Help me specc a new PC! (Work+SC/Gaming)

Lorddarthvik

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Heya fellas!

It's that time of the decade, where I decided to finally build a new PC!
Timeline is end of December, will try to grab the parts on sale, so not in a hurry. I don't know what mega-hyper-super-duper stuff will be released in the next months, so tips to wait for better stuff is also appreciated!

I'm looking for recommendations as for Mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM, PSU and some other necessary bits like Case and Cooling, but those I can select myself based on what's available here.

Price range is 1400-1600 USD , preferably lower cos VAT here is a biatch.

It does Not need the be the newest and shiniest stuff, as long as the base has room for upgrades.
I know there is no such thing as future proof so I won't ask for that, but it should be decent for the next 5 years with some upgrades.

Use cases:
Primarily WORK: 3D animation, simulation, 2D comp, 3D rendering.

I work with GPU based renderers, so the highest end video card that fits into the budget is preferred. NVidia only! (CUDA is a must cos of software)

The software I work with have loads of elements which are not multithreaded (enough), like most 2d compositing nodes and 3d fluid simulations.
Because of the above, Ryzen might not be the best choice for my case, as most professional software still benefits waaaaaay more from single core performance than more cores with low performance. Yes, I know the "benchmarks" and unprofessionals who work with crap like Premier and AE (looking at you Linus Trash Tips), TOMs hardware and such says the only way is Ryzen, but my day to day experience still shows the exact opposite. I'm not trying to intel fanboy here, I'd be much happier with the cheaper price tag of the AMD, but it's cheaper for a reason.

Secondary: Gaming, and Star Citizen when I feel like it. No streaming, recording, just playing the games for myself.
All that said, I think whatever I build for work will work well with SC as well. This budget can't fit a professional video card anyways...

Tldr: Intel CPU preferred with high single core performance, cos it's just still better for my use-case. Probably. Still, 8 cores (incl. HT) should be the minimum..

RAM: 32gigs minimum, + as much as fits into budget. More is better, simulations can take up infinite amounts. Just like Chrome.

Storage: one large-ish NVME drive is enough because I will move my old drives over into the new case as well. So the case will need at least 2 SSD slots and 3 HDD slots and the mobo at least 6 SATA connectors.

Cooling: Air preferred. I'd rather dust off 6 high quality fans every couple of weeks than have a leaky AIO.

Case: Normal size, should be heavy and solidly built, doesn't need flashy glass doors, should be well filtered and soundproof instead. It's down by the desk so no need for excessive RGB and such, it won't be seen. Oh, and preferably black, or even yellow. I'll 3D print some accents in the opposite color to TESTify it later lol

PSU: whatever fits in the budget and lasts long.

Have I forgot anything?

Full disclosure: as for Brand I'm a fan of Gigabyte, their stuff is reasonably priced here, and everything I have from them still works fine. Also a fan of Corsair for RAM and PSU, although I heard they got worse recently especially in the PSU dept. I'm very much not a fan of their cases though. Cheaply built and noisy. I much prefer a solidly build nondescript case from Fractal Design.



TLDR.: fast single-core performance CPU (minimum 8cores with HT), much RAM (32gig+) , mucher GPU (30xx?), solid case and PSU. Longevity and quality preferred over flashy RGB and "for Gamers" stickers.


Please note that I'm not in the USA, there is a 27% VAT on everything here, but pricey vary wildly compared to US based sites. Also, obviously, I can't order a nice prebuilt from your local shop, posting those won't help me much either.

Thanks in advance!
 
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ColdDog

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It's that time of the decade, where I decided to finally build a new PC!
Bout time... I know what I like but there are limits to the budget. Find what you can. A fast SSD is imperative. CPU... with SC my cpu gets above 50%... even with a i7 I feel ok. I have more ram than your average at 64k... rarely goes above 16gb playing SC.

