My Ideal Computer System
I’m a 2D animator and motion graphic designer. After Effects and Cinema 4D will be mostly used. I also want to use 3D animation software like Blender and Maya to assist my work in the future. So I need my PC to have both powerful CPU and GPU. Meanwhile, I believe that a monitor with accurate color will be significant.
My Current Laptop：
DELL Precision 3520
CPU:Intel(R) Core(TM) i7–7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz
RAM:8.00 GB
GPU:GPU 0 Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 3.9 GB
Drive: SAMSUNG SSD PM871b M.2 2280 512G
It’s obvious that my laptop can’t execute complex animation tasks so I decide to get a desktop. MacOS is much more expensive than Windows when they have similar performance.
After Effects recommended system requirements for Windows
- 8-Core or above for Multi-Frame Rendering recommended
- Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit) versions 1909 and later
- 32 GB recommended
- 4GB or more of GPU VRAM recommended
- Additional disk space for disk cache (64GB+ recommended)
- 1920x1080 or greater display resolution
Cinema 4D requirements for Windows
- Intel 64-bit CPU or AMD 64-bit CPU with AVX support
- Windows 10 Version 1809 or higher — or Windows 11
- 8 GB RAM, recommended 16 GB
- Minimum Graphics Cards: NVIDIA Maxwell GPU, AMD Polaris (AMD GCN 4), Intel Kaby Lake or newer supporting DirectX 12 with feature level 11.0
- Minimum GPU Driver: NVIDIA 461.40, AMD 21.3.2, Intel 27.20.100.9168
Blender recommended requirements for Windows
- 64-bit eight-core CPU
- Windows 8.1, 10, and 11
- 32 GB RAM
- 2560×1440 display
- Three-button mouse or pen+tablet
- 8 GB VRAM Graphics Card
Autodesk Maya 2024 requirements for Windows
- 64-bit Intel® or AMD® with SSE4.2 instruction set
For macOS, Apple Silicon arm64 or Intel x86 - 8 GB of RAM (16 GB or more recommended)
- 7 GB of free disk space for install
- Three-button mouse
- Graphics Hardware: Refer to the following pages for a detailed list of recommended systems and graphics cards: https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/tsarticles/ts/udHliGvFHZVjHgd2e8JUK.html
My Budget:$3000
My Choice:
CPU:
After Effects primarily utilizes CPU processing, so opting for a CPU with as many cores and integrated graphics as possible would be a good choice.
RAM:
Although After Effects recommends 32GB of RAM, I’ve decided to go with 64GB to accommodate potentially larger project occasions.
GPU:
2D software will be mainly used so I don’t really need a top-tier GPU like 4090Ti (and I can’t afford it!).
Storage:
In comparison to my laptop’s storage capacity, 2TB is sufficient.
Monitor:
The BENQ PD2706U with its 4K screen, P3 color gamut, and a USB-C interface for connecting to an iPad, perfectly meets my requirements.
Motherboard：
Battery:
Cooling:
Case:
