Hi everyone. I am quite new to Blender, and have been learning for a few months. My current setup is about 4 years old, and I am thinking of upgrading it. My focus is mostly game asset creation for Unity development. So, I will mostly need modeling, sculpting, texturing and animation. Not exactly sure about Unity requirements yet, since I am full on just learning mode. Here is my current setup:
I haven’t really kept up with new hardware releases, so I am quite confused on what to upgrade right now. My budget is around $3000. I am flexible, but trying to keep it under that. Can you guys please provide some pointers on what hardware to get?
This a whole new build lol Thank you so much for the build. Hopefully I can sell the old stuff for some amount.
One quick question about the cabinet. I currently have this one: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4wW9TW/fractal-design-case-fdcadefr4bl
Can I reuse the same? Or will it have space restriction?
All Fractal Design cases are quality products. The R4 is a decent chassis, but it’s starting to show its age (it’s 7-8 years old already). For instance, if I was to keep it, I would remove all hdd cages in order to improve airflow from the front towards the back part of the case and leave more room for the gpu. I think the 2080Ti I picked in my list is slightly larger than the R4 can fit inside without removing the drive cage. You should check that before proceeding. Otherwise its quite decent. Of course the Phanteks P600S you saw in the list is a top airflow case with high quality materials, and if you decide to switch from the R4 you won’t regret it.
Fractal Design R4 owner here. With the drive cages still installed I was able to fit in a huge Asus ROG Strix 2080 Ti (barely). Less than 5mm of space left.
I don’t really keep track of that. GPU-z puts idle around 38 degrees, goes up to almost 70 under load, that’s all I memorized. Possibly higher under longer sustained loads but that’s not something I use it for.
Zero idea about the CPU but it has been trucking away for a long time under one of those massive Noctua coolers.
The thing about drive cages is that I find them quite necessary.
My data backup drives are spinning rust, plus I keep (physically disconnected) disk clones in there for quickly getting the machine back up if it ever suffers a drive failure (has happened right before a deadline once, talk about a lesson).
That case you linked - looks like zero drive cages left and all you can do is mount a handful of SSDs to the back of the mainboard?
I had a look at temperatures now and during normal work in Blender and preview in Marmoset the temperatures are 33 idle for GPU, going up to 65 under load (at up to 100% of TDP as reported by GPU-z). CPU goes from 37 to about 42 degrees in this scenario.
This includes modelling and baking (on the GPU). Looks pretty good I suppose.
I should point out that I selected the GPU specifically because among other things it was said to run cooler than most/all other 2080Ti’s.
This is with the R4 all closed up, solid side panels, two fans in the front and one in the rear and running in silent-ish mode (700-odd RPM). GPU is being run in performance mode: about 1000 RPM default fan speeds (it’s silent enough that I can’t hear it over the system’s general noise level).
