Nickpwalsh Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Hello, I'm looking to build a machine for Houdini, as powerful as I can, as soon as I can. I'm looking to invest a good deal of money in it and despite all my research in the last few weeks, I don't fully trust myself to spend a decent amount of money building a Houdini machine without asking some advice from some people with more than three weeks of hardware knowledge. Thanks for any help you can give me! I initially was going to make a threadripper build, since I at least know Houdini scales well with a higher numbers of cores. I'm hesitant to do this though since the new generation of Ryzen processors are coming out soon, and it's possible that the 16 core Ryzen processor may be competitive with if not outperform the 2nd generation Threadrippers. One worry I have though with the new Ryzen processors is that their motherboard seem to only have 4 memory slots, and not quite as many graphic card slots as the Threadripper motherboards. I know memory is very important for work in Houdini and that gpu rendering is often times a good solution for a home computer. Would the limitations of the new Ryzen motherboards make them a bad fit for high level Houdini work? I guess my other option would be to make a threadripper build and then hope that when the new generation of threadrippers come out that I would be able to slot them into my current motherboard (I would be willing to wait until September to upgrade to the 16 core ryzen, but I don't know if I could wait until the third generation threadrippers come out to have a decent computer). Again, thanks for any help. If you don't have any particular advice for my situation, I would love to just hear thoughts and opinions on the new lineup of processors from amd and just general hardware for Houdini advice. Cheers, Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schwungsau Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 go with this one : http://www.cgchannel.com/2019/05/review-boxx-apexx-t3-workstation/ its better then building yourself... if spend so much money, you don't want crashing machine because of some hardware glitches with each other.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaJuice Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 People build their own workstations all the time without issues. A pre-built is a good way to spend twice as much money as you otherwise need to. Ryzen vs Threadripper for "high level Houdini work": 7 hours ago, Nickpwalsh said: I know memory is very important for work in Houdini and that gpu rendering is often times a good solution for a home computer. Would the limitations of the new Ryzen motherboards make them a bad fit for high level Houdini work? Yes. You've kind of answered your own question there. You would be limiting yourself on expansion with the mainstream platform. Limited PCIe lanes, and limited memory capacity compared to x399. The new Ryzen processors may very well be competitive or even better than current TR processors, but it's kind of moot if you can't fit as many GPUs or as much RAM in your box as you would like. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickpwalsh Posted July 7, 2019 Author Share Posted July 7, 2019 Thanks for the replies! It definitely seems that the TR processors would be the better choice if I want a build that I'll be able to expand later to fit all my needs. I worry a bit that if I were to make a TR build now I might be disappointed when the 3rd generation comes comes out. I probably shouldn't get a Ryzen processor simply because it will be out sooner, thought. Hopefully whichever TR motherboard I decide to get will be compatible with the 3rd generation Threadrippers once they're release. Thank again! Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andr1 Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 (edited) edit double Edited July 24, 2019 by Andr1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andr1 Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 (edited) This is only guess work, as I'm not an hardware expert, but I'm in a similar situation of the op: very tempted by the new ryzens. New ryzen mobos should have more lanes, If I'm correct, so maybe you would have a little bit more expansion room than previous gen. Also, you can actually put 128GB of Ram in the new ryzens, as some x570 mobos support up to 128GB like every threadripper mobo does. To consider: 1) It would be only dual channel memory, vs quad channel of threadripper; dual vs quad channel, how much it matters for Houdini workload? 2) You would be force to buy 32GB sticks, which I guess are expensive as hell, and maybe also rare to find. 3) Also, said x570 mobos with 128GB support could cost a premium. At this point, if you need 128GB of ram, maybe it's worth investing in a threadripper? They say new threadripper are coming in october.. but who really knows.. Edited July 24, 2019 by Andr1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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