I’ve been doing some research on a computer build to work with 3D complex scenes renders and animation which is my 2019 project. (I mention this so to establish that I have no experience and therefore my decision making is getting difficult).
I think I could invest €1500 tops for a complete system, I know some builds are up to €2800 (or more) but this is my reality and I just wanted to know from your experience if it will be actually possible to work with a €1500 computer. What to sacrifice with minimum impact on the possible workflow? … AMD_vs_Intel? more GPU power or CPU power?
I know this seems I just want a recipe, but I have been doing research on this and since I can’t afford to buy something it won’t be useful, I need to ask this from scratch.
I would recommend to make sure that you get a good CPU, and confortable RAM amount (like 16 GB but 32 GB would be better) It means that you will be able to manipulate big scenes, regardless of your rendering power. Because when you come to render a big animation, usely, using an external renderfarm on the net is the simplest.
Nevertheless, even if you come to use a renderfarm, you need to have a GPU good enouth to set and fix your shaders, do some renders, render tiny animations, etc.
So to sum it up, I think that, for a 1500€ budget, you could have something like :
Last Gen Intel i7 CPU @ at least 3.6 GHz
16 to 32 GB RAM
GTX 1080 Ti (11 GB video RAM, enougth CUDA cores to be confortable with Cycles Renderer)
@Alina_Mocanca Some basic things you should make clear.
Do you need a monitor and peripherals too, or just the tower?
What are you using for rendering? Cycles gpu or cpu, or both with hybrid?
How heavy are your scenes in general? What’s the RAM usage you usually see?
Going with thought that you are spending this only on the core components (case and everything in it), then what tricotou stated is a good start.
Key part for me is always the Power supply, so ensure you invest well in that as well. I’d personally go with Seasonic Platinum/Titanium class power supplies…
Now depending on your overall Blender Skills, if you are starting up, then:
Starter:
Intel i5/AMD Ryzen - 4 core CPU @ at least 3.6
16GB of memory
Seasonic 750W Platinum PSU
GTX 1070/Vega 56
Mid range
Intel i7/AMD Ryzen - 8 core CPU @ at least 3.6
16GB of memory
Seasonic 750W Platinum PSU
GTX 1080/RTX 2070/Vega 64
High range
Intel i9/AMD Threadripper - 16 core CPU @ at least 3.6
32GB of memory
Seasonic 750W Platinum PSU
GTX 1080ti/ RTX 2080ti/Vega VII (all have 11+ GB of onboard memory)
Blender is still not fully optimized for multi threading across all of it’s functions. So depends what your goals are (simulation/rendering/video…)
Simulations (I think) are single threaded, and only on CPU. so Intel is for the win as it has the best single treading performance.
Multithreaded tasks then any decent 16 core CPU would be a good purchase.
GPU, mostly for Cycles or Eevee render, as most tasks do not have GPU support.
Lastly I would add that I’ve seen many awesome renders comming from people with limited resources, compared to someone with top end system but with more limited skillset (like myself… )
So don’t fret too much on the system. Main thing is to do work regularly and publish your work for comments to improve your skills. And in the future upgrade.
(side note on upgrade, Intel is NOT well versed on allowing too many upgrades. usually new CPU’s require new motherboards. AMD is on the opposite spectrum.)
I will need a monitor too, but I am excluding that from the 1500 budget anyways. Good question though.
I am going to start with 3D this year, currently doing visual arts in 2D with different techniques, so even though I can’t answer that, I need to build now something that will last for a while because I might not be able to afford the upgrades in a near future. So I guess it’s better to get something that might be good for a general workflow use. What do you think?
Since I am going to start with 3D I am not sure what are the differences between Simulation/Rendering… Video, just basic montage with Premiere, some After FX probably (right now doing that with an old MBP2011 with 256 video ram…so figure).
I want to get on 3D modelling (and rendering) mainly and some animations.
About future upgrades, I’m trying to build a system that might be good for a mid/long term since I’m not sure I will be able to afford upgrades in the near future. I quitted my job and taking quite of a turn on my life, so my resources are limited (and maybe they will continue to be…hope not).
About your system options. I am aiming to some sort of a mix between the Mid/Range and High Range ,like:
AMD Ryzen 7
32 gb RAM ( Question: 2 x 16 or 4 x 8? Whould they change the performance, I received mixed comments on this)
GTX 1080ti
Also about the motherboard, besides a compatible socket, what else should I consider? Some internal clocking/frequencies/etc…?
