Ever since I started Blender Guru I’ve had countless emails from people asking me for advice on what PC they should buy. We’ve all bought PC lemons in the past, so I can see why this would be a common question.
Now before we move on, let me start by saying that your PC is only as good as your skill. If you suck at Blender and buy $4000 computer, you will still suck. The only way to improve your work is through practice, practice and oh yeah, practice.
But now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about getting one a PC specifically built for Blender…
[Click here to read this post in Persian]
Operating System
Photo by fosk
Everyone has their own preferences in terms of usablity and stability, but for me the winner is Linux. In the past I’ve used blender on both Windows and Linux, and I found that Linux crashes less, handles memory better and generally runs more smoothly than a windows operating system.
However… what most people won’t tell you is that Ubuntu can be an absolute pain in the ass to set up.
If you come from a windows background (like me) then expect to be punching holes in the wall when you find out that you need to type complex commands in the terminal just to connect to a wired LAN. It really is like entering another world. Everything is done differently and tasks that would usually take 2 seconds in Windows to setup could take hours in Linux, if you don’t know what you are doing (like me). A technical savvy person may say that Linux is a piece of cake, but to me it was an absolute nightmare. Go figure.
So for that reason I actually recommend Windows 7. It’s fast, easy to use and comes with 99% less headaches than Linux.
CPU
Photo by Friedemann Wulff-Woesten
The faster your CPU, the faster your render times. This is the meat and bones of your PC and will play the greatest influence on how quickly your render will finish.
I recommend choosing a CPU with multiple cores, as this will allow blender to render more tiles simultaniously. My current CPU has 4 cores, which means blender will render 4 tiles simultaneously. This really pays off in render times.
Cores = Like having multiple CPUs and only paying for one.
Other than that there’s really no secret to choosing a CPU. Buy the fastest one that you can afford!
RAM
Photo by Heather Greene
Second on my priority list is RAM. Whilst it won’t effect your render times, RAM will set the limit on how “epic” your scene can be. Now I say the word “epic” loosely here, but really I’m talking about memory usage limits. Everytime you use a large image texture or bake a high resolution simulation you use up more RAM. When you run out or RAM, blender crashes.
Thanks for reminding me to purchase more RAM!
The more RAM you have, the more you can push your scene to it’s extremes. If you had only 2GB of RAM and created a fluid simulation, you may only be able to use a domain resolution level of 100 before blender crashed. But if you upgraded to 16GB you may be able to reach 800.
And who knows, in the future you may even reach over 9000!
If you’re a simulation junkie then I recommend splashing out and buying lots of RAM.
Graphics Card
Photo by Fred.org
A common misconception by beginners is that you need a super duper awesome graphics card to use blender. This is false.
A good graphics card will only help you when you are navigating around the 3d viewport. It will not effect your render times! For the past 7 years I’ve used a graphics card that was at least a year older than the current leading card (I’m cheap), and my work has never suffered from it.
Unless you plan to do lots of high poly sculpting in the future, then an expensive graphics card is a waste of money.
At least as far as Blender is concerned. Crysis however...
Now when it comes to choosing a GFX card, I always recommend Nvidia. In the past many blender users (including me) have had issues with ATI cards, wherein the menu flickers or some other glitch makes itself known. So for that reason I always recommend other blender users purchase Nvidia.
But! Having said that my last laptop had an ATI card and had no issues whatsoever, so maybe those glitchy days are over? Nope! According to the comments below, the ATI issues are still very much alive. Stick with Nvidia people! 
Side note: If you follow 3d news, you may have heard about a new, faster method for rendering that uses your GPU instead of the CPU. Unfortunately, this technology is not yet available for Blender, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s developed soon. In the meantime use an external renderer like SmallLuxGPU or Octane if you would like to take advantage of GPU rendering.
Case
Photo by Adamcha
If you’re going to be doing lots of rendering on your PC then I’d recommend finding a PC with adaquet cooling.
My last PC suffered permanent internal damage when rendering my New York Earthquake animation, because I only used a standard PC case. As a result, it overheated and now refuses to turn on.
But hey, at least it didn't catch fire.
Standard cases are suited more for air conditioned office environments, not prolonged rendering sessions in your stuffy bedroom. Take note 
I’d recommend choosing a gaming case as these generally have better cooling than standard cases.
Hard Drive
Photo by Stuart Bryant
In terms of speed within blender, you aren’t going to see any noticeable difference by purchasing a faster hard drive. So let’s focus on stability instead…
The last thing you want is for your hard drive to fail, right? Well unfortunately hard drive failure is a sad fact of life so the best thing you can do is be prepared and create a backup.
And what’s the easiest way to do that you ask? Set up a RAID array.
A RAID array. It’s a system configuration that uses two physical hard drives to mirror each other, so that if one fails you always have a backup. All you need to do is purchase two identical hard drives and set it up in the BIOS settings. I highly recommend that you do this before the inevitable happens! 
