Building a computer for my brother for blender

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1

howdy! first post. i want to build a computer for blender for compatibility for other programs that he may use with blender like the shader and…can’t remember. well other programs that make 3d models that would be compatible. i’ll have to ask him all the other ones but i was trying to make a one all build. here is what i am thinking

Fury X watercooled- i’ll overclock this as well
32GB of ddr 4 3000 memory - nah wont overclock
6 core x99 platform Intel i7 unlocked for overclocking
Windows 7 Ultimate
some box to put it in
1TB SSD drive…not sure which one but under 500 bucks
3 or 4 5TB spinning media HD
3 28" 2560x1600 monitors, probably asus brand
x99 motherboard, asus brand probably

now what do you think about that? he likes to use adobe as well.

are there any issues with the new 2.75a that would not allow for amd cards to run Cycles. i know that it’s plenty fast and is compatible for maxwell cards…but i wanted to try the AMD for that one

that cpu with that memory should be plenty, should i get 64GB of memory? he’s pretty serious about making games as well he is using another program…forgot which one i’ll have to ask. but i was going to have him try the blender game engine

What other things should i be considering for this build? i’ll do separate backup storage to a NAS and probably some other offline harddrives as well

also will be buying a UPS, his power is stupid sometimes

oh and he games as well, going to buy him a new mouse and keyboard, mechanical

it’s hard to find how to build a kick-ass system for blender.

my budget is 3000$ US dollar

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All in all seems pretty good, but I would make one recommendation, switch the Fury X to the 980Ti.

The Extra 2GB vRAM would be quite useful IMO, if you wanted to do any Cycles rendering (as well as the fact that CUDA is just that much better supported) plus with 3 2560x1600 monitors, you will be taking up more vRAM just to display the desktop.

Does the $3K US include the monitor etc…?

3

Agreed with above. Go with a 980 TI. If OpenCL does eventually supercede CUDA, you can still sell off the gpu for a decent chunk and go with a Radeon at that point in time.

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ah ok! thanks so much for the replies!!! i will get the 980ti! ok and the 3k was including the monitors as well. one of the three monitors would be a gsync monitor because he is a pro gamer as well. should my budget be more? well i can’t go over 3800$ what do you suggest? oh also do you know of the programs people use with blender? so i can tell my brother about them? the 980ti i get i would like watercooled any suggestions? and the case i was getting was going to have foam padding so it can be quiet one of those fractal cases

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for the 3 monitors i was thinking 28" or 30" what do you think?

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for the 3 monitors i was thinking 28" or 30" what do you think?

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oh i forgot! i’m planning to build in November, might consider skylake

8

the great thing about blender is,
it can run on anything ranging from a rotten potato to a deus ex(god like machine).

but it’s performance can improved with more ram and a better >>>NVIDIA<<< GPU
(Although I’ve heard good stories about the fury X, just to be safe though, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487068&cm_re=gtx_980--14-487-068--Product)

Seriously, CUDA is much much more better than OpenCL in terms of performance.

Also a dual display could be helpful.

9

I beg to differ on your rotten potato comment. Blender crashes very often on 2003-era VIA IGPUs to the point of unusability. :ba:

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You realize that 2003 us the computing stone age? Or hopefully that was sarcasm :stuck_out_tongue:

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My biggest concern is overclocking… I probably wouldnt overclock it if it is not your own machine, purely because it can lead to instabilities and what not. The machine you are building for him is already stupidly powerful, no need to try and push it even further.

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@Double
The one good thing about AMD GPUs is that they can really take OCing,

Like I OCed my core clock which was at 750 to 1150
and memory clock which was at 1000, to 1450

No damage was caused or speed decreases.

13

The good thing about NVidia GPU’s is they can really take overclocking…

Like I overclocked my 970’s core clock from 1050 to 1450 and left the memory around 1500 (rendering wasn’t taxing the memory as much).

Not that I have 970’s in my system for any reason except CUDA, but currently nVidias cards OC better than the Fury/X lines from what I’ve read, especially in regards to pushing power envelops (and the default these start from)

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ah ok, with the overclocking i was gonna do a 3 or 4 day burn in test to confirm as well…well i was thinking about it

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guys got me pretty convinced to get that 980ti for sure. also he will be doing video and music and voice stuffz on his computer. i wont go hard overclocking. but just enough where i dont have to bump the voltage up too high. have to read up on it. cuz if i break it i gotta go down there and fix it…i dont wanna be doing that every other day need it stable. and it would be a shame to buy a 6 core x99 chip and not overclock it. i would be doing a diservice!

got any other tips? for help using other programs what what hardware i would need that the programs that are associated with blender would use that i should purchase? also gonna get him a gaming headset as well.

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ah yeah i’m getting tripple 2560x1600, i was gonna get the 1600 vs getting the 1440 because of the extra vertial height which i thought would be helpful. now for the first monitor i was gonna get a gsync monitor he pro gamer. and the other 2 i was going to get that adobe rgb 99% or whatever it is for his artwork

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just figured out i should probably reply so you can see lol? i was going to burn test it for 3 or 4 days. what do you think about taht? i wasn’t going to go crazy and try to screen every ounce of performacne but a general good overclock i wanted to do

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do you have some performance benchamarks of the increase? like how much was it in percentage and benchmarks scores? and what hardware did you do it on?

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sorry for late replies i get the moderator thing where it checks post for spam? :frowning:

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i was also going to get him that wavo wireless drawing pad, what you guys think? any mouse in particular i should be looking at? for keyboard i was giong to get him the corsair g710+