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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New Dual-Xeon RESOLVE Build -- October 2015

Tom Lowe

Tom Lowe

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I am putting together a new build for a machine to use mainly RESOLVE 12.

Here are the basic specs:

Supermicro X10DRG-Q (we must have Thunderbolt)

Dual Intel XEON E5-2699 v3 Octadeca-Core

3X 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X

512GB ECC Registered 2133MHz (16X32GB)

1X PCI SSD

8x 1TB SSD RAID 5

Any tips or ideas, or anything I overlooked?

Also, can anyone recommend what SSDs and RAID controller I should use for an internal SSD RAID? I do not have any experience with SSD RAIDs at all.

Thanks!
 
You have to switch to 14 core xeons. Resolve will not be able to handle all the threads of dual 18 core cpus and you'll end up with worse performance in the end.

You don't see yourself using more than 8TB of space? As fast as that it is, doesn't seem enough to hold both source and render footage. Or will the render go to another raid?

I also don't think you need to buy registered ram, desktop ddr4 should work. Also, unless you're super heavy on after effects. 128GB should be enough.
 
@Tom - I personally recommend having a separate "write to" RAID or drive. That's my only real advice. Also, the 2TB Samsung SSDs are working well for me. Hope you're well man.
 
Sounds like a nice machine. At this price point you may want to consider RAID 10 with more drives instead of RAID 5.
 
64 threads max in Resolve... Drop to 14 core CPUs (E5-2697 v3 14-core 2.6GHz). Don't bother with the 12 core chips, hardly any savings on price and they operate all cores at the same speed. You can't get speed benefits unless you sacrifice too many cores. You can go with the 18-core chips, I jus like the 14's better.

You must have ECC registered RAM for proper operation. 512MB is overkill, great if you can do it, but I would make sure I have all the storage and other stuff I want in the system before moving beyond 256GB. Most apps, resolve included, don't know what to do with that much RAM, even though it works out to 8GB per thread with the full 512.

I would recommend 2TB+ SSDs or more than 8 in a RAID to get your capacity up. Not sure what 8TB is going to do for you... When you start getting into 8+ drives, you can play with other RAID modes like RAID-50 to further boost performance. The new NVM interface SSDs are the way to go for performance, but not sure what RAID cards are out there just yet. A lot of new stuff just hitting the market now. For regular SATA/SAS interface SSDs and HDDs, the ARECA RAID cards are performing well right now.
 
The problem with the NVMe drives are they take valuable slots more useful for GPU's ad other devices and the performance often doesn't justify the expense when you can get 2x SSD's in raid 0 for example or in a larger redundant raid. When I tested the Intel NVMe drives the caching burst was able to hit the specs listed for the drive but it constantly dropped several hundred MB/s below that with the current caching models.
 
Regarding RAIDS, I will have lots of big 100TB+ 16-bay RAIDs running fiber, TB, etc. The internal RAID is just for separate, speedy scratch drives for doing work aside from the bigger RAIDs. I just like to have a bit of very fast storage in the machine itself. Jeff, what 2TB+ SSDs are you talking about?

Thanks for the tips regarding 14-core vs 18-core. Very valuable info. Any other tips would be most welcome.
 
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Monster build Tom. Milano asked what the price point would be, which would be good to know and is likely "Google-able". To reframe that issue, and to apply some of the notes from others, what would be the cost of:

Supermicro X10DRG-Q

Dual Intel XEON E5-2697 v3 14 Core (instead of 18 core)

3X 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X

256GB ECC Registered 2133MHz (16X16GB) (instead of 512)

1X PCI SSD

4x 2TB SSD (instead of 8x1) internal RAID controller TBD

I'd then RAID 4x 6TB 3.5" spinning drives in the other 4 bays as a local pool so you could read/write locally during renders/transcodes and to facilitate data redundancy strategies.

I've specced out similar systems a couple times but never pulled the trigger. One thing that held me back was the limited number of applications that could effectively use all those fabulous resources - single threaded processes, weak multi-thread performance in key software, etc - but perhaps the latest version of Resolve has the ability to really utilize such a system.

Cheers - #19
 
Blair S. Paulsen said:
Monster build Tom. Milano asked what the price point would be, which would be good to know and is likely "Google-able". To reframe that issue, and to apply some of the notes from others, what would be the cost of:

Supermicro X10DRG-Q

Dual Intel XEON E5-2697 v3 14 Core (instead of 18 core)

3X 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X

256GB ECC Registered 2133MHz (16X16GB) (instead of 512)

1X PCI SSD

4x 2TB SSD (instead of 8x1) internal RAID controller TBD

I'd then RAID 4x 6TB 3.5" spinning drives in the other 4 bays as a local pool so you could read/write locally during renders/transcodes and to facilitate data redundancy strategies.

I've specced out similar systems a couple times but never pulled the trigger. One thing that held me back was the limited number of applications that could effectively use all those fabulous resources - single threaded processes, weak multi-thread performance in key software, etc - but perhaps the latest version of Resolve has the ability to really utilize such a system.

Cheers - #19
Click to expand...

Yeah I might look at only 256GB RAM. The cost of this RAM is pretty high.

Can you guys recommend a specific 2TB SSD that I could put into an internal RAID 5? Is RAID 5 a good configuration for SSD RAIDs?

DJ Meyer said:
Why no Rocket-X?
Click to expand...

It's usually a matter of PCI slots. With a build as strong as the one being discussed here, I wonder if a Red Rocket is even necessary? Usually, even on machines with half the power of this build here, I am not having much trouble editing Dragon footage in Resolve 12 right now.
 
