Hello everyone. The last time I bought a computer was when i got into college and by the time that happened i didn't know i would like to become an FX TD/artist some day… And back then, my i5 toshiba laptop was more than enough for the daily tasks. Well. That was 5 years ago.
Right now i came up with the plan to become serious in Houdini, and my old laptop won't be able to keep up with the thing. So, since i'm not an expert in the Houdini's architecture, i come here to ask you for some advice.
So, I want a computer that will help me develop the right skills and hopefully getting part of real world commercial projects. So i need a machine that will last long enough trough my learning process and still be efficiently capable when i get to the work as an FX TD part.
My first instinct was in buying a laptop workstation, specifically this one:
Dell Workstation Precision M6800
- Display 17.3“ Full HD 1920x1080
- Core i7-4800MQ
- RAM 32GB
- Hard Drive: 256GB SSD + 1TB 2,5” SATA (5400rpm) Hard Drive
- Gráficos: Nvidia® Quadro® K3100M com 4 GB GDDR5
According to the company, after tax, this would cost me approximately 3400 $US and that got me thinking. Could I, for the same exact value buy a better machine? And maybe a laptop is not the best option here.
As for the FX pipeline (also including rendering the effects of course) what advises could you give me? Am i throwing away money on this laptop?
Does it pay to buy a “professional workstation” or will the common pieces of hardware (like gaming cards - GTX980 for example) will do just fine for my purpose? Is there any advantage of buying a professional workstation?
In case i go for the build a workstation, what should be my priority? CPU, RAM or graphics card? What is the minimum standard for a proficient commercially machine for each of these components?
I just want to be sure I'm getting the best out of investing the right money in the right stuff.
Should it be a reminder, I would like to keep my budget under the 3k if possible.
Thank you all.
Building a computer for FX in Houdini.
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- Satamanster
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- Enivob
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Don't buy a laptop for FX work.
Don't buy a 5400 RPM drive, get a 7200 at least.
I am no fan of the Quadros, they are mainly for display support, even a game based GPU will give you better simulation acceleration.
Yes you can build a better machine for less money. ( But it won't be a Dell dude)
Don't buy a 5400 RPM drive, get a 7200 at least.
I am no fan of the Quadros, they are mainly for display support, even a game based GPU will give you better simulation acceleration.
Yes you can build a better machine for less money. ( But it won't be a Dell dude)
Using Houdini Indie 20.0
Ubuntu 64GB Ryzen 16 core.
nVidia 3050RTX 8BG RAM.
Ubuntu 64GB Ryzen 16 core.
nVidia 3050RTX 8BG RAM.
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- Satamanster
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- Satamanster
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- Fruits
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I recently built a workstation using pcpartpicker as a reference and went to general pc store to pricematch it for me .It costs me $75CDN dollars to assemble and install OS so that I don't have to build it myself.
total is about $3246 canadian dollars.
total is about $3246 canadian dollars.
PCPartPicker part list [ca.pcpartpicker.com] / Price breakdown by merchant [ca.pcpartpicker.com]
CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($702.98 @ DirectCanada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($33.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: MSI X99S Gaming 7 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($309.99 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($425.50 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($78.95 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($259.95 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($419.99 @ DirectCanada)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($139.95 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($97.95 @ DirectCanada)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($21.29 @ DirectCanada)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) [ca.pcpartpicker.com] ($109.99 @ Canada Computers)
Total: $2600.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-21 19:13 EDT-0400
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- eldiren
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Sorry I'm late to the party, but from working in VFX for the last five or so years, and graphics design a lot longer I have a few minor insights. If you’re a PC guy you can certainly build a computer for significantly cheaper than your current price point. My personal favorite place to buy PC parts is Newegg. I'd subscribe to them and have them email you deals, they always have great sales.
