CPU or GPU demand for 3D Animation

DreamEdits,

The i7-5820K is LGA2011 and can not be used on the Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 which is LGA1150

The list of applications for animation require both a strong CPU single-thread for the modeling- Maya and ZBrush are CPU-oriented, and processing the animation frames is going to be GPU-centric.

As an i7-5820K costs over $400 on it's own for a $600 total, my suggestion is to look for a good used workstation having the Xeon E5-1650 which is 6-core :

HP Z420 WORKSTATION Computer 500GB 8GB XEON E5-1650 V2 (HEXA-CORE) W/HT #30591# > sold for $234.98 (12.15.16)

That is an amazing bargain as it has a Xeon E-1650 v2 which is 6-core @ 3.5 /3.9GHz to which you add:

+8GB DDR3-1866 ECC for 16GB total- but it would be better to have 32GB > about $30
A used GTX 1060 6GB > about $200
SSD: 250GB > about $75
WD Blue 1TB: $50

If possible, sell your current system and add the $600 budget and on the above system instead have 32GB RAM, a Samsung 850 Evo and a GTX 1070,which should be very useful for animation processing.

That totals about $590 and I believe would have a very good performance for use and no new system could touch it at that price. In the future, the CPU could be changed for a 12-core and one of the great Xeons ever- E5-2687w v2 which is 8-core @ 3.4 /4.0Ghz. But the E5-1650 v2 should be useful a long while. I should mention that the i7-5820K controller supports 28 PCIe lanes wherea the Xeon E5 supports 40 lanes, meaning that you could add a 2nd GTX to the z420 and they will both run at x16.

I have two HP z420's and these were purpose deigned for the kind of uses you mention. These have been 100% reliable and very quiet.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

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 + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >> 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

HP z420 (2013)(Revision 3) > Xeon E5-1620 four core @ 3.6 /3.8GHz > 24GB DDR3 ECC 1600 RAM > Quadro 2200 (4GB) > Intel 730 (480GB) > M-Audio 192 soundcard / Linksys WMP600N WiFi
[Passmark system rating = 4403 / CPU = 9280 / 2D= 797 / 3D= 3481/ Mem= 2559 / Disk= 4498