Build: 3970x, dual 2080ti, 8TB m.2 RAID = Render Monster

thesmokingman

Supreme [H]ardness
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Nov 22, 2008
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I'm building a render machine for work on a variety of applications. It will be an investment in reducing completion times in rendering and content creation workloads. This is a build for an old college buddy who works in the industry. On to the component list. Also, going to start with two 480mm rads but there is room for a 3rd if the need arises.


Core parts:

AMD Threadripper 3970x (thanks to tangoseal)
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme
G.SKILL Trident Z Neo 4x16gb F4-3600C16Q-64GTZN x2 = 128gb now
(2) ASUS GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11G
(2) Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2
(4) Sabrent 4TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2
Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 AIC Adaptor (bundled w/ MB)
Gigabyte GC-Titan Ridge TB3 AIC
Seagate Ironwolf 10TB drive
EVGA G2 1600 PSU

Case and cooling:

Thermaltake Core X9
EKWB EK-Velocity sTR4 CPU Waterblock
(2) EKWB EK-Vector RTX RE 2080 Ti
(2) XSPC RX480mm rads
Swiftech MCP35x
Bitspower DDC heatsink
Bitspower Minitank reservoir
(8) Corsair ML120


Originally I was going to use the Phaneteks 719 (Luxe 2) case, but had to axe that because the 719 is tiny in that it only supports 30mm rads in the two 480mm positions. Luckily I have a Core X9 sitting around from another EOL project, so enter the X9. The X9 obviously will fit everything with ease because its ridiculously huge.

Box of goodies...

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Started to prep the case.

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Added a usb-c port to the case. I think I'm going to add an external usb-c cable from the external port on the Titan-Ridge card, replacing the usb port below the new modded usb-c port. The top usb-c is for usb, and the lower one will be for TB3.

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Will update as I go.

Finished build, mb shot with rgb overload.

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The (4) Sabrent Gen4 drives will go into the Aorus AIC bifurication card, think I failed to mention that.

The drives were just delivered.
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Wee, final bits are here. Now I can start actually plumbing things up.
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AIC Gen 4 card coming together.
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When first installed, the pcb bulges from the thermal pads, so i applied pressure to flatten it out. The backplate doesn't apply any pressure to oppose that pad pressure on the other side. I might apply a square of thermal pad to achieve that in the future.

Got beer and cores!

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AIC card fortunately does not block ports!
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Using Radeon VII for plumbing/layout.

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Very nice, do you use davinci resolve? Will be interesting if 2x 2080 ti cards can make full use of all 32 cores, as some other benchmarks I saw only having one 2080ti was a bottleneck for the 3970x.
 
For rendering. Not enough RAM. 128 or 256GB would have been better. I would have taken some ECC RAM. 2080Ti has not enough VRAM for rendering. You should take a Titan RTX card instead or a couple of them.
You should get an Optane 280/480 GB for cache. No gain in Raid 0 SSD. Not more than RAID1. Those could be Sata, but not the optane better on U2.
You want better perfomance, safer (more RAM), compact size. Take the Asrock X399M + 2950X or even 1950X + 4x32GB Samsung ecc@2800 + 2 Titan RTX. CPU nearly doesn't count if you render by GPU. You can put the latter in a micro-ATX case like the Silverstone SG09 or SG10 the Titan RTX into slot 1 et slot 3) with a Corsair RM 1000 is fair enough.
Are the EVGA PSU of good quality ? Instead or Corsair 1600i or Seasonic 1200. Not sure.
 
Yeah I went with ECC on my 3970x, just dropped some RGB heatsinks on the ram, only three of them clear the noctua with a push / pull setup, probably should start making a list of watercooling parts.
 

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For rendering. Not enough RAM. 128 or 256GB would have been better. I would have taken some ECC RAM. 2080Ti has not enough VRAM for rendering. You should take a Titan RTX card instead or a couple of them.
You should get an Optane 280/480 GB for cache. No gain in Raid 0 SSD. Not more than RAID1. Those could be Sata, but not the optane better on U2.
You want better perfomance, safer (more RAM), compact size. Take the Asrock X399M + 2950X or even 1950X + 4x32GB Samsung ecc@2800 + 2 Titan RTX. CPU nearly doesn't count if you render by GPU. You can put the latter in a micro-ATX case like the Silverstone SG09 or SG10 the Titan RTX into slot 1 et slot 3) with a Corsair RM 1000 is fair enough.
Are the EVGA PSU of good quality ? Instead or Corsair 1600i or Seasonic 1200. Not sure.
Why ECC for a rendering workstation? Note, I am not asking what ECC is or does.

Also, for optane isn't storemi not that great when it comes to caching and he would need to use something like PrimoCache?
 
Those are only 2TB drives. You list 4TB ones in your OP.
Did they send you the wrong ones?

Title was a typo, since fixed. It's an 8TB array. To my knowledge there are not 4TB gen4 drives out w/o getting into ludicrous enterprise drives. Then again, 1.5k is enough spent in that area.

Very nice, do you use davinci resolve? Will be interesting if 2x 2080 ti cards can make full use of all 32 cores, as some other benchmarks I saw only having one 2080ti was a bottleneck for the 3970x.
What software are you intending on running?

Apps used are C4D, Maya, Adobe PS, Illustrator, Premiere, AE, Redshift, xParticles, Mocha, Houdini with Arnold and Octane.

Why ECC for a rendering workstation? Note, I am not asking what ECC is or does.

Also, for optane isn't storemi not that great when it comes to caching and he would need to use something like PrimoCache?

