Help please, need to buy a PC suitable for 3D rendering and gaming

[Vinny54]

Hi, My son has got into 3d modelling on Maya which crashes our older Mac pretty regularly. He is 15 but plans to be using this through college and potentially into uni without too much upgrading necessary (so for the next 3-5 years without too much extra investment). He also wants to use the PC for gaming (obviously) and some film editing and animation. So basically we are looking for the best computer we can afford for a student who is working on these sorts of projects.

Our budget can go as far as £1300-£1500 including a monitor. He would like to use bluetooth for PS4 controllers and wifi as the PC will be placed nowhere near our modem. He has done some research and suggested AMD Ryzen rather than Intel for the budget and an RTX 2070 Super with 16GB DDR4 RAM. This is his first Windows PC though and we are really not sure about what spec would be best within our budget, unsure about cases, PSU, sound cards, speakers etc.

We also would like to buy it ready built for the warranty, but mainly just because we dont know what we are doing with building PCs!

Please can anyone help us work this out and suggest what is possible at this price range?

 

[Vinny54]

Hi, Thank you for your advice @orbitalwalsh ! We went through everything you suggested and ended up ordering:
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - MPK
Motherboard MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
CPU Cooler Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black
WD Green 3D NAND 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (WDS120G2G0A)
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200RPM 256MB Cache Hard Drive - *System Stock*
*Build Stock* KFA2 GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER EX 1CLICK-OC 8192MB GDDR6 Graphics Card
Kolink Enclave 700W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply
BitFenix Nova Mesh A-RGB Midi-Tower Case - Black Window
MSI Optix MAG272QR monitor

We wanted it prebuilt and this was the closest we could get to the spec you suggested going slightly over budget. Son has pitched in the extra from his savings
@Quartz there isnt a way to run the cable through to his room, so we are hoping the wifi on that motherboard is decent - did a quick search online and people seem happy with it. If he has any problems he will have to earn himself some extra cash for one
of those powerline devices!

I really appreciate the help I've recieved here and so does my kid. Best wishes all and stay safe

 

[Vinny54]

I cant stretch my budget any further, it would be -£15 to switch to a 1tb HDD but at least £51 to upgrade to the WD BLUE 3D NAND 500GB :/

 

[Vinny54]

Do you think its possible to get a cheaper monitor to make up the difference and invest in a better SSD? He would be happy with 24", but he is looking for a combination of speed for gaming and good colour for creative work. To be honest we had a nightmare looking at monitors as many are out of stock and most reviews only covered gaming performance and didnt mention how decent they would be for working creatively.