First build, replacing a MacPro..

[Slickrock]

1. Budget & Location

SoCal US   -  $3k tops for rig apart from monitor.

2. Aim

Photoshop/Lightroom,  and WoW/EVEOnline

3. Monitors

Likely getting a Alienware 34" Ultrasharp (120 refresh)

4. Peripherals

I do want USB-C on the case,  so that's why the case choice..   to have that option built in now.

5. Why are you upgrading?

Currently have a 2013 MacPro,  need something with legs, and the iMacs are too underpowered (if only iMac had Vega64 I might not change),  and the iMacPro and new MacPro are too expensive (and iMacPro not upgradeable)

 

Ideally, I'd like no RGB,  and I want a solid stable rig where I don't need to touch it for quite a while... 

 

Here's the rig I'm looking at:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($499.99 @ Best Buy) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($359.00 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  ($284.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($189.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($189.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC 3X Video Card  ($549.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C Blackout ATX Mid Tower Case  ($142.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($119.89 @ OutletPC) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit  ($139.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $2876.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-27 20:49 EDT-0400

 

Thoughts? 

[Guest savagepain]

nvm

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, Slickrock said:

 

The 3700X is likely good enough, as is the Scythe Fuma 2 cooler, or the be Quiet! coolers may be cheaper than the noctua one.

The Gigabyte Elite and ASUS TUF $200 boards are also fine unless you need like 5 gigabit or 10gigbit on some other boards

a 3200mhz CL16 kit is also probably good enough and cheaper, can still overclock it potentially as well.

Really don't need PCI-e gen 4 without a very specific use case, could just grab some 660ps otherwise

For the GPU I would either save money with an RX 5700/XT card, or go all the way with a 2080 super

Get the version of the R6 without a window if you are seeking a quieter case.

PSU should be more like $90

You can get a windows 10 key for $5 on ebay they work fine.

[EvadeChillzzYT]

I think you should get a 160hz monitor because those specs should be able to run it.

[Corrupt_Liberty]

I might would go with the MSI MEG X570 Unify for a motherboard if you are really anti-RGB.  Looks better and is cheaper as well.

[Wh0_Am_1]

4 minutes ago, Slickrock said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($499.99 @ Best Buy) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($359.00 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  ($284.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($189.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($189.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC 3X Video Card  ($549.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C Blackout ATX Mid Tower Case  ($142.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($119.89 @ OutletPC) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit  ($139.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $2876.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-27 20:49 EDT-0400

 

Thoughts? 

Are you sure that you need that much fast storage? I would recommend reevaluating whether it will actually help you or not as in most use cases esp. games, the difference between between an HDD and SSD is hardly noticeable, it is only a big deal when you are moving lots of data around. If you find that you can get away with only 1 or 2 TB of SSD storage, I would then recommend trading that 2070 super out for a 2080 super, also consider whether your tasks can be GPU optimized, if they can it may be worth considering the Radeon VII with it's 16GB of HBM2.

[dizmo]

The build, for compatibility looks good.

A few questions though:

• Why so many drives?
• Do you not need mass storage of some kind?
• Why are you getting RGB RAM if you don't want RGB?
• The PSU is a little overkill, you can easily get away with a 650w. Though sometimes price is pretty close.
• Are you waiting for Black Friday?  You definitely should, and then replan your build around the sales.

Welcome to the forum!

 

8 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

The 3700X is likely good enough, as is the Scythe Fuma 2 cooler, or the be Quiet! coolers may be cheaper than the noctua one.

The Gigabyte Elite and ASUS TUF $200 boards are also fine unless you need like 5 gigabit or 10gigbit on some other boards

a 3200mhz CL16 kit is also probably good enough and cheaper, can still overclock it potentially as well.

Really don't need PCI-e gen 4 without a very specific use case, could just grab some 660ps otherwise

For the GPU I would either save money with an RX 5700/XT card, or go all the way with a 2080 super

Get the version of the R6 without a window if you are seeking a quieter case.

PSU should be more like $90

You can get a windows 10 key for $5 on ebay they work fine.

Overclocking RAM is a complete PITA.

I don't think he really needs a 2080S for the games he plays, and AMD cards don't play nicely with Adobe.

Just now, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Are you sure that you need that much fast storage? I would recommend reevaluating whether it will actually help you or not as in most use cases esp. games, the difference between between an HDD and SSD is hardly noticeable, it is only a big deal when you are moving lots of data around. If you find that you can get away with only 1 or 2 TB of SSD storage, I would then recommend trading that 2070 super out for a 2080 super, also consider whether your tasks can be GPU optimized, if they can it may be worth considering the Radeon VII with it's 16GB of HBM2.

These days, if you can afford it there's no reason to have mechanical storage in a PC.

[Slickrock]

8 minutes ago, dizmo said:

The build, for compatibility looks good.

