New Upgrade Recommendations Work Station / Gaming PC

Big T

Big T

Big T

Associate
Joined
14 Aug 2011
Posts
194
Good Morning All

I have decided to bite the bullet and go for a completely new system, as my aging system is now showing signs of struggling. I have also included my existing system specs below in case anything can be repurposed.
As always, your assistance is greatly appreciated.

System Use.
2k gaming - My Current Setup is one Ultra wide 5120*1440 Samsung C49 and 2 Dell S2721DGF.
Work Station - Electrical engineering and design including:
  • Trimble Design Sofware.
  • Relux.
  • Auto CAD & Revit.
  • Fusion 360.
  • Blender.
  • 3D Printing Sofware Lychee Ect...
  • The typical Microsoft office suite.

Budget - Honestly not an issue as this would be a work expense but looking at around £3000 ish (excluding vat)

Personal Preference / Restrictions
  • AMD CPU
  • RTX GPU
  • 32 /64 Gigs of Ram
  • 2GB NVME + Additional System Storage

AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 2700X 4.35GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail
Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming AMD X470 (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080Ti Gaming OC BLACK 11264MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card
WD 4TB Blue 5400rpm 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive (WD40EZRZ)
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass Mid Tower Case - Gun Metal
Samsung SM961 Polaris 512GB M.2-2280 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive
Team Group Dark Pro 8Pack Edition 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C14 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black
Seasonic Focus Plus 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply
be quiet Silent Loop Superior Liquid CPU Cooler - 360mm (Replaced for Noctua NH-D12L, Low-Height Dual-Tower CPU Cooler (120mm, Brown) due to failure on year 7 :) )
ST6000DM003-2CY186 6001.1 GB (6TB HD)
WDC WD180EDGZ-11B2DA0 18000.2 GB (18 TB HD)
 
Last edited:
This is a complete rebuild within budget, but you could easily re-use your case and the drives.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900 Twelve Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £428.99
Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £349.99
Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5600Z40) - £248.99

MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming Trio X 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £1,799.98

2x WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2X0E) - £149.99

MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 UK PSU 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply - £159.95
Phanteks Eclipse P600S Glass Silent Midi Tower Case - Black - £152.99
Phanteks Glacier One 280MP All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 280mm - £129.95

Grand Total: £3,582.80 (includes delivery charge, £11.99)
(VAT included: £597.13)

An upgrade (re-use motherboard and case):

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Sixteen Core 4.9GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail - £488.99
(Re-use motherboard)
Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey - £158.99

MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming Trio X 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £1,799.99

2x WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2X0E) - £149.99

MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 UK PSU 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply - £159.95
(Re-use case)
Phanteks Glacier One 280MP All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 280mm - £129.94

Grand Total: £3,045.83 (includes delivery charge, £7.99)
(VAT included: £507.64)
 
Last edited:
My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,861.87 (includes delivery: £7.99)​



​

Pick a GPU you want.
Pick a case you like that can fit a 360mm rad + GPU.
 
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DE-AM
£600 (incl. VAT)
£470 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JW-AS
£280 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (CP-9020253-UK)
CA-27A-CS
£175 (incl. VAT)
£155 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Last edited:
So from the above and a little put together by self how about the below?

A few questions
  1. Not sold on the AIO so are there any reasonable alternatives
  2. CPU wise is it worth waiting for a price drop now the 3D models are out
  3. Not sure on the GPU but went for them as I have been told their UK support is very good - Altentaives?

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £3,765.85 (includes delivery: £0.00) Remove Vat @ £627.64​

​
​
​
 
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DE-AM
£600 (incl. VAT)
£470 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JW-AS
£280 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (CP-9020253-UK)
CA-27A-CS
£175 (incl. VAT)
£155 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III RGB Full Tower PC Case - Black
CA-7AY-LL
£136 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III Filter Kit - Black
CA-7B6-LL
£9 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Last edited:
Afternoon All

One last sanity check before I hit buy - any recommendations or alterations will be welcome

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £3,816.85 (includes delivery: £0.00)​



​
 
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DE-AM
£600 (incl. VAT)
£470 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JW-AS
£280 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (CP-9020253-UK)
CA-27A-CS
£175 (incl. VAT)
£155 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III RGB Full Tower PC Case - Black
CA-7AY-LL
£136 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III Filter Kit - Black
CA-7B6-LL
£9 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Good spot - technically yes is the answer, but at 40mm space I will be wasting all that additional space above the drive cages for cable management
 
Updated to reflect above

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £3,766.90 (includes delivery: £0.00)​



​
 
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DE-AM
£600 (incl. VAT)
£470 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JW-AS
£280 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III RGB Full Tower PC Case - Black
CA-7AY-LL
£136 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III Filter Kit - Black
CA-7B6-LL
£9 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
To what extent can the software you use take advantage of very many threads? Because if it can you might want to look at a Threadripper Pro or Xeon W2400 solution.
 
