1st EVER 3D Modeling/Rendering Build

[ARH2534]

Budget (including currency): 1500 USD (but willing to budge some)

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for:  

 

Some gaming, as long as it's not 30fps and doesn't lag I'm goood.

 

3D Scanning/Modeling:

Blender, Capturing Reality, Agisoft Metashape, CloudCompare, Fusion 360, Meshlab, Meshroom, Maya, Lumion , All the Adobe Suite. 

 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

To be honest I have no idea where to begin. Is it cheaper to by a pre built? Or should I just build?

 

No peripherals needed. Already got the mouse, keyboard, and monitors that i want. 

 

Any and all recommendations would be really helpful.  Attached are screenshots of the pre-built I was considering. Need thoughts on if it will be suitable for what I'm planning to do with it.

 

[Fasauceome]

No graphics card, no ventilation on the front, that price tag? You can do quite a bit better

 

For 3D applications you want some sort of graphics card, to say nothing of the occasional gaming. It'll be kind of painful otherwise.

 

For your budget, you should be able to find a prebuilt with an i5 and a GTX 1660 or thereabouts. I recommend only targeting 10th and 11th gen Intel CPUs and 3000 or 5000 AMD CPUs, because anything older will lack some features or is bound to be bad value.

[RONOTHAN##]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/F2pw6r

 

This is a pretty good first draft. The first things you should look for is a good GPU. For most rendering workloads, you really want to be going for a Nvidia card as most of the Nvidia technologies just work better than their AMD counterparts. The 3060 is available for a pretty decent price, and the 12GB of VRAM is very much appreciated, meaning you can do some larger renders on just the GPU itself.

 

Next thing you should look at is the CPU. The 12400F is a pretty good value. Ideally you'd want a 12700F instead (~$100 more), but that would push you over budget, especially since lots of RAM will be much appreciated. The motherboard was picked because it's the cheapest board that has IMO usable rear IO. 

 

Speaking of RAM, 64GB is probably overkill, but I'd rather be safe than sorry for the recommendation. RAM is one of those things that more doesn't matter unless you run out, in which case it matters a lot. 64GB would allow you to work on fairly large projects easily, though if you know you don't need more than 32GB for the foreseeable future I'd go to 32GB and swap the CPU to the 12700F. If you know you need more than 32GB or aren't sure, I'd go for the higher capacity just to be safe. 

 

Went for a HDD for bulk storage and 1TB SSD for the OS and working projects. It might be a good idea to go for a scratch drive dedicated to projects, but it's not really necessary. 

 

The case the cheapest one I know is good and keeps components cool easily. The price seems to have gone up a bit, and $80 is a bit steep for it, but it looks like prices in general have gone up on cases so it's place in the market seems to have remained the same. I'd probably look into getting a different one though, there are better cases for an extra $10-20.

 

The PSU is a very solid unit, should be plenty reliable and provide plenty of power for your system. 

 

20 minutes ago, ARH2534 said:

Is it cheaper to by a pre built? Or should I just build?

Pre builts use to be cheaper about a year ago, but not any more. GPU prices have come down enough that it's cheaper to build again.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/4NJ4qm

Just shove the thing in a scrap case for now and save up till you can get a decent case, ofc abit overbudget but this means that you wont have to upgrade alot which costs you more money in the long run

 

If you are fine going abit more overbudget theres a 275r airflow for 58$

[ARH2534]

6 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

No graphics card, no ventilation on the front, that price tag? You can do quite a bit better

 

For 3D applications you want some sort of graphics card, to say nothing of the occasional gaming. It'll be kind of painful otherwise.

 

For your budget, you should be able to find a prebuilt with an i5 and a GTX 1660 or thereabouts. I recommend only targeting 10th and 11th gen Intel CPUs and 3000 or 5000 AMD CPUs, because anything older will lack some features or is bound to be bad value.

Thank you!!

 

I am willing to spring for an I7. From what I understand 3D programs require a lot of cores? 

 

Is there really all that much of performance difference between an 10th/11th Gen i5 or i7?

 

What is an appropriate amount of RAM I should shoot for, 64?

 

Do you have any immediate recommendations of pre-builds? 

 

Should I go ahead and get somthing that is windows 11 capable? 

 

I really really appreciate all the help you or anyone can give!

