Advice needed / parts list - 3D graphics workstation - $ 2,500 - 3,000 budget.

[nathank9000]

Hi, everyone. Forum noob here, looking for advice.

Here’s my deal: I used to be involved in hardware, and know how to put a system together, but my knowledge is ~4 years out of date, and now that I need to put together a workstation, I’m overwhelmed AF with the options. I need it for my design business, which is thriving (which is why I need a better comp) but it’s killing my spare time (which is why I’m looking for advice and shortcuts).

It’s going to be a graphics workstation - Sketchup, Enscape, CorelDRAW, AutoCAD, some Revit. So the focus isn’t on frame rate but on processing power, reliability, and graphics performance.

I have $ 2,500 to spend, can push it up to $ 3,000 if needed.

Maybe allocate $ 500ish of that for a NAS box with RAID 0+1.
Have a monitor I’m happy with, so that’s not a concern.

Physical space is not a problem - I want a huge tower or desktop, with plenty of space. Don’t care about RGB lights, actually prefer the “A/V receiver” blackout look. Not married to any specific brand, so either Intel or AMD, either Nvidia or ATI, doesn’t matter. Whatever works better for the money.

The main dilemma I’m struggling with is “invest in a stronger CPU or max out videocards”? Like, should I spend $ 1,200 on a Threadripper or should I get more GPU power and RAM?

Then, Ryzen vs Threadripper vs Threadripper Pro? Or… what else is out there?

Videocard - according to Sketchup and Revit forums, MOAR VIDEO MEMORY FOR THE GOD OF VIDEO MEMORY is a thing. But where do you stop? 8GB? 10GB? 12GB? At what point does the price increase stop making sense? Again, it’s not for gaming, it’s for keeping track of complicated 3D models.

Should I spend $ 700 on RTX 3080 with 10GB, or get the 3060 8GB and invest another $300 into more (or faster) system RAM?

Should I do 2 less-expensive videocards or 1 maxed-out one?

Is there a way to start with a decent stack of SSD storage and add more later on? Adding more modules in an “array” rather than replacing them with higher-capacity modules? What do people do if they know they’ll have more money to invest in a system later on?

It’s all these kinds of decisions, and it’s overwhelming… any advice, whether general or specific items, would be much appreciated!

 

[Jerry James]

The main dilemma I’m struggling with is “invest in a stronger CPU or max out videocards”? Like, should I spend $ 1,200 on a Threadripper or should I get more GPU power and RAM?

Depends on your workloads, but from what I see your seem to have a decent balance between CPU and GPU requirements. So, I'd probably base a build around a Ryzen 7 7700X CPU or an Intel Core i9 13900K CPU.
GPU-wise, if you can find an RTX 3090 or a 3090Ti for cheap, it'd be ideal.

Like, should I spend $ 1,200 on a Threadripper or should I get more GPU power and RAM?

The latter for your workloads.

Should I spend $ 700 on RTX 3080 with 10GB, or get the 3060 8GB and invest another $300 into more (or faster) system RAM?

Play around with our PC builder and see what you end up with (3D modeling workload): https://www.cgdirector.com/pc-builder/

Should I do 2 less-expensive videocards or 1 maxed-out one?

Usually, a single powerful one is better unless you're doing a lot of GPU rendering with Redshift etc. Even then, you end up spending more in terms of power draw, etc., so I'd still recommend buying the fastest possible GPU first, and then adding in another if/when you have the budget if you need more power.

What do people do if they know they’ll have more money to invest in a system later on?

PCs are pretty modular, so these kinds of upgrades shouldn't be too much of an issue. Just buy whatever you can afford right now, and make sure your motherboard has enough free slots to accommodate more SSDs later. I'd say start with what we recommend for workstations, 2x Fast NVMe SSDs (OS and Active Projects) and a large HDD for archival storage. Pick motherboards with more than 2 M.2 slots, and you can drop-in upgrades when you need.

Videocard - according to Sketchup and Revit forums, MOAR VIDEO MEMORY FOR THE GOD OF VIDEO MEMORY is a thing. But where do you stop? 8GB? 10GB? 12GB? At what point does the price increase stop making sense? Again, it’s not for gaming, it’s for keeping track of complicated 3D models.

Depends on the complexity of stuff you're working on, tbh. For many professionals, 12-16GB is basically a requirement, but others can easily use upwards of 20GB. Either way, if you're not sure how much VRAM you need, you probably don't need way too much so don't factor that into your buying decision too much. Just buy the most powerful GPU you can.