Recommended System for Photoscan

[360]

Hi there,
I'm actually searching for a good computer system for working with photoscan. I'm using a raspberry rig with 150 cams, so the data volume is not so big as a scanner with DSLRs.
Searching in the forum I can't see a clearly recommendation for using a "normal" PC or a workstation with Xeon CPUs.
What do you prefer with an amount of circa 2000$?
Thanks all for helping!

[Wishgranter]

Best for single CPU,  some i7 4xxx or 5xxx series, best possible freq price/performance vise. Mobo that have 8 memory slots for further expanding to 64 ( 128 GB), can start with 32 GB ram, and good GPU, best if some NVIDIA, even if they are a bit slower as AMD but the drivers are much better. say card with 3-6 GB VRAM - GTX780. 780Ti is pricey and without too much speedup.

[360]

Thanks. And would you prefer a Xeon CPU or just a i7? That is at the moment my first question.

[Wishgranter]

depend what need to process, but for 2k cannot buy very speedy XEON, so go for i7, fastest that can afford... XEONS are for very large projects. they are with price premium, for 2 XEONS can buy 4-6 i7 CPUs...

[360]

Okay, thanks. I?ve got an off from Dell with a Xeon E3-1220 v3, 32GB, 1GB Nvidia Quadro k600 and 2TB HD for about $2k. I think it?s the cheapest Workstation with Xeon CPU.
I?ll looking for other i7 Systems. Thats really difficult to find the right system

[I-C-E]

I am using:

i7-4930K ( best in the market)
Asus rampage-4 motherboard
32gb ram( although i would recommend 64gb)
GTX 760 2gb ( I am upgrading to GTX 780)

My current system works great for high quality models( 80 images- 45min to 1 hr), but when making at ultra high settings it takes about 6-7hrs and that too with difficulty.

you can get this complete setup ( with the recommended setting) for approx 2-2.5K

[360]

Thanks for your info. But what kind of pictures do you mean? 80 pics from a dslr, means 10mb or more, or a standard digicam with 3mb? That's a important fact.

[I-C-E]

Sorry, missed that. I used canon 600D and tiff format images. Each image of about 120mb.

[jp]

Anant, Do you see Memory as a limiter in "Task Manager" that you recommend 64 GB when your Dense cloud generation is in progress. For me it is always CPU.

[MeHoo]

This is an attachment of my last scan showing the utilization of the hardware.  You can see how a 4 year old GTX just demolishes a fairly new Quadro K4000.  These are the 1.5gb 580GTX's from EVGA.  5 active cores on the CPU from a dual quad setup.  I'll be testing a Tesla within the next couple of days.

[MeHoo]

One other reference.. this is a 341 camera scan of the interior of an old grungy warehouse with the ceiling caving in, etc. 

Not helpful for the facial scanning I guess, but this is just part of how high scans can get.  Glad I built this mega-rig.