What are the specs of your pc?

GPU starting from GTX1060 6Gb. You can use CPU render but it will take more time.
16Gb memory (1600MHz and up) and more if you plan to create models with tens of million polygons.
Working with FullHD resolution in ZBrush is uncomfortable, especially with custom brushes, matcaps, plugins etc. and models will contain a large number of subtools.

Are you building it yourself? My PC is outdated too so no point giving you my specs but use PCPartsPicker to build it out and get the best value for your budget! (Also you can see what others are buying) Personal I would go AMD Ryzen for you CPU (as many cores as you can afford) and then Nvidia GPU maybe a 30 series (even second hand maybe) as I think 40 series is a rip! But if you can afford it go for 40 series. Think 32 gigs of ram is becoming the norm these days! But all depends on your budget really!

I'd go with 32 GB of RAM.

Buying a used GPU is a very bad and risky idea. Utilities like GPU-Z do not guarantee that the video card is really as shown in it. Donut (Furmark) is also not a panacea. Сard will survive one test but after a few render projects in KeyShot, Redshift or D5 Render (for example) chip will fall off or other even sadder surprises will be revealed. Repairs can cost more than purchase, proving the seller's fraud it will be impossible. Why change motherboard on Z-series chipset is also unclear. Socket 1150 is not so bad to change it to Ryzen.

First, if you are making and rendering jewelry models, I would very much recommend you investigate Maverick Render for your rendering engine. It is particularly designed for jewelry, small cosmetic and appliemce products. (But, I use it for everything, including heavily populated enviroment scenes with mountains, trees and all.) For jewelry, it contains EVERYTHING you will need in the way of materials and lighting. Its all built in. In fact, it probably has the most advanced lighting features on the planet. It likes Zbrush, and export from Rhino and import into Maverick is relatively strightforward. So, it is superior to something like Keyshot in that it has all the materials you need as prebuilt stuff, plus the ability to to use or create better, more specialized materials. The lighting options are magnificant, rendering is blazingly fast, and there are plenty of good post-rendering (tonemapping, etc.) options within Maverick.

Given that, Maverick Render only works with a nVidia video card in the RTX series. (Actually not quite true because there is an exception for the older, cheaper GTX 1020 series of cards. I used it this way successfully for a year before I built my current computer with an RTX card.) So, if you go with Maverick Render, that pretty much dictates the need for an nVidia video card. I'm using a RTX 3080 Plus card right now and I love it. (The "Plus" means that this card has 20 GB of RAM, rather than the 16GB that is normal - rather an oddball card for the RTX 3080 series. But it has dropped my rendering times from 1 1/2 hours to 8 minutes on the average.)

Second, I can't imagine getting by on anything less than 32 GB of RAM. 32GB is definately the standard today, and has been for many years. If you go with less, you are wasting your time, and it is just not worth it, considering the small difference in price between 16 and 32 GB of RAM.

For a CPU, I use an intel i9, but I am a Maya modeller with some significant model-buiding needs and special effects (VFX) needs. I'm sure an i7 would do just fine.

As to a "build", I have made my own computers for the last 25 years, but have provided technical advice to a couple hundred clients as well. For a lot of these people, I've recommended "pre-built" machines by iBuyPower over the years. The reason is that you can choose from among their components for a laptop or a desktop - so you are more or less having the iBuyPower guys build a machine to your specifications. And the second reason is that I can often build a machine for a client this way for less money than if I tried to buy the individual components myself. So, with iBuyPower, you get a machine to fit your exact needs for a darn good price, and they back it up with great service if something fails or is not quite right. If it is a laptop you are interested i, go here to take a look at the options. https://www.ibuypower.com/gaming-laptops. Ignore the "gaming" specification. Typically, that is what a model-builder needs.) There is an almost perfect laptop for you needs retailing for about $2,499.00 USD and another that would work just fine for you for $1,199.00 USD.

Also, as a professional computer builder, I took a look at the specs you posted for your current machine. Yes, it IS time you upgraded, given your work in ZBrush and Rhino. Also, from looking at the componenets, this looks to be a USA machine. If that is correct, and you are living in the USA, then I'd add some additional recommendations.

This looks to be a desktop, rather than a laptop. If you are comfortable with a desktop, I would recommend you replace your current desktop with another desktop, rather than a laptop. In general, a desktop will last longer, and is easier to upgrade in the future. For the most part, a desktop has better air circulation, and better cooling options for the CPU, video card and for the RAM, than does a laptop. So, because it is able to keep the components coolor, all the components last longer. Plus, the coolor the components, the better they perform. Heat is the Number 1 killer of computers. However, if you have a particular need for a laptop, feel free to ignore this idea.

Second, if you purchase something like a dsktop machine from iBuyPower, you can upgrade almost any of the components in the future as your needs change or as changes occur in the technology. (The primary reason that I always build my own machines.) , So, an upgradeable desktop will save you a lot of money over the long-term. Laptops, especially like those from iBuyPower can be upgraded, but it is more difficult to upgrade them.)

An iBuyPower type of machine works well in your particular case, because you can probably salvage the Windows OS, the Western Digital hard drive, and the Sandisk SSD from your old machine and put them into a new desktop. In fact, if it were me, I would specify an iBuyPower desktop - most come without a hard drive, and plan on putting in your own hard drive and SSD into it. Of sourse, you can also add your optical drive as well. (If you're not comfortable with working in the guts of a computer box, I'll volunteer to help.)

