Build My Render Machine (HD Video, 3D)

[BobMarker]

I need to add another computer to our render farm for HD video editing, render-heavy After Effects and C4D renders. I don't care if it's ugly and un-Mac like. No LED lights or anything like that needed. No bells or whistles. I don't need a pimped ride, just a pimped out inside.

I've got the money in hand and I'm ready to buy this thing tonight.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Heavy HD video editing with sometimes up to 7 HD cams in multi-cam mode (1920x1080 Canon 5d Mark II, Canon 7D, and Sony EX1R footage). Heavy 3D work (Cinema 4D). The computer is rendering almost 24-hours per day.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

$1000-2200 USD. (see note about reusing CPU below).

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

US, far from any major city.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case
Motherboard (Needs to have 8 memory slots). It needs to have at least 32 GB.
CPU
Memory (at least 32GB, possibly 48GB for a good price)
Power supply
Liquid cooler

Do NOT need:
Video cards
harddrives
external raid drives
monitors


5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I have a i7 980X Overclocked on another Dell Alienware machine with 24GB of ram. I'm considering downgrading that machine if it behooves me and using the i7 980x on this new one. I'm not sure if getting a 2600K is a downgrade, but it would be a savings. I'm not sure if I can get a 2600k for the Alienware. Will it work? What info would you need and how do I get that for you?

6) Will you be overclocking?
Light to moderate overclocking. I'm more concerned about 100% stability since it will be rendering 24/7.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I'm using a i-Mac 27 with display port, 24" ASUS monitor and a 30" HP.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Now, today, right now. Need to order tomorrow to build over the weekend.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? etc.

USB 3.0 and esata for external Raid-0 drives.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64 Ultimate.

 

[Dangman]

Prelim setup:
$270 - AMD Opteron 6128 Magny-Cours 8 Core CPU
$665 - ASUS KGPE-D16 SSI EEB 3.61 Dual Socket G34 AMD SR5690 Server Motherboard + AMD Opteron 6128 Magny-Cours 8 Core CPU Combo
$340 - 4 x Kingston KVR1333D3D4R9S/8G 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$150 - Seasonic X650 Gold 650W Modular PSU
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$154 - 2 x Noctua NH-UPDO A3 HSF
-----
Total: $1723 plus tax and shipping

Notes:
- Thats a total of 16 cores.
- I included 32GB of of registered ECC RAM to start with. There's still room on that motherboard for another 12 RAM sticks or an additional 96GB of RAM if using 8GB Registered ECC RAM
- I went with air cooling because I'm not sure of any cases that can hold two of those self-contained water cooling heatsinks. So I went with the best air-cooling HSF possible
- If you don't think you'll need more than 64GB of RAM, ECC RAM features, and are willing to take a chance, it appears that motherboard does work with regular consumer RAM according to the Newegg reviews. But no one has actually filled it up with regular RAM. But if you're willing to take a chance, you can get 64GB of RAM from the start:
$320 - 4 x Corsair XMS3 CMX16GX3M4A1333C9 4 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I have a i7 980X Overclocked on another Dell Alienware machine with 24GB of ram. I'm considering downgrading that machine if it behooves me and using the i7 980x on this new one. I'm not sure if getting a 2600K is a downgrade, but it would be a savings. I'm not sure if I can get a 2600k for the Alienware. Will it work? What info would you need and how do I get that for you?

The 2600K and i7 980X uses different sockets. So they won't be compatible at all.

 

[BobMarker]

Wow, that sounds awesome. And at a very good price too. Thank you!

A couple questions, with 16 cores, I assume that I would be able to run several programs and render them all at the same time, right? (Like After Effects and Cinema 4D and Premiere altogether)?

The most cores I've ever had are 6 on a machine. I guess I need some advise on how to look a this computer. Would I just give it one project at a time (one program) like I do now on my current computers, or would I load it up as if it were 3 individual computers?

I see the speed is 2 Ghz which is much slower than my other computers, but this is made up for the additional cores, right?

I guess what I'm getting at is, if I were to render out just one single project in After Effects and put it up against my current i7 980x machine, would the 980x be faster or slower than this AMD machine?

Would I treat this as a regular desktop or do I treat it differently?

Thanks very much for your awesome breakdown. It was very good!

 

[BobMarker]

Could it handle a couple of these? http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Opteron-M...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1327555572&sr=1-1

Is there a benefit to throwing a lot of cores at these Adobe and Maxon programs? I heard they aren't much good after the first 4 cores. What do you think?

If it makes things much much better, I don't mind spending another $1000 on a lot more performance.

Sorry, I guess I never thought about using a server as an editing/render-farm station. Now that you got me thinking about it, I'm getting all kinds of "bright" ideas.

 

[Dangman]

Wow, that sounds awesome. And at a very good price too. Thank you!

A couple questions, with 16 cores, I assume that I would be able to run several programs and render them all at the same time, right? (Like After Effects and Cinema 4D and Premiere altogether)?

Yes.

The most cores I've ever had are 6 on a machine. I guess I need some advise on how to look a this computer. Would I just give it one project at a time (one program) like I do now on my current computers, or would I load it up as if it were 3 individual computers?

Yes.

I see the speed is 2 Ghz which is much slower than my other computers, but this is made up for the additional cores, right?

Yes

I guess what I'm getting at is, if I were to render out just one single project in After Effects and put it up against my current i7 980x machine, would the 980x be faster or slower than this AMD machine?

Should be slower than the AMD due to the extra 6 cores that the AMD has.

Would I treat this as a regular desktop or do I treat it differently?

Regular desktop if you want.

Could it handle a couple of these? http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Opteron-M...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1327555572&sr=1-1

[/QUOTE]
It could but I'm not sure if it's worth it.

Is there a benefit to throwing a lot of cores at these Adobe and Maxon programs? I heard they aren't much good after the first 4 cores. What do you think?

From what I know, the software you mentioned scale well with multiple cores.

Personally, thats as high as I'm willing to go with an AMD server setup. With an increased budget, I'd look at the Intel socket 2011 platform if they had a cost-effective CPU in stock.