Pc vs workstation cost for animation and video rendering

S

Sumeet a.k.a NEO

Adept
Hi

My brother is an animator and wishes to buy a workstation for rendering animation, videos and making games for a home studio. Applications like Maya, Zbrush, Max, After effects, Blender etc.

After 3 weeks of contacting HP, Lenovo and local dealers in Kolkata he cannot find even one dealer good enough to give him his configuration cost.

Hp people say workstations are highly customizable while the dealers who have practically no idea (because they never sold a workstation before) say that it cannot be customized.

Fed up, now my brother wishes to buy a high end desktop instead. I am providing the config for both, please provide your valuable inputs and costs for both.

We understand that workstations can be upgraded later while desktop has its limitations like one single processor and limited RAM.

Heres the config for the Hp workstation - z600.

Intel quad core processor (2.93 Ghz,12 MB cache, 1333 MHz memory) or a six core processor (2.66 Ghz)

12 GB RAM



Graphics - Nvidia Geforce GTX 480 ( Quadro graphics card not required. This makes a huge cost difference and probably the reason dealers do not wish to customize)

one (2 TB) SATA hard disk



Windows 7 64 bit ( Original professional version)

DVD /RWDVD

Dual Monitors or single HD monitor if its costly.



Slots - 2 PCI Express Gen2 x16, 1 PCI Express Gen2 (x8 mechanically, x4 electrically), 1 PCI Express Gen1 (x8 mechanically, x4 electrically), 2 PCI

6- 8 USB drive slots.



Here is the config for high end PC -

Intel® Core™ i7-980X processor Extreme Edition

3.33 GHz core speed

Up to 3.6 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology

6 cores and 12 processing threads with Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology

12 MB Intel® Smart Cache

8 GB RAM - can we add more than 8 GB?

2 TB SATA HARD DISK

Graphics - Nvidia Geforce GTX 480

Enough PCI express slots to handle the above graphics card

Windows 7 64 bit (Original professional version)

DVD /RWDVD, 6-8 USB slots

dual monitors or HD monitor

Heat Sink and Liquid cooling for the processor.

Please help us out, need to buy this within a week.

Sumeet
 
What is your budget bruv, I would recommend you go for the following RIG < the I7 980X costs ~ 50K so it is very hard to accommodate into even a budget of even 1.5 Lakhs

Intel Core i7 950 ~ 15K

Gigabyte X58A UD3R/ SABERTOOTH X58 board ~ 12K --- 14K GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1366 - GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0)/ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards - ASUS SABERTOOTH X58

RAM ~ Corsair Dominator/ Corsair Vengeance/ G.Skill Pi TRI CHANNEL Memory Kits 2*6GB = 12 GB ~ 10K --- 15K Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Memory/Corsair Dominator DDR3 Memory/G.SKILL-Products

Graphics Card ~ Nvidia Quadro 4000 series/ ATi FirePro V 8800/ 9800 ~ 45K --- 55K NVIDIA Workstation/ATI FirePro

PSU ~ Corsair AX 750 or Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 750 W ---- ??? no idea so wait for others to tell Modular PSUs - Power Supplies/Silent Pro Gold 700W - Cooler Master

Cabinet ~ NZXT Tempest EVO or your choice ~ 5.7K --- 15K NZXT :: Unique. Unprecendented. Inspired - Tempest EVO Product Detail

Monitor Dell U2311H ~ 14K UltraSharp U2311H 23 inch Monitor Details | Dell India

For HDD get a Corsair or Intel SSD < 256 GB > + 2x 1TB Segate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA III ~ the SSD will give speedy time for most of your animation Apps and the rest act as surplus dump for Projects/ Games/ Music etc.

UPS get the APC Smart UPS as toolius mentioned Smart-UPS - Product Information

For CPU cooling get the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ as it doesn't seem your friend is OCing a great deal, I'm not aware of water cooling and audio departments so I have no comment suffice to say he doesn't need Audiophile stuff in animation, I tried to cram up the above without estimate cause I think you can do that by collating a better rig with matching other components in the above suggestions and mine

-- QUADRO and FirePro Graphics of the mid- range ( 45K to 100K range ) can easily play most games at full settings and draw less power than the gaming cards + they are certified for better rendering/ texturing/ lighting detail :)

-- You don't need a OC friendly board do run animation application I run MAYA on a AMD 785G system + 4GB RAM + ATi HD 5770 and I game too:)

-- hope your friend has a good time in animation and gaming

-- More RAM helps MAYA

If you are open to AMD as well here is alternate AMD based RIG

AMD Phenom IIx6 1090T ~ 11K AMD Phenom II X6 1090T & 1055T Six-Core Processors Review | Hardware Canucks

For RAM same as in Intel RIG

Motherboard: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 ~ 9K Review - Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB Motherboard Review | bit-tech.net

Cabinet same as Intel Rig

Graphics also same Quadro 4000-series or GTX 570 if you don't want Quadro < the 570 plaster the 480 and sucks lesser power >

PSU same as Intel Rig and same for the Cooling solution for the CPU

-- The AMD RIG is cheaper to set-up.

