Good Computer - I know this is asked a hundred times but I am not understanding the other threads
ameliajanemurph
Posts: 26
Hey all.
So I understand absolutely NOTHING about computers. I have been using DAZ3D on my MacBook pro for about a year. It is...manageable. But it takes 3-4 hours to just render a naked character, let alone anything with clothes and I haven't event tried scenes because I don't want my computer to explode. It also takes up to a minute or two just to view something in IRAY in the program when building a character and I can't modify in IRAY view at all. I have to build and then view in the IRAY view to see how it looks, then exit out of that, make tweaks, and view again. All in all, the process is incredibly time-consuming.
I would like to purchase a PC to make all this easier. This is honestly just a hobby, I make the characters and then pull them into photoshop to create artworks from them. So I don't need anything crazy and I don't think I want to do a custom build as I just don't have the computer knowledge and no one at any of the computer stores seem to know what I really need. They are all gamers. Listing specs to me is basically as useful as giving me advice in Chinese, which is why I have such trouble following the other threads addressing this. I was hoping someone could just say, buy THIS computer, it may not be the best of the best for this kind of thing but you will be able to build in the IRAY view and renders won't take hours and freeze up your computer so totally it can't do anything else while it is rendering. Basically, anything that will take this process from 8 hours to something more like 1 or 2 would be OK for me. And if it is good enough that I could then maybe start actually playing with lighting and scenes a little that would be pretty cool.
So any suggestions for specific computers would be helpful.
Thanks!
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Comments
How much do you want to spend? For iray rendering speed, the most important thing is to get the best nvidia GPU with as much VRAM as possible.
And "best" means expensive.
Yeah prettymuch. Paid over a grand for my 2080 super, feels bad man. I don't really like blowing that much on a whole computer, let alone one part.
Doing the custom build (putting the pieces together) isnt hard so you shouldnt be deterred by just buying the components. The difficult thing is knowing what components to buy (for people like us who dont know much about computers and get overwhelmed with all the different components and making sure the motherboard, power supply, cooling is all compatible with everything etc).
I think some places will build the PC for you anyway for an added fee.
Some PC forums will put a quote together for you if you just tell them your budget and that you need to optimise best Nvidia GPU with highest VRAM over everything else. E.g., the subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/ seems to have people who will recommend builds so that way you dont have to think about it.
You can compare the specs of their recommendations vs. pre-built computers to see if it's worth doing the custom build or not.
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/ another great site, helps you find cheapest place to buy parts, and helps make sure they are compatible. It's helped me build 4 rigs so far, and numerous times just replacing or upgrading a rig already built. If you live somewhere other than canada, click on the canadian flag in upper right corner and pick your country.
If you get a good gaming computer you will be able to do a lot more and in much shorter times. A few years I ago I went from an HP laptop with no graphics card (did a small scene with 1 or two people in about 8 hours). Then I purchased a Dell gaming laptop it had an Nvidia 960m graphics card with 4Gb Vram which at the time was a moderate to small card and I could render 4 and sometimes even six people in a simple scene in a couple hours. The only change I made was to add more RAM because it only came with 8 Gb - at the time the system cost about $900 - now prices have dropped to about $650 for a comparable system. I reccommend looking around and finding a newer unit (hopefully on sale) but this is the link to the one I bought so you can see a sample. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015PYYDMQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Many gaming computers now come with 1080's or Ti's with greater capability and are reasonably priced. Also, just for comparison, when my mother passed away, I had a small inheritance and I used some of it towards a rendering computer (yes, I can justify this as I am in publishing - not just a hobby) - I built my own system for the first time and it included a Nvidia M6000 with 24Gb vram - which alone cost $2700.00 plus the rest of the computer to run it. I can put 20 dressed characters in a more complex scene and render in Iray - and the simpler scenes with 4 people will render in under 15 minutes unless I am using difficult lighting. So ... a $400 dollar system with no graphics card took 8 hours, a $900 system with a small to moderate graphics card did noticeably more in 2 hours, and $7000 system does a lot more a lot faster. Hope this helps.
That is a helpful perspective. Thank you.
To everyone else, I was hoping to spend around $1500 or so. It seems whenever I get into building my own it costs much more than premade computers. I was looking at something like https://digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=2486287. But when I am looking at specs I don't even see anything that says VRAM. Lol. So I am not even sure how to figure out if computers have what people are talking about.
