(Arguably) The Best Computer System for 2D Artists and Animators
My name is Rebecca, and I am a 2D artist and animator working primarily with digital hand-drawn animations and motion graphics. In this blog post, I intend to help 2D artists like me build their own computer within a given budget. Specifically, this computer system should suffice the following conditions: 1) built within a budget of $2000; 2) can run Adobe software (Illustrator, After Effects, Animate, Photoshop); 3) can render and display up to 4K animations (3840 x 2160) with high color accuracy.
- Hardware Analysis
I will first start with a hardware analysis, which consists of a motherboard, CPU, GPU / video card, storage, RAM / memory, and power supply. Additionally, you also want to consider physical structures that support these hardware, including a CPU cooler, a monitor, and a case.
CPU & CPU cooler
CPU stands for central processing unit. It is the core of a computer system whose performance determines how fast orders and calculations are being executed. CPU performance is usually measured by its clock speed in units like mHz (megahertz) or gHz (gigahertz) — they correspond to how many instruction cycles the CPU can deal with in a second. Additionally, some CPUs can perform something called an “overclock” — to increase the clock speed set by default — which is a very useful feature for digital artists whose software may require large processing power. Within a budget range of $2000, I would recommend the Intel® Core™ i9–12900KF Processor (~$500 if you get it on Amazon), which allows for overclocking and provides a rather high clock speed for graphic processing.
As for CPU coolers, given our budget I’d recommend going for air coolers (as compared to liquid coolers) for its affordability. The air cooler performance is measured by its CFM, which stands for “cubic feet per minute” and calculates how much air volume the fan can move in an open stand at max speed. In our shopping list appendix below I’m recommending Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler (~$110), which should be just enough to diffuse all the heat produced by your 100+ layers in Adobe After Effects.
Motherboard
A motherboard is the circuit board that connects all hardware to the processor — think of it as the office space where different “departments” of the computer system communicate and collaborate with each other. Your motherboard should be compatible with your CPU in terms of its socket (how the CPU is attached to the motherboard) and chipset (the motherboard software and hardware that allows all the various components to communicate.) You can find a list of compatible CPUs and motherboards here. Since we picked an Intel 12th generation CPU, I’m recommending a motherboard with LGA 1700 socket and a H610 chipset, but either a B660, H670, Q670, Z690, or W680 should be compatible with this CPU.
Memory / RAM
RAM stands for random access memory. It is essentially short-term memory where your computer stores data temporarily and retrieves them quickly. RAM is not to be confused with storage, which is the long-term data stored on your hard drive and will be discussed in the next section. RAM size and speed are both crucial to digital artists, because they determine how much and how fast information can be processed and transferred to other components, and thus affects the software latency. Additionally, I’d recommend dual channel RAM (instead of single channel) since it uses both memory channels simultaneously to communicate with the CPU, which doubles processing bandwidth.
Video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro & Adobe After Effects require a baseline of 8GB RAM, but in order to render up to 4K (UHD) media, a RAM of at least 32GB is strongly advised. In the shopping list, I recommended a 64GB (32x2) double channel RAM, but if you want to spend your budget somewhere else, you could also swap it with a 32GB (16x2) RAM, which is the norm for most Macbook Pros and should be enough to run 2D motion graphics software.
Storage
As previously mentioned in the RAM section, storage is where long-term data is stored and retrieved. There are two types of storage: HDD and SSD. The former is the traditional hard drive that writes and reads data using spinning platters, and the latter is a newer technology that stores data on instant memory chips. SSDs are generally faster, quieter, smaller, consume less energy, and more durable. In the shopping list, I have picked the Samsung 980 Pro 1 SSD with 1TB storage (~$140), which is arguably one of the best SSDs available in the market and should be enough for storing multiple video projects whose size may go up into the gigabytes. However, it is important to always back up your projects on external hard drives or cloud services, which I will discuss later in the peripheral analysis section.
Video card / GPU
For digital artists, arguably the most important item on this shopping list would be your video card, which determines how accurate and vivid graphics are generated and presented. If you are unfamiliar with these terms — although we often use GPU and video / graphic cards interchangeably, GPU (short for graphic processing unit) is actually the core unit in a graphic / video card, very much like how CPU is placed on a motherboard. Since we’ve selected a 12900kF CPU that does not have a built-in integrated video card, we must purchase a discrete video card on the side, which also allows for better graphic performance.
