Chaos Corona Forum

General Category => General CG Discussion => Hardware => Topic started by: blankvisual on 2016-02-26, 02:35:27

Title: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: blankvisual on 2016-02-26, 02:35:27
Hey everyone,

Long time fan of Corona, using it in 3dsmax. Its been more then 6 years since i've built a rig and I'm feeling a bit lost with all the new hardware out there since then.

if you had 4000 or 5000 $ to build a machine that would render fast and also handle complex architecture scenes with high poly count, what would it look like?

Would it be Dual CPU system ? if so what processors would you recommend. Please recommend your ideal setup even if its above this budget.


Thanks in advance for the insight on this.
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: blankvisual on 2016-02-26, 20:33:14
This workstation should last several years and will be used mainly for 3dsmax and unreal engine.
This is what I have in mind.

2x
- Intel Xeon E5-2650 V3 2.3GHz 10-Core OEM/Tray Processor

2x
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

- Supermicro MBD-X10DAL-I-O ATX Dual-CPU LGA2011-3 Motherboard

- Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory

- Samsung 850Evo 500gb

- Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

- Asus GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB Video Card

- c70 corsair

- EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: Juraj on 2016-02-28, 23:18:59
With 4-5k budget with powerful GPU to have machine equally capable and universal for rendering and real-time, I would reconsider dual-xeon and perhaps prefer the strongest i7, currectly 5960X, they can be powerfully over-clocked and contest low-to-mid dual-xeon builds. Of course, high-end dual-xeon builds are still different league, but different budget as well.

And then there's Broadwell-E coming up with consumer-oriented 10-core i7 (6950X)

http://techfrag.com/2016/01/12/intel-broadwell-e-deca-core-for-consumers-is-coming/
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: SaY on 2016-03-01, 15:14:31
Or you can get something like this and upgrade the videocard
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/121910674218
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: Juraj on 2016-03-01, 16:00:26
Or you can get something like this and upgrade the videocard
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/121910674218

Sweet deal :- )
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: blankvisual on 2016-03-01, 18:34:04
Thank you both for helping me out with this. I really appreciate it.

I ended up buying that machine, on the ebay link minus the graphic card. So the price went down a bit more.
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: Juraj on 2016-03-01, 20:21:19
Haha, tell us when it arrives and if everything was as promised :- ) Quite interested in that.
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: blankvisual on 2016-03-04, 10:11:06
Machine arrived today, looks barely used and still has the plastics. I've just finished setting it up minus the titan x, that will be arriving tomorrow.

Corona is really fast with this setup, I was using a HP z600 since 2009/10 so its a huge difference. Cant wait to test this on some heavy interiors. Will post some images on this forum soonish.

Thanks again to both of you for helping me. Much appreciated.
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: Juraj on 2016-03-04, 11:54:48
That's super, very happy for you :- ) Actually I've learned something today too, I'll definitely will look into used hardware as well in future.
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: SaY on 2016-03-08, 18:04:21
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/121917968116?

Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: Juraj on 2016-03-08, 18:19:22
Damn, those are really good deals.

But honestly, does that super long warranty applies to ES CPUs ? Were those in original Dell build ?

Seems to me these are swapped for ES and then solder cheaper.

Still, nice deal.
Title: Re: Workstation for corona rendering
Post by: SaY on 2016-03-09, 01:53:31
Damn, those are really good deals.

But honestly, does that super long warranty applies to ES CPUs ? Were those in original Dell build ?

Seems to me these are swapped for ES and then solder cheaper.

Still, nice deal.

CPUs are either work or they don't. I never heard of dead CPU other than intensely overvolted/overclocked. That's not the case with Xeons, you can't overclock them (unfortunately) :)