$2000 3D Modeling/ 3D Sculpting/ and Animation Workstation

If this is strictly a workstation with almost no gaming, I would advise you to stray away from the Intel Core series and the typical gaming graphic card. You're better off with a Xeon processor and a workstation gpu like the NVIDIA QUADRO series. These are meant for workstations unlike the i7 and R9/GTX gpus which are meant for gaming.

Have a look at this and the custom part which is the K4000 Quadro. From amazon.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3Bd0u

Or this one would be a very good option too:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3BjKL

The Xeons were made to be workstation and server processors. The Intel Core series were made for general use and gaming. The Xeons are generally more reliable and support ECC memory which can be useful in workstations as they can detect and correct common data errors that can potentially harm your system.

If you aren't using ECC memory, the Xeon isn't worth the extra money... though currently, there is a 4-core plus hyperthreading Xeon for cheaper than the cheapest i7. For the same socket, at the same clock speed, and same number of cores, an i7 and a Xeon are going to perform almost identically in Maya. *If* the Xeon has more cache, there are certain situations where the larger cache can perform better, but if the cache size is the same, there will be virtually no detectable performance difference if all other factors are equal (same speed RAM, same GPU, same mobo chipset, etc)

I *WOULD NOT* get the Radeon. I (and others) have had bad experiences with AMD's OpenGL drivers when actually trying to use professional software on them. Not *benchmark* them, actually *use* them. This goes for both their 'game' cards and their 'pro' cards.

You may want to put some serious consideration into going for a socket 2011 CPU for this machine. From my tests, (I review workstations here at Tom's) I can tell you in many 3d applications that the extra memory bandwidth of the socket 2011 machine will give it a performance jump over the 1150 machine even if you have to give up some clock speed.

Looks good, but why the soundcard?

You wont need a sound card with that build the reason: the motherboard is the component that produces the sound and that motherboard has an alc1150 sound device which is one of the best. The reason why you would get a sound card would only be for sound works.

The onboard sound will be sufficient unless you're needing low-latency pro level sound- which your described system parameters do not call for.

Sorry, selecting a wireless adapter is outside my area of expertise...

Hello!

Man, I am looking for exactly the same thing, so I think we could help each other. However, if you say you are still green in the subject, I'm a seed... Thus, instead of an answer here come two more questions:

1- I really like how the configuration is coming up (thanks guys! =) ). However, I have been researching for a drawing pad to do the sculpting, and I found out this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSnkZdcfN2I
And, of course that an All-In-One would not be powerful enough for Z-Brush, Maya and so on.. But do you guys think it is reasonable to use a pc with this configuration we are discussing with this little beauty? http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&sku=859-BBBC (There is also the Samsung one, but it is the way more expensive...). I mean, do you guys think we can actually use a pen for drawing pads and draw on a touch screen monitor?

2- Is there any reliable service, site or company to which we could actually send the configuration we made here, so that they build the computer to us? (I feel like I will take all the pieces and make a huge piece of crap if I try to make it by myself...)

Thank you so much, and sorry if I said any bullshit... I am really starting yet...

The problem is, you don't want a *touch display* for doing painting and sculpting, you want a *pen display*. Most touch displays have no way to do pressure sensitivity and thus are less than ideal for this kind of use. This is why people pay hundreds for a Yiynova or a thousand plus for a Wacom pen display, while the rest of us make do with tablets. (Monoprice has an 'okay' pen display for cheaper, but it doesn't support an extended desktop - it has to be your primary monitor- and the quality of the actual *display* part of the unit isn't great...)

If you're willing to pay for someone else to assemble it, anywhere from a local mom and pop shop on up should be able to build a machine like this, Likely, you'll also be paying their prices for the components, so the overall costs will end up being considerably higher.

If you're just starting, you should be able to work using a 'gaming card' just fine, btw. You can 'get by' with that gaming card for a long time.

Yes, I am biased against AMD cards for 3D graphics work. I've read the same articles on the main Tom's site many of you have, and seen where it shows AMD cards beating Nvidia cards in tests... but the tests in question are the SPEC benchmarks and thus are something they have copies of and can spend lots of time and money optimizing for. And apparently a lot of people are skipping the later pages of the article where it shows the rendering errors of the AMD consumer cards in professional applications. ( http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/specviewperf-12-workstation-graphics-benchmark,3778-19.html )

This is why when I am testing workstations for Tom's, I try to have something that resembles a realistic workload. Unfortunately, the tests are getting a bit dated, and so shortly I plan on spending some time developing updated tests as well as some completely new ones.

