Expertise needed: Desktop build for 3d modeling/rendering/video/graphics use

accesskb

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Sep 6, 2014
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Hi,
I was wondering if any of you experts could help me pick parts for a desktop build to use for heavy 3d modeling/rendering/video/graphics etc. I use softwares like Modo/Rhino/Zbrush/Maya/Max/Adobe Photoshop etc. I've only owned laptops until today which never gave me enough power for the work I do. I've never built a desktop before, so other than general idea, I don't know where to start, what exactly I need and what is out there today.
I'd appreciate if you could tell me what I should get. I don't have a very high budget right now. I was thinking of buying a laptop again but due to money figured I could get more bang for the buck building a desktop.

Budgeting ~ $600 - $800
(the lower price, the better but I'm willing to pitch a little more if its truly worth it and recommended. I'd hope this build would last for 2 years or so). Just for perspective, I use a crappy Intel Core 2 duo ~2.8ghz, 8GB Ram, HP 8530w laptop right now which to begin with, never cut it for the work I do when I bought it over 6 years ago.

Thanks
 
Solution
Make your first adventure into desktop building a positive outcome that will serve your professional needs for many years: $600-800 isn't enough to really do it right. Here's how to build a workstation:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Hyper-threaded haswell quad at a price close to an i5. These are the best value CPUs for serious workstations right now.

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer i11 74.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($23.98 @ Newegg)
The E3 is only ~80W. This simple but effective cooler will keep the machine running quietly even when it's working hard.

Motherboard: ASRock Rack C226 WS+ ($238.98 @ Superbiiz)
C226 workstation/server chipset motherboard...
Not sure if you needed to buy an OS, so I didn't include it:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.50 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($9.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $607.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-06 17:15 EDT-0400
 

accesskb

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Sep 6, 2014
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^ thanks for that quick response.. I have a copy of Windows 7 Pro. :)

Is there much difference between getting an Intel Core i7 Vs Core i5? price difference?

Also any big benefits for getting 32GB RAM vs 16 GB? I know many softwares are memory intensive. Would I be able to upgrade to 32 GB Ram if I go with 16GB now?
 

The motherboard I chose only has 2 RAM slots because I wanted to save money by buying a cheaper but still solid and reliable motherboard. If you get 16GB of RAM now, with this motherboard you would not be able to upgrade to 36GB. You would need to buy a different motherboard with 4 RAM slots.

I do not think you will be going over 16GB of RAM at all, in today's standards 16GB is high. 32GB can always be an upgrade in a few years along with a new motherboard in a few or couple of years.

Also, the i7 has some benefits but it will end up being another $100 which you do not need to spend. The i7 hyperthreads the best of any processor which splits one processor core into two virtual cores for use in performing simultaneous thread calculations on one core rather than two separate physical cores. But the i5 still does this, too, but I'm not fully knowledgeable about hyperthreading too much.
 
This will work great:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PERFORMANCE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($144.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ Micro Center)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Window ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $799.91

The Xeon CPU I put in the build is essentially an i7-4770, just slightly underclocked. It has 8 threads and will blow through your tasks and last for years and years, all at the same price as an i5.

The graphics card is excellent and is unbeatable for it's price and it will last for a very long time also.

Hope that helps :)
 

mdocod

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Make your first adventure into desktop building a positive outcome that will serve your professional needs for many years: $600-800 isn't enough to really do it right. Here's how to build a workstation:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Hyper-threaded haswell quad at a price close to an i5. These are the best value CPUs for serious workstations right now.

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer i11 74.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($23.98 @ Newegg)
The E3 is only ~80W. This simple but effective cooler will keep the machine running quietly even when it's working hard.

Motherboard: ASRock Rack C226 WS+ ($238.98 @ Superbiiz)
C226 workstation/server chipset motherboard with ECC memory support. This is a very full featured board, but the primary reason for this, is the ECC memory. Any good workstation uses ECC memory. Apple has had nothing but ECC memory in their professional desktop machines for many years. Doing this will reduce the chances of chasing ghosts when you have problems.

Memory: 2 X Samsung DDR3-1600 8GB/1Gx72 ECC ($183.98 @ Superbiiz)
ECC non-buffered server/workstation memory from sammy. Great quality low voltage stuff too.

Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Micro Center)
SSD to load all professional applications and OS on for fast loading.

Storage: Seagate 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ Amazon)
NAS grade (semi-enterprise) class storage.

Video Card: PNY VCQK2200-PB Quadro K2200 4GB 128-bit GDDR5 ($459.99 @ Newegg)
Maxwell based K2200 is easily the sweet spot for value in a good workstation GPU. The maxwell architecture gives this the GPGPU grunt of workstation GPUs costing twice as much in many workloads. Power dissipation is extraordinarily low. This is the GTX750Ti in with the quadro badge and drivers. If you want to save some money somewhere, obviously, you could swap in a $150 GTX750Ti instead. The pro-app acceleration in some cases is the same between GeForce and Quadro, but in some cases it isn't. Depends on the specific software. This is an area worth further investigation to see if the quadro drivers will pay dirt in terms of performance scaling in the applications you actually use. I know that for many CAD and Adobe programs there is not useful difference in performance between GeForce/Radeon and QUadro/FirePro. I'm not sure about "Modo/Rhino/Zbrush/Maya" so you may want to do a bit of leg work on that front to see if the quadro is a worthwhile investment here.

