Hi, Daniel,

Have a need to build a computer for animation/rendering for my daughter who is in college for 3D animation. Got a question for the CPU cooler. The R7 3700 CPU package comes with a cooler. Is it good to just use the cooler that comes in the CPU package? Thanks

Ordinarily, it would probably be fine to use the stock cooler for a Ryzen system. But a rendering build will likely have the CPU running at max load---sometimes for hours at a time---while rendering the output of projects. So we would definitely recommend getting a high-quality aftermarket cooler for a rendering build (except on the tightest of budgets).

Hi, Daniel,
Thanks for the quick reply. newegg.com has the Pro version of the fan, see link below. Due to holiday, it has a lower price than the non-pro version. The Pro version is bulkier, do you know if the Pro version would fit in the space on the motherboard?
https://www.newegg.com/be-q...

Also could I replace the Vengence RAM with K.SKILL RipsawV? It's just price point. https://www.newegg.com/g-sk...

Please bear with me, another question of the graphic card, is there any difference between the card from Gigabyte vs from NVIDIA themself. Same price.

Yes, the Dark Rock Pro 4 would be compatible with the R7 3700X, the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite, and the Fractal Design Meshify C.

In real-world timing, that set of DDR4-3600 RAM would actually be slightly slower than the set of DDR4-3200 RAM we linked, because its CAS latency is 19 and the Vengeance we linked has a CAS latency of 16. But in practice, the difference is 0.6 nanoseconds, so it should be totally find to go with the set you've found.

The biggest difference between Nvidia's reference cards and the various aftermarket options is that the aftermarket choices tend to have better cooling (using multiple direct cooling fans rather than a blower). But again, as in the RAM situation, the difference is likely to be very small.

Thank you Daniel.

Hi Daniel, i need to build 8 to 10 machine for my team which is rendering for high quality movies. i am confused as if we need desktop CPU or server CPU. we have used threadripper 2990WX but it used to restart frequently when i give it bigger scene to render continuously and same thing happening with R9 3900X too but when i am using much slower xeon E5 2673 v4 or xeon 2698 v3, these machinee are much slower than threadripper but still it doesn't restart frequently. can you let us know the reason, can we use threadripper without any issue in office. waiting for your reply.

By 'restart frequently,' do you just mean that the system would crash? Because, other than power issues and a few rare situations, system crashes are almost always software issues---not hardware issues. So for your situation, I would have to recommend seeking assistance from the support staff of the software responsible for the crashes.

Hi Daniel, thank you for providing this resource! I'm building my first PC as a combo video-editing-3D-animation machine, running Adobe Premiere for the editing and Cinema 4D/Octane for the 3D. My workload is split between editing and 3D animation (also compositing in After Effects). I'm really attracted to the price of the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X as my potential CPU, but I see you're recommending the AMD Threadripper 2990WX for your 3D-Animation God Build (in August 2019). I know Octane is reliant upon the GPU, so I'll get either a couple of RTX-2080Ti's or a Titan RTX. For my purposes, how would the 3900X stack up against the Threadripper 2990WX, all other components being equal? Is the Ryzen a stronger processor than the Threadripper? Also, I see your professional build recommends 32MB of quad-channel RAM but *I think* the Ryzen 9 3900X in that build only supports dual-channel? (sorry if I'm wrong about the RAM).

It should stack up surprisingly well, actually! The TR 2990WX's principal virtue is its absurd number of physical cores, but if you're planning to use GPU rendering (good call, by the way), then it's not impossible that the R9 3900X could actually get you slightly better performance because it has higher single-core speed than the 2990WX, and still features 12 cores. Just make sure you select a compatible motherboard for whichever chip you choose in the end.

Thank you!

Hi. I'm trying to build the balanced example build. My budget is a bit tight so I was wondering if I could viably substitute the Prime X570 mobo with a B450 Tomahawk? Is the price difference worth it? I would mostly use it to work in Blender and Unity, and also as a gaming rig. I'm also planning on overclocking the CPU. I would appreciate the help.