Quartz said:
To what extent can the software you use take advantage of very many threads? Because if it can you might want to look at a Threadripper Pro or Xeon W2400 solution.
Click to expand...
Good Question, honestly the answer is I don't know, all I can say is currently when "Calculating" Software like Relux, Trimble, Revit and Blender max my current CPU across all cores - This is also compounded by Onedrive, teams etc... being comparatively resource heavy at current. The CPU in its self may be over kill I'm unsure. I did originally explore X3d but when doing the research and as this is a productivity rig primarily and gaming secondary I didn't want to take the hit.

To give an example of a full raytrace render using relux this can easily take 1 to 2 hours or more depending on the complexity with my current set up with CPU all cores maxed
 
Saved ~£300 on the case and motherboard and cheaper equivalent RAM
Unless you really need PCIE5, the asus board isn't really worth the outlay
Phanteks G360A will also mount a 360mm AIO up on top
Better PSU (with 12VHPR cable so no need for adaptor)

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £3,450.84 (includes delivery: £11.99)​

​
​
​

​
 
Last edited:
Big T said:
Good Question, honestly the answer is I don't know,
Click to expand...

Then I suggest you do some research and analysis and consider how much time you spend on the heavily multi-threaded apps and think about cost / benefit. You mention Blender and that will take advantage of - I think - up to 64 cores. You should also consider max RAM - desktop CPUs have issues with more than 64 GB - if you are thinking of upgrading that down the line.

OCUK sell the 24 core / 48 thread Threadripper Pro for £2500. 12 and 16 core models are OEM (HP?) only, though there are also Epyc CPUs. Videocardz reports that the 24 core / 48 thread Intel Xeon W7-2495X will be $2189 - rather cheaper than the Threadripper Pro but more expensive than the Epyc.
 
Big T said:
Good Question, honestly the answer is I don't know, all I can say is currently when "Calculating" Software like Relux, Trimble, Revit and Blender max my current CPU across all cores - This is also compounded by Onedrive, teams etc... being comparatively resource heavy at current. The CPU in its self may be over kill I'm unsure. I did originally explore X3d but when doing the research and as this is a productivity rig primarily and gaming secondary I didn't want to take the hit.

To give an example of a full raytrace render using relux this can easily take 1 to 2 hours or more depending on the complexity with my current set up with CPU all cores maxed
Click to expand...
Are you CPU rendering in Blender because your graphics card isn't up to it, or because you just never used the GPU rendering ? GPU rendering is much quicker than CPU, you'd only use CPU rendering in cases where your GPU can't render the scene because it's too huge.
Likewise those other softwares, when you render are you using CPU or GPU rendering & do they offer the option ?
 
Quixote said:
Are you CPU rendering in Blender because your graphics card isn't up to it, or because you just never used the GPU rendering ? GPU rendering is much quicker than CPU, you'd only use CPU rendering in cases where your GPU can't render the scene because it's too huge.
Likewise those other softwares, when you render are you using CPU or GPU rendering & do they offer the option ?
Click to expand...
Relux is CPU only, Blender on the bigger files my Graphics card can't handle it too well and I get errors. In short, I'm guessing my system is too old across the board hence the upgrade.
 
Big T said:
Relux is CPU only, Blender on the bigger files my Graphics card can't handle it too well and I get errors. In short, I'm guessing my system is too old across the board hence the upgrade.
Click to expand...
Seems then that your use-case, ideally would have both a strong GPU & a strong CPU. A 7950x CPU would be ideal, as would a 4090. That's a lot of money though. If you wanted a cheaper GPU, I think you'd be better off with a 2nd Hand 3090 than any of the lower range 4-series GPUs. I have a 3090 at work & the 24GB of RAM is an absolute blessing for GPU rendering, Unreal Engine etc.
You should also look at 'out-of-core' for GPU rendering. It uses system RAM to store meshes & textures when the GPU memory runs out. There is some performance hit, but it's still usually faster than CPU rendering. In cycles, this should happen when using CUDA or Optix kernels automtically. But it might be limied to certain cards, I'm not sure as I don't use cycles.
With RAM for the AM5 CPUs, your speeds will be limited when going with 4 slots & a lot of capacity. So say, if you want 64GB, make sure to do it with 2x32GB, rather than 4x16GB.
 
