Computer for a beginner

[_alexs (Alex)]

I am a beginner but getting more and more into 3D with Blender.

Currently I run Blender on the same quite old laptop with integrated video (Celeron B820, 4Gb RAM) which I use for my every day need. So even doing relatively simple stuff sometimes become painful due to freezes and slow rendering.

As I really like to develop my skills I want to build new computer more suitable for 3D. For this build I am lean towards AMD, from what I have read nowadays it provides better value for money than Intel.

I am from Ukraine and unfortunately, have quite limited budget — around €1500. I realize that I can’t build something really performant, but maybe you can suggest specs at least acceptable as a starting point?

Thanks.

[birdnamnam (Nick Mez)]

For this particular budget your best bet would be a branded pre-built computer, ex. this one

HP Pavilion Gaming TG01-2214ng Shadow Black | Preisvergleich Geizhals...

If you try to build one part by part you’ll need almost 800€ for the GPU only. Add a nice monitor to this rig and you’re good to go. ex. https://geizhals.de/hp-27mq-1f2j9aa-a2467311.html?hloc=at&hloc=de

Is there any PC store with pre-built computers in your region?

[_alexs (Alex)]

birdnamnam thanks for your suggestion! Yes, there are places with pre-built computers here and I will look for something like the configuration you have suggested.

Will raising budget to €2000 make any difference?

[birdnamnam (Nick Mez)]

Yes, 2000€ is a budget which gives more freedom in choice of parts. If you can post here a hardware shop you trust in your region and let’s see if there’s something appropriate for you

[Bullit]

Buy an whole system like @ birdnamnam posted or if you need to move or prefer buy a laptop.

With ~1500 euro you might find a laptop with RTX3070. For ~1000 euro you might find one with a RTX3060.
Your budget is okay.

PS: like birdnamnam says post here the stores you have in your region that you might buy from.

[_alexs (Alex)]

One of the biggest stores here is https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/. Unfortunately they don’t have an English version and Google Translate seems does not work with it.

[birdnamnam (Nick Mez)]

https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/cobra-i14f16h1s536t2726/p322587601/
This one with 32gb of ram and two ssds would be great. I mean one nvme at least

[watercycles]

I posted this in another thread.

@watercycles

If you go with the Ryzen 5700G you could skip getting a video card and render faster on cpu. Blender doesn’t need that much of a card and the 5700g does pretty good in gaming.

classroom rendering benchmark blender
GTX 1050 with cuda = 1100
5700G cpu rendering 300 x (20k/14.2k) = 422 Had to do some calculation from the cinebench r23 score in comparison to the 5900x blender benchmark as there is no 5700g benchmark.

So you render about 3x faster on the 5700G than the GTX 1050 and save about $356 switching from the Intel +1050 to the AMD. That $356 can be used to a $500 RTX 3070 when the prices become retail.

If you do go 5700G change the motherboard so it works.

The idea is the 5700G keeps you from having to buy a video card now. Save that money for later when the card prices become reasonable.

[_alexs (Alex)]

Thanks for the suggestion. After reading reviews and comparisons I have decided to go with this pre-build computer. Thanks again!

[birdnamnam (Nick Mez)]

You might want to take a look at this thread too.

Building new computer (specs help wanted)

You’re not wrong and yes, the ability to upgrade this branded build from Dell is more limited than a fully custom rig. I’ll try to post here a list of parts that you could order from this site, but it’ll probably be a bit more expensive than 60.000 Hryvnia. My post had the purpose of showing what you could get for less money, and right now, due to GPU low availability most pre-build systems have much better prices. That’s what I wanted to demonstrate with my first post, and we’re making a conver…

[Bullit]

@watercycles

Blender doesn’t need that much of a card and the 5700g does pretty good in gaming.

If you want to do rendering then a GPU card is essential.

[watercycles]

If look at the benchmarks the 5700g renders 3x faster than the GTX 1050. If using Luxcore in Bidirection pathtracing mode it only uses cpu

[Bullit]

He has enough money for a laptop or assembled desktop with a 3060 or 3070.
That is the trick you can buy RTX at retail prices (edit: by retail i mean msrp or below) , if you buy a whole system(laptop or desktop) and choose well.
A RTX 3060 render the BMW scene in 12 seconds. The 5700G will probably render it in 2m50s or so making a comparison that a 5800H renders in 3m06 sec. The Classroom scene renders in about 25 seconds.

[watercycles]

That would be an option if he lived somewhere that had a good prebuilt for a decent price. They live in Ukraine though. There might not be a good prebuilt option. Even with a prebuilt option retail prices of 3rd party are way above the $500 RTX 3070 or $700 RTX 3080 founder edition retail prices. Though, with the way video card prices are going the $500 RTX 3070 or $700 RTX 3080 might never exist again. Nvidia seems to be phasing them out for a ti model that cost more while phasing out production all together.

[Bullit]

He put a link to a local store and birdnamnam pointed to him a desktop.