Question Recommedations for a prebuilt PC for 3D modelling work ?

[bodgrotew]

Hello!

I am looking into buying a prebuilt PC for 3D modelling work using the following software: Maya 2024 / 3DSMax 2024, Photoshop 2024, Substance Painter 2024, ZBrush 2024, PureRef 1.X, and Steam Platform. Also, would be using a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet (paper edition that requires Bluetooth).

Budget is up to $5000, but preferably 2500/3000. In Canada.

Monitor would likely be 4K (27" or larger), and probably a refresh rate of 120. With possibility of a 2nd as well.

Not a super rush, but thinking within a month or so.

For reference, my school's PC is an ASUS, Windows 10, i9-12900k at 2.4GHz, 64 GB RAM. Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070 Ti.

My school gave 3 recommended builds, low, mid and high tier All Windows 11:

Low: 1 monitor, 1080, or 1440, 32 GB Ram, i7-10700 or Ryzen 5700x, Nvidia RTX 2070 (or 3070), 1TB internal storage

Mid: 2 monitors 1440 or 4k, 64 GB Ram, i9-12900k or Ryzen 7 5950x, Nvidia RTX 4070, SSD with 500GB, and another SSD, or HDD at 1TB

High: 2 4k monitors, 64 GB ram, i9-13900k or Ryzen 7950x, Nvidia RTX 4090, SSD with 500 GB, and a another for storage, 2TB (SSD or HDD).

I had been thinking Dell, but I am note sure how upgradeable the inside is these days, oh, and if they use proprietary parts as I know HP has (and probably still does?).

And maybe their products are good, but I hear bad things about Asus' business practices the last year or two. So, if their is a reputable major pre-built PC company out there, that'd be good!

Hopefully I have provided adequate information, I can always add more if needed.

Thanks very much

 

[Lutfij]

You might want to pass on a link to each prebuilts. I wouldn't go for an RTX2070 not when the RTX5000 is almost around the corner. I would avoid 13th and 14th Gen Intel processors for the time being since thy are dealing with issues.

The core of your builds(in terms of the processor, discrete GPU and ram) are on point but please keep in mind that workstation prebuilts would be your go to solution since you're looking for stability, that's what you're paying for. Otherwise you could actually build a system from the ground up after hand picking parts. I'm sure all of the apps you've listed above would do good on Nvidia Quadro and AMD Radeon Pro series cards they cost a pretty penny but are rock solid in terms of stability.

 

[Why_Me]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i7-13700F 2.1 GHz 16-Core Processor ($402.96 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: *ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler ($47.65 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: *MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($239.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: *Patriot Venom RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($239.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: *Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($141.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: *Asus TUF GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB Video Card ($1098.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: *Fractal Design Focus 2 ATX Mid Tower Case ($106.00 @ Amazon Canada)
Power Supply: *be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Canada Computers)
Monitor: *Dell G2724D 27.0" 2560 x 1440 165 Hz Monitor ($299.99 @ Dell Technologies)
Total: $2707.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-10-10 04:56 EDT-0400

 

[Misgar]

I am looking into a pre-built for 3D modelling work

When I was building a Ryzen photo/video editing rig at the end of 2022, I used the performance graphs at Puget Systems as a guide to choosing components.

If I'd wanted the last ounce of performance, I would have used a 13900K and an RTX3090, but sanity (and my wallet) prevailed and I bought a 7950X and a 12GB RTX3060.

From the Puget graphs, I calculated an RTX3090 would finish a video render in one third the time, but cost five times as much as the RTX3060. There was also the 1kW PSU needed for a 3090.

Since you're considering a prebuilt, Puget do a wide range of systems tailored for specific apps. There's considerable overlap between systems, but some apps favour a more powerful (and costly) GPU. Consider which apps are most critical and choose your hardware accordingly.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/3d-design-workstations/autodesk-maya/
https://www.pugetsystems.com/pugetbench/creators/photoshop/

Many people on this forum will tell you it's easy to build your own system and you'll save a ton of money. You also heve (in theory) a far greater (bewildering) choice of components. That's fine if you feel confident and are prepared to spend time ordering, assembling, configuring (and troubleshooting compatibility issues) in a new build.

On the other hand, you can choose from multiple options in each Puget system and they use standard (not proprietary) components, so if anything goes wrong outside warranty, you can repair/upgrade the system without too much hassle. The other advantage is they've set everything up for you.

At the very least, check out Puget's site. They also do some very good articles on the relative merits of AMD vs Intel CPUs and GPUs, for various apps.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/adobe-photoshop-intel-core-14th-gen-vs-amd-ryzen-7000/

I think all the systems your school has recommended are very "light" indeed on storage. Figures such as 500GB SSD and 1TB/2TB hard disk are 10 years out of date. The school might be working on the premise that all your work will be saved on external storage or servers, but even then, they haven't considered "scratch disks".

Programs such as Photoshop/Premiere Pro make use of additional physical disk drives as scratch disks, to speed up processing. You'll probably get by with a 500GB SSD as a boot drive, but modern systems use faster 1TB or 2TB SSDs for Windows + Programs. A 1TB hard disk is woefully inadequate for storing data. 4TB would be OK, but 6, 8 or 10TB would be better still. It's amazing how fast data drives fill up. Keep your projects separate from your Windows C: drive.

On my 2-year old 7950X rig, I have three 1TB M.2 NVMe drives. Drive 1. is for Windows and Photoshop/Premiere Pro. Drive 2. is the Photoshop/Premiere Pro scratch disk. Drive 3. (not strictly necessary) is for Adobe "work in progress" files.

In addition I have a motley assortment of hard disks for data storage, 1 x 4TB, 2 x 6TB and 2 x 8TB. This is overkill on the hard disk front, but I had them all to hand at the time of the build. A better choice would be a single large capacity hard disk, e,g. 20TB.

See link below for Puget's suggestions on storage in Photoshop and Premiere Pro.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/soluti...e-photoshop/hardware-recommendations/#storage
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...nd-Cache-File-Locations-in-Premiere-Pro-2292/

Budget is up to $5000, but preferably 2500/3000. In Canada.

Only you can decide how much you're prepared to spend (squander). With your current budget, it might be wise to avoid the pricy RTX4090. Now if you had US $6,800 to spend on a GPU, I'd suggest an RTX 6000 Ada card.

Some things to bear in mind:
1). Prices for high end GPUs (RTX4080/90) are increasing prior to the launch of the 5000 series.
2). Intel will be releasing their new Arrow Lake range of CPUs soon.
3). Until recently, 13th and 14th Gen. Intel CPUs were prone to damage from overvolting.

 

[logainofhades]

We use Lenovo workstations where I work. Our cad guys mostly work in Solidworks, but I know some stuff is done in Catia, and I think Creo. I use a cad based inspection software, Zeiss Calypso, along with Renishaw Fixture Builder for fixture design. We also have Master Cam for our machinsts.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/workstations/?visibleDatas=698:ThinkStation;710:NVIDIA%20RTX%E2%84%A2