First build - 3D modeling and GPU computing

lilz_ · May 21

Budget (including currency): ~1000€

Country: Belgium

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 3D modeling / GPU programming

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):

Hi everyone,

I'm a computer science student, and lately I've been getting more into computer graphics (openGL/Vulkan), 3D modeling (Blender), and would like to start exploring GPU computing (CUDA). My laptop isn’t keeping up anymore, so I’m building my first PC.

I was initially curious about AMD’s ROCm stack, but it seems out of my budget and not very beginner-friendly. So I’ve leaned toward NVIDIA for better support (especially for CUDA and Blender).

This is the build I’ve put together so far. It’s a little over my budget, but I’m okay with stretching it if the setup will last me a few years and is upgrade-friendly. I'm also not super confident about the motherboard I picked, and the graphics card just seems a bit ridiculous. What do you think ?

CPU: Intel Core i5-14600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor (€224.00 @ Amazon Belgium)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB Liquid CPU Cooler (€79.90 @ Megekko)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME H610M-A WIFI D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€110.80 @ Amazon Belgium)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory (€64.90 @ Amazon Belgium)
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€61.90 @ Azerty)
Video Card: Palit Infinity 3 OC GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Video Card (€526.74 @ Azerty)
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case (€60.85 @ Megekko)
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Bronze 650 V3 230V 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€69.92 @ Azerty)
Total: €1199.01

RONOTHAN## · May 21

One thing I'd recommend trying to do is look into some used GPU options rather than try to go for a new 50 series card. A lot of them are quite expensive for what you're getting, and while you might get some extra features over the 30 or 40 series for this type of work, you can usually save a fair bit and get quite a bit more performance for your dollar, especially since it sounds like you're more starting out in this space.

As for the system you picked out, it does have some issues. The biggest one I see is the motherboard, that board is quite bad and will power throttle the CPU quite a bit, meaning you won't really get much more performance than if you had bought something like a 13400 instead. Plus, with the issues with 14th gen chips degrading and other instability, unless you have an application that only works on Intel for whatever reason (it doesn't sound like you do), I'd go AM5 instead. If you go AM5, you can also spend less on the CPU cooler and get something like an Thermalright Peerless Assassin or one of its derivatives for less than half the price, though you will admittedly need to spend more on RAM as you are required to go DDR5 (it's not that much more though, and I'd argue that's worthwhile).

As for the CPU I'd recommend instead, I'd probably lean towards the 9700X if you can afford it, it's not that much better at games compared to a 7700X or even a 7600, but it's a fair bit better at productivity applications, at least for its $20 price increase in comparison to the 7700X that for this I'd deam worth it. Used CPUs are an option if you want to try and find a 7900(X) from a gamer who upgraded to a 9800X3D though, and odds are it'll be about the same price if not a little cheaper. These are more expensive than the 14600K for about the same amount of performance (at least the 7700X is) assuming you had a good motherboard, so just be aware of that (everything considered though, it'll probably be about a wash and the extra advantages of AMD make it the better pick IMO).

For storage, I really would recommend going for a 2TB model nowadays, 1TB doesn't go nearly as far as it used to and the 2TB drives are usually a better value. It'll probably be fine if it's just for schoolwork and you have access to school servers, but if you want to do anything else I'd probably want a bit more. This is an easy upgrade in the future if you do want to make the sacrifice now though.

That PSU isn't great, I would want something better like an MSI A750GL.

If you do want to buy everything new, this is the system I'd buy, it's slightly more expensive but it's a bit more upgradeable and most of that extra cost comes from the bigger SSD if you want to drop that back down.

https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/sc4VyW