Thank you I will try posting there!
A $1500 US rendering computer:
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NHMqgJ
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($172.39 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($74.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card ($499.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master MasterCase H500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($106.14 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($142.88 @ Other World Computing)
Total: $1396.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-07 19:07 EDT-0400
This leaves some room for a cheapish monitor, keyboard and mouse (since you likely need those as well).
If you don't need a monitor or don't need a Win10 license or both you can upgrade the graphics card to a 2080 Super (there isn't much price difference between the 2080 and 2080 Super so I wouldn't bother with a 2080 it is effectively a 2070 Super) and still be close to your budget.
Building a PC is pretty straightforward. There are many videos on you tube showing how in detail. LinusTechTips, Paul's Hardware and GamersNexus all have them and they are accurate.
If you're going to go that route, invest in an ESD wrist strap, and a ground tester to make sure that ground in your house's sockets are actually correctly wired to ground. Things needed for a good Daz experience are so expensive that a bit of insurance is justified.
Reddit is going to be iffy. You might get a helpful response and you might get a troll response.
Hey! I also understand next to NOTHING about computers. I've been using Daz about 6 months and quickly realized I needed more computer. Luckily I have a guy who knows a little more than me and he helped me build a new machine but honestly after watching him and a few Youtube videos, I think I could have done it myself. Like other posters said, you really want the best GPU graphics card you can buy. I got a Gigabyte RTX 2070 super with 8gigs of vram. There are more expensive cards with I think 11gigs, but since my BF was footing the bill, I went with the 8gig. Beyond that we used a Ryzen 7, asus x570 tuf motherboard, and 32mb of ram with a 1t ssd drive. I could get you the complete parts list. We only paid about 1400 for it and it was loads cheaper than what I would have gotten in a prebuilt computer. The best part is he put it in a super cute case with glass sides and flashing lights! So if you really want a good machine to render on, check out some youtube videos. You can probably built your own.
Side note: what the hell happened to me? I suddenly know how to talk geek? What has my life become?
To the other geeks: "Pssstt.... she knows it's really not that complicated. She must be eliminated"
While it would cost me several thousand a year as I build PC's as a side gig I'd love it most people were confident enough to do it themselves. Too many people get saddled with the garbage sold by HP, Dell and whatever brands are in Best Buy,
i still havent purchased/activated windows 10 for my PC. I just had someone download from microsoft and burn it onto a CD and found an old CD-reader so i could install it. Obviously can be done with a thumb drive too.
I dont really notice any difference between an inactive vs active windows 10 license besides the little watermark on the lower right telling me to activate it.
There are, IIRC, 2 things that don't work on the unactivated version. You can's set a wallpaper on the desktop and something else that I forget.
The Win10 installer fits on a thumb drrive and MS provides the ability to create one directly on their site.
But it would be wrong to recommend that someone not buy Windows or recommend that someone go find a cheap activation key somewhere.
This is so helpful to have put together for me. Thank you so much! I am guessing the above will be pretty good, at least a whole lot better than my MAC correct?
Oh no! Don't worry, I still have to figure out how to put in another hard drive because my first one is almost full already! I think I'm going to get another ssd because I wont have to run any extra cables.
i was meaning to activate it after installing it (2 years ago) but $140 always seems like a lot to set a wallpaper im not going to look at.
bill gates doesnt need my money.
Yes, it will be much much faster than your Mac doing just about everything that will run on PC. For iRay it will take multi hour renders down to minutes.
Installing a HDD, or SSD is easy. You need a SATA data cable, if you don't have one get one when you get the drive, and a SATA power connection. You've likely got a spare plug, or 6, in your system right now so don't worry about that much. For an HDD you also need to attach it to something, SSD's don't much care and can just be taped to a part of the case if you're lazy. Your case likely has HDD cages so it should be a matter of getting the case manual to see what it is and where. Then just mount the HDD and connect the cables.
I'm sure there are videos on YT showing how.
You know Bill Gates left Microsoft a long time ago, right?
Which is exactly what one would expect a discovered infiltrator to say.
Just kidding :) But like what others have said, I'm happy that you're discovering that many such things are not so complicated and for them you need not be at the mercy of others to do it for you. Just use an ESD strap on a tested outlet every time your case comes off and you'll be fine.