In short, i'd focus on the SSD and video card. Maybe 32k for memory. I know hype is for the i9 and 3080, but remember a 3060 and 3070 have more cores than my 1080. Point is... moving forward cores are going to double from generation to generation for the gpu, same for the cpu. So, there are things that limit you that you can't control like your bandwidth for internet.

I went with a superfast SSD (because SC has a bunch of little files that need to be processed)... and a par cpu about 3 years ago and it still seems to be working for me. Its not perfect but I think when I upgrade my system, I'll be going to an awesome monitor and gpu. Keeping the CPU and memory the same. You cant go wrong getting a BIG case, with a BIG power supply. That way you can replace the hardware in it for the future - they should not change for a longtime at least.

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Szioul

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Independent benchmarks for Ryzen 5000 series CPUs are coming on the launch date November 5th. Might want to wait until then, before ruling out AMD. Last week they showed their own Cinebench R15 single thread benchmark with the 5900X, which beat the i9-10900k (631 vs 544. They also said the 5950X scored 640.) No benchmark shown for the 5800X, but should still be faster than anything Intel offers, at an MSRP of $449. 3800XT which is also slightly faster than the 10900k in Cinebench R20 single thread, at under $400, could be an option as well. 5700X probably won't come out until sometime after CES, which is in January.

As far as GPUs, the RTX 3070 looks to be the best option if you can get one. Launching on Oct 29th. MSRP of $499, and is a bit more powerful than the 2080Ti.
 

Lorddarthvik

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Independent benchmarks for Ryzen 5000 series CPUs are coming on the launch date November 5th. Might want to wait until then, before ruling out AMD. Last week they showed their own Cinebench R15 single thread benchmark with the 5900X, which beat the i9-10900k (631 vs 544. They also said the 5950X scored 640.) No benchmark shown for the 5800X, but should still be faster than anything Intel offers, at an MSRP of $449. 3800XT which is also slightly faster than the 10900k in Cinebench R20 single thread, at under $400, could be an option as well. 5700X probably won't come out until sometime after CES, which is in January.

As far as GPUs, the RTX 3070 looks to be the best option if you can get one. Launching on Oct 29th. MSRP of $499, and is a bit more powerful than the 2080Ti.
Thank you! This is exactly the kind of pointers I'm looking for!
I have used cinebench before and while it is closer to real world experience than most other stuff, I still have reservations against it as a measure of true performance. In the studio we had very different results running calculations in actual C4D scenes and Cinebench. Our Intel build won hands down every time in real scenes, while scoring lower in cinebench. That's why I'm still sceptical about AMD, but I'm not ruling them out!

@ColdDog thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
 

Cugino83

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Considering your workload description I'll go for a RTX 3080 a 32Gb of ram, a 1 TB NVN.me drive for SO and workind data, and another 1-2 sata SSD for mass storage, I know is not a conventional solution but considering the SSD cost nowaday 1TB SSD is preatty cheap and defenetly wort the cost. Of course if you need more thena couple of TB of storage in your PC looks for some mechanical drive, those are still bangs-for-bucks when it cames to GB/$ ratio.

For the CPu considering the new Ryzen even if you are working with preatty much single tread workload, I'll still considering them: 4.8-4.9 GHz, VS 5 GHz are not that much of a difference in a pratical use and you still have lot's more core for an equal-if-not-cheaper CPU.

Considering that your timeline is around december I'll won't bother to search for specifi components right now: AMD hasen't release theyr new CPU to the store so lack of motherboard as well, plus the new NVidia 30_series is still suject to scalping and short supply...
Just build a general idea of what you're looking for and whait around Black Firday to assemble an actual shopping list
 

Lorddarthvik

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Thanks for the tips guys!
I'll wait foe the new ryzen real world tests then.
I do have to go with nvidia, all serious GPU rendering software is written for CUDA+RTX and will be for a couple of years, so no matter what AMD brings to the table, I will have to go team green.
Ofc I'll wait for black Friday sales as stated in my original post. Hopefully the scalpers will have had their fun by then.
 

