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Recommendations for a workstation?

Smores
By Smores
in New Builds and Planning
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Go to solution Solved by RONOTHAN##,

I probably would go 5950X instead, because for those type of workloads it likely will make a difference, and the prices for it have come down a lot. The other day I had seen it listed for somewhere around $530 (I'll try to find the listing, it might have gone out of stock), so for the ~$200 price increase you get a lot more performance in most 3D design applications, and you probably won't have to think about upgrading for a while. 

 

For a motherboard, there are three things that you need to think about. 1.) Does the motherboard have an adequate VRM solution for the CPU you want? Most motherboards about the $160 price point will be more than enough for a 5950X, but it's not guaranteed. 2.) Does the motherboard have all the features that you want? If you need a motherboard that supports x8/x8 for example, you need to make sure the board you are getting supports x8/x8. Same thing applies with connectors, does it have enough SATA, does it have front panel USB Type C, does it have enough M.2 slots, etc. 3.) Does the motherboard have any known issues that might affect you. The Gigabyte B550 Master, for example, has a dual BIOS implementation that makes the board almost unusable for most overclockers, so while the rest of the board might be awesome, without heavy modification the board is not worth using. Once you find boards that meet all those criteria, go for the cheapest one there. The motherboard, practically speaking, is just a fancy cable, so you shouldn't really spend more money on a board that doesn't have any advantages you'd see, and you might as well put that money into faster RAM, better storage, etc. As for X570 vs B550, for most people there really aren't many advantages for going X570 over B550. X570 offers a couple more M.2 slots at gen 4 speeds, and has better VFIO support if you're a virtualization enthusiast. If you don't need either of those things, you might as well save money and go for a B550 board, since dollar for dollar they tend to be built better than their X570 counterparts. I'll help you with finding a board, but knowing exactly what you need and what you don't would be beneficial.

 

For RAM, I'd probably go for 64GB, but if you can find a 2x16GB kit that you know is single rank it would still let you go for higher capacity in the future without having to sacrifice speed. 

Posted

Budget (including currency): $1,000 USD no more than $1,500 

Country: USA

Uses: 3D Design, Video/Picture editing, Drone mapping and photography, occasional gaming

Games: Real Flight 9, MS Flight Sim, Tomb Raider, COD... 

Programs or workloads that it will be used for: Pix4D Mapper, ArcMap Pro, Revit, Fusion 360, SolidWorks, Sony Vegas, Lightroom & Photoshop...

Current PC:

     CPU: Intel Core i5-3470

     RAM: 24 GB Ram ddr3

     Mother Board: ASUS P8Z77-V LX

     GPU: MSI RTX 2070

     Monitors: 3 Old cheap Dell monitors

     Power: 650W 

Why are you upgrading? I'm upgrading mainly because the CPU is showing its age and limits when I am rendering videos, 3D designs, and maps and is constantly running at 70-100% and has crashed a couple times. Upgraded the graphics card a couple years ago and plan on moving it to the new system. 

What I'm thinking: I've been doing some research and it looks like the Ryzen 7 5800x is best "bang for your buck" and Ryzen 95950x is more of what I'm needing. (Not completely sure yet, open to suggestions!)

My question is, is it worth twice the price to go with the 9 5950x and will that future proof the system more? Is there a different card that would be better? What's a good motherboard to pair with it? I was thinking of going with a x570.

I'll also need ram as I have DDR3 now, I was thinking 32gb.

 

I don't have a preference of brand, just would like a good running system that I don't have to worry about it crashing. 

Thanks in advance! 

 

 

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I probably would go 5950X instead, because for those type of workloads it likely will make a difference, and the prices for it have come down a lot. The other day I had seen it listed for somewhere around $530 (I'll try to find the listing, it might have gone out of stock), so for the ~$200 price increase you get a lot more performance in most 3D design applications, and you probably won't have to think about upgrading for a while. 

