Building wife a 3d pc - Blender and Zbrush

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XenatR

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 13, 2012
Messages
183
Hi guys,
I'll get straight to the point, my wife has always been a good artist and is creative. We have two kids so far and she is a full time mum. She wanted to work from home and was brainstorming ideas how to make some money on the side, freelancing in her spare time. We discovered 3D modelling could be just the thing for her to get into.
I want to build her a PC which she can use now and grow with into the future.
I already purchased a 5950x but having seen the 7950x price reductions, it is tempting me to spend the extra money and have an AM5 setup ready to accept a simple cpu upgrade in the future.
I have no idea how a better PC will impact 3D design, other than a better gpu making the render faster.
My questions were, would there be a noticeable in the day to day running of Blender/Zbrush between a 5950x and a 7950x, if so, how exactly?
Would the upgrade be worthwhile?
5950x cost me £385
x570 motherboard around £150
64gb ddr4 3200 cl16 approx £180
Total: £715

7950x £570
x670 motherboard (asus tuf) £320
ddr4 64gb 4800 cl40 £210
Total: £1,100

Which would be the more sensible option? Spend less currently or spend more and not have to worry about swapping in and out a complete system again? Would there be a big difference in how they both run?

My other question would be regarding GPUs. Would a 5950x paired with a 3080 ti (~£800 on ebay) outperform a 7950x with a 3060 12gb (~£350 new)? Similar total package cost

How do you guys feel about buying a motherboard and PC case (lian li o11 XL) which could allow for dual gpu rendering if needed at some point in the future? Or is it better to just stick to one gpu and upgrade that as and when required? I was either considering the Lian Li XL (multiple gpu potential) or the Fractal Torrent (420mm aio option and excellent single gpu cooling)
I don't mind spending the extra money if it means something which would allow more flexibility in the future.

Should I be looking at a 4080? or is there no point shelling out these figures (albeit prices came down to ~£1250 for Palit)

Many thanks for your time in responding guys
 
Why not look at b650? Could save $100+. I don't think the difference in performance between 5950 and 7950 is big enough to do a complete new build, but if you are starting from scratch personally id get a more future proof platform (considering the caliber of the pc, seems performance is valued, so being able to upgrade in 5 years by just dropping in a new cpu might be worth it to you. Might not)

Would be good to get a better sense of her work flow to know if she is doing a lot of cpu rendering or gpu rendering. Gpus can do a lot of work with today's software when leveraged.
 
If things did not change recently Cinema4d benchmark can give you an idea of zbrush performance:
https://www.cgdirector.com/cinema-4d-viewport-performance-benchmark-scores/

http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guid...ics/creating-meshes/live-boolean/performance/
Note: The ZBrush 3D display is CPU based, not GPU based. That’s why a large document with a high number of pixels will slow down the 3D display.

Puget give some guidance::
https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/3d-design-workstations/zbrush/

What hardware do I need for the best modeling performance in ZBrush?​

This is a CPU-drive program, with moderate multi-threading capabilities – so the number one priority is a processor with high clock speeds and around 16 cores.

What sort of video card do I need for ZBrush?​

ZBrush does not directly utilize the graphics card, so just about anything will work. We usually recommend a mid-range NVIDIA GeForce card, like the RTX 3070. However, it is important to keep in mind the needs of any other applications you use alongside ZBrush, as they may have more demanding GPU requirements.

How much system RAM do I need for ZBrush?​

ZBrush itself is generally fine with 16GB of system memory, but we recommend 32GB to ensure that you have plenty of RAM for Windows itself and any other software that is running at the same time. Almost everyone has a web browser up while working, for example, and those can hog memory – especially if you have a lot of tabs open.

For blender videos, benchmark would be qutie frequent it is a reviewer favorite.

That said your regular PC is so much ahead of what we used in Softimage-3dsmax in the 90s, I would not stress too much, anything recent that you would end up choosen will be quite good for it.
 
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Have you considered also a proper drawing tablet to go with it? Wacom or one of the others?
As for GPU's until you get into some serious 4k+ renders and such, often mid range cards have enough power for most 3d work so you dont need to buy the highest end "gaming" card, which then you may even want to look at 3d cards like the Quadro vs more directed at gaming cards.,..
Then do not forget some decent PCIe4 NVMe and a BACKUP system! (Kingston KC3000 / WD Black SN850s or something)

Not just a NAS, but proper backups! Whether an external USB drive and then also backed up to a cloud provider or something , 3-2-1 rule!
 
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