Last edited:
Quixote said:
Seems then that your use-case, ideally would have both a strong GPU & a strong CPU. A 7950x CPU would be ideal, as would a 4090. That's a lot of money though. If you wanted a cheaper GPU, I think you'd be better off with a 2nd Hand 3090 than any of the lower range 4-series GPUs. I have a 3090 at work & the 24GB of RAM is an absolute blessing for GPU rendering, Unreal Engine etc.
You should also look at 'out-of-core' for GPU rendering. It uses system RAM to store meshes & textures when the GPU memory runs out. There is some performance hit, but it's still usually faster than CPU rendering. In cycles, this should happen when using CUDA or Optix kernels automtically. But it might be limied to certain cards, I'm not sure as I don't use cycles.
With RAM for the AM5 CPUs, your speeds will be limited when going with 4 slots & a lot of capacity. So say, if you want 64GB, make sure to do it with 2x32GB, rather than 4x16GB.
Click to expand...
i tend to agree, to be honest, I'm booking the PC against my company (A small limited company) so it will be a work expense as that is its primary use. 64GB with 2 sticks is also my plan I'm guessing I'm good to go. My last sense check as I have updated the build with the information provided and I shall hit buy this weekend

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £3,756.85 (includes delivery: £0.00)​



​
 
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Sixteen Core 5.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail
CP-3DE-AM
£600 (incl. VAT)
£470 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JW-AS
£280 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III RGB Full Tower PC Case - Black
CA-7AY-LL
£136 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Lian Li Lancool III Filter Kit - Black
CA-7B6-LL
£9 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 UK PSU 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
CA-00W-MS
£170 (incl. VAT)
£140 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Should be an absolute beast ! To be honest, I would go cheaper on the motherboard, I always like to go for the cheapest motherboard with decent VRMs & connectivity I can.
But that's just me, if there are features on the ROG that you feel you need, or if it just seems a small % of the total budget, then I'm sure it's a great board.
 
to be honest, its more because I know ASUS as a brand. I know PCIe 5 isn't mainstream yet so maybe paying more than I should in that aspect. I did look into the Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX Motherboard but the poor RAM speed sort of turned me away. I am open to options but the selection doesn't seem to be great they all have their strengths and weaknesses
 
Big T said:
to be honest, its more because I know ASUS as a brand. I know PCIe 5 isn't mainstream yet so maybe paying more than I should in that aspect. I did look into the Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX Motherboard but the poor RAM speed sort of turned me away. I am open to options but the selection doesn't seem to be great they all have their strengths and weaknesses
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm planning a very similar build myself soon (just waiting on the 7800X3D) and I'm thinking the same regarding PCIe 5, I realise its not needed now but maybe for an upgrade down the line, and while I'm paying as much as I will be do I want to scrimp on that. Not that you should listed to me mind, I don't really have a clue, but thats my logic.
I've been looking at the X3D thread over in the CPU section and there seems to be a fair bit of negativity around ASUS, though the Gigabyte and MSI equivalents seem a lot more, so not sure what to do there.
 
mark43 said:
and I'm thinking the same regarding PCIe 5, I realise its not needed now but maybe for an upgrade down the line
Click to expand...

For me, I don't particularly care about either, but from a technical perspective, I consider it matters far more for M.2 slots than graphics, because 1. it places a hard limit on getting data from/to the SSD and there's no work-around and 2. with graphics cards, high-end cards lose very little performance running a gen down (a few percent at most) and only a bit more running 2 gens down. With AM5, you get a PCI-E 5.0 M.2 slot on all but the lowest-end boards.

Big T said:
I did look into the Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX Motherboard but the poor RAM speed sort of turned me away.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to specs or what people are getting from it? My understanding is that once you start using large amounts of memory AM5 is far more likely to be limited by the CPU than the board and since you're only using 5600, that shouldn't trouble any AM5 board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom