December 2010 Workstations
Apologies to all for the late update this month. The last couple of weeks have been too crazy, and I've been waiting for the GPU market to settle in after the last round of new products. Which brings us to:
New GPUs
ATI and nVidia both introduced some new GPUs in the last month. nVidia's latest are the GF110-based Geforce GTX 580 and 570. A bit of explanation here. Back in the spring, I was at the show where they launched the GTX 480 and 470. These were the first of the promised "Fermi" line, using the GF100 GPU, and they were fast - no faster than the competition, but faster than nVidia's previous line and with some interesting features like improved in-game physics and Direct3D in stereo. But the GF100 chips were obviously a rush job. They leaked power and overheated, nVidia was never able to make a production version of the chip with all 512 cores turned on and a lot of customers avoided them. I recommended them in system only very reluctantly.
nVidia improved the situation with the GF104, which corrected many of the GF100's flaws and hit the midrange. The GF110 brings those fixes to the high-end and should replace the GF100. Due to architectural and power handling fixed, and improved production, the 570 is as fast as the 480 and uses 50W less power under load, and the 580 is faster than the 480 and uses roughly the same amount of power.
So these are good, but I still can't recommend them unconditionally because the Radeon 5870 can be found for $250 now, which is $100 less than the 570, and it's not as fast as these new cards but it uses 50W less power.
Meanwhile ATI is introducing Radeon 6000 series GPUs, and they're making some confusing tweaks to the naming system. I don't want to explain the whole thing here, but basically, a Radeon 6870 is not the card you want if you want a newer and better replacement for a 5870, it's like that across the line, and this has everybody annoyed and confused (and it's bad marketing by ATI). So don't try to align the new parts to the old ones, just compare them to other cards that cost the same and they'll come out looking pretty good.
These developments also leave us wondering about the Tesla and Quadro lines. Those still use GF100 chips, so for those using CUDA it's impossible to get the best of both worlds: you can spend crazy money on a Quadro or Tesla with 6GB onboard, but you're stuck with a GF100 chip. Or you can spend reasonable money on a GF110 card, but you're stuck with 1.5GB. nVidia doesn't want anybody to make a 6GB Geforce, because that would undercut the Quadro / Tesla market and show just how absurd it is that in a Quadro 6000 we're basically spending $500 on a GPU and $3500 on 6GB of RAM. My hope is that two sets of rumors materialize: that 4GB versions of new high-end Radeon cards arrive in the next few months, and that Chaosgroup gets Vray RT for GPU running on ATI hardware, because that would free up the GPU rendering market from nVidia's dominance, and would be nothing but good for the customers.
New CPUs
AMD has refreshed its 2, 3 and 6 core CPUs. The new 6-core Phenom II 1100T is a modest improvement over the 1090T at a modest price, and makes an appearance in this month's workstation list.
Intel is prepping to launch the new "Sandy Bridge" line next month. They will probably start with midrange parts in the $300 and under range for the upcoming 1155 motherboards (the replacement for 1156), and will follow later in the year with 6 and 8 core high end chips for a new motherboard socket to be introduced at that time. More on that when they become available.
As you can see, December is the winter of the hardware market, stuck between November and January product launches, waiting for distributors and retailers to clear out inventory in the run up to Christmas. But that won't keep us from finding value in the current market, which brings us to:
The Workstations
If you're not familiar with this section, please read the explanation of methodology. If you want to better understand what goes into the parts lists, see the explanation of workstation parts.
Non-3D Workstations
The Intern
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
With a three-core AMD CPU, 4GB of RAM, a Radeon card with DirectX 11 and 1GB, and 64-bit Windows 7, this build will fit the needs of both your intern, your bookkeeper and your senior partner who doesn't use CAD. You can build something cheaper, but I don't recommend it.
This month's system takes advantage of some price drops to get a bit quicker at negligible cost; it's still $600.
The Photoshopper
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
This is a quiet, power efficient box that meets the needs of photographers, graphic designers and marketing staff. This month, with prices going the way they are, it makes the most sense to include a quad-core i7-870. The 800-series has a fantastic turbo boost in one- and two-threaded operation, which will help in Creative Suite and other apps that do not fully utilize all of the cores.
