3 average PCs or one Holy Grail?

[AntonChigurh]

So we recently acquired hardware funds at my workplace, and we are looking to upgrade our systems, as our current ones kind of suck (think Core 2 Duos, 4gb of RAM, 500gb HDD). We are doing content creation such as video editing, 3D modeling and the like with these PCs, and have about $4k to spend total. I was considering getting 3 new fairly average PCs (R3 1200, 16gb of RAM, 1050 Ti), but then I thought, "Wait, what if I just built one god tier behemoth of a PC and used VMs to let 3 people work on it at once?". Stupid idea, I know. But would it be feasible? I don't know whether this big boi would be 3x as powerful as one of these, but I'd like someone a tad more knowledgeable than me about VMs and workload distribution to help with this.

 

TL;DR: OP wants to upgrade hardware for 3 people at his workplace, but can't decide between 3 new average PCs or one behemoth of a workstation and using VMs.

[minervx]

There's diminished returns once you get up to a certain point.

 

Why not just get 2 PC's that are not quite holy grail, but are still above average, so that you can have enough power to get your work done and have more productivity than one PC?

[Canada EH]

Have one good pc and one so so machine.

 

Then do a workstation off one or the other pc, so you can drink beer and play with your beer drinkin' buds on the pc in the garage.

[AntonChigurh]

Just now, minervx said:

There's diminished returns once you get up to a certain point.  Also, having only one PC means only one person can work on it at once.

 

Why not just get 2 PC's that are not quite holy grail, but are still above average, so that you can have enough power to get your work done and have more productivity than one PC?

Not at all. We could have all 3 members working at once using VMs.

 

And because we're doing hardware upgrades for 3 people, not 2

[AntonChigurh]

Just now, Canada EH said:

Have one good pc and one so so machine.

 

Then do a workstation off one or the other pc, so you can drink beer and play with your beer drinkin' buds on the pc in the garage.

As much as I would love to drink beer and play with my friends this is for work sadly. If only I had $4k to spend on a PC. I spent the whole summer saving for my current one which cost me $700. And we need 3 new machines cause 3 people are requesting hardware upgrades

[Spotty]

3 machines.
If there's a hardware failure that takes out a machine, you could still work at a reduced pace with 2 of the 3 machines, but if it takes out the machine running VMs then the whole business is at a halt until it is fixed.

7 minutes ago, ExquisiteRack said:

We are doing content creation such as video editing, 3D modeling and the like with these PCs

Spend more money on a decent, colour calibrated monitor.

[minervx]

Would a Threadripper really make render times 1/7th as long as Ryzen 3?  I honestly doubt it.  And with a $4000 budget, even if you had to make 3 PC's you wouldn't be limited to only a Ryzen 3?

 

You could get 2 Ryzen 2700 machines for that budget, or 3 Ryzen 1600's probably

[AntonChigurh]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

3 machines.
If there's a hardware failure that takes out a machine, you could still work at a reduced pace with 2 of the 3 machines, but if it takes out the machine running VMs then the whole business is at a halt until it is fixed.

Spend more money on a decent, colour calibrated monitor.

True true.

 

And why? A normal 1080p 60hz monitor should be fine for what we're doing. I use a H236HL at home and the color's quite nice

[AntonChigurh]

1 minute ago, minervx said:

Would a Threadripper really make render times 1/7th as long as Ryzen 3?  I honestly doubt it.

 

You could get 2 Ryzen 2700 machines for that budget

Idk, maybe. That's the lowest tier of Ryzen 3 and the highest tier of Threadripper

 

And we need 3 machines not 2

[Blackie Sheen]

I think it's better to stick to three average pc rather than once. Don't have to deal with a problem shutting down all operation.

[AntonChigurh]

Just now, Blackie Sheen said:

I think it's better to stick to three average pc rather than once. Don't have to deal with a problem shutting down all operation.

hmm alright

[TopHatProductions115]

I could try sourcing a build (or two) to see what's possible within this budget. I'm guessing you're only up for new parts (not used)?

[AntonChigurh]

Just now, TopHatProductions115 said:

I could try sourcing a build (or two) to see what's possible within this budget. I'm guessing you're only up for new parts (not used)?

That would be great. We need 3 PCs optimized for content creation such as 3D modeling and video editing. Software like DaVinci Resolve, 3DS Max, etc. And yes, we'll be using new parts.

[minervx]

A $200 liquid cooler offers bad performance to the dollar compared to a $50 air cooler honestly.  And a high-end graphics card, or a dual graphics card setup, isn't essential for Premiere Pro (though if you're using Da Vinci Resolve, it might be).  Honestly, I think this is one of the many cases where Linus's videos mislead people into thinking that an ostentatious $4000 behemoth is the solution to any problem.  I honestly don't think this build is practical for a work setting.

 

Also with VM's, is there not loss of efficiency in emulation?

[GDRRiley]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor  ($329.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($174.89 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Intel - 545s 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($74.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card  ($214.88 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($34.53 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: Acer - G257HU smidpx 25.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($242.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $1187.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-27 00:00 EDT-0400

spend the money on these. maybe a better gpu but other than that this should do great.

