PLEASE HELP! I finally after 4 years have the money for buy a computer, I ONLY HAVE ONE SHOT!

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The time has finally come, after 4 years of working at my job I can finally buy a real computer for blender. I’ve been on this old all in one HP computer with only 3.8 DDR3 RAM, shared GPU and CPU and barely any power at all.
I only have one shot at this, I need to make it worth it, I have a budget of only a bit over 1k and no sadly I cannot do a custom build it’s complicated.
I’ve taken some classes watched a few videos googled a lot but I want to make sure I have EVERYTHING right and make sure EVERYTHING is as good as I can get it, so please help me :sob:

QUESTIONS:

1.I know about DDR3 vs 4 and 5 etc how the worst 5 is better than the best 4 etc. But why on this computer I’m looking at does it say DDR5 “SDRAM”? What is SDRAM I looked for a while and couldn’t understand it so I want to ask here where there are professionals, Is this SDRAM good? Is it bad? Please help!

  1. A lot of these are showing “Windows 11 Home”, I know Windows 11 Home S is BAD, S mode is really bad for you and it’s like having a chrome book so I know to avoid it. But is “Windows 11 Home” good? I know these are simple questions but I’d much rather just ask them and maybe be heckled rather than spend my money on something that won’t work!

  2. I’m looking at one currently that has 6 cores, however the speed is a 2.0 higher than my current computer, 1.8 to 3.8, now if I have 6 cores, I know it affects rendering, but will that hurt me in other ways? I could just use a renderfarm in that case if it’s only rendering that is a problem when it comes to cores because you can have people render for ya but ya can’t have people use their viewports for ya yknow!

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-master-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-7600-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-8gb-2tb-ssd-white/6553002.p?skuId=6553002 This one looks great! Only 6 cores, please check out this one first and please someone who really really knows what they’re doing tell me if it’s any good :sob:

THESE TWO I THINK AREN’T GOOD, THEIR REVIEWS HAVE COHESIVE AND DAMNING THINGS TO SAY, BUT IF YOU WANT YOU CAN TAKE A LOOK AND GIVE ME FEEDBACK
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-xtreme-gaming-desktop-intel-core-i7-13700f-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-ti-8gb-2tb-ssd-black/6553005.p?skuId=6553005 It’s looking really nice, however I’m not the best as of yet with computers, so I want to know before I buy this will it be good with blender, is there any MAJOR thing I’m looking over or missing that’d screw me longterm?
^^^ The cohesive bad reviews on this one suggest that it has horrid cooling burns out and makes a ton of noise, sad, but ig it won’t work :confused:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-y60-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-7-7700x-32gb-ddr5-ram-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060ti-8gb-2tb-nvme-ssd-black/6557596.p?skuId=6557596 This is another I was looking at, I mean it looks like a dream but the reviews at least all the bad ones contain a scary narrative of it constantly shutting down and having problems.

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While you are waiting for answers use this sites search function and check the similar ‘new computer’ posts that have been made in the last couple of months. You may find other choices…

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Everyone calls it SDRAM, but the SDRAM type we use as PC memory these days is called DDR SDRAM. The number after DDR is like a version upgrade and it gets faster.

The speed of the PC must be configured so that all components can provide the same performance. Faster is not necessarily better.

Since you are considering the finished product, I don’t think it is important. :slightly_smiling_face:

Blender considers GPU VRAM capacity important.
If you don’t have enough VRAM, GPU rendering acceleration won’t work.
You may need to consider this depending on the amount of work you are aiming for.
(This part directly affects the price increase)

Please also refer to the contents of other posts.

※ Since I am not an English speaker, there may be some errors in conveying the meaning.

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I’ve tried looking for others’ posts, unfortunately I can’t find many idk why :sob: I’m so scared I’m going to make a mistake here after waiting so long to get it.
I think I like the one I’ve found, it has 6 cores at 3.8 speed, 16 ram and it’s expandable, so far the benchmarks look good on most of the tech. It has the 8VRAM and it’s a nvidia geforce which I keep hearing wonderful things about! I’m just so so so afraid

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30 day return policy???

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I think it’s a 2 week return policy, but there’s a 1 year warranty for parts and service that comes with it for free

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2 weeks is more than enuff time to try and crash it!!

Good luck!!

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Thank you I’ve waited 7 years and have worked for 4 of them always dreaming of getting a better computer for blender so I can maybe try to get more professional at it, every time the money got close disaster struck, I hope I’m not overbearing with the fear LOL

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Where are you located?

As far as I can tell, negative reviews are mainly caused by Best Buy’s lacking technical service. At least half the negative reviews mention badly put together components.

