Workstation for Animation & VXF student | Would be glad for any advice or help!

[tunim]

Hello!

I've ran few variants of PC build through CGDirector's PC Builder, and wanted to ask how different would be the performance between 1200 and 1500 dollars builds, and your general thoughts on them. I am still not sure on what my budget is, because my parents would be the ones paying for it. I don't want to burden them too much with it, but at the same time I want to be sure that their investment in me right now would be the most optimal and would support me in my journey. If you find budget I placed for myself unreasonable, please, let me know.

I am super new to the topic, so I would love to hear any advice. I am on my first year in university on Animation and VXF degree, and planning to get into the industry professionally in a few years.

I am looking for something that would be cost efficient, and comfortably upgradeable in the future for when I get more experience, but wouldn't slow me down in my learning process. Programs I am mainly starting with right now are Maya, Toon Boom Harmony and ZBrush.

The builds are as stated below:

#1

CGDirector.com Parts List: https://www.cgdirector.com/pc-builder/?=6Ns9H

CPU: Intel Core i5 12600K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($277.99)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 ($89.90)
Motherboard: ASUS Prime B660-PLUS DDR4 ATX LGA1700 ($139.99)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6500XT - XFX Speedster ($169.99)
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3200 C16 ($89.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive ($79.99)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W ATX 2.4 Power Supply ($76.31)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 205 Mid Tower Case ($97.88)
Total: $1022.04

#2

CGDirector.com Parts List: https://www.cgdirector.com/pc-builder/?=6Ns9G

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7GHz 12-Core Processor ($399.00)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 ($89.90)
Motherboard: MSI X570 Tomahawk ATX AM4 ($137.20)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700XT - PowerColor Red Devil ($449.00)
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3200 C16 ($89.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive ($119.99)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx Series RM650x 650W ATX 2.4 Power Supply ($76.31)
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 600 Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($115.93)
Total: $1477.32

Thanks to everyone reading this post, and have a nice day!

 

[Jerry James]

If you aren't handling anything core-heavy yet, I'd go with Build #1. It also allows a drop-in upgrade to a 13th Gen Intel CPU down the line.

PS. Force the builder to an Nvidia GPU and generate a build. It just plays better with things like ZBrush and Maya