Thank you for the direction Draven35!!

After some research in pen sensitive displays, I felt in love with this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DTNOU1K . Seens like the critiques about it are good (and it was the best cost benefit I found =P). Would you have an opinion about it?

And so, what video card would suggest instead of the GeForce GTX 770 4GB WINDFORCE?
Thank you =)

atsantiago,

Here is a recent idea for a workstation system based on the Xeon E5-1620 v2, which has a high clock speed > 3.7 / 3.9 GHz and, importantly, LGA2011 may be upgraded to 6, 8, and 10 core CPU's. If your budget could allow adding about $300, you could use a really impressive PU, the 6-core Xeon E5-1650 v2 which is 3.5 / 3.9GHz and the extra cores might extend the use for quite some time before upgrading. However, an extra $300 might be better spent on having a Quadro K4000 (about $760) as opposed to the Quadro K2000 at about $420. The E5-1620 has one of the best cost / performance ratios of any CPU I know. LGA2011 also has twice the memory bandwidth of LGA1150 and double the PCIe lanes. There are LGA2011 motherboards that accept 512GB of 1866 ECC RAM and can have 7 PCIe x16 slots. - Very Expandable! On the subject of ECC, error-correcting RAM, I am convinced it has important properties in rendering and 3D modeling.

The GPU is best when selected to suit the most demanding application, which I assume in your example is Maya. I'm not a tremendous fan of the Quadro K2000 (2GB), but it is very competent and can run the workstation drivers- especially important in Maya as well as high anti-aliasing. If you are adventurous, you might try for a "new other" Quadro K4000 (3GB) at around $500-600 a really good card. A Quadro 5000 (2.5GB) is an older series, but can equal K4000 in a number of applications and are now in the $450-500 range. I've had 8 lightly used Quadros since about 2001 and never had a failure.

BambiBoom PixelDozer Cadarendgrapharific Blazomatic iWorkarama TurboScream 99000 ™$#©™_5.20.14

1. CPU > Intel Xeon Quad-Core Processor E5-1620 v2 3.7GHz 0GT/s 10MB LGA 2011 CPU, OEM> $295 (Superbiiz) (Passmark CPU score= 9199, rank = No. 38)

2. CPU Cooler > CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 Quiet Edition Water / Liquid CPU Cooler. 120mm > $60

3. Motherboard> ASUS Z9PA-U8 ATX Server Motherboard, C602 chipset, LGA 2011 > $289.99

4. RAM > 16GB (2X 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ECC Unbuffered Server Memory >about $150. (Check motherboard compatibility list)

5. GPU > NVIDIA Quadro K2000 VCQK2000-PB 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card $420.

6. HD 1 > SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) > $160

7. HD 2> Western Digital Black WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200RPM SATA3/SATA 6.0 GB/s 64MB Hard Drive (3.5 inch) ) > $156

8. PSU> SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold ((SS-650KM Active PFC F3) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply $120.

9. Case > LIAN LI PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $100.

10. Optical Dr > ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM $17.

11. OS > Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM $140
____________________________________________________________

TOTAL = $1,907

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2014) > Xeon E5-1620 quad core @ 3.6 / 3.8GHz > 24GB ECC 1600 RAM > Quadro 4000 (2GB)> Samsung 840 SSD 250GB /Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > AE3000 USB WiFi > HP 2711X, 27" 1920 X 1080 > Windows 7 Ultimate 64 >[Passmark system rating = 3923, 2D= 839 / 3D=2048]

Dell Precision T5400 (2008) > 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16GB ECC 667> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 500GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > M-Audio 2496 Sound Card / Linksys 600N WiFi > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit >[Passmark system rating = 1859, 2D= 512 / 3D=1097]

2D, 3D CAD, Image Processing, Rendering, Text > Architecture, industrial design, graphic design, written projects

I'd be very hesitant about thae Yiynova DP10U, because it uses a 'video over USB' type driver instead of a traditional GPU. I'm not sure that it had any kind of hardware 3d support, which means that it is going to be... problematic for sculpting and texture painting. I haven't personally had one of these to be able to use and have deliberately not gotten one of this specific model because of this.

Thanks man! I will consider =)

I have been talking to people here in the Tech Services of the university, and they recommended replacing the power suply for this one: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-ssr750rm

They also recommended this Wireless adapter:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/linksys-wireless-network-card-wmp600n

Hello Santiago,

Would you know if I can install both MAC OS X and Windows with this configuration, or only Windows?

Thank you!

What do you need OSX for?

I was serious, btw.