Moving along, the vast majority of effects software these days are CPU based, and have little in the way of GPU acceleration. More CPUs means more rendering buckets and more threads to divert and keep the machine stable during intense sims. With Arnold for instance, on my modest 8 core i7, I can have 6 threads(processors) render while I leave two available so the computer will at least respond to me during a render. Sims eat up lots of HD space and memory, and big sims could potentially consume massive amounts of RAM. I have a moderate 12GB, but if I had the funds I'd do 32GB or more. The computer I built for a friend has 128GB, and was somewhat in your price range.
Once you go SSD you never go back, and frankly, any pro machine I build these days has one standard. An SSD (Solid state drive) is like a huge brick of RAM in terms of the loading speed of your programs. If you can run your sim caches off one as well then you’re talking real time previews and caching of your sims in most cases. Waiting for sims takes up the vast majority of my time as a VFX guy, and whenever I can use my secondary SSD it’s truly a joy. That being said, the way I like to configure things is to have a smaller SSD (120-256GB) for my OS and programs, and then have a bigger SATA drive, or SATA RAID for work files and data. In Windows if you’re not careful, or really learned about PCs, it’s pretty inevitable you’re going to get some annoying malware, and if your main drive crashes or needs to be wiped it’s truly great to have the OS and programs separate from the work.
For speeds sake I’d definitely use a RAID 0, but that does double or triple your chances of losing all your data so a good external for backups on a regular basis is a must as well. If you have the money you could also go for a 1TB SSD instead of the RAID for blazing fast sims and greater reliability. That being said I’ve very rarely had RAID 0 crash on me over the years, maybe once every two or three years or so. Two 1TB drives in RAID 0 is $130 giving you 2TB of space at twice the speed vs $199-300+ for a 1TB SSD.
Your greatest cost will be processors. The computer I built for my friend is a server workstation similar to what you would get from Dell or HP. Those use Xeon processors which are very robust, and with the Haswell line Intel is currently producing your could potentially have 18 cores on one. Two six core Xeons gives you 24 threads, or basically 24 processors in windows thanks to hyperthreading on Intel processors, which basically doubles the physical processor count. Those run a pretty decent $339 at their cheapest these days, with 8+ core Xeons upwards to 1000+ each. I do fine with my 4 core i7 which gives me 8 threads, and when it first came out it ran me $260-290 or so. In serious jobs you must understand that ultimately to get anything out on time you may need a lot more than one computer. I’d buy a few cheaper computers with slightly lower specs then mine to help out on render times. You’ll need the big boy you’re trying to build purely to make sims go easier, and to be able to do sims that would kill a machine like mine.
That bring us to the end with video cards. Surprisingly video cards are little help in this CPU dominated industry. I’m still a novice in Houdini, but I can tell you that Turbulence FD in Cinema 4D, as well as Fume FX both don’t use any of the extra precision that a Quatro offers. The only thing important to them is enough memory to execute the sim. Be that as it may, GPU sims go faster than even SSD backed CPU sims so a 4GB GTX card is cheap and will get your products out the door faster, as well allowing you to take full advantage of dual monitor workflows. Huge up res-ed sims can easily eat more than 4GB of memory though, as can huge 3D scenes in a GPU renderer like Octane. So your memory and CPUs are always going to be more important currently, and I would stick to a good $500 or less Nvidia card if I were you, unless you really want to shell out $4000+ on the K6000 12GB animal. I think I’d rather spend $4000 on a dual Xeon beast personally, or even better divide that up and get two really good render machines so I can get renders out faster.
In summary CPUs, memory, and SSDs should be your concentration with the GPU as an afterthought. Lots of memory means bigger grander sims, and more CPUs means you can calculate them faster and do look dev on them quicker.
As a quick spec sheet I imagine you could find a computer like this around the 1500-2000 mark, and frankly you could always go with a little less and still be ahead of the curve:
2x Xeon 6 core
64GB DDR3 memory
256GB SDD
2x 1TB SATA HDD
Nvidia GTX 900 series graphics card 2-4GB GDDR5
600watt Power Supply
Server Motherboard
E-ATX Case
External 3TB USB 3.0 drive
Moving along, the vast majority of effects software these days are CPU based, and have little in the way of GPU acceleration. More CPUs means more rendering buckets and more threads to divert and keep the machine stable during intense sims. With Arnold for instance, on my modest 8 core i7, I can have 6 threads(processors) render while I leave two available so the computer will at least respond to me during a render. Sims eat up lots of HD space and memory, and big sims could potentially consume massive amounts of RAM. I have a moderate 12GB, but if I had the funds I'd do 32GB or more. The computer I built for a friend has 128GB, and was somewhat in your price range.
