One-Stop Build: My ideal PC for 3D animator

General Background

When I was one I remember the first day that my father brought back the first computer we had, which is almost like a white microwave with a relatively small screen.

Something like this:

My first computer: ICECUBE

It has a really small memory and a really slow speed when processing and executing programs. I could only play Paint and FreeCell, as I believe most of us find it fascinating. This computer retired from my family around 2010 or so, until now I still hold thoughts about dissecting it and want to know what’s in there.

Now as a 3D animator. I learned from the basic needs of a computer animator to all the components that could form my ideal computer system, most importantly, I will build my first PC to meet my requirements. (I am going to name it ICECUBE as well!) Start from the hardware aspect to a shopping list to the final software install. And hopefully, this post can help some of you.

Hardware

Our typical personal computer (PC) is an electronic device driven by microchips for information processing. As computers consist of numerous hardware elements, they function cohesively, relying on one another for proper operation. A computer system may incorporate various components, including Graphic Processing Units (GPUs), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a motherboard, multiple units of Random Access Memory (RAM), storage devices (SSD, HDD), CPU coolers, computer cases, and Power Supply Units (PSUs).

Computer hardware refers to tangible components that constitute computer systems, primarily found within the central processing unit (CPU). In other words, the CPU is equal to our brain where it decides to send tasks to all the forces the PC has and give us the result. That’s why we have a phrase referring to, don’t burn out your CPU.

A GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, is a specialized electronic component designed for handling graphics and parallel computing tasks. Originally developed for gaming and multimedia, GPUs have become powerful processors used in various fields, from gaming to scientific research and artificial intelligence. It can multiple-tasking simultaneously, significantly boosting computing speed and efficiency. Which made GPU become the secondary important character besides CPU.

And most likely will be the most expensive component of your PC.

JUST A MEME!

Besides those two, the next thing that comes up is Motherboard.

The motherboard is the main circuit board that connects and facilitates communication between all hardware components, including the CPU, RAM, storage devices, and peripherals. Think of it as the computer’s nervous system, coordinating and controlling data flow to ensure the computer functions smoothly and efficiently. The motherboard houses various connectors, slots, and circuits, making it a critical part of any computer’s architecture.

Next up is RAM.

Random Access Memory, or RAM, is the computer’s short-term memory. It’s where the computer temporarily stores data that it needs for current tasks and processes. RAM is incredibly fast, allowing the computer to access and retrieve data quickly. It’s a crucial component for overall system performance, as it directly affects how smoothly and efficiently your computer runs applications and multitasks. Think of RAM as a worktable where the computer can quickly access and manipulate data before saving it to long-term storage, such as the hard drive or SSD. More RAM often means better multitasking capabilities and faster application response times.

As mentioned above just a little, SSDs or hard drives are for long-term data storage, where the difference between those two is about how fast the data can write in and how secure they are. In conclusion, to save you some time, SSD is safer faster, and more expensive because it stores all the data in a physically more indestructible place, HDD is slower, cheaper, and much bigger space but cannot be dropped and has a higher risk of lost your data.

Overall, those are the key hardware you gonna need to build a PC, besides those you will also need to purchase the CPU cooler, and your PC case which are more based on your interest. However, the CPU cooler does relate to the CPU you purchased, the faster and more powerful the CPU is, the better cooler system it needs because of all the heat it generates. Do not think you can spend all the money buying a powerful CPU without giving it a nice ‘environment’ to work with.

Case to case, you can verify your PC build budget depending on your choice about what kind level of performance you want for your PC. So, from now on, I will talk about each part based on my interest as a 3D animator, in which I will combine software with hardware and provide the shopping list as it needs.

Software

Maya is a software package that can benefit from both a powerful CPU and GPU. For tasks that involve calculations and rendering, a strong CPU is essential, such as high-resolution modeling calculating, Playblast, and simulation caching, and Xgen, and Ncloth simulating. For real-time interactivity and viewport performance, such as render and texture check, a capable GPU can significantly improve the user experience.

