CPU decision for a new build

[idclip]

Hi all,

 

I'm in the processes of building a new PC/workstation which primary use will be Houdini sims and renders amoungst other 3D apps. I'm having some trouble deciding on the CPU/Mobo combo . Have a budget of around £1200-1300 and am considering the 3 below:

 

i7 4820k 4 core (3.7Ghz): (~£236)

 

40 PCI-E lanes, great as I'm considering SLI in the future but not planning to order a second card right now. (Sticking with a GTX due to budget)

4 Mem channles.

2011 socket platform

 

i7 4790k 4 core (4.4Ghz): (~£255)

 

Only 16 PCI lanes, fine for 1 card

2 Mem channles

1150 socket platform

 

i7 5820k 6 core (3.3Ghz): (~£294)

 

Can be OC to 4.2Ghz

28 PCI-E lanes

2011-v3 socket platform. This means I need to consider high price mem and mobos for DDR4 usage

 

(all with hyper threading)

 

Are the two extra cores specifically for Houdini worth it (would I need to OC?) If so, is the step into the X99 Mobos and DDR4 worth it at the moment (guess this is futuring proofing here). And if not, does anyone have any preference on the choice between the 4 core CPUs, or is it simply down to if I'll be running with two cards for the extra PCI-E lanes.

 

Thanks in advance for any help all, appreciate it!

[lukeiamyourfather]

The socket 2011 options will support more memory than the socket 1150 options in addition to the extra PCI Express lanes. For a single socket workstation that's a big concern in my opinion. Given those options I'd go for the i7-5820K.

[idclip]

Cool, thanks a lot for your advice! I realise the options above are somewhat limited and tbh a bit general in regards to a Houdini workstation, but any advice with simulations/rendering in mind is great. The 4 mem channles on the 5820 and the high bandwidth is nice, and does leave room for expansion above 32GB. The only thing that was making me hesitant was the jump to DDR4 whilst it's relatively 'new', especially since I wouldn't say we've reached the limits of DDR3 yet.

[malexander]

For sims and rendering, more cores definitely helps. I'd second LIAYF's recommendation of the 5820K. While DDR4 is new, it runs at a lower voltage than DDR3, so it'll keep things slightly cooler overall. The major drawback to the socket 2011 platform is that it's expensive (motherboard) and you can't reuse any DDR3 if you were planning on pulling it from an older machine. Otherwise, with the new X99 chipset, it's superior to the desktop haswell platforms.

 

You can still run two cards with the 5820K. One will just run at PCI-Ex 3.0 8x speed, which I doubt will bottleneck anything as that's still plenty fast. Note that Houdini can only use 1 card for graphics and 1 card for OpenCL sims, so you don't need to worry about driving more than 2 cards with the limited 28 lanes (at least for Houdini, anyway).

[tricecold]

I would also go with more ram, remember no matter how fast is your CPU it is useless if you ran out of memory