Super cheap build for 3D modelling and rendering ($900)inc tax CANADA

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adamodo

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Hi work in VFX for the film industry in Vancouver and I need your help either selecting parts or buying a cheap, ready made build. It doesn't have to be the fastest, just reliable and something I can use for the next year. Mainly used for 3D modelling characters and rendering.

Approximate Purchase Date: this week

Budget Range: $900 CAN / After Shipping and tax

System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3D modelling, rendering

Already have two monitors 1920x1080

Needs OS Windows 7

Location: Vancouver BC

Overclocking: No

Thanks for your help, sorry its so tight.
 
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Shneiky
@adamodo,

For 100,000 polys, you are safe with even a GT 520. (Had one, could push up to 900 000 polys at 60 fps without the textures). The 750 ti shoud let you push around 1.5-2 mil verticies in Maya viewport 2.0.

As for ZBrush - yes it is true. ZBrush works in 2.5D so you can have rediculous ammount of polys without system slowdown. ZBrush uses mainly System Ram to store the geometry and preview, instead of using mainly vRAM like Maya. I use ZBrush only in my spare time, but I managed to get 20 mils without slowdowns on the machine you see in my signature.

VRay 3.0 is coming for Maya soon and it has some pretty nice features. One of them is that it has been rebuild from the ground up, specifically using Intel AVX optimization...
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i7Baby

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Jul 25, 2012
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For $900cad it won't be serious. eg

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($166.95 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.79 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($119.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($279.95 @ Vuugo)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Orange ATX Mid Tower Case ($73.25 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($56.99 @ NCIX)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Canada Computers)
Total: $891.89
 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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Hello fellow 3D artist. I made this list using pcpartpicker for Canada.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($284.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.90 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($84.35 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.21 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($139.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 400W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($17.95 @ Vuugo)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.79 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $899.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-06 18:25 EDT-0400

For rendering - the FX 8350 does a good job, but it is a bit behind Intel. But for modeling - the single thread performance is most important.I don't know which 3D package you are using, but for example in Maya, color baking is a single threaded process and it takes ages on the 2.6 GHz 8 cores at work, while at home on the 4 Ghz I7 - it is signicantly faster. There are a lot more functions in a modeling toolkit which do not scale with threads. AMD loses badly here.

The Xeon CPU is basicly an I7, though it does not have integrated graphics, so it is cheaper. It also does run cooler than an I7 since it runs on less voltage.

A Video card's role in the whole 3D world is mainly for display (unless you are using a GPU renderer like Furryball, or you use VRay RT). I got a 650TI at home, and it does work better in most occassions than the Quadro K4000s at work. With significantly less artifacts and driver issues that is though it can push a bit less millions of polygons.

What 3D package are you using? What renderer? If you give me that info, I can maybe make changes to fit you better. Cheers.
 
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HEXiT

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Mar 13, 2011
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for 3d modeling and rendering you will need specific hardware requirements depending on the app your using.
autodesk 3ds max/maya can use cuda to render which means depending on which gpu you choose you have have high end performance even if you have a weak cpu.
while apps like blender / terragen use the cpu by default so the more physical cpu cores and float units you can throw at it the better.
 
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adamodo

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Jul 22, 2014
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Hi Shneiky, Thanks for your great response. I work mainly in Maya (not using ridiculous amounts of polys) I'd say at the very most 100,000 on screen when rendering. I Use Vray to render but I need to learn renderman and Katana before I go to my next studio so it would be nice to have some real time but its not essential. Finally Zbrush, enough to get me to 10millon polys/pixels but I've read this software does not use hardware the same way maya does.

Really appreciate you time.

Cheers



 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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The Mental Ray IPR which uses CUDA in both Maya and Max 2015 is completely broken and does not work well. We are running Max and Maya 2015 and none of the service packs did any fix. Any other GPU renderer costs a lot and it does not give good results. Hardware renderer in Maya does use the video card to accelerate rendering, but it produces quality worthy of only "previz". VRay RT can be set to use CUDA to some extend, but the results are not really impressive, it does give a lot better and accurate results when using purely CPU. If you want to do a real render - you are stuck to software - and that means CPU. GPU rendering does bad reflections and refractions and it is few years off from being considered a "production renderer". If we are talking 3D rendering - we are talking CPUs.
 