SSD drives are also coming down in price, and this month most of the workstations, including this one, use them. Install Windows and your most commonly used software on it, along with your projects that are in daily use. The two RE4 (Raid Edition) hard drives have improved life expectancy over normal hard drives, necessary for reliable use in a RAID 0, which is the goal here. Put the rest of your files on the RAID to improve read/write speed on those large PSD files. Even with the RE4 drives, I would be remiss not to say that you really do need an external backup system. In an office environment, this can be as simple as a nightly backup of project files to the server.
Whatever else you do, an X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 is indispensable, and a Wacom Intuos4 Tablet is a very good idea. Consider an IPS display from the Displays section below.
3D Workstations
The Budget
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
With the price on the six-core AMD 1090T staying so low, the CPU for the Budget system was a no-brainer. Don't be fooled by the $1,000 price tag - this box is a very capable renderer, and is all the power you need for working on Revit models, Max (or Cinema4D, Rhino, etc.) stills and Photoshop work.
Choice of video card was also surprisingly easy, for once. The Radeon 6850, at under $200, is powerful, a fantastic value and also the most energy efficient hardware you're likely to find.
Since this is the budget model, I'm keeping the price low, but if you want an additional speed boost and you can afford it, include this SSD, the same one used in the Photoshopper. It's not really necessary - it just improves boot and program loading times - but it sure makes a computer feel faster.
The Midrange (Regular Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
The Midrange has some nice upgrades this month. It now features AMD's best consumer line six-core CPU, the 1100T. (If you're an overclocker, this CPU has its multiplier unlocked, but you'll want faster RAM to take advantage of it.) The motherboard is a solid Asus choice, using AMD's best chipset, that can take two video cards at full speed as well as the latest peripherals (USB 3.0 and SATA3 6.0GB/s).
That's not all. To take advantage of that SATA3 adapter, the Midrange now includes a 120GB Intel SSD and a new version of the WD Caviar Black that sports SATA3 and a 64MB buffer.
Since the regular edition of the Midrange doesn't need CUDA, the video card is a no brainer. For this money, for a video card to drive your 3D viewports and AutoCAD or Revit without doubling as a space heater for your office, the v5800 is the best thing. By not caring about CUDA, you get a lot of advantages in the viewport department. Serious Cinema4D users should also opt for this configuration, as the only way to make Cinebench run significantly faster is to step up to the much more expensive FirePro v8800.
The High-End (Regular Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
The FirePro V7800 is back in stock, and it's the best thing in this price class for powering your viewports. This month the High End gets that, a faster SSD and a better hard drive, and several more weeks of wait time as we see what Intel's got for us in January and whether ATI or nVidia will be the first to update their workstation video cards with their new GPUs. (You reading this, ATI and nVidia? Take the midrange challenge: the first to FireGL/Quadro a Radeon 6850/Geforce 570 and sell it for under $800 gets the "strong buy" recommendation!)
CPUs are still quite constrained at this level. There's no real alternative to a 6-core i7, and there are only two of those. I'm sticking with the i7-980X for its speed advantage over the 970, which makes it a slightly better value in terms of rendering speed per overall system price, and the overclocking advantage of its unlocked multiplier, for those who are into that kind of thing. Why Intel has left AMD uncontested in the lower price 6-core market while not updating the 980X in 9 months - which is a long time for CPUs - is beyond my powers of perception, but hopefully they'll have something new that won't require us to wait another 6-9 months for the next generation of motherboards. Still waiting and seeing, but don't let that get in your way - if you need a workstation like this now, buy it now, because any huge improvements are probably a ways off.
Install your OS and software on the SSD and use the 1TB drive for your working files. For a bit more speed, order two of the 1TB drives and put them in a RAID 0. (Remember, RE drives are "RAID Edition" for a reason.)
The Maxer
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
The Maxer also gets an update this month, with a new motherboard that opens some paths to potential upgrades (to multiple GPUs if you decide you want CUDA/OpenCL, and to 48GB of RAM, since we're now using 4GB DIMMs and keeping half the slots free. I'm also bringing a bit of sanity to the hard drives, ditching RAID in favor of a bigger, faster SSD than ever (the 256GB Crucial C300) and that newer model Caviar Black. Why no RAID? RAID-0 is more complicated, more likely to fail, harder to recover from errors, and harder to retrieve your data if the motherboard fails. RAID-1 is security, but you should be using an external backup.
