Hello all,

I have recently began using Iclone, CTA, and 3DXchange on a regular basis for my work. Since Iclone has become a very important part of how I make money now, I have decided to purchase/build a computer in which will be dedicated to 3D animation. (ie Reallusion programs and assets, and the entire Adobe CC collection). Today I am asking for advice on hardware, software and/or anything else you can think of that will make my job easier. If you could build your dream computer for animation (keeping your budget between 3K to 5K what would it include?

I am a Windows users and I'm going to stick with that but should I upgrade to Windows 10 or stick with Windows 7?
How much Ram should I be installing? (Is there such a thing as too much RAM?)
Best video card?
Any and all advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Given how important it is to iClone, the number one thing I'd concentrate on is video card.  Start out with an NVidia top card (the very least I'd start a build with is the 970, but the 980 and higher is better) and the rest of the computer specs aren't nearly as worth worrying about.

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

The dream graphics card right now is probably the Nvidia GTX 980 Ti.  The "Ti" has 6GB of RAM.  iClone likes to use a lot of memory.

RAM?  For an "ideal" rig, might as well consider 16GB as a minimum, probably go for 32GB (though on a budget you can do quite nicely with 8GB).

CPU?  New Intel i7 (4790?).

Disk?  Definitely SSD for the boot/software disk, I'd start at 500-ish GB today.  (I'm living okay with 240GB.  Would like to upgrade, but I'm saving my money for that 980 TI, so it's pretty cheap to delete temporary files once a month.)  If you have a bigger budget, go for 1TB SSD.  Samsung might be best, Intel is quite good.  Then grab a 2 or 3TB mechanical (spinning) hard drive for mass storage.

After that you start splitting hairs... New memory format (DDR4?)...  Motherboard...  There are differences, but much more subtle.

Lastly, a good quality power supply.  Not just "power" but quality.

Have fun!

P.S.
Operating system?  You could start with Win 7.  After things are running, make a full image of your C: drive.  Then upgrade to Win 10 for free.  If it gives you grief, restore your backup.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

I have started to design a home-built PC a while ago using PC Part Picker, which is very useful to spec out systems.

The link is here: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/zuijlen/saved/#view=Vt9wrH . Total is currently around $2200, but prices are coming down.

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Ani,

A bit OT but after you upgraded your laptop to Win 10 did you feel it was a good move?

Like you I am a bit wary to update my desktop as I'm pretty sure there are things that won't work (at my age just can't deal with that anymore :>.  My laptop isn't as mission critical, but I'd only do it if I felt there was something significant about doing so and nothing I've read so far suggests that.  I'm just curious about your take on it.

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

@Kelleytoons: My reason to do this is that I purchased the iClone Mocap plugin (on sale), which requires Windows 8 or 10 when you want to use the new Kinect (which I intend to get). Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

Programs are suddenly called "apps", which I find a horrible term. When setting it up, the system wants to track everything, but you can switch that off. I guess the desire to track everything comes from the mobile world, where the idea is to have a personal relationship with your device and many ways to enhance your experience. I just want things to work...
 
Other than that, it works very similar to Windows 7, and there's ways to make it even more similar. For example, I've always liked the sidebar with gadgets, and there is a third-part solution to get it back. I haven't tried all my programs yet, but iClone and related started up without issue. Windows 10 still supports DX9, so that's good when running iClone on a less powerful system.

If you have a spare non-critical laptop or PC, you could just try it.  

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Thank you for all the good advice. I used the information given to do a little research and it looks like I'll be able to make the highest upgrade possible for less than 3k. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

sw00000p You are absolutely correct! Quiet as it is kept... I did have the opportunity to work with Dreamworks several years ago during the making of the movie Kung Fu Panda and I have personally seen the "Farms" at work. At Dreamworks they use a proprietary system built by IBM and it was AWESOME to see a room filled with processing units in cabinets on platforms humming around the clock. That experience was what led me to eventually finding Iclone. It fit my budget and allowed me to create marketing material that stood out from the others. I figured people here would understand that I was simply talking about a desktop unit. So yes, I agree a more accurate title would have been Ultimate (Happy Medium) PC for iClone"

In the future I plan on building a system that will maybe cost me around 10K. My desire to up grade to the best system possible will never die so I am working hard to one day get there. Maybe in another year, while allowing my current work to pay for the upgrades. For the work I do now my current system works ok so upgrading as I grow is my goal here.

By the way, what is the model number of the NVidia card that you speak of. I'd like to do some research on that and see if there might be a possibility of getting it sooner than later. The idea of having a card that will simulate one million polygons in real time damn near gives me an orgasm!

LOL.

I think it was safe to assume Alasandro was talking about component for a high-end "home" computer.
Anyone trying to build a server farm would probably not be seeking advise on this forum.   

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

I suddenly remembered a demonstration I saw at a trade show.  The company did ultra-realistic, extremely high-resolution renderings (mostly of car interiors) in real time.  You could zoom in and see the stitching and threads in the fabric, and the texture on the leather-wrapped gear shift.  They even had patented scanning technology that allowed them to scan anisotropic(?) material properties, like brushed metal where the light behaves differently depending on the orientation of the material.

I'm going to have to look them up again so I can give a link.  It was custom-built stuff, utilizing an array of high-end Nvidia cards, I'm pretty sure.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD