Help with 3d Animation and Editing PC Build ~$1000

SoulJP,

3D animation, which can involve textures, shadows, particles, and etc. is among the most demanding applcations- the CPU needs to be fast and have multiple cores for rendering, plenty of RAM for huge files, the GPU and disk systems have to be good, and provide enough storage.

This level of system is difficult to accomplish for less than $1,000, but there is a method that's been successful for me over the last five years, which is to buy a used Dell Precision and upgrade it. These systems are designed for this kind of work, are beautifully built and designed for long, continuous, full-bore use. I've had three used Precisions (390, T5400, T5500) and never had a failure of loss of work.

The last project Precision (about three months ago) was a T5500 form 2011. Purchased on Ebahhh for $190 shipping included:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Original): Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1333 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating = 1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]

I bought a Xeon X5680 CPU for $200, 24GB of RAM for $120, and had a Quadro 4000 (2GB), Samsung 840 (250GB), and WD RE4 1TB from upgrading an HP z420. In all, I would say the value (if buying these now) of the upgrade parts was about $700, so the total cost was around $900. The results were very good:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011)(Revised) > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro 4000 (2GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3339 / CPU = 9347 / 2D= 684 / 3D= 2030 / Mem= 1871 / Disk= 2234]

On Passmark Performance Test, this is the highest rated single CPU system.

A 2nd X5680 may be added for about $150 plus the CPU /RAM / Fan riser for about $100, giving 12 cores / 24 threads @ 3.33 /3.6GHz and reusing the original 6GB of RAM, a total of 30GB RAM.

I have also already purchased ($60) a RAID controller to have a 6GB/s disk subsystem:

Pending upgrade: PERC H310 PCIe SAS /SATA RAID controller, 2X WD Black 1TB (RAID 1)(Converts disk system from 3GB/s to 6GB/s)

For your use, I'd suggest buying a T7500 with a lower end X5600 CPU in the $250 range, An example:

1. Dell Precision T7500 Two Quad Core Intel Xeon E5606 2.13ghz 8gb RAM Sold for $132 + $70 shipping

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T7500-Two-Quad-Core-Intel-Xeon-E5606-2-13ghz-8gb-RAM-/381197923569?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58c12ab4f1&nma=true&si=PfWraUgkFUlkWx%252FND3PdVFV7TiI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

2. Dell Precision T7500 PC Desktop 2 x Intel Xeon E5607 2.27 GHz, 6gb RAM, QuadroFX > sold for $222 + $30 shipping

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T7500-PC-Desktop-2-x-Intel-Xeon-E5607-2-27-GHz-6gb-RAM-QuadroFX-/141660224122?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20fb9b7a7a&nma=true&si=PfWraUgkFUlkWx%252FND3PdVFV7TiI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

The value of this one is that it includes the 2nd CPU riser board and heatsink that would cost about $100 to buy separately.

Then replace the CPU(s) with X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 /3.47GHz) or better X5690 (6-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz) (about $250), a used Quadro K2200 (4GB) and adding RAM (1333 ECC) to a total of 48GB. A Quadro is the best choice for Maya and Adobe CS as it can run the higher anti-aliasing and viewport drivers, and Maya and Adobe are CUDA-accelerated. I had bad results about three years ago with a GTX 285 in Solidworks and Sketchup. Add a 250 GB Samsung 840 Evo and 1TB WD Black or Seagate Constellation ES.3 (these have 128MB of cache instead of 64MB) and look for a PERC H310 RAID controller (about $60 or $80). With patient shopping- but without having to be incredibly lucky:

System: $200
CPU: $160 (X5680)
RAM: $150
GPU: $300
SSD: $90
HD: $75
PERC H310 RAID controller $70
__________________
TOTAL= $1,045

The RAID controller could be added later. I've used the T5500 running on the 3GB/s disk system and I would say I can't tell the difference in starting, loading and saving time with my new HP- just a few seconds.

In my view, upgrading a high quality, obsolete and depreciated system - a T7500 with the specification above would have cost over $5,000 new- has the best cost / performance possibility on a budget for you very demanding applications.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 /4.0GHz > 16GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K2200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 4918 > CPU= 13941 / 2D= 823 / 3D=3464 / Mem= 2669 / Disk= 4764]

Pending upgrade: HP /LSI 9212-4i PCIe SAS /SATA HBA RAID controller, 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB (RAID 1) Desirable upgrade under consideration: Quadro K4200 (4GB)

Which ever you choose, make sure that the SSD is set as the OS Installation drive or primary drive so that OS & Applications may load faster. Set the HDD as the Secondary drive and as a Storage drive to store rendered data and 3D scene files.