Can you advise on this a build for Content creation, Editing, Visual Effects, CAD,Modeling Character

#1

This will be a AMD threadripper 3rd gen system.

Will the AMD Ryzen 9 Threadripper 3960x 24 core be fine or is it essential for the £500 more 3970x with 32?
Budget wise prefer the cheaper at the moment

Should I go for a Quadro RTX4000 or 3XS EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti BLOWER Graphics Card for the software and use below?

How important is it to have a separate operating system, Project and Scratch disk SSD?

Also Which TRX40 Motherboard (looking at brand and model reliability, bios, durability etc as well as features)

ASUS PRIME TRX40-PRO
ASUS ROG STRIX TRX40-E GAMING
ASRock TRX40 Taichi
Gigabyte TRX40 Designare
MSI TRX40 Creator

Custom build supplier companies like Scan uk and PC Specilist seem to be pushing the ASUS Prime Pro, Rog Strric and Zenth Extreme boards whilst feature wise the MSI Creator, Gigabyte Designare and Taichi boards seem to be inbetween price with more features but are their unrelaible etc?

  • RAM - Looking to include 64gb or corsair Vengence LPX ram

  • STORAGE - 2x Seagate Ironwolf 4tb 7200 Hard drives in a raid 1 pair for storage

  • OPERATING SYSTEM DRIVE - 1TB (or 2 if affordable dep on rest of build) 4th Gen SSd such as a Corsair Force, Seagate Firecuda 520 or Gigabyte Aurus

  • COOLER - Note sure on a NOCTUA NH-U14S TR4-SP3 or CORSAIR Hydro H100i Addressable RGB PLATINUM Liquid/Water Intel/AMD CPU Cooler

  • CASE - Fractal Define R6 Grey USB-C Midi PC Gaming Case or Prefered BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 REV. 2 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE

This would be for:
This is based around what I use, am learning or looking to learn and what comes up frequently in job adverts I appply to. Looking to get entry level 3d design and work as a film extra, looking to get into effects and as this is difficult looking to have a go at making youtube video and Podcastign ideas myself.

Adobe Premier (including effects like Greenscreen. Looking for a studio kit soon after workstation build subject to cost) 4k video
Adobe Encoder for Transcoding
Adobe After Effects
Solidworks (Plus rendering on Keyshot)
Rhino (Plus rendering on V-Ray and use of Rhino Plugins and Addons)
Vectorworks
Looking to Learn Sketch UX/UI and Wireframing
Podcasting with Adobe Audition (Interested in a XLR podcast /Audio narrate set up. Most likely soon after depending on workstation cost)
Looking to Learn Google Sketchup
Lookign to Learn Cinema 4D (Plus associated Rendering packages such as Renderman, V Ray and Blender)
Looking to Learn 3D Studio max (Plus associated Rendering packages such as Renderman, V Ray and Blender)
Looking to Learn Z Brush
Looking to Learn Mudbox
Looking to Learn Maya (Plus associated Rendering packages such as Renderman, V Ray and Blender)
Autodesk Alias

Looking to Learn Nuke
Looking to Learn Autocad
Looking to Learn Autodesk Inventor
Looking to Learn Modo and other Foundary software
Looking to Learn Softimage (Plus associated Rendering packages such as Renderman, V Ray and Blender)

Currently frequently use

Graphics Photoshop
In Design
Excel

Looking to learn Adobe Lightroom for use with a SLR camera Im looking to get.

Typically there will be lots of multitasking such as trying to edit on Premier, rendering a video, Word and Excel open, 20 or so browser tabs open
On multiple displays looking to move to 3 as get , possible a game operating in the background, watching downloaded videos, downloading files or torrents at the same time.

Several of the above come up frequently in job adverts I am seeking hence looking to learn.

Currely using Solidworks, Premier, recently did Vectorworks, Rhino and Podcasting courses and lookign to develop these skills

#2

Decide if you will be rendering on cpu or gpu. Theres no point having 32 cores of cpu if you will be gpu rendering; and theres no point having 3 gpus if you will be cpu rendering. Pick and engine then choose accordingly. If you pick gpu rendering, then even a top end ryzen 12 core would be the same speed and save you a chunk more money. Though, looking at your software, it doesnt even look like you are seriously into 3d yet. My advice is to just pick a single gpu and throw some more in later if you find you need them.

For get the quadro. Picking one quadro over 3x 2080tis would be the worst decision you could make. Just pick the blower style fans on some 2080 cards and you will be fine.