Thalstan

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I’ve been an Intel person since the 286 was new and Nvidia since the Riva 128. Like you, my timeframe is this year/early next year. For the first time, I am thinking of going AMD, (I would go 5950). that said, I am waiting until Rocket Lake. My reason is two fold.

supplies of AMD processors will probably be low initially, so I would be waiting for inventory anyway.
if I do go Intel, I want PCIe 4.0.

I will still stick with Nvidia though.

Honestly, I think AMD will be ahead of Intel for a few releases, but I am hoping that this will knock Intel’s head out of their posterior and get them moving again. Competition is good and Intel has been resting on their laurels for far too long.
 
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BUTUZ

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I guess it depends where you're coming from. I went from my old i7 3770k to a Ryzen 3700x and the ryzen is much faster in everything. My mate got a i9 10900k and yes it is slightly faster overall than mine but then it was twice the price. So is a 5-10% performance improvement worth double the price? Clearly not.

I did however shell out for a decent motherboard, 1 because i can then upgrade to the 5000 series with a bios update and 2 because there was a full cover block available for this gigabyte. Win win for me. I'll probably end up getting a 5000 series in a year or so.

GFX wise I ended up going with a radeon VII as they're ok in gaming but in compute power for what I need you would need 2 x 2080ti , so it was a no brainer back when the amd cards were 525 and the 2080ti cards were 1300 each.

I am not a brand whore I usually buiy whats good and what's good value. I never buy the top tier, your just pissing money away at that level. I had 3dfx when they were good, i had riva tnt when they were good, amd when they were good and nvidia when they were good. Same with CPUs celeron 266 @ 333 amd duron 650 @ 1000, p3 700e @ 1050 ...etc... intel / amd whatever's good value and clockable at the time.

There's plenty of options for you now especially nearer xmas when supply stabilises hopefully.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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I guess it depends where you're coming from. I went from my old i7 3770k to a Ryzen 3700x and the ryzen is much faster in everything. My mate got a i9 10900k and yes it is slightly faster overall than mine but then it was twice the price. So is a 5-10% performance improvement worth double the price? Clearly not.

I did however shell out for a decent motherboard, 1 because i can then upgrade to the 5000 series with a bios update and 2 because there was a full cover block available for this gigabyte. Win win for me. I'll probably end up getting a 5000 series in a year or so.

GFX wise I ended up going with a radeon VII as they're ok in gaming but in compute power for what I need you would need 2 x 2080ti , so it was a no brainer back when the amd cards were 525 and the 2080ti cards were 1300 each.

I am not a brand whore I usually buiy whats good and what's good value. I never buy the top tier, your just pissing money away at that level. I had 3dfx when they were good, i had riva tnt when they were good, amd when they were good and nvidia when they were good. Same with CPUs celeron 266 @ 333 amd duron 650 @ 1000, p3 700e @ 1050 ...etc... intel / amd whatever's good value and clockable at the time.

There's plenty of options for you now especially nearer xmas when supply stabilises hopefully.
I'm on a 4770k with 32gigs and a 2060S. It runs every game perfectly fine in 1080p. So I'm not upgrading just to get 10 more fps out of Star Citizen. I hit well over 60 in most places anyways.

If you are gaming, sure, 10% performance increase is not worth it for double the price.
But consider this: in a 10day process (let's say a long ass water sim), a 10% increase means you get a day off! That's worth waaaaay more than just paying double upfront price. Every tenth of a second spent not waiting for your machine is time you can spend actually doing your job, productively.
This is what actually drives innovation in the market, not getting 2 more fps in the latest CoD at 8K...
Is a 64core ryzen or an i9 running at 5.5 ghz necessary to any gaming or regular use case? Absolutely not. But for work use, it can mean the difference in hitting a deadline or not. In the long term that's worth more than just the upfront cost.

Fact of the matter is that professional CG software is way behind the curve when it comes to filling all the threads and using the latest tech like RTX. It will take at least a couple of years for them to catch up to utilizing all the new shiny things we can put in our PC. Experience tells me that some things can't be multithreaded, ever, so that's why higher clock speed is my top priority. Whether I get that from team blue or red is the question here.
 

