Serious candidate to my next system

[PAQUITO]

I dont feel like using SSD drives, I dont have much confidence with them by now, so I think that I will be still using regular SATA drives.

About the GPU, so a Titan is the better choice? About the RAM, 16 GBs is good or should I go for 32?

[rappet]

I dont feel like using SSD drives, I dont have much confidence with them by now, so I think that I will be still using regular SATA drives.

About the GPU, so a Titan is the better choice? About the RAM, 16 GBs is good or should I go for 32?

You can add the ssd besides the sata and install and run some stuff from the ssd.
I am not sure if it really speeds up, but I am running Octane from ssd and my libraries as well for Almost a year now without any problems. I went for 32 RAM, just not to regret afterwards
Greetings,

[FrankPooleFloating]

Paq - you were ready to spend around $3000... but seemed excited at the prospect
of building for way less. Let's nail down a couple things, and then me and other dudes
can help ensure you are going to get the best system you can get - within your budget...

What is your real budget? (what is the most you want to spend?)

Do you want/need to have the ability down the road to have up to 4 GPU's?
Keep in mind you can mix and match your nVidia GPU's.. so you could get a Titan, also stick in your
current GPU.. and later add another Titan or 780... or maybe a couple 580's you got cheap on eBay...
or you could end up with 4 Titans?... Is this even remotely possible - that you could end up needing
$4000 worth of GPU's in your system?

I personally think you would do great with the AMD Asus Sabertooth.. but if there is a possibility
that you may need 4 GPU's, then we should be planning an Intel based mb and probably an i7 3820
and not only a mobo that is 4-GPU ready, but also has quad channel memory support... we can come
back to this.. answer questions above please.

And since we know that you are going to have a mb with minimum of 3 double-slot PCI-E slots... you
can completely disregard anyone suggesting a power supply that doesn't have a 1 (one) in front of it..
in other words, anyone who says 750W is woefully misinformed... 1200W or greater. Period.

[PAQUITO]

Ok, you are right its important to state some things.
BUDGET: 2000€ would be my limit. But knowing that I dont want to base my system on the budget available, but in my real needs, because I dont want to pay more than i need.
NUMBER OF GPUS: as i said before, my work is mostly archviz, with no specially heavy scenes or crazy render sizes, so my guess is I DONT NEED MULTIPLE GPUS. Im working now with a. 550 ti, and it does the work pretty nicely, but I want the most GPU power for a single shot, so i can cut down render times the more possible.
Having said that, my guess is that I really need not an extreme CPU, but something decent, with a good amount of good quality RAM and very powerful GPU (1000€ for a GPU is ok for me, since thats what I need).

[FrankPooleFloating]

Then I think the the system we started with would be the way to go.

You are now working with Direct Lighting AO... because that goes fast for you.
But with the new beast and a Titan + whatever else you want to add, you not
only can start rendering PathTracing.. but probably should. Your stuff will look
so much better...

So, it would be silly to not get the Sabertooth or similar and have a system that
can actually grow with you - should you choose to.

Having that 1200W or greater PSU is going to be smart regardless. Why not spend
a tiny bit more and have a PSU that will absolutely laugh its ass off at anything
you throw at it - rather than skating on the edge with a lesser PSU.. or have to
replace it once you do end up with 4 Titans or something silly like that... Paq, if
one of your clients all of the sudden needed a flythrough of an archviz you just
created for them, you are going to want (or need) those multiple GPU's.. so lets
make sure you are at least prepared for that contingency.

It will be nice to have the Octane Cloud Render shit as a backup... but we have no
idea when that is coming...

The bottom line is that the 1200W+, AMD Asus Sabertooth, NZXT case (or similar
full tower that supports E-ATX mobo) and whatever memory and fans you want
(the ones I listed are a solid bet.. 16 or 32 GB RAM is your choice..) in my opinion
hits the sweet spot of cost, value, power and future-proofing. This is the system
I would build, if I were in your shoes.

