Workstation ideas.

[9thCrux]

I have been thinking about how to set up a workstation at home.
There are a few things I need to fit in and things I want to get to complete the set up.

-Have a digital drawing pad that I need to fit in or find a place to use it.
-Have a second screen that currently can't fit because the computer desk is not big enough.
-Have a laptop I also can't fit in for lack of space .

The idea is to have a single place where I can find all I need.
Saw some L shaped desks that I like.

Spoiler: Corner desk

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I also want to get a second desktop computer to work on scenes while the first is rendering, to keep working while one of them is busy, which takes me to a possible set up:



The image is just an illustration, what I want is to just turn around a bit to face a different screen and work on something else.

Well, I'm trying to build an efficient workspace in which I can focus and multitask, it becomes annoying when I have to leave my computer rendering and I can't work on it until is done, my laptop can't handle complex 3D scenes and I don't have a comfortable space to use it and same goes for my digital drawing pad.

Can you suggest me a functional workstation set up?
What it works for you?
Is it something I'm forgetting to add?

Trying to set up a nice, private, and inspiring area in which I can work in without getting annoyed.

 

[nillamello]

Well, what's your budget on this? Something I've always wanted to do for myself is a large desk with a computer built under the top (hidden aside from some warning lights, because I hate the modern rgb culture). I'm on my cell right now, but I have SketchUp files for this idea if you're interested. Basically, I have a solid wood top (I'm a fan of live egde slabs, but that's the woodworker in me talking... I have a 7' piece of mesquite in my garage waiting for my time for this exact project), there's a drawer opening for a computer to be put into one or both sides of the desk (air intake from the sides, exhaust in the back). The drawers are designed to have the motherboard mounted directly to the bottom via aluminum tray, and they're basically very simple computer cases in their own rights. I intended it for water or aio cooling, so I don't really have concerns for fancy airflow management. Also, if you only wanted one hidden computer, you could use the other as... a drawer. You know, like for storing other stuff. I like industrial steel legs, so that part is easy.

If you were considering dropping a few grand on the desk/cases for computers, then it may be an option.

 

[9thCrux]

Well, what's your budget on this? Something I've always wanted to do for myself is a large desk with a computer built under the top (hidden aside from some warning lights, because I hate the modern rgb culture). I'm on my cell right now, but I have SketchUp files for this idea if you're interested. Basically, I have a solid wood top (I'm a fan of live egde slabs, but that's the woodworker in me talking... I have a 7' piece of mesquite in my garage waiting for my time for this exact project), there's a drawer opening for a computer to be put into one or both sides of the desk (air intake from the sides, exhaust in the back). The drawers are designed to have the motherboard mounted directly to the bottom via aluminum tray, and they're basically very simple computer cases in their own rights. I intended it for water or aio cooling, so I don't really have concerns for fancy airflow management. Also, if you only wanted one hidden computer, you could use the other as... a drawer. You know, like for storing other stuff. I like industrial steel legs, so that part is easy.

If you were considering dropping a few grand on the desk/cases for computers, then it may be an option.

Interesting, I also don't care about fancy multicolored lights they just add to distractions and heat xD

The wooden desk is a good idea; saw a guy that broke his tempered glass desk with regular equipment, nothing specially heavy, in my case I want to leave the CPUs under the desk and just have screens and I/O devices on top.

The budget I'm working on is enough to get a pre-made desk like the stuff you find at retailers, I'm trying to leave as much as I can for the new desktop, new technologies are kinda pricey right now.
Trying to get my hands on a system with an RTX 2080Ti GPU but that means at least $2k.

Having the materials and the knowledge to do something custom-made would be great but in my case I have to go for something generic.

I like designs that let you move/slide your chair from corner to corner in a L shaped desk, which means leaving the CPUs to the sides.

 

[DreamBig Games]

I'm not going to talk about the actual desk setup, but I will tell you how I'm working:
I've got a single PC, with 2 1080 TI( you want a 2080ti, I would say buy 2 used 1080TI 7000 CUDA cores vs 4000 that 1 2080 gives you, and if you buy EVGA, you can get the remainder of the existing warranty, so if you buy more recent ones, you will get 1-2 years of the 3 years warranty ). ALong with this, I have a 1 1070TI that is connected to the PC screen, the 1080s are for rendering only, a 1.5kW PSU, 32 GB Ram DDR5, 3200MHs.
So, I can render and do scene composition at the same time, no need to get 2 PC's. The only problem I have, is I need more RAM, sometimes Daz is using even 26 GB RAM.

 

[polywog]

I have a couple old 3D workstations from the 1980s

 

[9thCrux]

I'm not going to talk about the actual desk setup, but I will tell you how I'm working:
I've got a single PC, with 2 1080 TI( you want a 2080ti, I would say buy 2 used 1080TI 7000 CUDA cores vs 4000 that 1 2080 gives you, and if you buy EVGA, you can get the remainder of the existing warranty, so if you buy more recent ones, you will get 1-2 years of the 3 years warranty ). ALong with this, I have a 1 1070TI that is connected to the PC screen, the 1080s are for rendering only, a 1.5kW PSU, 32 GB Ram DDR5, 3200MHs.
So, I can render and do scene composition at the same time, no need to get 2 PC's. The only problem I have, is I need more RAM, sometimes Daz is using even 26 GB RAM.

