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Beginner - PC build proposal for animation and gaming

Patek Phil

Patek Phil

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Hi,

Anxious to buy a prebuilt PC so I searched and that's when I found your site and articles which helps me a lot. Thank you.

Am fresh grad and working as software engineer. I'm going to begin my journey as animator and content creator and to do so, my first step is to build a PC specific for this but at the same time something I can use for gaming :)

I'm eyeing on these components:

Processor: Intel i7 9700F (does it worth to go for 9700K?)
Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 C16
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1660Ti 6GB - Gigabyte Windforce
SSD: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro512GB NVMe M.2 SSD (is this enough or do I still need HDD?)
PSU: Seasonic S12 111 650W 80T or EVGA 650 B5, 80Plus Bronze 650W (which is better?)

I'm planning to use adobe cc products and blender.
Appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on which motherboard and casing would fit the above components? is this build good or is it overkill for a beginner? Hahaha. Hopefully it would only cost me $1000-1200 at max. Thank you!
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

CG Hardware Specialist @ CGDirector
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Hey Patek,
Those parts will perform nicely for both gaming and animation if you'd like to go the Intel route. Do note that the LGA1151 platform is a dead-end platform, meaning you wont be able to upgrade your cpu to the next gen. If you are buying pre-built though and don't plan on doing any custom upgrades, that will not be important to you.

The K variant is clocked a bit higher and boosts higher, but you'll need decent cooling to reach those speeds in sustained workloads.

As for the storage, a 512GB nvme SSD is a great start and you can always add more lateron if you find your storage to always be full. A secondary HDD is nice for backups and archiving of course, which should be standard practice for any serious animation work.

Looks good so far! As for the motherboard take a look at one of the following three which we can recommend for this kind of build:

Gigabyte Z390 Designare
MSI Z390 Gaming Edge AC
ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate

Cheers,
Alex
 
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Patek Phil

Patek Phil

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Hi Alex,

I was inspired by this community to build my own :)
If I want it to be upgradeable what would be my best options for processor and motherboard?

Thanks,
Patek
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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For best futureproofeability you'll have to either go with the newest Intel gen which has the LGA1200 Socket (Z490 Motherboards and 10700K, 10900K CPUs) or go the AMD Ryzen route, with the current 3rd gen CPUs (3700x, 3900x on the x570 Socket).

The 10700K and the 3700x are comparable to the 9700k that you picked above. As for a Motherboard, go with the MSI Z490 Unify or MSI Z490 Tomahawk for the Intel route, or pick the MSI X570 Tomahawk or Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite if you'd like to go the AMD route.

Both are pretty much on par. AMD does have some higher core count offerings while Intel is usually faster in single core speeds, so it usually cmes down to:

- Are you rendering a lot? Pick AMD with more cores
- Are you doing lots of active work and less rendering? Pick intel with high core clocks

Cheers,
Alex
 
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