Author Topic: A Ramble About Computers...  (Read 22416 times)

Frank Fremerey

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #45 on: March 07, 2016, 14:45:42 »
Good luck with the project Frank and don't fry the motherboard :D

Thank you!

I got a very experienced professional screw driver to build that system for me. He also build my current system which runs now for 7 years without flaws of any kind.

He also ordered a BeQuiet 650W Professional Power Source that has two 8-Pin CPU-connectors.

We had to stand back from the idea to use Water coolong though, because the 140mm-Fans are too large for my Lian Li PC-A7110 Servercase I love & want to keep. It features space for two rear fans with 120mm.

We will use heat pipe standard air coolers by Arctic specified for CPU heat loss up to 320 Watt...
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

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Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #46 on: March 07, 2016, 14:47:44 »
Use Noctua fans. They are great and very quiet in operation. I have them in all my boxes.

Frank Fremerey

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #47 on: March 07, 2016, 14:50:33 »
Use Noctua fans. They are great and very quiet in operation. I have them in all my boxes.

Fans of the Arctic Heat pipe system can be replaced at will. Last time I bought an extremly expensive Zalmann-cooler. Arctic was much quieter although half the price.

The ones I chose are made for 320 Watts, but my Xeons have a TDP of only 115 W and I will not drive tham at 100% all the time.
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

Frank Fremerey

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #48 on: March 14, 2016, 22:49:07 »
The system runs, soft wind blows, 9 slowly spinning fans keep the system cool. Now I have to try rendering to get my 32 logic cores spinning.

Does someone have a reliable tool that can correctly read data from Asus Server boards?

I'd like to keep an eye on temperatures while rendering.
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

Frank Fremerey

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #49 on: March 17, 2016, 10:49:14 »
Thanks to Andy I have built my silent Workstation 16core/32thread/64GB ECC RAM ... silent in the sense that it is as loud as the old one although the performance is much higher.

Andy asked whether the Software really makes use of 32 threads???

I can confirm that for Photoshop CC and for Autopano Giga alike. Not so sure about Photo Ninja.

Yesterday Photoshop crashed on me for the first time ever! ... just gone, not even any error message ... it was just loading a HUGE panorama into a Google Nik filter pack and "pooof". gone.

I might want to reinstall windows 10 Pro 1511, which is today possible to do without the penalty of having to reinstall the applications.

Here are two screen shots that show 32 threads at up to 100% CPU usage:

You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

afx

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #50 on: March 17, 2016, 13:08:45 »
Andy asked whether the Software really makes use of 32 threads???
Bibble 5 has been tested with 32 real cores (not just 16 cores+hyperthreading).
Aftershot therefore should do it as well and unless Phase One did something weird, it would use them as well.

cheers
afx

Frank Fremerey

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #51 on: March 17, 2016, 13:11:21 »
Hey, Andreas, you really run 32 cores?
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

Ron Scubadiver

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #52 on: March 17, 2016, 16:37:26 »
Try setting Ps affinity to one processor and see what happens.

afx

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #53 on: March 17, 2016, 23:04:48 »
Hey, Andreas, you really run 32 cores?
Nope, I only have a Hex i7, which pretends to have 12 cores.
But Bibblelabs had a 32 Core AMD machine for testing and demoing. Played with it on Photokina. Really a beast.

cheers
afx

Andy

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #54 on: March 17, 2016, 23:13:14 »
Hey, Andreas, you really run 32 cores?
Yes. (but not for photo stuff)

Congrats & enjoy your new machine Frank :)

rgds,
Andy

Jan Anne

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #55 on: March 17, 2016, 23:38:37 »
But Bibblelabs had a 32 Core AMD machine for testing and demoing. Played with it on Photokina. Really a beast.

cheers
afx
If I remember correctly you showed me Bibble on that machine at Photokina :)
Cheers,
Jan Anne

Frank Fremerey

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #56 on: March 18, 2016, 12:24:52 »
Yes. (but not for photo stuff)
Congrats & enjoy your new machine Frank :)
rgds,
Andy

Thank you very much for you idea and help with component choice. The whole thing set me back less than 1500€...

I Run 16core Intel Xeon ... AMD? I am sorry, not for me. I had AMD boxes for years running in parallel with my Intels.

Rule of thumb: For the same amount of number crunching AMD uses at least double the amount of Electricity, resulting in heat, resulting in noise.

AMD might be cheaper and it is nice to have competition in the market, but sorry, not AMD for me anymore.

Even the newly built hardcore gaming box I buiolt for my son is silent, is Intel, is Nvidia.

I am cured.
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

Erik Lund

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #57 on: March 18, 2016, 13:12:44 »
Sounds like a very powerfull machine in a nicely quiret setup without busting the bank - congratulations
Erik Lund

Ron Scubadiver

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #58 on: April 16, 2016, 15:52:04 »
So, this is what happened...

After doing a lot of research, I concluded getting an I7 over and I5 would produce little benefit in Ps, the only application I use that is CPU hungry.  For the time being it appears that 16gb is enough for the way I work.  Big panos are rare and complex Ps projects are almost nonexistent.  The motherboard I selected is inexpensive but get great reviews.  The local Microcenter gets a few in every two weeks and they sell out immediately.  What it lacks is a fancy power supply for extreme overclocking and USB 3.1.  Right now I have no USB 3.1 peripherals and don't expect to see any for a while.  USB 3 is more than fast enough for the external spinning drives I use a lot.

So the I5-6600k, Asrock Z170M Pro 4s and 16gigs of DDR4-3000 totaled $379 at my local Microcenter, including sales tax.  I did not need 3000 speed memory, but it was less expensive than the slower stuff. Everything went together quickly.  My case is so old that I had to modify one of the headers as the standard had changed a bit.  The CPU overclocked to 4.4 ghz without a lot of voltage increase and runs reasonably cool.  It will run at 4.5, but it isn't worth it in terms of voltage increase and heat.  In order to save time I used my existing Win 10 setup although it had to be reactivated with M$.

Although it is nothing like years ago when I upgraded from a Lynnfield to Sandy Bridge, the increase in speed is a bit better than I anticipated.  When I get around to it, I can install an M2 SSD which is twice as fast as the already fast Samsung SSD I have now.  The old MB will go in a case that now houses the slow 7 year old Lynnfield machine. 

Ron Scubadiver

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Re: A Ramble About Computers...
« Reply #59 on: April 21, 2016, 21:09:19 »
After running some tests I wound up taking back the 16 gigs of memory for 32.  If you are building a Skylake/Z170 system, avoid any memory that uses more than 1.2v.  It will make your system run hot with very little improvement in performance.  A lot of the memory marketed for high speeds will only reach it on X99 boards.