Yes, you absolutely can make that substitution. In most situations, we only don't use last-gen mobos with Ryzen 3000 chips in our example builds because people who are unable or unwilling to assure (or perform) the necessary BIOS updates can get quite angry at us for recommending them.

First of all.. thank you for your time and sharing.
i need full support from your side. cause i left 2 years now with search about best pc part's for me !

i am Architect and i am using ( Auto-cad 2d + 3ds max + Sketch up + V-Ray , Corona and Lumion for rendering ) - single shoot with small video clip some times
My budget 4000-4500$ // My request now // which completely parts you advice me to take ( from CPU up to Monitor )
i hope to using RT rendering in VRay with my new dreamy PC

with best regards

With a budget of 4000-4500 USD for everything, including the peripherals (monitor, keyboard, and mouse), I would recommend that you build a variant of the 'Professional' example build in the first section of the article above. The variation I would recommend would be to substitute in an RTX 2080 Ti graphics card for the RTX 2080 Super that is listed.

Then you should be able to buy one or two 4K monitors, a mechanical keyboard, and a mouse---and still come in under-budget, while building an incredibly powerful desktop. As to which specific peripherals to buy, this is very subjective, but we do have guide charts for keyboards, monitors, and mice to get you started.

Sir i want to pc for 3ds max rendering and animation and affter effect . I want fast render speed. My budget is maximun 1900$. Plz suggest me pc for fast rendering. I have option for i9 9900k and ryzen 9 3900x. Which one is best for me . Plz provide me best configration for my work again. Becoz i m very confused for it. Plz help me for this, thnks sir

To roughly match your budget and preferences while providing you with the best machine possible, I would recommend building a variant of the 'High-Performance' example build from the first section of the article above---with the R9 3900X substituted for the R7 3700X. (If that takes you too far overbudget, you can cut down the Storage 2 capacity to one or two TB at first.)

Hi, I am looking for advice.
I am building a computer for the first time ever, did my best to research every single part, but still some things aren't clear to me.
So the main focus of this build is going to be 3d modelling/rendering, having a fast viewport etc. Will be using software like substance painter/designer, blender, zbrush. Aiming to do most of my rendering on the gpu. Would be nice to be able to play a game sometimes as well. My budget is around 6k euros, and I think I am pretty happy with the build.
But I have no idea if all of the parts are compatible with each other.

https://pcpartpicker.com/us...

If anyone would check the build out, maybe offer some suggestions, I would be grateful.
Some of the questions I have currently:

1. This pc case has 2 usb ports in the front if I'm correct, how do they connect to the motherboard?

2. The GPU card is 304.7 mm lenght. The case specifications say:

Maximum Video Card Length
287 mm / 11.299" With Drive Cages
449 mm / 17.677" Without Drive Cages

What eaxctly is a drive cage? Is it a hard drive cage? If so, will I have a spot to install my 3.5 inch HDD somewhere at all if I remove the ones that interfere with the GPU space?

3. "SLI" - how does it work. I think there's supposed to be a SLI cable that connects the GPUs? If so, will i need to buy the "SLI" connector cable separately or will it be included with the GPU? Also, would I be able to add two more of the same GPU's in the future as an upgrade if I wanted to?

4. RAM. Really dumb question, but will I really fit my 8 ram slots into this motherboard, because visually it doesn't look like there are 8 dimm slots. but the specs say there are so, probably not an issue, but what about the common "cooler blocking the ram slots" issue, will this not be a problem with this build?

5. Also, I read somewhere that I will need to somehow overclock my ram..? It says the motherboard supports "3200 OC". the ram sticks are 3200 ddr4. how does this ram overclocking procedure look like and what does it do exactly, and why is it needed?

6. Will i need to buy the SATA cable to connect the HDD or will it be included with the motherboard?

7. I plan on overclocking the CPU, is this cooler good enough for that?

1. All front-panel I/O (including the USB ports, as well as the power and reset buttons) will connect to the motherboard through a set of wires that will be pre-installed in the case. The power indicators and buttons will connect to a block of pins (usually in the lower right of the motherboard), and the USB ports will connect to dedicated USB headers (typically along the bottom or right edge of the motherboard).

