Building A Custom PC for Cinema 4D and Redshift
The interior of my custom PC workstation, Blackbird.
Have you ever wanted to build your own Windows PC for creating 3D art and animation? In 2022, after a lot of time spent researching parts and learning, I built my own custom PC specifically for using Cinema 4D with Redshift as my GPU render engine. Read more about how I came to build it and also see the list of my components below!
My First-Ever 3D Machine
When I first learned 3D, I was using Maya on a 2013 MacBook Pro. And while that machine could handle modeling and animation fairly well, any rendering took FOREVER to produce even a single image. But I enjoyed producing 3D work so much that I pressed on and kept learning and working around the technical limitations I faced.
After a few months of using Maya, I was randomly searching the Internet before my 3D Design Studio class started and saw a looping, animated movie poster for the film “The Wolverine.” I read an article that the person who made it had used a software called Cinema 4D and I liked the poster so much that I was intrigued about this new creative software I had never heard of and wanted to learn more.
I started playing around in Cinema 4D and it felt great. It felt easier to create the things I wanted to. And the interface was SO much friendlier (for me, at least) than Maya. And once I discovered Cinema 4D’s Sketch & Toon cartoon-style render engine, I was able to actually produce artwork that represented what I had envisioned, even on my little MacBook Pro.
Being able to generate work faster and more frequently really helped me improve my skills. I started to feel like I could focus more on my artistic vision, rather than endlessly learning the technical side of things.
When I Knew I Should Upgrade
After a few years of using Cinema 4D on my aging MacBook Pro, I started to feel very limited by technology. I could produce my cartoon-style images fairly quickly, but any animation or realistic renders still took forever to produce. It was frustrating and I felt my motivation start to suffer. I knew I needed to upgrade to an actual workstation if I really wanted to improve the work I was creating and start generating the amount of work that I wanted to.
And since I started using Cinema 4D in 2014, there had been some pretty huge technological leaps regarding GPU rendering on PCs and I wanted to take advantage of those to produce more realistic work instead of the cartoon-style stuff I was making at the time.
Pre-built or Custom-built?
Before choosing to build it myself, I thought about just ordering a pre-built workstation from a company like Puget Systems or AVA Direct.
The first thing I noticed upon browsing the sites for these companies was how much more expensive these pre-built machines were than just buying the parts and building yourself. The more I started to zero in on the machine I wanted, the higher the price went, and the more I started to think that building it myself wouldn’t be so difficult.
I also read about the technical issues and hardware failures that some artists were having with their brand-new, pre-built machines. The idea of paying thousands of dollars to a company for a machine that didn’t work was something I wanted to avoid entirely. So I decided to just acquire the parts and build my machine myself and learn about the process along the way.
My PC Parts List
Here are all of the parts for my PC. I’ve also listed which kind of monitors and which keyboard and mouse I use for reference. As I mentioned above, this workstation was built specifically for using Cinema 4D and Redshift renderer.
The links below all lead to the manufacturer’s website for reference purposes. I don’t endorse any individual companies so don’t take my word as the law. Always research what you buy. And, of course, only buy from reputable retailers with good return policies.
Case:
Phanteks Enthoo Pro, Tempered Glass Edition
Motherboard:
ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero
Power Supply:
CPU:
AMD Ryzen 9 5950x with 16 cores/32 threads
CPU Cooler:
GPU:
ASUS TUF GAMING GeForce RTX 3090
GPU Brace:
RAM:
G.Skill Trident Z Series, DDR4 3200, 32GB x 4
Hard Drives:
Extra Case Fans:
Monitors:
Keyboard:
Mouse:
Razer Basilisk X Hyperspeed Wireless Mouse
Design Considerations
I designed the machine around AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950x CPU and a single ASUS TUF Gaming Geforce RTX 3090 GPU mounted in an ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard.
I decided to go with a fan and heatsink CPU cooler instead of a liquid-cooled one. I had read a few horror stories about pumps breaking down, coolant fluid going rancid, leaks, etc. and didn’t want to take any chances. With the Noctua NH-D15s, if the fan on the CPU cooler stops working, the case fans will still push some air through the heatsink to avoid any potential damage to the CPU while I order a replacement fan.
I got the GPU support brace because the sag was visible. I confirmed with my iPhone level that it was off by about 2 degrees. I didn’t want to take any chances with my motherboard or GPU being damaged, so to me it was a good investment.
The motherboard has four RAM slots, so I maxed them out with 4 x 32GB G.Skill Trident Series RGB DDR4 3200 sticks. I know it is overkill, but I wanted all the RAM I needed for loading geometry and textures in Cinema/Redshift as quickly as possible.
