Need help choosing a new PC [Solved and Purchased]

I like to think I know what I’m doing when looking at computer specs, but honestly, I really don’t have a lot of practical experience. I’ve found two desktops that I think are great deals and stand out to me as reliable work computers, but I would love a second opinion.

https://www.staples.com/Refurbished-Dell-GX990-Tower-Intel-Core-i7-3-4Ghz-16GB-RAM-2TB-HDD-Windows-10-Pro/product_2620750

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA0AJ5BS4761

If I went with the refurbished PC from Staples I would also buy the two year protection plan. Either way, they are both more than double the specs of my current laptop, which is awesome, but I want to make sure I make a wise purchase. I’m keeping my budget as low as possible so I can invest in ZBrush as well. My goal is to spend less than $600 on a desktop. If I go a little over that is okay.

Additional Info:

My main use will be for 3D modeling, rendering, and demoing assets with sample levels. I often use several programs at once and with the addition of Zbrush I will have that open a lot as well. Ideally, I would want to use Blender, Zbrush, Paint.Net, and occasionally have reference images open on Google Chrome all at once without any noticeable performance issues. Is this realistic, or am I asking too much out of the computers I am considering?

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

Yikes. I’d really recommend building your own PC, but that’s me and I’m a crazy fanatic.
The first is an okay deal whereas the second deal is pure cabbage.

Thanks KingPeauche, the first one is what I am leaning toward too. My biggest concern is that the price is too good to be true. Definitely buying the warranty just in case! I never know how to feel about refurbished electronics.

I’ve thought about building my own gaming PC. It sounds like a fun project when I have the extra time and money. Right now I just need a decent work machine to switch over to for the foreseeable future, nothing over the top. I know $600 is a low budget, that’s why I wanted at least another professional opinion before making my decision.

I did an upgrade 6 years ago, and still my PC runs well enough.
It is quite ancient with an i5 2320, GTX 650, 12 GB DDR3, SSD 120 GB.
But generally as I use it daily I don’t even think about speed concerns.

But to be honest I can’t do certain things, such as working in Blender with heavy scenes. But I can for example subdivide
the cube 8 times and have very responsive sculpting. From 9+ subdivs it becomes laggy. Also I can’t enjoying real time cycles previous with ease. This is mostly due to the GPU which is somewhat slow. Also some of the latest games (Far Cry Primal, Fallout 4) might be slow enough but with tuned down graphics and mods they would run well, by loosing a bit on the visuals (again the GPU).

The most annoying element of the PC was the crunching of the HD needle, when I added the SSD it made the PC brand new. Boot times went impressive and the the responsiveness as well.

In these offers, there is no GPU included, which means that you would add about additional 160$ to that price. The newegg offer goes to 755$, and I think that the SSD is unavoidable, which is an additional 80$.

According to my interest in computer parts these would be the ideal purchases for me.
Intel i7 7700 about 350$
16GB DDR4 about 126$
GTX 1050Ti about 160$
Motherboard about 160$
120GB SSD about 60$
1TB Hard Disk about 50$
PC Case about 50$
Power Supply 750 about 70$
Cost 1026$

If I wanted to go for better prices I would find ways to cut prices from here and there. For example I would cut away 60$ from the motherboard, perhaps start with 8 GB of RAM, lower the HD and the PSU. This depends according to usage needs and requirements.

@const

Tried my best to find something close to those specs and my budget.
What about this: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA65E57B5676

Intel i7 (up to 3.46GHz)
16GB RAM DDR3
250GB SSD
2 TB HDD
and a $50 graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GT 710)

  • Unknown Motherboard
    +10 USB ports

Cost = $650

My other option now would just be something less powerful, but more reputable that I could pick up in store, like this: https://www.staples.com/Dell-Inspiron-3650-Desktop-Intel-Core-i5-6400-Processor-1TB-Hard-Drive-8GB-RAM-Windows-10-Desktop/product_2056935

I too am a fan of building your own. For your budget you could probably build a machine with a FX-8350 (8-core 4.0 Ghz ~$140) and a GTX 1050ti (~$150). If you are interested I can put together a full part list, it would probably come in at around $600 with all the other components.