 

[ARH2534]

32 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/F2pw6r

 

This is a pretty good first draft. The first things you should look for is a good GPU. For most rendering workloads, you really want to be going for a Nvidia card as most of the Nvidia technologies just work better than their AMD counterparts. The 3060 is available for a pretty decent price, and the 12GB of VRAM is very much appreciated, meaning you can do some larger renders on just the GPU itself.

 

Next thing you should look at is the CPU. The 12400F is a pretty good value. Ideally you'd want a 12700F instead (~$100 more), but that would push you over budget, especially since lots of RAM will be much appreciated. The motherboard was picked because it's the cheapest board that has IMO usable rear IO. 

 

Speaking of RAM, 64GB is probably overkill, but I'd rather be safe than sorry for the recommendation. RAM is one of those things that more doesn't matter unless you run out, in which case it matters a lot. 64GB would allow you to work on fairly large projects easily, though if you know you don't need more than 32GB for the foreseeable future I'd go to 32GB and swap the CPU to the 12700F. If you know you need more than 32GB or aren't sure, I'd go for the higher capacity just to be safe. 

 

Went for a HDD for bulk storage and 1TB SSD for the OS and working projects. It might be a good idea to go for a scratch drive dedicated to projects, but it's not really necessary. 

 

The case the cheapest one I know is good and keeps components cool easily. The price seems to have gone up a bit, and $80 is a bit steep for it, but it looks like prices in general have gone up on cases so it's place in the market seems to have remained the same. I'd probably look into getting a different one though, there are better cases for an extra $10-20.

 

The PSU is a very solid unit, should be plenty reliable and provide plenty of power for your system. 

 

Pre builts use to be cheaper about a year ago, but not any more. GPU prices have come down enough that it's cheaper to build again.

WOW THANK YOU!!! THIS WAS SO HELPFUL! THANK YOU! 

 

I am willing to spring for an I7. From what I understand 3D programs require a lot of cores? Is there really all that much of performance difference between an 10th/11th Gen i5 or i7?

 

Also I'm unapologetically a noob, but what is a scratch drive? 

 

I would like it to be windows 11 capable so I am not screwed in October 2025. 

 

 

 

[RONOTHAN##]

1 hour ago, ARH2534 said:

From what I understand 3D programs require a lot of cores?

They do appreciate more cores, yes. Ideally you want to use GPU rendering when ever possible since it will outperform anything but the most high end of CPUs, but if you run into VRAM limitations CPU rendering is your friend, and more cores are (given the same per core performance) more better. 

 

1 hour ago, ARH2534 said:

 Is there really all that much of performance difference between an 10th/11th Gen i5 or i7?

Between 10th gen and 11th gen, there isn't that much of a difference. Between 11th gen and 12th gen, there is a pretty big difference. With how similar the prices are, unless you get one for next to nothing it's hard to recommend anything other than 12th gen. 

 

1 hour ago, ARH2534 said:

Also I'm unapologetically a noob, but what is a scratch drive? 

A drive where you have all your working projects and is basically dedicated to doing work on. Some applications, like Adobe, benefit from it a lot, whether it be increasing stability or improving responsiveness, but some others don't. It's not really a huge deal not having one, but it's something to think about. 

 

1 hour ago, ARH2534 said:

I would like it to be windows 11 capable so I am not screwed in October 2025. 

Anything made in the past 4 years will be Windows 11 capable. Heck, most stuff made before then is still Windows 11 capable if you're willing to do some file tweaks. I wouldn't consider it a selling point, but the PC I recommended can run Windows 11. 12th gen Intel was actually the platform that Windows 11 was built around, so it'll work just fine. 

[ARH2534]

8 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

They do appreciate more cores, yes. Ideally you want to use GPU rendering when ever possible since it will outperform anything but the most high end of CPUs, but if you run into VRAM limitations CPU rendering is your friend, and more cores are (given the same per core performance) more better. 

 

Between 10th gen and 11th gen, there isn't that much of a difference. Between 11th gen and 12th gen, there is a pretty big difference. With how similar the prices are, unless you get one for next to nothing it's hard to recommend anything other than 12th gen. 

 

A drive where you have all your working projects and is basically dedicated to doing work on. Some applications, like Adobe, benefit from it a lot, whether it be increasing stability or improving responsiveness, but some others don't. It's not really a huge deal not having one, but it's something to think about. 