-- Provides more or less same performance.

In the end is up to you bruv, what to buy :)
 
Want my Asus Rampage III Formula?

Purchased on 21st October 2010 via amazon.com & imported using mail forwarding by TE member Shripad

Costed me 20k

Have the USA Bill

Warranty help from Shripad or send directly to USA using EMS

Available on eBay Global Easy Buy for 19-22k without the Original Bill currently

Asking for 15k Shipped or 14.5k Locally

Using since 15th November 2010

Did not OC yet

Upto 24GB RAM Supported
 
ALPHA17 said:
What is your budget bruv, I would recommend you go for the following RIG < the I7 980X costs ~ 50K so it is very hard to accommodate into even a budget of even 1.5 Lakhs

Intel Core i7 950 ~ 15K

Gigabyte X58A UD3R/ SABERTOOTH X58 board ~ 12K --- 14K GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1366 - GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0)/ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards - ASUS SABERTOOTH X58

RAM ~ Corsair Dominator/ Corsair Vengeance/ G.Skill Pi TRI CHANNEL Memory Kits 2*6GB = 12 GB ~ 10K --- 15K Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Memory/Corsair Dominator DDR3 Memory/G.SKILL-Products

Graphics Card ~ Nvidia Quadro 4000 series/ ATi FirePro V 8800/ 9800 ~ 45K --- 55K NVIDIA Workstation/ATI FirePro

PSU ~ Corsair AX 750 or Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 750 W ---- ??? no idea so wait for others to tell Modular PSUs - Power Supplies/Silent Pro Gold 700W - Cooler Master

Cabinet ~ NZXT Tempest EVO or your choice ~ 5.7K --- 15K NZXT :: Unique. Unprecendented. Inspired - Tempest EVO Product Detail

Monitor Dell U2311H ~ 14K UltraSharp U2311H 23 inch Monitor Details | Dell India

For HDD get a Corsair or Intel SSD < 256 GB > + 2x 1TB Segate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA III ~ the SSD will give speedy time for most of your animation Apps and the rest act as surplus dump for Projects/ Games/ Music etc.

UPS get the APC Smart UPS as toolius mentioned Smart-UPS - Product Information

For CPU cooling get the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ as it doesn't seem your friend is OCing a great deal, I'm not aware of water cooling and audio departments so I have no comment suffice to say he doesn't need Audiophile stuff in animation, I tried to cram up the above without estimate cause I think you can do that by collating a better rig with matching other components in the above suggestions and mine

-- QUADRO and FirePro Graphics of the mid- range ( 45K to 100K range ) can easily play most games at full settings and draw less power than the gaming cards + they are certified for better rendering/ texturing/ lighting detail :)

-- You don't need a OC friendly board do run animation application I run MAYA on a AMD 785G system + 4GB RAM + ATi HD 5770 and I game too:)

-- hope your friend has a good time in animation and gaming

-- More RAM helps MAYA

If you are open to AMD as well here is alternate AMD based RIG

AMD Phenom IIx6 1090T ~ 11K AMD Phenom II X6 1090T & 1055T Six-Core Processors Review | Hardware Canucks

For RAM same as in Intel RIG

Motherboard: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 ~ 9K Review - Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB Motherboard Review | bit-tech.net

Cabinet same as Intel Rig

Graphics also same Quadro 4000-series or GTX 570 if you don't want Quadro < the 570 plaster the 480 and sucks lesser power >

PSU same as Intel Rig and same for the Cooling solution for the CPU

-- The AMD RIG is cheaper to set-up.

-- Provides more or less same performance.

In the end is up to you bruv, what to buy :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.

We were looking for a processor which can render 12 threads at a time, as will be going for creating 30 secs 3d ads and movies. That is why the i7980 x, if 970 can give 6 core 12 threads, I can go for that too.

The min price range goes up to 1, 20,000 according to your specs. Hp workstation comes for 1,38,000 with all the above things plus the option to add another quad core later plus upgrade memory to 24 GB.

So if we are spending 1.2 lacs, should I not spend on a workstation instead?