When measuring GPU performances, it is important to look at the following 4 key metrics: frame rate, pixel fill rate, memory, and clock speed. Memory and clock speed were explained in previous sections when we were discussing CPU and RAM choices. Frame rate is crucial because it determines how many frames can be processed and displayed in a second, a feature extremely important to animators working frame-by-frame. Pixel fill rate is also important as it measures how many pixels a GPU can process in a second, and thus determines how quickly a GPU can rasterize images and write them to memory.
The chosen video card in the shopping list, RTX 3080, can deliver up to 4K resolution and a frame rate of 60FPS, definitely enough for animation production and even the frame rate required for the best action games. It also has a decent pixel fill rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a relatively robust RAM of 12G.
Monitor
As for monitors, it is important for 2D artists to look at the screen resolution & color accuracy. In my shopping list, I picked a LG monitor with a QHD (2560 x 1440) screen resolution — usually the biggest dimension I work with on my own projects. However, you can also upgrade to a 4K monitor if you work with high resolution animations or are a big fan of watching 4K content on Netflix. As for color accuracy, you should look out for a monitor that can display both sRGB and Adobe RGB colors, two most popular color spectrum displays among digital artists.
Additionally, even many say that screen refresh rate (which measures the number of individual images a monitor can display per second) is important when choosing a monitor, it surprisingly is not super relevant to 2D digital artists as you won’t work on video content beyond 30FPS for the most part. Therefore, it is said that 90% of Graphics Designers, Video Editors, and 3D Artists will need no more than a 60Hz Monitor. However, if you are also a gamer or work in VR that optimizes for extremely high refresh rates, you should consider getting a 120kHZ or 144kHZ+ monitor to avoid the motion blur.
2. Software Analysis
I will first start with a hardware analysis, which primarily looks at the operating system and the major software applications to be installed.
Operating System
Since we chose video cards and CPUs only compatible with windows systems, I’m recommending a Windows OS for our custom build computer system. Microsoft’s most updated OS is Windows 11 Home Retail — USB 64-bit, which should be compatible with most of the tools used by digital artists.
Software
Software to be installed on this computer: Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Animate, TV Paint, Cinema4D, Blender, ToonBoom.
Additionally, because of Windows OS’s more open system as compared to Mac OS, it is more prone to malware and virus attacks. Therefore, you should also install antivirus software like McAfee or Norton.
3. Peripheral Analysis
Backup
I recommend having at least 2 forms of backup to make sure your project files do not get lost for any reason. Firstly, you should prepare a Google Drive (online) or any online cloud storage to backup every time you finish one updated version of a project. Additionally, I’d recommend purchasing a hard Drive (offline, recommending Toshiba 1TB HDD USB 3.0) as the HDD has a larger storage space as compared to the SSD, which are used in our ideal system hardware. I’d suggest backing up only the finalized versions of your projects every two weeks.
Mouse & Keyboard
When it comes to choosing the right mouse and keyboard, it really boils down to personal preferences for their shapes and textures. However, it is important to also consider how they are connected to your PC — whether it’s through a wire, wireless USB or through Bluetooth. While Bluetooth is always recommended, I would prefer wired mouse over a wireless mouse, simply because I lose the tiny USB all the time.
Cables (USB & HDMI)
You should make a list of all the cables to purchase after everything else is decided — some accessories connect through USB-c, while others use USB-a. If your case does not support certain types of cables, you should also consider getting a converter dock that will make your life much easier.
Additionally, HDMI cable is also essential to digital artists, which stands for “High Definition Multimedia Interface”. It transfers both high definition audio and video over a single cable. I suggest getting 2–3 of these cables just so that if you are also working on a laptop or an ipad, you can transfer their signals to one of the monitors and work side to side with your PC. Additionally, make sure you are choosing a monitor that supports connecting at least 2 HDMI cables at the same time.
Conclusions
Surprisingly, a PC system optimized for digital artists can vary greatly from a system for gamers, which usually requires a much higher screen & video card refresh rate. However, if you are a 2D artist plus a big gamer, you should consider swapping some of the items in the shopping list, especially the GPU, screen, RAM, CPU cooler.
Hardware Shopping List
CPU
Intel® Core™ i9–12900KF Processor ($500)
CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($110)
Motherboard
Memory / RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4–3000 CL16 Memory ($195)
Storage (SSD)
Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2–2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($140)
Video Card
EVGA FTW3 ULTRA GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 12GB LHR 12 GB Video Card ($800)
Monitor
Total Cost: $1929
