Need advice on building a system for rendering

[Cotton_Cup]

well I do pretty much the same work as you as my job is about those stuff anyway specially photoshop and maya and other stuff of my interest. currently using 3 monitors of this and works wonder for what I do.

ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight Wid...
ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight

I have 2 systems which I use for my work. one has a 8350 and the other is the 3930k, both are good actually and gets me my job done and all. I also have the 8150 but put it on another rig with lesser parts and put the 8350 on where the 8150 was, but it all comes down to what you choose, I can say that the 8350 is a good contender but I do not own any xeon so the choice is still yours

[kysg]

Update:

Almost finished up. I'm waiting for another case. I have a case already but had ordered this guy.

XION Gaming Series XON-560_BK Black Steel / Plasti...

I ordered it from amazon but still waiting on it.

It has PSU mount on bottom which I guess is an okay deal. There is also a spot for top fan, and there are vent holes on both sides. I know what cooling options I would go with between both cases

For that one I would do

Front: intake
Rear: exhaust
Side: exhaust
Top: exhaust

This is the case I got now. I haven't opened the box yet
Rosewill LINE-M Micro-ATX Mini Tower Computer Case...

after looking at the pictures I figured the cooling setup would be

front: intake
Rear: exhaust
Side: exhaust

I do have a question though I'm unsure about which CPU cooler to get. I did some research and I'm stuck on two right now.

This one
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Contin...

and this one
COOLER MASTER GeminII M4 RR-GMM4-16PK-R2 120mm Sli...

I don't if there is any huge difference between the latter and this one.
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatp...

So yea that is probably the last issue I have to deal with.

only problem I would see is if I could manage to fit it in the case.

[Norton]

@kysg- those newegg links aren't working

[kysg]

Originally Posted by Norton

@kysg- those newegg links aren't working

fixed.

Also this is the current status of the build

USB stick: Kingston DataTraveler 111 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive... - this is so I can boot and install ubuntu.
Current case: Rosewill LINE-M Micro-ATX Mini Tower Computer Case...
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DD...
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Tu...
monitor: ViewSonic VX2370Smh-LED Black 23" 7ms (GTG) IPS-Pa...
HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB C...
mobo: MSI H77MA-G43 LGA 1155 Intel H77 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3....
PSU: CORSAIR CX430M 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Cer...
vidcard: EVGA 02G-P4-2651-KR GeForce GTX 650 2GB 128-bit GD... - this I'm gonna change later. I just don't like what I see from the quadro's right now.

Alternate case: XION Gaming Series XON-560_BK Black Steel / Plasti...
haven't made any decisions on

CPU cooler
additional fans for cases
and thermal paste.

[Norton]

Most 120mm tower coolers won't fit in those mATX cases you selected

*Note- the NZXT source 210 case will barely clear those coolers (7.68" width and clears by < 0.25"- my estimate) so your case width should be at least that wide.

[kysg]

Originally Posted by Norton

Most 120mm tower coolers won't fit in those mATX cases you selected

*Note- the NZXT source 210 case will barely clear those coolers (7.68" width and clears by < 0.25"- my estimate) so your case width should be at least that wide.

ah okay, so should opt for a 92mm fan instead.

Yea I couldn't figure out the measurements in my head so that is why I had to ask. Another concern was making sure fan didn't cover up the RAM slots

[Norton]

Originally Posted by kysg

ah okay, so should opt for a 92mm fan instead.

Yea I couldn't figure out the measurements in my head so that is why I had to ask. Another concern was making sure fan didn't cover up the RAM slots

You would need to check cooler reviews to get an idea on ram clearance or just get low profile ram- DDR3 runs cools so the fancy heatsinks on them are for looks.... mostly

[kysg]

Your right...Well ram cooler height isn't that high only about .5inch higher than normal RAM. Not even that. Worst case I'm taking the stock cooler.

yep I think these two should clear it.
ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

COOLER MASTER Hyper TX3 RR-910-HTX3-G1 "Heatpipe D...

[Morgoth]

you sould be enabled to get 2 E5520 xeons for a low price 16 threads power

why would you pick a xeon if you are not going for multi socket or ecc/buffered ram ?

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by Morgoth

you sould be enabled to get 2 E5520 xeons for a low price 16 threads power

why would you pick a xeon if you are not going for multi socket or ecc/buffered ram ?

...and my 3820 does the 7-zip benchmark just as fast as your 2 E5520s.

I agree with that statement though. Unless you absolutely need the features that a Xeon offers, I wouldn't go with a 1P Xeon rig.

[Morgoth]

Originally Posted by Aquinus

...and my 3820 does the 7-zip benchmark just as fast as your 2 E5520s.

I agree with that statement though. Unless you absolutely need the features that a Xeon offers, I wouldn't go with a 1P Xeon rig.

mine are running stock yours over 4 ghz

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by Morgoth

mine are running stock yours over 4 ghz

Then overclock them, oh wait.
I also have a significant lead at 4.94Ghz, dropping to 4.5 - 4.3 would probably put me at about the same numbers if I were to guess, maybe I should try it out. The point is newer Xeons don't give you the flexibility to overclock.
I also still see the E5520 going for ~250 USD new (less used, but that's the same for any CPU), which is only 50 USD less than the 3820 brand new.

