PC build for non studio

[cpinto20]

Hey guys!

First of all, love the community, super helpful! I am planning on buying a PC to be my new station for 3d, animation, etc... I have been looking at building a PC to stay on the cheaper side, and I have been looking at work stations that seem to bee super expensive. I am not a freelancer or studio, just looking to start diving into Octane to do different type of work. I guess my question is what kind of PC should i invest in for someone who doesn't necessarily need to have a super fast machine? (I don't have any clients or anything, but I want to get into the Octane world) My company bought me the license but I'm working on a mac and cannot use Octane right now, and have been reading all the useful information about converting to PC. I don't currently have a home computer (except for a small Macbook Pro 13inch) Which obviously won't cut it ahhaha. Could you guys help me find or build a pc built for my needs?

• Around $1000
• Doesn't need to be super fast
• For solo guy experimenting building things, animation
• Never built a PC before
• Mainly Mac background
• Digital designer/artist/motion designer
• Not too knowledgable about computers
• Interested in being able to upgrade computer if/when I start picking up freelance work

Any help would be super useful, I would really like to start working in Octane soon! Thanks so much hope I was clear

-Craig

[toto79]

If you have an older Mac Pro tower, the 5,1 version you can just buy a GPU card and use it to run Octane.

[renderingz]

Pretty sure you could buy GPU and connect it to your macbook with a thunderbolt expander for use with octane... someone on the forum should be able to point you in the right direction for setting this up! This means you can spend a bit more on a decent GPU, and when the time comes, you just get the rest of the parts and build your rig.

[glimpse]

so..let's start with simply saying, You have two routes:

a. to get eGPU (thunderbolt powered box + PSU + GPU).. for roughtly 1000$ You could expand You MacBook Pro into pretty beastly machine scoring 100-120 & having 6GB of vram =)

or..

b. to build a dedicated computer, here are the check points I would be looking for =)
(few years ago I have exactly the same budged to spent for temporary rig I needed):

* Z170, Z97 motherboard for the backbone (Z97 is older generation, but it uses DDR3 ram, so total system cost is a bit lower). 100-200$
* quad core CPU is enough for Octane & would still be plenty for other tasks, don't take "top of the hill", spending here would be around 200-300$
* cpu cooler could be found for like 20-30$, but a bit more silent solution might cost more..
* 16GB of RAM might be enough, but on the long run You might want to get 32, so keep only two slots (2x8GB) from four populated, 50-75$
* think about maximum GPUs You might want to add..& choose PSU acordingly (750W should be enough for pair of high end Cards if You wish to expand), bellow 100$
* look for SSD probably around 256GB should make sense, but it depends on Your needs (add HDD acordingly), less than 100$ for SSD..
& so.. depending on other parts You choose to get.. You should be left with like ~500$ for GPU.. & at this price range logical step would be GTX980 (if You look to get new).
ou, yeah, case..with some deals could be found for ~50$ - I had one from FractalDesign (simple, plain, no "bling")

Don't take this as go to list - adopt to Your needs (& future plans =) look more like to a guideline..but.. overall I would say for around 1k$ You should be able to get reasonable piece to be able to work with Octane comfortably.

if You plan this as a long run solution..maybe getting smaller system drive, less ram for now, but better motherboard. Sticking with included bundled CPU heatsing might be good choise for now & then probably getting beter (even AIO) cooler (& OC CPU) might be good idea to save some funds for now. 16GB of Ram should be enough to start & then, maybe You already got some external storage so You would not have to spend money for it. etc. - if You think holistically & take a bit here & there but still leave some space to expand (by gettign better motherboard), & maybe even 980Ti (adding 100-200$ might be wise).. You could end up with very good base config to build up on & use as powerful GPU workhorse.

I'll post some details about eGPu route later, if You would be interested =)