I would not give any consideration to trying to salvage your existing RAM, as DDR3 is significantly obsolete now. In fact, you probably could upgrade your existing box a bit with a more powerful CPU and video card --- and save some money, but the DDR 3 RAM this motherboard requires wil be a strong limiiting factor, and you won't gain much. So, I think you have the right idea in going for a more modern motherboard, with better throughput speed, more powerful RAM and CPU combinations, and the ability to host one of the new generation nVidia video cards. Of course, another option for you is to salvage just your hard drive out of your existing box, and put everything else up for sale on Craig's List or the equivalent. You'd probably get some reasonable amount of money for it. But, keep your hard drive. Even if you go for a box with a solid state drive for you main C: drive, you can take the load off you computer by using the salvaged hard drive as a "D:DATA" drive and write all you working data to that second drive.

Finally, back to Maverick Render for a minute. I know this sounds like I am flogging this, but am trying not to. I use Arnold Render, Maxwell Render and Maverick Render in my professional work. I even happily pay for all of them every year. There are things I really appreciate about all of them. If you're a Maya user, you pretty much need Arnold, and Arnold skills. Maxwell cannot be beat for some purposes: I'll never give it up! But, I find myself using Maverick Render more and more frequently - especially for professional work. Some of this has to do with the fact that Maverick allows for direct use of Substance Designer - probably entirely irrelevant to you. But, mostly it has to do with the ease of use for professional grade renders. Its almost too simple to get a nice clear render of a model on the very first pass. You can see a few examples here ( ttps://www.artstation.com/artwork/lDxWYe) These are just a few shots of my latest model set, and they took no thinking, no planning, and no real work. I just imported the model into Maverick, and ran a few quick renders with a free HDRI image (Misty Pines) from PolyHaven. Misty Pines provides a nice diffuse light, and I'm familiar with it. But other than that familiarity with one of the HDRI images, ... nothing to it. Yet, I'm pleased with the clarity of these renders and with the no-brainer lighting. Its hard to imagine that I could have done better if I tried to plan out the lighting or get a better grade render. And, as I said, Maverick Render is particular optimized for jewelry.

Considering installed in the current build WD Blue and SSD which is also far from the top-segment, memory with frequency 795MHz and old video card advice to buy a laptop for price 1199- 2499$ looks so nice. :D
GPU 1020 series do not exist in nature. DDR3 handles all tasks perfectly. For rendering jewelry DDR4 and even more so DDR5 is not necessary at all. Maya and Arnold Render are unlikely to be useful for jewelry creation. Core i9 (even the earliest) and latest i7 Haswell are completely different CPUs, they cannot be compared. RTX3080 is useful only if the topic author wants to make an animated film about the creation of jewelry.

All processors need cooling but Ryzen processors run a little hotter. Don't scrimp on the heat sink and cooling method. Any choices you make will definitely be an upgrade. Money is always an object, so if you have a limited budget, put your money into quality hardware initially, like a good MB and CPU, and get a memory upgrade later on.
Go with the largest memory capacity per slot that the MB allows so that you can upgrade to more at a later date.

Strange that no one mentioned Ryzen Threadripper. Absolutely devilish thing from the hottest depths of hell.
Yeah, it's a pity that Frodo didn't have this processor in Middle-earth.

Hello everyone!

I'm still looking for a GPU. I'll take an 3060 or 3060ti I think!

Here is the config I made : https://imgur.com/GDN2wjw

Do I need to change something? (compatibility, better components for less price)

Do I need to change something?

"From what I understand, I will need an..............................."

From what I know what you will need depends on what will the lion part on what you plan to work on will be.

If you plan rather to render 80% of your time than mostly doing modeling tasks of highres meshes than you need a good modern and above all! a super-fast graphic card that is i.e. Vray Next /6 / 5 compatible.

I have 7 cards here, Quadro cards, GTX and RTX cards. My RTX 3060i is already perfect for GPU rendering because I render now like only 20% of my time and the "i" gives an additional kick for Raytracing.
If I would render 80% of my timeI would buy a faster graphic card than the 360.

However, if you need your GPU truly for 3d you should pick the "i" version of course.

But you did not wrote anything about your budget, and that is actually that will dictate what you will buy.

"3060 with 12gb or a 3060ti with 8gb"

I picked the second one and I don't regret it, I had to read a lot about the difference and the performance of the "ti" is superior in all points when it come to GPU rendering, above all raytracing. Both share the ‘3060’ name, but are two different cards.
It is faster thanks to wider memory bandwidth and it has ten cores more. Still any questions?^^

I agree with jaguarbeastproduction on full scale, for jewelry 8GB card not enough? you don´t have hundreds of 8K textures for jewelry. On other hand jewelry rendering requires a lot of physical correctness and raytracing is crucial. The TI is worlds faster for Raytracing.

"IMHO 360TI makes more sense in gaming than in CGI."
No, it is exactly the other way around.
99% Gamers are buying the non TI version like hot cakes, even because they are so focussed on that "12" GB that in their eyes will enable them to play that stuff on maximum everything.

"If the budget is limited, you can work with i5"

one last thing and I am out of this. Looking to the top, there is a comment by "PBRSTUDIO" in terms of the CPU. CPU is an essential part of a workstation and you have still to render with the CPU too often enough.
Having 12 cores with 20 treads and up to 4.90 GHz in turbo is a big difference to the i5 that is really not meant for rendering purposes.
I have build in this guy onto my board two weeks ago and it is so fast already compared to my older i7...hell and heaven.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/134592/intel-core-i712700f-processor-25m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz/specifications.html

The "F" just means that it dosn´t have an internal graphic unit, that you won´t need anyway since you ill buy a solid GPU by yourself.

Hence, the GPU and CPU that´s what you should focus on for your workstation, in my opinion.
Everything else is "upgradable"! SSD drives, more RAM, etc. But once bought the GPU and CPU and you have to stickwith that - not upgradable.

Good luck with your new top notch workstation and never forget: never touch a running system.

not alot