Need a workstation for animation, music+

Hi Onelegos,

I too am a professional cg artist at a major vfx studio (not appropriate to actually say which one).  I think your build can be optimized greatly. 

I will assume toonboom will use the same resources as maya, which is my primary program.

I do not know about audio programs though...

I would recommend the proc oc.  I used to think like you and avoid it to guarantee stability, but the oc done here is stable (I got it on one I recently got for a friend) and has been super stable.  It can only help you.  Just add a noctua air cooler.

Ditch the 980.  If you are after the extra cores get the 990, otherwise get a sandybridge 2600 and get the oc.  Kerr or one of the other frequent flyers here can verify but I understand the 2600 is faster than the 980 core for core, and if toonBoom is anything like maya its not very optimised for multi core usage anyways, the only exception being rendering.

I would also build a config in the "gaming" section and request that quaddro 2000 card be put in it.  Youll save a bunch of cash going with a haf case over the proteus or whatever it is.

I typically just use gaming cards myself, even though I do 0 gaming.  My geforce 480 runs all my apps smoothly on dual 30" monitors.

If you go the sandybridge route with a haf case you've just saved a bunch of cash that you could use to request more ram and bump up to 24 gigs...