Proofreading my computer design and building a server rack station.

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

This is my current list of components for a $6000 computer system.

Motherboard - ASUS Z10-PE WS

Memory RAM - Samsung 64GB PC4 19200 DDR4 ECC RAM (I'll add more as I go along)

Graphics card - PNY Quadro M4000

SSD - Intel 750 Series PCI-E 1.2TB

CPU - Intel Xeon 10-core processor E5-2630 V4 (I will add another as I go along)

Can anyone suggest a good power supply that is reasonable, and any other accessories that will prevent this computer from being damaged or exploding? Thank you.

[slicendice]

This is my current list of components for a $6000 computer system.

Motherboard - ASUS Z10-PE WS

Memory RAM - Samsung 64GB PC4 19200 DDR4 ECC RAM (I'll add more as I go along)

Graphics card - PNY Quadro M4000

SSD - Intel 750 Series PCI-E 1.2TB

CPU - Intel Xeon 10-core processor E5-2630 V4 (I will add another as I go along)

Can anyone suggest a good power supply that is reasonable, and any other accessories that will prevent this computer from being damaged or exploding? Thank you.

Still looking for some PSU alternatives.

Meanwhile at least consider purchasing a Samsung 960 EVO Pro 1TB or 2TB card that goes in the M.2 slot instead of the Intel 750. It's almost same price (the 2TB model) as the Intel SSD, but is almost twice at fast, has 5 year warranty, is less than a 10th of the size and has good support software for optimizing performance and reliability. Because of its performance rating the temperature goes up so make sure the card gets properly vented though, or it will die.

Your Asus MB is the D8 model. right?

[Howardlong]

I would be very wary of any Asus board in this segment of the market. I have the Z9PE-D8 WS (dual LGA2011 V1/V2) and it's flakey as hell, particularly with regards to inconsistent POSTing and needing to be RMA'd. I am not alone, there are pages and pages of tales of woe on this particular board and I can't believe that there's going to be any dramatic improvement with a newer board.

Asus are simply not experts at this end of the market.

Make sure that the BIOS is up to date before you purchase the board - it is not at all uncommon to receive a board with early BIOS that you simply can't update unless you have a compatible early version CPU.

Whatever RAM you get make sure it's on the QVL, the very first thing they'll tell you to do when it doesn't work is to check the RAM's on the QVL (after asking if you have the latest BIOS).

Check online to see if others have had success with your build, including GPU and even PSU: there are cases where even a PSU can have compatibility problems despite being adequately spec'd in terms of power requirements.

I'd recommend SuperMicro as a better bet over an Asus or other consumer grade manufacturer. This segment is SuperMicro's bread and butter, it's what they do, they don't do consumer grade boards.

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

Yes, my board is the D8 model.

I was actually recommended earlier to not go with a supermicro board, that is why the asus came up.

This is the only supermicro board I have found that is compatible so far.

https://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10DRX.cfm

Do you think this is a better choice than the Asus board?

[slicendice]

I read a lot of articles regarding that older model ASUS, and I think the issues people had was more about not understanding settings than the board being bad. Asus boards have a lot of settings that can be played with, and one bit in the wrong place breaks the system. Another thing I would out is that because most MB owners were DIY builders, they had assembled it wrong or used to tight fit cooling blocks etc... Modern CPUs and MBs are very delicate pieces of machinery, and one has to be careful.

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

slicendice: Thank you for the information about the Asus board.

Does anybody think the supermicro board I posted up in my last post is any good? Is it by any chance a better alternative?

By the way, that Samsung SSD does look a lot better and a lot faster. I think I'll be going with that one.

[slicendice]

You're welcome! :-)

About PSUs: I have not had the time to look into this closely, but the most essential thing to look for is that the PSU has enough rails to give enough current to each device plugged into the system.

GPU needs it's own dedicated rail, and MB with all it's RAM and CPUs needs another one. All other peripherals needs their own rail too. Depending on GPU (140-240W) the PSU must be able to output 15-25 AMP on that rail on 12V, for motherboard the same thing if going for a dual Xeon system (2 x 140W+), so best is if the MB has 2 connectors and the PSU has 2 power cables that has their own rails with enough power to keep the device alive without losing voltage stability. The reason why this is very important not to put a too small PSU in the system is that, when the system POST/BOOT, all the devices will draw near MAX current for a brief second. If the PSU is too small, the device won't BOOT or even worse, either the PSU can blow up or some of the devices can blow up. We don't want that. And of course the same apply on heavy load while rendering something.

