Need HELP!! $1500-$1900 3D Animation Build

Iskander · May 10, 2014

Hey guys, I need a lot of help. I want to build a desktop for 3D Animation and Modeling but I don't have any idea of what parts I need or which one is better.

Approximate Purchase Date: During Summer Vacations (Jun-July) I'll be taking a 3D Modeling class on Fall.

Budget Range: $1500-$1900 U.S. dollars

System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3D Animation, 3D Modeling. Pretty much I'll be covering the whole 3D pipeline, you know, Animation-Modeling-Compositing-Rendering-Texturing- Rigging-Dynamics-Lighting-As well as Sculpting.

Gaming: NO

Software Usage from Most to Least Important: 3Ds Max, Mudbox, Photoshop CS6, After Effects CS6

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Parts to Upgrade: New Building (I don't have any parts)

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com , amazon.com , I'm open to suggestions

Location: Santa Ana, CA U.S.A.

Parts Preferences: I've no idea what brand/type is better.

Overclocking: What's that? If it helps YES.

SLI or Crossfire:

?? If it helps YES.

Your Monitor Resolution: HD 1920x1080 or 1280x720?? Not sure

Additional Comments: I'm a n00b. I don't even know what some words mean, so please HELP ME.

EDIT: I created another post and someone recommended the next parts. What do you think? Is it OK for what I'm looking for? Is any part that could fit better?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3GXQc
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3GXQc/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3GXQc/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1245 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($288.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($129.84 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($129.84 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($98.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($104.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: ATI FirePro V5900 2GB Video Card ($429.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($97.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($35.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1752.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-09 17:49 EDT-0400)

Thanks.=)

ScrewySqrl · May 10, 2014

that looks pretty solid to me

schau314 · May 10, 2014

32 gb seems excessive .

Dblkk · May 10, 2014

Ditch the Seagate and get wd or hitachi. Have/had a lot of seagates and plenty of problems and failures. Also I would pick up a second hhd as well. That way you can read from and write to separate drives, giving you the full 100-120mbps transfer speed instead of splitting it on the same drive giving you only 50mbps

Dblkk · May 10, 2014

schau314 :

32 gb for anything other than 3d rendering and actual workstation type programming is excessive. But can tell you that even video editing/rendering both my pc and laptop have 32gb and it get used up quick. When I build my next rig itll be a 4930k and 2011 board, which I will then be getting 64gb ram, 32gb will be straight ramdisk for photoshop scratch disk.

schau314 · May 10, 2014

You should get the new macbook pro desktop then. It comes standard with 16 gb and can be upgraded for 100 dollars a gb since its apple.
All jokes aside.
Is there a considerable difference between the 1230v3 and the the 1245 v3.
Also would it be more beneficial to get a nice h87 if not overclocking.
Looks like a solid build though.

Spectre694 · May 10, 2014

The only thing I would change is the card both the quadro K2000 and Firepro w5000 are the faster current gen cards and they are the same price as the v5900.

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

schau314 :

Are you serious? Not only would a macintosh with vaguely adequate specs be way over his budget, it would also be way lower spec the his current ATX build.

Iskander · May 11, 2014

ScrewySqrl :

Hi, thanks for the answer. I've a question. Just as Dblkk recommended I changed the Seagate Barracuda 3TB for Hitachi 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($179.00+ @ B&H) (I can afford a $75 increase for 1 more TB but not another HHD)

What do you think? Does it worth the money?

Also, What wireless network adapter do you recommend?

ScrewySqrl · May 11, 2014

for a desktop, I recommend staying wired, if possible. Ethernet tends to be faster and less interference potential.

I've had no problems with Seagate drives for over 30 years, They are fine. animation needs as many GB as it can get, but I'd suggest using teh $75 to up from as 120/128GB SSD to a 240/256GB SSD instead. Use the SSD for a Photoshop/3D Studio swap space.

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

Also, may I suggest getting a newer Quadro K2000

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

Iskander :

Instead of one 4TB HDD it'll be more useful to have 3 or 4 1TB HDDs in RAID 10, 5 or 6. It will perform faster and is also fail resistant (if one of the drives fail you can rebuild the partition)

Iskander · May 11, 2014

ScrewySqrl :

Ok, then I'll change the Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($98.99 @ B&H) for Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.00 @Amazon) And I'll be spending just $41 instead of $75

What do you think?

