Need Help Buying New PC for 3D Modeling/Animation

[sgan]

My budget is around $1.5k-$2k. I mainly uses 3ds max, ZBrush, and now Lightwave for 3D;Plugins i use for 3ds Max are rayfire, realflow and fumefx.

Im still pretty inexperience in pc hardware, so instead of building it myself, im customizing a pc base on the parts they have on this website and have they assemble it.

http://www.computerlx.com/config.aspx?t=&product_ID=1646

Here is what i have so far,any suggestions are welcome

-Case: Cooler Maser HAF X 942 RC-942-KKN1

-Processor: intel quad core i7 2600k

-Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Pro

-16Gb 1600mhz dual channel RAM

-Hard Drive: Someone suggested a SSD for OS and main apps,are the improvements significant?if so they have kingston and Crucial,ill prob get a 30G one and a WD 1tb Black 7200rpm 64cache

-Graphic Card: nVidia GTX 560 Ti 2Gb

-Cooling:No Idea,please let me know what you would put in for a build like this,remember i have to choose from the ones in the website above =P

-PSU: Corsair 750watt high performance

Thanks alot in advance

 

[sgan]

did more research and made my questions abit more specific. any help is appreciated. thanks =]

 

[daniSAUR]

Looks great mate, although I'd probably change a few things.

HDD: could get yourself 2x Samsung F3 1TB's and RAID 0 them, would get decent speeds from it and put some money towards a 60/64/120GB SSD for OS and a few games/programs (I've put Maya and Max on my SSD for quick boot times)

HSF: if you budget allows it, nab yourself a Noctua D14. It's one of the top dogs for cooling chips and it's really really quiet. If not, I'd say the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ is pretty alright too.

GPU: Are you going to game at all on this rig? Get a nVidia card as they are more geared to Autodesk products due to CUDA.

Note on the RAM, later on you may want to add another 8GB. I know I am, for quick renders.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[ruthless_villain]

i think that psu is crap get a corsair ax850w

 

[sgan]

thanks for the replys,to be honest i dont really understand what you guys just said, so ill go research on the things you guys mentioned haha

 

[sgan]

i think that psu is crap get a corsair ax850w

im just customizing from the website above,they dont seems to have that in the list,anything on their psu list that would be a balance(prince/performance) substitute?how about the sorsair 750watt high performance?

 

[sgan]

Looks great mate, although I'd probably change a few things.

HDD: could get yourself 2x Samsung F3 1TB's and RAID 0 them, would get decent speeds from it and put some money towards a 60/64/120GB SSD for OS and a few games/programs (I've put Maya and Max on my SSD for quick boot times)

HSF: if you budget allows it, nab yourself a Noctua D14. It's one of the top dogs for cooling chips and it's really really quiet. If not, I'd say the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ is pretty alright too.

GPU: Are you going to game at all on this rig? Get a nVidia card as they are more geared to Autodesk products due to CUDA.

Note on the RAM, later on you may want to add another 8GB. I know I am, for quick renders.

Hope this helps you out.

thanks for the reply.

an SSD sounds like a great idea, any suggestion on what manufacturer?they have kingston and crucial

as for the cooling, they dont have noctua either =/,only some from the corsair hydro and antec kuhler series.

For the graphics card the geforce gtx480 1536mb looks decent performance/price wise, i used this website for benmark http://whatgfx.com/. Let me know what you think =P.Also do you think i should get an extra cheaper card since i have crossfire?or is that only effective for gaming?

Thanks

 

[daniSAUR]

thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately i have many restrictions in the build mainly because its just a customize pc purchase, but the SSD for os and max is a good idea,ill keep that in mind =)

as for the cooling, they dont have noctua either =/,only some from the corsair hydro and antec kuhler series.

For the graphics card the geforce gtx480 1536mb looks decent performance/price wise, i used this website for benmark http://whatgfx.com/. Let me know what you think =P.Also do you think i should get an extra cheaper card since i have crossfire?or is that only effective for gaming?

Thanks

No problem mate.

It was a minor suggestion the SSD, don't feel pressured into buying one.

But definitely look into getting the Samsung F3's and look at RAID 0. You'll get faster speeds (so some have benchmarked) than SSDs so it's worth something to save money on and have 2TB worth of space.

What site are you using? Maybe we can recommend something off of it if we can see where you're buying from.

The 480 is a great card, although it's getting pretty dated now, you could even look into the 560/560-ti/570/580 range. I've got the 560-ti which works great and perfectly fine for the software. Crossfire/SLi is aimed at the gamer enthusiasts and you'd only see the boosted performance with FPS speeds in games.

Ha didn't even see the PSU listed! Yeah anything branded Corsair is pretty good. The HX/AX series is amazing (*whistles* i'm not being biased at all..