[minervx]

You can build 3 $1300 PC's with Ryzen 5 2600.  Two of them can get a 1050 Ti.  One of them can get a 1060 or 1070.  Forget the liquid cooling and get a decent budget cooler.  Get practical cases and power supplies (not overkill ones).  Find fast storage, but not the very fastest.  And you can get 3 very capable machines.

[AntonChigurh]

Just now, minervx said:

A $200 liquid cooler offers bad performance to the dollar compared to a $50 air cooler honestly.  And a high-end graphics card, or a dual graphics card setup, isn't essential for Premiere Pro (though if you're using Da Vinci Resolve, it might be).  Honestly, I think this is one of the many cases where Linus's videos mislead people into thinking that an ostentatious $4000 behemoth is the solution to any problem.  I honestly don't think this build is practical for a work setting.

 

Also with VM's, is there not loss of efficiency in emulation?

I'm mostly concerned with pure performance, not performance to dollar, as we've got a pretty big budget. And we will be using Resolve, thats why I opted for SLI in the VM build.

 

And I don't quite know. There very well could be, but I don't have much experience with them

[Blackie Sheen]

Just now, ExquisiteRack said:

hmm alright

Sorry I am quite tired. The answer did not turn out the way I wanted. I meant that the single pc setup would halt everything if it went down or something rendered it useless. 

 

[AntonChigurh]

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor  ($329.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($174.89 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Intel - 545s 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($74.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card  ($214.88 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($34.53 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: Acer - G257HU smidpx 25.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($242.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $1187.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-27 00:00 EDT-0400

spend the money on these. maybe a better gpu but other than that this should do great.

Yeah that'll work awesome! Thanks for the help!

[GDRRiley]

1 minute ago, minervx said:

Also with VM's, is there not loss of efficiency in emulation?

nope its hardware pass through in most cases.
4K+ a system makes sense for 4k or above, along with large 3d desgines.

It also makes sense if you have short time frames to work.

[AntonChigurh]

Just now, Blackie Sheen said:

Sorry I am quite tired. The answer did not turn out the way I wanted. I meant that the single pc setup would halt everything if it went down or something rendered it useless. 

 

No yeah I got what you meant. I'll probably opt for multiple PCs

[minervx]

you said if you wanted to build 3 PC's, you'd have to compromise.  So there is a financial restriction. 

 

In a work setting, if there is a $4000 limit, I definitely would have 3 strong (but not absolutely perfect) machines before I would have 1 overkill Linus rig.

[TopHatProductions115]

Is this CPU around what you're looking for?
 - https://ark.intel.com/products/93794/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-4809-v4-20M-Cache-2_10-GHz

 

I tend to base a potential build upon what CPU is right for the task I'm performing. I then choose a matching GPU, and build the rest of the PC around that (with the budget controlling the rest). RAM and storage can always be uprgaded later, but that's up to you  

Edited April 27, 2018 by TopHatProductions115
Added details

[AntonChigurh]

1 minute ago, minervx said:

you said if you wanted to build 3 PC's, you'd have to compromise.  So there is a financial restriction. 

 

In a work setting, if there is a $4000 limit, I definitely would have 3 strong (but not absolutely perfect) machines before I would have 1 overkill Linus rig.

An overkill Linus rig is a complete necessity skrub  _/s

[Canada EH]

Why not buy a couple used desktop pc's rocking Intel 4th gen for $200 off of newegg.

 

They are utterly dirt cheap!

 

Refurbished: HP Elite 8300 SFF Small Form i5-3470 3.20GHz 4GB 160GB Win 7 Pro 1 Yr Wty

• $134^.99

 

Refurbished: HP ProDesk 600 G1 SFF i5-4570 3.20GHz 4GB 250GB Win 7 Pro 1 Yr Wty

• $159^.99

 

 

Refurbished: Dell OptiPlex 9010 DT/Core i7-3770 Quad @ 3.4 GHz/2GB DDR3/80GB HDD/DVD-RW/No OS

• $231^.66 

 

Refurbished: HP Desktop Computer 800 G1-SFF Intel Core i7 4th Gen 4770 (3.40 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 500 GB HDD Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

• $347^.99 

 

^^^^That is like the cost of ONE Ryzen 2700 cpu, and ^^^^^^ You get it all, EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck that is cheap!

 

 

OK OK Here is a regular ATX case for your GPU card

 

Refurbished: HP Desktop Computer 800 G1 Intel Core i7 4th Gen 4790 (3.60 GHz) 8 GB 500 GB HDD Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

• $357^.99 

 

Buy TWO or THREE of those.

Then build one really good PC with

 

 

 

Next step up from 4th gen used pc, keeping it cheap

is a DIY build Ryzen 2700, 3TB 8GB like for $550

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tKH8J8

 

Ooops forgot PSU

Corsair CX550 (2017)

CX (2017)

ATX

80+ Bronze

550W

No

(6)

$44.90

AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2GHz 8 65W           (1) $289.99