Building a Workstation - Page 2 - Simply Maya User Community

# 16 28-02-2016 , 10:05 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2016

Posts: 6

Possilbe Solution to Workstation Specifications

OK, sorry for the delay. I think I have a solution that I am confident about having had much input from everyone here and on the phone, which I thank you all kindly for. Your all a massive knowledgebase and some have a scary amount of computer savvy in their minds.

Good power supply - Seasonic or Corshair Golden Plate / Gold rated - clean energy and wattage
Something about 750 watts - 120 watts
Semi modular to minimise cables

Asus / MSI / Gigabyt / Asrock motherboard, maybe Skylake 4GHz i7
Probably no need to overclock as the difference is small? [little forgot that bit], something to do with overclocked versions are just chips with no defects but essentially they are the same. But will still probably cool with L80 coolest autocooler or Noctua tower block fan cooler. If choose to overclock, 6300 K-version - DO NOT use stock cooler that come with the CPU
Will probably get a kit so it's already assembled and just need to install

DDR4 RAM - apparently cruicial.com.co.uk do good cheap RAM.
2133MHz - not overclocked RAM

500GB SSD hard drive to boot system and for operations but a couple of good 1TB HHDs for storing data

if going with Linux use Open Zeus [preferred] / Ubuntu / Lint Linux / Game2

So, this setup was detailed with the gracious 30mins chat on the phone offered by a user here - thank you.

I will be out of the country in a little over a week for a total of three months, so unfortunately will not have time or need for this until I return. But would like to continue discussing it and researching while away, so if anyone has anything to add please go ahead.

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# 17 29-02-2016 , 12:03 AM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

Overclocking will not make a huge difference. Remember, you're just starting out - you won't be maxing out your processor or RAM any time soon. Also, overclocking is mainly for experienced computer builders, and should be avoided by novices as it's very easy to blow something up (or melt something).

I would recommend CentOS as your operating system, as many large studios use this as their base.

I also think that a 500 GB boot drive is excessive. Our production boot drives are at max 120 GB. This would hold the OS installation, as well as any of your applications. Everything else would go onto your larger drives.

I would also recommend using RAID-1 on your data drives. What this means is that one drive is an exact copy of the other. This way, if one of the drives fail, you have a complete backup without having to do any extra work. It also has some performance benefits as you now have two (or more) drives that can service the same request for data. This means that the arm of one drive doesn't have to move across the platter if another drive's arm is closer. There are other RAID levels, but it becomes a complicated subject. RAID-1 is pretty foolproof. Note: When RAID-1ing drives, make sure that they are the same model, otherwise performance will the be same as the slowest drive for both disks.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 18 29-02-2016 , 06:11 AM

Lifetime Member
Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: Bristol, UK.

Posts: 191

I have a 120GB SSD for my OS and apps and everything else goes onto traditional HDD.

Go CentOS for the operating system if you can, it's one of the 'official' linux distributions supported by AutoDesk.

You could use OpenSuse or Fedora as well if you want as they are both RPM based distros. I believe CentOS 7.1.

Skylake is fine, don't worry about overclocking for now, you want stability over speed.

I would stick with Asus, MSI or Gigabyte for a m/board.

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Possilbe Solution to Workstation Specifications

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