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New PC for Zbrush

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cloud87

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Budget: £2000 (two thousand pounds)
Country: England
Software that it will be used for: Zbrush, Photoshop, Keyshot, Maya, Illustrator, Marvelous Designer, Mari,

Hey all, so I'm a digital artist, well, was, wanna make a resurgence. I know nothing about building a pc - I go onto a site, and use the drop down options and pick ones that are fairly close to the bottom in the hope they are the best haha. All I currently know is that I would like the 3080 graphics card so that I can dynamesh huge amounts of polys without zbrush freezing or crashing as it does now.
Any advice would be amazing, I'd really like a good few ideas I can go to someone with and have them order the parts and build it for me. Local business. So if anything goes wrong, they aren't far away for help.
Many thanks :)
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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It's not a great time to be building a new PC right now. GPUs and CPUs are heavily price-inflated and mostly out of stock everywhere. The RTX 3080 is a great pick, but you'll have to get on a waiting list or pay a heavy premium (like 2x - 3x the usual price) for it.

That said, here's a build, that, in normal times, would fit your budget perfectly:

CGDirector.com Parts List: https://www.cgdirector.com/pc-builder/?=6Mji8

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7GHz 12-Core Processor ($881.95)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 ($84.90)
Motherboard: MSI X570 Tomahawk ATX AM4 ($249.99)
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070 8GB - Asus Dual ($1039.99)
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3200 C16 ($168.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2 Solid State Drive ($249.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CX Series CX550M 550W ATX 2.4 Power Supply ($63.49)
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($116.62)
Total: $2855.92

That build usually costs 2k$, but is now up to 2,8k$ and only has a 3070 and not a 3080. So you should get an idea what the market looks like right now.
 
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cloud87

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Oh wow ok, that's very informative, thank you so much.
Well, I think my old toaster of a PC can keep me going a little longer, but its reeeeally not ideal haha.
So was it the pandemic that's affected the prices so badly?

That's so so helpful I cannot tell you. I really needed a guide, a base to work from. And now I know some parts other than the 3080. Which I believe will be worth the wait
Now my point of contention here, was that I've been advised by many people including other artists (personal friends still in the film industry) to stick with Intel as the processor. As Ryzen, though it is a cheaper alternative and is a beast, runs hot. May be nothing but rumours, but I think I will stick to Intel. Which one would be the latest and most powerful without stepping up to the i9 price jump level?

The graphics card will have 8GB? jeez, think mine now is like 1? If that. No wonder Zbrush hates me.

32GB RAM, so perfect - the brands of these mean nothing to me, so I'll just assume they are all really great :) haha

I guess the case is important in the sense that, should I want to update the components, swap out older parts for newer ones, it must be able to accommodate those changes, and not lock me into any decisions. Which my current one does not. Sort of fixed some bits in which prevents me from changing some parts
 
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cloud87

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Oh and the SSD, was thinking of having one at say 500GB, then a 1 or 2 TB as the other hard drive?

And as I'm in England, the exchange rate is a little friendlier (well at least for now, wait till Brexit ruins us) so I used that tool you linked, thank you that is amazing. Just set the budget closet to what £2000 might get me in dollars


CGDirector.com Parts List: https://www.cgdirector.com/pc-builder/?=6Mjkt

CPU: Intel i9 10900k 3.6GHz 10-Core Processor ($489.00)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 ($84.90)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming ATX LGA1200 ($419.00)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1660TI 6GB - Gigabyte Windforce ($749.99)
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 C16 ($229.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: Samsung 980 PRO 1000GB M.2 Solid State Drive ($196.75)
Power Supply: Corsair CX Series CX550M 550W ATX 2.4 Power Supply ($63.49)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 780T ($166.25)
Total: $2399.37

This is what it said, with the minor adjustment of intel instead of Ryzen. Couldn't see a tool to tweak the selections manually. So wonder if this looks any good as a 2 grand, kinda budget starting point for a beast PC :)
 
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Now my point of contention here, was that I've been advised by many people including other artists (personal friends still in the film industry) to stick with Intel as the processor. As Ryzen, though it is a cheaper alternative and is a beast, runs hot.

Runs hot? Runs how it is designed to run, anyway from my understanding AMD beats Intel on performance and TDP!
 
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Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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Intel and AMD have switched roles. Intel used to be the better choice with cpus that run cooler. Currently AMD leads in both single and multi core performance, draws less power and runs cooler than Intel. AMD is the only way to go at the moment, both for gaming and professional work.

The only benefit you have with intel is that their cpus are in stock at reasonable prices - both because they have their own fabs and because not many are buying their cpus.

This is not to say that the 10900k is a bad cpu per see. It's almost on par with AMD's best offerings and can actually be bought at sub 500$.
 
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cloud87

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Hmm, that's definitely food for thought!
I guess I'm just used to intel, and would feel it a risk to step away having never tried another brand for the processor.

The availability is also quite key. In these times where everything is quite scarse

I've been working to get this build;

Intel I9 10900F 10 Core 2.8Ghz Processor
TUF Gaming H570-Pro Motherboard
On Lan & Sound
32GB DDR4 Memory ( 2 x 16GB Sticks )
8GB Nvidia 3070 RTX Graphics Card
480GB Solid State Hard drive
2 x 2TB Hard disk drive
Gaming Case with 750Watt PSU

(Exact case undecided, just want one with very good ventilation)

Thought process being, it would serve me for a good few years with the parts being interchangeable should something new come out that I like and have the money for at the time
 
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Stanley

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Budget: £2000 (two thousand pounds)
Country: England
Software that it will be used for: Zbrush, Photoshop, Keyshot, Maya, Illustrator, Marvelous Designer, Mari,

Hey all, so I'm a digital artist, well, was, wanna make a resurgence. I know nothing about building a pc - I go onto a site, and use the drop down options and pick ones that are fairly close to the bottom in the hope they are the best haha. All I currently know is that I would like the 3080 graphics card so that I can dynamesh huge amounts of polys without zbrush freezing or crashing as it does now.
Any advice would be amazing, I'd really like a good few ideas I can go to someone with and have them order the parts and build it for me. Local business. So if anything goes wrong, they aren't far away for help.
Many thanks :)
I'd like to point out that Zbrush doesn't rely on your GPU for anything other than providing a display output so an RTX 3080 and a gt 1030 would perform the same when Dynameshing and working in Zbrush on the same CPU.
 
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