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

Vinny54

Vinny54

Vinny54

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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?
 
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Building yourselves along with downloading windows 10 ISO from their website

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,548.72 (includes shipping: £20.82)​
​

Pushing pre-built with RTX 2070super and Ryzen 3700x... No room for monitor

My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x OcUK Gaming Enigma Enthusiast - Ryzen 7 2700X, GeForce RTX 2070 Super = £1,418.99
    • Memory:Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey
    • Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 Home Advanced - Systems
    • Security Software:**Special Offer** Bullguard Internet Security - Anti-Virus and Security - 1 Year 3 PC
    • Solid State Drive 2:Unwanted
    • Graphics Card:*Build Stock* KFA2 GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER EX 1CLICK-OC 8192MB GDDR6 Graphics Card
    • Case:Kolink Castle Midi Tower Case - Black
    • Solid State Drive:TeamGroup 1TB Vulcan SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive
    • Processor:AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - MPK
Total: £1,433.09 (includes shipping: £14.10)​
​

Using build config for lower quality b450 + WiFi card (not sure if Bluetooth ) + big standard PSU + 3700x & 5700XT

My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x OcUK Kinetic R3 - AMD B450 Configurable Ryzen 3000 Series Gaming PC = £1,268.92
    • Case:Kolink Inspire Series K3 RGB Micro-ATX Case - Black Window
    • Processor:AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail
    • Graphics Card:Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
    • Memory:Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey
    • Primary Drive:Seagate 1TB 2.5" BarraCuda 120 SATA Solid State Drive - *System Stock* (ZA1000CM10003)
    • Secondary Drive:Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 64MB Cache Hard Drive - *System Stock*
    • WIFI:TP-Link Archer T6E Dual-Band Wireless AC1300 PCI-E Adapter
    • Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 Home Advanced - Systems
    • Security Software:**Special Offer** Bullguard Internet Security - Anti-Virus and Security - 1 Year 3 PC
Total: £1,283.02 (includes shipping: £14.10)​
​

Add monitor on top. OCUK bit costly with monitors and most Freesync 1440p 144hz out of stock
 
Vinny54 said:
nd wifi as the PC will be placed nowhere near our modem.
Click to expand...

Don't be afraid to run a long cable around skirting boards. What do you have already? A SSD and HDD can be transplanted.

I'm not sure that Maya supports the RX 5700 - it's not on Autodesk's list, though I see the WX 5700 is.
 
Quartz said:
Don't be afraid to run a long cable around skirting boards. What do you have already? A SSD and HDD can be transplanted.

I'm not sure that Maya supports the RX 5700 - it's not on Autodesk's list, though I see the WX 5700 is.
Click to expand...
.

Find a lot of students run consumer cards for rendering and modelling. I did with the gtx 8800 back in the day .

Once they get their BA... And earn their own cash.. workstation rendering rig !

Also have to see which rendering engine they will use to either use GPU or CPU more...
 
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 :)
 
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 :/
 
If you can afford paying NVidia's brand overprices from not that much more performance than sub £400 Radeon 5700 XT, then you can afford at least some minimum size SSD and PSU from at least basic 5 year warranty giving brand.
Just for example for its high price that Nvidia card will be worser than next-gen console GPUs in general!

And if not actually needing Wifi, B450 Tomahawk would shave £20 instantly.

Kolink would give RGB for cheaper.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/koli...se-black-tempered-glass-window-ca-037-kk.html

Plenty of ways to improve parts actually having some chance to give longer return for money.
 
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.
 
You already fell for heavily brand overpriced graphics card, which has as much future proofness for price as claims that Coronavirus won't affect western countries.
So using more than shoe string money to part, which can actually hold value and will be the part stared most of the time shouldn't be too much.

And anything less than 2560x1440 in resolution is simply POS for any actual work.
While making that Nvidia overpriced card even more overpriced.

It's proper monitor settings and use of colour profiles which is needed with any monitor to make sure that colours show accurately.
 
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