Performance machine for the professional

[rcheezum]

I am posting my machine specs for the benefit of the professional trying to understand GPU systems vs CPU based systems. That is the artist who gets paid for their work using Octane render, and therefore have a lot to consider regarding reliability, costs, and ROI. I have been in the industry since the days of SGI Octane (the original octane renderer) and power animator. For those of you who don't recognize these terms, open up wikipedia and do some homework...

While the costs of software have come down dramatically over the years, hardware always seems to be a cruz to stay competitive. I hope to provide my experiences to help those looking to select hardware and make sense of the complexity with GPU cards and overclocking madness. Typically I would buy a workstation or two from a major computer supplier like Dell, with a workstation class motherboard with dual sockets. This enabled the ability to maximize rendering performance on one machine, and then slave out frames to other machines built just for rendering. 3 years of support made it a reliable rig for about 3 years, by which point I would upgrade and delegate the old machines to render nodes.

Now that I am using GPU based rendering techniques, I wanted a machine that could provide me the ability to leverage the benefits of Octane's GPU rendering capabilities, while at the same time staying quiet and reliable, nor break the bank. For this reason, I had no choice regarding the commercial offerings from Dell and other commercial computer offerings I relied on in the past for performance hardware. Outfitting them for GPU rendering is just cost prohibitive. I had to build this one on my own, like my own 286 back in 1986. Again, if you don't recognize the reference, wikipedia...

If you are new to the DIY PC space, it's really not that hard or scary, actually it's a lot simpler than it used to be. I used to read hundreds of pages of Computer Shopper (Wikipedia, again...) to find the latest tech and learn how to improve the performance of my machine, not so different than reading a performance car magazines today, or perhaps facebook. Today, google is my best friend, let me provide some shortcuts to what I selected an why...

I built my machine using these specs:
* Asus x99-e WS USB 3.1 (whatever the heck 3.1 means) - A Solid workstation class motherboard designed for the LGA-2011v3 socket. This socket provides the best performance and value options among Intel CPUs. It also supports faster bus speeds and 4-way SLI.
* (3)x EVGA Hybrid 980TI (I said I built computers, not designed the plumbing for them) - These little cards are a bit pricey compared to gaming cards, but nothing compared to the workstation class nvidia cards I used to have to pony up for. These particular ones have a closed loop water cooling radiator. When stacking graphics cards, things get hot and loud, therefore watercooling the GPUs is a must. These are basically plug and play with built in watercooling, perform well, and overclock easily if desired.
* 64gb ddr4 mem (why not) - I wondered if I would ever really need that much memory, then today I had to blow up a render to 10'x8' at 300 dpi for printing to a banner. Yes I needed it, and you may too. Ram is cheap, load up.
* Thermaltake Core X9 Case (horizontal layout, seriously, heat rises!) - This case is big, very big, but amazingly flexible for layout. The best feature is the horizontal motherboard layout, reducing stress on GPU sagging, as well as letting the heat rise up and out instead of cooking the cards above it.
* Dell U3415W 34" ultrawide (after this many years in the biz, do you really need an explanation on the monitor?) - This thing is like having 2 monitors, but in one, I am amazed at how much more productive it is than having two monitors. A bit more expensive, but worth it.
* Samsung 950 pro M.2 512GB NVME SSD (Really fast boot times, load times, everything is faster) - Remember your first SSD? Well you will also remember your first M.2 PCI SSD - It smokes anything I have seen before. 4k is coming quickly, if it's not already here, read/write performance is crucial to performance.
* Intel i75930k 3.5ghz processor (well, you have to save some money somewhere) - The main reason I chose this processor was to get the 40pci lanes, and 6 cores for when I do need CPU rendering. It's OK, and a good value for what you get.

So, you are probably asking, why not (4) 980ti cards... Because I actually needed the last port for a blackmagic decklink card to color grade the images and footage on a production monitor. Most of you will probably not need this, but I do a lot of video work too, and want to be able to grade properly. If you are not grading your renders now, I suggest investing some time in Davinci Resolve, it's free and what you learn about color theory will undoubtedly improve your CG work.

So, I have this beautiful machine, with beautiful cards, pretty sexy eh? Did I mention the corsair CPU water cooling? or the fact that my GPUs never get above 45 celcius? Or the fact that it is quieter than my water heater (which is on the other side of my office.. er basement wall)?
Ok, it's not the fastest, or the prettiest, or the smallest. But it is perfect for production, with an Octanebench score of 412, after overclocking. I spent about ~$6k putting it together in October, so you should be able to up a couple of parts or save some money with the same build today.

Hope this helps someone out there find the machine they need.

[gabrielefx]

Hi,
I started to work with cgi 25 years ago with an SGI Indy and Softimage...
Your workstation is ok because you built it for Davinci Resolve...
What about the case?

For maximum performance I suggest to add a second one with full filled 4 gpus because Octane has the best distributed render on the planet.
Sending a scene to the slaves it's a snap, it works like a charm.

regards

[rcheezum]

Yeah, remember the old phrase, model in poweranimator, animate in Softimage? My first Mental Ray experience was in Softimage. When they released Softimage ICE at Siggraph, they actually brought in Vanilla Ice for the party! Siggraph used to be really, really cool!

Yeah, I added some notes in my post about Resolve, it's great, and free!

I posted the case, it's a Thermaltake Core x9. I absolutely love it, love it, love it. It looks good, breathes well, and holds the MB horizontal so GPU's vent straight up and out.

I am highly tempted to build a second node for distributed. From what I have seen and read it works pretty well. At the same time, the performance I am getting with this is sufficient for my current needs.

Does anyone know of farm resources in case of a crunch project?

[JPCastel]

* Asus x99-e WS USB 3.1 (whatever the heck 3.1 means)

USB 3.1, next iteration of USB 3.
Double the speed. From 5Gbit/s to 10 Gbit/s

Wikipedia it

[rcheezum]

* Asus x99-e WS USB 3.1 (whatever the heck 3.1 means)

USB 3.1, next iteration of USB 3.
Double the speed. From 5Gbit/s to 10 Gbit/s

Wikipedia it

LOL!! You found my easter egg!

[alfabruce]

Hi Rcheezum,

Im interested in building something similar for my Octane use as my Rampage 4 extreme has just fried.
Is that motherboard OK for sound and fan controllers etc.

Why did you choose that WS version over the pro or the Deluxe versions? Is it more stable, better longevity etc?

Cheers

Tim