First 3d rendering PC build

[Guest Javier Santamaria Navarro]

Hi everyone,

My name is Javier, spanish architect actually living in France. I've been working in several offices and doing lots of images for the last 5 years, and I've decided to start my own career in the archviz world... Scary and exciting stuff! I'm trying to build what will be my workstation for the next years and I would like to have some feedback from people of this community who is more experienced in this field.

At the beginning I will be using mostly 3Dsmax/Revit/Sketchup for modelling and Corona/Lumion for rendering. And I would like to also experiment with other software as Unreal, Blender, Vray... Other software I will be using: Photoshop and the rest of the Adobe Suite, Autocad, etc.

I know Corona Render is CPU based and Lumion is GPU, so I kind of gonna need a machine for everything (oups). Ideally I would like to not spend more than 3000€, but the build I've managed to set up in PCpartpicker right now is about 3300€:

https://fr.pcpartpicker.com/user/JSNArchitecture/saved/RHspK8

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor  (€636.00 @ Amazon France) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (€80.98 @ Amazon France) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€249.99 @ Amazon France) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  (€355.79 @ Amazon France) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€69.98 @ Amazon France) 
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€290.49 @ Amazon France) 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB 10 GB Founders Edition Video Card  (€950.00) 
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  (€109.24 @ Amazon France) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€140.99 @ Amazon France) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM 64-bit  (€121.84 @ Amazon France) 
Monitor: Philips 276E8VJSB 27.0" 3840x2160 60 Hz Monitor  (€296.72 @ Amazon France) 
Total: €3302.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-05-19 06:50 CEST+0200

Any help and advice to improve this build would be really appreciated.

Thank you!

Edited May 19, 2022 by Javier Santamaria Navarro

[Scott Schroeder]

There are a few areas to save some cash on your build. Though your list is set to private, so I can't see it. 

You may be able to save some money in non-gaming oriented RAM. Brands like G.Skill end up charging a lot for the name but the speed difference between that and non-gaming brands is not noticeable at all. RAM in itself is where you need to do research between all of the speeds and latencies as for rendering work there may be no advantage do the top of line RAM. When I recently built my gaming machine, I spent almost all of my time researching various RAM.

My other suggestion is to get a liquid cooler for your CPU. I've been running liquid on all my builds for the last several years and I won't look back. It keeps your CPU cooler and it's much quieter than fans when rendering. Liquid coolers are slightly more expensive, but far worth the investment in my opinion. You can look at something like the Artic Liquid Freezer II 280 or CoolerMaster ML240R (or the 360R if you need an extra fan on the radiator). If being and RGB warrior isn't your thing, you can get the non "R" versions of the CoolerMaster that don't have RGB lighting on them. Since I went with a clear panel case, I ended up joining the RGB warrior club just to have some pizazz on my computer.

You could also think about getting the Pro version of Windows. The Home addition is fine, but Pro makes things a little easier as far as being able to unlock more admin controls. At least, that's what I remember the main difference is. 

Everything else looks really good. When do you need the machine by? If it's not an immediate need, you may want to wait to see if GPU prices continue to come down. The 4000 series of the Nvidia GPU's are nearly around the corner and that may further drop the prices of the 3000 series cards.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Scott Schroeder

[Guest Javier Santamaria Navarro]

Hey! Thank you so much for your answer.

On 5/19/2022 at 2:57 PM, Scott Schroeder said:

You may be able to save some money in non-gaming oriented RAM. Brands like G.Skill end up charging a lot for the name but the speed difference between that and non-gaming brands is not noticeable at all. RAM in itself is where you need to do research between all of the speeds and latencies as for rendering work there may be no advantage do the top of line RAM. When I recently built my gaming machine, I spent almost all of my time researching various RAM.

I've been doing some research on the RAM build, and the only cheaper DDR3600 2X32GB I found is the Patriot Viper Steel. I could save some money there, but I found some people having compatibility issues with the AMD CPU, and other people saying it was harder to install and set up, so I think I will stick with the G.Skill Ripjaws, which seems also a good option.

On 5/19/2022 at 2:57 PM, Scott Schroeder said:

My other suggestion is to get a liquid cooler for your CPU. I've been running liquid on all my builds for the last several years and I won't look back. It keeps your CPU cooler and it's much quieter than fans when rendering. Liquid coolers are slightly more expensive, but far worth the investment in my opinion. You can look at something like the Artic Liquid Freezer II 280 or CoolerMaster ML240R (or the 360R if you need an extra fan on the radiator). If being and RGB warrior isn't your thing, you can get the non "R" versions of the CoolerMaster that don't have RGB lighting on them. Since I went with a clear panel case, I ended up joining the RGB warrior club just to have some pizazz on my computer.

About the CPU cooler, I took your advice and did some research, and I think I will follow your recommendation and go for a liquid one. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II seems pretty good, and saw people very happy pairing it with the AMD 5950X. Noise is really an issue as I share the room, so the quieter the better! I'm just a little bit concerned of how hard it will be to install this kind of component... I hope to find some nice tutorials on the web! Also, I saw there are different sizes (240/280/360mm) and didn't know which one to choose, so I stuck with the one you recommended (280).

I'm also kind of lost about the monitors. At first I thought of buying two 27' 4K monitors with the best color accuracy I could buy, but the prices goes up really fast, and the studio I'm gonna share is not very big. What kind of configuration do you have? Could two 24' be enough? Is 4K really necessary or can I go with a smaller resolution? Any mid-range monitors with good color accuracy and value you could recommend?

On 5/19/2022 at 2:57 PM, Scott Schroeder said:

Everything else looks really good. When do you need the machine by? If it's not an immediate need, you may want to wait to see if GPU prices continue to come down. The 4000 series of the Nvidia GPU's are nearly around the corner and that may further drop the prices of the 3000 series cards.

I would like to have the machine ready as soon as possible. Do you think the 3000 series card are gonna drop prices soon? I found de RT3080 in some websites right now at a faire price (the LHR version).

Thanks again for your answer. Looking forward to see this machine working soon!

 

[Thiago Rocha]

I have the same question about the 4k monitors...  more about the 3dsmax UI and adobe aplications, works fine on 4k resolution?