Building A 3d Modeling and Rendering Workstation

[de49192]

Hello, I am looking into building a workstation for 3d modeling and rendering. I would like to keep the price in the 2000-3000 range. I primarily use Rhino, Solidworks, Z Brush, Keyshot, 3DS, some Alias and the Adobe Creative Suite .... I am a student currently but would like to have something that I can upgrade in a few years with this build. Right now I am running a older mac book pro dual booted and I have a cintiq and regular monitor ... So all I really need is a solid machine for the modeling and rendering. If you have any suggestions on build please let me know. I am new to this and not really sure which direction to go

 

[magsley]

I'm building a computer right now doing the same things as you, though using Maya, 3dsMax, Houdini, Shake, and Adobe CS for visual effects. I originally estimated the cost of my build to be $1100 but I'm seeing now its going to be more around $850! Take a look at my build and see what you think, I really needed power in the CPU so I went with a higher end CPU and downgraded on the GPU (you don't really need a beast GPU to do this stuff, its mostly the CPU and Memory that these programs are concerned with, but I wanted something that I could still do light gaming on).

Link to my build

I got the CPU at Microcenter for only $230 and the mobo for only $100 (after rebate), I could NOT believe that. If you have a Microcenter near you I would definitely look there to see what you can find. Since it sounds like you have a larger budget, think about going for an even better CPU, like the Intel Core i7-3960X , but that one is REALLY pricey so I would only get it if you have extra money falling from your pockets.

Take a look at this article as well, its what helped me pick out those parts (as well as many friends who build computers for a living).