On AMD consumer platform for memory generally 2x something is less problematic than 4x something, though this mostly applies to the overclocked/out of spec memory. So long as the memory falls within what the motherboard/CPU supports out of the box(say 2666mhz dimms) you should be fine either ways.
For the motherboard, if you don’t intend to overclock and you are fairly certain that you won’t be going for or upgrading later on to a cpu with any more cores than 8 then the B*50 motherboards should be fine. For certain though going with a X*70 motherboard is a safer bet.
In case you are interested in waiting for and going with a 3rd gen ryzen I’d reccomend getting a X570 mobo, not only will the bios be ready for the new cpu’s so no need to flash the bios while using an older gen cpu but chances are the VRM’s are going to be beefier to better support the (rumored) 12 and 16 core cpu’s.
Simulation - particles/smoke/fire/water/wind/object collision/destruction/cloth simulation (CPU driven)
Modeling - modeling (CPU driven + GPU if viewing at render quality)
Sculpting - clay modeling - (CPU driven)
Rendering - final process of displaying the final image (GPU + CPU driven)
Video editing - green screen/ camera tracking / composing 3d images into 2d videos (CPU driven)
Memory wise as stated by Felix_Kurt, 2 sticks generally is better if you plan to do any overclocking. However for Ryzen 3200 is highly recommended due to internal design linking core cluster communication with memory speeds… Hopefully they will remove this limit in 3rd gen if you can wait that is. on intel side, slighty slower memory (2933-3000) is a good start.
But in the end Ryzen 8 core (2700/2700x or upcomming 3xxx series) are a good start. The rumored 12/16 core (depending on price) might be intresting. (running threadripper 1950 16 core chip and loving it)
16 GB (2x8GB sticks) leaving room to upgrade to 32 in the future when you indeed start reaching the work limit - this is what i have and haven’t seen any issues on memory (though I mainly do modeling - no simulations)
So, what we know so far, Ryzen 3000 is going to become available July 1st. If you need a computer built before that, you might as well start shopping now. If you can afford to wait, Ryzen 3000 will bring up to 16 cores on the consumer platform.
Personally I’d go for whatever gets you the best single-core performance first and multi-core performance should be secondary consideration.
I have a feeling that TR will be in Q1 2020. Currently the largest income is from Epyc and from AM4 sockets (volume wise that is), so i expect that they are pushing their production into these two markets. not leaving much for TR…
Hi everyone!
First of all, thank you all for the answers and guidance .
I’ve been ghosting between the post because I didn’t want to bother that much but going back and forth and finally purchased the following (I would love to have your input and also some advise regarding the ram):
-Ryzen 7 2700x 3.7 Ghz (YD270XBGAF)
-Noctua NHU12s SE AM4
-Asus Bridge Strix X470-F Gaming
-MSI GTX 1080 Ti Duke 11GB OC+
-Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe 500GB.
-Cooler Master Master Watt 750
-Corsair Carbide 275R ATX (includes two stock coolers which I intend to replace for silent coolers once I get some money.Anyways temperature wise I hope it would be sufficient).
-Corsair TM30 Thermal Paste.
-Seagate Barracuda 2TB (ST2000DMZ08/DM008)
-LG 43UD79 (IPS, 4K) I know this is not a suuuuper display but the price was ultra convenient.
About the RAM: I intent to start with 16gb and upgrade to 32 in the future. With this in mind, Should I get one that does have the dot on the 4 DIMM column in the QVL?
Before considering the QVL, I bought Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz CL16
But checking the QVL from Asus for my MOBO I haven’t found it there… so I am thinking on choosing something else (I can still give this one back).
I am confused with this memory thing, I would appreciate your inputs! Thanks again and I am looking forward to read you all
Yes. Though a future bios update to the board in theory could improve things for memory DIMMs lacking the dots, but I wouldn’t guarantee it and with the current age of 400 series I don’t expect it.
Mind this is more relevant to running high memory clocks and/at low cas latency more than anything else.
Bumping down say memory clocks by a step or two could get the two additional DIMMs to post even for memory without the dots. But as a more casual/less technical user you likely wouldn’t want to deal with it.
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