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adamodo

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Jul 22, 2014
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GPU rendering is not really necessary, maybe just to get a idea of lighting before I render frames.



 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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@adamodo,

For 100,000 polys, you are safe with even a GT 520. (Had one, could push up to 900 000 polys at 60 fps without the textures). The 750 ti shoud let you push around 1.5-2 mil verticies in Maya viewport 2.0.

As for ZBrush - yes it is true. ZBrush works in 2.5D so you can have rediculous ammount of polys without system slowdown. ZBrush uses mainly System Ram to store the geometry and preview, instead of using mainly vRAM like Maya. I use ZBrush only in my spare time, but I managed to get 20 mils without slowdowns on the machine you see in my signature.

VRay 3.0 is coming for Maya soon and it has some pretty nice features. One of them is that it has been rebuild from the ground up, specifically using Intel AVX optimization. The presentation from Chaos Group I attended did show around 30% and sometimes up faster render times between the new and the current VRay version. So specifically for this, I will immidiately kick out AMD CPU as a choice.

That Xeon should serve you for several years. I guess you are in the gaming industry, so you won't go very hard on rendering like me (I am in cinema VFX).

Also, I did not use Katana yet. So I can't really recommend anything for it.

But I would like to give you and advice - grab 30 bucks more and take in 16 gbs of RAM. Specifically since I got into dDo for texturing lately. (you can get a legal copy for free, but you need Photoshop, since dDo runs in PS's environment)

I did a bit of reorganization. I put 60 GB SSD instead of a 120 GB and 16 GBs of RAM instead of 8. I think this might help you.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($284.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.90 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: Corsair XMS 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($154.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($50.38 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($139.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 400W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($17.95 @ Vuugo)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.79 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $932.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-06 19:04 EDT-0400

Cheers.

 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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Considering that refurbished Dell - it is not worth it. It has an old CPU on the LGA 1366 socket. A 2.66 GHz from that guy is like 1.66 GHz from the newest processors or basicly half the power of the Xeon I included in your build.
 
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adamodo

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Jul 22, 2014
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Thanks for all your advice Shneiky, its really appreciated. I'm in cinema VFX too, I've never really went over 100k for characters except in zbrush for map generation so what you have recommended is great.

Cheers,

Adam



 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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The latest that I am doing is approaching 1.5/2 mil polys. Its hard surface - mechanics - robot stuff (just 600 000 polys is all the cables and the wires). I preffer to do more stuff with geometry than using a texture, when feasible of course. Also pushing geo is easier than pushing texture.

But that is just this project. But I find myself that for hard surface I always hover around half a million. On organics I end up with a lot less (I not that good at organics anyway). Cheers.
 
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adamodo

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Jul 22, 2014
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Will this build support 2 monitors? both 1080p.

Cheers



 
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adamodo

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Jul 22, 2014
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Awesome, thanks man!



 
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adamodo

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Jul 22, 2014
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Hey man sorry to keep bothering you, I was looking at the motherboard you posted but the link only sends me to a bit coin device on Amazon. Could I go with the ASRock H97M PRO4 if I went with a bigger case?

Cheers,

Adam






 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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Oh well, it sends me to a bitcoin thingy as well. Thats embarrasing, pcpartpicker lied. But essentially yes, you can definately go with the Pro4. It is a bit sturdier board with better power design and some other goodies if you ever need them. But the Pro4 is nearly 110 CAD, while I found

http://www.vuugo.com/computer-hardware/computer-parts/motherboard/asrock-motherboards-H97M.html?tracking=5108053939762

For 77. In the end is your call. Both bords should serve you well. The Pro4 does however give the possibility to add more RAM in the future if needed. Cheers.
 
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adamodo

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Jul 22, 2014
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Nice one Shneiky, I'll do a bit more research tonight and do some shopping on the weekend :)

Thanks for all your help mate.



 
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Shneiky

Shneiky

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No problem.

Just one thing:

If you go with the cheaper H97M then definately go with 2 x 8 RAM sticks (16 GB in total).

If you go with H97Pro4 you can go with 2x4 and add 2x8 later (24 GBs of RAM in total) or direclty jump to 2x8 and in a year or so go to 32 GBs of RAM. Though I do find 24 GBs optimal for its price. 16 is a bit too little, 32 is a bit too pricy, but for 3D and a bit of texturing/compositing - 24 GB is perfect. Cheers.
 
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