Digital Cinema color workstation planning... please chime in!

I'm to the point where I need to replace my MacPro 4,1 8 core, and I WILL be building a hackintosh, for the purposes of on-set DIT work - asset management and color grading with RAW and compressed HD+ video files via DaVinci Resolve.

I'm looking at the Asus RIVE for now instead of the X9DAi, though I know through here a hack was successfully built. My main concern is the PCIe capability, and I'm a bit fuzzy conceptualizing the bandwidth limitations.

I saw this thread and like the information, it will likely be a starting point for me.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...-3970x-asus-rampage-iv-extreme-gtx-760-a.html

I know the 2011 socket has 40 lanes per processor, and I know expansion chassis basically split up one 16x lane and there's still a performance bump from adding more GPUs, I am curious how this works on the RIVE without an expansion chassis, cause there are more physical slots than my current MacPro that I would plan to populate as such:

Slot 1) PCIe 3.0 x16 - nVidia GTX 780 GPU (x16) - processing for RESOLVE
Slot 2) PCIe 3.0 x8a - potential Firewire or 10Gbe card
Slot 3) PCIe 3.0 x8b - ARECA SAS RAID HBA (x8) - later possible upgrade to
Slot 4) PCIe 3.0 x16 - nVidia Quadro 4000 GPU (x16) - for GUI
Slot 5) PCIe 2.0 x1 - Sonnet Qio MR (x1) - production media card ingest
Slot 6) PCIe 3.0 x8 - Blackmagic Decklink Extreme video I/O (x4) - Resolve

I'm guessing from what I've read that all the slots aren't totally saturated at all times, especially with PCI 3.0, since a Cubix expander splits one PCI x16 into 4 other x16 lanes, and you definitely see a performance bump in video processing. (helped a friend build a Resolve system with 2x GTX 580s and Red Rocket card, in addition to ATI guy GPU in his 12-core MacPro 5,1)

I want to run 2 GPUs in this potential system, and I will NEED the RAID HBA and the decklink. Workarounds for the MR exist, but I'd like to get that running as well. Potential to upgrade to the GTX TITAN instead of the 780 as well.

Processors I have another concern, can't seem to find this info easily - does the ASUS RIVE support Xeon processors? I'd LOVE to build a dual-processor hack but from the conversations I've had it's extremely problematic, and if I need the power for Resolve, I can later build a Windows or Linux solution with up to 4 GPUs. For now, I need a replacement for my current machine. If I don't go Xeon - it will either be the i7-3970X or i7-4960X, and don't plan on initially over clocking, but if I do, it will likely be mild. I need this thing to be stable.

Thanks!

P.S. - also looking for recommendations for a rackmount chassis for this build.

rchristof said:

Processors I have another concern, can't seem to find this info easily - does the ASUS RIVE support Xeon processors? I'd LOVE to build a dual-processor hack but from the conversations I've had it's extremely problematic, and if I need the power for Resolve, I can later build a Windows or Linux solution with up to 4 GPUs. For now, I need a replacement for my current machine. If I don't go Xeon - it will either be the i7-3970X or i7-4960X, and don't plan on initially over clocking, but if I do, it will likely be mild. I need this thing to be stable.

Thanks!

P.S. - also looking for recommendations for a rackmount chassis for this build.

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According to the ASUS website, the RIVE only supports Core i CPUs - no Xeons in the list - http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/RAMPAGE_IV_EXTREME/#support

For rack mounted cases, I like Chenbro or Habey.

Going Bald said:

For rack mounted cases, I like Chenbro or Habey.

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Thanks, I will check those out, but should have mentioned I'm looking for one with a SAS/SATA backplane for a mobile disk rack. Would like to get 8 RAID drives in the case besides my boot and OS backup.

Just today I browsed around to find this Supermicro Chassis, since according to power consumption calculator, an 850w Power supply would be sufficient for either i7 I mentioned with liquid cooler.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/743/SC743TQ-865-SQ.cfm

not computer hardware, but since this will be a traveling, field-operated unit, I picked up a shock-mount rack case on ebay to house the 4U server chassis, 1U RAID, and supplemental stuff (open shelf, possibly my monstrous UPS if not too heavy for the shock mounts)



http://www.ecscase.com/rackmount/legacy-rackmount-1/legacy-rackmount

By monstrous UPS, I mean this thing, that has served me well, and weighs almost 80 lbs. Even with heavy processing, I've had battery run times of over 30 minutes after I get unplugged by the juicers. (daily occurrence on set)

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/pr...?selectedTabId=specifications&imageI=#tab-box

Going Bald said:

According to the ASUS website, the RIVE only supports Core i CPUs - no Xeons in the list -

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I was curious about that, and have inquired with Roche, because his "custom computer" build tools on his website allow you to select the RIVE MoBo AND a xeon processor - I have not received a response as of yet, it may be that you can select it among the drop-down list selections, but not actually build it, or maybe it is possible but well beyond my knowledge?

