Persuing old build, or scraping the idea?

[MHudsonAnimation]

Hello everybody!

I'm extremely new to PC building, and I'm looking for some advice on a parts list that I have. I started purchasing parts for a PC back in 2011 (just before college), and had some short-comings on the funding end so i had to stop buying the parts, namely the Graphics Card and the Processor. Along with that, my only really helpful contact on the PC end of things has been out of touch for a long time.

As for Performance goals, I'm a 3D artist, and I'm hoping to get a machine capeable of rendering more efficiently than my MacBook Pro, which is absolutely terrible at it. I only really use autodesk Maya.

Do you guys think it's worthwhile to continue this build, or scrap it entirely? I'm not extremely knowledgable on this, and the processor/graphics card I had previously picked are only available refurbished...which is disconcerning.

Any thoughts on this would be extremely appreciated!!


Currently these are the parts that I have on hand, all of which are still sealed in the packaging.

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 + SB950 6 x SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD (More Info)

HDD - Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive (More Info)

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D- (More Info)

Disk Drive - ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM Item=N82E16827135204](More Info)

Power Supply - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC (More Info)

Case - COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (More Info)


again, any thoughts would be super helpful!

Thanks,

Michael.



[/list]

 

[parthtrivedi]

My reccomendation would be to keep all parts except Motherboard.
Sell this motherboard and get an i7-4790k / 5830k as per your budget permits with a z97 motherboard, 2x8 gb RAM and a gtx 970 graphics card.

quick edit: adding an intel build around 750$
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4hTs7P

 

[Woody1999]

Okay, with those parts you will need an FX series processor. Autodesk Maya utilises CPU a lot more than GPU in my experience, so you're going to want the most powerful CPU you can find. Really, for that motherboard, the best you're looking at is an FX-8350. With a decent aftermarket cooler, you should be able to overclock a little bit and get some more performance out of it.

How much are you looking to spend? Do you do anything other than design, for example gaming?

Woody

 

[MHudsonAnimation]

Hey Woody!

As for general performance, the only game I play on a computer is minecraft; which i don't tune up very much in the GFX settings in the first place. At the most, casual games. If anything i'd just be doing creative/design work on the machine.

In terms of price, right now i'm pretty flexible. Affordable is nice. Is 400-500 for both parts unrealistic, assuming I stick with the motherboard I currently have. If I need something more than that to get the performance i'm looking for i can just save up over time. I just checked the price on that processor you mentioned, and that's definitely within my acceptable range (169.00 on newegg.)

If i were to go with a different motherboard, would that help increase my available performance?

 

[Woody1999]

Well, it seems Maya doesn't utilise CUDA cores, so a Nvidia graphics card isn't a necessity. I've not had an incredible about of experience with it, you might want to consider asking someone else about that particular software. Until then, I can only recommend this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 360 2GB Video Card ($113.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $318.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-04 11:59 EDT-0400

An entry-level graphics card for your "casual" gaming, and a decent aftermarket cooler to help you overclock your FX-8350. I've even been as nice to find the cheapest combination that all comes from Newegg

Woody

 

[MHudsonAnimation]

Thank you so much Woody! I seriously appreciate the help. You're the best!

Sorry my reply took so long, I must have missed the e-mail about the reply.