Build Planning Help

[xSpaceMan11x]

Budget (including currency): Around $5,000 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Rainbow 6 Siege, Warzone 2, High end games, Solidworks, Siemens NX, Master Cam, Blender, Programing, Photoshop, Lightroom. This is more or less what I want to use it for. 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

• First PC build
• New job as an Applications Engineer, need a machine that can handle the load
• Currently using a Surface Book 2, but it's starting to break and run poorly
• Considering AMD for the build because of good reviews
• Don't know if AMD or Nvidia is better for the GPU
• Don't want and probably don't need the 4000 series Nvidia GPU
• Considering the following parts for the build, I don't know how good these ones are (see attached picture for specific parts):
  • Motherboard
  • Memory
  • GPU
• Looking at the following cases:
  • Corsair iCUE 7000X
  • iCUE 5000T
  • iCUE 5000X
  • Want something that looks cool, has good airflow, and has room open to any recommendations
• Considering getting two high-end monitors for gaming and work-related purposes, including editing
• Already have a keyboard and mouse, but open to any other gadget recommendations

 

 

[vertigo220]

Case and monitors are going to be largely subjective and something best left to you to decide. As you said, just pick one that you like the looks of (other people can't pick one that looks cool to you) and has good airflow and enough space. If you find some that you like how they look, that can help guide others to offer similar suggestions.

 

I personally prefer AMD for CPU. They tend to be cheaper, better value (more perf/$), more efficient (more perf/W), better with multicore tasks, and I just like AMD better than Intel. Best thing to do is look at benchmarks for an AMD CPU you're considering and a comparable Intel one for the stuff you're going to use it for.

 

Since it sounds like you're planning to use this professionally, you may want to consider ECC RAM. It may slow things down in games a bit, but that should be minimal, and the benefits will likely be worth it.

 

For GPU, again, need to look at benchmarks for what you're planning on doing, but, again, I prefer AMD over Nvidia for mostly the same reasons. You can get a bit more performance from Nvidia, especially for certain tasks, but AMD is close if not equal and cheaper. As for a 7900, you'll likely have to bump up your budget for that by quite a bit and/or wait a while. Otherwise, probably better to just go with a 6000-series and upgrade later with the money you save.

 

Keep in mind also you're going from a laptop (portable) to a desktop (not), so be prepared for that. It will definitely be more powerful, though.

[xSpaceMan11x]

21 minutes ago, vertigo220 said:

Case and monitors are going to be largely subjective and something best left to you to decide. As you said, just pick one that you like the looks of (other people can't pick one that looks cool to you) and has good airflow and enough space. If you find some that you like how they look, that can help guide others to offer similar suggestions.

 

I personally prefer AMD for CPU. They tend to be cheaper, better value (more perf/$), more efficient (more perf/W), better with multicore tasks, and I just like AMD better than Intel. Best thing to do is look at benchmarks for an AMD CPU you're considering and a comparable Intel one for the stuff you're going to use it for.

 

Since it sounds like you're planning to use this professionally, you may want to consider ECC RAM. It may slow things down in games a bit, but that should be minimal, and the benefits will likely be worth it.

 

For GPU, again, need to look at benchmarks for what you're planning on doing, but, again, I prefer AMD over Nvidia for mostly the same reasons. You can get a bit more performance from Nvidia, especially for certain tasks, but AMD is close if not equal and cheaper. As for a 7900, you'll likely have to bump up your budget for that by quite a bit and/or wait a while. Otherwise, probably better to just go with a 6000-series and upgrade later with the money you save.

 

Keep in mind also you're going from a laptop (portable) to a desktop (not), so be prepared for that. It will definitely be more powerful, though.

So I was looking through the AMD gpu's and there are a couple of companies that also make them do you have any recommendation on which one to pick or should I just go with the AMD one. Because I've notice that the AMD one has a USB type C port for one of the four ports that it has and the other companies don't make them like that. Also with the case recommendation I just wanted to purely know what you guys would recommend cuz I don't know a whole lot of companies that make nice and useful cases. 

[vertigo220]

Do you need a USB-C output on your GPU? Both Nvidia and AMD have AIO partners that take their reference designs and make their own cards. Popular ones or Nvidia are eVGA (not anymore, though), XFX, ASUS, etc. For AMD Sapphire and ASRock are a couple I can think of, though I'm not a big fan of ASRock myself just based on personal experience with their motherboards. Just look for a reputable brand with good reviews. For more specific recommendations, somebody else with more knowledge in this area will need to chime in.

 

There are a lot of case companies out there, and most, if not all, of them make good and bad cases. Cases also range from ~$50 to well over $200, with some being hundreds. There are several factors to consider: material (steel vs aluminum mainly, and all/mostly metal vs lots of plastic); size; weight; drive bays; I/O; airflow; filtration; cable management; modularity; layout; and, of course, aesthetics. I could make recommendations all day long, but if you don't like one because of the looks and another doesn't have enough drive bays and another has poorly designed filters when that's important to you, then it's a waste of both our time. You have to figure out what's important to you and what you like, then people can give you some recommendations. My case is a Fractal Design Define R5 and is, for the most part, an excellent case, but it might not be the best case for you. I picked it largely because it can fit so many drives; you may not have that need and so something else may work better. If you need to stick it in a cubby and it would be a pain to pull it out to get to the cables to plug/unplug stuff, a case with a 90-degree rotated design might be better. If you want something as light as possible to be able to carry it around, an all-aluminum micro-ATX might be best.