tl:dr user has to suggest a govt what to buy for A/V, graphics workstation. Would go with a custom built WS designed on PcPartpicker but is open to suggestions.
I am in charge of defining the specs for a government contract for some audio/video editing and graphical design workstation. I have vaguely been advised to go look to HP workstations with Xeon processors, but aside being extremely expensive, they seem old tech to me (the customizable one is I was looking at runs Xeon E1600 or E2600 series...) (see here store.hp.com/us/en/ConfigureView?catalogId=10051&urlLangId=&langId=-1&storeId=10151&catEntryId=839175&quantity=1#!)
Also, Mac is out of the question. I don't want the government to be ripped off to buy a glorified wine cooler bucket.
I have put together a build that I think is a good compromise between affordability, performance and ease of maintenance (all COTS stuff, no proprietary plastics or interfaces) here uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/zgHGzM
>Government >budget is a concern >reliability is not Yeah sure, go with custom built meme stations from pcpartpicker
Brandon Gomez
>government contract >no idea how xeon naming works >comes up with custom build without support
yeah, you really belong here
Brayden Garcia
It's probably a better deal to get 2x3TB HDD rather than 1x4
Jack Thomas
OP here, Ok that was helpful...
Now, budget is ALWAYS a constraint. You have a suggestion, I'll take it. The general plan is to hand the meme thingie to the acquisition department and have them draft a contract notice to companies to they can come forward with machines at reasonable cost, with reasonable performance and not the meme "really stronk HP workstation with a Xeon from 5 years ago but reliability is priceless"...
Daniel Ramirez
See, the issue here is we want fast OS boot (SSD 1) fast cache drive for Adobe Premiere (SSD 2) and some short term storage, could be a 4TB or 2x 3TB in Raid now that I think of it...
Long term storage will be offline.
Ryder Parker
>no idea how xeon naming works
eh I'll take that. I still consider the Xeon a meme... And yes support is an issue that's why the pcpartpicker build is just a reference...
Wyatt Price
OP here,
okay Sup Forums, education is what I came here for. I'll go for a run. I know you can do better.
>I still consider the Xeon a meme that's Sup Forums-tier retarded
Gabriel Morgan
Why are you buying a 1080ti graphics card yet gimping on the monitor? Buy a 10 bit monitor from eizo. Unless they are actually going to use things that employ graphics cards for rendering you don't need the best and you should look at quaddros instead
Jaxon Butler
install gentoo
Ayden Reed
They still offer v3 though...
Justin Green
Yeah I get the reliability thing. Please explain, aside from reliability, how the Xeon would be better than Threadripprer or Naples... And before you say, the build has a 1800X because it is what's on the market now... Besides, they will not need more than 32/64GB Ram...
Jason Cox
Yeah... eyed an EIZO but that thing brings me waaaaay over budget...
Dominic Butler
Where's the "like" button when you need it...
Brody Roberts
...
Liam Jones
...
Jonathan Butler
They won't be for most tasks you're after. Naples/Threadripper are designed after 14nm++ LPP with scalability, just like GCN, so AMD expects it to be in the pipeline much longer. Zen is expected to lose in AVX2/AVX256 floating point because it requires 2 128bit AVX ops + FMA to compute, Zen is expected also to lose in terms of (data) memory/uncore latency (theoretically negligible in most tasks). Zen will shit all over Intel in terms of scalability via MPI, and with about equal IPC and pipeline width and the fact that Threadripper can reach the same power envelope as competing at almost the same frequency of a 1800, it should decisively go toe to toe with current E5s and absolutely BTFO the i9 line. EBYC will probably also go toe to toe with the current E7 line.
For video editing the cost efficiency of Ryzen and very likely Threadripper alone is worth looking at. RAID is OK but unless you do mirroring you risk losing your data if either one fails. Threadraper is likely your best bet if you have the budget.
Owen Robinson
The video editing programs offered on my Apple MacBook Pro are perfect for what I need. With programs such as iMovie, I feel unstoppable!
James Fisher
High end i7 (4790k adviced since Intel didn't advance from the 2nd gen), something like gtx 1070 for future proof 4k even quadro equivalent if they want to spend, 16gb ram, 32if they want, 512ssd and 2*2TB WD blue, a dedicated soundcard. A good motherboard, nice case with a lot of external I/O, a 4k IPS monitor (even a TV if they have space) and a fHD one just for controls.
A blackmagic sdi capture card if they want to use it as a live mixer.
