$2500 PC Build productivity

[tomas3man]

1. budget and location

$2,500 US Dollars / 2,300 EUR - location Europe

 

2 Purpose

Work. 2D graphics creation, Web development, production of short 2D movies, sound design, Streaming, running virtual servers, AI locally, programming, very occasional game launch like Valheim. The PC will work many hours a day.

 

3. monitors

I own two monitors. But plans to add a third monitor in the further future.

 

4. peripherals

Graphics tablet, NAS drive, external USB drives.

 

5. other details

Expectations are listed from most important to least important.

At the top are the most important.

 

• -A very quiet PC
• -Very stable operation
• -Purpose for a long time usage, expandable in future
• -Nvidia graphics card, needs DLSS and CUDA for AI
• -Memory size plans 64GB in two modules
• -Reasonably small PC case
• -BIOS that allows you to control lighting and fans
• -PC will stand on the ground, USB inputs at the top, and a power button
• -I don't care about LED lighting at all, preferring a computer without lighting
• -I like the white case

 

6 Comments

I decided to post because I am looking for advice from an experienced person in PC build. I'm after watching hundreds of videos on YT over the past months. I will write my thoughts.

 

CPU

The latest AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or X3D processors are sensational, but a person who invests a lot of money to buy an AMD becomes a beta tester. Buying AMD is a silicon lottery, you either hit or miss a good processor. These architectures are very unreliable, get very hot (https://youtu.be/OGuFq3jm9hM?si=LvYJXEeUrakAlIzu) , and freez. Although they use less electricity than Intel, they are frugal. You have to change parameters in BIOS, use negative 20 mV (https://youtu.be/7JiYAwKIHRY?si=WlcoC27cVA3b65nB) , reduce maximum temperature Tjmax. I prefer a CPU that just works. I prefer quiet operation and stability, even though performance is reduced. Intel or AMD? What to do?

 

RAM

My conclusion is that the performance of 5200, 5600, 6000 is very similar, it is not worth investing in anything faster. (https://youtu.be/KIaJwhymH0Q?si=pEyYdc4GMEOEG44b) In addition, enabling XMP is risky, it can cause instability. AMD processor specification recommends using 5200 with 2 modules and 3600 with 4 modules.

 

CPU COOLER

Some CPU Cooler have very loud pumps, others have loud fans. A very good Cooler on Intel will not perform well with AMD. Some will be overpriced, their performance divided by price is poor ratio. For AMD, I liked the 240mm water Cooler ARCTIC FREEZER III based on this tips https://youtu.be/8ntIhvtzgUg?si=fSii-P0RP3WDifll

 

BOX

I like the ASUS Prime AP201 case.

 

MOTHERBOARD

I like the boards made by GIGABYE. Followed by MSI and ASROCK. I don't like ASUS company very much. But back to the topic of chpsets. I've been targeting the B650 chipset for AMD or the X670E all along. One of the Youtubers, said that if you are planning a computer for years to come, by buying the latest possible chipset, you are extending the expansion possibilities.

 

SSD

I was considering a 1GB drive, as I plan to dump my work onto a NAS disk array.

 

OS

I plan to install Linux as primary OS, and on top of that a virtual PC running Windows 10 for the tasks I need. Some my task are windows related, other are Linux related. Because my main system is Linux, I won't be able to install software to control the LEDs, and there's no way around that, so I'm depending on a BIOS that can control the LEDs and fans.

 

Edited March 24 by tomas3man

[MiszS]

How exactly is 4070 and 4080 slower than the 4060?

[tomas3man]

13 minutes ago, MiszS said:

How exactly is 4070 and 4080 slower than the 4060?

Is not slower. Its mistake.

 

 

Edited March 24 by tomas3man

[MiszS]

1 minute ago, tomas3man said:

 

Watch this YT

 

The table shows 4060ti being the worst, and 4060 second worst, is there something I'm missing?

[tomas3man]

9 minutes ago, MiszS said:

The table shows 4060ti being the worst, and 4060 second worst, is there something I'm missing?

Yes. You are right. I was looking at P/P. But can you delete this replay. I do not want to this topis to be about NVIDIA performance, but looking for advice about PC build.

