Recommendations for high-spec non-gaming desktop

[itm]

I am looking to upgrade my desktop Windows 11 tower PC, and would appreciate recommendations for the new hardware.

As well as office productivity apps & general web/streaming use, it will be used for:
- home video editing
- amateur audio production (using Reaper DAW and an external USB audio interface)
- virtual machine hosting using VirtualBox for general dev/test environments
- very occasional gaming - F1 or Pro Evo Soccer.

I use three displays:
- 2 x permanently connected QHD (2560x1440) 27 inch monitors
- 1 x 32 inch HD TV (for occasional use).

My existing specs are:

• Aorus B450 AORUS ELITE
• AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Processor with Wraith Prism RGB LED Cooler
• ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB Twin Fan Graphics Card
• 32GB RAM.

I'd like to increase the RAM to 64GB as my virtual machines usually push the existing 32GB to the limit, and I'm beginning to see performance lags.

I'd also like as many drive bays and SATA ports as possible, as I have several SATA hard drives of music and audio content which I want to have online. Likewise a lot of USB ports, as I have at least 7-8 USB devices permanently connected.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend an appropriate motherboard, CPU and graphics adapter which would give me decent performance as well as future-proofing, and which would represent a meaningful upgrade on my existing setup?

No specific budget (!)

 

[Tetras]

Case has lots of bays, though note the included brackets.

ASRock motherboard has 8 SATA ports, 7 USB Type-A and 1 USB Type-C on the rear I/O.

4070 Ti Super has 16GB of VRAM and 2x encoders, according to this table.

I don't know if the ASRock motherboard has flashback, but I suspect not, so even though the 14700K is a better option (4 more E-Cores) I'm not sure if you could boot with it.

PSU comes with a 12VHPWR cable and I think enough SATA cables for your drives, but you might want to check.

If you plan on upgrading to 128GB in the future, I'd suggest memory that is 2x32GB instead. You could switch to DDR5 (you'd need to change the motherboard too), but the top speed is hit by running 4 sticks. DDR5 has a maximum capacity of 192GB (4x48) or 256GB (4x64), while DDR4 will always be limited to 128GB.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AX-IN) = £419.99
• 1 x Asrock Z790 Pro RS/D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboaord (SKU: MB-196-AK) = £219.95
• 1 x Team Group Xtreem "8Pack Edition" 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (SKU: MY-09Y-TG) = £139.99
• 1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 TI Super Trinity Black 16Gb Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ZTC-01497) = £769.99
• 1 x Seagate FireCuda 520 2TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP2000GV3A012) (SKU: HD-3EX-SE) = £114.95
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Loop 360 Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: HS-01P-BQ) = £99.95
• 1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 Full Tower Case Tempered Glass Window DRGB Satin Black (SKU: CA-0A8-PT) = £149.98
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 1000W V2 80PLUS Gold Power Supply - Black (SKU: CA-0C5-PT) = £159.95

Total: £2,086.74 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[Quartz]

I am looking to upgrade my desktop Windows 11 tower PC, and would appreciate recommendations for the new hardware.

If your budget permits you might want to look at Threadripper CPUs.

You might also want to consider separating out the functions with a NAS and a box specifically for VMs.

 

[itm]

Many thanks for the recommendations. I had a quick look at Threadripper CPUs and I think it might be difficult to justify the additional cost.
I already have a separate HP Microserver Gen8 in the attic which I use as an ESXi host. It currently acts as my main backup file server (and is fully loaded with SATA drives). I run Lubuntu v20 on it for the file server as well as media server and home automation. There is also a Windows Server VM which runs Blue Iris NVR software.
This is probably going to be my next upgrade project, as it cannot accommodate more than 16GB RAM....

As a matter of interest, should I also be thinking about Ryzen 7/9 as an alternative to the i7, or is the i7 worth it for the better performance?

 

[Tetras]

As a matter of interest, should I also be thinking about Ryzen 7/9 as an alternative to the i7, or is the i7 worth it for the better performance?

It depends, but the app performance of the Intel i7/i9 is often superior to Ryzen, you can check benchmarks for what you do.

I'd suggest Puget:

Intel Core 14th Gen Processors Content Creation Review

The new Intel Core 14th Gen processors are a refresh update of the previous 13th Gen processors. But, how much faster are they for content creation workflows?

www.pugetsystems.com

and TPU:

Intel Core i9-14900K Review - Reaching for the Performance Crown

Core i9-14900K is Intel's new flagship with clock speeds of up to 6 GHz. It's actually clocked even higher than the 13900KS, thanks to an extra 100 MHz when more than two cores are active. Our review confirms that Raptor Lake Refresh is amazing for both applications and gaming, if you can live...

www.techpowerup.com

The Ryzen 7900 non-X is my favourite Ryzen for mixed usage/workstation builds:

Crazy Good Efficiency: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU Benchmarks & Thermals

Sponsor: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal paste (on Amazon - https://geni.us/JMVNtOE ) & Hydronaut for water cooling (Amazon - https://geni.us/Fsray )This re...

www.youtube.com

 

[itm]

Ah OK my thinking re. Ryzen v Intel is probably a little outdated!