 

For a motherboard, there are three things that you need to think about. 1.) Does the motherboard have an adequate VRM solution for the CPU you want? Most motherboards about the $160 price point will be more than enough for a 5950X, but it's not guaranteed. 2.) Does the motherboard have all the features that you want? If you need a motherboard that supports x8/x8 for example, you need to make sure the board you are getting supports x8/x8. Same thing applies with connectors, does it have enough SATA, does it have front panel USB Type C, does it have enough M.2 slots, etc. 3.) Does the motherboard have any known issues that might affect you. The Gigabyte B550 Master, for example, has a dual BIOS implementation that makes the board almost unusable for most overclockers, so while the rest of the board might be awesome, without heavy modification the board is not worth using. Once you find boards that meet all those criteria, go for the cheapest one there. The motherboard, practically speaking, is just a fancy cable, so you shouldn't really spend more money on a board that doesn't have any advantages you'd see, and you might as well put that money into faster RAM, better storage, etc. As for X570 vs B550, for most people there really aren't many advantages for going X570 over B550. X570 offers a couple more M.2 slots at gen 4 speeds, and has better VFIO support if you're a virtualization enthusiast. If you don't need either of those things, you might as well save money and go for a B550 board, since dollar for dollar they tend to be built better than their X570 counterparts. I'll help you with finding a board, but knowing exactly what you need and what you don't would be beneficial.

 

For RAM, I'd probably go for 64GB, but if you can find a 2x16GB kit that you know is single rank it would still let you go for higher capacity in the future without having to sacrifice speed. 

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On 2/9/2022 at 9:45 PM, RONOTHAN## said:

For RAM, I'd probably go for 64GB, but if you can find a 2x16GB kit that you know is single rank it would still let you go for higher capacity in the future without having to sacrifice speed. 

Thank you, that's very helpful! What Ram speed would you recommend? Is the 3200 or 3600 enough? 

For the motherboard, I don't need anything fancy, just needs to support my GPU (here), one M.2, and a few HDDs. 

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29 minutes ago, Smores said:

Thank you, that's very helpful! What Ram speed would you recommend? Is the 3200 or 3600 enough? 

For the motherboard, I don't need anything fancy, just needs to support my GPU (here), one M.2, and a few HDDs. 

Because of how Ryzen works, the multi core performance is directly tied to the memory frequency. Faster RAM directly translates to multi core improvements. That said, the infinity fabric (the actual frequency that controls this) tends to top out at around 1900MHz on Ryzen 5000, so 3800MT/s RAM is about as fast as you can expect to go, with a couple chips not being able to go above 3600MT/s. Therefore, if you should be trying to get a kit of 3600MT/s RAM. 

 

As for the motherboard, there are a couple options that you can consider. The MSI B550 Tomahawk is a very popular board with a good VRM and a decent price. My personal pick would likely be the ASRock B550 Steel Legent (not the mATX version), since it's the cheapest board that has a POST code, a feature that's extremely useful for diagnosing bad hardware, trying to overclock, and just overall keeping the system running 24/7 like you want from a workstation. 

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https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HP2sY9

 

Idk what kind of storage you may already have, so I just went with a 1TB M.2 NVME SSD instead of a 2TB. The 140mm fans are for the front of the case (intake). You can move the pre-installed front fan, to the top-back of the case (exhaust).

Am I still to create the perfect system?! ~ Clu

Keep your expectations low, boy, and you will never be disappointed. ~ Kratos

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On 2/13/2022 at 10:09 AM, RONOTHAN## said:

Because of how Ryzen works, the multi core performance is directly tied to the memory frequency. Faster RAM directly translates to multi core improvements. That said, the infinity fabric (the actual frequency that controls this) tends to top out at around 1900MHz on Ryzen 5000, so 3800MT/s RAM is about as fast as you can expect to go, with a couple chips not being able to go above 3600MT/s. Therefore, if you should be trying to get a kit of 3600MT/s RAM. 

 

As for the motherboard, there are a couple options that you can consider. The MSI B550 Tomahawk is a very popular board with a good VRM and a decent price. My personal pick would likely be the ASRock B550 Steel Legent (not the mATX version), since it's the cheapest board that has a POST code, a feature that's extremely useful for diagnosing bad hardware, trying to overclock, and just overall keeping the system running 24/7 like you want from a workstation. 

Thanks again for all your help! Items are ordered, looking forward to my first full build!

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