New PC for 3D Modeling Student

[StupidButCunning]

Budget (including currency): This is flexible, but $1,500-$2,000 USD (not including peripherals). I'm more concerned with what components I need to do better than bare minimums while avoiding overkill. No AAA development going on here. Just a student fresh out of high school beginning her study of 3D modeling.

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Blender is the preferred program for 3D modeling. The games will be nothing intensive. Low end Old School Runescape and high end Overwatch. The important part is being able to advance one's knowledge and skills with 3D modeling and rendering. 

Other details: A single 2560x1440 monitor with the plans to expand to 2 or 3 monitors in the future. Mid-tier mouse and keyboard required. Essentially starting from scratch because her previous computer is a low performance heavily restricted Chromebook issued by the school district. Plan is to purchase at some point around June or later. I will also require a copy of Windows 10. Everything including a case and cooling is required. Liquid cooling is favored but again, I'm quite open to suggestions. This build could benefit from a wireless card, but if it would conflict with other build elements we can do without. Optical drive is not required. If needed in the future, I'll just pick up an external. I presume a storage of at least 1 TB SSD.

So I'm assisting a friend in building a PC that is capable of entry level 3D modeling with some room to grow. Her preferred program is Blender so I started puttig together a concept build. It wasn't until I was adding the Ryzen 9 5950x with 16 cores that I stopped to consider if that was too powerful. It's a fault of mine to always overshoot the requirements when building a PC, so in order to keep the cost down, I decided to reach out for advice. All she's looking for is a system that will perform smoothly while she develops her skills over a couple years. She can play some non-intensive games during free time but no needs beyond that. I presume anywhere from 16-32 GB DDR4. DDR5 is simply not worth the cost at this time. I presume a mid or full ATX case. 

If there's anything I've not mentioned or any further questions needed, please ask and I'll respond ASAP.

Regards,

SBC

[ProjectPatatoe]

Im thinking for "starting out". here are my tweaks

• 5800x, maybe even 5700x (imo, 5950x not worth the increase in price)
• 32 gb ram
• 2nd screen is just TOO helpful esp when doing actual work

I don't see mention of GPU? GPU will still need to be considered since that will eat alot of your budget.

[GhostRoadieBL]

1 hour ago, StupidButCunning said:

Liquid cooling is favored

If you are planning for overnight rendering (most likely due to the budget) it is safer to go air cooled, obviously looks are a part of most builds but if the performance is going to be the same, go with air.

 

I'd probably start with a 12900k which goes toe to toe with the 5950x in blender but still has better single core speed, you can also get away with a 12700k for not a huge loss in performance while saving big $

A 2080 or 3070 if you can get one will probably be as far as the budget can stretch unless you can get a 3080 at msrp. Blender is a vram pig so radeon cards can make up the difference if they have more or faster ram.

 

2080 for the build

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115299593962?hash=item1ad8642eea:g:A8IAAOSw0UJfu~q7

 

The rest:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/p6cCLs

CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K 3.2 GHz 16-Core Processor  ($579.99 @ Newegg) 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler  ($74.90 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z690M-PLUS D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($189.99 @ ASUS) 

Memory: OLOy Blade RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 CL15 Memory  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card  ($679.00 ebay) 

Case: Cooler Master MasterBox MB311L ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($104.99 @ Amazon)

 

Total: $1963.83 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-19 00:39 EDT-0400

 

As for monitors, Samsung 1440p ultrawides are cheap and really nice to work with, you can probably find a 34" 1440p one for ~$300.

[StupidButCunning]

@ProjectPatatoeFair, and while I recognize the GPU as important, I was waiting to know more about CPU since I don't want to under or overspec either. Knowing that both the 5700x and 5800x seems reasonable, that's a good starting point (depending on available pricing at the time of purchase). The second monitor is something I'll see if I can budget at the moment of purchase.

@GhostRoadieBLI agree that if liquid cooling and air cooling achieved the same results, I'd go with air, but the last couple builds I've made just seem to have drastically lower temperatures (From 80-90+ C under load with air cooling to maxing out at 55 C with liquid cooling). A 3070 should be doable though if I can't get my hands on one, I'll consider the 2080 Super. I appreciate the build and I'll definitely keep tabs on it as the purchase date approaches. If price becomes too much a factor, I'll opt for the 12700K, but I'll aim for the 12900K. That being said, is there enough of a measurable difference to AMD's Smart Access Memory to such a point that I should focus on choosing components that allow it?

 

[GhostRoadieBL]

7 minutes ago, StupidButCunning said:

That being said, is there enough of a measurable difference to AMD's Smart Access Memory to such a point that I should focus on choosing components that allow it?

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-12900k-alder-lake-12th-gen/6.html

 

[StupidButCunning]

5 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-12900k-alder-lake-12th-gen/6.html

 

Message received XD. I guess i9-12900K it is. 

