My Next 3Delight System?

zombiewhacker

A few months back I overhauled my four year old i5 Dell system, swapping an SSD for my HDD and upgrading from 8GB to 12GB RAM. That'll do for now, but eventually I want to go for a brand new build, something more keeping with the times.  Since I'm on a tight budget, I'm not looking for the biggest baddest system out there. But I am looking for a performance boost that would justify the cost of a new system (as opposed to paying for another upgrade).

My basic criteria:

Budget: somewhere in the $900 range... if that sounds reasonable.

Specs: I'm looking to speed up my 3Delight renders -- not Iray.  Unfortunately, being a tech doofus, I wouldn't know a core from a thread if one of them walked up to me and bit me on the arm, so some sage advice there would be greatly appreciated.

To the extent I do use Iray, which is occasionally, all I really need is a bargain nVidia card that can handle simple renders and let me play around with dForce. 

Hard drive, SSD all the way, 1TB or more. 

Memory: 32GB RAM if possible.... I know, that sounds like overkill, but a few of my older scenes are huge, and avoiding swap-to-disk whenever possible would be another needed performance boost.

Bottom line: it heats up around here during the summer months, often hitting 90 or more indoors, and air conditioning is not always an option. Therefore I need a reliable PC that can stay (relatively) cool in the most humid of times.

So as I start shopping around over the coming months, what do you suggest that I should be looking for? Thanks in advance.

 

kenshaw011267

This system comes in near $900 right now.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BrGyRk

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($172.76 @ Walmart) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 120 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($69.98 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Best Buy) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($164.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($116.95 @ B&H) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card  ($169.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Corsair SPEC-04 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($63.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart BX1 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($64.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $938.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-01 01:04 EDT-0400

You might be able to save a little here and there by watching for sales or going for off brands, I'm reluctant to recommend them since quality is kind of spotty.

If you intend to get a prebuilt you will likely need to come down quite a bit in specs, to pay for assembly and shipping.

zombiewhacker

Thanks.  Is the Tomahawk one of those motherboards that can accept Ryzen 7's and 9's? If so, good to know for the far future.

kenshaw011267

Almost any AM4 motherboard can accept any AM4 compatible CPU, all Ryzen 3, 5, 7 and 9'syet released. You might need to update your bios to make it work. But if you're upgrading to the eventual Ryzen 4000's CPU's you might have a compatibility issue. We just don't know yet.

zombiewhacker

BTW I meant to ask... given the specs you laid out, what's the fastest CPU I could upgrade to before I'd be forced to upgrade the PSU + cooling system as well (to handle the additional workload)?

kenshaw011267

The PSU can handle a 3950X. Which barring a change of heart from AMD would be the top of the line for the B450 boards, they just announced in the last week that the upcoming Ryzen 4000 CPU's would not be supported on the 300 or 400 series chipsets.

As to cooling it depends on just how hot it really gets wherer you keep the computer. The cooler I chose is overkill for the 3600 in a normal environment. Once you have it you should use something like Ryzen Master or CPU'Z to monitor the CPU temps. If the cooler keeps the 3600 under 70C, or so, it should handle a 3950X just fine.

Zylox

I just bought a new computer for gaming and DAZ Studio 3Delight renders. I bought a prebuilt computer from Best Buy cheaper than I could build one, and I have been building my own computers since 2001. It gets very hot in my apartment over the summer, and air cooling has always been adequate. I do tend to stuff my case full of fans, and this computer came with three case fans. It has the same CPU as kenshaw suggested, but only 8 GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon graphics card. It only costs $750, so upgrading the RAM should still be fairly cheap. The system is very highly rated, and I am quite happy with it.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-3600-8gb-memory-amd-radeon-rx-580-2tb-hdd-240gb-ssd-black/6362427.p?skuId=6362427

A few of my opinions, you can take them or ignore them, as you choose.

1 - SSD drives are nice, but over rated and over priced. Install Studio on the SSD and the library on the HDD for the best of both worlds.

2 - An Nvidia card with just 4 GB of Vram will not handle very complex Iray scenes before dumping to CPU. In order to handle Iray well, you will need to spend alot on the graphics card. Since you are planning on getting 32 GB of RAM, I suggest skipping the Nvidia card and just let Iray go straight to your CPU.

3 - If you only upgrade every 4 or so years, don't worry about using your current motherboard with a new CPU. The technology will have changed and your old motherboard will probably be obsolete by then.

Adding a set of 32 GB RAM after you get the computer should cost around $165, so it will come in around the cost of the system kenshaw suggested. The biggest issue is whether you feel comfortable assembling your own computer from parts. If you do, the system kenshaw suggested would work quite nicely. If you don't, the one I suggested comes prebuilt and you can have experts add the RAM later.

kenshaw011267

No idea why you think you couldn't build that cheaper than $750.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dpTZdm

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($174.99 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450M-A/CSM Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Team L3 EVO 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($58.98 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 580 8 GB GTS XXX ED Video Card  ($169.99 @ Best Buy) 
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Lite 3.1 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.13 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Rosewill 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $643.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-16 07:52 EDT-0400

Those are the same parts as the prebuilt except where those parts are not specified or are no longer available at retail. Even then I stuck to the same brands where possible. 

You always pay a premium for a prebuilt they just hide it by giving you an mATX system in an old case, that case is one I recognize but couldn't find quickly. It is 4 or 5 years old. The PSU is just barely sufficient to power the system on and is as cheap as possible even then. 

TheKD

If you are going to build your own, check out Phanteks cases. They are decent priced compared to similar options, and top quality. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00K6S1B3Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 That's the one I got on my current build, I put another 200mm exhaust fan on the top vent.