Build suitable for highend rendering? Hardware/Computer gurus

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

looking at some stuff.

would this be a good build for render intensive work?

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CPU :
AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core Zambezi 3.6Ghz 8MB Cache AM3+

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[TD=“align: right”]Heatsink/Fan :
CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series H80 2x120mm Water Cooler
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Motherboards :
ASUS M5A78L-M LX Plus (Radeon HD3000 Video, HDMI, 6xSATA, 2xDDR3)
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Memory :
32GB (8GBx4) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866Mhz Lifetime Warranty
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Hard Drive :
3.0TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA3 6Gbps (Major Brand)
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2nd Hard Drive :
3.0TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA3 6Gbps (Major Brand)
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CD / DVD / CDRW 2 :
14X LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray Disc Burner 3D Playback Lightscribe w/Nero
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Video Card :
3GB ATI Radeon HD7970 GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI (Major Brand)
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Video Card 2 :
3GB ATI Radeon HD7970 GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI (Major Brand)
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Operating System :
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
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Monitor :
Acer 23in S231HLbid 1920x1080 LCD Flat Panel Monitor 5ms HDMI
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Case :
CoolerMaster Black Storm Sniper (5 5.25, 5 3.5) 4 Fans, Audio/USB/1394
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Power Supply :
1200watt Antec Quattro TPQ-1200 Modular 80 PLUS CERTIFIED
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Networking :
Onboard LAN included
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Wireless Networking :
Wireless B/G/N PCI-Ex Adapter 300Mbps
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Sound Card :
Onboard Sound included
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Keyboard :
Black Logitech MK 320 USB Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
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Mouse :
CM Storm Inferno 4000DPI Laser Gaming Mouse
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Case Fans :
2x 120mm Case Fan
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Neon Lights :
12in Green Neon Light
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Wiring :
Wires and Cables ran behind case and tied up for maximum airflow
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Warranty :
3 Year Parts and Labor Warranty
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2

Hi, depends on your render engine.
If you want to use the blender internal render engine you need CPU power, in this case, every i7 HT CPU beats the AMD FX-8150 easily.
If you want to use Cycles render engine you cant use AMD cards for GPU rendering, only NVIDIA.
Blender don´t profit from double video cards for viewport performance.
I would prefer a small SSD hard disk (60-120 GB) for system and a regular disk for backup, video files etc…
Even in a raid 0 setup of two fast 3 GB/ 7200 disks a single SSD is much faster.

Cheers, mib.
EDIT: http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/15291-intel-core-i7-3770k-och-core-i5-3570k/10

3

Like mib2 already pointed out, this is the worst choise possible.

The AMD FX are not really the best invention. A Ci7-3770 or 2600 is around 25% faster, it’s 100USD/Euro cheaper though.
So you’d get 25% more power for 50% more cost.
The question is, do you want cost efficient, or as fast as possible without wasting too much money (there are hexa and octa core Intel as well)

The Ci53570 and the FX8150 are pretty much on par. The Ci5 a bit more expensive, the FX with a bit more brute renderpower. However if you also want to play games on your machine for instance, the Ci5 leaves the FX in the dust.

Two 7970? Waste of money. You lock yourself out from CUDA, which, like it or not is widely spread, especially with commercial renderers.
As it seems you got the money for 2 graphiccards, get one 7970 for viewport, and a GTX580-3G for CUDA, or ideally wait for the 700 series, they’ll pop the flagship, supposedly the 780 at first anyways.
No problem mixing them, at least I never had problems mixing AMD+Nvidia cards.

32GB memory? Get 64. DDR3 has become dirt cheap, and like engine displacement, the only thing you can replace it with is more :wink:

Yeh, and SSD for system, the 2 datatanks in a mirror RAID.

And be sure your PSU is a high efficiency one. Rendering it’ll most likely run with 80-100% load, be sure to have a high efficiency there, else you’ll see a huge impact on your electricity bill.

I am at almost 90 Euro a month now with the electricity bill, with a server running and constant rendering.
Water boiler has seperate power and billing.

4

the mobo is pretty weak…
would like to see something newer.

What’s odd is in your list is says 8Gx4 32GB of RAM…
however at Newegg it says that Mobo is only capable of only 2x4GB 8GB?
in the pictures it only has to 2 DIMM slots.
even if you 8GB sticks(if it would even handle them) max would be 16GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131795&Tpk=ASUS%20M5A78L-M

5

also, if you plan on having 2 3TB HDD’s, then good luck installing windows. Windows will only recognise a max of 1TB when installing. When my mate built he’s pc, he bough a 2TB HDD, and windows wouldn’t install on it. After some research, we discovered that windows will only support 1TB when installing. got a 1TB and windows installed first time…

6

If you have a Modern Mobo with UEFI,
and you use Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Win8 you shouldn’t have any problems installing a 3TB hard Drive.

All “new” Mobo’s will work. (the mobo listed is NOT “new” its old technology not sure what it supports)

If you want to go AMD
get like a AMD970, AMD990 or AMD990FX(if you have the money) MOBO and then you’re sure to get EUFI.
(well… there are a few boards that still have regular bios but i believe they work with 3TB drives)

7

OKAY, you guys are WAY over my head, think of me as a total n00b when it comes to hardware, I need to know how to get the most efficient, but powerful, machine for my money. the laptop is okay for now but i want a desktop and I want one that’s good/great for my blendering and online games