New PC for 3D work and Gaming

[DaveRyan853]

My daughter wants a PC for her 18th. She does a lot of digital artwork with a graphic tablet on her current laptop, but doesn't take the laptop off the desk.
She wants to get into 3D modeling and needs something a bit more power and of course she is into gaming on console, as the laptop can't run games that well.
The quote below is one she sent to me. I've not spec'ed a PC in about 5 years, so not up to date on the latest changes. So the usual question... is this spec good value for the price, are there changes that I should be doing or could do within the same budget ~€1500?

Thanks for any advice you give. Im looking to buy soon as her birthday was last week, so don't want her to wait too long.
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[Ekans2011]

What monitor will you pair with it? What level of gaming and 3D work are you looking for?

A 1500€ budget might be extremely restrictive; for example, the build above is based on a half-dead platform (DDR4) with some subpar components (i.e. low-tier GPU, low-tier/office spec PSU, unknown/unreliable SSD and Cooler), and essentially there will be no room for future upgrades.

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[DaveRyan853]

What monitor will you pair with it? What level of gaming and 3D work are you looking for?

A 1500€ budget might be extremely restrictive; for example, the build above is based on a half-dead platform (DDR4) with some subpar components (i.e. low-tier GPU, low-tier/office spec PSU, unknown/unreliable SSD and Cooler), and essentially there will be no room for future upgrades.

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The monitor would be one that I currently have, so a 27" 4k or 1 or 2 24" 1080p. I have an 34" and a 27" 1440p that might be a future hand me down.
The 3D work is Blender and really just to see if its something she would want to work with more in future, so just starting out. I have a 3D printer, so i expect she would want to design to print.
I was looking at the DDR5 setups, but budget is a concern for this first 'real' PC of hers. Upgrade would be good in the future, but it wouldn't be for a year or for major components, maybe RAM and SSD within the year.

Thanks for getting back to me!

 

[Ekans2011]

The monitor would be one that I currently have, so a 27" 4k or 1 or 2 24" 1080p. I have an 34" and a 27" 1440p that might be a future hand me down.
The 3D work is Blender and really just to see if its something she would want to work with more in future, so just starting out. I have a 3D printer, so i expect she would want to design to print.
I was looking at the DDR5 setups, but budget is a concern for this first 'real' PC of hers. Upgrade would be good in the future, but it wouldn't be for a year or for major components, maybe RAM and SSD within the year.

Thanks for getting back to me!

Sorry, but which of these monitors will you be using? You won't be able to do much at 1440p or 4K resolutions, and even a 1080p Blender workstation will most likely be too expensive.

I'd propose waiting for some other user recommendation, because I can't find anything (personally) worthwhile under 1700-1800€ for an extremely low-end build.

 

[DaveRyan853]

Sorry, but which of these monitors will you be using? You won't be able to do much at 1440p or 4K resolutions, and even a 1080p Blender workstation will most likely be too expensive.

I'd propose waiting for some other user recommendation, because I can't find anything (personally) worthwhile under 1700-1800€ for an extremely low-end build.

Thanks. If budget wasn't an issue, then I would be happy to go for something that's perfect, but I dont want to shell out more for a possible short lived hobby.
I wait and see if someone has a suggestion that can suit my budget.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Thanks. If budget wasn't an issue, then I would be happy to go for something that's perfect, but I dont want to shell out more for a possible short lived hobby.
I wait and see if someone has a suggestion that can suit my budget.

Which is the possible short term hobby? Gaming or 3d work? Or does the system only need to cater to 3d?

 

[DaveRyan853]

Which is the possible short term hobby? Gaming or 3d work? Or does the system only need to cater to 3d?

3D Modelling could be short term as she just wants to start. Gaming I would expect would be something that would carry on if the 3D stays or goes. Currently shes drawing a lot of 2D digital art.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

3D Modelling could be short term as she just wants to start. Gaming I would expect would be something that would carry on if the 3D stays or goes. Currently shes drawing a lot of 2D digital art.

So for gaming, for very entry level 1080p, a suitable system would still be over £1500

You can build one cheaper but only by cutting corner on the platform which sacrifices longevity and upgrade ability.

So you may pay less at purchase, but in the expected lifetime of the pc you’ll pay substantially more as you’ll have to replace components you’ve already bought or replace the system far earlier than needed.

Any system we design would be with the expected lifetime of 7 - 10 years with one or two GPU upgrades during that time. GPU upgrades are essential to keep up with modern technologies and games, nothing you can do to avoid that.

With a well designed platform, all you should ever need to replace is the GPU.

With a poorly designed pc, you need to replace things like CPU, PSU, cooler etc which not only incurs extra cost, but often results in a full system rebuild so you need to know how to build a pc in the first place which people buying from a system builder tend not to know how to do.

More often than not, people buying poorly specced PCs tend to replace them entirely when it comes to upgrade time so it’s a massive waste of money

 

[DaveRyan853]

So for gaming, for very entry level 1080p, a suitable system would still be over £1500

You can build one cheaper but only by cutting corner on the platform which sacrifices longevity and upgrade ability.

So you may pay less at purchase, but in the expected lifetime of the pc you’ll pay substantially more as you’ll have to replace components you’ve already bought or replace the system far earlier than needed.

Any system we design would be with the expected lifetime of 7 - 10 years with one or two GPU upgrades during that time. GPU upgrades are essential to keep up with modern technologies and games, nothing you can do to avoid that.

With a well designed platform, all you should ever need to replace is the GPU.

With a poorly designed pc, you need to replace things like CPU, PSU, cooler etc which not only incurs extra cost, but often results in a full system rebuild so you need to know how to build a pc in the first place which people buying from a system builder tend not to know how to do.

More often than not, people buying poorly specced PCs tend to replace them entirely when it comes to upgrade time so it’s a massive waste of money

So what would you advise me to do next? This is the budget, at this point I am going to have to buy a PC, so what would be a spec that if its going to need upgrading in the future near or far, i at least start with something that's worth upgrading?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

So what would you advise me to do next? This is the budget, at this point I am going to have to buy a PC, so what would be a spec that if its going to need upgrading in the future near or far, i at least start with something that's worth upgrading?

You can’t at that budget, that’s what we’re saying. The only way you can is by sacrificing the platform.

The only worthwhile way is to buy it now without a GPU and use on board graphics for basic display out, then buy a dGPU when you have the cash available

She wouldn’t be able to game without a dGPU but would still be able to do 3d work.

 

[Scott]

This would be entry level for me. Any build needs to be DDR5 if you're not looking to bin it at EOL. It's the only way to consider any future upgrade potential.

The rest of the system is compromised in performance, but with the opportunity to upgrade. The 9600 CPU isn't going to be particularly fast with blender, especially paired with a 3050, but it will get your Daughter in the door of seeing if she fancies it or not. Any processor/GPU combo can work with blender..... it's just the time taken which depends on the complexity of the work being done. Professionals pay a fortune to ensure that the work is done as fast as possible. This will be faster than a laptop though.

For gaming it will allow very entry level gaming at 1080p. It's not a particularly good value GPU but unfortunately you want to go with Nvidia over AMD right now (where there would be far better value for money). I would like the 5060Ti for the 16GB of vRAM but the budget is already bust.

The shortcomings are the CPU, GPU & the cooler. They are all fine and will work great with each other but they will be the performance limitations. If you want to upgrade the CPU, the cooler must come with it. The GPU can be upgraded to almost the top of the line in the future without worrying about anything else.

The key is it being DDR5 and a current platform though. If you went DDR4, you would need to upgrade the motherboard, CPU & RAM to get anything meaningful.

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