Oldie power user (2008-09-last build) rebuilding, looking for tips

[praxisseizure]

Okay, time to update--- big time.
I have a system in mind which I've been working on for a few weeks now. (TL;DR, build at bottom, talk smack for great benefit to me.)

I found you all through looking at reviews of the i7 4770k vs 3770k on Youtube. I forget who mentioned RoG but I think it was either Jayztwocents or NewTechTomorrow. Meh, details. This site is full of great up-to-date discussion on hardware and I wanted to run it by you guys if you don't mind. I don't go through middlemen.. they rip you off and do the 'shrug' thing if you have a problem. I learned that years ago.


First of all, Hi! Avid PC gamer and freelance video editor here (Avid MC.. aherm lul). I also do Maya and After Effects work occasionally. The 3D is usually relatively simple... no landscape scenes or fluid dynamics.

I'm not married to a super rocking system, I currently use a server based workstation and reliability is my lifeblood. (clients in the studio often) Alas, waiting for encodes and renders are just pissing me off whenever I'm doing medium format work when I know I could halve the time pretty cheaply. (:30 sec spots aren't the problem) Also older CPU's don't really affect my gaming. Modern games don't seem to give a crap w/ a decent GPU. The GTX would do better in a PCIe 3 board anyway, so looking forward to that.

I'm coming off a 5 year old build which served me super well but is so dated... yadda... only crashed twice in 5 years, both my fault. Was a Tyan Thunder 2915 dual AMD barcelona opteron 2390 (i think) 2.5Ghz x4 core each, the 150watt ones, but demand is outstripping supply mostly in the single threaded department. Going to Intel for this reason.

I have noticed how even semi-server hardware is doing the things only workstations and servers used to do and due to budget I'm looking for something which will improve performance but still be robust enough to sleep at night during an overnight multicore render. (Hint: video editing doesn't pay as much as it used to.)

I also game on it w/ the GTX 680 on 3 delicious screens.


My primary questions are probably not your cup of tea but I'm looking for good arguments for packing an ASUS board against my probably less than well informed first choice. I don't have the dough or patience for grabbing a few boards and testing them, sending back the rejects. Also, separately, a power supply consideration for a 4x Cheetah 15k RAID 0 in an external chassis.

I'll list the components in a sec. Primary questions first.

So the board I'm looking at is Gigabyte GA-X79S (maybe wifi not sure) to slam an i7-3930k into and probably OC it but only a little, maybe not at all. Reliability is the most, most important thing. I like the server components and the possibility to upgrade from the 3930k to an octo Xeon in the future as an incremental upgrade. Also the ECC support. I tend to buy year or two old hardware so cutting edge isn't really an issue and the performance is only around 5% better each year anyway.

The other thing I need is 2x true PCIe 16x, an 8x and a 4x... Essentially, Kona + video card takes the 16x, 8x is for RAID and 4x is for 5.1 sound (need 192k recording and playback). The rest is gravy. Probably a thunderbolt card in the future but for now, meh.

For those who don't know, Kona is essentially a video card dedicated to HDSDI video output. No tearing (offensive lines during video playback. They're subtle but a keen eye notices.) like regular DVI ,HDMI or DisplayPort has out of a normal video card.

2nd question is much simpler. What do you recommend in a power supply for 4x Cheetahs? 300W PSU atm which I think is plenty. I currently use SATA 7200 drives but demand is picking up for 2k and sometimes even 4k for retail display stuff so I need to be able to keep up. SATA doesn't cut the mustard. Do want, disposable (insecure) playback, but not insane prices / GB SSD's offer that's all. 15k fits the bill here at $200 for 300GB or $.66/GB. (or less, I'm sure if I look hard enough)



Okay, the build. (keep in mind, I do use this for video editing, simple-ish 3D/2D and gaming as well *and* it's in a machine room 20 feet away through a sound dampened wall so noise isn't a big deal.)
I already have the UPS, PSU, Kona, Case, 680, Delta and screens.