As for video cards, this was a tough one. I'm sticking with the FirePro v8800 mainly because I don't see a compelling reason to switch and it's a better value than the Quadro 5000, but a FirePro v7800 2GB, Quadro 4000 2GB or Quadro 5000 2.5GB would be valid choices, depending on needs.
Oh, one more thing. These Xeons use triple-channel memory and each CPU has its own memory controller. When using two of these CPUs, there are six memory channels, so the RAM used must be matched DIMMs in multiples of six. This configuration uses six DIMMs. Space them out in alternating DIMM slots and if you add more later, buy the same type.
If this box can't handle your scene, you're doing something wrong. Estimated Cinebench rendering score: 17.
3D Workstations for CUDA Users
You guys know how I feel about CUDA renderers, and how they're a great way for nVidia to sell more of their most expensive hardware and not a cost effective way to get any work done. But you're not going to listen to me, because nVidia mesmerized you with their demonstration of how iray is so much faster than the slowest possible mental ray settings and looks just like Maxwell did 5 years ago, so if you must buy CUDA hardware, here are a couple of options.
The Midrange (CUDA Rendering Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
In many respects this machine is similar to the regular Midrange. In fact, if you're not using Vray RT-GPU, iray or another CUDA rendering package, this build is worse than the one above because the FirePro video card is better for driving viewports in 3D apps. But with this version, what you get is:
-A motherboard that supports up to three video cards
-Dual Geforce GTX 460 cards with 2GB RAM onboard
-More power!
The 2GB GTX 460 is a great option for running software like this. It's the most memory you can put on a card that's not a Quadro, at only $260 each. A single Quadro 4000 card would cost $780 and while it would likely outperform this configuration in viewport performance, it would not run a CUDA renderer nearly as well.
If you want even more power, two GTX 570 or GTX 580 cards can be used with this configuration; however, a 1000 watt power supply would be highly recommended. Three GTX 580 cards, which would be an upgrade to the configuration Chaosgroup used in their demo? The cost/benefit is against you, but you can do it; a 1200 watt power supply is needed. The drawback is neither the 570 nor the 580 are available with 2GB, which is going to cripple their performance.
The High-End (CUDA Rendering Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
Similar to Midrange version for CUDA rendering, this config is worse than the regular High-End if you don't use a CUDA rendering solution.
The first thing you'll notice about this system is that it's expensive. But after reports on how much video card memory people's renders are taking, I couldn't call this "high end" without including cards with an unusually high amount of memory, and the next step down is 2.5GB. Let's review: the same GPU used in a Geforce card with 1.5GB is under $500, so the other $3500 is buying you the other 4.5GB of memory. That's the most expensive memory you can put in a Windows box. But you've got no other choice.
There are two of them because with only one, this wouldn't be high end. This makes the system as expensive as a Midrange and two Render Nodes, which is what I would buy if I were you.
Render Power
The Render Node
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
12-core Opteron hardware is getting harder to find and is not dropping in price, so this month's Render Node moves to a more powerful, more expensive dual six-core Xeon. This gives you the render power of the Maxer, without the amenities such as SSD and high end video that are important in a workstation. Put this under your desk, put it on the same high speed network as your workstation (or make a dedicated subnet just for these) and you can use Backburner or distributed buckets to add its rendering power to your workstation
The Render Farm
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
I've had questions on how to use previous render node configs as the basis for a rackmount render farm, so I'm providing that configuration here. With a 25U rack you have space for six 4U nodes and a KVM switch that fits in the last 1U of rack space. This parts list is everything you need for a six-node farm, except for an old monitor pulled out of your supply closet.
But don't buy this without first exploring your options with a company like Boxx. They have custom setups that fit more power into less space, and software that helps you manage the farm better.
Displays
A while back, one of my friends sent me a link to this article debunking pretty much every metric and slogan used in HDTV marketing. The market for LCD monitors is no less confusing, so concentrate on three things:
-Screen size.
-Resolution. This is not the problem it is in laptops, but what would you rather have - a 22" screen that's 1680x1050, or a 21.5" screen that's 1920x1080?
