate experiences in the past combining a nvidea card with an AMD cpu, that's why I tend to stay away.
You're right though. If the new ryzen things are as great as they say they are then maybe it's worth a shot.

I always hear people complaining about AMD cpus get way too hot because the thermal throttling works different or something like that

The piledrivers used a LOT more power so they ran a lot hotter.

[PCGuy_5960]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

not really the case right now, a 1700 can keep up with an i7 6900 for a fraction of the price. 

In most applications anyways  (If you use AVX, the 1700 will not be able to keep up with a 5820K )

[PCGuy_5960]

Just now, Energycore said:

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1800X 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor  (€512.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)

It is not really worth it... The 1700 is cheaper and just as good

[The Sloth]

Just now, PCGuy_5960 said:

In most applications anyways

 

[The Sloth]

here https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Psxj7h

[The Sloth]

4 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

In most applications anyways  (If you use AVX, the 1700 will not be able to keep up with a 5820K )

also, I am getting a 5960x soon, a friend sold one to me. 

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

It is not really worth it... The 1700 is cheaper and just as good

Yes I edited the post

[Sasbom]

Thanks all for the advice!

This community sure responds quickly!

 

And, thanks for the AMD advice. I'll end up going with the 1800, I like to have max performance. I'm looking through the parts lists right now.

[The Sloth]

Just now, Sasbom said:

Thanks all for the advice!

This community sure responds quickly!

 

And, thanks for the AMD advice. I'll end up going with the 1800, I like to have max performance. I'm looking through the parts lists right now.

 

might be better for you, overclocking on a PRO rig is not the best idea. 

[Sasbom]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

might be better for you, overclocking on a PRO rig is not the best idea. 

Yep, exactly!

[PCGuy_5960]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2650 V4 2.2GHz 12-Core Processor  (€1256.94 @ Mindfactory) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (€61.99 @ Aquatuning) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (€163.46 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Kingston 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (€206.22 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€72.40 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Xtreme Edition 11G Video Card  (€661.63 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€50.98 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€134.84 @ Mindfactory) 
Total: €2608.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-26 21:30 CEST+0200

12 core Xeon rig (costs quite a bit more though)

[Energycore]

13 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2650 V4 2.2GHz 12-Core Processor  (€1256.94 @ Mindfactory) 

I'm almost 100% that a 2.2GHz 12-core is way worse than a 3.8GHz 8-core given the same IPC

[brob]

Ryzen should be a better choice. But it has memory limitations that need to be taken into account. At present there are no generally available 16GB sticks faster than DDR4-2400 qualified to fill all four memory slots. There are 4x16GB DDR4-2400 kits but Ryzen cpu appear to do much better with higher speed memory.

[Sasbom]

1 minute ago, brob said:

Ryzen should be a better choice. But it has memory limitations that need to be taken into account. At present there are no generally available 16GB sticks faster than DDR4-2400 qualified to fill all four memory slots. There are 4x116GB DDR4-2400 kits but Ryzen cpu appear to do much better with higher speed memory.

Yeah I won't be skimping on RAM, from what I hear it's pretty important. I'm going for DDR4-3000, 32 Gigs of it.

[JoostinOnline]

24 minutes ago, Sasbom said:

Yeah I won't be skimping on RAM, from what I hear it's pretty important. I'm going for DDR4-3000, 32 Gigs of it.

If you are going to get 3000MHz RAM, make sure you don't get 4 sticks. If you do you'll have to underclock it until there is a BIOS fix. 

[Sasbom]

47 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

If you are going to get 3000MHz RAM, make sure you don't get 4 sticks. If you do you'll have to underclock it until there is a BIOS fix. 

Thanks for the warning! I'll get a set of 2 DDR4-3000 16 GB. 

[brob]

3 hours ago, Sasbom said:

Thanks for the warning! I'll get a set of 2 DDR4-3000 16 GB. 

I don't believe there is a 2x16GB DDR4-3000 kit on any X370 or B350 motherboard memory QVL.

 

The assumption that the problems can be corrected with a BIOS fix has, as far as I know, no basis in fact. The issue(s) may be correctable with BIOS releases. OTH, there may be issues with the memory controller or other hardware.

[samiscool51]

6 hours ago, Sasbom said:

I use CPU render engines mostly (arnold/vray), but would like to get into gpu (or at least gpu assisted cpu-) rendering.

thats the last thing to use when rendering a model

use your GPU when possible as it's quicker 10-fold and in the case if some programs using certain GPUs can produce more detailed or cleaner models

you should only use CPU render if something is wrong with the system and can't render the model via the GPU due to a hardware or software fault

[Sasbom]

10 hours ago, samiscool51 said:

thats the last thing to use when rendering a model

use your GPU when possible as it's quicker 10-fold and in the case if some programs using certain GPUs can produce more detailed or cleaner models

you should only use CPU render if something is wrong with the system and can't render the model via the GPU due to a hardware or software fault

Well, that may be the case in gaming, and in render engines like octane and redshift which are essentially cranked up game engines..
The render engines I am accustomed to are primarily CPU based, they are for rendering 3d scenes that require accurate lighting and the like.

The two just work in a different way, which isn't bad, but like different brushes in painting, different render engines can be more effective for one situation and not in the other.
GPU renderers (in general) are more "biased" than CPU renderers. They tend to take shortcuts where CPU renderers would spend some more time calculating things.

 

I'd love to be able to use unbiased CPU render engines like Maxwell or Indigo, they undoubtedly deliver stunning results due to their brute force way of calculating light.
Anyway if there is anything wrong about anything I said please correct me so I can learn  i'm still a student.