New Workstation - Suggestions ?

[riggles]

The other guys here likely have more PC building experience than I do, but I have to disagree a bit on the PSU. A 3 x Titan + Titan Z is going to need more than a 1500W PSU in my opinion. A complete system with CPU, cooler, RAM, SSD and HDD, plus those cards is going to eat up ~1400W, and that's if everything goes according to stock numbers. Just go to PCPartsPicker and check the config for yourself. Factor in PSU efficiency loss and any spikes in power draw (which really can happen), and you could find yourself in the middle of some unwanted hard shutdowns with expensive gear.

On the motherboard and CPU side, even though the X99 chipset had some more cost around it at the moment, the one very nice feature is that more flexible assigning PCI lanes to your graphics cards. Which means instead of 4x4x4x4, you could get 16x8x8x8. That means your primary Titan (x16) could load the scene into memory and start rendering quicker, then the other cards would join in as they loaded up the scene. If you do a lot of lighting and material checking, that could be worth the investment.

Whatever you decide, seems like it will be a beastly machine. (I love the idea of a dual Titan Z setup personally

[RobSteady]

I think I'm going to keep my two Titan's and add one Z.
A 1200W BeQuiet PSU should be fine for that?

The X99 sounds very tempting but then I need to get a CPU that is almost twice the price as if I would go with the Z97X GT.
x16 will load the scene twice as fast as x8?

[glimpse]

Technically x16 is twice faster than x8..are You going to notice any difference?..well, that's a question (try to play with Titans on Your board to see if You feel any - take one Titan of the case, do some work, add another do some work. When only one would sit inside it probably going to run x16, when two x8 /gen2/..). If it would be my money, would I consider that difference to be worth the extra price?..it depends how much spare I'd have to blow on PC, but at this standpoint probably not..'cos it makes no difference in render speed.

[RobSteady]

Ok, thanks.
And BeQuiet 1200W for 2 x Titan and 1 x Titan Z?

[smicha]

Just wait 30 minutes. I am doing heavy stress tests on my gpus - will post the results soon.

[dive]

The asus rampage black iv will allow you x8 x8 x8 x8 or x16 x16 should you go the dual titan z route.

[smicha]

Power draw results are here - for Octane and for heavy stress tests.
http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 51#p209751

[smicha]

Ok, thanks.
And BeQuiet 1200W for 2 x Titan and 1 x Titan Z?

Get Corsair AX1500i - and you are safe.

And if you are looking for something to power 3xTITANs Z Lepa with Continuous full power to 1800W peak output should be fine for Octane, but even this may not be enough for heavy gaming