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dimebag11

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Apr 24, 2014
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My current PC config is :

NZXT Phantom Case
Asus Rampage IV black Edition
i7-4930k
64gb (8x8) Kingston DDR3-1600 ram
Noctua DH-14
Two monitors
Seasonic 1050W PSU
10TB HDD Iron Wolf NAS / 250gb Samsung 840 EVO / 1tb Samsung 870 EVO
Nvidia 3060 Ti

Its about 9-10 years old and the mobo/cooler have begun giving problems resulting in too many BSOD's. Looking for a change.

I need help choosing a new rig and my usage is in the 3d Rendering / Animation / VFX area . So I'm looking to build something heavy duty.

My main concern is the RAM since DDR5 is currently on the market and I'm wondering how long I have to wait before the prices drop or how many more improvements are going to arrive soon. My plan is to have more RAM in the new system , maybe even start off with 64 before upgrading to 128 or 256gb.

The other area is the CPU. It seems that the i9-12900K is the best choice although it does get very hot apparently. Will other CPU's be arriving on the market anytime soon?

I guess I can keep the storage , the monitors. Wonder if I need more PSU and a bigger case.

I purchased the 3060 Ti recently. I read that Nvidia might come out with a new line to go with DDR5.

Overall just need suggestions on a new config that would be future proofed for atleast 2-3 years. I dont want to buy something only to see massive changes 6 months later.

All suggestions , tips etc welcome

PS: Never used AMD before. I read that they have extremely good CPU's but I am extremely hesitant since I never used them before and have a bias towards intel always being better. Feel free to suggest anyways.
 
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ScrewySqrl said:
Right now, there is only little performance difference between DDR4 and DDR5, however high-end DDR4 (3600 or faster) seems to outperform DDR5 4800
Click to expand...

yeah DDR4 3600 > DDR5 4800
But there is DDR5-6000 and DDR5 - 6400 ( at a much higher price point)

Are DDR5 motherboards expected to make drastic improvements in 6 months or so?

Right now I guess I have two options :

32/64gb of DDR5 Ram + supported motherboard and upgrade the ram when massive improvements are made
OR
64/128GB High end DDR4 Ram and then change wholesale a few years later.

Bit of a headscratcher . Have a lot to consider. I know Ill lose money on the tradeoff , I just dont want it to a huge amount very quickly.
 
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Eximo said:
You can certainly adjust the build as desired.

DDR4 4400 is also an option, and isn't usually the expensive. A little tricky to get working though.
DDR5 5600 or 6400 will have the superior bandwidth, but inferior latency.

Latency good for games, bandwidth good for number crunching.
Click to expand...

This is actually interesting. I dont mind settling for less gains temporarily .
No gaming , only 3d rendering and realtime viewport renders to work as fast as possible.
 
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dimebag11 said:
yeah DDR4 3600 > DDR5 4800
But there is DDR5-6000 and DDR5 - 6400 ( at a much higher price point)

Are DDR5 motherboards expected to make drastic improvements in 6 months or so?

Right now I guess I have two options :

32/64gb of DDR5 Ram + supported motherboard and upgrade the ram when massive improvements are made
OR
64/128GB High end DDR4 Ram and then change wholesale a few years later.

Bit of a headscratcher . Have a lot to consider. I know Ill lose money on the tradeoff , I just dont want it to a huge amount very quickly.
Click to expand...


Qyite a few intel mobos have trouble with DDR5 over 5200
 
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ScrewySqrl said:
Qyite a few intel mobos have trouble with DDR5 over 5200
Click to expand...

Oh alright... Did not know that..

Did some more research yesterday and found out that theres DDR4 Ram with more frequency than 3600.. Not easily available though..
I just need to calculate the price / stability / value and make a call.
Im leaning slightly more towards a build using a large amount of DDR4 Ram and not having to do anything for another 2-3 years. After all until a couple of months ago I was using DDR3
 
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So here's where I am currently ...

i7-12700k vs i9-12900k - Im leaning more towards the i7 purely because of temperature reasons. The i-9 has better performance but Im little concerned because of the heating. Still have not ruled it out.

3060Ti is my current GPU which is just a couple of months old but I am still thinking of replacing it with a 3090 for VRAM reasons. Not choosing the 3090Ti because its only marginally better and draws 100W more.

DDR4 vs DDR5 - A major headscratcher for me. So the 12th gen intel can only support upto 3200 DDR4 and 4800 DDR5 apparently. I plan on putting 128gb in my system maxing out what I can. Since only 4 slots are available in z690 motherboards I have to put in 4x32 to get what I want.
Availability is an issue. So far I can only get 16x2 kits. 32x2 kits are almost non-existent.
  • So is it better to put 64gb DDR5 4800 Cl 40 (or 38) OR 64gb DDR4 3200 (or 3600) Cl 16 (or CL 18) if I were to be restricted to 64gb?
  • Is it ok to use two 16x2 kits or two 32x2 kits to make up the 64gb or 128gb?
Motherboards : The ASUS ROG Strix Z690 seems like the best I can buy. Any other suggestions?