Edited March 24 by tomas3man

[PDifolco]

15 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

CPU

The latest AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or X3D processors are sensational, but a person who invests a lot of money to buy an AMD becomes a beta tester. Buying AMD is a silicon lottery, you either hit or miss a good processor. These architectures are very unreliable, get very hot (https://youtu.be/OGuFq3jm9hM?si=LvYJXEeUrakAlIzu) , and freez. Although they use less electricity than Intel, they are frugal. You have to change parameters in BIOS, use negative 20 mV (https://youtu.be/7JiYAwKIHRY?si=WlcoC27cVA3b65nB) , reduce maximum temperature Tjmax. I prefer a CPU that just works. I prefer quiet operation and stability, even though performance is reduced. Intel or AMD? What to do?

 

That's Userbenchmark level of comment, you only forgot the Neanderthal AMD marketing argument

AMD can reach 95C and is stable, Intel reaches 100C, so what ?

Really both work well, and AMD has a big efficiency advantage for no real drawback in a workstation build, look at Threadrippers, it's even more obvious

Ok on the rest, seems you don't really need any powerful GPU, a 4070 will do fine

Regarding cooling, an aircooler  may be preferrable on  a 24/7 type of build,  as there's no risk of pump failure or liquid leak

 

To sum it up I'd suggest this ,  2000EUR

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 4.5 GHz 16-Core Processor  (€517.99 @ Galaxus)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  (€38.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard  (€216.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (€241.89 @ Alternate)
Storage: Solidigm P41 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€76.22 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Palit Dual GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card  (€598.00 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€114.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€143.89 @ notebooksbilliger.de)
Total: €1948.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-24 12:08 CET+0100

 

 

[brob]

3 hours ago, tomas3man said:

1. budget and location

$2,500 US Dollars / 2,300 EUR - location Europe

 

2 Purpose

Work. 2D graphics creation, Web development, production of short 2D movies, sound design, Streaming, running virtual servers, AI locally, programming, very occasional game launch like Valheim. The PC will work many hours a day.

 

3. monitors

I own two monitors. But plans to add a third monitor in the further future.

 

4. peripherals

Graphics tablet, NAS drive, external USB drives.

 

5. other details

Expectations are listed from most important to least important.

At the top are the most important.

 

• -A very quiet PC
• -Very stable operation
• -Purpose for a long time usage, expandable in future
• -Nvidia graphics card, needs DLSS and CUDA for AI
• -Memory size plans 64GB in two modules
• -Reasonably small PC case
• -BIOS that allows you to control lighting and fans
• -PC will stand on the ground, USB inputs at the top, and a power button
• -I don't care about LED lighting at all, preferring a computer without lighting
• -I like the white case

 

6 Comments

I decided to post because I am looking for advice from an experienced person in PC build. I'm after watching hundreds of videos on YT over the past months. I will write my thoughts.

 

CPU

The latest AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or X3D processors are sensational, but a person who invests a lot of money to buy an AMD becomes a beta tester. Buying AMD is a silicon lottery, you either hit or miss a good processor. These architectures are very unreliable, get very hot (https://youtu.be/OGuFq3jm9hM?si=LvYJXEeUrakAlIzu) , and freez. Although they use less electricity than Intel, they are frugal. You have to change parameters in BIOS, use negative 20 mV (https://youtu.be/7JiYAwKIHRY?si=WlcoC27cVA3b65nB) , reduce maximum temperature Tjmax. I prefer a CPU that just works. I prefer quiet operation and stability, even though performance is reduced. Intel or AMD? What to do?

 

RAM

My conclusion is that the performance of 5200, 5600, 6000 is very similar, it is not worth investing in anything faster. (https://youtu.be/KIaJwhymH0Q?si=pEyYdc4GMEOEG44b) In addition, enabling XMP is risky, it can cause instability. AMD processor specification recommends using 5200 with 2 modules and 3600 with 4 modules.

 

CPU COOLER

Some CPU Cooler have very loud pumps, others have loud fans. A very good Cooler on Intel will not perform well with AMD. Some will be overpriced, their performance divided by price is poor ratio. For AMD, I liked the 240mm water Cooler ARCTIC FREEZER III based on this tips https://youtu.be/8ntIhvtzgUg?si=fSii-P0RP3WDifll

 

BOX

I like the ASUS Prime AP201 case.

