Hi Everyone.
I’m thinking of getting a new PC, but I’m always lost with where to start and what I should be looking for. It will be through the business I work for, who buy pretty much strictly Dell PC’s/Laptops
My current PC has no SSD only a HD which is about to pack up.
I was looking at this PC, if anyone has a minute to look it over and check it’s not terrible for Keyshot that would really help me out. I also use Solidworks and Adobe. I would like to start to use Blender for animations.
While I love the ThreadRipper Pro series be aware you pay -much- more than you will actually will notice in benefits. For example, in multicore benchmarks this CPU scores 14377 against 19737 of a ‘simple’ consumer orientated i9-13900K.
Basically you pay a lot for things like extra PCI lanes or more max. amount of RAM you won’t actually use.
I’m not sure if Alienware Desktops are also an option (since it’s Dell but actually no business to consumer product) but looking at this: Alienware Aurora R13 Gaming Desktop with Intel 12th Gen | Dell UK
Is a better pick. 64GB of RAM instead of 8 and a RTX3090 which makes it a lot more pleasant than a T400 to render using GPU.
I just picked one of their line which prices matched a bit. The 12900K is somewhat older but still faster than the ThreadRipper and of course the 3090 is also from the previous Nvidia serie.
Personally I would never buy a ‘workstation’ since there is no need to go for less speed. It would be different if you did really complicated work like AI things and wanted to use 4x Quadro cards with it.
The T400 is useless for KeyShot since 4GB makes it impossible to render via GPU if you use a few textures. It has also a sad 384 CUDA cores. So better have the 3090 with 10496 CUDA cores and 24GB of memory.
If I look at the things you post here I would just go for the Alienware one, or if budget allows one of the more current versions. Still, since it’s Alienware/Dell you will pay more than same things in another case but that’s the thing with brands.
[edit] If the Alienware are a problem, there are some XPS desktops that come close, just think Dell is out of 3090 cards since it’s up till 3080.
I’m just goint to back what Oscar said. 100%. If you are able to go with someone outside of Dell, you have a few more options, but what he said about CPU and GPU choice, I’m on board with.
Sure about CPU and GPU in @oscar.rottink reply. Also, for work with large models, 8Gb is very low level. I think most of today’s apps require at least 16Gb of RAM onboard, 32 is better. I have 48 and still need more for some massive projects.
@oleksii.rybakov @will.gibbons @oleksii.rybakov
Thank you all for the advice! I’ll take all that on board and keep looking. Also thanks so much for the explanations, really helps me understand why I should be looking for what so hopefully I don’t always need to reach out, much appreciated.
I took a quick look at some UK shops with ‘gaming’ pc’s. But for example this one ocuk gaming germanium z7 - intel core i7 13700kf, geforce rtx 4090 gaming pc | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)
Is quite a beast especially if you render GPU (which according to benchmarks of Keyshot will be around 2x fast as a 3090). Still same price and you can turn the lights off I think or take one without windows.
I would put 64GB of memory and you can think about a 13900KF processor but well, that’s also a big energy consumer / hot head 
Looking at the case/mainboard etc they use A-brands for everything. I happen to have the same case, it’s HUGE but well, easy to switch parts if needed. I’m not sure how good that company is but their site gives you an idea what you can get same specs but without a Dell or other brand on the case.
Hey @oscar.rottink sorry to be bothering you again coming for some advice! I have accepted a new job, who would like me to work remotely with a laptop, which I know will not be as powerful as a desktop. They have asked their IT company for a recommendation based on KS and Solidworks, and sent this through:
KS side, is there anything you think might be a hindrance or a silly choice? I’m never entirely sure when it comes to graphic cards.
Hey @harry.wills,
Basically it’s the same. You pay so much for the A2000 with only 8GB, this one is a -BEAST- for a bit more with double the GPU memory (16GB) so that means you can actually do a lot more with GPU renders. And it has the latest and best Intel processor instead the older 12-serie.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptops & 2-in-1 PCs | Dell UK
For a ‘gaming’ laptop it actually looks pretty decent and it’s called laptop but with 18" screen 
it’s not exactly light weight. Around 4kg (8.90lbs). Which is more than twice as much as the suggested one.
