Build help for 3D art

[Silents]

I need some help on a pc build for 3D art.
Using it mainly for Blender 2.8, Eevee (realtime renderer), Keyshot, Octane renderer, Photoshop, etc.
My brother gave me a few starting parts.
I already have a monitor, huge case with motherboard, and a thousand case fans.

 

The motherboard is an Asus Z170-A.
So all the components would need to be compatible with it.

 

Looks like I still need:
Power supply
Graphics card (nvidia GeForce)
CPU
RAM
SSD (250-500GB)

 

I can always add another 1TB HD later.

 

I'm trying to get back into 3D, so I'd like to keep the cost on the low end...
$400-600 USD.

 

Yeah, I know that's asking a lot for a little.
Any help would be very appreciated.

[Thinkfreely]

Having built 40 + systems (13 my own the rest for friends, family etc) Your going to have to go heavy used

[Origami Cactus]

This is what i came up with.

Because those programs mostly use the cpu? And don't use much of CUDA acceleration, i went all out on the cpu, and added a meh gpu.

Also i threw out your old motherboard, it is pretty much useless, as you can only put a i7 6700k and i7 7700k in it, which are 4c/8t, and the price of 6700k and 7700k are just absurd, even when they are used.  An AMD 6c/12c is cheaper and performs better.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$169.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$129.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$72.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte - GeForce GT 1030 2 GB Silent Low Profile Video Card	$74.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$42.88 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$645.73
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$605.73
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-05 13:25 EST-0500

 

[rphawks]

That's going to be pretty tough with a Z170 board. I'm not really familiar with the programs so I won't be able to put the best build together, but I'm pretty sure that anything with the Z170 will exceed your price limit.

 

[LukeSavenije]

15 minutes ago, Silents said:

Looks like I still need:
Power supply
Graphics card (nvidia GeForce)
CPU
RAM
SSD (250-500GB)

tier c+ (450 watts is enough on here, but nothing wrong with 550w) 

 

Why nvidia? my recommendations would be the following (from low to high end, nvidia left, amd right)

1060/580

970/390(x)

1070 ti/vega 56

1080 ti/ vega 64

quadro/firepro

 

I would say a second hand 7700k or 6700k

 

16 gigs minimum, dual channel

 

mx500 or 860 evo are great sata ssd's for a fair price

 

[Silents]

Thinkfreely -
Are there reliable online sellers of used parts? Parts that are actually tested and working properly?

 

Origami Cactus -
Thanks for the suggestions!!

Looking into it more, you might be right about dumping the current motherboard.
I also was able to snag a 600w PSU from friend today, so that's one less thing to worry about.

 

As for CPU vs GPU intensive programs - unfortunately it's a mix of both. Renderers like Keyshot are cpu-based. But Blender's Cycles and Eevee renderers are gpu-based, along with Octane. Maybe it makes sense to start with a really good CPU and plan on upgrading the gpu later? Would be nice to get something that could handle the realtime rendering of Eevee at the start though.

 

rphawks -
Yeah, as Origami Cactus mentioned I might just need to get a new board.

 

LukeSavenije -
Good news is that I just got a 600w PSU. All set there... if it's functional.

 

The reason for nvidia was because I was under the assumption that Blender only played nicely with cuda. At least that's what it seemed like a few years ago. It looks like they've updated things in 2.9 and now support OpenCL as well, so I guess a geforce card isn't mandatory anymore.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.