 

MOTHERBOARD

I like the boards made by GIGABYE. Followed by MSI and ASROCK. I don't like ASUS company very much. But back to the topic of chpsets. I've been targeting the B650 chipset for AMD or the X670E all along. One of the Youtubers, said that if you are planning a computer for years to come, by buying the latest possible chipset, you are extending the expansion possibilities.

 

SSD

I was considering a 1GB drive, as I plan to dump my work onto a NAS disk array.

 

OS

I plan to install Linux as primary OS, and on top of that a virtual PC running Windows 10 for the tasks I need. Some my task are windows related, other are Linux related. Because my main system is Linux, I won't be able to install software to control the LEDs, and there's no way around that, so I'm depending on a BIOS that can control the LEDs and fans.

 

 

Consider using an i9-14900. Same number of concurrent threads as the 7950X in a 65W TDP (although it ramps up close to i9-14900K depending on power limits).

 

PCPartPicker Part List

 

CPU: Intel Core i9-14900 2 GHz 24-Core Processor (€598.70 @ Galaxus) 

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€38.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Motherboard: MSI MAG B760M MORTAR WIFI II Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€202.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€241.89 @ Alternate) 

Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€96.90 @ Alza) 

Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card (€786.95 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Case: Asus Prime AP201 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€77.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX-850 ATX 3.0 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€134.60 @ Galaxus) 

Total: €2178.74

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-24 15:38 CET+0100

[tomas3man]

Thank you for settings. I have question:

1. Why you take DDR5-6000? I wrote no overclocking?

2. Why you take PSU 1000W? pcpartpicker.com show estimated wattage 527W

3. Why you take PCIe 4.0 SSD 1TB? The Gigabyte B650 Aourus is capable of PCie 5.0x4.

4. Why you take CPU cooler with 25,6 dB? AMD recomends AIO (https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-9-7950x)

 

Is this configuration I made is correct?

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/FTnf4M

 

[filpo]

6 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

1. Why you take DDR5-6000? I wrote no overclocking?

6000 CL30 has the best performance/price/stability for am5 currently, 6400 cl32 isn't bad but you don't gain much if anything. Also you won't need to OC the ram to get it to that speed, just turn on a setting in bios

 

7 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

2. Why you take PSU 1000W? pcpartpicker.com show estimated wattage 527W

And why not? it was only 143 euros (not bad for an A tier 1000w psu)

10 hours ago, PDifolco said:

Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€143.89 @ notebooksbilliger.de)

 

7 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

3. Why you take PCIe 4.0 SSD 1TB? The Gigabyte B650 Aourus is capable of PCie 5.0x4.

pcie 5.0 isn't really useful for storage, don't think it will be for the years to come (maybe in 5 but definitely not now)

Just because the motherboard is capable of it doesn't mean you have to use it, pcie 4 is already fast for many applications. I might recommend pcie 5 if you're doing something REALLY storage intensive but even then I've heard of pcie 5 drives getting quite hot under load

10 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

4. Why you take CPU cooler with 25,6 dB? AMD recomends AIO

An AIO can fit in budget, but how is noise relevant? It depends on what fan curve you use

 

11 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/FTnf4M

a 280mm rad is better than the PS120SE but not by much 6 degrees (PA120 is essentially a PS120SE except slightly worse)

try this 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 4.5 GHz 16-Core Processor  (€517.99 @ Galaxus) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€89.90 @ Alza) 
Motherboard: *MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  (€162.99 @ notebooksbilliger.de) 
Memory: *G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (€120.90 @ Galaxus) 
Storage: *Crucial P5 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€148.89 @ notebooksbilliger.de) 
Video Card: *Palit JetStream OC GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16 GB Video Card  (€1106.99 @ notebooksbilliger.de) 
Case: Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case  (€77.90 @ Alza) 
Power Supply: *be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€133.89 @ notebooksbilliger.de) 
Total: €2359.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-24 23:15 CET+0100

[BentleyOwen123]

