Multimedia Triple boot Workstation - Adobe, Cinema 4D, Cubase

[slushypup]

Hey all, long time lurker. Am looking into building a triple boot(Win/OsX/Linux) machine. It will be mostly used for 3D graphics/CGI(Cinema 4D and rendering with Octane(PC), Redshift and Arnold. I may also look into other renderers so it should be compatible with both CPU/GPU platforms. I don't have a huge amount of experience with rendering platforms hence the vague spec. I'll be using Adobe Cloud(editing video, 4K and above, motion graphics, photoshop etc) so it should need to be good for that too. I also produce music so anything for that would be good too(Mainly Cubase, Logic Pro, Kontakt). I may look into the linux platform for Autodesk apps like Flame and Davinci Resolve for grading. I'd say I have a budget of around £2.5k but this would need to include x2 monitors as well as the case and components+cables. Any advice appreciated, last thing I hacked was my HP4540s which was quite a while back. I currently own a couple of macs and will probably look to buy a new macbook/air for client use and use the hackintosh for more serious rendering or working from home/office. Anything I missed out just ask.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hey all, long time lurker. Am looking into building a triple boot(Win/OsX/Linux) machine. It will be mostly used for 3D graphics/CGI(Cinema 4D and rendering with Octane(PC), Redshift and Arnold. I may also look into other renderers so it should be compatible with both CPU/GPU platforms. I don't have a huge amount of experience with rendering platforms hence the vague spec. I'll be using Adobe Cloud(editing video, 4K and above, motion graphics, photoshop etc) so it should need to be good for that too. I also produce music so anything for that would be good too(Mainly Cubase, Logic Pro, Kontakt). I may look into the linux platform for Autodesk apps like Flame and Davinci Resolve for grading. I'd say I have a budget of around £2.5k but this would need to include x2 monitors as well as the case and components+cables. Any advice appreciated, last thing I hacked was my HP4540s which was quite a while back. I currently own a couple of macs and will probably look to buy a new macbook/air for client use and use the hackintosh for more serious rendering or working from home/office. Anything I missed out just ask.

Hi there and welcome.

What I would suggest is to head on over to the User Builds forum and take a look at a few setups.

Perhaps a Z390 chipset and an i7 or i9, depending on that budget. 32GB DDR4 RAM is probably needed for your intended use. And a natively supported GPU would be best. That way you know it will work with minimum intervention. An RX580 or Vega 56 perhaps. There are much more exotic ones available now but only by using the latest Catalina point upgrades.

Assuming you need a fair few USB ports and PCI-e slots for possible expansion an ATX format motherboard seems appropriate, so a midi-Tower case would house it ... Unless you are hoping to go as compact as possible, but then heat becomes a problem and your intended use would need a lot of airflow to cool.

As for triple-boot ... Now that's giving yourself a lot of work to do, in my opinion. You will be pulling hair out unless you are lucky. Yes, it's possible, of course. The safest route is probably using separate SSD/HDDs and the BIOS Boot selector rather than relying on Clover. OpenCore would do it more reliably but it's still in Beta so, again, work is needed.

Just a few thoughts. Only you know what you want to spend where. If this is a Pro rig then you don't want to be overclocking; you want reliability. Check the Recommended Specs of the software you will be using etc.

 

[slushypup]

Hey thanks for that. Yes, reliability is key(I'm still using El Capitan!) so not looking to tweak much beyond the build and would much prefer a stable solution than latest point release. I'll probably keep an image file of the build once most of the base software is installed so I can restore from time to time.

Install: Don't mind using a separate drive for linux or each Os if needed. Not sure about the bootloader, if this could access all three drives? Don't know anything about OpenCore? I'll read up.
Motherboard: As much expandability as possible as I'll aim to improve this over time. Not sure what I'd use for soundcard as I have some existing kit(FireWire). Not sure how well thunderbolt works on hackintoshes?
Processor: i9 would be a better option I'd think but I'm open to advice. Higher Cpu Vs more cores?
GFX: Octane recommend 4-8 2080 Ti GPUs for a pro user. I think I would want a CUDA enabled Nvdia as I believe some of the apps require this. I may try to start with x2 cards then build up over time.
Cooling: Size isn't an issue if it needs to be bigger for cooling, no probs. Doubt I'll be carrying it in my rucksack.

I'll check up on the user builds but I didn't see much on Cinema 4D users hence my new post. Tx