-IPS/PVA or TN. What you want here is an IPS or PVA panel, not a TN panel. Inexpensive monitors are TN panels, which have much worse color gamuts and viewing angles than better screens. A consumer LCD monitor likely isn't even processing and displaying color in 8 bits per channel, and if you move your desk chair 6 inches to the side the levels change.
So, here are a few options, all good quality IPS displays usable for professional graphics work:
-Eizo 24" CG243W. Let's get this out of the way first. This is a very expensive monitor with freakin' fantastic color quality. This monitor is appropriate for use in high end video, photography and publishing production environments. It is not necessary for most visualization are graphics work, but if you want the best that's available to you without costing more than your car, this is it. Pairs well with The Maxer.
-HP 22" ZR22W. This takes the spot that the Dell 2209WA used to occupy in my recommendations: a budget friendly model that beats a TN display and pairs well with the Intern and Budget systems. However, the newer HP model is a better panel, has a higher resolution and costs less. It's a winner at the lower end.
-HP 24" ZR24W and HP 30" ZR30W. As the names suggest, these are larger models from the same line as the ZR22W. All are great value options and significant steps up from consumer grade displays. You can size you ZR to your budget.
-In 27", I've previously recommended the Dell 27" U2711, but that's become hard to find. An excellent alternative is the NEC PA271w. With improved color reproduction and a resolution usually found in 30" displays, this Dell is a step up from the entry level IPS displays but more reasonable than the Eizo. Best with the High End or the Maxer.
-NEC 30" 3090WQXi. NEC's answer to the 30" Apple monitor. H-IPS panel for high end color and good viewing angles. A step up from the 30" HP, and a step up in price.
As usual, whatever you choose, calibrate it! We're not talking about one of those software functions where you look at the gray square and try to make it the same value as the lines, we're talking about a dedicated hardware calibration device. I use the Eye-One Display 2, but some users prefer the Color Munki, which can also be used with printers and projectors. I can't stress the importance of this enough - without calibration, you'll never be able to match your prints to your screen, whether you're using your system for 3D rendering, graphic design or photography.
New GPUs
ATI and nVidia both introduced some new GPUs in the last month. nVidia's latest are the GF110-based Geforce GTX 580 and 570. A bit of explanation here. Back in the spring, I was at the show where they launched the GTX 480 and 470. These were the first of the promised "Fermi" line, using the GF100 GPU, and they were fast - no faster than the competition, but faster than nVidia's previous line and with some interesting features like improved in-game physics and Direct3D in stereo. But the GF100 chips were obviously a rush job. They leaked power and overheated, nVidia was never able to make a production version of the chip with all 512 cores turned on and a lot of customers avoided them. I recommended them in system only very reluctantly.
nVidia improved the situation with the GF104, which corrected many of the GF100's flaws and hit the midrange. The GF110 brings those fixes to the high-end and should replace the GF100. Due to architectural and power handling fixed, and improved production, the 570 is as fast as the 480 and uses 50W less power under load, and the 580 is faster than the 480 and uses roughly the same amount of power.
So these are good, but I still can't recommend them unconditionally because the Radeon 5870 can be found for $250 now, which is $100 less than the 570, and it's not as fast as these new cards but it uses 50W less power.
Meanwhile ATI is introducing Radeon 6000 series GPUs, and they're making some confusing tweaks to the naming system. I don't want to explain the whole thing here, but basically, a Radeon 6870 is not the card you want if you want a newer and better replacement for a 5870, it's like that across the line, and this has everybody annoyed and confused (and it's bad marketing by ATI). So don't try to align the new parts to the old ones, just compare them to other cards that cost the same and they'll come out looking pretty good.
These developments also leave us wondering about the Tesla and Quadro lines. Those still use GF100 chips, so for those using CUDA it's impossible to get the best of both worlds: you can spend crazy money on a Quadro or Tesla with 6GB onboard, but you're stuck with a GF100 chip. Or you can spend reasonable money on a GF110 card, but you're stuck with 1.5GB. nVidia doesn't want anybody to make a 6GB Geforce, because that would undercut the Quadro / Tesla market and show just how absurd it is that in a Quadro 6000 we're basically spending $500 on a GPU and $3500 on 6GB of RAM. My hope is that two sets of rumors materialize: that 4GB versions of new high-end Radeon cards arrive in the next few months, and that Chaosgroup gets Vray RT for GPU running on ATI hardware, because that would free up the GPU rendering market from nVidia's dominance, and would be nothing but good for the customers.