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/d2fWdH

CPU: Intel Core i9-14900KF 3.2 GHz 24-Core Processor  ($539.00 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool LT720 WH 85.85 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE X AX ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($239.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory  ($169.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($166.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card  ($599.99 @ Best Buy) 
Case: Thermaltake View 200 TG ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000e (2023) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Dell S2721QS 27.0" 3840 x 2160 60 Hz Monitor  ($229.99 @ Amazon) 
External Storage: Western Digital easystore 14 TB External Hard Drive  ($239.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $2515.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-24 18:59 EDT-0400

[PDifolco]

1 hour ago, tomas3man said:

Thank you for settings. I have question:

1. Why you take DDR5-6000? I wrote no overclocking?

2. Why you take PSU 1000W? pcpartpicker.com show estimated wattage 527W

3. Why you take PCIe 4.0 SSD 1TB? The Gigabyte B650 Aourus is capable of PCie 5.0x4.

4. Why you take CPU cooler with 25,6 dB? AMD recomends AIO (https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-9-7950x)

 

Is this configuration I made is correct?

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/FTnf4M

 

1 cause it's the max good safe XMP/EXPO speed for AM5

2 to ensure it's quiet, deliver power efficiently and can be kept 10y when upgrading...With 520W draw you need at least a 850W PSU, a 100W is 25 EUR more

3 Gen5 SSD aer super expensive, bad value for not much RL advantage

4 It's a super good cooler at a super good price, check reviews. Sure AIO are more powerful but more expensive, less reliable, this one will do the job

 

Your config is good, the Arctic Freezer III is very efficient, but a Gen4 drive and a 1000W PSU would be a better choice imo

[tomas3man]

I need to focus on you replay.

 

Quote

pcie 5.0 isn't really useful for storage, don't think it will be for the years to come (maybe in 5 but definitely not now)

Can you explain it? IMHO SSD with PCIe 5.0 are much more faster.

 

Crucial P3 Plus 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-E x4 Gen4 NVMe speed 5000MB/s

Dysk SSD Crucial T705 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-E x4 Gen5 speed 13600 MB/s

 

Can you explain me? PCI-E x4 stands for PCIe 4.0? What is Gen4 or Gen5? Is it Generation?

[PDifolco]

9 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

I need to focus on you replay.

 

Can you explain it? IMHO SSD with PCIe 5.0 are much more faster.

 

Crucial P3 Plus 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-E x4 Gen4 NVMe speed 5000MB/s

Dysk SSD Crucial T705 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-E x4 Gen5 speed 13600 MB/s

 

Can you explain me? PCI-E x4 stands for PCIe 4.0? What is Gen4 or Gen5? Is it Generation?

That's sequential read speed, so it's only really applicable if you make copies of huge 100GB+ files

Any time you switch to random R/W, which is 99.9% of the time (loading a game..), Gen5 advantage is some % faster no more

Given it costs twice as much as Gen4 it's not a good value

Otoh Gen3 drives and SATA SSD aren't good value anymore as they sell for near as much as Gen4 drives

[brob]

2 minutes ago, tomas3man said:

I need to focus on you replay.

 

Can you explain it? IMHO SSD with PCIe 5.0 are much more faster.

 

Crucial P3 Plus 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-E x4 Gen4 NVMe speed 5000MB/s

Dysk SSD Crucial T705 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-E x4 Gen5 speed 13600 MB/s

 

Can you explain me? PCI-E x4 stands for PCIe 4.0? What is Gen4 or Gen5? Is it Generation?

 

PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives are much faster. But in real world use that speed does not necessarily make a noticeable difference. Using the speeds in the quote and really rough calculations, loading a 100MB file takes 20 milliseconds on a P3 Plus. Since this is below the human detectable threshold, it doesn't matter how much faster the T705 would be.

 

PCIe x4 generally means 4 lanes. Some NVMe drive manufacturers use gen 4 to mean PCIe 4.0.

 

[PDifolco]

38 minutes ago, brob said:

 

PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives are much faster. But in real world use that speed does not necessarily make a noticeable difference. Using the speeds in the quote and really rough calculations, loading a 100MB file takes 20 milliseconds on a P3 Plus. Since this is below the human detectable threshold, it doesn't matter how much faster the T705 would be.

 

PCIe x4 generally means 4 lanes. Some NVMe drive manufacturers use gen 4 to mean PCIe 4.0.

 

Yeah it's confusing, nowadays you see things like Pcie4 x4, so 4th gen 4 lanes for example