Although I still think that a 8350 is the best cost effective platform for what the rig will be doing and I suspect that a 16c Interlagos CPU could do pretty well too if you really wanted to take that route.
You have 16c BD opterons going for ~550 USD on NewEgg and 16c PD opterons starting ~730 USD. I suspect that the new Abu Dhabi chips tear through multi-threaded tasks. That would really be stretching the budget though.

[kysg]

Originally Posted by Aquinus

Then overclock them, oh wait.
I also have a significant lead at 4.94Ghz, dropping to 4.5 - 4.3 would probably put me at about the same numbers if I were to guess, maybe I should try it out. The point is newer Xeons don't give you the flexibility to overclock.
I also still see the E5520 going for ~250 USD new (less used, but that's the same for any CPU), which is only 50 USD less than the 3820 brand new.

Although I still think that a 8350 is the best cost effective platform for what the rig will be doing and I suspect that a 16c Interlagos CPU could do pretty well too if you really wanted to take that route.
You have 16c BD opterons going for ~550 USD on NewEgg and 16c PD opterons starting ~730 USD. I suspect that the new Abu Dhabi chips tear through multi-threaded tasks. That would really be stretching the budget though.

Why not two e5520's because that setup just isn't gonna happen, a two core setup just isn't cheap.

Opteron isn't a go because a starting 8 core is almost if not the same price as an i7-3770k/2600k

the 6 core valencia is at the same price point.
I could check amazon but not gonna go that route.

I could send the CPU and mobo and Ram back but then I'd have restocking fees, and shipping costs to deal with. I ordered some parts off amazon so I don't get much leeway here.

when re evaluating it was either take the 8core amd or i7 setup or intel xeon. I did check opterons but they were just out of range. Hypothetically the best build setup is a 2 core rig, but that is a couple hundo's out the gate.

on the amd8core - just not many good matx boards there except for that lone gigabyte.
Also when comparing the two when I was doing hypothetical builds. Amd 8core vs xeon the price point is only about 50-100 dollar difference. Not a huge deal breaker for me. Even then big variables there are the video card and PSU.

Which if I had opted for an amd 8 core I would have had to spend extra dough on the PSU and vid card, and a cpu cooler so pretty much would be about the same price as a xeon with stock cooler. If I was Oc'ing I'd see your point. Also another problem I face is sales tax.

At the end of the day the xeon made sense, because

A. I didn't need to overclock
B. had similar performance to the i7

As far as not taking ECC RAM, I've arguments for and against, I'm just not on board with it.
this thing isn't shoving huge chunks of data to other machines so I'm not justified in getting it.

[eidairaman1]

Do what you want dude, good luck on the build, You might want ECC for the rendering honestly (trade off being slightly slower)

Originally Posted by kysg

Why not two e5520's because that setup just isn't gonna happen, a two core setup just isn't cheap.

Opteron isn't a go because a starting 8 core is almost if not the same price as an i7-3770k/2600k

the 6 core valencia is at the same price point.
I could check amazon but not gonna go that route.

I could send the CPU and mobo and Ram back but then I'd have restocking fees, and shipping costs to deal with. I ordered some parts off amazon so I don't get much leeway here.

when re evaluating it was either take the 8core amd or i7 setup or intel xeon. I did check opterons but they were just out of range. Hypothetically the best build setup is a 2 core rig, but that is a couple hundo's out the gate.

on the amd8core - just not many good matx boards there except for that lone gigabyte.
Also when comparing the two when I was doing hypothetical builds. Amd 8core vs xeon the price point is only about 50-100 dollar difference. Not a huge deal breaker for me. Even then big variables there are the video card and PSU.

Which if I had opted for an amd 8 core I would have had to spend extra dough on the PSU and vid card, and a cpu cooler so pretty much would be about the same price as a xeon with stock cooler. If I was Oc'ing I'd see your point. Also another problem I face is sales tax.

At the end of the day the xeon made sense, because

A. I didn't need to overclock
B. had similar performance to the i7

As far as not taking ECC RAM, I've arguments for and against, I'm just not on board with it.
this thing isn't shoving huge chunks of data to other machines so I'm not justified in getting it.

[kysg]

This is what it ended up being

CPU: Intel xeon v1230 v2
RAM: GSkill 16gb 2 x 8 gb
Vid card: nvidia GTX 650 2gb (will change in future)
Mobo: MSI B75 micro atx, H77 board failed, haven't tried the replacement, will probably sell at a loss.
PSU: PC power and cooling 400W psu, Corsair PSU failed, will sell that at a loss.
HD: seagate 1TB hdd
OS: Suse linux 12.2
monitor: Viewsonic 23" e-IPS
case: xion gamer series (or some crap like that)