I'm helping an artist friend put together a custom PC with a soft budget of about $2,100 USD, with roughly $400 of flexibility. She wants to use Toon Boom, Blender, Substance Painter, After Effects, OBS, and Maya. I've heard that an Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU may be a good combination for these applications, but I'm not very familiar with Intel's current lineup. We'd also prefer a relatively compact build if practical, and Micro Center bundle deals could influence the parts. She originally wanted to install both Windows and macOS, although I'm open to using Windows only if running macOS on custom hardware would create major problems. Ideally, I'd like to use a GPU from the 5000 series.
1 Answer
The macOS requirement is the part that needs clarification before choosing components. Installing macOS on a non-Apple PC is unofficial and can be difficult to maintain, especially with newer hardware and GPUs. If she only needs Windows-compatible creative software, a Windows build will be much simpler and more reliable. If she genuinely needs macOS, buying a Mac may be the better route, possibly alongside a separate Windows machine.
If we can confirm that all of her software and workflow will work well in Windows, I’d definitely prefer that over trying to maintain a custom macOS installation.