Help Building A Rig for Rendering

kyoto kid

kenshaw011267 said:

Linus is a well known silent rig fanatic. His review is worthless. The simple fact is you should never buy be quiet except when your goal is a quiet rig. Check Gamers Nexus for actual performance stats on the case. It simply isn't worth the money.

...the fog test illustrated that the case is extremely good at moving air though and out of the system.

Unfortunately most cases today have gone to the tempered glass side panels, fine for gamers who want to show off the guts with a light show inside, rather pointless for a serious CG production/render system

The P-193 I have (sadly discontinued) has not only a vent on the left panel but large fan there as well with a dust filter that really helps keep internal temps down to where I can get by without needing liquid cooling for the CPU/GPU.   Also there is nothing inherently wrong with having a quiet system. My case has 7 fans yet is barely audible even during heavy duty rendering.

Everyone has their own preferences.  From my experience over the years a case with more than ample airflow is preferable for a render workhorse that will be driving the GPU(s) at peak performance.  There are other cases with side panel vents and fans out there (some on both the left and right side), but the game system build houses rarely if ever feature them as they look "too boring".  You have to go to a professional workstation builder (more expensive) or BIY, the latter which the OP is does not seem interested in.

kenshaw011267

The fog test proved the case wasn't air tight. It did not prove that the air flow in the case was sufficient to cool an actual system. The fact that this is a discontinued case that be quiet dumped a bunch on ibuypower to rebrand should clue you in. The only reason to get this case would be if it was the cheapest option with an external drive bay if you wanted that there certainly are superior options for pure performance.

Side vents and fans have been shown to be pretty much irrelevant for case cooling. Air mostly travels in a straight like so adding fans or vents off that line does little and may even hurt cooling by affecting the force of that primary airflow.

Takeo.Kensei

Price are cheaper at cyberpowerpc

Check this one https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer-Infinity-XLC

Change the Memory from 16GB to 2x16 GB DDR4 3000Mhz and you should be around 2800$

If you want to further lower the price you can downgrade the CPU to a i5 9600K or even i5 8400 if you don't really need a lot of CPU power. The i5 is largely sufficient to run DS with Iray

You can end up with an appropriate configuration at less than 2700$. Also check the deals of the site

 

As mentioned by some other people, if you could mount the PC yourself, the price could further go down (in the 2200-2300 $ range)

kyoto kid

kenshaw011267 said:

The fog test proved the case wasn't air tight. It did not prove that the air flow in the case was sufficient to cool an actual system. The fact that this is a discontinued case that be quiet dumped a bunch on ibuypower to rebrand should clue you in. The only reason to get this case would be if it was the cheapest option with an external drive bay if you wanted that there certainly are superior options for pure performance.

Side vents and fans have been shown to be pretty much irrelevant for case cooling. Air mostly travels in a straight like so adding fans or vents off that line does little and may even hurt cooling by affecting the force of that primary airflow.

...depends on the design mine is more efficeint at airflow than without. I can also reverse the side fan to become a fourth exhaust fan which would draw hot air out form the GPU area  

Was not aware that case was discontinued.  

 

kyoto kid

Takeo.Kensei said:

Price are cheaper at cyberpowerpc

Check this one https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer-Infinity-XLC

Change the Memory from 16GB to 2x16 GB DDR4 3000Mhz and you should be around 2800$

If you want to further lower the price you can downgrade the CPU to a i5 9600K or even i5 8400 if you don't really need a lot of CPU power. The i5 is largely sufficient to run DS with Iray

You can end up with an appropriate configuration at less than 2700$. Also check the deals of the site

 

As mentioned by some other people, if you could mount the PC yourself, the price could further go down (in the 2200-2300 $ range)

..for 2,747$ I made the following changes:

8th Generation Intel i7 8700K

Corsair Carbide series Cse (this has a mesh front panel instead of tempered glass which is better for airflow)

Kit of 3 additional fans for upper vent exhaust.

32 GB (16 GB x 2) Corsair Vengence LPX 3200MHz

Corsair TX-M 80+ Gold 850 W PSU

I nixed the keyboard and mouse as they are oriented for gaming rather than CG production.  Again better to get a standard mechanical keyboard (don't need one of the fancy lit ones) and a 3 button mouse or multi button trackball.

I would also suggest as an aftermarket installation, a second 3 GB HDD (for storage/backup).  You can get that cheaper on your own and it is easy to install.

Another option would be to go to a place like PC Part Picker or Newegg, order all the components, then take them to a local shop to be assembled & tested if you are uncomfortable with BIY.

 

davidwski_16294691f0

thebiggydiggy said:

I suggest you take the list of things you need (A PC with an NVIDIA GPU) and either e-mail or physically visit outlets for advice. Just a glance at your intended purchases I'm thinking you're about to waste a colossal amount of money. Stores will give you completely free advice for the potential sale of a system, so just go around and get advice from professionals because this isn't cutting it.

Just throwing the equivalent of that system into pcpartspicker picking high-end parts I end up a good 800 dollars below the numbers you're quoting.

Find a professional. Don't spend 3400 dollars on the advice of the dazstudio forums. This is a mistake.