Cooler : My current Noctua NH-D14 has one fan non functional and the radiator stopped working well causing heating issues and BSOD's .
Chosen to buy a Noctua NH-D15 chromax black since it seems to be the best cooler on the market and better than most if not all AIO's. Any thoughts? How would this fare against the i9?

Storage : I haven an 870 EVO for the OS and other programs / 840 EVO for saving workfiles. Any suggestions on upgrading to an NVME?

Seasonic Gold 1050 PSU is what I have currently. Do I need more?

My current case is a NZXT Phantom 820 which Im guessing is enough to house everything.

In case someone hasn't read this before , NO gaming on this system , 3d Rendering/Motion Graphics/ Visualization work. Programs such as CINEMA4D , Blender , After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Redshift/Octane/Cycles.

Anything else I am missing / Problems / Oversights / Suggestions/Tips
 
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Here’s a quote I found regarding cooling a 12900K a few months back. A Noctua U12A is a single tower cooler that would certainly be inferior to your dual tower Noctua choice. I don’t know what GPU this guy used:

“I'm running a 12900k on a u12a, I get 70 to 72C on cinebench R20 and around 75-78 on cinebench r23. That's at 204 to 230 watts.”

I assume you know you can get DDR 5 5600 in 64 gb kits (2 x 32).

If better means faster, I think DDR 4 CL 16 3200 and CL 18 3600 are both “better” than DDR 5 CL 38 or 40 4800.

But faster may not mean “better” to the extent you might have buyer’s remorse for being hopelessly behind the times on your antiquated DDR 4 when you could easily have chosen the cutting edge DDR 5.

I suspect the chances of you being able to tell the difference between 2 otherwise identical machines is extremely small. But the mere knowledge that you are using one rather than the other may still grate on you.

Would you rather think of yourself as a foolish spendthrift who would buy a DDR 5 PC or as a behind-the-times Luddite who would buy a DDR 4 PC?

Whichever you choose, what might lead you to think it was a mistake? A benchmark? Something you read on a forum? How could you notice a difference if you didn’t have both DDR 4 and DDR 5 machines running side by side on the same tasks?

Pre-conceived notions and confirmation bias are next to impossible to defeat. You can drive yourself crazy with this stuff. I engage in it daily….always against my better judgement, knowing it is ridiculous.
 
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Lafong said:
Here’s a quote I found regarding cooling a 12900K a few months back. A Noctua U12A is a single tower cooler that would certainly be inferior to your dual tower Noctua choice. I don’t know what GPU this guy used:

“I'm running a 12900k on a u12a, I get 70 to 72C on cinebench R20 and around 75-78 on cinebench r23. That's at 204 to 230 watts.”

I assume you know you can get DDR 5 5600 in 64 gb kits (2 x 32).

If better means faster, I think DDR 4 CL 16 3200 and CL 18 3600 are both “better” than DDR 5 CL 38 or 40 4800.

But faster may not mean “better” to the extent you might have buyer’s remorse for being hopelessly behind the times on your antiquated DDR 4 when you could easily have chosen the cutting edge DDR 5.

I suspect the chances of you being able to tell the difference between 2 otherwise identical machines is extremely small. But the mere knowledge that you are using one rather than the other may still grate on you.

Would you rather think of yourself as a foolish spendthrift who would buy a DDR 5 PC or as a behind-the-times Luddite who would buy a DDR 4 PC?

Whichever you choose, what might lead you to think it was a mistake? A benchmark? Something you read on a forum? How could you notice a difference if you didn’t have both DDR 4 and DDR 5 machines running side by side on the same tasks?

Pre-conceived notions and confirmation bias are next to impossible to defeat. You can drive yourself crazy with this stuff. I engage in it daily….always against my better judgement, knowing it is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Its impossible to know anything in this regard unless I build this and utilize it to maximum extent that I can or find someone who has the exact same or similar situation to mine and learn from their experience. Everytime I come to a new build I spend a good amount of time contemplating this stuff, but I have to since none of this is cheap and I'd like not change anything for a long time.

As for the DDR5 vs DDR4 debate , high end DDR4 still outperforms DDR5 but that will be overtaken in a year or more once DDR5 manages to bring in more MHZ with less latency and hopefully lesser prices. DDR4 manufacturers are still releasing better RAMs on the market https://www.pcgamesn.com/fastest-ddr4-ram
Anyone who is thinking of choosing DDR5 including me is doing so only because if I have to trade off I only need to change the ram and not the ram+mobo combo but because I cant wait much longer I have to choose what is available. Strange that these motherboards only have 4 slots for ram. Wish there was more.
Speaking of availability , I live in India , not the best availability here.
I want to put in 128gb and dont know if kits of those size are available so I was wondering If I can get two 32x2 gb kits and put those in.

I think I am going to keep deliberating on the i9 until I am ready to make the call because one half of me is saying just put the i7 and call it a day because you dont have to worry about the heating and the other half is saying put in the i9 because I'm overthinking it.
Again cant know the difference unless I try it first hand .. Maybe I can find some videos on this or if someone else does please do let me know
 
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