2. The drive cage is indeed the removable tray for the hard drive(s). It looks like the Dark Base 601 has a column of modular installation spots for their cage(s), so it should be possible to install one to accommodate your HDD toward the top of the case, where it will not obstruct your GPU (as seen in the upper right of this image.

3. SLI is a way for GPUs to share a singular workload. Yes, the SLI GPUs will be connected by an SLI bridge---this is included with your motherboard. And yes, you can purchase and install further instances of your GPU in the future, but you can not install them in SLI. Nvidia discontinued 3-way and 4-way SLI, as we explain in this blog post. This is not to say that adding additional GPUs will not provide any benefit to your system. Some separate taks can still be split up and sent to the different GPUs for an improvement to speed; but no singular tasks will be divided among the non-SLI GPUs. And diminishing returns will rapidly increase with each additional GPU.

4. There are 8 slots on that motherboard. 4 are to the right of the CPU socket, and 4 are to the left. They alternate grey and black, but are the same type of slots. As for CPU Cooler clearance, your selected Cooler looks very narrow, so that should really not be an issue; but if you want to double-check to be sure, Noctua provides very specific dimensions for the Cooler on their site.

5. You will not need to overclock your RAM. Your RAM is already clocked at the OC speed specified by your motherboard, and should run at that rate automatically. But the procedure for overclocking RAM is very similar to that for overclocking other components (it is accomplished through BIOS settings).

6. The Newegg product page for your motherboard states that 4 SATA data cables are included. The SATA power cables will come with your PSU.

7. Hard to answer precisely, as cooling needs change depending on the degree of intended overclocking as well as the manufacturing quirks of each particular CPU. But Noctua make excellent coolers, and even a thin heatsink should theoretically be able to handle a slight overclock. As ever, we do recommend being very slow and cautious when attempting overclocking.

Hi Daniel,
Enjoyed the article, but I feel you are ignoring two very powerful software options from your list - especially if you're going to include AutoCAD - Solidworks and Visualize. Solidworks is one if not the most widely used engineering 3D modeling software available. However, although not designed to be used for the entertainment industry it does have capabilities for such. I believe in 2016 or 2017 Solidworks was used to design the Batmobile for one of the DC Batman movies and it was also used to design the space craft in "Passengers" - I don't have the articles in front of me so I'm going from memory. But,I do recall that Solidworks is being used more frequently to design CGI backgrounds and skylines for movies. And Visualize has the capability of rendering near photo-realistic images and animations. It's like a virtual photo studio on your computer. It's setup to simulate "real-world" camera settings and lighting techniques. It's user friendly enough so that even if you are not trained in photography or lighting you can still create beautiful, stunning images. Obviously, I'm a Solidworks user and fan. I drink SW kool-aid every morning (that's a metaphor). But, I feel confident of the facts that I have laid out. Now, I realize that you cannot possibly list every 3D modeling and rendering software, otherwise there would be no room for your article - but, it is my opinion that Solidworks and Visualize are worthy to be mentioned among the heavy-hitters that did make your list. I mean no disrespect to AutoCAD users; I was an AutoCAD user for many, many years - - until I was introduced to Solidworks.

I think you're right that Solidworks should be on the list, and I'll add it soon. But we'll still be skipping Visualize for the time being. As you rightly observed, the list in that section isn't supposed to be completely comprehensive---just hit some of the biggest names. Thanks for your comment!

Hi Daniel

I'm about to enter into 3D and Im going to take a course for beginners in maya. The course is about 6 months long but then I plan on doing more courses (beginners, intermediate, advance) . I was wondering if you can help me choose the best hardware that can do the job for about year and a half before I finally take a master in animation.

Maybe a low-mid tier pc that I know I can use all this time to then upgrade to a better one to do the master.

Well, if it's intended as your first big foray into rendering and as a student learning machine in advance of professional upgrading in the future, then I would recommend the lowest-tier 'cost-effective' example build in the first section of the article above. The only change you may want to consider to that parts list is swapping in an Nvidia GPU for the listed RX 570---such as perhaps a GTX 1060 6GB or a GTX 1660---so that you can experiment with CUDA rendering when it's supported.

