Gaming Discussions

[socieoc]

Hey guys. I am currently in the process of creating my own architectural 3D Render / Animation business. I am pretty new in relation to understanding the specs of render workstations and I am very confused as to the specs that I will need for a fluid work experience. I was thinking of getting one of the Ryzen Threadripper models as the performance V price seems to be pretty reasonable compared to other competitors. I was just wondering if anyone who is experienced in this field could give me a good recommendation on which model to purchase or maybe if another competitors model might be more suitable. Also, is there a lot of work in assembling these workstations as I have no prior experience of assembling computers & feel I might damage it in the process?

My workflow is usually, Autocad -> Sketchup -> 3ds Max -> V-Ray -> Photoshop -> Premier Pro -> After Effects.

During my workflow I could have a number of tabs with different programmes running simultaneously.

If anyone has any useful knowledge or recommendations I would be greatly appreciate it.

Cheers,

Sean

[benman2785]

Threadripper 2950X + the affordable workstation-gpu of your chioce!
ps wait for Vega2.0

[Anonymous]

Hello,

There is only a couple of things to take into account when building a TR workstation:

1/ If going as pure render or computing machine, where the software of interest use many cores as possible and run 24h/7j: TR2990XW or TR2970WX
2/ If going for a more general "do it all" workstation rig, use wide range of software that don't always leverage very high core count: TR2950X or TR2920X
3/ If you are going for a pure computing machine there is only one motherboard designed for the purpose, the MSI MEG Creation, the other X399 motherboards are really really really really bad for handling high core count cpu like the TR2990WX, especially if going with 24h/7j workloads!!!
4/ If you are going with the "do it all" workstation with a TR2950X, the other X399 motherboards should be fine even when computing for long periods.
5/ Prefer fewer high speed ram sticks with high capacity, like new 32GB sticks based on Samsung chips, instead kits with a lot of sticks if you need huge amount of ram.

6/ Prefer a watercooling solution instead of aircooling, especially if going with the 32 cores TR2990WX, also prefer a nice case airflow especially for the cpu VRM area.
7/ And yes there is some works when assembling the workstation, but nothing extremely difficult if one have some tech background, also you can find help on various forum and discord servers if needed.

8/ I cannot recommend a competitor product here, simply because TR offer very good computing performances for a decent price if compared to the competition, either on a performance and pricing point of views.

9/ What's lacking actually is good motherboard support, i feel the first round of X399 motherboards were NOT designed to handle high core count like the TR2990WX, especially regarding the cpu VRM power delivery, still fine enough to handle the TR2950X. So the motherboard choice on a TR platform is the key point imo, what actually one should care when building the TR workstation, the rest is pretty flawless!

[socieoc]

Thanks a lot for your advice guys. It is extremely helpful for someone who is new to high end computer specs. I think I will probably opt for the Threadripper 2950X, as it seems to have the exact specs I need as well as come in at a pretty good budget.

Also, I know this might seem like a stupid Question, but when buying the Threadripper 2950X, Does it all come in one package with all the parts + accessories or do you custom select the parts individually?

Also, Benman, what is Vega 2.0?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

You can either choose to build up yourself the rig or get a pre-assembled machine from a reseller.
Obviously getting a pre-assembled rig remove you the hassle to assemble it, but on the other hand add an extra cost.

To give you an example of self assembled TR builds you can check here:  https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/by_part/CF7CmG
Obviously instead the 1950X you will purchase the 2950X, aside the cpu the hardware landscape stayed more or less the same.
You can leverage the different rigs, to give you an idea of the various parts needed to build a fully working machine from scrap.

To give you an example of pre-assembled builds check here: https://www.kitguru.net/components/james-morris/armari-amd-ryzen-threadripper-2990wx-32-core-threadr...

Not sure tho you will find a lot of them available at the moment, but it is worth look for around.

Bottom line: choose carefully your motherboard based on it's features, user feedbacks.
Check here for an overview of the available X399 motherboards: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-threadripper-2000-series-x399-motherboards,37549.html
Get 4x8GB or 4x16GB or 4x32GB or ram, depending your needs, possibly 3200Mhz.
The rest is pretty simple and can be copy pasted from one of the build i posted above.

[socieoc]

Cheers, Thanks a lot for all of your help guys.

[socieoc]

Also, how much RAM do you think I would require depending on my workflow?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

For a decent workstation configuration aimed to last over time, i suppose the bare minimum would be 16GB, 32GB to be safe, 64GB and more for focused usage.
As posted above, remember that TR works the best with quad channel memory, so 4 sticks of ram.
TR love even further fast stick with the ram chip soldered only on one side, called single rank memory modules, sticks with chips on both sides are called dual rank.
To resume, the best ram configuration for TR is 4 fast single ranked ram sticks, that's why i advised in the post above 4x8GB or 4x16GB single ranked would be the best.

To give you a reference, this Gskill kit should be single ranked sticks 4x8GB: F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ, did not find tho precise info about 16GB modules single ranked at the moment.

Bottom line, check how much ram you are using during your workflow with your daily drive software.
If you are using already 8/12GB in your workflow get 32GB, if using already 20/24GB get 64GB of ram.
Ram is not cheap, especially good single ranked sticks, so choose carefully.
Tho with the TR second generation, the memory support have been improved in general, hence my best advice would be 4x8GB 3200Mhz single ranked modules, for a general purpose workstation.