[slicendice]

What are you talking about?

Today modern GPUs has their own Power connector because they draw so much current. This/these cable(s) has it's/their own power rail in the PSU. The MB would blow up if such current would go through the MB. On a 4-way SLI configuration that could be equal to 80-100A on 5v/12V. I am not talking about 2 or more physical power supplies. Modern PSUs has at least 4 power rails that are completely separate from each other. Some can even combine 2 or more rails into one for even higher currents for one connector when needed. For some PSUs you even have a USB connector you can connect to the MB and then use software to configure and measure these rails on the fly.

We are NOT talking about 2-4 redundancy PSU configurations here. Don't over complicate things with stuff like redundancy that is something completely different.

I've built hundreds(if not even thousands, lost the count a long time ago) of consumer gaming PC builds, and the things I mentioned are very important to understand and take into account when building a stable computer that consume a lot of power.

[slicendice]

Anyway, my point is that DON'T try to save on the PSU and make sure each rail can give enough current for each device. and make sure each GPU has it's own separate Power rail or you will get an unstable system and most likely blow things up.

[slicendice]

HERE is a basic tutorial how to choose a PSU for your particular build. It is best to read the full article of how to build a PC from start to finish (not only the PSU part but going from basic idea to measuring and choosing the right parts).

[slicendice]

PSU reviews in a nutshell

[Howardlong]

I read a lot of articles regarding that older model ASUS, and I think the issues people had was more about not understanding settings than the board being bad. Asus boards have a lot of settings that can be played with, and one bit in the wrong place breaks the system. Another thing I would out is that because most MB owners were DIY builders, they had assembled it wrong or used to tight fit cooling blocks etc... Modern CPUs and MBs are very delicate pieces of machinery, and one has to be careful.

No it is that bad. I have very recent first hand experience of it, and it IS flakey as hell, compared to say, the X9DRi-LN4F board I'm also using. The biggest problem is its inconsistent POSTing and lack of clear documentation around the settings and POST codes.

Like I say, check real board and build reviews from real users, be wary of board reviews from the usual suspects like Anandtech off the bat: as professional reviewers they will have had the OEM bending over backwards to provide support. They are also not going to be long term users. Newegg for example has board reviews from real people typically with pros and cons which gives a good insight as to how a board will work in a real environment.

[David Hess]

PSU reviews in a nutshell

The problem with these reviews are that they are practically useless except for determining functionality and specifications when new.  That is a good place to start but it is not enough.  How do they perform at the end of their warranty period?  What is their design lifetime?  What is their real failure rate?  I would even settle for a list of warranty durations but I have to compile it unit by unit.

Power supply manufacturers have become adept at derating the output capacitors so that the design lifetime is not much longer than the warranty period so in some cases, they are practically the same.  Users end up renting power supplies rather than buying them.

[slicendice]

I don't think the problem with CAPS dying has anything to do with bad CAPS, the heat or under sizing the PSU is the biggest problem. Many PC builders rely too much on the PSU cooling fan or they have a bad overall cooling design for their case --> the PSU will die very fast and so will some MB CAPS too.

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-RM1000x-Modular-Supply-Certified/dp/B015YEI7LK

I researched good PSUs, and how they work. Corsair seems to be a very good choice, and that is the model I wound up looking into.

Of course, I need a board that will work with that. I'm trying to figure out if the Asus board will work, or the Supermicro board would work?

From what I understand, this Supermicro board will work with all of my other components so far, right?

https://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10DRX.cfm

Thank you to everyone again.

[Howardlong]

I run the HX1000i in my Asus build which is slightly more efficient than the RM1000x being Platinum vs Gold on the 80Plus rating. Both have a 10 year warranty and boast "Japanese" caps but don't specify the brand.

It works fine, but I found a couple of the cable runs in my build with the supplied modular cables were tighter than I'd like, it was marginal but it works. It depends on your particular enclosure, motherboard and how you manage your cables as much as anything.

One thing to check with your enclosure is whether it supports directly your motherboard, frequently for EATX and EEB sized boards you need to take care that no blind mounting hole standoffs are present or your board risks shorting out. You're also likely to need to drill and place your own standoffs in some instances. EATX does not share the same mounting holes as EEB despite them being the same board dimensions.

