THE SOLID SNAKE BUILD

You’re a serious artist, a professional generalist. You need your machine to be a jack of all trades. This build isn’t just a computer, its an investment in your business – that you amortize year over year with some tax wizardry to help swallow the pricetag. 


PRICE BRACKET

$4300 - $4600 USD


WHY I CHOSE THESE PARTS

As a pro generalist, you need your machine to be good in any number of situations. This build – powered by the 2950x, just like the Auteur build it replaces, is the preferred choice for a number of reasons. While this price bracket actually allows for the upgrade to the 2970WX, that top end chip (and the 2990WX above it) continue to have idiosyncrasies in general applications due to the ludicrously high core counts. Only multi-threaded CPU rendering seem to enjoy it. As such, the AMD recommendation continues to be the 2950x, which will deadlift the shit out of most 3D content creation tasks. Additionally, the guaranteed upgrade path to the Generation 3 (3950x) and Generation 4 (4950x) CPU chips of this platform – due in 2019 and 2020 respectively, which will work in the selected motherboard, are a great addition to this generalist build. 

I’ve also opted for a high end air cooler, due to some troubling reports about the Enermax liquid cooler previously recommended. It’s performance does not leave you wanting and will more than adequately cool the massive Threadripper die, while still leaving a bit of room for overclocking.

Another difficult recommendation is the single 2080Ti which replaces the dual 1080Tis in the Auteur Build. The main reasoning for this choice was at this price point, I expect GPU expansion up to 4 GPUs. As such – the recommendation for a single faster GPU vs 2 slower ones was made as PCIe slots are at a much higher premium than graphics cards. That being said, dual 2080s are a better option if you value performance per dollar metrics, and you’ll get roughly the same render performance as the twin 1080Tis this build tier used to feature – while also getting the reported 2.75x (approx) bump in render speed once RTX acceleration comes to GPU render engines. 

Many other things remain the same as the Auteur Build. Again – the 1600w Power supply recommended is absolute overkill to multiple magnitudes for the single 2080Ti in the build – its selected again specifically because I expect at this price point for the build to be expanded to 4 GPUs. This 1600w PSU covers that expansion, rather than recommending a more appropriate PSU, and then needing to buy a new one if you expand beyond 2-3 GPUs.  If you dont think you’ll hit 4 GPUs, check the full build page for downgrade recommendations. 


THE CARTS

Full Amazon carts with all recommended parts
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THE PARTS


THE CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU)

AMD THREADRIPPER 2950X
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UPGRADE OPTION: AMD THREADRIPPER 2970WX

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DOWNGRADE OPTION: AMD THREADRIPPER 1950X

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CPU COOLER

HIGH END THREADRIPPER AIR COOLER

MAIN OPTION: NOCTUA NH-U14S TR4-SP3

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BACKUP OPTION: COOLERMASTER WRAITH RIPPER

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ALTERNATE OPTION 1: ENERMAX LIQTECH TR4 II 360

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ALTERNATIVE OPTION 2: COOLER MASTER MASTERLIQUID ML360 RGB TR4

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THE GRAPHICS CARD/ GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNIT (GPU)

NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti

MAIN OPTION: ASUS TURBO RTX 2080Ti 11G

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BACKUP OPTION: ZOTAC 2080TI BLOWER

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BACKUP OPTION: PNY 2080TI BLOWER

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UPGRADE OPTION: EVGA GTX 2080Ti XC HYBRID

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UPGRADE OPTION: EVGA GTX 2080Ti FTW3 HYBRID

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RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY MODULES (RAM)

64GB (16GB X 4) DDR4 3200MHz

MAIN OPTION: CORSAIR VENGENCE LPX 64GB (16GB X 4) DDR4 3200MHz

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BACKUP OPTION: CRUCIAL BALLISTIX SPORT LT 64GB (16GB X4) DDR4 3200MHz

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STORAGE – SOLID STATE DRIVE (SSD)

1TB NVMe SSD

MAIN OPTION: SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 1TB NVMe SSD

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BACKUP OPTION: WD BLACK SN750 1TB NVMe SSD

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STORAGE – HARD DISK DRIVE (HDD)

4TB 7200RPM SATA HDD

MAIN OPTION: SEAGATE BARRACUDA 3.5″ 4TB 7200RPM SATA HDD

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MOTHERBOARD

X399 E-ATX MOTHERBOARD

MAIN OPTION: ASROCK X399 TAICHI TR4

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BACKUP OPTION: MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC

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POWER SUPPLY UNIT (PSU)

1600W MODULAR ATX PSU

MAIN OPTION: EVGA SUPERNOVA T2 1600W

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BACKUP OPTION: CORSAIR HX1200i 

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UPGRADE OPTION (FOR DUAL GPUS): EVGA BQ 750W SEMI MODULAR

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CASE

MICRO TOWER CASE

MAIN OPTION: COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX Q300L

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BACKUP OPTION: CORSAIR AIR 240

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