Need advice

[wiregen]

Hi everyone,

I need advice into building a rendering machine. This is mostly used for editing and rendering 4k video with after effects. I'm just looking for the best performance per dollar.

Motherboard: ASUS Z10PE-D8

Processor: 2x Xeon E5-2660 (8core 16 threads) <-- Is there a better value processor? I found these on ebay hovering around $275 each.

Ram: ECC Ram (any recommendation?)

Video Cards: EVGA GTX 980 SCs

 

[redrage]

You don't need a 980 for a render box(?) After effects CS6 only uses the GPU for the ray tracing. you can save a couple hundred by going back to the 970. (newer version maybe different though double check that)

The 2660v3 is 10core/20 thread. for an 8/16 check out e5-2630 about half the price give or take.

 

[Moflo]

Here you have a list of Intels Xeon E5 v3 dual CPU's so you can compare them.
http://ark.intel.com/compare/81061,81060,81059,81057,81713,81909,81055,81908,81709,83361,81706,81705,81900,83359,83358,83356,83354,83352,81897,83349

As for memory Kingston ValueRam 16GB DDR4-2133 Registered Quad-kit. If you get 2 you'll have 32 GB of RAM Certainly don't need more than that. But you could use Crucial EEC memory, they are a bit cheaper and work fine. And there is some Samsung LRDIMM memory to if you need that.

As for GPU I don't use After Effects Do you use anything else? like Premiere. Because than you do need a good GPU card. They mostly recommend Quadro because of their bigger RAM if you read the latest article on the Fury her on HardOCP you'll see that the Fury fails because of it's 4GB memory limitation.