 

Anything made in the past 4 years will be Windows 11 capable. Heck, most stuff made before then is still Windows 11 capable if you're willing to do some file tweaks. I wouldn't consider it a selling point, but the PC I recommended can run Windows 11. 12th gen Intel was actually the platform that Windows 11 was built around, so it'll work just fine. 

Thank you again for your knowledge and assistance. I am willing to go over budget a little so i do have some wiggle room. Accounting for that, I have edited your list, would you mind reviewing the changes I made? -------> https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zbqZRv

Additionally:

• How would i put windows 10 on the pc when the time comes, id rather not have to pay for it if i don't need to.
• If i were to do a scratch disk, where would i buy one and where would it be installed?
• How do i know if this pc has a WIFI receiver? would that need to be installed separately? 

 

Thank you again for all your help and time. Your expertise is really is appreciated! 

[RONOTHAN##]

2 hours ago, ARH2534 said:

Accounting for that, I have edited your list, would you mind reviewing the changes I made?

You don't really need the Hyper 212, the Intel box cooler is fine for that CPU. If you do want to get a cooler for it (for silence reasons), go for the Arctic Freezer X34, they sell a version with the mounting hardware included on Amazon for $29 last I checked.

 

I don't really like that case, it doesn't look like it would have the best airflow performance. It is cheap, so it has that going for it, but looking at it that's about all it really has going for it. If it was between this case and the one I originally recommended I'd gladly pay the extra $25 for it. A good case to consider is the Fractal Focus G, it's a decent case around the $65 mark. 

2 hours ago, ARH2534 said:

• How would i put windows 10 on the pc when the time comes, id rather not have to pay for it if i don't need to.

On a separate PC, download the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's website, and follow the instructions to make a bootable Windows 10 installer. Plug it into your new system, spam F11 on bootup and select the flash drive to boot from. Follow the instructions (it's best practice to leave the HDD unplugged for this because of a glitch in the Windows 10 installer) and once you reboot, remove the flash drive and you should be in Windows. If you don't want to pay for it, just hit "I don't have a product key" during installation, you'll end up with a watermark in the bottom right hand corner of your PC though telling you to activate Windows (IIRC there are way of removing it, but it's not annoying enough for me to care). If it does annoy you, product keys can be had on key resellers for ~$20. 

 

2 hours ago, ARH2534 said:

If i were to do a scratch disk, where would i buy one and where would it be installed?

Scratch disk is a way to describe a use case for an SSD. You'd buy an SSD (preferably a good one) and install it in your system like any other SSD, then just configure Adobe and other stuff that benefits from it to do all the work directly off that. 

 

2 hours ago, ARH2534 said:

• How do i know if this pc has a WIFI receiver? would that need to be installed separately? 

It doesn't. If you need WiFi, it's cheaper to get a board that has it.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dgPr6r

[ARH2534]

2 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

You don't really need the Hyper 212, the Intel box cooler is fine for that CPU. If you do want to get a cooler for it (for silence reasons), go for the Arctic Freezer X34, they sell a version with the mounting hardware included on Amazon for $29 last I checked.

 

I don't really like that case, it doesn't look like it would have the best airflow performance. It is cheap, so it has that going for it, but looking at it that's about all it really has going for it. If it was between this case and the one I originally recommended I'd gladly pay the extra $25 for it. A good case to consider is the Fractal Focus G, it's a decent case around the $65 mark. 

On a separate PC, download the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's website, and follow the instructions to make a bootable Windows 10 installer. Plug it into your new system, spam F11 on bootup and select the flash drive to boot from. Follow the instructions (it's best practice to leave the HDD unplugged for this because of a glitch in the Windows 10 installer) and once you reboot, remove the flash drive and you should be in Windows. If you don't want to pay for it, just hit "I don't have a product key" during installation, you'll end up with a watermark in the bottom right hand corner of your PC though telling you to activate Windows (IIRC there are way of removing it, but it's not annoying enough for me to care). If it does annoy you, product keys can be had on key resellers for ~$20. 

 

Scratch disk is a way to describe a use case for an SSD. You'd buy an SSD (preferably a good one) and install it in your system like any other SSD, then just configure Adobe and other stuff that benefits from it to do all the work directly off that. 

