New workstation: some piece of advice needed...

PIX4Dmapper PIX4Dmapper Questions/Troubleshooting
1

Hello to all of you Pix4D enthusiasts!

 

I’m presently working with a GETAC X500 G2 server as an all-round device, and it did quite well for 3 years. It enabled me to remain available all week long for missions, while it was processing wherever I was: sleeping at an hotel, driving, travelling by train, at home,…

However, I feel the time has come to add a workstation to my calculation task force, in order to help the GETAC coping with multiple projects. As the activity rises, calculation time tends to be a bottleneck now.

So this worstation will be used only for Pix4D processing, nothing else (very little Raycloud), mainly for medium to wide projects (2000 + eBee SODA pictures). It won’t store anything, I use a NAS storage server for that. Aside from that, I have to say I managed to calculate 6000+ pictures single projects (SODA, default parameters) on the GETAC. It handles regularly 3000+ projects, so it’s a pretty efficient tool.

 

I would like to spend a little less than 3000€ for this setup. Here is the configuration I was aiming to, after collecting advice in an integrator shop:

CPU - AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X
CPU Cooler - Corsair Hydro series H100I V2
GPU - MSI Geforce GTX 1060 GAMING X 3G
RAM Amount - 64 GB (4 x 16)
RAM Speed - Corsair Vengeance LED Series DDR4-2666 MHz
SSD - Samsung 960 PRO 512 GB M2 NVME
Hard Drive - none
Motherboard - MSI X399 SLI PLUS
Mastercase cooler master maker 5t
Power - Be quiet! Dark power Pro 11 750W
Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

 

I have 2 questions regarding this setup:

  • Does it seem balanced to you, and if not, what should be modified?

  • I calculated it would reach around 3500€ with taxes, that is a bit over my expectations. Which part could eventually be replaced at a little lower cost or downgraded in order to fit with my budget?

Thanks a lot to all contributors in the Pix4D Computer hardware community benchmark section for their help, I know they are far more familiar with hardware than I will ever be!

 

Best regards, Thomas.

 

 

2

I think you will be limited by the video card with only 3GB of VRAM.

I also think your budget is too low for a high-end Pix4D machine as even my 2 year old computer is better and more expensive than this system.

I believe the EVO series is cheaper than the PRO for the SSD, if you need to save some money.

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I would also get GTX 1060 with more VRAM (6Gb) change the PRO to EVO and I would also change the cooler. For an example Enermax has made a cooler that covers the whole heat spreader (Enermax LIQTECH TR4 240) so you could, If you want to, overclock the prosessor a bit more.

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Hello to both of you, thanks for your feedback, and sorry about answering that late…

  • “I think you will be limited by the video card with only 3GB of VRAM.”, “I would also get GTX 1060 with more VRAM (6Gb)”.

The only use of the graphic card will be for processing. The difference between the 3G and 6G in terms of CUDA cores is not very consistent: 1280 for the 6G version instead of 1152 for the 3G. Do you think it is worth the price difference (65€)? For exemple, the GTX1070 has 1920 cores, it seems to be a much better value for money deal, even if a bit more expensive. Don’t you think so?

 

  • “I believe the EVO series is cheaper than the PRO for the SSD”

It is. But also a bit less powerful:

For the PRO: Sequential Read Speed Max: 3,500 MB/sec Sequential Write Speed Max: 2,100 MB/sec

For the EVO: Sequential Read Speed: Max 3,200 MB/sec Sequential Write Speed: Max 1,900 MB/sec

There’s quite a price drop between the 2 (93€) so I’ll keep your suggestion. The drive is a key part for step 3, so I wonder if it’s worth the price or not for a 10% gain…

 

  • “For an example Enermax has made a cooler that covers the whole heat spreader (Enermax LIQTECH TR4 240) so you could, If you want to, overclock the prosessor a bit more.”

Roger that!

 

5

I would have another question: I would like to have full control (turn on/off, launch pix4d and calculations) on this PC remotely, how could I do that?

Can Teamviewer do all of that, even without anyone in  front of the remote computer? Would it require a payable licence and are there any free alternatives?

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I use TeamViewer and there are other options but I only trust that for business.

I think you would be lucky to see a 1% speed difference on overall project time with the PRO SSD. 

The extra VRAM is about picture size as some high-end settings in Pix4D will crash if you don’t have enough VRAM…system memory can limit results as my comparison thread shows.

7

Hello Adam,

 

Thanks for the feedback!

Here is the final configuration of the workstation I ordered:

CPU - AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X
CPU Cooler - Enermax Liqtech TR4 240
GPU - Giabyte GeForce GTX 1070 WINDFORCE OC 8G
RAM Amount - 64 GB (4 x 16)
RAM Speed - BALLISTIX DDR4 64 GB 2666MHz
SSD - Samsung 960 EVO 512 GB M2 NVME
Hard Drive - none
Motherboard - MSI X399 SLI PLUS
Mastercase cooler master maker 5t
Power - Be quiet! Dark power Pro 11 750W
Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

I’ll give TeamViewer a try, I’ll have to ask for the router that is not mine, but shared with other companies. 

Thanks for your time and help!