Yes, I would be interested in that. Thank you. I didn’t want to build my own pc, but if that is the best way to go I might have to.

I built myself two super strong PCs mainly for rendering (also for gaming). The first is a 970 with an i5-4690k, and the second is a 1080 ti with an i7-7700k, as well as a full terrabyte of samsung 850 evo. With this, viewing my scene at 100 samples updates super quickly even on larger scenes, as well, I can export files from my stronger PC to my smaller one and have it be rendered at the same speed as most render farms, all while still having a computer free for working on the scene…
The point of this wasn’t only to gloat, according to Blenchmarks results, two 1050tis in sli render nearly as quickly as a single 1080ti which is the price of 4-5 1050tis.
You already have a capable cpu at your disposal, so if you were to dish out just a tad more buckers you’d be able to make yourself a dinky but viable renderfarm that’s comparable to even high end examples.

Here is the part list:

AMD FX-8350 - OutletPC $118.88
EVGA GTX 1050ti SC - Newegg $140.49
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 motherboard - Newegg $79.99 ($69.99 with rebate) + 2.99 shipping
Ballistix Sport 8GB kit (4GB x 2) DDR3 - Amazon $63.79
WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 3.5" HDD - Amazon $49.99
Corsair CS650M power supply - Newegg $79.99 ($59.99 with rebate)
Corsair Carbide Series 200r - Amazon $54.99

Bringing the grand total to - $561.11
which leaves enough for:

Cryorig H7 cooler (optional) - Newegg $34.99 + 7.99 shipping

New total - $604.09

If you’re going with an AMD CPU, take note that the FX line sucks compared to the new Ryzen line (IPC is 50 percent higher, good quality cores with real hyperthreading, and AI features that may actually lead to applications getting faster with use).

Look at the benchmarks, the chip can’t even compare to Intel’s i5 line of chips (which is why it’s so cheap), you’ll eventually pay for it with much longer render times.

You can’t really build a decent pc for this kind of use and with this budget. Most of the systems posted above are of previous generations and platforms. It’s not wise, imo, to throw money on a platform 5-6 years old (ex. i7 2600 or the FX 8350) and gpus like gt 710 are just out of the question for CG stuff.
It’s better to wait a little and gather more money in order to get yourself something decent to start with and also upgradable in the future. In your place I would start with something like this PCPartPicker part list. It’s not that far from your budget’s upper limit and it has good potential for future upgrades, ex R9 1700X or 1800X and a beefier gpu when you can afford it. The Ryzen R5 1600 is a very decent cpu especially in multi-threaded tasks. If you decide to go with a new AMD Ryzen system, then concentrate on the Motherboard-RAM combination and search for feedback from users that have an experience with this new platform.

M2c

If you’re going with an AMD CPU, take note that the FX line sucks compared to the new Ryzen line

You are right, however, a budget of $600 doesn’t leave much room for even a $155 ryzen 5 1400 CPU (which is only 25% faster than the 8350). It all depends whether you want the ryzen with a less-than-optimal GPU or the 1050ti and a less-than-optimal CPU. Due to the much abbreviated cycles render times when using GPU compute I would go with the 1050ti, however others may feel otherwise.

EDIT: Didn’t see your post @birdnamnam, guess it depends on how long @APilch wants to wait to get a new system:).

The old generation AMD are totally fine.
Dude doesn’t want mlg stuff, and the hate against AMD’s older gen cpus is exaggerated, as is every tech component flaw. It gets the job well and for a good price.

If you cut corners when buying a new PC, you will eventually pay for it with longer times to do just about any task you throw at it (this especially applies to 3D). This is a product that you should plan not to buy again for at least a few years, so you need to make it count.

