Pc for rendering and animation

Greetings!

It really depends on the programs that you are using and the projected timeline you are wanting to maintain when it comes to rendering. Many rendering programs can use either GPU or CPU to do the job. If you are doing CPU based rendering, the more cores the better. The i5 6500 is a great performing chip, though without hyperthreading you may feel there is more to be desired when it comes to rendering capability. If you are going to use GPU rendering, you may fair better from a newer architecture card. For example, the GTX 1060 6GB version is selling for about the same cost as the GTX 960 4GB if purchased new.

I totaled up your projected build to get an idea of your budget, and then took that base number and put together a potential build that may serve you better and does not cost much more (maybe $50 or so). Here is the link:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/AlbionMoon/saved/qgWBmG

The CPU that I chose costs a touch more, but will give you 8 threads which will greatly improve rendering...plus has been proven to be a good performer for gaming if you have the gumption for that as well. I also doubled your RAM for this will be useful for rendering as well (though this can vary per program). Another upgrade that I included was an 80+ Gold rated PSU for reliability and efficiency.

I am also a 3D renderer, and found that the program I use can take all the cores I can throw at it...I recently built a 16 core/32 thread system and it is incredible to see them all at 100%. https://pcpartpicker.com/b/2VtJ7P I used to use my laptop which has a i5 2410M (2c/4t), and it would literally take up to a week to render an image to proper quality, but my new system can do the job in 5 minutes! So, basically the sky is the limit when it comes to 3D rendering. I chose to go big for I need a fast turnaround for my work, but 8 cores should be able to render at a decent rate, and again, every program is optimized differently and one may be faster or slower than another.

Hope this helps!

yea i7 cpu is way to go for rendering and it said cpu rendering is more detailed then gpu rendering programs. nice rig Albionm00n what program do you use for rendering, and those xeons must man handle your renderings, must be rich 2k$ system,one day i'll get something like that i was thinking about getting some 1366 xeons but the motherboards cost more then the cpu's. but for now my 4770k barely gets the job done

Crazyboy 24,

Animation, 3D modeling, and rendering are among the most demanding applications. The 3D modeling for animation requires a CPU with high single-threaded function, meaning a high clock speed, but there is tremendous processing power required to calculate the the position of millions of polygons and particles in the textures, shadows, and reflections. animation also requires tremendous amounts of memory. With animation, the rendering /processing will be GPU-dependent, so the number of CUDA cores and importantly, the amount of video memory is critical. The distribution of processing across threads is constantly improving, meaning that more cores- up to a point- and more processor cache will be an advantage.

Yesterday, I was unable to run a VRay single image rendering of a 152MB Sketchup model on an HP z420 with a six-core 3.7 /4.0GHz Xeon E5-1660, 32GB of DDR3-1866 ECC RAM, a Quadro K4200 4GB GPU, and running off a Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB SSD. The problem was that the system ran out of RAM. I was able to run on my dedicated rendering system which is an HP z620 with two Xeon E5-2690 eight-cores @ 2.9 /3.8GHz, 64GB of DDR3 1600 ECC registered RAM, and Quadro K2200 4GB + Tesla M2090 6GB GPU's. VRAy is CPU rendering and the rendering ran all 32 threads at 100% using up to 42GB of RAM and completed in 10-1/2 minutes as the lighting and reflections were minimized. a couple of cores briefly touched 80C. When setup completely this rendering will require more than one hour.

The message is that with rendering even a single image it's necessary to understand the characteristics of the demands of the software. Rhino, for example uses viewport and OpenGL-based, meaning using a Quadro workstation card unless the top end of GeForce GTX is possible. Currently, Rhino suggests using a GTX Titan X Pascal 12GB- more than $1,500.

It's possible to run the application listed on the system listed, but probably, the performance would be frustrating. Given the demands of the software and the budget, the need to look ahead to even greater system demands, it would be worth considering purchasing a used LGA2011workstation with a Xeon E5 having a high single-thread rating, and setup to eventually accommodate 64GB of RAM.

With the budget, the Xeon E5 will need to be a first series and the E5 first series with the highest single-thread rate is the E5-1660 6C @ 3.3/3.9GHz, having a Passmark Single-Thread Mark of 1988 and has an average CPU Mark of 12587. For comparison, the i5-6500 4C @ 3.2 /3.6GHz rating is 1949 and has an average CPU Mark of 7152. This is the value of depreciated CPU's. The Xeon E5-1660 new (released in 2012) cost $1,080, more than the entire system budget.