New CPUs
AMD has refreshed its 2, 3 and 6 core CPUs. The new 6-core Phenom II 1100T is a modest improvement over the 1090T at a modest price, and makes an appearance in this month's workstation list.
Intel is prepping to launch the new "Sandy Bridge" line next month. They will probably start with midrange parts in the $300 and under range for the upcoming 1155 motherboards (the replacement for 1156), and will follow later in the year with 6 and 8 core high end chips for a new motherboard socket to be introduced at that time. More on that when they become available.
As you can see, December is the winter of the hardware market, stuck between November and January product launches, waiting for distributors and retailers to clear out inventory in the run up to Christmas. But that won't keep us from finding value in the current market, which brings us to:
The Workstations
If you're not familiar with this section, please read the explanation of methodology. If you want to better understand what goes into the parts lists, see the explanation of workstation parts.
Non-3D Workstations
The Intern
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
With a three-core AMD CPU, 4GB of RAM, a Radeon card with DirectX 11 and 1GB, and 64-bit Windows 7, this build will fit the needs of both your intern, your bookkeeper and your senior partner who doesn't use CAD. You can build something cheaper, but I don't recommend it.
This month's system takes advantage of some price drops to get a bit quicker at negligible cost; it's still $600.
The Photoshopper
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
This is a quiet, power efficient box that meets the needs of photographers, graphic designers and marketing staff. This month, with prices going the way they are, it makes the most sense to include a quad-core i7-870. The 800-series has a fantastic turbo boost in one- and two-threaded operation, which will help in Creative Suite and other apps that do not fully utilize all of the cores.
SSD drives are also coming down in price, and this month most of the workstations, including this one, use them. Install Windows and your most commonly used software on it, along with your projects that are in daily use. The two RE4 (Raid Edition) hard drives have improved life expectancy over normal hard drives, necessary for reliable use in a RAID 0, which is the goal here. Put the rest of your files on the RAID to improve read/write speed on those large PSD files. Even with the RE4 drives, I would be remiss not to say that you really do need an external backup system. In an office environment, this can be as simple as a nightly backup of project files to the server.
Whatever else you do, an X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 is indispensable, and a Wacom Intuos4 Tablet is a very good idea. Consider an IPS display from the Displays section below.
3D Workstations
The Budget
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
With the price on the six-core AMD 1090T staying so low, the CPU for the Budget system was a no-brainer. Don't be fooled by the $1,000 price tag - this box is a very capable renderer, and is all the power you need for working on Revit models, Max (or Cinema4D, Rhino, etc.) stills and Photoshop work.
Choice of video card was also surprisingly easy, for once. The Radeon 6850, at under $200, is powerful, a fantastic value and also the most energy efficient hardware you're likely to find.
Since this is the budget model, I'm keeping the price low, but if you want an additional speed boost and you can afford it, include this SSD, the same one used in the Photoshopper. It's not really necessary - it just improves boot and program loading times - but it sure makes a computer feel faster.
The Midrange (Regular Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
The Midrange has some nice upgrades this month. It now features AMD's best consumer line six-core CPU, the 1100T. (If you're an overclocker, this CPU has its multiplier unlocked, but you'll want faster RAM to take advantage of it.) The motherboard is a solid Asus choice, using AMD's best chipset, that can take two video cards at full speed as well as the latest peripherals (USB 3.0 and SATA3 6.0GB/s).
That's not all. To take advantage of that SATA3 adapter, the Midrange now includes a 120GB Intel SSD and a new version of the WD Caviar Black that sports SATA3 and a 64MB buffer.
Since the regular edition of the Midrange doesn't need CUDA, the video card is a no brainer. For this money, for a video card to drive your 3D viewports and AutoCAD or Revit without doubling as a space heater for your office, the v5800 is the best thing. By not caring about CUDA, you get a lot of advantages in the viewport department. Serious Cinema4D users should also opt for this configuration, as the only way to make Cinebench run significantly faster is to step up to the much more expensive FirePro v8800.