There is no need for separate os/work/scratch disks. Just get a single large capacity nvme m.2 drive. A gen 4 card would be great but even a gen 3 card will likely exceed any requirements.

Vengeance lpx ram is a decent choice.

If you go for gpu rendering, you’ll want to get the heat out of the case asap. A radiator blowing air out externally will help with this. Mounted in the top of the case with 2-3 fans pulling air in.

For airflow, the fractal meshify is the case I recommend to most people right now. Same chassis as the define you’re looking at but a mesh panel instead of an air blocking plate. Avoid the be quiet cases for high performance machines. Theyre 100% fine for single gpu and cpu systems, but they emphasis noise over heat far too much. My TR 16 core + 2080 + 2070 system at work gets up to an unreasonable temperature because of that case. Ive had to pull the front panel off to let it breath.

CAM: unless you mean “SLR” to mean “big pro camera”, then I wouldn’t. The shift is away from SLR cameras to mirrorless. Consider the sony A7 or panasonic S1. Much more modern and lightweight.

#3

Thanks.

Thats lots of useful info.

On the choice of GPU or Processor rendering it depends on what software and as you said not serious enough to be focused yet, but I am learning or trying to learn various software and I am seeing different softrware demanded all the time with jobs. When I finished my degree I thought could get into product design easily but came accross this job wanting Google Sketchup, that one wanting Autocad, another wanting Cinema 4D, Vectorworks, Blender, Rhino, V-ray, Maya, 3D Studio Max etc.

Hence looking for a mulit use system and looking to get a BOTH a DECENT PROCESSOR AND GPU for rendering. Its a matter of which one between the Geforce Ti or Quadro boards that suit the most software. Soildworks I understand is very fussy.

Also need a fast processor for the mixing of ingredients content creation as well as baking the cake rendering/encoding.

My budget is a couple of £100 little over £4000 so 3x 2080 Ti cards is out of the question at present but the idea of getting a high end desktop system is there would be the scope to do so in the future. I thought the 3XS EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti BLOWER was £200 more than the Quadro RTX 4000

Also trying to work out which motherboard. At the moment have been looking looking at the new AMD Threadripper 3 processors. I was looking for the 3950x and 3960x based system. The 3950x looked good but would have been restriced interms of upgradeability whilst the 3960x Threadripper is a lot more expensive.

I’ve noticed serveral of the the main custom workstation suppliers pushing only ASUS boards saying they have the best Bios and features but I noticed there was a huge price difference between the TRX40 Rog Strix and Zeneth Extreme. There has also been pushing of the cheapest board the Prime Pro But there are a lot of inbetween price boards with good features from other motherboard manufacturers. I heard Gigabyte boards are good as well, not sure on ASRoc, or MSI.

Boards I have been looking at include:

ASUS TRX40 Rog Strix
ASRoc TRX40 Creator
ASRoc TRX40 Taichi

Gigabyte TRX40 Designare

MSI TRX40 Creator

The Taichi, all Gigbyte Boards and MSI Creator boards all come with a 4th Generation add-on board that can hold 4 M.2 SSDs, Plus the Designare board comes with a second add on board that enables Thunderbolt and a backup Bios.

How important is it to have all four 16 lenght PCIe boards running the full 16 speed.?
As opposed to some 4x and 8x speed slots and how many should be the minimum to have at 16 speed.?

How important is it to have 3 or 4way SLI?

Obviously the more USB 3.2 ports the better.

More important no matter how many features a board has its no good if its unstable, unreliable, crapy bios, poor build, over heating and made sloppy by a brand and how do I spot good VRM phases?

Can you advise on motherboard brand reputation with these boards.? How important is Thunderbolt. please?

Thanks for the advice on the single SSD (plus can get one later if need be its an easy add on unlike the case, motherboard Processor and !!***!! expensive GPU

does an AIO water cooler like
CORSAIR Hydro H100i Addressable RGB PLATINUM Liquid/Water Intel/AMD CPU Cooler do the job?

I have been focused on getting the workstation first as its the central hub so have not done that much research into the camera yet. Also depends on how much the workstation would cost. Any more camera advice would very much help as would green screen studio set up. Find it strange that a kit with several softbox / umbrella lights, stand and greenscreen sheet on Amazon / Ebay can be around £65 and and one from a pro camera shop like wex being around £650. Like what’s the difference with the and what would be inbetween price for what would do a good job without the unescessary bling. Thank you for the suggestion on the camera.

Thanks