The biggest problem with self-builds at this end of the market is that the "gene pool" of builders rapidly dinminishes, so the characterisation of them isn't as wide as consumer boards. In your average server farm, although there'll be hundreds of servers, they tend to work on a very limited number of pre-certified and tested platform configurations.

I'd be very reluctant to state categorically that a given build will work faultlessly without having had direct experience of it. If you follow the board vendor's QVLs then you will, at least, have some form of comeback, and with that I'd put more trust in SuperMicro's support than in Asus for this type of board. You only have to look at a few of the Linus Tech Tips videos on their rendering machine a year or so ago to see that even they had an enormous amount of difficulty getting their boards going.

I would also check that any form of multi GPU environment that you're going to use is supported.

[slicendice]

Something to consider regarding choice of CPU, price and GPU assisted video encoding.

[DimitriP]

Something to consider regarding choice of CPU, price and GPU assisted video encoding.

This in not news to some  
I always sort CPUs by Speed first, then cores then price.
Let's call it "an intuitive assumption", and leave it at that.

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

Thank you for that video and the information about the CPU speed and the CPU cores.

Most Adobe CS6 programs support multi-threading, so additional cores should still be useful. Is the jump from a CPU with 2.2GHz with 10 cores a big difference compared to a CPU with 3.0GHz with 4 cores? Especially in the situation of using programs such as Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator?

[slicendice]

That's the thing, when using GPU assisted encoding, the CPU will most likely just throttle, and if on a dual CPU board the added complexity in the system can slow things up significantly. So yes a 4-10 Core CPU can outperform a dual 22-Core design in GPU assisted encoding with ease. But if running CPU only encoding, more cores is generally better. Adobe software has it's limits though, and that is what we talked about in the beginning of this thread. A 10-Core CPU or less with hyper threading is more than enough for Adobe software. What is more important is memory timings(low latency is more important than high frequency), operation frequency of CPU and bus bandwidth.

Another thing that also makes a huge difference is in which slot each add-on card is plugged in. It is common to dedicate second CPU for the GPU, using the PCIe slot that belongs to that CPU.

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

Will the Quadro M4000, and a 3.0GHz 4 core Xeon Processor Serve me possibly better or equally to a 10 core Xeon processor? Especially with your above method?

If so, can someone help me find a cheaper 3.0GHz Xeon Processor?

The 10 core that I was looking at was clocked at 2.2 GHz, and cost only $600...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1226971&gclid=CNXuz87KudECFctMDQodA64ANQ&is=REG&ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876%2C92051678882%2C&A=details&Q=

[DimitriP]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1285810-REG/intel_bx80660e51650v4_xeon_e5_1650_v4_hexa_core.html

or for $2650 you get a whole machine with an M5000 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1277947-REG/hp_y5b17ut_aba_z240_xeon_e5_1270v4_16gb_256ssd_windows_10_pro.html

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

^Thank you very much, that looks pretty good.

Just so I have the knowledge, could you link me to that CPU's Dual/2600 v4 equivalent? Just in the case I want to add more cores in the future, as Adobe Premiere and After Effects can make use of up to ten cores.

[Lizzie_Jo_Computers_11]

After doing some more research myself. I have come to the conclusion that a high end $5000 Quadro (as was suggested to me earlier in this thread) will probably not be greatly utilized for my purposes. At least not opposed to getting a 980 ti or a Titan X.

Now, for the purposes of heavily GPU reliant processes such as video rendering and 3D modeling, do you think that the Titan X 12 GB will serve me better, or just go to waste, when I could get the 980 ti's 6GB for 1/3 the price?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980-ti/specifications

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan-x/specifications

Also, will a Xeon processor really serve me better for the above two processes? Could I get an i7 with 4 cores and 4,0 GHz clock speed, or get an i7 with 6 cores with a clock speed of 3.3 GHz, and get a faster machine for less?

From what I understand, GPU accelerated video rendering peaks at about 6 cores, and for my uses, would 4.0 GHz with 4 cores do better, or would a 6 core with 3.3 GHz do better?

Adobe Creative Suite 6 programs can indeed utilize up to 10 cores, and hyper threading is possible, but would singled out faster clock speeds per each CPU still be more worthwhile than a Xeon with more cores and a slower clock speed?

Thank you all for your continued assistance.

[slicendice]

I am pretty certain a high end i7 CPU with a GTX 1080 will be more than enough for years to come. You don't really need that Xeon as it just makes the price go up a lot. Titan X is expensive so GTX 1080 is a better choice, it's faster and cheaper.