I am buying a new computer build specially for houdini.
so here are the specs with questions related
I want to be able to do heavy scene as well as heavy simulation as fast as possible.

Specs:
Case super micro 743.
865 watts power supply.
64 GB ram.
SSD 120 for operating system and software.
4 TB HD Black edition.
motherboard Super micro X8DA6.
2 * CPU 6 cores XEON 5645.
GPU UNSURE.

Q.1) should i get another SSD for caching simulation and playing them

Q.2)is there anything better for the CPU specs

Q.3)which GPU ? as i am really unsure (consider i might buy a second one later)

quadroFX 4000 2GB
GTX 690 4GB
HD radeon 7970 3GB
Tesla

Q.4)does the GTX works with tesla?

Q.5)Why get 2 cards for houdini, is it worth it?


Thanks a lot for your answers.

Sami Tawil

Incase you havent read these, hope they will be useful to you.

Geforce vs Quadro
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=23545 [sidefx.com]

OpenCL
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=25234 [sidefx.com]

GPU vs CPU
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=25772 [sidefx.com]

Rams
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=25624 [sidefx.com]

eitht.

doesnt help me much, i saw those already
but thank you anyway

i am talking about a 690 not 580, there is quiet a difference, also it seems that 580 would be better for 3d than 690

i want to know if there is something better as cpu

and if a tesla is usefull for me

Just last September I built a duel processor system based around a super micro board. It runs like a dream on linux mint and Windows 7 professional.

If you do your research you will see that supermicro boards require some special considerations .

Ram :- 64 Gig ? unless you have a money tree 64gig will cost you a fortune as you will need registered / quad ranked ram. Upto 48gigs you don't. Also you will need a EATX case.Coupled with extension cables for the PSU as EAXT form factor cases tend to have the PSU bay at the bottom of the case. See below for my machine specs and why I used the parts I did.


CPU:- x2 Xeon E5645 2.4 GHz 6 core http://ark.intel.com/products/48768…Ts-Intel-QPI%29 [ark.intel.com] .

Mobo:- Supermicro X8DAI EATX form factor. Went with this model over others due to the x 2 pcie2 16 slots ( more on that later ) and the ability to use 192 gigs of ram coupled with on board sound, as I did not want to fiddle around with buying extra sound cards.
http://www.supermicro.nl/products/m…/5500/X8DAi.cfm [supermicro.nl] . Of course with this form factor the case becomes important as does the cpu cooling.

CPU:- Heatsinks. At first things seemed limited with options for this. After looking at a toms hardware review of heatsinks and seeing the results > most being useless. I asked a few system builders and they all replied Noctua make the best thermal heatsinks. But theres a but bigger heat sinks require more room and with 2 Xeons its going to be an issue because the heatsink coverage on cpu one will cover over the first pcie 16 slot on most boards . But because I have a second pcie 16 slot having one covered makes for no issue. This just ticked a big box for my motherboard. That way I get the quality Noctua heatsink over the stock standard and noisy intel one.
I went with noctua NH-U9DX-1366 . Simple to install comes with all the fixtures and fans.

Graphics Card:- This was a difficult decision / game card or quadro. I opted for the leadtek quadro 4000. Athough very expensive Houdini is developed using professional cards ad it was more as an investment in my tools, couple with the fact its power consumption was far less than a gaming card. meaning I could scale back the PSU power.

PSU :- Duel xeons means the PSU you pick needs 2 x 8 pin power leads most have one, also something else that needs to be considered is where the psu is mounted in your case, top or bottom. The more powerful PSU's are heavier and of course if your trying to build a bigger machine using the EATX form factor that means the mounting point for the PSU will be at the bottom of the case. As EATX form factor will need a Full tower case. Theres a catch though the cpu motherboard power connectors tend to be at the top of the motherboard. This means your psu power leads need to be longer than normal.
I must admit this very problem caught me out. I bought a 850 watt PSU that had leads far shorter and therfore could not reach the connectors for the cpu and graphics card. Luck would have t though after a brief search on ebay I found some nice extension cables to purchase in all I needed 4 2x 8 pin , 1 x 24 pin , 1x 4 pin . I went for a enermax 850 watt PSU.

HD :- SSD or Raid, SSD or raid that went round in circles. I didn't have an unlimited budget and SSD's cost a lot of cash for not a lot of space. Interestingly toms hardware rated the crucial SSD's by far the best > yes I came close. But in the end the end I went for x2 western digital VelocitorRaptor 10000 RPM drives in raid zero. Giving me 600 gig. Coupled with one external 1TB drive to act as a back up for data. I have old drives form other machines and thansk to my case ( more later ) having hot swappable sata drive bays I can plug in drives as I need them.

RAM:- Using a supermicro board you of course have to use recommended ram. My board can take 192 gigs of ram > registered / quad ranked DDR3 . Thats very expensive but I can easily drop in upto 48 gigs un buffered ram for just under $600. I used Crucial http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx. [crucial.com]

Case:- Picking a case can be hard and when using a EATX form factor your limited to full tower cases. In the end I went for the corsair Obsidian Series 800D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX87TPid_po [youtube.com] ( review )
I found the installation easy of all the parts and the cables neatly run round the back of the case with the PSU located at the bottom of the case. The case also has pre built bays for hot swap sata drives > very useful. The only niggle, more a minor issue was the the front panel accessing the hot swap drives does not smoothing open and fit flush with the case automatically when opening and closing. Everything else like airflow and fan location has been great.


Rob

–First of all many thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed answer, it is really appreciated circusmonkey

–i am definitely going to consider your advices to built my computer

–I know that the quadro is made for workstation but seeing at the specs compared to new gaming cards and only 2GB vs gtx580 3GB leaves me confused
if anyone has more input about quadro 4000 vs gtx580 plz leave a comment.
or what about firepro?

( i am not considering the gtx690 as i read one 3GB gpu is better than two 2GB gpu for 3d apps)

–also i am going for two Xeon 5690 3.4GHz

For our latest batch of workstations, I went for pretty much the same configuration as circusmonkey, so I can recommend it.

I went with geforces instead of quadros though, and a regular ssd for system/software and a superfast pci-e ssd for local caches for nuke and others.
(No need for massive local storage in a work-from-server environment)

thank you eetu,

i think i am going to get a gtx 580 3gb for now and go down to 48Gb of ram since i want to get a better cpu, also 4Tb is probably not required 2TB should be enough

for gpu you can consider Geforce GTX 680 4GB ( True 4GB - not 2x2GB) :

http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=868 [gainward.com]

i got my computer with a gtx 580 3gb
all i can say is that you just killed me, i didnt know there was a 680 4gb one gpu
anyway i am pretty amazed with my new build

thanks for the info anyway