The main reason for buying the Nvidia Card is to bring down the cost. Can you tell me the price difference between Quadro and Nvidia Geforce gtx. No we are not going to over clock the processors.

Gaming here means not only playing games but creating and rendering 3d games. So need a gaming card to test run the games as well. I know quadro is better but way costly.

Will buy a USB sound card later, not right now.

Thanks for all others who posted but my brother does not like buying used computers.

Sumeet
 
^^

You don't need that much computing power the Core i7 950 will be more than enough for your needs, for thread value the AMD is also worth a look as it costs the same price but six cores < though no virtualization (Hyper-Threading) > or yo may buy the RIG mentioned in the post by gcbeldar.

Quadro graphics are optimized for working on lighting/ shading/ texture units more than the Geforce cards but are slightly inferior in gaming performance, they are also very power efficient at the current level 4000-series the gaming performance is comparable to a decent mid-range gamin card :). Overview

Look in the end is upto you, the Workstation will need to be maintained like a workstation< AC setup > and your upgrade path will be restricted by the supplier you bought the workstation from + if you'll go for AMD + 12GB RAM kit + NZXT Tempest EVO cabinet + Quadro Card it should touch maximum a lakh.

So make your decision on these factors bruv :) happy Rig hunt Bench - CPU - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News ~ Core i7 vs. AMD Phenom IIx6
 
^ B.S.

You need a workstation. Period. So you do not need i7 980x....that is a desktop proccy.

What you need is an Intel Xeon Processor....probably the 5600 series. Super crazy performance. And if one proccy is not enough you can easily use two!

Get an EVGA SR2 Mobo and pop in the Xeon and you are ready to go.

IF customizing is a problem for you, or if the price approaches near the 1.5lac mark, just go ahead and get yourself a Mac Pro.

Now, as far as Graphics go. Please by all means go for the Nvidia quadro Series....the best by far......

This is the layout for a Workstation.....everything mentioned above on the other posts is off topic as they are dealing with high end gaming desktop pcs.

you need 12 cores/threads....and thats why Intel has the Xeon series.

Hope this helps you out
 
^^You can always build a configuration similar to the HP - Z600 with better quality components for same or cheaper prices. What these workstations have is a Dual CPU Workstation/Server class Motherboard and Xeon Processors to complement them. These boards also have 8 ~16 or more RAM slots of RAM leaving a lot of room for Memory upgrades. Basically you need something like this

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Motherboards,Server Motherboards,Dual LGA 1366

Newegg.com - Intel Xeon X5650 Westmere 2.66GHz 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 95W Six-Core Server Processor BX80614X5650

Alternatively you can get an AMD Opteron based dual socket motherboard and slap in one or two 12 core Opteron CPUs.
 
As you are planning to run Maya,

I would advise you start but looking at http://download.autodesk.com/us/qualcharts/2011/hwqual_readmefirst.pdf

In this PDF, it clearly says use of they recommend Professional Graphic card. However consumer card can be used as well with some of their limitations.

Further: System Requirements For 32-bit Autodesk Maya 2011

  • Microsoft® Windows Vista® Business (SP2 or higher), Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP3 or higher), Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional operating system
  • Windows: Intel® Pentium® 4 or higher, AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64, AMD Opteronâ„¢ processor, AMD Phenomâ„¢ processor
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 4 GB free hard drive space
  • Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL® graphics card
  • Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
  • DVD-ROM drive
  • Maya Composite media cache requirements for playback:
  • 10 GB minimum, 200 GB recommended
  • HDD: IDE, SATA, SATA 2, SAS, SCSI

For Blender:

Production specs for Hardware

64 bits, Quad core CPU

8 GB Ram

two times 1920 x 1200 px Display with 24 bit color

3 Button Mouse + tablet

Open GL Graphics Card with 768 MB Ram, ATI FireGL or Nvidia Quadro

Here is a chart which would compare graphics cards

http://download.autodesk.com/us/qualcharts/2011/maya2011_qualifiedgraphics_win.pdf

For Workstations,look at the following certified ones:

http://download.autodesk.com/us/qualcharts/2011/maya2011_qualifiedworkstations_win.pdf

If you take my suggestion, I would suggest you avoid buying high-end workstations. Instead get consumer hardware with a professional graphic card(if budget permits). if you do want a workstation setup, better build your own. Let me remind you, Its not gonna be cheap

Lord Nemesis said:
^^You can always build a configuration similar to the HP - Z600 with better quality components for same or cheaper prices. What these workstations have is a Dual CPU Workstation/Server class Motherboard and Xeon Processors to complement them. These boards also have 8 ~16 or more RAM slots of RAM leaving a lot of room for Memory upgrades. Basically you need something like this

