Help with Building my PC

[DN_noob]

Hello everyone

I am trying to build a somewhat high-end computer that will be able to handle all sorts of simulations in Houdini, especially high res flip and pyro sims. I don't know much about computer parts but here's what I am currently hoping to get: 

- Processor: Xeon E5-2687W v4 

- Graphics card: GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC 

If anyone could share their thoughts on these two parts that would be greatly appreciated. And I'd also like some help choosing my SSD and RAM as I have no idea what would be good for running simulations in Houdini. 

Thank you so so much in advance  

 

Cheers.

 

[Marc]

Those parts would work great. RAM will likely be somewhat dictated by the motherboard that you get, however more will be better. SSD is pretty straightforward, get the best one your budget allows :). It doesn't make a huge difference with regard to sims.

M

[bunker]

I would go for an intel i9, much better value: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
And you'll save money not buying ECC memory. Go for 64GB of RAM minimum, or 128GB.
In my experience Houdini doesn't crash less with ECC memory.

Edited June 17, 2018 by bunker

[lukeiamyourfather]

On 6/15/2018 at 6:43 PM, DN_noob said:

- Processor: Xeon E5-2687W v4 

That's a previous generation processor model. Unless you're getting a really good deal on it I'd pass and go with current generation models (Xeon Scalable Processors).

On 6/17/2018 at 12:07 AM, bunker said:

I would go for an intel i9, much better value: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

The Core i9 series is limited to 128GB of memory which isn't enough for heavier scenes and simulations and it's limited to a single processor configurations. It's cheaper but I don't think the value is any better given the limitations. The i9 series is a good fit for some uses and not for others.

On 6/17/2018 at 12:07 AM, bunker said:

And you'll save money not buying ECC memory.

Everything should have ECC memory and it's unfortunate that so many devices don't. It's marginally more expensive but it provides huge benefits. This blog post from James Hamilton sums it up much better than I could in a forum post (he's a Vice President and Distinguished Engineer on the Amazon Web Services team).

https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2009/10/you-really-do-need-ecc-memory/

Quote

I continue to believe that client systems should also be running ECC and strongly suspect that a great many kernel and device driver failures are actually the result of memory fault. We don’t have the data to prove it conclusively from a client population but I’ve long suspected that the single most effective way for Windows to reduce their blue screen rate would be to require ECC as a required feature for Windows Hardware Certification.

 

[DN_noob]

Thank you all for helping me out! You've given me a lot to think about.

@lukeiamyourfather  would you mind expanding on the advantages of the Xeon Scalable processors over the i9? 

4 hours ago, lukeiamyourfather said:

The Core i9 series is limited to 128GB of memory which isn't enough for heavier scenes and simulations and it's limited to a single processor configurations. It's cheaper but I don't think the value is any better given the limitations. The i9 series is a good fit for some uses and not for others.

 From what I can tell the scalable processors support higher max memory. Is there anything else? 

Thanks again  

[lukeiamyourfather]

Processors marketed towards professional users like Xeon Scalable Processors and AMD Epyc are much more capable than their gaming and consumer targeted cousins. They offer things like...

• Multiple processor configuration options like dual and quad socket for machines with many processor cores
• More memory slots and more memory channels (maximum of 64-128GB of memory vs 2-3TB of memory)
• More PCI Express lanes for IO heavy devices like multiple GPU, storage controllers, NVMe, 10/40/100Gb networking (28-44 lanes vs 96-128 lanes)
• ECC memory and NVDIMM ready

For some folks these features are absolutely necessary and the show stops without them. Other times it doesn't matter and the hardware is overkill. Since your original post is asking about a $2,000 processor I figured you were looking at higher end workstation hardware already.

If the projects you're working on for the foreseeable future can live within 128GB of memory then an AMD Ryzen processor is a decent option. The Core i9 is decent as well but the AMD Ryzen will offer more bang for the buck. If you think you'll need more than 128GB of memory or you want some of the features listed above then consider server and workstation hardware. The higher end hardware costs more per unit of performance but it's worth it (or absolutely required) in some cases.