The best feature is that the system will be complete- no need to research, order, and assemble /wire /configure and these are extremely reliable, purpose-designed systems that are also very quiet-running.

How about:

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620 @ 3.60GHz 16GB RAM 500GB HDD 54858MA > sold for $120 (8.16)

Add to this system:

Intel Xeon E5-1660 3.3GHz (Turbo 3.9ghz) 15MB L3 130W Hexa-Core 6C LGA2011 sold for $129 (1.3.17)

HP Quadro K2200 Graphic Card - 4 GB GDDR5 - PCI Express 2.0 x16 > sold for $175

Crucial MX300 2.5" 525GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CT525MX300SSD1 > $140 The idea is to have the OS/ programs in one partition and the projects/ libraries in another. This is the way I set up the Intel 730 480 GB in the HP z420 before the Samsung SM951 M.2 was added. If you have a C: drive under 140GB and restrict the project partition to active projects, this might be done on a 250-256GB drive in which case, consider a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB, about $95.

Total is then about $564. About $60-70 can be recovered by selling the E5-1620 and my suggestion is to as quickly as possible add another 16GB of RAM.

The Quadro K2200 will run the Rhino viewports and have decent performance in Maya modeling but will not make fast animation processing, having 640 CUDA cores, but on a budget system, the emphasis is on the real-time working and then the long processing slogs, the system can sit in the corner and work on it.

When circumstances permit, very good rendering results might be obtained by adding a GTX with a lot cores. This would need to be researched for each renderign program, but it appears that GPU rendering programs will run on the GPU's cumulative resources. See OctaneBench results. The Quadro K2200 on it's own produces a score of 32, but it is cumulative and a K2200 plus GTX980 Ti makes 161. To put that into perspective, a single Quadro M6000 24GB, costing $5,000 has a score of 126.

This is the best computer game I know!

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z313 2.1 speakers > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16
[ Cinebench R15: OpenGL= 119.23 fps / CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16

Greetings!

@Crazyboy24: $600 is a pretty good deal for that computer. I totaled your parts in pcpartpicker and without a case the parts brand new cost ~$735.00. https://pcpartpicker.com/user/AlbionMoon/saved/WPqBmG By my math, adding a modest case would put you around $790.00. That is why I didn't figure the $812 to be a stretch. Your programs would love more cores than the 4 on an i5-6500. You can get by with the i5, I did for a year, but the rendering times became to long to afford...literally...the render times were causing me to miss deadlines. Again, $600 is a good deal, and if this is what is in your budget, I say go for it.(UPDATE: Listen to Bambiboom! His suggested system is in your budget!)

@Cooldex: Thank you for the props on my system! I have also tried GPU rendering and found that there was not much difference in detail (at least with my program), but it effected my ability to use my system for the GPU struggled to output to a monitor while crunching a render (this is why professionals will use a secondary card for GPU based rendering) giving me very choppy usability: Mouse lag, window lag, program display lag, etc akin to running Crisis 3 on a Pentium from the 90's if you can picture that I use Sketchup as my main drafting/drawing program and then render the model through Raylectron which is an extension available to link to Sketchup. It is very similar to V-Ray in it's design and capability, and the reason for the man-handling CPUs...It will use all 32 threads! I also looked into older Xeons, but came to the same conclusion and also decided that if I was going to invest in such a machine, I wanted as many years out of it as possible...thus the new architecture. I am banking on upgrade-ability potential down the road instead of having to purchase another such creature in 5 years. The 8 core Xeon 2670s that are flooding the market for only $60 -70 are what Facebook and Amazon dumped when they upgraded their servers...which they will again in a few years which will hopefully put the 14 core E5-2690 v4s they are using on the market for a similar deal, thus allowing me to upgrade to a 56 thread system for only a couple hundred bucks! I am a self employed Theatrical Scenic Designer and by no means rich (insert starving artist image here) and it took me well over a year of scrimping and budgeting my lifestyle to save for my computer. It was an investment in my business and my future...anything is possible when you are dedicated to your focus.

Bambiboom! Yes! Thank you for joining the convo! Crazyboy24, please listen to Bambiboom's advice for he is a master and helped me a great deal when I was trying to figure my system. In fact, I was looking at a single processor system before Bambiboom educated me to the needs of my work