New AMD build - Gaming plus dev

[carodgers]

Budget (including currency): $3000

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Games (fun), Development (VMs, containers, databases, etc)(professional), Music editing/creating (hobby)

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): 

Old system is well over 10 years old (AMD FX-8320, asus m5a97 le r 2.0, nvidia GT 1030, 16GB RAM, 4 x 4TB SATA SSD).  Looking to build new system to last next 10 years (or so)

Looking at building:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/carodgers/saved/#view=bf6gP6

Component		Selection			Price
CPU			AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 4.2 GHz 16-Core Processor		(469.99 at Microcenter - sale)
CPU Cooler			ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III A-RGB 48.82 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler		(139.99 on Amazon)
Motherboard			Asus ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard		(335.99 at Microcenter - bundle)
Memory			G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory		(199.99 at Microcenter - bundle)
Storage			Inland Performance Plus 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive		(289.99 at Microcenter)
Storage			Inland Performance Plus 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive		(289.99 at Microcenter)
Video Card			Gigabyte EAGLE OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB Video Card		(829.99 at Microcenter)
Case			Montech KING 95 PRO ATX Mid Tower Case		(149.00 on Amazon)
Power Supply			MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply		(112.99 on Amazon)
Total:				$2817.92

* PC Parts Picker only warns that you have to update MB bios before using 7950X3D - new install, would probably want to start with latest bios anyway, right?

* Other folks have complained about many AUSS boards with NIC chip having consistency issues (dropped network connections, etc).  IS this a big issue?  Should I look for different MB?  This one seems to offer lots of connectivity to last for years to come....

* I chose 7950X3D to have similar gaming performance to 7800X3d, yet provide more cores for my other uses.  I know newer chipsets are coming from AMD, but they don't seem to have much of a difference for me to wait and pay premium price - current CPU and MB are on significant sales (probably in anticipation of new products releasing in July).  Watching info from this month (June 24), new x8xx MBs don't sound like they will be leaps ahead of current X670E MBs.

Thoughts?

[Why_Me]

Research and find out if the 7950X3D is still having scheduling issues.

 

 

[carodgers]

3 hours ago, Why_Me said:

Research and find out if the 7950X3D is still having scheduling issues.

 

 

Thank you for your input.  I think you are referring to the core isolation to the first die when playing games.  That seems to be working well for most games from what I have read recently.  Initially there were issues but now they use the Game Bar, and if your particular game is not recognized as a game, you simply open the game bar manually and select it to remember that that particular app is a game for game bar to help with.

 

I plan to use the system for Professional (dev, databases, etc) and Hobby (music editing and creation) uses more than games, but still don't want to buy 2 different systems (like a 7800x3d based gaming system and 7950x based dev/music system).  Hoping to get this system to cover all 3 scenarios efficiently with a lower overall price.

[monopoly_hater]

Get 7950x if primarily coding, 7800X3D if primarily gaming 

[Redicat]

@carodgers 

2 hours ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Get 7950x if primarily coding, 7800X3D if primarily gaming 

I agree with this guy we should probably do 2 builds 1 for gaming/dev/workstation and 1 for server use etc

 

The reason is servers are completely different than just a gaming pc and i would run a type 1 hypervisor like proxmox

 

You told me you're a professional? then it's better to focus on professional gear and consider networking and psu backup like UPS and other infrastructure besides the PC

[monopoly_hater]

1 minute ago, Redicat said:

@carodgers 

I agree with this guy we should probably do 2 builds 1 for gaming/dev/workstation and 1 for server use etc

I didn't mean 2 builds, I meant that OP needs to choose if they prioritize gaming or dev. Or they could just do 1 build and swap between 7800X3D and 7950X.

[Redicat]

2 minutes ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

I didn't mean 2 builds, I meant that OP needs to choose if they prioritize gaming or dev. Or they could just do 1 build and swap between 7800X3D and 7950X.

1 build that does both gaming and server stuff is impossible idk a VM is not meant to run on Windows OS

 

The best thing is running a server on bare metal hardware 

[carodgers]

2 hours ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Get 7950x if primarily coding, 7800X3D if primarily gaming 

Thanks, Ard!  

