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Looking for advice on a custom PC build before making any purchases

K

Katelyn F.

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This will be my first time building my own PC, so any help is much appreciated! I'm an 2D/3D animation artist that works mostly in Photoshop, After Effects, Clip Studio Paint, TVPaint, Toonboom, and Blender. I do however like to dabble in Zbrush, Topogun, and Substance Painter for character modeling and texturing. Down the line I'd also like to do some rendering with Keyshot or softwares similar to it. Thus I'd like a computer that can handle such softwares nicely. I would love to hear any advice I can get on how the build listed below would handle activity from these softwares. I'm also of course on the lookout for any compatibility issues, and if the build is one I can upgrade without too much trouble as I go on. My budget is approximately $2,500-$2,750. Thanks so much!

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16-Core, 32-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor, Without Cool
  • CPU cooler: Corsair Hydro Series, H100i RGB Platinum SE, 240mm Radiator, Dual LL120 RGB PWM Fans
  • Motherboard:GIGABYTE B550 AORUS PRO AC
  • Graphics card: MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB GDRR6 256-Bit HDMI/DP
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 Desktop memory–Black (CMW64GX4M2E3200C16)
  • PCIe-SSD: Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2 Internal SSD Extreme Performance Solid State Drive (SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-1TB)
  • Power Supply: Corsair CX Series 550 Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Modular Power Supply (CP-9020102-NA)
  • Case: NZXT H510 Elite - CA-H510E-W1 - Premium Mid-Tower ATX Case
Note 1: A big part of why I chose some of these components is because of their visual appeal. If one part isn't compatible with the rest, I would greatly appreciate a recommendation that's similar in design. But if there are significant trade offs when it comes to appearance vs. performance, I'd like to know of those as well. (Wouldn't make much sense to build a pretty computer, that when all is said and done, can't handle bulkier softwares).
Note 2: Wondering as well if this build would support multiple monitors. Dumb question, but just to be sure!

Again, thank you very much!
 
K

Katelyn F.

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Another bit of information I left out, I will be shopping from the US, mostly online through Amazon.
 
Jerry James

Jerry James

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AMD is releasing the new Ryzen 9 5950X very soon (November 5th iirc) while Nvidia is launching the RTX 3070 at the same price as the RTX 2070 Super. If at all possible, do hold off on CPU and GPU purchases. It's kind of the worst time to be building a PC at this sort of budget 😁 You should be able to get faster hardware within the same budget if you can wait.


Overall I like your build!
1 small tweak I'd make would be upping that power supply just a bit. Good 650W power supplies shouldn't be that much pricier than 550W at the moment. Especially when you're rendering for extended durations of time, you're ideally looking to avoid anything even remotely close to a full load (>85%) on the power supply.

And yes, multiple monitors won't be an issue :)
 
K

Katelyn F.

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Thanks for the info! Being a complete newbie I had no idea new CPU and GPUs were just about to be released. I should be able to survive on my old laptop just a bit longer...hopefully 😅 I'll keep in mind the 650w power supply in mind when shopping too.

As I've done a bit more research and taken another look at my budget, I've made a few changes to some other components.

First change I've thought of making to switch to a MSI B550-A PRO ProSeries motherboard. Mainly because the previous motherboard listed apparently would have some issues matching with the USB ports of the case? Also, to be honest I'm still a little unclear on if the motherboard affects any performance issues as much as it might simply serve as a physical interface for all the components to work together..? So trying to pick one has been a bit of a foggy process for me.

Second change is the CPU. I'm looking at the Ryzen 3900X because it 1) is more affordable, and 2) has fewer cores. From what I understand fewer cores is a good way to go for active work like sculpting and modeling, and more cores is ideal for rendering. I'd be willing to compromise on rendering speeds if it means getting a better active working performance. But then again, there's that TurboBoost feature I keep reading about? Some more info on that would help. I'm also curious if fewer cores means doing more "damage" to the CPU when it comes to rendering.

Again, thanks for the reply! I appreciate it.
 
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Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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Both Motherboards should work fine in that case, as the IO shield comes with the Motherboard. That leaves the external case connectors and the NZXT H510 Elite looks to have only usb-c, usb and audio, which should be available to use externally on both motherboards? @Jerry James am I correct in this assumption?

As for your second change: less cores doesn't necessarily mean the cpu is better for modeling. You use less cores in modeling, that is true, but a cpu with 16 cores (such as the 3950X) would get you about the same performance as a cpu with 12 Cores (like the 3900X). In rendering then again, the more cores, the better. There really is no such thing as doing "damage" to the cpu if you don't overclock it or ignore its temp or power limits in some other way. The CPU is meant to be used fully, all of its cores, and as long as there are no manufacturing faults, should last for a long time even under full rendering use - with a decent cooler.
 
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Jerry James

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Both Motherboards should work fine in that case, as the IO shield comes with the Motherboard. That leaves the external case connectors and the NZXT H510 Elite looks to have only usb-c, usb and audio, which should be available to use externally on both motherboards? @Jerry James am I correct in this assumption?

I think only the MSI motherboard has an external (front panel) USB-C header. The Gigabyte board doesn't :)
 
K

Katelyn F.

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Thank you both for your helpful replies! Much appreciated, have a wonderful weekend.
 
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