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New Redshift Build

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Falconer

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Hi guys,

I've been a mac user for 11 years so a complete novice to this area. I already have a 2019 Macbook pro which is working well for my day to day work in Adobe CC and C4D but I really want to get into Redshift and feel confident taking on more complex 3D work which is why I want to build a PC. I'd love to stick with Mac for this but from what I can tell Mac isn't up to standard in the GPU rendering sphere and the prices are pretty eye-watering. The key here is for it to be upgradable. I'll be starting out just playing with Redshift and Houdini so don't need it to be super-fast but it would be good to know I can upgrade it to be higher-spec if necessary. I also appreciate clean minimalist design so looks are important to me!

I've been looking at websites and YouTube videos and have come out with this list -

CASE - NZXT H7 Flow
MOBO - ASUS ProArt X670E-CREATOR
CPU - Intel Corei9 12900KS
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition
RAM - 64GB (2x32GB) Corsair DDR5 Vengeance
HD1 (System) - 1TB Samsung 980 PRO
HD2 (Projects) - 2TB Samsung 980 PRO
HD3 (Cache) - 1TB Samsung 980
PSU - 1200W be quiet! Straight Power 11 Platinum
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U12A Chromax CPU Cooler
Extras - Gigabyte Titan Ridge Thunderbolt3 PCIe (I saw on another thread here I needed this for my Thunderbolt monitor. I'm not sure I fully understood that post either though)

I suppose my main questions are -
• will this all work together and have I missed anything? Particularly unsure about cooling
• Is there anywhere I can save money without compromising performance too much? Currently this is about £3500
• Is it really best to build yourself? Remember I have zero experience and don't want to break anything in the process!
• Will this work with my Apple Thunderbolt monitor? It's a decent monitor and I don't really want to fork out for a new one

Many thanks to anyone who takes an interest!
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

CG Hardware Specialist @ CGDirector
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Looks like a solid build to me! The 3090Ti is quite expensive for the marginal performance increase it has over the 3090 or 3080Ti, so that's a place you'd be able to save some money. Also, the founder's edition is a bit inferior cooling and clocks-wise to AIB partner models, so if you see a model from MSI/Gigabyte/Asus/EVGA or even Zotac, you might get a GPU that performs better.

The Build Process is pretty easy. If you buy pre-built while still wanting the ability to pick your parts, you're looking at about 30% higher costs, which isn't worth it in my opinion.
 
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Falconer

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Thanks Alex for your reply. I'm actually thinking of going through a company who offer builds with OEM parts because it seems to lower the price for me quite a bit. Following advice from your build guide I'm actually thinking I'll upgrade the CPU to 13900K. In terms of GPU, is the 10GB ASUS RTX 3080 Gaming card similar in performance to the 3090ti founders? I don't mind paying the extra £400 for the 3090ti if there's a big advantage but am also very keen to save some cash!

According to the guy at the build company my 2011 Apple Thunderbolt Display should be able to plug into the ProArt Z690 mobo thunderbolt slot if you have a display to HDMI running between the GPU and mobo. I really hope that's right as I'd love to see what I'm working on!

Thanks again anyway, much appreciated
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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The 3090Ti is about 30% faster than the 3080 in Redshift. It doesn't scale this well in non-gpu-render software like video editing etc. but redshift does make pretty good use of those extra cuda cores.

 
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ThirdVariant

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Hi guys,

I've been a mac user for 11 years so a complete novice to this area. I already have a 2019 Macbook pro which is working well for my day to day work in Adobe CC and C4D but I really want to get into Redshift and feel confident taking on more complex 3D work which is why I want to build a PC. I'd love to stick with Mac for this but from what I can tell Mac isn't up to standard in the GPU rendering sphere and the prices are pretty eye-watering. The key here is for it to be upgradable. I'll be starting out just playing with Redshift and Houdini so don't need it to be super-fast but it would be good to know I can upgrade it to be higher-spec if necessary. I also appreciate clean minimalist design so looks are important to me!

I've been looking at websites and YouTube videos and have come out with this list -

CASE - NZXT H7 Flow
MOBO - ASUS ProArt X670E-CREATOR
CPU - Intel Corei9 12900KS
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition
RAM - 64GB (2x32GB) Corsair DDR5 Vengeance
HD1 (System) - 1TB Samsung 980 PRO
HD2 (Projects) - 2TB Samsung 980 PRO
HD3 (Cache) - 1TB Samsung 980
PSU - 1200W be quiet! Straight Power 11 Platinum
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U12A Chromax CPU Cooler
Extras - Gigabyte Titan Ridge Thunderbolt3 PCIe (I saw on another thread here I needed this for my Thunderbolt monitor. I'm not sure I fully understood that post either though)

I suppose my main questions are -
• will this all work together and have I missed anything? Particularly unsure about cooling
• Is there anywhere I can save money without compromising performance too much? Currently this is about £3500
• Is it really best to build yourself? Remember I have zero experience and don't want to break anything in the process!
• Will this work with my Apple Thunderbolt monitor? It's a decent monitor and I don't really want to fork out for a new one

Many thanks to anyone who takes an interest!
Please explain to me the use of HD3 as cache. This is something new to me, and I'm wondering if it would be useful to me.
 
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Falconer

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I actually just ordered this build and got rid of the cache drive because it seemed like an indulgence. However as far as I understand it speeds up your workflow a bit because your main HD isn’t writing cache files at the same time as your project load.
 
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ThirdVariant

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I actually just ordered this build and got rid of the cache drive because it seemed like an indulgence. However as far as I understand it speeds up your workflow a bit because your main HD isn’t writing cache files at the same time as your project load.
Thanks for your reply! I find this intriguing. How would I set up a cache drive?
 
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Falconer

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For me it would be mostly used as a cache for After Effects which can easily run up 100gb in the space of minutes. I imagine you could probably assign it for fluid or cloth simulations too though I've never tried that
 
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