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Motherboards,Server Motherboards,Dual LGA 1366

Newegg.com - Intel Xeon X5650 Westmere 2.66GHz 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 95W Six-Core Server Processor BX80614X5650

Alternatively you can get an AMD Opteron based dual socket motherboard and slap in one or two 12 core Opteron CPUs.
Click to expand...
If I am not wrong, Windows Licensing is per CPU. so he might have buy two windows licenses for two physical cpus. Not big expenditure but still its a expense. if not then you might also consider Ubuntu Linux as your OS which is free and can run on any number of CPUs
 
^^ The license is linked to the motherboard, not to the CPU, so regardless of how many sockets you have on the motherboard or how many cores you have on each CPU, a single motherboard is treated as a single seat.
 
Gaurish said:
If I am not wrong, Windows Licensing is per CPU. so he might have buy two windows licenses for two physical cpus. Not big expenditure but still its a expense. if not then you might also consider Ubuntu Linux as your OS which is free and can run on any number of CPUs
Click to expand...
I doubt he might need to do that, he might get an Enterprise edition of Windows.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
^^ The license is linked to the motherboard, not to the CPU, so regardless of how many sockets you have on the motherboard or how many cores you have on each CPU, a single motherboard is treated as a single seat.
Click to expand...
Ok, Thanks for clarification ;)
 
I would recommend getting 2 or 3 AMD 1100T based machines instead of a single dual xeon machine. Would cost around the same. One would be your workstation while the other 2 will be render slaves. At least for Max, you do not need a license for render slaves. It might be the same for maya as well.
 
^^

No for every machine running MAYA you need to buy a yearly license initial buying cost ~ 1.5 Lakhs < or can be a little lower if you buy in bulk like 50 licenses > then every year you need to renew license ~ 60K. Its hopeless to know this my MAYA instructor is a member of the Autodesk board of India, so he told us :), not good news but hope this helps.
 
Do not worry guys I am not going to buy Maya or Max in recent future, going to use blender all the way - the hell its free and recently they have been making some good HD animation movies with it. But I wanted to be future proof for max or maya, if need be.

I will go through all the above posts and reply soon.
 
you can get a dual xeon rig for around 2L-2.2L with 2 x 6core intel xeon processors & 24gigs ram. It will have 24threads. As i see you havent mentioned a budget so you can go for this. supermicro is available here in mumbai.

optionally you can go for what zhops has mentioned.

ALPHA17 said:
^^

No for every machine running MAYA you need to buy a yearly license initial buying cost ~ 1.5 Lakhs < or can be a little lower if you buy in bulk like 50 licenses > then every year you need to renew license ~ 60K. Its hopeless to know this my MAYA instructor is a member of the Autodesk board of India, so he told us :), not good news but hope this helps.
Click to expand...

he is not talking about using maya on the machine, but just use the machine for rendering.

render slaves do not require licencing afaik. 1 licence on 3dmax allows upto 999 renderslaves. so i assume maya will be the same or similar. (i could be wrong about maya though as i have never used it or purchased its licence). but if what you say is true then it absolutely stupid.

found this on autodesk site, really bad & very few render slaves for maya.

"Your version of Maya determines how many networked CPUs running satellite-enabled mental ray standalone can participate in a render:

Maya Complete – 2 additional networked CPUs

Maya Unlimited – 8 additional networked CPUs"
 
^^

But my instructor said very, very clearly and he is a certified Autodesk board member and he said for every machine you have to buy license irrespective whether the machine is a slave or actually running MAYA. They might have improved support as you mentioned but even so the single license of MAYA costs a bomb. :)

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

^^

But my instructor said very, very clearly and he is a certified Autodesk board member and he said for every machine you have to buy license irrespective whether the machine is a slave or actually running MAYA. They might have improved support as you mentioned but even so the single license of MAYA costs a bomb. :)
 
Gaurish said:
Another option is, instead of buying expensive hardware & software just for learning. get a decent config to learn and then offload complex rendering jobs to the cloud. Utilize the power of cloud computing

use a service like this:

BlenderCloud - your virtual renderfarm
Click to expand...

online renderfarms work out very very expensive

[quote name='ALPHA17']^^

But my instructor said very, very clearly and he is a certified Autodesk board member and he said for every machine you have to buy license irrespective whether the machine is a slave or actually running MAYA. They might have improved support as you mentioned but even so the single license of MAYA costs a bomb. :)

your instructor is then wrong. i have copy pasted that from the autodesk site. its clearly mentioned that maya complete has 2 renderslaves. humans do make error sometimes :p
 
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