The recommendation is not bad but for KeyShot I would absolutely prefer the gaming one from Alienware. It’s really much faster in both CPU as GPU.
This is the difference in GeekBench for CPU/GPU, first number is Alienware. The 8GB will hold you back in what you can render using GPU so the 16GB is really worth it.
16000 vs 12000 CPU
181963 vs 73045 GPU
I hate heavy laptops but as long as you drive in a car and don’t need to carry it between all kinds of public transport or so it doesn’t matter that much.
Another option (if they allow) is this one: ROG Zephyrus M16 (2023) | Gaming Laptops｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global (asus.com)
Has only a 16" screen, weight is around 2kg and has the same internals basically. If you have to carry it a lot and use for example an external screen on location that could be a nice one as well. Also looks pretty decent for a gaming laptop 
[edit]
I see that Asus ROG has the option to display messages to nasty co-workers using the led matrix in it’s cover very very useful
[edit2]
If budget is not that tight you might consider putting 64GB ram in, not sure if you would really need it but I noticed that importing/exporting GLTB’s for example consumes a terrible amount of RAM in KeyShot (might be a bug, but a simple box took 40GB of memory some time ago)
Hey @oscar.rottink Thank you again for your advice. If there is ever a Keyshot Community Hero competition you will be getting my vote.
Haha no problem, I’ve the most time I think Let me know what you got in the end.
I’m looking for a new render slave machine. We currently have an old Boxx RenderPro (Xeon E5-2620 v4, 32gb ram). I’m looking at another Boxx machine but am not married to that brand. Boxx mostly specifies RTX A GPUs, and the A2000 12gb is in our price range. im most interested in the added benefit of GPU rendering. Any recommendations? Different brands? Would a 3090 or 4090 outperform an A2000?
The Axxxx gives the retailer way more margin but if you want to render using GPU in KeyShot, or many other CUDA based renderers, it’s really a waste of money. Below are the scores so a RTX4090 is 4.5-5x as fast as a A2000 and has double the memory so you can render bigger scenes as well. The A2000 can be nice if you have 4 of them since you will have 48GB of VRAM.
CUDA
RTX 4090 24GB: 424332
A2000 12GB: 87000
OpenCL
RTX 4090 24GB: 325165
A2000 12GB: 74179
Another option is to buy 2 second hand 3090’s and use NVLink to connect those. That will give you a bit higher score I think and 48GB of VRAM (the new 40xx series don’t support it anymore, nVidia want people as well to buy the Axxxx series).
Also for the other hardware I would not prefer a Workstation solution since unless you have really specific software that actually runs faster on XEON processors. There are pretty decent and not too RGB-lit game pc’s for less money or with much better specs for the same amount of money.
Unless you want to put 4x a 4090 on a mainboard you don’t really need all those PCI-lanes and even with those it won’t matter much for render times. And you can get nice boards with multiple CPUs but they will cost so much you can better put that money in some PC’s and do network rendering if you actually need to render scenes on CPU if the scenes get too big for the VRAM.
I’m just being rational and you can only spend money once. So for me cheaper and faster wins always even if it’s a case with a LED LSD-trip build in, there’s black tape for it
Thanks Oscar! You confirmed my suspicions, I almost made a large purchase that would have been way underpowered comparatively, and for 20% more money!
A thing I didn’t mention is that most consumer mainboards go till 128GB of memory, so if you need more you need a workstation board/processor as well.
And might be handy, Intel mainboards have a letter B, H, Z in front of a number. Basically the Z-boards have the most features like double network card, overclocking things etc. I think mainboards are currently pretty pricey compared to some years ago but those letter give you an idea about the features/usage. AMD does the same but different letters and don’t know which by head.