New workstation build

[arobbert]

Looking at getting a new workstation and wanted to see what you guys think about it.

CASE: Corsair Obsidian 750D with three AF140L fans

CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-5960X Extreme Edition Eight-Core 3.00GHz 20MB Intel Smart

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16

Cooling: Corsair Hydro H110 280mm Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ Copper Cold Plate - Extreme Performance (2 x Standard 140MM Fans)

HD_M2PCIE: 128GB Plextor PX-G128M6e M.2 PCI-Express 2.0 SSD - 770MB/s Read & 625MB/s Write- for OS

HDD: 240GB Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 450MB/s Read and 450MB/s Write- for programs

MEMORY: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR4/2400MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS X99-A ATX W/ Intel GbE LAN, 4x Gen3 PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x1, 1x M.2, 8x SATA 6Gb/s

NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

OS: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit Edition)

OVERCLOCK: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more) -
20% eh? I hope to get more. For $50 they will OC the machine and warrant it.

POWERSUPPLY: 850 Watts - Thermaltake Smart Series SP-850M 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply

SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR [3 Year Labor, 1 Year Parts] LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
PRICE: $2527

[Companioncube]

bump up the ram to 32GB

[arobbert]

Yeah, I've been trying to decide about that. It will bump the price up a bit more than I can afford. I'd have to sacrifice something big to make up the difference. I really want that processor.
I could dump the GTX 970 and go with a GTX 750Ti. I'm not doing and RT.

[leo.surrealismo]

16 gb is way too low, get 32 as companioncube said.

[Joelaff]

Definitely need RAM, and why go with an obsolete OS? Window 8.1 is fantastic once you install Classic Shell. You never have to see Metro, but you get all the benefits of better graphics drivers, much better thread priority handling (in 8.1, like in the old XP days, a higher priority thread/process can actually starve a lower priority process. This is the way preemptive multi tasking is supposed to work,and it finally works right again in 8.1. It does not work right in Win 7. Your render will always slow down other processes in Win 7, even if it is low priority.

I don't get why people buy outdated obsolete OSes. I guess you may plan to move to Win 10 anyway, but still.

That cooler works well, but definitely wipe the junk thermal compound that comes with it off and use Arctic silver. I know, I have three of those coolers on three 5960x chips. The first two I used the included thermal paste. The next one I used what I normally use, which is Arctic Silver. It made about. 10-14degree C difference, which is pretty substantial, allowing you to over lock more. I have since re done them all with Arctic Silver.

[arobbert]

Thank you everyone. This is great info! I'm bumping up the ram to 32 and will likely switch to Win 8.1. Great tip on the thermal compound.

[Joelaff]

I would go with a fatter PSU as well. At least 1000 watt, and at least 80 plus gold (platinum better) for efficiency. We have burned up far too many Thermaltake PSUs in our render farm for me to buy them again. I like Corsair. Newegg had some refurbished Corsairs yesterday for a good price. PSU output fades over time, especially with heavy use. So overbuying is a good plan if you can afford it. A good solid 12v rail also influences how much you can overclock.

Honestly, I would just get a 1TB SSD and use it for everything. 128 or 256 gigs is not much for today's bloated programs. The M2 is nice (we have the Samsung 512 in one machine as a local cache for Fusion). But I think it would be total overkill for 3d work (and that's not really all that much faster for simple things).

That mobo is good. Also consider the AsRock OC. We have some of each. The AsRock is at least sometimes a lot cheaper. I initially picked one up on a Black Friday (usually buying Asus) sale and was rather impressed that I bought two more for a couple more render nodes (all 5960x). The AsRock auto updates its BIOS from the BIOS (downloads it and everything) pretty slick. I have not tried the M2 slot in the AsRock. Really my only beef with the AsRock was that the board comes zip tied to its packaging (use scissors, not a knife), and the front panel header connectors are directly on the mobo, rather than connecting all those wires to a single plug and plugging that into the mobo. These are minor... Most importantly, the AsRock can do a good old boot beep if you attach a beeper which comes with some cases. There is just something quaint about a computer that beeps when you turn it on, and I miss that on newer machines.

Edit: I see you said the Asus X99-a. Ours are the deluxe model. Probably pretty similar performance, though. Perhaps see what AsRock offers at that price point. Though you can't really go wrong with Asus.

[arobbert]

I would go with a fatter PSU as well. At least 1000 watt, and at least 80 plus gold (platinum better) for efficiency. We have burned up far too many Thermaltake PSUs in our render farm for me to buy them again. I like Corsair. Newegg had some refurbished Corsairs yesterday for a good price. PSU output fades over time, especially with heavy use. So overbuying is a good plan if you can afford it. A good solid 12v rail also influences how much you can overclock.

Honestly, I would just get a 1TB SSD and use it for everything. 128 or 256 gigs is not much for today's bloated programs. The M2 is nice (we have the Samsung 512 in one machine as a local cache for Fusion). But I think it would be total overkill for 3d work (and that's not really all that much faster for simple things).

That mobo is good. Also consider the AsRock OC. We have some of each. The AsRock is at least sometimes a lot cheaper. I initially picked one up on a Black Friday (usually buying Asus) sale and was rather impressed that I bought two more for a couple more render nodes (all 5960x). The AsRock auto updates its BIOS from the BIOS (downloads it and everything) pretty slick. I have not tried the M2 slot in the AsRock. Really my only beef with the AsRock was that the board comes zip tied to its packaging (use scissors, not a knife), and the front panel header connectors are directly on the mobo, rather than connecting all those wires to a single plug and plugging that into the mobo. These are minor... Most importantly, the AsRock can do a good old boot beep if you attach a beeper which comes with some cases. There is just something quaint about a computer that beeps when you turn it on, and I miss that on newer machines.

Edit: I see you said the Asus X99-a. Ours are the deluxe model. Probably pretty similar performance, though. Perhaps see what AsRock offers at that price point. Though you can't really go wrong with Asus.

Thanks. The price is creaping up.
Changed the PSU to a 1000 watt 80 plus gold.
Dumped the M2 and smaller SSD in favor of a 500 gig SSD (I don't use many programs on this machine). ADATA SP900 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 555MB/s Read & 535MB/s Write
I get a better deal on X99-a.

[Joelaff]

Cool. Just be sure the PSU has a single 12v rail (or be prepared to figure out where each peripheral should be plugged in to the PSU). NewEgg can do a compare feature and show you the number of rails for multiple PSUs when you are shopping.

The X99-a will be great.