I absolutely second this opinion.  If you spend $3,000 for a rendering machine, unless you are considering some professional application, is (like the Phillies owner) planning on spending stupid amounts of money for the performance you'll get (or even need).

Going to forums like these asking for opinions on computers or software is basically like arguing philosphy.

outrider42

You need to consider that "be quiet" cases are optimized fortheir namesake over cooling. Iray will run your computer hard, and quiet is not going to cut it for cooling. There are really only 2 ways to truly be quiet: either the fans are tuned to run slow, or the computer is water cooled.

If you are doing air cooling, then you want to look for cases that are good at air flow and cooling.

I also recommend going with AMD for the CPU. They are offering the best bang for your buck these days, and you can save a lot of money simply making that choice. Not only are the CPUs cheaper, the motherboards for them are cheaper, too, so you save even more by choosing AMD.

RAM is dropping in price, but it is still expensive to drop 64gb in. As I said earlier, if plan things out you can always add RAM later. You can get 32 now with 2 sticks of 16gb. You even might find you don't need more.

VRAM is a touchy subject. Obviously the more the better, but everyone must confront their budget and ultimately make their own choice. I would love to buy a 2080ti, but the price of that card is outrageous. Instead I went to eBay and found a $500 1080ti, and I know I was lucky to get that price. If you can afford a 2080ti, then cool, it might twice as fast as a 1080ti, but if it is breaking your budget then don't force yourself. There are a lot of ways to cheat with Iray to make larger pictures than your card can handle. The easiest example, do you need to render all the items/people in the scene at the same time? Maybe not. There are also tools in the store to help optimize items to use less VRAM. You can compress textures, ect. For most users of this site and forum, most people here have less than 11gb to work with. That doesn't stop some people from making amazing things. Everyone has to work within their limitations.

nicstt

Chezjuan said:

plaul2002 said:

nicstt said:

Don't use all your RAM slots to get your memory; 2 x 8 not 4 x4 as an example.

That last system looks good, but I'd consider an AMD; unless you are a very serious gamer, they offer a better deal.

Where's the SSD? Not quite essential, but vastly improve the experience; I use all SSDs, only using mechanical for backups which I have in a caddy and can just unplug; alternatively a USB 3 enclosure can work too. (I like SSDs due to noise, or the lack of it.)

This rig is being built purely for rendering.  I'm not a gamer at all. I want SSD , maybe 1 TB Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive -- 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 6.0Gb/s but I'm already stretching... I could go AMD AMD Radeon RX VEGA 64 - 8GB (VR-Ready) cross fire and save some money but would I still hit my parameters?

I believe that nicstt was referring to AMD for the processor as opposed to the Intel i7. If you intend to render Iray, you need the NVidia GPU.

Correct.

AMD CPU with comparable or better performance for less cash.

nicstt

outrider42 said:

You need to consider that "be quiet" cases are optimized fortheir namesake over cooling. Iray will run your computer hard, and quiet is not going to cut it for cooling. There are really only 2 ways to truly be quiet: either the fans are tuned to run slow, or the computer is water cooled.

 

If you are doing air cooling, then you want to look for cases that are good at air flow and cooling.

 

I also recommend going with AMD for the CPU. They are offering the best bang for your buck these days, and you can save a lot of money simply making that choice. Not only are the CPUs cheaper, the motherboards for them are cheaper, too, so you save even more by choosing AMD.

 

RAM is dropping in price, but it is still expensive to drop 64gb in. As I said earlier, if plan things out you can always add RAM later. You can get 32 now with 2 sticks of 16gb. You even might find you don't need more.

 

VRAM is a touchy subject. Obviously the more the better, but everyone must confront their budget and ultimately make their own choice. I would love to buy a 2080ti, but the price of that card is outrageous. Instead I went to eBay and found a $500 1080ti, and I know I was lucky to get that price. If you can afford a 2080ti, then cool, it might twice as fast as a 1080ti, but if it is breaking your budget then don't force yourself. There are a lot of ways to cheat with Iray to make larger pictures than your card can handle. The easiest example, do you need to render all the items/people in the scene at the same time? Maybe not. There are also tools in the store to help optimize items to use less VRAM. You can compress textures, ect. For most users of this site and forum, most people here have less than 11gb to work with. That doesn't stop some people from making amazing things. Everyone has to work within their limitations.

I like a quiet computer, but yes, when rendering - I put up with the noise. But when not rendering, then silent.

outrider42

Fan control

nicstt

Indeed; have it.

kenshaw011267

If I thought there was any chance people would pay any attention I'd spec out a high end, $1500 and budget rendering system and post them.

3WC

kenshaw011267 said:

If I thought there was any chance people would pay any attention I'd spec out a high end, $1500 and budget rendering system and post them.

Yes, please. :)

DustRider

3WC said:

kenshaw011267 said:

If I thought there was any chance people would pay any attention I'd spec out a high end, $1500 and budget rendering system and post them.

Yes, please. :)

+1

It would be interesting to see what you come up with.

kenshaw011267

Ok. I'll post them in a new thread.