Gaming PCs for Professional CG with Cinema 4D and Redshift

#9

Hi Again - here’s my revised build following everyone’s advice. Thanks again.

The guy building it if you’re in the UK and looking for a workstation works at Mesh Computers - https://www.meshcomputers.com/

Downgraded the CPU along with motherboard and got a no frills case with more cooling power for a massive saving - as the GPU is the priority for this workstation (as advised by 3DFluff):

comes in at £ 5,318.00 / 6,374.91 Euro / $7,087.17 including tax / VAT

1.Model: Matrix AMD Ryzen R3900X SUPER

System Base Price: £ 1749.17
Fractal Meshify S2 Black Midi-Tower Case, Black, 3x 140mm Fans, USB 3.1, HD audio [upg £ 65.00]

1200W Platinum Corsair HXi Full Modular 80+ Platinum Power Supply unit [upg £ 160.00]

MSI MEG X570 ACE ATX Motherboard PCIe 4.0, Triple M.2, 2-Way SLi/3-Way CrossFire, 2.5G/GbE/WiFi, USB 3.2
[upg £ 95.00]

AMD Ryzen™ 9 3900X CPU, AM4, Zen 2, 12 Core, 24 Thread, 3.8GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo, 64MB L3, PCIe 4.0
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste

Thermaltake 360mm Floe Riing RGB AlO CPU Water Cooler, 3 x 120mm PWM Fans [upg £ 110.00]

64GB 3000MHz DDR4 (4x16GB) - Corsair Vengeance LPX [upg £ 270.00]

2 x EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB XC GAMING Turing Graphics Cards [upg £ 1745.00]

Ports on graphics card: 3 x Display Ports, 1 x HDMi, 1 x USB-C

2TB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD [upg £ 307.50]
No hard drive – Minus –[£20.00]

Integrated 7.1 High Definition 8-Channel Audio
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN Port

1 x Line In,1 x Line Out,1 x Mic-In,1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Combo

2 x RJ-45 Ethernet,1 x S/PDIF-Out (Optical)

2 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports

2 x WiFi Antenna connectors

Microsoft Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit- – licensed, installed, DVD back-up

Lifetime Warranty - (Lifetime Labour,1 Year Parts,1 Month Collect & Return)

Free Technical helpline(UK)

2. Extended Warranty options:

A. Lifetime Gold Warranty - (Lifetime Labour, 2 Year Parts, 1 Year Free Collect & Return) [£ 70.83]

B. Lifetime Platinum Warranty - (Lifetime Labour,3 Years Parts + 3 Years Free Collect & Return)(Band 2) [£ 123.33]

Courier Delivery

Let me know what you think - good build and good value or does it have any weaknesses ?

#10

Looks good to me, should rip through renders at a good rate.

#11

No $400 wheels or $1000 monitor stand? How is that even considered a pro workstation these days?

#12

This is by far my most expensive workstation ever :slight_smile: I’ve sold my car and going all out with this buy

#13

Agree with everything Mash said.
Got the same CPU & case, both are great.
Wanted a 3950x really but availability was near-zero & thought I’d just save the money, the 3900x is tidy too.
I will say if you do a lot of x-particles fluid sim & Photoscan photogrammetry stuff, those Threadrippers will destroy anything else by a long way - so CPU rendering is not the only thing they excel at. There are a range of other specialist tasks they excel at but you probably know if you’re working in one of those niches.
I went big air (be quiet dark rock 4 pro) instead of Water cooling but that 360 cooler should be all good.

#14

Thanks buddy (Decade) - yeh I’ll be using some Dynamics / Simulations but not a priority for me. GPU Rendering and as all-round for the rest as possible for Motion Graphics and High-End Rendering.

#15

Yeah, it’s a great all-rounder & with 2 2080ti’s should be fairly monsterous for GPU rendering.

#17

Thanks all - and feel free to copy the build and get someone to build it for you if you’re no expert like me.

As I say this is by far the most powerful machine I’ve ever looked at buying.

If we share our specs for the best builds for PCS in this community sure we can all save money and get going with our work a lot faster.

#18

Current website - www.nicholasgood.myportfolio.com

#19

I have to second 3DFluff on this.

Lately I have completely revitalized my old 4770k machine with a 2080Ti for Redshift and it is 90% as fast as my beastly Threadripper, also with a 2080Ti.

This has made me think that if you go the GPU route your PC basically becomes nothing more than something that powers the editor, prepares frames for the GPU and can provide the storage for your frames (which can also be a network drive by the way).

So yea, all my old workstations are getting a nice GPU upgrade.

#20

I’m really excited to get going with this beast of a PC - childishly so … my current main workstation at home is like 4 years old - but has a single Quadro P4000 added …

Love to have a threadripper but have to draw the line somewhere …

If you have a bunch of PCs or even a Farm at a studio? You probably take a different route?

My build is for hardcore 1 PC motion graphics and rendering.

#21

The build above if you’re in the UK is done for good value so far from what I’ve been told.

ask for Chris at https://www.meshcomputers.com/ if you’re in the UK

#22

If you’re in the US: https://www.avadirect.com/greyscalegorillasystems

I was inspired by these guys with their specs (but told they didn’t have enough cooling power for their machines)?

#23

If you’re mainly interested in creating Real-Time I think gaming PCs / Laptops will be the perfect option no?

#24

Enjoy the machine! I’m torn between a laptop for taking to potential job interviews (as I will be working with real time engines like U-render and unreal) and building a new franken-PC at home with a much smaller budget.

I wish the AMD 3950x was available at retail price. I may have to settle for a 3900x and re-using my Vega 64 from my Mac eGPU.

#25

If you have a good tip for a laptop I would be interested. At the moment I am looking for a 15" with a RTX 2070 (non Max-Q if possible). The MSI GL63 comes close. I don’t want to have a work machine that screams GAMING and it wouldn’t hurt if it stays below 2k€ (I am not doing 3D as my main job, but need a decent machine for it nonetheless).
But I am still waiting to see if AMD comes around with something interesting…

#26

Why not max q? they seem a better choice in general

#27

I’ve not found a 2070 non-max Q variant that doesn’t scream fast and furious RGB hell.

The best looking 2070 laptop I found (Max Q only) is the Razer Blade 15 inch in silver. No light up green logo, just clean looking silver. It also has thunderbolt 3 port for adding an eGPU (and charging off it). I have heard bad things about their customer service and reliability, though. Some reviewers say to buy from a store like Best Buy and get their warranty, but that gets more expensive than even Apple Care.

I’ve also been eyeballing the Maingear element, which lets you disable the light bar up front and RGB in the keyboard. It optionally comes in silver with Win 10 Pro for a $100 up charge on the highest tier model. They seem like the better deal in terms of what you get for the price. It only comes with a 1 year warranty. It also has TB3.

I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to PC laptops. With Apple, I know my way around and we have a great local Apple certified shop, so service is a breeze. I’ve built PCs before, but wonder if I just need portability now.

#28

If you’re looking for a PC or Laptop for work with Real-time / Gaming - the better it runs games the better it will work for you running Unreal and Unity etc no ? Sorry not an expert this is just thinking with my own common sense and with a 2 grand PC or laptop you should be fine - correct me if I’m wrong anyone :slight_smile:

#29

But make sure you get some advice depending on what software you’re using - ZBrush / Maya / Max / Substance etc