A few questions though:

• Why so many drives?
• Do you not need mass storage of some kind?
• Why are you getting RGB RAM if you don't want RGB?
• The PSU is a little overkill, you can easily get away with a 650w. Though sometimes price is pretty close.
• Are you waiting for Black Friday?  You definitely should, and then replan your build around the sales.

Welcome to the forum!

 

Overclocking RAM is a complete PITA.

I don't think he really needs a 2080S for the games he plays, and AMD cards don't play nicely with Adobe.

These days, if you can afford it there's no reason to have mechanical storage in a PC.

Thanks for the reply!!   

 

Drives:  I need enough fast scratch disk space for Photoshop work, and for storing current Lightroom work.   I could, and may, drop one of the NVMEs.   (I do have other external storage that's currently attached to my MacPro,  a 4TB Gtech and and another 6TB that I only turn on to do backups.)

 

RGB Ram:  I was trying to find 2x16 3600 kits with good timing, and that was the best kit that was available in PartPicker..   If I could find that without  RGB, I'd get that...

 

PSU:  I wanted legroom on it in case I added another card in the future.

 

Black Friday:  YES!!!     But I do want to lock down what I actually want to get,  so I'm not waffling on components come that time.

 

Other thing that I should point out is I've been looking at the results of testing at Puget Systems:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-CPU-Roundup-AMD-Ryzen-3rd-Gen-AMD-Threadripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1529/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Lightroom-Classic-CPU-Roundup-AMD-Ryzen-3rd-Gen-AMD-Threadripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1592/

 

The testing there is what's driving the CPU and GPU choices.    Generating Smart Previews in Lightroom is the single most aggravating task on my current system.  (Import 300 photos,  go get dinner with my wife while it works..)   So that's why a 3900  and only a 2700 Super.   I figure that the GPU is something that I can easily change in 2 years,  while hopefully the rest of the rig is good for 4-5+ years.

 

[Slickrock]

26 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Are you sure that you need that much fast storage? I would recommend reevaluating whether it will actually help you or not as in most use cases esp. games, the difference between between an HDD and SSD is hardly noticeable, it is only a big deal when you are moving lots of data around. If you find that you can get away with only 1 or 2 TB of SSD storage, I would then recommend trading that 2070 super out for a 2080 super, also consider whether your tasks can be GPU optimized, if they can it may be worth considering the Radeon VII with it's 16GB of HBM2.

Thanks for the response!

 

i could scale back on the storage some, but I want it fast for the Adobe work.  Fast scratch disk space, and to keep up with a lot of small rewrites. 

 

Radeon VII is BAD for Photoshop/Lightroom (and the 5700XT is worse).    From the testing at Puget Systems,  I'll get more from putting an extra $200 into the CPU instead of the GPU, for what I'm doing...   

 

[Slickrock]

32 minutes ago, Corrupt_Liberty said:

I might would go with the MSI MEG X570 Unify for a motherboard if you are really anti-RGB.  Looks better and is cheaper as well.

Thanks, I'll look at that one.  I did look at a LOT of the others,  and the Master seemed to be the best overbuilt, based on all the reviews I listened too.  Need to look at the ports on the MEG. 

[Slickrock]

42 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

The 3700X is likely good enough, as is the Scythe Fuma 2 cooler, or the be Quiet! coolers may be cheaper than the noctua one.

The Gigabyte Elite and ASUS TUF $200 boards are also fine unless you need like 5 gigabit or 10gigbit on some other boards

a 3200mhz CL16 kit is also probably good enough and cheaper, can still overclock it potentially as well.

Really don't need PCI-e gen 4 without a very specific use case, could just grab some 660ps otherwise

For the GPU I would either save money with an RX 5700/XT card, or go all the way with a 2080 super

Get the version of the R6 without a window if you are seeking a quieter case.

PSU should be more like $90

You can get a windows 10 key for $5 on ebay they work fine.

I am over-speccing some with hopes of some future-proofing as well.       3700/3900 may come down to BF prices.  I figure I'll replace the GPU in 2 years,  but do need AMD. 

 

Good tip on the eBay Win key.    

[Streetguru]

37 minutes ago, dizmo said:

AMD cards don't play nicely with Adobe.

They're just fine? Even faster in some cases, granted the RX 5700 may have a few bugs to be worked out in the drivers and/or windows 10. I only use Vegas
 

 

Apparently Radeon VII was able to save some premiere issues simply by having 16GBs of VRAM

 

So maybe for premiere specifically a used 1080ti would be better than the 2070 super for it's 11GBs of VRAM
 

 

[Slickrock]

2 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

They're just fine? Even faster in some cases, granted the RX 5700 may have a few bugs to be worked out in the drivers and/or windows 10.

