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“If your computer is not instantaneous, it is too slow and there is an opportunity for improvement that your competition will exploit."
~ Mark Palacios
As an architect you need to have access to the most competitive computer hardware and knowledge of the most competitive software available.
3D Modeling/2D Drawing: Revit Architecture (Perpetual license + Maintenance Subscription) ($6,620.00)
3D Rendering: OctaneRender™ for Autodesk® Revit® v2.x + Standalone Combo v2.x License ($520.47)
Adding/Placing cutouts (people/trees/cars/etc): Piranesi 6 (+free Autodesk® Revit® add-in) ($795)
2D Image Editing: Adobe Photoshop CC ($19.99 per month)
Layout/Composition: Adobe Illustrator CC ($19.99 per month)
Microsoft Office 365 Personal: (mostly used is Word, Excel, Outlook for email) ($69.99 per year)
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro PDF Reader ($19.99 per month)
Timer: Quickbooks Pro Timer (free)
Virus Protection: McAfee Total Protection™ ($89.99 per year)
Operating System: Windows 8.1 Pro ($199.99)
Total: $8,355.41
Average render time for a night-time or interior view...
(1) Quadro K2000 ($359.99) (released on March 5, 2013) has 384 CUDA Cores… 2 hours and 40 minutes
(1) GTX 580 ($543.41) (released on Nov. 9, 2010) has 512 CUDA Cores... 2 hours
(1) Quadro K6000 (worth $6,000) (released on July 23, 2013) has 2,880 CUDA Cores (the most any Quadro series has)...
(2) GTX Titan Z graphic cards (each worth ($1,499.99) (released on May 28, 2014) has 11,520 CUDA cores… 5.33 minutes or (4)... 2.66 minutes
Conclusion: Four Quadro K6000 have the same CUDA Cores as only two Titan Z’s for $21,000 less.
Graphics Card (GPU): Nividia GTX Titan Z (CUDA Cores: 5,760) (Base Clock: 705 MHz... may overclock to around 905 MHz) ($1,499.99) x2 or x4 (the CUDA Cores is the most important thing which directly determines the speed of a rendering done in Octane Render)
Power Supply: AX1500i Digital ATX Power Supply — 1500 Watt Fully-Modular PSU ($449.99) (if only (2) Titan Z graphic cards are used)
or
(2) AX1200i Digital ATX Power Supply — 1200 Watt 80 PLUS® Platinum Certified Fully-Modular PSU ($699.98 total) (if (4) Titan Z graphic cards are used)
System Memory (RAM): Dominator® Platinum Series — 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 DRAM 2800MHz C12 Memory Kit (CMD16GX3M4B2800C12) ($474.99) (any higher MHz will cause instability after a while) (mostly for Photoshop and Illustrator)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™ i7-5930K Processor (15M Cache, up to 3.70 GHz... may overclock up to 4.5 Ghz) ($574.99) (mostly for Revit)
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage V Extreme X99 ($459.95)
Primary Storage: SSD 850 EVO 2.5" SATA III 500GB ($229.99)
Fans: Air Series SP120 PWM High Performance Edition High Static Pressure Fan Twin Pack ($34.99)
Liquid Cooling: Processor (CPU) cooling block ($79.99) + heat exchanger array: ($106.80) + ($143.18) + ($279.60) (8 Scythe fans total) + Bi Turbo Pump Array ($91.99) + Reservoir ($49.99) + Tubing ($29.95) + Coolant (?) + Enhanced Thermal Interface Material ($18.75) + Graphic Card (GPU) cooling block (?)
Case: Obsidian Series® 900D Super Tower Case ($349.99)
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 27" PremierColor Monitor - U2713H ($749.99) (2 minimum or 3 maximum)
Keyboard:
Mouse: 3D Connexion - SpacePilot Pro ($279) (click here to learn why)
External Portable Hardrive: Western Digital My Passport Ultra 2TB ($99.99)
External Portable USB Flash Drive: SanDisk Extreme® USB Flash Drive - 32GB ($66.99)
Comfortable Chair:
Total: approximately $8,420.82 (without extra liquid cooling)
