It’s time to replace my 11 year old Windows PC. After reviewing Rhino’s system requirements, I think this Dell system seen below should be more than sufficient to run both Rhino 7 and 8, but if any PC experts here could validate my selections (highlighted in red, see screen cap below), I would feel a whole lot better before I purchase. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 card is stated to support OpenGL 4.6 and has 8GB GDDR7 of memory. Thanks for your opinions.
Yes, it fits the recommendations:
Well, if you are waiting 11 years between machines, I would at least get something a bit better than the base version. Your post states 8Gb VRam, but the screenshot indicates 16. However I would opt for at least the 32Gb VRam version (the middle one). Not sure the difference between a 5060 and a 5060 Ti will be all that great.
VRAM = Video ram - 8gb with a 5060
The 16GB of memory in the screenshot is regular memory (RAM) on the motherboard, not the video memory (VRAM) on the video card.
The RTX 5060 has 8GB of VRAM, and the RTX 5060Ti has 16GB of VRAM.
Ah, OK, I would not get anything less than 16 VRAM, 32 is better.
The Intel 265 is a decent enough processor for Rhino, and has good gains in efficiency over my own Raptor Lake 13700K; though it is on the dead Arrow Lake platform. But if you do only change every 10 years, it won’t matter.
As for the GPU, I would probably aim for a middle ground of the 5070, which at least has 12 GB of VRAM. Even in Rhino, you may start presenting some challenges to yourself trying to maintain 8 GB of VRAM over 10 years. 16 GB VRAM cards are rapidly becoming hideously overpriced from both Nvidia and AMD.
Unless you are doing a lot of CPU or hybrid rendering, I wouldn’t bother with the 285K. Rhino is mostly single-threaded anyway. Spend the money on a better GPU or more RAM.
Of my 4090 and 4070 Super, 90% of my renders happen on the 4070 Super, which has 12 GB.
The biggest problem here will be seeing just how much Dell can compromise the performance of the CPU and GPU via terrible airflow and cooling setups. They specialise in creating bottlenecks. Also watch out, as they are largely proprietary models for the GPU, motherboard, and probably the power supply.
This was extremely helpful to know, thanks. I’m really a Mac guy, and don’t know too much about PC’s in general. My 11 year old PC is a Dell, but it was not bought by me. And I’ve had no trouble with it, but now it just moves too slowly, for any task.
(One might wonder why I don’t just use Rhino on my Mac. The answer to this is that I’ve been using Rhino on my PCs for close to 15 years and I just prefer the Rhino interface on the PC.)
I do know a guy who can build custom PCs from non-proprietary parts, I’ll follow up with him, using the Dell config as a reference.
Well, before you invest in another PC just for Rhino, you might have a look at the latest Rhino for Mac WIP. The two interfaces are getting much closer. It’s even rumored that V9 for Mac has a command line… 
Something else to consider is that right now RAM is extremely pricey. If you want 64gb now it might make sense to buy 2x 32gb sticks and then in the future you can upgrade by buying 1/2 more when prices aren’t as nuts (asuming your motherboard has 4 slots which is common).
RAM is insane 1 year ago i bought 32GB of DDR 5 for £90 it’s now over £400
All for our AI overlords
Yes, I am delighted to see the Mac interface is getting much closer to the Windows interface.
Yes this PC is good.
If you upgrade the RAM to 32 GB, it will last much longer (years) because Windows only grows in size. Upgrade just the memory RAM to 32.
And pick up a 2K or 4K big-sized monitor.