The High-End (Regular Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
The FirePro V7800 is back in stock, and it's the best thing in this price class for powering your viewports. This month the High End gets that, a faster SSD and a better hard drive, and several more weeks of wait time as we see what Intel's got for us in January and whether ATI or nVidia will be the first to update their workstation video cards with their new GPUs. (You reading this, ATI and nVidia? Take the midrange challenge: the first to FireGL/Quadro a Radeon 6850/Geforce 570 and sell it for under $800 gets the "strong buy" recommendation!)
CPUs are still quite constrained at this level. There's no real alternative to a 6-core i7, and there are only two of those. I'm sticking with the i7-980X for its speed advantage over the 970, which makes it a slightly better value in terms of rendering speed per overall system price, and the overclocking advantage of its unlocked multiplier, for those who are into that kind of thing. Why Intel has left AMD uncontested in the lower price 6-core market while not updating the 980X in 9 months - which is a long time for CPUs - is beyond my powers of perception, but hopefully they'll have something new that won't require us to wait another 6-9 months for the next generation of motherboards. Still waiting and seeing, but don't let that get in your way - if you need a workstation like this now, buy it now, because any huge improvements are probably a ways off.
Install your OS and software on the SSD and use the 1TB drive for your working files. For a bit more speed, order two of the 1TB drives and put them in a RAID 0. (Remember, RE drives are "RAID Edition" for a reason.)
The Maxer
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
The Maxer also gets an update this month, with a new motherboard that opens some paths to potential upgrades (to multiple GPUs if you decide you want CUDA/OpenCL, and to 48GB of RAM, since we're now using 4GB DIMMs and keeping half the slots free. I'm also bringing a bit of sanity to the hard drives, ditching RAID in favor of a bigger, faster SSD than ever (the 256GB Crucial C300) and that newer model Caviar Black. Why no RAID? RAID-0 is more complicated, more likely to fail, harder to recover from errors, and harder to retrieve your data if the motherboard fails. RAID-1 is security, but you should be using an external backup.
As for video cards, this was a tough one. I'm sticking with the FirePro v8800 mainly because I don't see a compelling reason to switch and it's a better value than the Quadro 5000, but a FirePro v7800 2GB, Quadro 4000 2GB or Quadro 5000 2.5GB would be valid choices, depending on needs.
Oh, one more thing. These Xeons use triple-channel memory and each CPU has its own memory controller. When using two of these CPUs, there are six memory channels, so the RAM used must be matched DIMMs in multiples of six. This configuration uses six DIMMs. Space them out in alternating DIMM slots and if you add more later, buy the same type.
If this box can't handle your scene, you're doing something wrong. Estimated Cinebench rendering score: 17.
3D Workstations for CUDA Users
You guys know how I feel about CUDA renderers, and how they're a great way for nVidia to sell more of their most expensive hardware and not a cost effective way to get any work done. But you're not going to listen to me, because nVidia mesmerized you with their demonstration of how iray is so much faster than the slowest possible mental ray settings and looks just like Maxwell did 5 years ago, so if you must buy CUDA hardware, here are a couple of options.
The Midrange (CUDA Rendering Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
In many respects this machine is similar to the regular Midrange. In fact, if you're not using Vray RT-GPU, iray or another CUDA rendering package, this build is worse than the one above because the FirePro video card is better for driving viewports in 3D apps. But with this version, what you get is:
-A motherboard that supports up to three video cards
-Dual Geforce GTX 460 cards with 2GB RAM onboard
-More power!
The 2GB GTX 460 is a great option for running software like this. It's the most memory you can put on a card that's not a Quadro, at only $260 each. A single Quadro 4000 card would cost $780 and while it would likely outperform this configuration in viewport performance, it would not run a CUDA renderer nearly as well.
If you want even more power, two GTX 570 or GTX 580 cards can be used with this configuration; however, a 1000 watt power supply would be highly recommended. Three GTX 580 cards, which would be an upgrade to the configuration Chaosgroup used in their demo? The cost/benefit is against you, but you can do it; a 1200 watt power supply is needed. The drawback is neither the 570 nor the 580 are available with 2GB, which is going to cripple their performance.