The motherboard also has two NVMe slots so I have 2 x 1TB Samsung 980 PRO sticks as my main hard drives. I’ve also got a 2TB Samsung 870 SSD for general use. The board and case have plenty of room for more solid-state drives, so storage shouldn’t be an issue.
The power supply is a bit much at 1000 watts, but if I upgrade to a 40 series card in a couple of years, it will be good to have that much power.
Everything fits nicely into a Phanteks Enthoo Pro case with a tempered glass side panel that swings open. I probably could have gone with a slightly smaller case, but this one manages to fit under my desk (see the image of my desk space below) so that works for me! I’ve also still got room for more case fans, so I may add 3 more in the future.
My current workspace.
It Was Easier Than I Thought
I’m happy to say the build process was really simple and straightforward with only a few small issues that were easily solved by watching a few YouTube videos. I would say the most nerve-wracking part was deciding how much thermal paste to put between the CPU and the CPU cooler and then figuring out how to clean up the excess when I, of course, put too much on there at first and it squeezed out the sides of my CPU.
My motherboard has a little LED screen to show error codes and it came with extensive documentation to help troubleshoot any problems. The only errors I got were when I didn’t have one of my sticks of RAM seated all the way and when my CPU cooler was on too tight. In general, the build experience was mostly just plugging a bunch of stuff in and tightening screws.
In terms of space, the Enthoo Pro is a huge case, so I didn’t have to worry too much about fitting the components in. It also has excellent cable management on the back and room to add a ton of hard drive storage or even a water-cooling system.
To be honest, I was fearing the worst right before I started the build. When doing my research, I read a lot of horror stories about various software drivers not working, hardware malfunctions, and Blue Screens of Death, and I just assumed it would take weeks for me to get my machine up and running normally.
But I was determined and also no stranger to building DIY electronics projects. I thought there was so much documentation online about building PCs that I could just figure out the solution if I had any problems. It turns out I didn’t even have that many issues and it was way easier than I thought.
Performance Benchmarks
I used Cinebench to test the CPU in single- and multi-core modes. I also used Redshift’s GPU benchmarking tool which is included with the software. See the results below:
Bear in mind, the two Cinebench scores only represent the performance of my machine under normal load with no overclocking of any kind. That being said, my machine definitely performed well.
For the GPU, my machine rendered their reference image in 2 minutes and 23 seconds. While my machine has a great CPU, the GPU is definitely NOT the most powerful on the market. I bought my 3090 a few months before the 40 series cards were released. From what I’ve read, a 4090 is about 1.5-2 times faster than a 3090 in terms of performance/speed.
That being said, I have been really satisfied so far with how this machine performs and I’ve really enjoyed using it to create my work. Going from a laptop to what I have now feels like such a leap that I can’t complain. And I feel like I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what I can do with it.
CODENAME: Blackbird
When I was a kid, I loved airplanes. Not just the idea of flying, but something about the designs of the individual aircraft themselves really spoke to me. Each jet or helicopter felt like it had a distinct personality to go along with the names they were given like “Cobra,” “Warthog,” or “Phantom.”
Once I could read, I would spend hours poring over these giant hardcover books full of pictures and cutaway graphics that showed the various inner workings of aircraft from around the world.
One airplane that I always loved reading about and looking at pictures of was the SR-71 Blackbird, a high-speed, high-altitude spy plane that was developed and flown during the Cold War.
SR-71 Blackbird
More than anything, I was obsessed with the design of the Blackbird. With its odd curves, black paint job with red details, and cone-shaped engines, it looked like something straight out of science fiction.
When choosing the parts for my machine, I choose all-black because I wanted to keep the design fairly plain. I made all of the RGB lights red because black and red together remind me of Darth Vader, and my son LOVES Darth Vader. But when I was installing Windows, it asked me what I wanted to name my machine. I had no idea at first, but then I thought about a family trip we took last summer to the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. It was during that trip that I finally got to see an SR-71 in person and see the same joy in my son that I had felt as a kid as he ran around looking at all the planes at the museum.
Here I am standing in front of an SR-71 Blackbird at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Va., in July 2022.
So I chose the name “Blackbird” for my new computer not only as an homage to innovation and advanced technology but also to honor the spirit of passion, wonder, and discovery that I had as a kid that led me to be the artist I am today and still fuels my passion for creating.
And since the all-black with red lights visual style of my PC references the original Blackbird’s design, I may have to add some custom vinyl decals to the case in the future…
If you have any questions about my PC or the parts, please send me an email and I’ll be happy to go into more detail about the build.
Next Post
In my next post, I’m going to talk about my Cinema 4D layouts for general modeling and Redshift rendering. There will be downloads!!!