That one will do it until I reach professional level?

As I said, perhaps with a slightly upgraded GPU, it should! (I personally use a relatively similar system for beginner rendering in Blender---an i5-6600K and a GTX 1060 6GB.) But if you're really concerned about making sure you have enough power for advanced projects, and it's within your means to do so, you could also consider the next build up instead ('balanced price-to-performance') for a better guarantee of capability.

hi there,and thank you for sharing your knowledge...i need some help in hardware configuration...im a 3d artist and using these softwares in a daily basis, 3ds max ,sketchup pro autocad designer and Lumion pro 9 and vray and corona render. i have built my pc more than 3 years ago and now i received my new gpu from Nvidia (RTX 2070 Super FE) i want to use it alongside of my old ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti 6GB

but here is the question how can i use it for gpu rendering with just a single monitor and how to install it in motherboard PCIE slots with my limited cpu PCIE lanes?

Here is my PC Specs :

Windows 10 pro version 1903 OS Build 18363.239

Motherboard : Asus X99 Deluxe 3.1 Bios 3802

CPU: i7-5820k overclocked to 4.00 Ghz. just 28 lanes

RAM :32 Gb Corsair Veangeance 3200 MHz

GPU : GTX 980 Ti + uninstalled (RTX 2070 super FE)

Case Green X3+ Viper advaned super mid tower

Cpu cololer: Green Glacier GLC-240-A 240mm water cooling (im afaird may have never heard about that) !!!

PSU ; 1200 +80 Green GP1200B-OCDG

SSD: 500 Gb samsung 860 pro

HDD : WD 2TB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB

Monitor: Dell Quad HD 2K U2715H I80 Ti

The configuration would be: install the RTX 2070 Super into the topmost PCIe x16 slot, and hook up your monitor directly to that card. Then install your GTX 980 Ti in the next highest available PCIe x16 slot. You don't need to worry about only having one monitor, as the rendering output work done by your GPUs for your pro-grade rendering software is distinct from (although sometimes overlapping with) the work done by the GPU to provide you with a display on your monitor.

This configuration will be not SLI, as that requires two of the same GPU. But some software can still give additional tasks to a second GPU when available, so you may get some benefit regardless. Concerns about the CPU's lane allotment should also prove irrelevant, as your CPU will simply use as many lanes as it can. That is, your GPUs will not be using every lane at every moment---and when your CPU runs out of capacity for contacting hardware, it will simply continue to operate at its max without the additional available bandwidth. In theory, what I'm describing is a bottleneck. But in practice, such a situation would be very unlikely for two non-SLI GPUs installed in the same system.

hi Daniel and i greatly appreciate you...so you mean that it doesnt matter which slot I put the 980ti and it doesnt need to connect to monitor..am i right ??pcie x16 -5 has been occupied already with a 3.1 2 card and i doubt that i have used it since i buy this pc. as i see i think pcie x16-4 is not usable for that reason and i read in the manual that i should install the second gpu in slot 4...so if there is no problem then i may remove that useless usb 3.1 card from there or should i keep it there.thanks for your valuble time for helping people from all around the world..God bless you

If the motherboard manual specifies where to install the GPUs, then you should definitely follow what it says rather than the general guidelines in my previous comment. And yes, it is correct to say that the 980 Ti does not need to connect to the monitor.

the gods build it doesn't appear to be so ... there are more powerful builds after all

You mean a more powerful build than the 'Forge of the Gods' build? Yes, it's theoretically conceivable to make a more powerful single-CPU system by adding more GPUs---but you would be facing considerable diminishing returns past the 2 that we've included.

what if you had no problem budget wise, as is my case and want to build two super workstations one for 3D rendering and one for Video editing. I am very good user been using computers for the better part of 30 years and all installed them myself, to meet my needs. Now in the project we do and involves a lot of 3D animation rendering I am at a lost, as I have no idea of the current technology and not sure what to chose. From your comment here I understand that if you use a motherboard with more than one CPU then you can boost performance using GPU for the rendering did I understand correctly? If yes can we have a configuration based on that? For the project we want to create and has to do wiht ancient Olympic games as well build a 3D model exactly how Olympia used to be back then, i don't have budget problem building the systems.

