Help spec out a workstation?
I'm looking to spec out a workstation for very intensive 3D Modeling, Animation, Rendering 4k output as well as Unity3D for an upcoming project
So far I'm looking at the HP Z820 but there are a ton of options
Ideally we want 2 processors, 8-12 cores each? 3ghz+?
Would we benefit much with 2 graphics cards? Or is one nVidia Quadro K6000 enough?
SLI graphics connector?
Nvidia Tesla K20 GPU computation?
We had 24gb of RAM in our old Mac Pro what should we look at this time around?
Budget is ~$25,000
What sort of things do you guys look for or have heard?
Thanks!
So far I'm looking at the HP Z820 but there are a ton of options
Ideally we want 2 processors, 8-12 cores each? 3ghz+?
Would we benefit much with 2 graphics cards? Or is one nVidia Quadro K6000 enough?
SLI graphics connector?
Nvidia Tesla K20 GPU computation?
We had 24gb of RAM in our old Mac Pro what should we look at this time around?
Budget is ~$25,000
What sort of things do you guys look for or have heard?
Thanks!
Replies
If you are looking to setup machines for game dev studio, this is what I would do:
1. Dont buy Quadro/FirePro gpus. It's rather pointless for geme development. They are expensive, and doesn't really bring anything to the table.
2. For workstation buy normal setup Intel Core i5 4670 or i7 4770.
3. You don't need SLI cards.
For modeling 16GB of ram should be enough.
Buy that for all artists you have.
What money is left, invest into server farm. Depending on what software you use, it might be good idea to go with Tesla, or better off with Xeons or Opterons.
Why build server farm ? Because it will benefit everybody. You can render/bake on it, you can compile code on it, and you can bake lighting for levels in it.
It's more complex setup, but I really think it's better than buy one expensive workstation, that will be used by only one person, and for most of the time it be even fully utilized.
Unless there is only one person working, then whatever
Fortunately it will only be me on this machine, but we do have a remote modeler/animator so a server farm could be helpful
Specifically we are receiving extremely dense models with insane textures and rigging. I can't say who its from but they do cutting edge CG for hollywood.
Our job is to take these assets and use them in an interactive scene (either realtime or canned animations)
We will be using Maya, Unity3d, Touch Designer, After Effects, and other standard tools. We may or may not invest in VRay depending on their expectations
We need to throw everything we got at this
The Mac Pro we have now ( 2x Xeon Processors 8 cores each and 24gb of memory and a shitty video card) can not handle this at all
Which means Maya/VRay and 4K support