More CUDA cores is helpful indeed but you also have to consider video memory; I think the RTX 2080Ti has 8 to 11 GB of video memory.

Professional cards like the Quadro RTX models have up to 48GB of video memory!

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And in my case I need to upgrade my system. Still using DDR3 RAM, an LGA1150 motherboard, and a relatively old processor.
I have run into many problems with RAM too, sometimes I make the Daz process take high priority and, depending on the memory used, that makes my GPU crash; Getting laggy black screens and application crashes.

Adding more GPUs is something I want to do but is further down the line, until I get a better computer to add more cards to it.

 

[9thCrux]

I have a couple old 3D workstations from the 1980s
View attachment 332738
View attachment 332744 View attachment 332747

Yeah, that seems like the kind of thing you would use...

Is it fun to play with the floppy disks? You must have a ton of those!

 

[polywog]

Is it fun to play with the floppy disks?

 

[DreamBig Games]

More CUDA cores is helpful indeed but you also have to consider video memory; I think the RTX 2080Ti has 8 to 11 GB of video memory.

Professional cards like the Quadro RTX models have up to 48GB of video memory!

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And in my case I need to upgrade my system. Still using DDR3 RAM, an LGA1150 motherboard, and a relatively old processor.
I have run into many problems with RAM too, sometimes I make the Daz process take high priority and, depending on the memory used, that makes my GPU crash; Getting laggy black screens and application crashes.

Adding more GPUs is something I want to do but is further down the line, until I get a better computer to add more cards to it.

1080TI has 11GB VRAM, SAme as 2080TI.
Yes, there are cards with more VRAM, but do you need that much VRAM? Right now, on 11GB I can fit a full environment, and 11 fully clothed characters ( this was the largest scene I have rendered in Daz Iray.

Don't mess around with the process priority ) Daz will take as much as it wants anyway . I would say you need an extra GPU, just to run the monitor. IN my case, the 1070 runs the monitor, the 1080ti's do the rendering. This way, I maximize the amount of VRAM available and I am still able to use the computer. I can even game while rendering , and I am not referring to RenPy games ).

 

[nillamello]

I'll add my two cents on video memory. I don't do much in Daz anymore, but the cost premium to go above 12 gb (which is what I have on my old Titan X), is very high for little return. Check the blender/octane/redshift benchmarks for the cards you are considering, since that community is more robust than iray, but will give you comparable results. There are some good reviews that include multiple cards for a full price/performance comparison. Video memory rarely really comes into play outside of huge environments (think blockbuster movie type stuff), so it might help in a few specific bottlenecks, but you probably want to consider those as outliers and focus on improving the majority of what you do instead.

I'm currently rendering in Arnold, which is cpu-based, so the decision is easy: Threadripper, yo. I'm eagerly awaiting the benchmarks for amd's next gen releases.

 

[Yustu]

Please don't forget about composition.
Rarely, on large projects especially, entire scene is rendered in single pass. This has some huge benefits, i.e. ability to add change in post processing per layer, ease when some part of animation need to be changed, i.e. adding changes to background / environment, character / animation / correction etc..

And of course use case, IIRC iRay will crap on You (or switch to CPU only) when GPU runs out of memory, while redshift will still work (they have out-of-core rendering stuff that will use RAM, there is performance hit, but it depends on situation, i.e. textures data don't slow down much when stremed back to GPU).

Acoustics - this is personal taste i.e. I swapped all my HDD to SSD as noise is something that I want to avoid as much as possible. Having additional rig for rendering, or additional GPUs, will spin up fans. Water is only way for this I think, assuming that keeping noise down is desired.

 

[9thCrux]

Acoustics - this is personal taste i.e. I swapped all my HDD to SSD as noise is something that I want to avoid as much as possible. Having additional rig for rendering, or additional GPUs, will spin up fans. Water is only way for this I think, assuming that keeping noise down is desired.

Interesting, I try to keep my 3D rendering programs in an SSD but the library is getting bigger and bigger...
Soon I will have to get another SSDs because I have been considering having Sci-fi assets in a different drive.
And yeah, I have noticed the noise and vibrations coming from my 7200rpm HDD.

 

[Yustu]

This all depends on Your use cases, i.e. if You do prefer do go with dual GPU setup (or triple) and render while using PC then I would go with water.

Something another to consider is multi GPU vs separate rig for rendering. This all depends on Your pipeline, will render be done on CPU or GPU. Going with multi GPU and placing render rig in other room solves sound issue, so You could go with GPU that use blower type cooling and keep these HDD there and sync between main rig and render station. Using GPU won't require multi core CPU and, depending on Your current one, You could reuse old one. There is also price / performance ratio that is better for GPU. In feature You could also add additional GPU to system to speed up rendering and that speed bump will be higher then i.e. adding new CPU with 2x core count. I'm thinking here about used GTX 1080 Ti, but PSU need to keep up with all these GPUs.