Lorddarthvik

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Well, just out of curiosity I took a look at my local online PC parts store. They do have at least one 3080 in stock. For the "low low price" of 1900 USD 😂 😂 😂
Also looked at a 10900K + some Asus ROG 490-f mobo. That's basically 70% of my budget gone... I'm probably gonna aim for a lower spec CPU as I don't really need the 20 threads, with a similarly solid mobo for future upgrades.
 

BUTUZ

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Could be worth looking at an i7 or even an i5 and spending extra money on AIO water cooling to get even bigger overclocks. That would help single threaded perfromance a lot!
 

Lorddarthvik

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Well hello there! I'm following up on this thread, cos it's time to get ready for ordering my parts in a couple of weeks! Black Friday sales are already happening here, randomly for no reason lol

The thing is, I will be giving my old PC to my father so he can finally enjoy some time in the new MS FlightSim. But, I'll be keeping my 2060 Super, and giving him the 1060 6gig I have in the wife's pc which we use for browsing once a week or so... So I won't be buying a gpu. This leaves a bit of room for some more decent parts. A new 30xx wouldn't have fit in the budget anyways.
I don't see a point in paying +200% over msrp for any of the new NVidia cards. (AMD is still out, read above for reasons). Once the cards drop to the usual reasonable level of 50% over MSRP, I'll give my 2060S over, and get something shiny, probably a 3070. That should cover my workload for the less demanding renders, as for the more serious stuff I use render farms anyways.


So, I came up with 3 builds from the stuff available at my local store. I know it's not top notch, but it "has space for upgrades" lol .

There's a build that stretches the budget quiet badly but is theoretically possible (goal is 500k Huf, costs 600k), with the i9 I'm not sure I need, and a top end mobo. I would be living on no beer for quiet a while though... Also that cooler probably needs to change, has like 1mm clearance on paper, I'm guessing that's about -5mm in reality lol

pre_build5_top.png


The other two are in budget, the only difference being the RAM. Any thoughts? Advice?
(remember that I will transfer over my old storage and gpu, and whatever else I find inside)

pre_build6_komoly476e.png
pre_build6_komoly467e_2666.png




The blurb says the 10700k can handle 2666mhz ram, but I guess just like with my older builds, going for faster like 3200 is no issue right?



@BUTUZ good idea but nope, I will not do water cooling. Can't be bothered, don't want leaks, and so on. Also with extended workloads (as in running for days at max) doing air is more efficient in the cheapo range I'm working with here.
 

Szioul

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With the new AMD CPUs beating Intel even in single-thread performance, Microcenter was selling the 9900k for 200$ on launch day. Might get good deals for those and a motherboard on Black Friday/Cyber Monday even in Europe. And it'll probably cheaper to buy from Germany.
 
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BUTUZ

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Whilst I am not one of those guys that says wait for this wait for that waiting for the new AMD cpus to launch will disrupt prices of 10900ks for sure. Might be worth waiting till Jan or so if your not in a mega rush. I just had to tell me little cousin that i'm not ordering a 3900x and 2080 super for his new xmas PC as we're gonna wait for the new gen cpus and cards to be in stock. Try convincing a 15yr old that they're gonna have to wait a month or 3 :D :p
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Whilst I am not one of those guys that says wait for this wait for that waiting for the new AMD cpus to launch will disrupt prices of 10900ks for sure. Might be worth waiting till Jan or so if your not in a mega rush. I just had to tell me little cousin that i'm not ordering a 3900x and 2080 super for his new xmas PC as we're gonna wait for the new gen cpus and cards to be in stock. Try convincing a 15yr old that they're gonna have to wait a month or 3 :D :p
In the true TESTy spirit, you went on a suicide mission! :D Well done!

Yeah I dunno, I'm in kind of in a hurry, but not really. We shall see..
 
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