Need Input for Rendering 3D Animations, Compiling Code

[Protoss Killer]

Budget (including currency): < $3K $ US Dollars

Country: U.S. (Florida)

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Rendering 3-D animations and compiling Python code

Other details I promised my son (who's a Sophomore in H.S.) that we would build him a new PC if he kept his grades up because he games on an older i5-9600K / RX 5600 XT (that he inherited from me). Not only has he kept his grades up, but he's also won three school/STEM awards this year for (1) designing a working replica of the Disney ride Tower of Terror in Minecraft; (2) making an under-the-counter lighting strip that follows your movement across a room when it's dark using an Arduino; and (3) making a 60-second animation of his principal as she "makes her rounds" in the morning as a Lego character that he rendered with Blender. To be honest, he hasn't gamed much at all since he became (almost obsessively) interested in all the programming stuff he's gotten into this year. He complains that his current computer is just too slow when he's rendering his animations or compiling Python code. Also, when he used my machine (i7-13700K and an XFX RX 7900 XTX) to render an animation, it turned my office into a sauna. I've never built a machine for what he wants to do and my initial questions are:

1. Does CPU matter, or is the GPU doing all the work?

2. If the CPU does matter, what's most important: number of cores, clock speed, or chip generation? 

3. Could/should he continue designing animations and writing code on his current machine (or a Mac), save the files to a simple NAS we build, and then use a purpose-built machine to do just the rendering/compiling?

4. Does RAM matter or is the CPU and/or GPU doing all the work? 

5. If RAM matters, would DDR5 provide a significant benefit over DDR4? Is speed, timings, or capacity most important for these types of workloads?

6. Would Gen 3 SSDs be a bottleneck that Gen 4 drives would eliminate?

 

Any input into how best to design a system for these purposes would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Why_Me]

Here's a build including monitor and o/s that checks all the boxes without breaking the bank.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i7-13700 2.1 GHz 16-Core Processor  ($339.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: *Deepcool GAMMAXX AG620 ARGB 67.88 CFM CPU Cooler  ($48.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: *MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($159.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: *TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($110.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *ADATA Legend 800 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($108.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: *Zotac GAMING Trinity GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB Video Card  ($799.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 11 Home Retail - Download 64-bit  ($119.99 @ Newegg) 
Monitor: *LG UltraGear 27.0" 2560 x 1440 165 Hz Monitor  ($250.00 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2338.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-21 20:40 EST-0500

 

A better look at those components.

 

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B760-GAMING-PLUS-WIFI  

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/230490/intel-core-i713700-processor-30m-cache-up-to-5-20-ghz/specifications.html  

 

https://www.deepcool.com/products/Cooling/cpuaircoolers/AG620-BK-ARGB-Dual-Tower-CPU-Cooler-1700-AM5/2022/16082.shtml  

 

https://www.gskill.com/product/165/377/1649234605/F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K-F5-6000J3040G32GA2-RS5K       

 

https://www.adata.com/en/consumer/category/ssds/solid-state-drives-legend-800/  

 

https://www.teamgroupinc.com/en/product-detail/ssd/T-FORCE/vulcan-z/vulcan-z-T253TZ002T0C101/  

 

https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/zotac-gaming-geforce-rtx-4070-ti-trinity  

 

https://www.msi.com/Power-Supply/MAG-A850GL-PCIE5  

 

https://lian-li.com/product/lancool-216/ 

 

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27gr75q-b-gaming-monitor 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qdYXpB

7900 + 4070tis + 64gb 6000c34

 

Just an all rounder build