How to build a power PC on a budget

PC build
(Image credit: Images courtesy of Asus, AMD, Wacom, Kingston Technology, Amazon, Wacom)

The last time we put together a 3D World custom workstation build was over a decade ago. Even then we asked ourselves questions: is building your own workstation worth it? Does it still save money? Do better components last longer than pre-built computers? Spoiler alert: the answer to all those is yes!

While many creators today are working on small Macs or the best laptops for 3D modelling, our build embraces the classic power workstation; a digital professional’s dream machine, albeit coming in at an affordable price. We set a budget of $4,000 (or £3,600), which is the rough cost of a stock Mac Studio M2 Ultra (24-core CPU, 60-core GPU, 64GB memory, 1TB SSD) that we’ll use as our yardstick for comparison. As you’ll see, our build will easily match or beat all those numbers.

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Lance Evans is creative director of Graphlink Media, a "boutique" creative marketing agency that specialises in building brands and has worked with such high-profile clients as Olive Garden, Miller Beer and AMEX. Lance was an early adopter of digital tools, and was on the original beta team for Photoshop.

Lance has written for Creative Bloq on a wide range of topics, from technical photography tips to the ins and outs of branding.

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