[PAQUITO]

Wow thanks so much for the info. I will take good note of that. This is what I call a good comunity

[MDK]

I bought my previous computer at the end of 2011. I was going to buy it a bit earlier, but decided to wait for the LGA 2011 slot CPU:s and motherboards. The idea was that when I need to upgrade I will only have to replace a few parts. The processor (I-7 3960k) I got is actually like 70 euros more expensive than it was on release and the the 8 core Xeons are the only cpu:s that have been a big upgrade since I got mine. However those Xeons are very very expensive.

When getting a brand new computer my recomendation would be that you make sure that the case is good. That is usually the part that lasts the longest. Make sure that there is plenty of room that if you upgrade the GPU it actually fits inside. This might not be an huge issue since Nvidia's Volta cards are suppose to be alot smaller, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Volta cards are also a few years away and we have Maxwell generation up next.

With others components it's kinda hard to say. I have an LGA 2011 Motherboard, but it's unsure if that is the best bet. This article does give some high hopes, but you can't be sure of these things. Hopefully I don't have to change my motherboard for a few years.
http://www.eteknix.com/intel-to-keep-so ... 2015-2016/

One thing to also consider is that LGA-2011 motherboards and processors suppot larger ammounts of memmory. Nvidia's next generation cards (Maxwell) will have unified memmory. This means that your GPU can read from RAM and vice versa. So having a large amount of RAM can also benefit GPU rendering.

[PAQUITO]

Hola Paquito

I agree with the lads, building your own makes much more sense (in pure financial terms) once you go beyond the €1000 price tag. It's not rocket science, especially if you have somebody supervising you, and a box of Mahou
Dell/Alienware will give you a 2 year warranty on the whole system I think, but many of their components (motherboard, power supply, etc.) are absolute crap and WILL fail. If you assemble your own and something goes wrong, it may not be that obvious to identify, but once you got it, components have much better warranties (e.g. Corsair PSUs have 7 years, EVGA have lifetime warranties, some SSDs have 5 years....)
Another VERY important factor to keep in mind is that, while you have now a €2K budget, maybe in a few months you land another job and get another €1000 to spend, so you want room to expand - i.e. add more graphic cards, more RAM etc. Pre-made PCs are very difficult to upgrade, possibly don't have expansion slots, not to mention that doing so voids all warranty automatically.

For me it's a no brainer - make your own. We'll be very happy to help!

My suggestion is going for a motherboard based on a Z77 chipset or similar, which will allow you to unlock the integrated graphics of the CPU, drive the monitor with it, and dedicate the TITAN solely to octane render. Make sure the motherboard has at least 3 slots for big graphic cards - don't be afraid to spend €200 or more on it.
Also, a power supply of 750W or more, at least 1kW if you want headroom for a second graphics card. That's another €200.
SSD 128Gb (enough I think) €100, Hard drive as secondary storage + optical drive €100
Processor i5 (with K suffix to overclock) €200
TITAN €1000
16Gb RAM €100 (2x 8Gb sticks, you can another 2 later)
Case and fans €100
Windows 7 retail version (windows 8 is a torture) €100

This makes all €2000, but the numbers are just approximate

Leonardo, how comes that you choose the Titan, having the 690 with more cores and bandwith??

[Tugpsx]

Check these guys out, you can customize you rig at a good price or at least compare compatible rigs.
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

[Leonardo]

Leonardo, how comes that you choose the Titan, having the 690 with more cores and bandwith??

Well it seems like people on this forum say it's the fastest card... I may be wrong. Perhaps the 780 is better value, as it's nearly as fast as a TITAN but at a much lower price.

However, If I was to build a system now, I would try to get some 580s on sale. In scan.co.uk they have some 3Gb 580s at £220 at the moment. I would even try eBay; for €500 you can get enough hardware to reach the mark of 7 megasamples/s which is the objective I think...