[Redicat]

5 minutes ago, carodgers said:

Thanks, Ard!  Only a $10 difference to get the 3d cache (currently at microcenter $459.99 for 7950x and $469.99 for 7950x3d) - I understand that the 3d half of the x3d cores are throttled a little to avoid overheating the 3d cache, but my development work is not highly dependent on performance.  If I really needed the highest performance, I would probably wait for the 9950x.  I think the 7950x3d should be enough for what I am doing without going up to 9950x (or waiting until next year for the 9950x3d - who knows what that will look like - maybe they will add 3d cache to all of the cores? or enable higher speeds?).  Am I right on the differences?  Or do you think there is a bigger performance difference that I am missing?

Running server stuff and other stuff on the CPU is gonna fuck your Gaming workload 100%

It is not a good idea to game and run stuff in the background you need another pc

 

It's very problematic 

[monopoly_hater]

2 minutes ago, Redicat said:

Running server stuff and other stuff on the CPU is gonna fuck your Gaming workload 100%

It is not a good idea to game and run stuff in the background you need another pc

Oh I'm really sorry, I didn't read he needs it to work as a server. In that case indeed I would recommend 2 PCs, but @carodgers, what will you be using the server for? Then I could point you to a appropriate config.

[carodgers]

2 minutes ago, Redicat said:

1 build that does both gaming and server stuff is impossible idk a VM is not meant to run on Windows OS

Thank you, Redicat.  Not sure I understand - have been doing VMs on windows for years, they seem to do well enough for basic development, POC, etc.  7950x3d seems to be the chip that would excel at both dev and gaming fairly well.  Benchmarks from lots of folks consistently show 7950x3d close to 7800x3d in gaming performance.  They also show non-gaming performance close to the 7950x.  I am not aiming to have the dev side be a stand-alone server always running server things, just a place for me to do some side development, test some theories/setups, and small proof of concepts.  My real work for work is on work servers, mostly in the cloud.

[carodgers]

2 minutes ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Oh I'm really sorry, I didn't read he needs it to work as a server. In that case indeed I would recommend 2 PCs, but @carodgers, what will you be using the server for? Then I could point you to a appropriate config.

Not needing it for a full time server - just on the side to do some Proof of concept, proof of technology, designing out something with several components (database, app, etc).  Still running Windows with something like VirtualBox to have VMs with databases, linux, apps, etc.  But not running full time on those - this is not my real work environment.  On the weekend, loading up FL Studio and doing some music editing or music creation.  And on some weekends or week nights playing games for a few hours.  7800x3d is great for gaming, and may be great for music editing, but I want more cores.

[carodgers]

15 minutes ago, Redicat said:

Running server stuff and other stuff on the CPU is gonna fuck your Gaming workload 100%

It is not a good idea to game and run stuff in the background you need another pc

 

It's very problematic 

Is that only if I am running them simultaneously?  I don't plan to run those loads at the same time.  I have the need for 3 different workloads, but not the need to have them all running at once.  My dev workloads will be something that I focus on, and then shut down to work on other workloads. (I should have been more clear on that)

[carodgers]

11 minutes ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Oh I'm really sorry, I didn't read he needs it to work as a server. In that case indeed I would recommend 2 PCs, but @carodgers, what will you be using the server for? Then I could point you to a appropriate config.

Really switching between the different workloads - not running games while a bunch of VMs are processing data, etc.  for the development, just simply a place to run VBox to run multiple VMs for things like database, ETL, apps, etc.  Also a place to do music editing and creation.  and finally a place to play games (not competitively).  All of my workloads can run on Windows (proper, or in VMs, or in containers).  Would not be running these workloads at once (not playing games or editing music while running ETL on files to databases). separate loads, one build.

 

[monopoly_hater]

Okay, in that case I would either go with a 7950X or 7800X3D depending on what you use the most (although tbh I would just wait for 9950X or 9800X3D), or buy both and swap between them.

Side note: I second @Redicat to really get a UPS, maybe also a Nvidia A series or AMD WX series GPU.

[carodgers]

11 hours ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Okay, in that case I would either go with a 7950X or 7800X3D depending on what you use the most (although tbh I would just wait for 9950X or 9800X3D), or buy both and swap between them.

Side note: I second @Redicat to really get a UPS, maybe also a Nvidia A series or AMD WX series GPU.

Thanks for your input.  I think those additions would put me well over my $3k budget for a home computer.