New first time workstation build

[Wockinine]

Budget (including currency): £3400

Country: United Kingdom

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Game development in cryengine, 3d Modeling and CPU Rendering in maya, 4K video editing in Premier pro and also games :)

 

Hi all, 

 

After 4 years of being frustrated and creatively limited by my iMac 5k, I have decided to jump ship and build a new workstation to replace my Mac setup :)

 

I’ve been building mid-high end pcs for friend’s and family for years but this is my first personal venture and wayyyy more powerful than anything I’ve attempted before. This machine will primarily be used for game development work and large scale 3d rendering in Maya with the ability to run games on the side too! 

 

I’m looking to build a rig with a 5950x, 64gb 3200 (will upgrade in future to 128 when funds allow), 850w psu, msi b550 mobo, Corsair 465x case and a 1440p 165hz monitor. 

 

Although I feel pretty set on most of the components and am intending to begin my purchasing spree over the coming days, I do have a couple questions that I am unsure of! 

 

Firstly, in terms of cooling the processor, would a 240mm Corsair h100i be sufficient to handle the thermal output (plus of a healthy overclock ofc!)? I can get a 360mm AIO for not much more but I’m concerned about fitting it in my case as it will only fit on the front intake which would increase temps for the gpu so I am unsure on what is best to go forward with.

 

And secondly, is the performance difference between the 6800xt and rtx 3080 really that significant? At the moment in the Uk, 6800xts are going for around £1300 and the 3080 is minimum £1800 and that’s provided you can even find one. Ik these prices are heavily inflated because of the crisis but with strict deadlines imposing ever sooner, time is kinda money and I really can’t wait much longer being limited by my current machine. Is the slight rtx performance improvement really worth the extra £500 especially with FidelityFX super resolution coming in a few weeks? 

 

I’d be grateful to hear your opinions and I am very excited to begin the build! 

 

[jaslion]

I mean for any rendering task nvidia flat out basically beats amd especially when their optimized for their rt core rendering engine can be used in programs.

 

I'll put togheter a pcpartpicker list to get a baseline as you didnt provide prices for anything but the gpu's which are indeed massively overpriced.

 

Cryengine is still hanging on? Thought that was basically nearing the end with all their financial trouble and it being a pain to work in.

[Wockinine]

Thank you for your quick reply! 

 

Yep cryengines still holding on, albeit barely. I’ve been using it for my latest project for the last couple years and it’s been an absolute pain tbh and it’s required a heavy rework of much of the underlying frameworks for UI and general AI logic integration but I’m hoping the final result will speak for itself! One of the main reasons why I am looking to build this machine is to transition my workflow over to UE5 due to the far more complex ecosystem of products and premade solutions (such as integrated UI) that are essential to making my life less of a pain lol.

 

Overall tbh I’m not really worried about what it will cost because it’s a work machine and it will end up paying for itself over time. Also I would much rather spend a little more and get something which will last rather than settling for second best! 

 

Here is the link to my PCPP list (bar the gpu) which includes prices for everything I’m thinking of going for: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/

 

Thanks for all your help!  

[Chris Pratt]

I don't understand the choice of B550 here. Especially if you're not worried about the cost, you should get an X570. No reason to artificially limit yourself, and with the work you're doing, PCIe 4.0 across both the CPU and chipset lanes is probably going to be critical.

[Wockinine]

Hi there! 
 

if you don’t mind me asking, is there much a difference between x570 and b550? I tried to find some concrete information online and was left rather confused apart from increased overlooking potential and beefier VRM cooling? 
 

it’s crazy to me how far things have come from my humble 7700k  

[Chris Pratt]

1 hour ago, Wockinine said:

Hi there! 
 

if you don’t mind me asking, is there much a difference between x570 and b550? I tried to find some concrete information online and was left rather confused apart from increased overlooking potential and beefier VRM cooling? 
 

it’s crazy to me how far things have come from my humble 7700k  

The biggest difference between the two is PCIe support. B550 has PCIe 4.0 only on the CPU lanes, which gives you one x16 slot and on x4 M.2. The chipset lanes are all PCIe 3.0. X570 is PCIe 4.0 across the whole board. Other than that, there's high end B550 boards with better VRMs than some X570s, but the higher end of X570 has even better. This matters for overclocking, but also just for feeding power hungry CPUs in the first place, like the 5950X. Even if you don't plan on overclocking, it's just bizarre to pair B550 with something like a 5950X, even if you don't strictly need more.

 

Back to PCIe 4.0, that matters most for fast storage right now, but your type of work is a prime candidate for needing fast storage, especially once things like DirectStorage release and you may need to start integrating it into your game development. Regardless, it will have major implications for things like video editing as well, so it would behoove you all around to at least have the ability to run multiple PCIe 4.0 drives baked in, even if you don't go for it right now.

[Wockinine]

Ahhhh ok so it would probably be wise to look for a solid x570 board in order to effectively handle the 5950s power draw and also for futureproofing for gen4 devices. For the moment, I am content with sticking with a premium gen3 drive as tbh the main bottleneck for me is my SATA SSD storage array where all my project files are located but I do see the value of preparing for the future when these high end drives become more mainstream. 

 

In terms of keeping the chip itself cool, would a 240mm AIO be sufficient to ensure reasonable operating temps without throttling? The case I’m using has a good rep for airflow (while also looking flashy for promotional material and my personal tastes) and I’m intending on populating all fan locations as the machine is likely to be run at full throttle for the majority of the day and hitting the processor and GPU hard. 

 

Thank you all for your time!!