ECC isn't needed for rendering or CAD etc. We skimped on the ram size since pricing is a bit steep atm. I suspect in a few months after its shown some returns the ram size will be bumped up or replaced with a higher density set.


Man, UPS is killing me with their slow delivery...
 
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We used Puget test files to benchrace our white boxes vs their #'s.
Adjust accordingly.
That's what a return window is for.
 
ECC isn't needed for rendering or CAD etc. We skimped on the ram size since pricing is a bit steep atm. I suspect in a few months after its shown some returns the ram size will be bumped up or replaced with a higher density set.
Oh I know. I just wanted to hear their justification for the suggestion.
 
Very nice, do you use davinci resolve? Will be interesting if 2x 2080 ti cards can make full use of all 32 cores, as some other benchmarks I saw only having one 2080ti was a bottleneck for the 3970x.

This machine is going to a MONSTER!

I too use Resolve 16 and 3960x and 2080ti haul ass on rendering jobs. Make sure you load up on ram. Some Fusion render jobs in resolve can easily smoke my 32GB ram.

In resolve you can use Native h264 encode which is CPU based or you can choose VCE or Cuda for gpus.

However most of the work the 3960x/70x will do is decoding video and elements to.pass off to the GPU. Remember Resolve is primarily and almost completely written around the GPU
 
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Hnnnnggg! Love it man what a beast, awesome case too.
All the TR3 builds are pretty [H]ard so far.
 
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Not totally set on the reservoir, but that's easy to swap. Might go to a tube res matching the height of the outlet port on the cpu block. I originally was going to use a Singularity 300mm tube but it is sort of too tall. It would have been perfect in the Phaneteks 719, but is a little out of place in a short case.
 
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Soon as I get some more Goop, going to glue two fans onto the back of the HD trays visible above.
 
I feel like if you add another ram kit and 5 more of those 10tb drives (or the sata drives mentioned above) it'll be complete - you'd be using every single plug on that board, which is no small feat on trx40.

Sweet build.
 
I feel like if you add another ram kit and 5 more of those 10tb drives (or the sata drives mentioned above) it'll be complete - you'd be using every single plug on that board, which is no small feat on trx40.

Sweet build.

Hehe, well I tell you what, the build has just about used up all the pcie lanes. Gpus are going to use 16+8, m.2 raid uses 16 lanes, and the Titan Rdige TB3 uses 4 lanes, leaving 4 lanes free. The spinner drive number will go up but dealing with those later. The rig just shredded thru Windows install, it's up!

Why do you have the fans sucking in at the top?
It's going to keep the inside of the case saturated with excess heat, blow out the top and it pulls in cool air into the case and then out.

Prioritizing cooling on the rads. There's plenty of air circulation if you haven't noticed.
 
Gonna hijack lol

Your build is looking awesome smoke!

Here is mine. I'm redoing all the innards.

Brand new box of Delta 14mmHg high pressure PWM fans. Loud AF at full throttle but whisper at 500rpm.

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RGB overload, lol. Running stock except memory is set to XMP/DOCP, 3600mhz 16-16-16. I'm a bit surprised considering this is 64GB!!!

Looks good! RGB FTW! Can't be an epic rendering machine if you don't have RGB (non sarcasm)

You shoudl turn the left 2 fans in the photo so that the motor logo matches the other two on the right.
 
Looks good! RGB FTW! Can't be an epic rendering machine if you don't have RGB (non sarcasm)

You shoudl turn the left 2 fans in the photo so that the motor logo matches the other two on the right.

I turn them like that to make the cables even. Besides, you can't see/make out anything behind the side panel, just the leds. I'll probably lay some gasket to cover the light leaks on the front panel and wherever else.

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I turn them like that to make the cables even. Besides, you can't see/make out anything behind the side panel, just the leds. I'll probably lay some gasket to cover the light leaks on the front panel and wherever else.

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Oh with the side panel on you cant tell! Looks totally different.

Thats a true power house right there and looks really good!

Throw some benches at us now hahaha

Would love to see what she can do!

I get around 13600 in R20. Maybe you can make a video of all those threads doing a CB20 run .
 
I'm still validating the memory but I did manage to do a Timespy Extreme run.

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I gotta say, TR3's IMC is pretty darn sweet. Running 4x16gb at 3600mhz with tight timings with cpu at stock atm. It's averaging 60c in P95 with peaks up to 85c.

*Just ran R20, got 16870.
 
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Hmm, some oddities with NVME RAID and the AIC card.

When installed by default under "Storage Controllers" most of those AMD-RAID Bottom Device listings were setup as "Standard NVM Express Controllers", this prevented the controllers from being activated. I was scratching my head (wtf) why the AMD's RAIDXpert2 could not see any drives? Switching the drivers on all Standard NVM Express Controllers to AMD-RAID Bottom Devices enabled RAIDXpert to see and manage the drives.

Click on controller, update driver, browse my computer, let me pick from list and you should see AMD-RAID Bottom Device and Standard NVM Express Controller. Choose AMD-RAID Bottom Device, you don't have to reboot right away. Do this for all the controllers listed as Standard NVM Express Controller, then reboot when they have all been updated.

Also, this is the order for chipset/raid driver install that I used. I started with the freshest chipset driver package off amd.com and then the raid software package. The chipset drivers will actually install the raid drivers. But currently the raid software package has newer raid drivers. Ok, I just confirmed if installed in this order, the raid drivers will be updated by the latest raid software package, so we can just skip the raid driver package.
 
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