[Fraya]

23 hours ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

If you are planning for overnight rendering (most likely due to the budget) it is safer to go air cooled, obviously looks are a part of most builds but if the performance is going to be the same, go with air.

 

I'd probably start with a 12900k which goes toe to toe with the 5950x in blender but still has better single core speed, you can also get away with a 12700k for not a huge loss in performance while saving big $

A 2080 or 3070 if you can get one will probably be as far as the budget can stretch unless you can get a 3080 at msrp. Blender is a vram pig so radeon cards can make up the difference if they have more or faster ram.

 

2080 for the build

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115299593962?hash=item1ad8642eea:g:A8IAAOSw0UJfu~q7

 

The rest:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/p6cCLs

CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K 3.2 GHz 16-Core Processor  ($579.99 @ Newegg) 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler  ($74.90 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z690M-PLUS D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($189.99 @ ASUS) 

Memory: OLOy Blade RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 CL15 Memory  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card  ($679.00 ebay) 

Case: Cooler Master MasterBox MB311L ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($104.99 @ Amazon)

 

Total: $1963.83 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-19 00:39 EDT-0400

 

As for monitors, Samsung 1440p ultrawides are cheap and really nice to work with, you can probably find a 34" 1440p one for ~$300.

This recommendation is not bad, i like the idea that they chosen M-ATX,  there is no need for full ATX unless your building a super big or water cooled gaming machine. 

i would go for 64GB of RAM,  as its still uses DDR4 ram the pricing is ok.   

for the GPU, yes there is a world wide problem getting a modern GPU at sensible price, looking into a quality used high end 20series RTX or even a new high end AMD card should be fine. 

for case, its personal choice. if you really want to be different then Parvum do nice acrylic custom cases, or look into the Corsair 280X m-atx crystal series. 

for sure you could most likely get a 2TB nvme M.2 SSD drive, i found a good deal on Newegg. 

Air cooler is ok. and i have for the past 2 or 3 builds now always gone for the highest i7 / i9 NON K CPU, works a treat, you get the cores, hyperthreading and performance but less power usage and heat.   you can also look at AMD, there is some good m-boards for an AMD build. 

try to keep similar manufactures throughout the build and always review and research the components your considering. 

 

if you want a recommendation list just ask, right now i have to go to work. 

 

[Fraya]

Crystal Series 280X RGB Tempered Glass Micro ATX Case — Black (corsair.com)

you can also get in white. 

prices are Canadian it might convert if you go to the US site. 

[GhostRoadieBL]

12 hours ago, StupidButCunning said:

Message received XD. I guess i9-12900K it is. 

the price is the same (+/- $20) it really doesn't make a difference in blender specifically, just everything else runs faster on intel for this current generation.

 

another thing to consider is power consumption, if they are going to live in a dorm go for intel but if they are living at home or paying for their own power the AMD will run around half the watts for the same performance. (intel tops out around 330W and AMD is around 175W) for some huge 12h+ renders this adds up but for shorter <2h renders you probably won't notice on the power bill.

[Fraya]

for an all out AMD build including a new copy of Windows. 

There are some things that can be changed to save cost like a 750W PSU, a 1TB storage drive. 

and always look for used GPU.  i think the RX6700XT duel series with 12 Gb of memory is a good deal.

 

Prices should be USD as i used the USA parts picker. 

hope this can give you some ideas. so many options to look into. 

 

 

[Fraya]

going Intel does bump up the cost so cut down the storage size and PSU. to keep within $2000 range (USD) 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WXRk6r

 

Component		Selection		Base	Promo	Shipping	Tax		Price	Where
CPU			Intel Core i7-11700 2.5 GHz 8-Core Processor	$323.98					$323.98		Buy
CPU Cooler			Noctua NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler	$59.95					$59.95		Buy
Motherboard			Asus TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS WIFI Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard	$149.99					$149.99		Buy
Memory			G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$154.99		FREE			$154.99		Buy
		Add Additional Memory
Storage			Team CARDEA ZERO Z440 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$124.99					$124.99		Buy
		Add Additional Storage
Video Card			Asus Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB DUAL Video Card	$829.99					$829.99		Buy
Case			Corsair Crystal 280X MicroATX Mid Tower Case	$149.99					$149.99		Buy
Power Supply			Corsair RMx (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.99	-$20.00 1	FREE			$99.99		Buy
Operating System			Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$109.98	2	FREE			$109.98		Buy
Monitor		Choose A Monitor
Expansion Cards / Networking		Sound Cards, Wired Network Adapters, Wireless Network Adapters
Peripherals		Headphones, Keyboards, Mice, Speakers, Webcams
Accessories / Other		Case Accessories, Case Fans, Fan Controllers, Thermal Compound, External Storage, Optical Drives, UPS Systems
Base Total:									$2023.85
Mail-in Rebates:									-$20.00
Total:									$2003.85