So, that's not exactly what I was saying. Frankly, it no longer really makes sense to build dual-CPU systems. The immense core and thread counts on modern workstation CPUs (from both Intel and AMD), coupled with the availability of hardware/GPU rendering options in modern versions of software, make single-CPU systems a really smart choice these days.

All that I was saying in the comment above is that there's really only one way to boost the performance of the 'Forge of the Gods' example build in the first section of the article---and that's by adding more of the recommended GPUs than we have (up to 3 should fit on the recommended motherboard, although its central two PCIe lanes are too close together for 4).

K thanks for the reply now I can follow what you said.

Hello. Not sure how to ask this; I live in an area where I get thunderstorms every afternoon, and would get power surge throughout the house, sometimes knocking out power for a while. My first pc I built died because power surge blew a few capacitors on the motherboard. That incident happened in 2005. Since then I bought a surge protector like this https://www.amazon.com/APC-... , a new pc (well, now old, 2010). These things I bought when I was living out of state. But now that I'm back home I wanted to know, am I adequately protected for what I currently have? Current Specs: CPU: AMD Athlon X4 640 3 GHz, GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 1030, RAM: 10 GB, Drives: 1 DVD RW (x52 iirc), 1 TB HDD for Windows 10 64 bit and x2 Hot swap 1 TB HDD, PS: 750W. I use it for multimedia: art/digital art/film (at very small scale), video recording/editing, gaming, streaming (at poor quality), and have extra things attached to it like extra monitor, a drawing tablet (XP-Pen Artist 16).

Eventually, if possible, I would like to upgrade. Would I also need to upgrade surge protector?

So, while that device would have you protected in the event of a power surge (like any surge protector), it would unfortunately not protect your system or data in the case of a power outage---simply because its UPS functionality can only provide 200 Watts.

As a result, if you're still going to be in an area where you have to worry about inconsistent power behavior, then I would recommend upgrading your UPS choice when you upgrade your system. But since you're at least covered for surges, it should probably be fine to stick with your current protection as long as you stick with your current system.

I was gifted an old Dual Xeon 2 core 4 thread (each) 6 meg memory, nvida 4000 card. I know absolutely nothing about anything inside a computer! I'm an artist and only know how to use the software given to me. It's a very slow system for what I have been doing lately. I figure that i can build a much better system (mid-range AMD 2700X) since it's basically like legos. Here's my problem. Once built, how difficult is it to get running? I haven't a clue the difference is between a Bios and a Cim. Seems like there is a lot of tweeking going on. Your article was very helpful in explaining the hardware, now where do I go to install everything else???

Don't worry! The answer to how difficult it is to get the machine running after it's built is: very easy. The BIOS (or UEFI) is just the menu you'll see when you boot up your computer for the first time, before you've installed an operating system. You'll use it primarily to install your OS (probably Windows, or possibly a GNU/Linux distribution). If you're already following along with a step-by-step build guide, it will usually walk you through that part too.

But basically, you just need a flash drive. You'll put the OS installation files on the flash drive by using some other computer (here's the page to do this for Windows), plug the flash drive into your new PC before powering it on, and then you'll use the BIOS menu to tell the computer to boot from the flash drive. After your OS is installed, you can take the flash drive out.

Hi daniel...
Thanks for the info it's really helpful. I don't know anything about hardware! So please help me... Just one question about Cpu in "High-Performance Build ($2000) " ...Why you've Chosen "AMD Ryzen R7 2700" because "AMD Threadripper 1920X" is faster , witch one is better for 3d animation and VFX

The TR 1920X has a higher top speed and more cores, and as a result is definitely a bit better than the R7 2700X for CPU/software rendering. But it also costs about $100 more than the R7, which is a far greater percentage increase in price (30-40%) than its percentage increase in performance (2-5%).

For this reason, we recommend going with the R7 2700X at that budget level---especially because we strongly recommend using GPU/hardware encoding rather than CPU/software encoding for your renders.