) but I have a HX650 Corsair PSU which is superb. Silent and powerful with a wonderful 7 year warranty and gold award.

 

[sgan]

No problem mate.

It was a minor suggestion the SSD, don't feel pressured into buying one.

But definitely look into getting the Samsung F3's and look at RAID 0. You'll get faster speeds (so some have benchmarked) than SSDs so it's worth something to save money on and have 2TB worth of space.

What site are you using? Maybe we can recommend something off of it if we can see where you're buying from.

The 480 is a great card, although it's getting pretty dated now, you could even look into the 560/560-ti/570/580 range. I've got the 560-ti which works great and perfectly fine for the software. Crossfire/SLi is aimed at the gamer enthusiasts and you'd only see the boosted performance with FPS speeds in games.

Ha didn't even see the PSU listed! Yeah anything branded Corsair is pretty good. The HX/AX series is amazing (*whistles* i'm not being biased at all..

) but I have a HX650 Corsair PSU which is superb. Silent and powerful with a wonderful 7 year warranty and gold award.

this is where im customizing/buying from

http://www.computerlx.com/config.aspx?t=&product_ID=1646

 

[sgan]

No problem mate.

It was a minor suggestion the SSD, don't feel pressured into buying one.

But definitely look into getting the Samsung F3's and look at RAID 0. You'll get faster speeds (so some have benchmarked) than SSDs so it's worth something to save money on and have 2TB worth of space.

What site are you using? Maybe we can recommend something off of it if we can see where you're buying from.

The 480 is a great card, although it's getting pretty dated now, you could even look into the 560/560-ti/570/580 range. I've got the 560-ti which works great and perfectly fine for the software. Crossfire/SLi is aimed at the gamer enthusiasts and you'd only see the boosted performance with FPS speeds in games.

Ha didn't even see the PSU listed! Yeah anything branded Corsair is pretty good. The HX/AX series is amazing (*whistles* i'm not being biased at all..

) but I have a HX650 Corsair PSU which is superb. Silent and powerful with a wonderful 7 year warranty and gold award.

So the SSD is just for faster boost and stability right?Is the improvement from normal hdd?If so ill just a like a 30G Crucial/Kingston(whichever is better)for OS and Max and get a 1tb drive.I already have a 1tb WD black for backup anyway

I've decide to go with 560-ti 2G, its actually cheaper cuz the 460 1546mb i choose was actually express hehe.

Do you think ill need some cooling system?like liquid cooling for the processor,thermal paste, harddrive fan, or case exhaust fan?

thanks alot

 

[dugdiamond]

if you are going to be using autodesk products.... dont get an AMD GPU.... get an nvidia 5-series or better, as autodesk modelling utilises physx in some plugins

EDIT: just read your last post - the gtx560ti is a great choice for max or maya

 

[sgan]

if you are going to be using autodesk products.... dont get an AMD GPU.... get an nvidia 5-series or better, as autodesk modelling utilises physx in some plugins

EDIT: just read your last post - the gtx560ti is a great choice for max or maya

Thanks =),i guess ill edit my main post that way plp whos giving suggestions dont have to read through the whole discussion hehe

 

[JackyBoy]

I would definitely suggest getting an ssd, Maya boots up so much quicker now, it went from a one minute boot time to A 13 second boot time.

 

[sgan]

I would definitely suggest getting an ssd, Maya boots up so much quicker now, it went from a one minute boot time to A 13 second boot time.

ahh i see, ill get a 30G one then =P,thx for the info

 

[sgan]

for cooling i've got a corsair hydro h100 for the processor,and 2 themaltake case fan. Plp say themaltake fans are loud, but i think ill be okay with it as long as it works well. My concern now is if i should get a exhaust fan.

 

[Omario]

Your case (HAF X) will come with a 140mm rear fan, a 200mm fan on the top, a 230mm in the front and a 200mm on the side panel, so you probably wont want to get an extra rear fan. Infact if i were you i'd get a signle 200mm fan instead of the 2 thermaltakes and fit it in the top of the HAF X with the other 200mm and that should be fine for case cooling imo.

a 2GB 560Ti is a great choice for modeling and animation, but if you want to rethink it - like others have said stick with nVidia GPUs with CUDA. The cpu cooler is also a good choice, personally i would get the NH-D14 though.

Also what screen(s) will you be using? If your gonna stick to 1 monitor i highly recommend using a 16:10 monitor over a 16:9 one. You'll appreciate the extra height.

 

[Rastalovich]

Go with GeForce if you don't need detailed work.

Also, whatever drive setup you go with - I absolutely advise you to buy an external USB/Firewire Harddrive to routinely backup your work/projects.