My personal PC
Since so many people have asked what my specific PC specs are, I’ve created this short video revealing exactly what hardware I use. Check it!
My specs are:
- OS: Windows 7 64 Bit
- CPU: Intel i7 950 3.06Ghz
- RAM: 12GB Kingston 2000Mhz DDR3
- GFX Card: Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 470 1280MB
- HDD: 2 x 1TB Western Digital Sata 3 (RAID 1 array)
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A
- Case: Antec ‘Nine Hundred’ 750W
- Monitor: 21″ Benq Widescreen
- Keyboard: Logitech G15
- Mouse: Microsoft basic optical mouse
Still not sure what to buy?
If you’re still unsure PC components to purchase, then check out the Blender Render Benchmark. This is a website dedicated to benchmarking PCs with Blender, showing you exactly what rigs give the fastest render times. In fact, I probably could have just started the post with this website and saved myself the trouble of writing it. Oh well
Here’s the site again: Blender Render Benchmark – Bookmark it.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy 5 Worthwhile Purchases for 3d Artists.
Where did you buy this computer from?
“expect to be punching holes in the wall when you find out that you need to type complex commands in the terminal just to connect to a wired LAN.”
You are kidding, right ?
Smack-dab what I was lkoonig forty!
What brand (name) of computer do you have? I’m looking at a Dell.
I’m looking at getting a new computer, is this a good graphics card or should I stick with Nvidia?
Single AMD Radeon™ HD 6870
no, cqex, he’s not! maybe you’re more of a programmer, but I would simply die if I had to type out commands to my computer instead of pressing a button.
did you changed the processor and everything ells by yourself?
About the linux being hard, whats easiest pushing a lots of buttons and typing stuff in different places or just copy and paste it from ubuntu forums into the terminal?
That may get you through the occasional problem, but if you have no idea what you’re copying and pasting into a terminal then you have no idea what you’re doing and that is bad… it makes me a sad panda.
Your computer is awesome! It loads really fast! I need that one day…
Hi
I upgraded my win 7 64bit with 6gb ram no problems then i put in a 1gb nvidea graphic in (gt430) now my ram reports as 5gb usable It sees the 6gb but only 5gb usable! From what nvidea says its a bug in win 7 with more than4gb ram and a 1gb or more graphics card in… I see Andrew has a bigger card in does any one else have this problem? or is there a work around?
=
What you wrote about Ubuntu is utter nonsense.
Andrew, how do you mean that installing Blender in Linux (Ubuntu) is a pain in the ass?
For the latest version you ad a PPA, go to the software center and install it.
As you don’t need the latest version, just go to the software center and install in and you are ready.
Can’t be easier.
Don’t forget – it renders faster now with a faster GPU thanks to Cycles.
Linux is hard? that might have been true maybe 10 years go when it wasn’t as mature, but it certainly isn’t the case now!
the latest Ubuntu release gets everything working for you out of the box. in my last install on a friend’s laptop i never had to touch the terminal. in fact, she even mentioned that she could have done it herself.
It’s come a long ways for sure. Can’t say I miss editing the XF86Config file.
just did a quick search for all parts and saw it was €1341
assuming you have mouse keyboard and a screen.
I have a GTX 460 and the performance in blender is very bad, becouse the fermi card have OpenGl problems, my hd4830 was much more faster =(
because*. sorry.
hey andrew
how long did it took for your computer to render the blender render benchmark test??
i was wondering if you could recommend a pc that comes with most features pre-installed? Or, do you prefer to build your own? I was actually in the market for a new laptop and hoping to just purchase a portable package, rather than purchase another desktop.
Could you update the graphics card section just a bit now that Blender includes Cycles and can utilize the GPU?
Same request here! Please update this page!
For the update to this article, I do echo the other commenters above.
As for the Operating System section, I would suggest leaving it out altogether as not everyone will use Windows (like myself) or can use Windows (those with PowerPC Macs). It’ll just turn the comments section into the battlegrounds for a flame-war.
The CPU section is just fine as is. Get as many cores as you can afford.
The GPU section needs updating though. ATI and Nvidia are pretty much equal now and Intel has a lot more power in their first, second and third generation HD GPUs (just above low-end GPUs from ATI and Nvidia). OpenCL, GPU drivers that include it and rendering engines that take adavntage of it are readily available. Just have a look at LuxRender (http://www.luxrender.net/).
The Harddrive section also needs updating with a additional information to the excellent suggestions you made. No one should have to lose sleep over lost work (as I have). Solid State Drives have come down so much that one could afford to have a two SSD array in RAID 1 if need be and reap the speed benefits. A larger HDD array in RAID 1 can added internally or externally for backups if you need it.
I believe these suggestions along with those of the above commenters can make this an excellent resource for those looking to buy a computer for Blender.
@Andrew Prince
Also, the Blender Benchmark site is indefinitely closed now.
@All other commenters
I haven’t had a look at the collected data but I believe it might be in CSV form. Once I have a chance to analyze it, I could try to create something similar. Let me know what you all think.