ZBrush is a versatile and powerful digital sculpting and painting software used primarily in the fields of 3D art, character design, and visual effects. Developed by Pixologic, it has gained widespread recognition for its innovative approach to 3D modeling and its ability to create highly detailed and intricate digital sculptures. On the Zbrush website, it noted 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. As an example, processing a total of 60 million polygons is possible with a computer with 24+ GB of RAM and an Intel i7-type processor. The processing time would be around 4–5 min, depending on the generation of the processor and the number of cores.

Nuke is an industry-standard node-based compositing and visual effects application. It is widely used in the film and television industry for tasks related to post-production, compositing, and visual effects. Nuke is known for its flexibility, power, and the extensive range of tools it provides for creating high-quality visual effects and seamlessly integrating various elements into a single scene. It can benefit from a powerful GPU for specific tasks, having a high-performance CPU with multiple cores and ample RAM is still crucial for achieving optimal performance in most compositing and visual effects work within Nuke.

To get the best performance in all those software, it’s ideal to have a well-balanced system with the very best CPU and a good GPU, especially if you are working on complex 3D scenes and animations. So…Yeah, I probably will be broke after I build my PC.

Here are the CPU and GPU that I picked for my PC:

Shopping List:

This RTX4070 is not as popular or strong as the famous RTX 4090, but still, I will just test textures on my PC with a certain amount of work about animation and modeling, where the heavy render part will be handled by SVA render farm, this GPU is suitable for me. But if you have a higher budget and are willing to dive into the world of MAYA, I will recommend the Asus ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card, the price now is around 2000$, if you need it to render bigger and more faces objects or scenes, where you need huge VRAM, I could go with RTX A6000, however, most of the case an RTX 4090 will perform nicely.

CPU I chose the INTEL i9 13900K which will be sufficient for most of the tasks as it is now one of the best and fastest, newest models among many CPUs, I didn’t consider AMD just because I have been using Intel for more than 10 years. 24 core allows it to handle modeling in MAYA or Zbrush and Nuke easily.

As for RAM, I choose DDR5 6400 hz for 64GB just for Nuke to run smoothly, which should be able to do most of the tasks at a very fast speed. HD modeling should be able to handle millions of faces without waiting. DDR5 is the fastest, plus there are RGB lights. If you have a higher need, feel free to have 4 x 32GB RAM and make your CPU fly!

Motherboard is essential because it allows the CPU to perform the best or boost the clock speed and set the base for your RAM speed as well(which is DDR5). ASUS always has the best quality and this board also has WIFI 6E which is convenient enough.

For power, I chose a fairly large one with 1000w, which is not necessary for my RTX 44070 GPU but I just want to buy this one in case that I need to upgrade my GPU in the future. If you start with RTX 4090, I will recommend going with 1000EW power at the very beginning because of the power consumption it took.

By now the essential parts are almost there, I just need an SSD, a CPU cooler, and a PC case, which have plenty of choices. But do pay attention that those parts need to measure their size so that the cooler can fit into the case. You can check those from the detailed descriptions.

My case and cooler just for example:

Peripherals List

Peripherals are external devices or components that you can connect to your computer to enhance its functionality or provide additional input and output capabilities. Such as our keyboard and mouse, monitor and speaker, and our tablet.

For those, I could recommend that depending on the budget choose what you like the most because most of their qualities depend on the price.

Have fun with all the RGB lights and fancy choices from the market :)

In conclusion:

Overall I think my PC is a high-level choice for me as a 3D animator, it has a speed 24 core CPU to process most of the software very fast, with the enhancement of a strong GPU RTX 4070 and 64 GB RAM, it is also capable of execute tasks like NUKE or Premier and Photoshop graphic handling. As for entertainment, it can run games such as Baldur’s Gate3 smooth with the highest texture quality.

About assembling your PC, I will recommend a video from this website:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1BG4y137mG/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click

It is by far the best instructions about the PC build guide I saw, unfortunately is in chinses, however, I believe it still can benefit you a lot if you watch it through. Building your PC is fun and with big accomplishment feelings after you light up your machine the first time —

This is my final PC, and my ‘IceCube’ is back, although when I took this picture I was still waiting for my graphic card, but still, feel happy and satisfied after I light it up with one single press!

I even promised my dad I would build him a PC after I got home :)