I'm relying on the testing here:

 

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-CPU-Roundup-AMD-Ryzen-3rd-Gen-AMD-Threadripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1529/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Lightroom-Classic-CPU-Roundup-AMD-Ryzen-3rd-Gen-AMD-Threadripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1592/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-GPU-Roundup-NVIDIA-SUPER-vs-AMD-RX-5700-XT-1552/

 

So I'm looking specifically at Photoshop and Lightroom. 

 

Of course, there are pros and cons,  but the 5700XT and Radeon V II both have Adobe issues,  depending on the specific software.

[Streetguru]

18 minutes ago, Slickrock said:

I'm relying on the testing here:

Would get the 1080ti for it's VRAM in any event rather than a 2070 super, it has the same performance, it's around the same price on ebay

[Slickrock]

1 hour ago, Corrupt_Liberty said:

I might would go with the MSI MEG X570 Unify for a motherboard if you are really anti-RGB.  Looks better and is cheaper as well.

Did some searching,  no full reviews of the board yet.  One mini-review showed promising results from thermals, but don't know if any of the YouTubers will review a no-RGB board.   Everything else was just rewrites of the press release.

 

I'm a bit concerned about MSI with the very bad results of some of the other MSI boards, but this one does look pretty good.  I'll have to consider it.  

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($499.99 @ Best Buy) 9900k might work better with quicksync.
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($300.00) on amazon.
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($374.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Intel 660p Series 2.048 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($199.00 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card  ($623.99 @ Best Buy) 
Case: Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C Blackout ATX Mid Tower Case  ($142.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: BitFenix Whisper M 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($107.92 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit  ($139.99 @ Adorama) 
Total: $2668.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-27 22:32 EDT-0400

[dizmo]

52 minutes ago, Slickrock said:

Thanks for the reply!!   

 

Drives:  I need enough fast scratch disk space for Photoshop work, and for storing current Lightroom work.   I could, and may, drop one of the NVMEs.   (I do have other external storage that's currently attached to my MacPro,  a 4TB Gtech and and another 6TB that I only turn on to do backups.)

 

RGB Ram:  I was trying to find 2x16 3600 kits with good timing, and that was the best kit that was available in PartPicker..   If I could find that without  RGB, I'd get that...

 

PSU:  I wanted legroom on it in case I added another card in the future.

 

Black Friday:  YES!!!     But I do want to lock down what I actually want to get,  so I'm not waffling on components come that time.

 

Other thing that I should point out is I've been looking at the results of testing at Puget Systems:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-CPU-Roundup-AMD-Ryzen-3rd-Gen-AMD-Threadripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1529/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Lightroom-Classic-CPU-Roundup-AMD-Ryzen-3rd-Gen-AMD-Threadripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1592/

 

The testing there is what's driving the CPU and GPU choices.    Generating Smart Previews in Lightroom is the single most aggravating task on my current system.  (Import 300 photos,  go get dinner with my wife while it works..)   So that's why a 3900  and only a 2700 Super.   I figure that the GPU is something that I can easily change in 2 years,  while hopefully the rest of the rig is good for 4-5+ years.

 

Ahhh gotcha. I mean, they're not overly expensive right now, so if that's how you want to set it up it'd definitely be the right time to build it that way (prices will go back up), it just seemed a little odd. My spinning storage is external as well so I get what you've done.

 

Haha, fair. There's usually cheaper non RGB kits, though I'm not sure what the timing is like with those.

 

Do you do any work in Adobe that will be accelerated with

 

2 video cards is very rarely ever worth it. Usually it's better just to upgrade to the next one in the stack.

 

Honestly, I'd say that's the complete wrong way to go about Black Friday shopping. Generally you want to go in with a budget, not a part in mind, or you could miss out on either substantial savings on something of similar quality, or paying the same and getting a significantly better part.

 

I don't think I'd consider TR if you intend to do any gaming. Not sure how it compares to the Ryzen 9, but it shat the bed against the Ryzen 5 in that aspect the first time around.

[Slickrock]

25 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Haha, fair. There's usually cheaper non RGB kits, though I'm not sure what the timing is like with those.

 

Do you do any work in Adobe that will be accelerated with

 

Honestly, I'd say that's the complete wrong way to go about Black Friday shopping. Generally you want to go in with a budget, not a part in mind, or you could miss out on either substantial savings on something of similar quality, or paying the same and getting a significantly better part.

 

I don't think I'd consider TR if you intend to do any gaming. Not sure how it compares to the Ryzen 9, but it shat the bed against the Ryzen 5 in that aspect the first time around.

 

Actually..  the whole RAM thing is really confusing..  and frustrating...  especially now that I'm reading about B-Die...  

 

Fair point about BF,  but I at least need to be educated enough to know what good options are.   (NZXT 710 is probably my one alternate case,  and 2080 Super certainly is an option if the price is right...    )

 

Yeah, didn't mean that I'd try Threadripper..  not a choice at all for my applications. 

 

I really need to get educated on PSUs and other components still...