Hello Daniel..
Can i buy gaming laptop for rendering in 3ds max ... instead of mobile workstation?
Because the mobile workstation is so expensive and all of them have Quadro graphic card.

Yes, you can! Nearly all computer products labeled with the word 'gamer' are labeled in that way purely as a marketing maneuver (because gaming is the largest market sector seeking powerful consumer-grade GPUs); there is nothing preventing a person from using such a product as a rendering machine.

Thank you very much
That’s very kind of you.

Hello Daniel ….
I’m confusing between two laptops …which of them is better for rendering and 3d work in 3ds max … specially when we have large project in 3ds max:
1/ msi gaming laptop
Core i7 8750H 2.2 GHz
32 GB Ram
1 Tb HDD + 256 GB SSD
GTX 1070 8 GB

2/ msi workstation laptop
Core i7 8750H 2.2 GHz
32 GB Ram
1 Tb HDD + 256 GB SSD
Quatro P2000 4GB

The difference is between ( gaming or workstation ) and graphic card( Quadro or GTX)
Thank you….

Between those two options, the better machine for rendering would be the one with the GTX 1070. It has twice as much VRAM, nearly twice as many processing cores, and a nearly 20% higher top speed. Overall, it's almost 90% more powerful than the P2000.

Thank you...
If i use the cuda core for rendering... also GTX 1070 is better than Quatro?

Yes, that's still correct. The GTX 1070 can take full advantage of CUDA rendering; in fact, I personally use a GTX 1060 6GB for CUDA rendering in Blender.

Thank you very much ... This information was very important to me

Hi Daniel,

I'm about to purchase a workstation build for GPU rendering with Octane in C4D and also for After Effects. I'll be starting one 2080 Ti but would like to add more later. It would be great if you could give me some feedback before I go ahead, any criticism or ways I could improve the build would be welcome.

Here's a link to the build - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com...

I was originally considering an 9800X on a WS X299 Sage, which would have more PCI lanes. But the 9900k has a much better single core speed which will benefit my use case, also the WS Z390 Pro has a PLX chip so I should be able to run at 8x8x8x8x if needed. Do you think this is the right choice platform wise? Another consideration is the Z390 platform only has dual channel ram vs the X299 quad channel, would this make much difference?

I'm also a little unsure about memory speed, would 2666 be fast enough or should I go higher? and would a 1200W power supply be sufficient for up to 3 GPU's?

Thanks in advance,
James

While I would personally say that you made the right choice for your CPU, you may want to read our blog post comparing the i9-9900K and the i7-9800X before making your final decision.

That aside, you likely won't be able to have three RTX 2080 Ti cards installed. While there are plenty of PCIe x16 slots on your chosen motherboard, an RTX 2080 Ti will occupy the physical space belonging to two slots. So two of them is going to be your probable maximum. On the plus side, diminishing returns are very heavily in play when you pass two GPUs, and two RTX 2080 Ti cards would already be an extremely powerful arrangement. A further piece of good news in this regard is that 1200 Watts should definitely be sufficient for two RTX 2080 Ti cards (even 1000 Watts could do the job just fine).

Finally, I would ordinarily say that 2666 MHz is just fine, but since you seem to be seeking maximal performance, it is worth pointing out that your chosen motherboard supports higher O.C. speeds (so you might consider options in the 3000-4000 MHz range).

Thanks for the feedback and the article. Yes it seems like 9900k would be the best option, I'll definitely benefit from the higher single core speeds in After Effects. It's tempting to hold out for the Cascade Lake X launch which is rumoured to be late May to see what's on offer though. Good point on the memory I'll look to increase that, 3200 appears to be the sweet spot.

I double checked the spacing and the EVGA 2080ti XC Hybrid is a dual slot card, and the motherboard supports 4x dual slot cards so it seems like it should be fine. Unless theres something I'm missing? Regarding 2+ GPU's Octane Render scales the cards near perfectly, 3 cards would offer roughly triple the performance of one for rendering, so although I'll likely run one or two for some time its a consideration for future proofing the build. Article from Puget Systems re: scaling