 

It doesn't. If you need WiFi, it's cheaper to get a board that has it.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dgPr6r

Thank you so much for all of your help! I really appreciate it!

 

Would it be possible to clone my current ssd thats in my laptop to this new SSD you recommended for my operating system? if so how would i go about doing that? i have cloned before, just not with this type of ssd.

[RONOTHAN##]

10 hours ago, ARH2534 said:

Would it be possible to clone my current ssd thats in my laptop to this new SSD you recommended for my operating system?

Yes but not recommended. It can cause issues with driver compatibility and setting up a new Windows install doesn't take enough time to roll that dice. If it was a similar desktop to another similar desktop, the odds are low enough that it should be fine, but laptop to new desktop is really not a good idea. If you can do a clean install of Windows that would be the best bet. If you really want to clone it, you take the drive out of the laptop and put it in the new system. Boot to the old SSD. Download a cloning utility like Acronis (there are a lot, this is just the in Windows one I know) and set it up to clone, they're pretty easy to follow.

[ARH2534]

On 3/15/2022 at 12:33 AM, RONOTHAN## said:

Yes but not recommended. It can cause issues with driver compatibility and setting up a new Windows install doesn't take enough time to roll that dice. If it was a similar desktop to another similar desktop, the odds are low enough that it should be fine, but laptop to new desktop is really not a good idea. If you can do a clean install of Windows that would be the best bet. If you really want to clone it, you take the drive out of the laptop and put it in the new system. Boot to the old SSD. Download a cloning utility like Acronis (there are a lot, this is just the in Windows one I know) and set it up to clone, they're pretty easy to follow.

Pc booted just fine! Now I cant get the windows boot drive to install windows properly, any tips?

[RONOTHAN##]

45 minutes ago, ARH2534 said:

Help!!!! I Bought all the parts recommended on the list, installed everything, and i am getting no display on boot. ALL the power is plugged in correctly and fully, All lights and fans turn onand spin as normal. I dont know what it could be. 

 

None of the display or hdmi ports out of the motherboard or the GPU are sending a signal. HELP!

On the motherboard itself, there will be 4 LEDs above the 24 pin (I think, I get their exact position, it's where they roughly are). They should be labeled as "CPU", "DRAM", "VGA", and "BOOT" (something along those lines, they can be a little different). When you go to turn on the system, do any of them turn on? Do any of them stay lit? It should go something like CPU, DRAM, CPU and DRAM at the same time, VGA, BOOT, then all turn off and the system is on. If none of them light, that means the board isn't even starting the POST procedure and either the board is dead, no CPU is detected, or the power connectors are quite fully connected on both ends of the cable. for each of the corresponding LEDs though, that would be the first place to look for the problematic component.

 

Also, you got the 12700F, so you need to make sure you're plugged into the GPU and not the motherboard.

[ARH2534]

51 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

On the motherboard itself, there will be 4 LEDs above the 24 pin (I think, I get their exact position, it's where they roughly are). They should be labeled as "CPU", "DRAM", "VGA", and "BOOT" (something along those lines, they can be a little different). When you go to turn on the system, do any of them turn on? Do any of them stay lit? It should go something like CPU, DRAM, CPU and DRAM at the same time, VGA, BOOT, then all turn off and the system is on. If none of them light, that means the board isn't even starting the POST procedure and either the board is dead, no CPU is detected, or the power connectors are quite fully connected on both ends of the cable. for each of the corresponding LEDs though, that would be the first place to look for the problematic component.

 

Also, you got the 12700F, so you need to make sure you're plugged into the GPU and not the motherboard.

I got it working! I had to plug it into the internet. 

 

Now I cant get the windows boot drive to install windows properly, keeps saying files are missing, any tips? i did unplug the hdd like you had said previously 

[ARH2534]

2 minutes ago, ARH2534 said:

I got it working! I had to plug it into the internet. 

 

Now I cant get the windows boot drive to install windows properly, keeps saying files are missing, any tips? i did unplug the hdd like you had said previously 

Also, i recreated the drive as well, still not working.

[RONOTHAN##]

41 minutes ago, ARH2534 said:

Also, i recreated the drive as well, still not working.

Try a different flash drive, it's possible the one you're using is corrupted somehow.