I avoid Best Buy for desktop machines myself.

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The best buy I would be going to would be Davenport Florida, where would you go?

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Also: are you planning on relying more on the GPU for rendering, or the CPU? If you save a bit on the CPU a 4070 becomes a possibility while still maintaining 32GB ram.

https://www.newegg.com/abs-sa14400f4070-stratos-aqua/p/N82E16883360465?Item=N82E16883360465

I am located in Vancouver, BC. I prefer MemoryExpress, but those guys only operate in Canada.

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I’ve ordered at Newegg before, and never had any issues with them. But I prefer a physical store for my components and rigs if possible, unless the price difference forces my hand. :wink:

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The main thing I’m worried about, is my community is really bad at delivering mail like REALLY bad, I’m not a rich fortunate guy obviously so the place I live at isn’t the BEST in the world. They just put the mail out in this big public open mail area where if the box is too big for em HEY THEY JUST PUT IT OUT IN THE OPEN ON A SHELF! That’s why I was looking at best buy because I can have it sent there for me to pick up personally yknow?
I just don’t want it to be stolen before I even get a chance to see it

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This looks really cool tho :sob: And it’s somehow within my price range??

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Totally understand - and picking up from a physical location is something I prefer myself as well.

I’d go with this one - might stretch your budget a tad, but the 16GB 4060ti GPU and the overall better quality of the machine seems worth the extra $.

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Yeah, but only because the CPU isn’t really in the same class as the Ryzen 7700 or Intel i7. I feel the CyberPowerPC would make a better general purpose 3D machine. In particular the 16GB GPU gives you way better render bang for the buck in my opinion.

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GPUs are unstable compared to CPUs, but they are a risk to take for fast rendering.
Most are resolved by updating or reinstalling graphics drivers.

I can’t give you an evaluation of the PC you chose, but I think others will give you an opinion. Please wait a little bit :slightly_smiling_face:

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Please don’t buy from BestBuy. They have insane markups, terrible customer service, and they’re famous for stuffing garbage parts in their computers and mislabeling them, not honoring warranties, etc. I would not recommend getting a pre-built, you’ll pay about 30% markup for a prebuilt (not to mention exorbitant shipping). Buy your own parts and build it- it’s easy, fun, and cheap

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Best Buy in davenport isn’t your only option. You’re an hour or so from Orlando, and they certainly have stores there which can build a machine for you.

Alternately, have something shipped to a different address. At one point in life, I’d have everything shipped to my workplace as of course I wasn’t home all day to sign for packages.

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OK, so my initial thoughts.

Putting aside where to get it from and how flashy the case and all the RGB lights maybe, lets just look at likely main parts from those systems you have linked and try to go for something around that price point, I assume we are talking USD and located in the US.

On the subject of system RAM, just worry about DDR4, DDR5, capacity and for those more technically minded, speed and latency. Ignore SDRAM or whatever other names, etc.

So, first up, you want 32GB, DDR5 at reasonable speed 6000MHz ideally, can go faster, but doesn’t matter. As for RGB, well, all depends how you feel about bling, just pretty lights don’t make stuff go faster.

For CPU, my ballpark aim would be for the Ryzen 5 7600X (spend just that little bit more and not get the 7600). Now you could go for say a 7700X (and get 8 cores, but that likely eats up too much of the budget that I’d like to use for RAM/GPU, etc). For Intel, the 'matching CPU would be something like the 14400. You can go either way really, it’s much of a muchness.

In the case of the Intel CPU’s don’t cheap out and get one that doesn’t have a iGPU. Yes they are a little cheaper, but having onboard GPU is great for any troubleshooting, etc if something happens to the main GPU.

So, speaking of the GPU, that’s still an issue and choices are great, prices even worse. You can go 4060, but I really don’t like the 8GB VRAM limit. As such, I’d try for the 4060 Ti 16GB version. It’s not as fast as say a 4070/4060 Super, but it is cheaper (at least it should be) and you actually get 4GB more VRAM, which is likely to serve you better for years to come.

For the OS, Windows 11 Home is fine, personally I rather the Pro editions, but that’s me. For the average user, Home will do the job.

As for the rest, well a matching motherboard/case/PSU, etc that suits. Having said that, getting something from Bestbuy like a iBuypower, just don’t do that. CyberPower are only a little better. Here’s a good list of prebuilt reviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuVSmND84QuM2HKzG7ipbIbE_R5EnCLM ignore price and mostly look them over from a supplier point of view, and just how bad some are.

Hence, my first question, since you are in the US, do you have a Micro Center store near you? If so, you could go there, have them help you spec up the PC for around your budget and then build it as well if that’s not something you want to do yourself.

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