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GLBBuilding a render PC (CLOSED)
217
This could go under "Technical Talk" but I thought it would be more accessible in this thread because people should not be afraid to build a workstation to do renders.
The question of how "fancy" my machine is and how much it might cost is one I get from time to time in the PMs. Most people assume that a decent rendering machine is very spendy, and therefore don't dare to dream. This is a mistake. If you're willing to build a machine on your own (if you can make your bed in the morning you can build a workstation, it's not complicated) you can get by for around $1000, depending on where you spend your money.
Here is a general spec-out on building a machine. These are simply links to items that I might buy if I were making a new build. They're provided here to give you a sense of what the final cost would be for the essentials. The machine I built using these parts if I were building a machine is one I would trust to be easily capable of creating great renders in Iray.
CPU
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=4771c1dce5b9df5f&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1JSBI_enUS1074US1074&sxsrf=ADLYWIKP3c2YlQY-ce8XHqb31VAlOBT20w:1715613374031
Motherboard (make sure that whatever you buy accepts "AMD" as a CPU if you're going to use the Ryzen).
https://www.google.com/shopping/product/14951300931784886948
RAM
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/8936606/PNY-XLR8-Gaming-EPIC-X-RGB/
Power Supply (Make sure this component pulls at least 1000W. Some sources recommend less, but this is such an easy place to safely overbuild for almost no extra cashish, do it. Obviously you'll want to order one that will accommodate your national voltages. Most will by using a slide switch on the back but make sure.)
https://www.amazon.com/Apevia-ATX-SN1050W-Signature-Certified-Modular/dp/B0741RKRY5/ref=asc_df_B0741RKRY5/
Case
https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-4000D-Airflow-Tempered-Mid-Tower/dp/B08C7BGV3D
Graphics Card
https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-4060Ti-Founders/dp/B00JFYB8VM
NOTE: The one thing I don't compromise on is the GPU. I only -- ONLY -- use "Founders Edition" cards. These are made by Nvidia themselves. Others are only licensed to use the processors. Not all Nvidias are created equal and nothing succeeds like success. My advice is to stick with Founders Edition Nvidia cards. This is and should be the largest single outlay in your build. You can compromise with everything else but don't compromise with this.
Those are the essential items. Keyboard, mouse, monitor, all of that is completely ancillary and can be picked up at any local store and are all entirely up to your tastes and needs. I hope this helps.
The question of how "fancy" my machine is and how much it might cost is one I get from time to time in the PMs. Most people assume that a decent rendering machine is very spendy, and therefore don't dare to dream. This is a mistake. If you're willing to build a machine on your own (if you can make your bed in the morning you can build a workstation, it's not complicated) you can get by for around $1000, depending on where you spend your money.
Here is a general spec-out on building a machine. These are simply links to items that I might buy if I were making a new build. They're provided here to give you a sense of what the final cost would be for the essentials. The machine I built using these parts if I were building a machine is one I would trust to be easily capable of creating great renders in Iray.
CPU
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=4771c1dce5b9df5f&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1JSBI_enUS1074US1074&sxsrf=ADLYWIKP3c2YlQY-ce8XHqb31VAlOBT20w:1715613374031
Motherboard (make sure that whatever you buy accepts "AMD" as a CPU if you're going to use the Ryzen).
https://www.google.com/shopping/product/14951300931784886948
RAM
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/8936606/PNY-XLR8-Gaming-EPIC-X-RGB/
Power Supply (Make sure this component pulls at least 1000W. Some sources recommend less, but this is such an easy place to safely overbuild for almost no extra cashish, do it. Obviously you'll want to order one that will accommodate your national voltages. Most will by using a slide switch on the back but make sure.)
https://www.amazon.com/Apevia-ATX-SN1050W-Signature-Certified-Modular/dp/B0741RKRY5/ref=asc_df_B0741RKRY5/
Case
https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-4000D-Airflow-Tempered-Mid-Tower/dp/B08C7BGV3D
Graphics Card
https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-4060Ti-Founders/dp/B00JFYB8VM
NOTE: The one thing I don't compromise on is the GPU. I only -- ONLY -- use "Founders Edition" cards. These are made by Nvidia themselves. Others are only licensed to use the processors. Not all Nvidias are created equal and nothing succeeds like success. My advice is to stick with Founders Edition Nvidia cards. This is and should be the largest single outlay in your build. You can compromise with everything else but don't compromise with this.
Those are the essential items. Keyboard, mouse, monitor, all of that is completely ancillary and can be picked up at any local store and are all entirely up to your tastes and needs. I hope this helps.
! REPORT
Also... I forgot to mention storage. Storage is almost an ancillary item as well. I recommend a solid state drive. You can pick these up for under $100 almost anywhere. In addition to that it's a good idea to think about incremental backups if you're a content creator. For this, I use an external 4TB HDD. The drive itself and the caddy to hold it were pretty cheap. I don't remember exactly but it was well under $200 for the whole shebang. I make an incremental every few weeks for local safe-keeping. This isn't necessary if you haven't been creating content but I have almost ten years of files that I don't want to lose. Cloud storage also plays a role here for me but that external drive is my "vault".
! REPORT
EDIT:
The CPU link is bad. Here's the corrected one:
https://www.amazon.com/AMD-5500-12-Thread-Unlocked-Processor/dp/B09VCJ171S
The CPU link is bad. Here's the corrected one:
https://www.amazon.com/AMD-5500-12-Thread-Unlocked-Processor/dp/B09VCJ171S
! REPORT
A nice machine.
I add that for the GPU:
V-ram size = 3D scene size
Number of Cuda Cores = Rendering / simulation speed
This is to keep it simple.
After hybrid rendering (CPU + GPU), no real noticeable gain (really specific). For the monsters, I did some tests, my 13900K cannibalizes a 3060 lol.
I add that for the GPU:
V-ram size = 3D scene size
Number of Cuda Cores = Rendering / simulation speed
This is to keep it simple.
After hybrid rendering (CPU + GPU), no real noticeable gain (really specific). For the monsters, I did some tests, my 13900K cannibalizes a 3060 lol.
! REPORT
Causam3D
Karma: 24,482
Mon, May 13, 2024Good points, but I suppose that depends on what you like to render. I'm a former glamour photographer (back when glamour meant glamour, not "beaver shots and pimples"). My instinct is always to keep it simple. A busy scene in my opinion has much more it has to justify. If a guy wants to render dragons with spaceships in the background in a full on battle scene, you have a point. My work is different than that. 
Want most of your budget to go to a good PSU and GPU really. Don't skimp on CPU though, especially for daz studio. A decent speed CPU prettymuch stopped most of my viewport slider lag, unless I am going crazy on the scene. I can fit like 50 different naked g8f, sliders never lagged, but the whole daz studio just crashed completely when I added number 51 to the scene lol. CPU will help your viewport not lag when you have stuff like subd and smoothing on. All my GPU have been MSI frozer versions, keeps it nice and cool. My CPU now is a 12 core ryzen with a noctua cooler.
! REPORT
When creating renders with Daz Studio all of my CPU power is taken by DAZ. My PC is 10 years old, CPU i5-4430 3.00GHz and 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti video card. There is a programming problem: interrupt management. The time it takes for my click to be taken into account is abnormally long to start displaying the web page.
! REPORT
Also check if there are studio drivers available instead of the given game drivers.
! REPORT
