New Workstation - advice please

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redroster
Licensed Customer
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:00 pm

Hi all,

I have decided to pack up my Mac and move to a PC. I have researched the below configuration and would love to hear your thoughts on this before I invest the money it is going to cost.

Current setup
  • Mac Pro Late 2013 (Trashcan)
    64GB Ram
    2.7GHz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5
    AMD FirePro
    2 x ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080TI ROG Strix Edition 11 GB, each one in its own AKiTiO Node Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure
PC I am looking to build
  • 4 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080Ti Gaming OC BLACK 11264MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card
    1 x Gigabyte X399 Aorus Xtreme AMD X399 (Socket TR4) DDR4 E-ATX Motherboard
    1 x AMD Ryzen Threadripper Eight Core 1900X 4.00GHz (Socket TR4) Processor
    1 x be quiet! Dark Base 900 Full Tower Gaming Case - Black
    1 x Super Flower Leadex Gold 1600W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black
    2 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit (might up this to 64GB)
    1 x be quiet! Silent Loop Superior Liquid CPU Cooler - 280mm
    1 x be quiet TR4 Cooler Bracket
    1 x be quiet! Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM Fan
    1 x be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM Fan
What are your thoughts? I have had loads of help over at overclockers from people more experienced in the PC realm putting this together, but wated to sense check it with actual Octane users aswell to get their take on it.

I did have some additional questions that I hope you might be able to advise on aswell:

1. Graphics card choices
As stated above, currently 2 x 1080Ti Strix (via TB2 > 3 on Mac), new setup - 4 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080Ti direct on PC motherboard.
  • • Should I expect the new setup to completely blow this out of the water in terms of a octane bench score?
    • I have been informed that I would not be able to fit 4 x 1080Ti Strix (my original idea for a setup) in a PC due to their physical size, but I could do 1x 1080Ti Strix & 2xGigabyte GeForce GTX 1080Ti. Would this be a more powerful combo??
2. AMD Ryzen Threadripper Eight Core vs an intel equivalent
  • • What are your thoughts on this route vs an equivalent intel chip?
    • The advice which I have been given, and currently trust unless I hear otherwise is that the AMD CPU will give me the PCIe lanes needed cheaply
Thanks for taking the time and replying if you do - I really appreciate it.
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volatilecycle
Licensed Customer
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:53 am

Can you get EVGA GTX 1080ti Hybrids instead for the GPU?

I have read having 4 cards like the one you have selected next to each other would cause the cards to throttle. Where hybrids are better at keeping temps on the cards low so no throttling.
Example of 4 hybrids here...
http://motionographer.com/2018/04/06/we ... -a-gpu-pc/

I'm in the same boat as you, on a Mac Pro 2013 currently working out what system to build to jump ship.

How did you find your dual eGPU Mac setup? Much crashing? I have a 2009 Mac Pro with two 980ti in it for Octane and it crashes quite a bit, but was unsure if that was due to Octane being bad on Mac?
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FrankPooleFloating
Licensed Customer
Posts: 1669
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:48 pm

He is right about hybrids. Go that way if you can. Also, be quiet!® is a very high-quality brand, and I have no doubt whatsoever that their cases really kick ass... but as a Thermaltake Core X9 owner, I am telling you that this is THE case to have if doing more than a couple hybrids. Mobo is horizontal and all rads/fans can be mounted directly above in top of case, with all heat blowing straight up. And I am not the only Octane user with an X9 and multiple hybrids. There's a bunch of us.
Win10Pro || GA-X99-SOC-Champion || i7 5820k w/ H60 || 32GB DDR4 || 3x EVGA RTX 2070 Super Hybrid || EVGA Supernova G2 1300W || Tt Core X9 || LightWave Plug (v4 for old gigs) || Blender E-Cycles
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redroster
Licensed Customer
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:00 pm

Hi guys,

I would have got back sooner... but I have been busy building the PC :) I thought I would report back in case anyone else out there wanted to do something similar, and at this early stage I would say go for it if you have the budget.

I didn't go with hybrids in the end and stuck with the configuration I originally posted, with the addition of another fan for the side panel (in total, 6 fans + 2 for the rads AIO cooling)

The system wasn't cheap and adding the hybrids would have sent this way over budget at the time of build, - maybe I can convert them at some point down the line if I run into issues.

After a lot of testing and dialling up fan speeds the system is stable and the max temp I get from a single card is ~85deg when running a bench / stressing the cards whilst rendering. Most of the time the cards are 60-70deg when working.

Running Octobench on the Mac I was getting a ~100 score, now I get ~720 = major boost for me and I look forward to be working closer to 'real time' for the majority of my work :)

volatilecycle - crashing was an issue on the Mac / eGPU setup yes, especially when working in node editor and for some reason specifically unplugging an image texture from the displacement channel, it didnt like that at all.

My next step is to build another cheaper PC for the 2 x 1080 Strix cards I have and use both PCs to crunch through renders.

Any advice for other ways to speed up my system would be greatly appreciated!
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