If nothing else, one nice thing about buying into quadro is that you are buying into "official support" for particular software. What this means is that if you have problems, you can make your problems someone elses problems until they are fixed. Using "gaming" GPUs for a workstation removes that relationship with the GPU maker. They have no obligation to ensure ideal performance and accuracy and stability in professional applications with GTX cards.

Case: Fractal Design Core 3500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Fractal and Corsair are the go-to for high value professional looking cases. This 3500 series is hard to beat.

Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
This is actually much bigger than necessary (the system will never pull over ~200W as listed), but realistically speaking this offers better long term flexibility and it's not really possible to buy a quality PSU for less than $60 anyway, so for the extra $20 I don't see any reason not to use this PSU.

Total: $1500
 
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accesskb

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Sep 6, 2014
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hey all.. I have an old desktop of about 5 years old which I got as a hand-me-down. I was wondering if the body/case is a standard size and will fit the motherboard you all have recommended? I'm trying to save as much as I can :)
 

mdocod

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Impossible to say for sure. The motherboard I pointed out conforms to ATX standard size. As long as the case you have also conforms to ATX standard motherboard size/mounting then it will usually work fine. The motherboard measures 12" x 9.6". If the case has 7 or more expansion slots on the rear and a standard breakout for IO you may be in luck. Many older cases would work fine for this, but if it's a proprietary OEM consumer chassis from HP/Dell etc compatibility could be hit and miss. Keep in mind an older case is not going to have UDB3.0 headers, and using a 5 year old PSU on a new build would be like building a brand new engine but then re-using old bearings in the build.

If it's a microATX case (usually only 4, sometimes 5 expansion slots), then a build could be reworked to conform to that case pretty easily provided the mounting is standard. If you need to pinch pennies, there are several microATX motherboards under $100 on the B85 and H97 chipset worth a look. These combined with an E3 or i5 as budget allows, and a GTX750Ti would make a very good all around budget workstation, though I would still advise looking at the professional approach with ECC memory on the C226 chipset and the K2200 GPU.
 


Tells us what the desktop model is, and depending on the brand, we can look it up for you :)
 


This guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'd look through here, accesskb, and really consider his arguments before you limit yourself to a $800 budget.
 


Yes, it looks like you could use that case, but OEM cases are made for builders. Just buy yourself a new case, there are actually very good ones for $20 sometimes, like the one I PM'ed you about.
 

accesskb

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Sep 6, 2014
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Hey Mdocod,
Thanks for your insights.. When I factor in higher Canadian prices, taxes and shipping, the parts you recommended are getting a little steep for me. If you had to absolutely save cash and could do without certain items, what parts would you leave out? Which items could leave out or swap for a cheaper one for now but add them when funds become available?
Just so you all know, I will be doing mainly modelling (not rendering) work on MODO and 3DS Max and a lot more on Zbrush. From what I hear about Zbrush, it is mainly dependent on CPU/hard drive and very little on the graphics card. The modeling work I plan to do on MODO and 3DS Max will be mainly raw modelling (ie: models for manufacturing/3d printing... I don't plan on doing any heavy image rendering or animation for a while, so a graphics card that will allow me to model without freezing up or crashing will suffice).
thanks



 

accesskb

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Sep 6, 2014
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thanks to all the suggestions.. I mixed and matched and ended up going with these parts. They still came up to around $1350. I decided to go with the cheaper Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card figured it should suffice for Zbrush and modeling work I'll be doing. Will likely upgrade down the months when I start doing renderings and animation. On to figuring how to install all these now. xD

Any tips/suggestions for my first install would be appreciated again. ^^

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($287.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($158.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Micro Center)
SSD to load all professional applications and OS on for fast loading.
Storage: Seagate 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ Amazon)
NAS grade (semi-enterprise) class storage.
Case: BitFenix Merc Beta (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($9.99 @ Memory Express)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer i11 74.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($23.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($9.99 @ Micro Center)
 


Looks good, but I would get the Xeon 1231v3 instead. Overall, looks really good though!
 

mdocod

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Sorry I was out of town didn't have a chance to respond before.

Dropping to a non-workstation motherboard (non-ECC memory) and dropping the workstation GPU in favor of the consumer GTX cards were probably the most effective ways to cut costs without sacrificing much performance, so I'd say you did very well ;)
 

JSick

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Feb 25, 2015
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Accesskb,
How's the build working for you? I am looking to do a similar build based off of mdocod's feedback and would like to know if there's anything you would change or if all seems to be working well?