The 3D animation / video editing build!

M

MoreDents

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
294
Hey everyone

I'm helping my friend build a new computer and he's a 3D animator.

To answer the default [H] questions...

  1. It will be for 3D modeling (Maya), video editing and After-effects. Plus gaming :D
  2. Budget is around $1000 - $1200 (w/out monitor)
  3. We live in the United States
  4. We Need everything. Including monitor choices...
  5. We'll be reusing no old parts
  6. Won't OC
  7. He doesn't have a monitor. We're thinking of dual 24" possibly...
  8. I plan on building it ASAP. It is spring break :cool:
  9. No need for SLI or RAID. We want to go with 1 high-end video card
  10. As for the OS...should I use XP or Vista and utilize 4+GB of RAM?

Thank you. This will help us immensely. :)

Note:
I did do a search for 3D builds and found this
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1403878&highlight=build
But his budget was $2000 and he wasn't planning on using it for gaming
 
$100 - 6GB DDR3
$250 - quality X58 board (ASUS, Gigabyte)
$280 - i7 920 CPU
$100 - quality 750w PSU
$80 - WD 6401AALS 640GB 7200RPM HDD (Black Series)
$25 - 22x SATA DVDRW
$55 - Antec Three-Hundred case
$250 - ATI Radeon HD 4890 (wait for this if you can, less than a month, otherwise get a 1GB 4870 for ~$180)
$100 - Quality keyboard and mouse.

$1240 approximately, before shipping. Some of my prices are a bit high so if you look for deals at all you should be able to get within budget shipped no problem.

As for monitors, I'd consider a refurbished (full warranty) Dell 30" WFP3007 for $800 + tax rather than the two 24", if he thinks that'd work better for him, or possibly a pair of HP LP2475w 24"s for ~$600 each if that's within budget.
 
Thanks for the great list. I'll look into each on NewEgg

And as I mentioned in the other topic...apparently my topic was duplicated. Mod help please? Thanks!
 
Considering the fact that the original poster said nothing about gaming, I'd go with a lower spec video card. The 4890 is a pretty high-end card. (It'll be AMD's flagship when it comes out.) Unless the "3D animation" that was mentioned involves scene complexity on the order of modern PC games (millions of polygons at a time), I think a much more modest card would do very nicely.

Meanwhile, both video editing and (presumably) 3D animation could eat up lots of RAM. So, you couldn't have too much RAM on this machine. I would use the savings from the video card to go even higher on the amount of RAM.
 
guney said:
Considering the fact that the original poster said nothing about gaming, I'd go with a lower spec video card. The 4890 is a pretty high-end card. (It'll be AMD's flagship when it comes out.) Unless the "3D animation" that was mentioned involves scene complexity on the order of modern PC games (millions of polygons at a time), I think a much more modest card would do very nicely.

Meanwhile, both video editing and (presumably) 3D animation could eat up lots of RAM. So, you couldn't have too much RAM on this machine. I would use the savings from the video card to go even higher on the amount of RAM.
Click to expand...

MoreDents said:
Plus gaming. :D
Click to expand...

No mention of gaming, huh? Gaming on a 24" or 30" LCD requires major horsepower. Try again.
 
Use Vista 64bit and go with 6 or 12GB.

Is this machine going to be used for HD (1080P) 3D and Video?
 
Silent's build is good. Go with 12GB, as Zepher mentioned. Also, get a RAMdisk program. ;) Don't forget a UPS, too.
 
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