Advice needed on PC workstation for 8K files in After Effects

[Ian Mapleson]

Richard Li writes:
> Fair enough, I can’t afford Quadra cards, …

That’s what the used market is for. 😀

Yesterday I won a Quadro K5000 for 205 UKP. That’s quite a lot less than the cost of a new 970, or even most used 970s atm. A few hours later, a Quadro 6000 went for about 260 UKP (I didn’t bid, having won the K5000). And for raw CUDA oomph on a very limited budget, it’s hard to beat multiple 580 3GB cards.

> intend to use GTX970/980 cards, …

Note these can be slower than the 780 Ti or Titan/Black, and remember the significant differences gamer cards impose for reliability, image quality, etc. Choose carefully. See:

https://www.migenius.com/products/nvidia-iray/iray-benchmarks-2014-5

What will your main application(s) be though? It does seem like a gamer card can be a potent choice for Premiere, and the 980 does use a lot less power, has HDMI 2.0, etc. See:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Product-Qualification-NVIDIA-GTX-980-4GB-600/

Personally if I was going to opt for the newer models, I’d try to get a 980 Ti instead.

NB: don’t get a 970 if you plan on working with material beyond 2K. Although there is no evidence that the split RAM bus speed design of the 970 has any significant impact on gaming, there is some anecdotal evidence that working with 4K on a 970 (such that RAM usage exceeds 3.5GB) can have issues. Thus, get a 980 at a minimum for working with high-res.

> … do you know some not-too-dear game cards with external exhausts you mentioned above?

Most reference cards are designed like this, so just look for the ones that don’t have aftermarket coolers, eg. item 262107587881. Less of an issue though if you’re not going to use more thsan two GPUs, eg. I’d be content to use two EVGA GTX 980 Ti ACX 2.0 cards with a gap between, just needs sensible air flow management.

Ian.

——–
SGI Guru

[Richard Li]

My main apps are Premiere and AE. I plan to upgrade my sys after new year.

Thanks

Richard

[Ian Mapleson]

In that case I’d suggest a 980 minimum, 980 Ti if possible.

Ian.

——–
SGI Guru

[Richard Li]

Try my best.

Cheers
Richard

[Asaf Sagi]

[Walter Soyka] “Also, to make up for the limitations of RAM capacity, a fast cache drive is a must. Even if you can’t go PCIe-attached SSD for primary storage, get it for Ae’s disk cache.
“

Isn’t using an SSD for Ae disk cache going to shorten its lifespan dramatically?

[Ian Mapleson]

Not with modern models like the 850 EVO/Pro), and besides, it’s this sort of task for which SSDs are ideally suited (the performance made possible by SSDs is a natural match for how AE processes data). Otherwise it’d be a bit like saying don’t use a knife to cut meat because it’ll blunt the blade. S’what knives are for. 🙂

Ian.

——–
SGI Guru

[David Lawrence]

[Ian Mapleson] “Not with modern models like the 850 EVO/Pro), and besides, it’s this sort of task for which SSDs are ideally suited (the performance made possible by SSDs is a natural match for how AE processes data). Otherwise it’d be a bit like saying don’t use a knife to cut meat because it’ll blunt the blade. S’what knives are for. :)”

Ian, since we’re on the topic of performance storage (which I was going to bring up!) I was wondering if we could get a bit deeper into the topic.

Walter mentions PCIe-attached SSD stoarge above:

[Walter Soyka] “For storage, I’d recommend going solid-state and PCIe-attached, if your requirements allow for the lower capacity versus a spinning-rust RAID. You might consider transcoding those MP4 files to uncompressed image sequences, trading away disk space for lower CPU load.”

My understanding is that this is the fastest possible internal storage for a PC. In my monster system, I’m imagining three PCIe SSDs – 1) System and applications, 2) Adobe cache (AE and Premiere), 3) Rendered output

A fourth, larger fast SATA drive would be for storing final output. Backup would be some external solution TBD.

Does this seem like a reasonable plan?

Re: PCIe – when I go through PC configuration options (for example on HP’s Z840 customize page) I find I’m only allowed one or two PCIe storage choices. I assume this is a limitation of the motherboard? Are there motherboards out there I should be looking for that would allow for additional fast PCIe storage (three or more SSDs)?

Thanks again for sharing your expertise!

_______________________
David Lawrence
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[Walter Soyka]

[Asaf Sagi] “Isn’t using an SSD for Ae disk cache going to shorten its lifespan dramatically?”

Like Ian said, not like you’d think. Check out the SSD Endurance Test [link] for more.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

David, here’s another option I’m now considering for our workstations: using the on-board RAID controller with a stack of SSDs, stored in an Icy Dock ToughArmour backplane cage [link].

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[David Lawrence]

[Walter Soyka] “David, here’s another option I’m now considering for our workstations: using the on-board RAID controller with a stack of SSDs, stored in an Icy Dock ToughArmour backplane cage [link].”

Awesome Walter, thank you!

BTW, what are doing for backup? Are you using tape or swappable HDs?

_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
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facebook.com/dlawrence
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