Tom Lowe said:
Yeah I might look at only 256GB RAM. The cost of this RAM is pretty high.

Can you guys recommend a specific 2TB SSD that I could put into an internal RAID 5? Is RAID 5 a good configuration for SSD RAIDs?



It's usually a matter of PCI slots. With a build as strong as the one being discussed here, I wonder if a Red Rocket is even necessary? Usually, even on machines with half the power of this build here, I am not having much trouble editing Dragon footage in Resolve 12 right now.
Click to expand...

14 core works similar to the 12 core and 18 core , to the timeline in 1080. This in Davinci Resolve Windows.
If you have to go to the timeline and monitors 4k, 18 core can give you real time, up to 6k FF 6: 1 . To 5:1 go down to 22 fps . While the core 14 can not do this.
256 gb does not differentiate from 128gb on Davinci Resolve, so needless to spend the money.
Another tip, if you do not want a lot of crashes, do not use 3-x titan in the same houses, unfortunately become very hot with Resolve and the system can not cool !! At least you do not have air conditioning and dedicated local.
Use the case 1600 watts with all the fans that you can. Set in the bios of the forced ventilation GPu, so most remain fresh.And Afterburner to 60%to 80%.

If you intend to use this for Adobe use 10 core with high frequency. If you want to be 10% slower in Adobe but fast Davinci, 18 core is the right.

This is a bomb of PC, I have 2 who travel all day for the grading, without problems. Supermicro is a good company.

Good luck for the construction. Beauty to have all in 4k ;)

NOTE: If you went to the 18 core in windows used msconfig and set group 0 to 64;) if not set this 64 ,Davinci starting only with 8 cores :( hehe shit!!
 
The Dual 14 Cores can most definitely give you realtime playback in Adobe or Davinci for 4K and 5K and likely 6K since the same config can handle 6K realtime in Adobe with the GPU accelerated debayering. You just need 2X Titan X GPU's or atleast 2x 980Ti GPUs. and 128 GB of ram. The cooling for 2x or 3X Titan X cards in a case is the same concept. You just need side direct airflow into the PCI-E area. There are many cases that allow for this including Fractal Design and Coolermaster. You want atleast 1300W PSU for 2x Titan X GPU's and a Dual Xeon. 1600W would be 3x GPU's or Rocket card wth 2x GPU's. Buying the 18 core Xeons is a waste due to processor grouping which most media content applications are not able to use correctly. Yes you can use the CPU affinity but why spend so much more for Xeons you can't use all of the threads on. The money is better spent elsewhere especially since 56 threads can handle a load within 8 to 10% of the 64 threads usable of the 18 core Xeons. A couple of DIY's have already fallen into the 18 core trap and were seriously disappointed. I would not make the same mistake. The better idea would be to spent the money saved from lowering the ram to 128 or 256GB and the CPU's to 2697V3's on an X99 render/secondary edit system which can also handle Thunderbolt. An 8 Core I7 clocked to atleast 4GHz with 64 GB of ram will render far faster than the Dual Xeon system for most applications and workflows.
 
Tom Lowe said:
Yeah I might look at only 256GB RAM. The cost of this RAM is pretty high.

Can you guys recommend a specific 2TB SSD that I could put into an internal RAID 5? Is RAID 5 a good configuration for SSD RAIDs?


It's usually a matter of PCI slots. With a build as strong as the one being discussed here, I wonder if a Red Rocket is even necessary? Usually, even on machines with half the power of this build here, I am not having much trouble editing Dragon footage in Resolve 12 right now.
Click to expand...

Raid 5 or Raid 6 are fine with SSD's though Raid 6 is more robust and better against corruption. If you have the budget the Samsung SM863 Enterprise drives would be the ideal drives to get with the PM863's as the lesser priced option though those are based on the equivalent Enterprise to the Evo series. The SM863's have a massively higher endurance rating even compared to the 850 Pro drives and are only a few hundred more per drive which can equate to savings long term. The Samsung 850 Pro drives would be the go to if pricing was more an issue.
 
I would also recommend the SM863's. Although the PM863's would serve well too, not sure which would be best overall here -- the SM's are optimized for write-intensive stuff, the PM's for read-intensive work. I have personally not used the PM's, but do have a few 1.9TB SM863's. The PM863's now come in 3.8TB in addition to the 1.9TB and cost is pretty linear per GB, only about a $120 premium over cost per GB to double your space. the 2TB 850 Pros should be shipping soon, or perhaps they are, but really they're not going to be much cheaper. 2TB EVO SSDs are $750 with 1.9TB PM863's right at $1K and 1.9TB SM863's at $1200.
 
Tom Lowe said:
I am putting together a new build for a machine to use mainly RESOLVE 12.

Here are the basic specs:

Supermicro X10DRG-Q (we must have Thunderbolt)

Dual Intel XEON E5-2699 v3 Octadeca-Core

3X 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X

512GB ECC Registered 2133MHz (16X32GB)

1X PCI SSD

8x 1TB SSD RAID 5

Any tips or ideas, or anything I overlooked?

Also, can anyone recommend what SSDs and RAID controller I should use for an internal SSD RAID? I do not have any experience with SSD RAIDs at all.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Maybe add some more RAM and use it as a RamDisk / scratchdisk for ultimate speed? It's even faster than PCI SSDs.

apcnews2012supercharge_your_steam_games_img_mainImage2.jpg2.jpg


Edit: Nevermind the motherboard is limited to 16 RAM slots.
 
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I'm actually pumped to see some benches and get your hands-on impressions, Tom. This system looks promising! (and how often do you do a complete rebuild?)
 
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