After Effects, C4D, and Gaming Build

[mjdorris]

Hello--

I am looking to build a new system for around $2500 that will do three things: allow me to play games at reasonably high settings, rip through effects heavy AE projects, and render C4D projects reasonably well.

is this a good start?

My main questions are around optimal hard drive configuration for After Effects--any pointers there would be really appreciated.

I also plan on adding some sort of I/O device to feed a video signal to my TV from After Effects in order to monitor my comps.

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3770K 3.50 GHz 8MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
HDD: 256GB ADATA SP900 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s - 555 MB/s Read & 530 MB/s Write [+94] (Single Drive)
MEMORY: 32GB (8GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory [+199] (Corsair or Major Brand)
MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Lucid Virtu MVP, Wi-Fi GO!, 7.1 HD Audio, Intel GbLAN, Display Port, 3x PCIe x16 (2 Gen3, 1 Gen2), 2x PCie x1 & 2 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+140]
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+207] (EVGA Superclocked)

 

[3Drockz]

Everything looks great, besides the RAM, 32gb is not necessary, trust me, i also use C4D, After Effects, Zbrush, etc. You shouldn't need more than 16GB. As far as the Hard Drive i would highly recommend an SSD, fast transfer speeds, game loading times, searching files is quick, and very fast OS startup times. BTW, you will not be running games at reasonably high settings with those specs, you'll be running on MAXED OUT, even on Crysis 2 lol. I also have the same Ivy Bridge and I'm very happy with it. But don't use the stock cooling, get the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, it's amazing.