AMD’s older FX lineup is cheap, and for good reason. The 8-core architecture for example is just marketing, AMD back then did not tell the media that only 4 of those cores could do floating point operations, and they didn’t have hyperthreading either. They also engaged in other deceptive marketing tactics in those pre-Ryzen days such as allegedly using specific benchmarks to show how ‘good’ the chips were instead of using mainstream ones. It is fortunate for consumers that they are learning from their mistakes and actually pulled through with an excellent chip.

If I switch to the 4 core Ryzen instead of the 6 core, change the brand of RAM, a slightly cheaper graphics card and 450M power supply I think I can make it work and keep most of the performance. I made sure all of the parts were still highly rated.

Take a look at this and let me know if it could work:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/L7Nzr7

In general, if you’re a little short on money to get the build you want, the best choice when it comes to getting a new PC is simply to wait.

That way, you will have the money to spare when it comes time (provided you are saving up of course). I’m watching and waiting to eventually upgrade as well, and a good piece of advice I got is that there’s no harm in waiting if what you have can still do what you need (because the parts will only become better).

I have a GTX 750ti in another computer which I used for rendering before upgrading to my 980, it’s not the fastest chip in the world but it gets the job done at a great price. If you don’t want to wait to upgrade, I would suggest getting a hard disk drive rather than a solid state drive (I don’t think the SSD is going to speed anything up much) and putting the money you save toward a better video card (1050ti maybe?). Good Luck!

@davidkollmar
Thank, I made that change, I think I have a good parts list now. I switched out the SSD for a 1TB hybrid that is a bit faster than a regular HDD and still cost effective.

If I need to upgrade in another year I’m okay with that. I have some 3D modelling jobs coming up and my laptop is really on its last breaths right now. After a few good modelling jobs the PC will pay for itself and I can start thinking about other upgrades if I need them.

@KingPeuche
I guess I did come around to the idea of building my own PC. This is the parts list I’ve decided on. I will finalize the purchases tomorrow. I think I know how to put everything together, but I will be sure to follow a bunch of Youtube videos along the way.

@birdnamnam
Thanks for the build list. I couldn’t have come up with my current list without it. I think I was also able to keep much of the performance, but I welcome any second opinions before I buy everything.

@Ace Dragon
Thanks for bringing your knowledge to the thread. A lot of it was more than I could understand, but I definitely learned a few things! Ultimately, I did decide on the Ryzen 5 1400 quad core.

I won’t be able to wait until I have more saved up, but I am hoping I will be able to look into upgrades in the near future. For my needs, this build will be more than enough for a long time to come.

@const
That is what my ideal build would be like too. I was able to hit most of those marks for my budget, but I had to switch the i7 for a Ryzen 5. Instead of getting an HDD and SSD I found a 1TB hybrid for $70 that seems to be a good middle ground.

My last major concern would be the power supply. Will 450M work for this build? According to the parts list the total watts are 241M, so this should be fine right?

A 450 watt power supply should be plenty for your 241 watt max power draw. The general recommendation is your power supply should be rated 1.5 - 2 times the max power draw of your machine. Have fun assembling your build then Happy Blending!

The Corsair CX450M would be enough for this system and has a 5 year warranty which is great for its category. I would like to point out two basic things, that are essential for a new build like this.

  1. There is no meaning in buying a hybrid hdd as a primary disk. To me, it’s unthinkable to build a new rig nowadays and not having an ssd (at least 240-250gb) for OS and apps. The difference in performance and system’s response time in any scenario is simply chaotic…
  2. The new Ryzen cpus need high frequency RAM in order to perform ideally. That’s why I picked a 3200MHz RAM kit in my list.

As for the older FX line, everything that @Ace Dragon said is correct. An FX processor would be just decent for its price but it’s not only about raw cpu performance. It’s the platform as a whole. Comparing AM3+ with AM4 platforms in terms of features and expandability/upgradability is just silly. The AM4 is ages ahead in every aspect and gives a good potential for future upgrades.