Also, I can't get it wired because my house is too small and will be impossible to get the desktop close to the modem/router (it's in my grandma's room

)

Iskander · May 11, 2014

Alpha3031 :

Then the Quadro K2000 is better than ATI Firepro V5900 ? It's $15 cheaper, but Does it worth?

Also, 3 1TB HDD = $150 and the Seagate is $45 cheaper.

It's difficult to choose performance over cost (money). Does it worth?

Also, I forgot to mention but I have a 1TB WD External Hard Drive, I'm not sure if it matters.

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

Rosewill RNX-N150PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($10.98 @ Amazon)

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

Iskander :

Just get 2 of those HDDs then; and the quadro is, according to most reviews, better than the firepro V5900, it's also a newer architecture and therefore runs cooler. It's also unlikely for you to use more than 2TB storage space anyway

Iskander · May 11, 2014

ScrewySqrl :

Then, What about a CPU Cooler?
Do I need one?
Also what does COMBO mean on pcpartpicker?

Iskander · May 11, 2014

Alpha3031 :

Then, What about a CPU Cooler?
Do I need one?
Also what does COMBO mean on pcpartpicker?

Note: I don't know how to quote 2 users in a single commentary.

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

Iskander :

No cpu cooler needed because you can't overclock (but if you really want one Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg) is a good choice)
combo means combo discounts, though I'm not entirely sure how they work

Iskander · May 11, 2014

Alpha3031 :

Thank's for the quick reply. I've a question. I was reading a review of the Quadro K2000 and two guys were talking about some video cards the GTX 670, 760 4GB, and that the 780 3GB was better but 1GB short. But I'm not sure what is better, What do you think? What brand should I get? EVGA? ASUS? Gigabyte? MSI? PNY? Zotac?

I quote the conversation:

Andreas Yankopolus says:
Very interesting review. What should I be looking at for an NVIDIA compute card in this price range? ($424.99) It will be helping with ray tracing for radio propagation modeling in a headless server.

Dimitrios Tolios says:
Depends on the speed you want to achieve. Ofc the more CUDA cores the merrier for speed, and large buffer for complex scene assets and large textures. A GTX 670 or 760 4GB is good value, the 780 3GB is a beast but a bit over this price and 1GB short than the 670/760. I would not bother with a 770 tbh. Too small difference over the 670/760 (esp. if you can find the 670 in a good price - seen them sub $300 at asome point) to justify the extra price.

If you are not using very complex scenes, 2GB of VRam are usually more than enough - esp. for a headless/dedicated compute unit that gains those 250-300MB that would be reserved for the windows desktop display. Those 4GB versions are a bit overpriced.

Andreas Yankopolus says:
Looks like all of these options have crippled FP64 performance. It seems like nVidia wants you to buy at least a Titan for scientific computing.

Dimitrios Tolios says:
Actually they want you to buy a Tesla...apparently the new 780Ti will replace the Titan as the flagship product in the GTX line...will have all 15 SMX units of the GK110 enabled (2880 cuda cores), but further crippled FP64 compute.

On a good note, most GPU accelerated programs for designers, won't care that much for FP64...but if you want it for scientific computing based on it...well...I don't know...stock up?

Andreas Yankopolus says:
They sure do want you to spring for a Tesla! Didn't know that the 780Ti would further reduce FP64 compute. It's interesting that they don't want to market a compute card for under $3k. That seems like a killer to getting traction in the academic realm and among casual users.

Thank's

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

I've been doing a bit more reading and apparently a 770 4GB/780 should suit your needs fine and there isn't really much need for a Quadro.

Iskander · May 11, 2014

Alpha3031 :

So, the 770 4GB/780 is better than the Quadro?
Also, Which brand should I choose?

Thanks for the quick answer.

Alpha3031 · May 11, 2014

Iskander :

1.Yes.
2.It depends, but mainly just go for the one that looks good and is cheap.

Iskander · May 11, 2014

Alpha3031 :

Ok, then this is my final build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1245 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($288.99 @ Amazon)
*CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($129.84 @ Amazon)
*Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($104.98 @ OutletPC)
*Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 4GB Dual Classified ACX Video Card ($434.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($97.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
*Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($38.57 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($37.99 @ Amazon)
*Total: $1851.26
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-11 05:47 EDT-0400)

What do you think?

ScrewySqrl · May 11, 2014

looks solid

Need HELP!! $1500-$1900 3D Animation Build

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