...I wonder if I'll get a response back at all?

rchristof said:

I was curious about that, and have inquired with Roche, because his "custom computer" build tools on his website allow you to select the RIVE MoBo AND a xeon processor - I have not received a response as of yet, it may be that you can select it among the drop-down list selections, but not actually build it, or maybe it is possible but well beyond my knowledge?

...I wonder if I'll get a response back at all?

Click to expand...

I would check with Asus customer support to make absolutely sure.

Love my R4E but You may want to look at the ASUS P9X79-E WS For Xeon support. But, I'd go with a i7 4930K OCed to 4.2 or 4.4ghz for price vs performance (my 3930K geekbench score is 23,855 @ 4.4ghz). You'll get OOB CPUPM (4930K) including speedstep using mac pro 6,1 smbios data when 10.9.2 is released (with a properly set up system). Also look at 2 r9 280x cards. They will show up as stock 2013 Mac Pro cards and work OOB as well.

shilohh said:

Love my R4E but You may want to look at the ASUS P9X79-E WS For Xeon support. But, I'd go with a i7 4930K OCed to 4.2 or 4.4ghz for price vs performance (my 3930K geekbench score is 23,855 @ 4.4ghz). You'll get OOB CPUPM (4930K) including speedstep using mac pro 6,1 smbios data when 10.9.2 is released (with a properly set up system). Also look at 2 r9 280x cards. They will show up as stock 2013 Mac Pro cards and work OOB as well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I looked into the server board before, but can't remember why I dismissed it. The MoBo is about the same price but Xeon is really beyond my budget as I've delved more into the reality of this build, thanks to all the bits and pieces I will need, like the case I already purchased, which grows the cost of initial investment, and delay testing and implementation. So as of now my potential build is almost certainly going to be an i7, with a Xeon build coming later if needed and affordable, but I'm fuzzy on the value of cores vs. Ghz, when considering budget of a 6-core i7 and an 8-core Xeon.

Considering that, and I haven't double-checked the fit with my chosen chassis, but wonder what the opinion would be of the EVGA X79 Classified as a MoBo option? More I/O in LOTS of USB ports and a second ethernet port is always welcome.

There may be a case to be made if I could cram several in there, of having an ATI and a GTX, because OpenCL is the future, but there is a lot of software that I use now that leverages CUDA right now, though I do hope sincerely that they iron out this issue with the GTX GK110B cards, and so, my initial GPU considerations have changed. A colleague recently built a Hack with a GTX 780 and it just crashes on ANYTHING using OpenCL running 10.8.5.

1) PCIe 3.0 x16 - nVidia 2GB GTX770 ~or~ 4GB GTX680 - GPU RESOLVE
2) PCIe 3.0 x16 - nVidia GT640 - GUI

However, supposedly the GK110B fix is imminent, so depending on when the money makes this possible, my GPU concerns may be moot.
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=hma0ajrsdkn1d4bn7a5plqfel19k5k7o&topic=8369.0

My previous Quadro 4k MAC will likely be sold with my MacPro when I liquidate it, since I didn't realize I also still had my stock GT120 card as well.

rchristof said:

My previous Quadro 4k MAC will likely be sold with my MacPro when I liquidate it, since I didn't realize I also still had my stock GT120 card as well.

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You might want to keep that GT120 as a backup/install GPU for installing when your new gfx cards aren't supported in the version of OS X you are installing, but will be when you do a combo update.

Also comes in handy for installing SL first to get to the app store for upgrade downloads.

Got the Chassis, MoBo is on order, CPU and RAM.

SuperMicro 743 chassis pictured.

Probably going to mod the case to put in a 120mm liquid CPU cooler, as the rear exhaust fan is 92mm. Will probably cut out a hole in the case top, just in front of the PSU, which in my install mounted horizontally in a rack, will vent out the side, but it will have adequate space around the rack to ventilate. Nowhere else to mount it as I can tell.

Since I plan on OC'ing the CPU I'm guessing liquid cooling is the right move.