I was looking at the Phanteks Enthoo case, and noticed that it doesn't look as if it could accommodate both front USB ports and an optical drive (I do occasionally need to read a DVD or even blu-ray disc). Looking at other cases on the Overclockers site, I haven't yet found one that could accommodate this.

Am I out of luck here??

 

[mickyflinn]

Ah OK my thinking re. Ryzen v Intel is probably a little outdated!

I was looking at the Phanteks Enthoo case, and noticed that it doesn't look as if it could accommodate both front USB ports and an optical drive (I do occasionally need to read a DVD or even blu-ray disc). Looking at other cases on the Overclockers site, I haven't yet found one that could accommodate this.

Am I out of luck here??

Usb dvd caddy

 

[Tetras]

I was looking at the Phanteks Enthoo case, and noticed that it doesn't look as if it could accommodate both front USB ports and an optical drive (I do occasionally need to read a DVD or even blu-ray disc). Looking at other cases on the Overclockers site, I haven't yet found one that could accommodate this.

Am I out of luck here??

Have a look at be quiet 600, or the original Enthoo.

 

[itm]

Have a look at be quiet 600, or the original Enthoo.

Many thanks for that. I prefer the height of the be quiet 600, but the Enthoo has a lot more USB ports on the front, which I would definitely use. Shame it's >53cm high!
Or maybe I could go for the be quiet 600 and find a USB panel that would fit into one of the 5.25" bays on the front?

 

[Tetras]

Or maybe I could go for the be quiet 600 and find a USB panel that would fit into one of the 5.25" bays on the front?

I don't see why not?

Another case to look at: Antec P101 Silent or P10C.

 

[itm]

I don't see why not?

Another case to look at: Antec P101 Silent or P10C.

Hmmm...strangely those Antec cases are not available from Overclockers. I think I prefer the height of the be quiet 600 anyway, so a 5.25" USB port adapter is looking like the way to go.

 

[Tetras]

so a 5.25" USB port adapter is looking like the way to go.

You could also buy a USB hub and plug it into a rear port, though unpowered hubs (i.e. no plug) can't power many devices.

 

[Ch3m1c4L]

Would it not make sense to upgrade the current pc to 64gb and a 5950x, and like a 10 port USB hub? If your current mobo doesn't have enough sata ports, get an add in card. Or better yet, upgrade to fewer larger drives if they are a load of drives <3TB.

Also no need to buy a 4070ti gpu for nearly 800 quid for very occasional gaming. That seems insane unless you can get production use out of it too, if using Adobe premiere you could add in an ARC gpu to get quick sync which will likely improve video render times more than a faster nvidia gpu (according to gamers nexus, quick sync plus 30/4080 is better than no qsv plus 4090 iirc).

 

[itm]

Would it not make sense to upgrade the current pc to 64gb and a 5950x, and like a 10 port USB hub? If your current mobo doesn't have enough sata ports, get an add in card. Or better yet, upgrade to fewer larger drives if they are a load of drives <3TB.

Also no need to buy a 4070ti gpu for nearly 800 quid for very occasional gaming. That seems insane unless you can get production use out of it too, if using Adobe premiere you could add in an ARC gpu to get quick sync which will likely improve video render times more than a faster nvidia gpu (according to gamers nexus, quick sync plus 30/4080 is better than no qsv plus 4090 iirc).

It's an interesting option. I'm really not sure whether I'd notice much difference between the 4070ti and my existing ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1660.
One of the reasons for replacing, rather than upgrading, is that I've been living with a couple of issues which are increasingly looking like hardware issues. A display which randomly goes blank for a few seconds every now and again, and a Korg USB midi keyboard which disables itself and often requires a reboot to get it back. These issues have persisted despite an O/S upgrade from Windows 10 to 11, and replacement of monitors and cables.

I've been struggling to find the configurator option on the website to have the above specs built by Overclockers. That motherboard doesn't appear on the option list when I choose to configure their "Custom PCs". Is their configure/build option limited to selected motherboards and other preferred components?

 

[Tetras]

I've been struggling to find the configurator option on the website to have the above specs built by Overclockers. That motherboard doesn't appear on the option list when I choose to configure their "Custom PCs". Is their configure/build option limited to selected motherboards and other preferred components?

Yes, each build has a limited set of components, but you can send them a spec and ask them to build it (I believe they charge £150 plus 4% of the total build cost).