Build Advice - Watercooled Octane/Ae/C4d/Houdini workstation Tweet

[vesta]

Hello guys.
This is the specs for an upcoming watercooled workstation I'm planning and I'll is it mainly for animation, now there are 3 GPU and I'll add one more in the future for 4 GPU in total.
As mentioned above I'll use After Effects cc2017, so no multithreading but core speed and 7900X comes 4.3/4.5 in turbo mode, I'm also thinking about 16core Ryzen but I don't know.
As render engine I'll use Octane mainly.

CASE - ThermalTake The Tower 900 Full
MOBO - Rampage VI Apex X299 M.2 DDR4 Extended-ATX Socket 2066
CPU - Intel i9 7900X 3.3Ghz 10 Core
CPU COOLER - EK-Supremacy EVO Elite Edition - Intel 2011-3
GPU - 2x GTX 1080 Ti Strix 11GB + 1 Titan X 11GB(Maxwell)
PSU - MasterWatt Maker 1500W Full Modular 80Plus Titanium
RAM - 64GB (4x16GB) G.Skill 16GB DDR4 DDR4 3000MHz
HD - Samsung SSD 950 Pro M.2 256 GB PCIe 3.0 +
OS - Windows 10 (without the latest FC update?) or Win7 if I need access to more vram
WATERCOOLING PARTS EK-RES X3 400 Reservoir + Radiatore EK-CoolStream XE 480 (Quad) + EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM - Plexi + EK-HDC Fitting 16mm G1/4 -Nickel
GPU BACKPLATE 2 x EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Strix - Nickel + 1 EK-FC Titan X Backplate - Blue
FAN 16 Grand Flex 120x120 PWM da 600 - 2400rpm CFM Max 96.8


thanks a lot!
Peppe

[glimpse]

hi, Vesta.

regarding to this build, let's start from elephant in the room - if You're are not going to use CPU at it's most, maybe building a system based on cheaper alternative would make sense? (six core 8700k + some z370 based motherboard or older x99 + six core?). The reason I say this, because 8700k boost higher & if You for everyday tasks that do not rely on having a lot of cores..cheaper option might be a bit snappier in some cases.

but let's get to some of Your choices:

CASE - It's huge & for it's size doesn't seem to functional. However, if You like it - try it. Just one note. Reusing air actually drops efficiency for cooling, so if You use multiple rads, they better have separate chambers (zones)
MOBO - depends on what You want. for chosen CPU it is one of the best boards You can find but as mentioned before, question if You need that CPU at all.
CPU - already pointed out in the beginning.
CPU Cooler - good choice.
GPU - now this gets a bit problematic since You can not connect GPUs so easy due to different PCB sizes, so when You build watercooled machines it's better to have same layout PCBs. I don't say it's impossible, but You will have more headache than needed.
PSU - great option for quad system.
RAM - I would not take too fast RAM due to some stability, booting issues or such. However it's not a bad choice, just go though the list list of officially supported modules.
HDD/SSD - great & very much depends on personal needs.
OS - Dual boot is the best thing You can have for now, since W10 might be problematic in some cases (You already mentioned VRAM issue).
Watercooling Parts - we can get more in detail later, but personally I would change the case & that changes the plan for parts as well. One important thing to note though would be: get dual revo pump mount to have redundancy - if one pump would fail You would still get a bit of flow.
GPU back plates - those serve visual aspect & are not need in general.
FANs - I would go for Noctuas or noiceblockers, but that's again a bit of a subjective point.

overall, good as a starting point, but personally I would go a bit more simple route, that involves external radiator & smaller case. But about that I can try to talk more in detail if that would be something You would actually consider.

[vesta]

Thank a lot Tom for your indepth reply.
Regarding the case it's a kind of forced choice cause I have exactly those depth in space and fit perfectly the studio design project.
Regarding CPU I read somewhere in the forum, Smicha maybe, telling to avoid ASUS board for multi GPU instead using Asrock or Gigabyte, what you say about that?
About GPU I thinking about to add a fourth gpu just for display, my question is if this gpu have 4 GB ram for example the 2 gtx1080ti and 1 Titan, will be scaled to 4GB ram?
I'm rethinking about CPU by the way.
thanks a lot1
Giuseppe

[glimpse]

Thank a lot Tom for your indepth reply.
Regarding the case it's a kind of forced choice cause I have exactly those depth in space and fit perfectly the studio design project.

it that's the case, then let's take a look into it & I can give You some advice regarding to routing & placement of components.

Regarding CPU I read somewhere in the forum, Smicha maybe, telling to avoid ASUS board for multi GPU instead using Asrock or Gigabyte, what you say about that?

he got the point about specific model & I do understand him, however from my perspective X99E 10G WS is so far perfect board for up to 7x GPUs. Nvidia actrually use the same vakbone for their DGX station costing 45-69k$, so I doubt they would be putting something that would be causing issues.

About GPU I thinking about to add a fourth gpu just for display, my question is if this gpu have 4 GB ram for example the 2 gtx1080ti and 1 Titan, will be scaled to 4GB ram?

if You add 4th GPU for screens only & do not use it for rendering that You will keep the maximum amount of VRAM, depending on version of windows You're using. But it's great to have separate card - in that case You can use computer without any slowdowns while doing renders in the background.

I'm rethinking about CPU by the way.

just to say, it's not a bad CPU by any means. so if You would find a way to load it 100% for some rendering, then do it. Regarding to AMD Threadripper, have made a build lately 1950X & even with 360 rad (Enermax AIO unit) it stills is rather hot.

thanks a lot1
Giuseppe

let me know if You would still have any more questions - I will try to answer those. And will take a look at Your case to see what could be the most logical routing. By the way, will this case have any space around for breathing or You're looking to put it very close to (or even touching) something?