yo, i feel u on the thermal thing. i been building pcs for like 10 years but honestly im still just getting into the really high-end workstation stuff myself. basically the thing is that consumer chips like the Intel Core i9-14900K Desktop Processor are built for short bursts of CRAZY speed. that matters cuz while it feels fast for editing, those long blender renders can make them get highkey hot and throttle. i mean, you dont want your pc dying overnight right?? for your situation i suggest looking at the Intel Xeon w7-2475X 20-Core 2.6GHz Processor. even though im still learning the specs it seems like these are built way differently for long-term stability. they handle heat better and the ecc memory support is basically insurance against crashes. i mean the i9 is great for raw speed but if you need it to be a reliable workhorse for years i think the xeon is the safer bet. anyway just my thoughts... gl!

Quick reply while I have a sec... Just sharing my experience: I went through this exact same thing last year. My renders kept hitting thermal walls. Ngl, switching to a workstation platform was a game changer for my workflow. I ended up with the Intel Xeon W7-2495X Processor because I needed those 48 PCIe lanes for my high-speed storage array and dual GPUs. Basically, consumer chips use a ring bus architecture thats killer for gaming but gets heat-soaked during long Blender renders. Xeons use a mesh topology designed for sustained loads. In my experience, it doesnt throttle the same way. Also, having ECC memory support on my ASUS ProWS W790-ACE Motherboard totally stopped those random crashes I used to get during overnight exports. TL;DR: I found that while the Core i9 is great for quick edits, the Xeon series offered the thermal headroom and ECC stability I needed for heavy, multi-hour 4K exports.

Just saw this thread! Curious about one thing: what is ur actual budget? unfortunately i had issues with overspending on builds that just overheated... i wanna help u avoid that, right?

Big if true