The High-End (CUDA Rendering Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
Similar to Midrange version for CUDA rendering, this config is worse than the regular High-End if you don't use a CUDA rendering solution.
The first thing you'll notice about this system is that it's expensive. But after reports on how much video card memory people's renders are taking, I couldn't call this "high end" without including cards with an unusually high amount of memory, and the next step down is 2.5GB. Let's review: the same GPU used in a Geforce card with 1.5GB is under $500, so the other $3500 is buying you the other 4.5GB of memory. That's the most expensive memory you can put in a Windows box. But you've got no other choice.
There are two of them because with only one, this wouldn't be high end. This makes the system as expensive as a Midrange and two Render Nodes, which is what I would buy if I were you.
Render Power
The Render Node
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
12-core Opteron hardware is getting harder to find and is not dropping in price, so this month's Render Node moves to a more powerful, more expensive dual six-core Xeon. This gives you the render power of the Maxer, without the amenities such as SSD and high end video that are important in a workstation. Put this under your desk, put it on the same high speed network as your workstation (or make a dedicated subnet just for these) and you can use Backburner or distributed buckets to add its rendering power to your workstation
The Render Farm
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
I've had questions on how to use previous render node configs as the basis for a rackmount render farm, so I'm providing that configuration here. With a 25U rack you have space for six 4U nodes and a KVM switch that fits in the last 1U of rack space. This parts list is everything you need for a six-node farm, except for an old monitor pulled out of your supply closet.
But don't buy this without first exploring your options with a company like Boxx. They have custom setups that fit more power into less space, and software that helps you manage the farm better.
Displays
A while back, one of my friends sent me a link to this article debunking pretty much every metric and slogan used in HDTV marketing. The market for LCD monitors is no less confusing, so concentrate on three things:
-Screen size.
-Resolution. This is not the problem it is in laptops, but what would you rather have - a 22" screen that's 1680x1050, or a 21.5" screen that's 1920x1080?
-IPS/PVA or TN. What you want here is an IPS or PVA panel, not a TN panel. Inexpensive monitors are TN panels, which have much worse color gamuts and viewing angles than better screens. A consumer LCD monitor likely isn't even processing and displaying color in 8 bits per channel, and if you move your desk chair 6 inches to the side the levels change.
So, here are a few options, all good quality IPS displays usable for professional graphics work:
-Eizo 24" CG243W. Let's get this out of the way first. This is a very expensive monitor with freakin' fantastic color quality. This monitor is appropriate for use in high end video, photography and publishing production environments. It is not necessary for most visualization are graphics work, but if you want the best that's available to you without costing more than your car, this is it. Pairs well with The Maxer.
-HP 22" ZR22W. This takes the spot that the Dell 2209WA used to occupy in my recommendations: a budget friendly model that beats a TN display and pairs well with the Intern and Budget systems. However, the newer HP model is a better panel, has a higher resolution and costs less. It's a winner at the lower end.
-HP 24" ZR24W and HP 30" ZR30W. As the names suggest, these are larger models from the same line as the ZR22W. All are great value options and significant steps up from consumer grade displays. You can size you ZR to your budget.
-In 27", I've previously recommended the Dell 27" U2711, but that's become hard to find. An excellent alternative is the NEC PA271w. With improved color reproduction and a resolution usually found in 30" displays, this Dell is a step up from the entry level IPS displays but more reasonable than the Eizo. Best with the High End or the Maxer.
-NEC 30" 3090WQXi. NEC's answer to the 30" Apple monitor. H-IPS panel for high end color and good viewing angles. A step up from the 30" HP, and a step up in price.
As usual, whatever you choose, calibrate it! We're not talking about one of those software functions where you look at the gray square and try to make it the same value as the lines, we're talking about a dedicated hardware calibration device. I use the Eye-One Display 2, but some users prefer the Color Munki, which can also be used with printers and projectors. I can't stress the importance of this enough - without calibration, you'll never be able to match your prints to your screen, whether you're using your system for 3D rendering, graphic design or photography.
Labels: 3D, 3ds max, 3dsmax, architectural, cinema4d, cpu, cuda, firegl, firepro, geforce, gpu, hardware, iray, nvidia, quadro, radeon, twinmotion, visualization, vray, workstations
posted by Andy Lynn at 3:40 PM
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