Once you go SSD you never go back, and frankly, any pro machine I build these days has one standard. An SSD (Solid state drive) is like a huge brick of RAM in terms of the loading speed of your programs. If you can run your sim caches off one as well then you’re talking real time previews and caching of your sims in most cases. Waiting for sims takes up the vast majority of my time as a VFX guy, and whenever I can use my secondary SSD it’s truly a joy. That being said, the way I like to configure things is to have a smaller SSD (120-256GB) for my OS and programs, and then have a bigger SATA drive, or SATA RAID for work files and data. In Windows if you’re not careful, or really learned about PCs, it’s pretty inevitable you’re going to get some annoying malware, and if your main drive crashes or needs to be wiped it’s truly great to have the OS and programs separate from the work.
For speeds sake I’d definitely use a RAID 0, but that does double or triple your chances of losing all your data so a good external for backups on a regular basis is a must as well. If you have the money you could also go for a 1TB SSD instead of the RAID for blazing fast sims and greater reliability. That being said I’ve very rarely had RAID 0 crash on me over the years, maybe once every two or three years or so. Two 1TB drives in RAID 0 is $130 giving you 2TB of space at twice the speed vs $199-300+ for a 1TB SSD.
Your greatest cost will be processors. The computer I built for my friend is a server workstation similar to what you would get from Dell or HP. Those use Xeon processors which are very robust, and with the Haswell line Intel is currently producing your could potentially have 18 cores on one. Two six core Xeons gives you 24 threads, or basically 24 processors in windows thanks to hyperthreading on Intel processors, which basically doubles the physical processor count. Those run a pretty decent $339 at their cheapest these days, with 8+ core Xeons upwards to 1000+ each. I do fine with my 4 core i7 which gives me 8 threads, and when it first came out it ran me $260-290 or so. In serious jobs you must understand that ultimately to get anything out on time you may need a lot more than one computer. I’d buy a few cheaper computers with slightly lower specs then mine to help out on render times. You’ll need the big boy you’re trying to build purely to make sims go easier, and to be able to do sims that would kill a machine like mine.
That bring us to the end with video cards. Surprisingly video cards are little help in this CPU dominated industry. I’m still a novice in Houdini, but I can tell you that Turbulence FD in Cinema 4D, as well as Fume FX both don’t use any of the extra precision that a Quatro offers. The only thing important to them is enough memory to execute the sim. Be that as it may, GPU sims go faster than even SSD backed CPU sims so a 4GB GTX card is cheap and will get your products out the door faster, as well allowing you to take full advantage of dual monitor workflows. Huge up res-ed sims can easily eat more than 4GB of memory though, as can huge 3D scenes in a GPU renderer like Octane. So your memory and CPUs are always going to be more important currently, and I would stick to a good $500 or less Nvidia card if I were you, unless you really want to shell out $4000+ on the K6000 12GB animal. I think I’d rather spend $4000 on a dual Xeon beast personally, or even better divide that up and get two really good render machines so I can get renders out faster.
In summary CPUs, memory, and SSDs should be your concentration with the GPU as an afterthought. Lots of memory means bigger grander sims, and more CPUs means you can calculate them faster and do look dev on them quicker.
As a quick spec sheet I imagine you could find a computer like this around the 1500-2000 mark, and frankly you could always go with a little less and still be ahead of the curve:
2x Xeon 6 core
64GB DDR3 memory
256GB SDD
2x 1TB SATA HDD
Nvidia GTX 900 series graphics card 2-4GB GDDR5
600watt Power Supply
Server Motherboard
E-ATX Case
External 3TB USB 3.0 drive
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