Acoustics - HDD was just example, CPU and GPUs will make much more noise, especially in multi GPU env. When going to SSD, HDD sound problem will be resolved but then CPU / GPU will be audible, then going with water will make GPUs coil whine audible so yeah, I personally would put render rig in other room or some isolated space (wall closet???). Other idea would be to build under desk space, that would be sound isolated and well ventilated, and place there open bench type of chassis (maybe mining one?). Keep in mind that if You want to drive display You will be also limited by length of cable. Or do RDP, should work fine on 1gig LAN.

Just my 2 cents

 

[9thCrux]

Checking the set up I noticed that I have been using the wrong term; I'm not trying to do multitasking, is not like I'm trying to do multiple things at the same time.

What I want is to smoothly move from task to task.

Usually after creating or editing a scene the next step is to render it and that leaves me idle waiting until the render is done to either do some post-work or create/edit the next scene. Can't really use my computer while is rendering, unless is a little bit of coding on Ren'Py and that is when I plug another screen, I also have notice some issues while having two screens connected to a single GPU.

I was playing around with the hardware I have; now I have two desk almost in an L shaped setup, my rendering computer is on one and on the other I have a screen with a wireless keyboard and mouse for my laptop. Had some renders ready to code into the game so I used the laptop as a CPU to do the coding and editing needed to add the new renders in while waiting for a new render to be done.

The flow went like:
Build scene -> render -> code render

But with renders taking at least a couple of hours that leaves me just staring at the screen while thinking... 'OMFG, hurry up!'.

That's why I'm dead set on getting a new rendering machine and use two computers to render scenes.

I want a modular or centralized place to work in, the idea would be to have two computers rendering and code on a third one, like my laptop, really want a three screens setup where I can check the process at a glance:

(example)


I'm considering all the ideas and suggestions, like multiple GPUs in a computer, acoustics, cooling, and furniture.
Is great to learn about things I may not have consider, thanks guys and gals.

 

[Yustu]

I personally would do fallowing:

1. laptop - python code
2. build PC - 1 GPU - editing scene (assuming that You would want to upgrade Your current one)
3. build PC - n GPU's - rendering scene

With AMD CPU's around corner I would wait for Zen2 too drop and keep an eye for good deals, many will sell their Zen/+ cpus so You could grab something decent for cheap.

For python coding there is no need for beefy system, so laptop is good enough (well depends on laptop I suppose).

For editing used GTX1070Ti or 1080Ti ( I would lean towards 1080Ti - 11GB VRAM) + Zen 6-8C + 16/32 GB RAM.

For rendering basically go crazy . On more serious note, cpu Zen/+/2 8C + 32/64 GB RAM + n x 1080Ti. Now keep in mind that 2080Ti has these RTX cores, they are used by i.e. iRay, so You will need to do research to find out how much 1 GTX 1080Ti compare to 2080Ti and see how price / performance looks like, I personally would go cheaper rout and purchased used / miners / 1080Ti if possible with warranty and (again if possible) extend that warranty (i.e. EVGA ???).

Software:

1. hook up mouse / keyboard to edit rig so they will work (I would set it up as middle screen)
2. use FreeFileSync to sync files between all rigs
3. use Synergy (symless[dot]com) to seamlessly move between screens (basically your m/k will "travel" to all screens edge - to - edge seamlessly). NOTE: keep in mind that synergy will send data over network, now probably they encrypt it but in older days they didn't so keep an eye who is on Your LAN and what they can sniff.

Just an idea, of course as subject is wide and there is many appraoch to this.

I personally use RDP because I don't want to have multiple screens (I hate this bezel between screens) and there is no need for synergy.

PS. does anyone knows difference between 1x1080Ti and 1 x 2080 Ti in iRay renderer (and others)?
PS2: found some decent benchmarks regardign iRay behavior :
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PS3. and answering my own question, 1080Ti vs 2080Ti based on latest iRay:
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[Yustu]

So based on this benchmark:

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It seams that 2080 Ti has (over 1080 Ti) in iRay:

- 69 % performance increase
- 175 % price increase (compared locally available used 1080Ti vs new 2080 Ti - no one was selling used one)

Interesting article for RTX acceleration in iRay:

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What I can't explain is difference between Titan V and 2080 Ti in iRay.

 

[polywog]

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[polywog]

Make 3D games = no rendering. the players computer does the rendering

10,000 cores in a single rack...

 

[PTGames]

My only suggestion would be, if you can, keep the monitors well spaced apart. The reason for this is it forces you to turn your body rather than just turning your head. I have quite a few friends who are quite popular streamers who all agree on this advice and most have experienced the reason why. Turning your neck between monitors too often puts a surprising amount of strain on your neck and can actually cause injury.

That said, if you're going to be working on one screen at a time for an extended period it'll probably be ok but if you're going to be bouncing between screens, try to spin your chair rather than turn your head. Another solution is stack monitors above each other instead of next to each other, putting ones you'll use less on top. Again it reduces strain on your neck (assuming the monitors not too high).

It's a small detail that a lot of people don't take into consideration when planning out work stations but can be a big problem.