- 1500W APS UPS
- 1200W Toughpower
- Case is Lian LI full tower, fits E-ATX nicely w/ 10 drives. Good airflow. Not sure If I'm up for water cooling since it's in a machine room w/ 50' extenders / repeaters for displays and USB.
- Gigabyte GA-X79S (any u---whatever variation will do, just RELIABLE at a reasonable price.)
- i7-3930k (or 3960k if i can find a deal, or Xeon if I have to if 3930k isn't reliable enough)
- Noctua D14 Cooler
- 4Gx8 - 32GB DDR3 1866 (If I can pull it off, otherwise 1600 - also can do 8Gx4 but prefer quad channel on each side, ??? on which is better or if same.)
- Kona 3
- Areca 1880i RAID
- Intel 160GB SSD for OS
- 8x 1TB WD Black 7200 for mass storage / security in RAID 5 - on Areca 1880i (general use)
- 4x 300GB Cheetah 15k for performance in RAID 0 - on Mobo SAS RAID 0 (2k / 4k video playback)
- GTX680
- M-Audio Delta 1010
- PCI 1394b (legacy FW800 33mhz) (I won't cry losing this)
- 2x 1920x1200
- 1x 2056x1600 (the 4k stuff.. omg.. nevermind.. It's like the 90's w/ monitors there.)
- 1x 1920x1080 - Kona

The rest is trivial. I would like to try overclocking, hence the "K" proc choice but if it isn't stable I won't cry using it at stock.

Shoot! Thanks muchly!
-Prax

[HiVizMan]

Welcome to the forum. I just want to point out that this is a ASUS ROG forum and the fact that you want us to comment on a Gigabyte board is a bit strange.

Regards

[praxisseizure]

I see. I thought this was a PC enthusiast forum sponsored by ASUS. I was looking for a counter argument to using the Gigabyte and overall criticism. Well, anyhow, good site, lots of good content. I'll be along then.

[kkn]

well if you are interested in the asus boards there is the ROG series of x79, but its have it cost's and i think it have 16x on the pcie lanes ( take a look on the asus.com site to confirm if so )

[praxisseizure]

I have been looking at the Rampage and Sabretooths. One specific thing I'm noticing is while they claim to have PCIe x16 x2, the chipset is x79 and not the Xeon 606. The server chipset provides extra PCIe Lanes above the 40 provided by the LGA2011. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't see how I can utilize 16x, 16x, 8x and 4x simultaneously since they add up to 44. Something's not going to be happy without those extra lanes.

Is there an ASUS board with the 606? I can't find one.

[Chino]

praxisseizure wrote:
I have been looking at the Rampage and Sabretooths. One specific thing I'm noticing is while they claim to have PCIe x16 x2, the chipset is x79 and not the Xeon 606. The server chipset provides extra PCIe Lanes above the 40 provided by the LGA2011. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't see how I can utilize 16x, 16x, 8x and 4x simultaneously since they add up to 44. Something's not going to be happy without those extra lanes.

Is there an ASUS board with the 606? I can't find one.

Unfortunately, no. Asus does not make any motherboard using the C606 chipset.

[kkn]

then you are over to the server boards i guess.
the r4e have -> 4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x16 or x16/x8/x16 or x16/x8/x8/x8, red) *1
( *1-1 This motherboard is ready to support PCIe 3.0 SPEC. Functions will be available when using PCIe 3.0-compliant devices. Please refer )
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/RAMPAGE_IV_EXTREME/#specifications

the formula have the same on pcie lanes ( it have 4 pcie lanes ) but cheeper, but only 4 dim ports.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/RAMPAGE_IV_FORMULA/#gallery

im not mutch in to the x79 platfor realy, but will not a LGA1150 do the same trick or is it not capable of doing it?
im more of a gamer, but i tought the newer processors can do more and are more power full then the old one you had/used since you can do 32 - 64 gig of memory and up to 2800mhz? and the I7 can do multi tread work.

[praxisseizure]

There is this guy, but same problem with the true 16x x2.
ASUS P8C WS ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1155 Intel C216 DDR3 1600

If you flip it over it's only wired for 16x on slot 1. The rest are 8x. Also only 4 memory slots and stuck in Xeon land which I don't really think I need. Maybe want but it's easily $1500+ for any Xeon close to the single-thread performance of 3930x Sandy-E chip.

Really close though. Still don't understand the 1x slot. Maybe the C216 doesn't have extra lanes. I'll have to look that up.

[kkn]

well only thing i can advice you to do now is google around and see what ppl use to compile and render videos whit. ( or the need you have for it ).

[praxisseizure]

kkn wrote:
well only thing i can advice you to do now is google around and see what ppl use to compile and render videos whit. ( or the need you have for it ).

Just a quick note. Most of them by FAR use Macs. I LOATHE macs and do hackintosh JUST to appease clients who demand I use Final Cut. (Yes, even on the Tyan / AMD it's doable, just really really hard.)

Anyway, way off topic and such.
Many thanks!