Planned Build: Workstation

[magnglass]

Hello

I'm planning to get a new PC and could use some advice. The main purpose of the PC is to handle various tasks in Unreal Engine, Blender, and other programs. This includes but is not limited to building lighting, compiling shaders, working with large texture files etc.. The PC should also perform reasonably well at games and video rendering and editing.

I currently have i7-4770, GTX770 2GB, 16GB DDR3 RAM, Kingston 480GB SSD and while it's doing okay, it is beginning to age for what is demanded of it.

The planned build:
Sharkoon NIGHT SHARK Blue Case (I just like the look of it but I'm fine going with a different one)
Seasonic Prime SSR-1300GD 1300W (possibly overkill? Just wanted to be on the safe side considering the CPU)
MSI x399 SLI PLUS
AMD TR 2950x
Corsair H115i
HyperX Fury White 64GB (4x16) DDR4 2933
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Gaming 8G
SSD EVO M.2 970 1TB (This one would be used for all the heavy tasks)
SSD EVO 860 1TB (Windows would be installed on this one + other less important programs as well as games)
Seagate BarraCuda 3TB (this one for clutter )

Approximate Purchase Date: This Month

Budget Range: Up to $4500

My current monitor setup: 1x 32" 1440p, 2x 24" 1080p

My main thoughts:
- Is everything well compatible? Could there be any issues with one component hindering others?
- Is threadripper going to deliver enough of a performance difference to be worth it? If not, I'd instead go with MSI X470 and Ryzen 2700x and save about $900.
- 64GB RAM might be overkill but considering the workload and future-proofing, I'd rather not undershoot this one.
- I've always struggled with lack of SSD space and I'd rather invest more into that and not have to think about it when handling lots of large files.

Thanks in advance for your input

 

[g-unit1111]

If you're handling large files you're probably better off getting a high capacity HD instead of investing in more SSDs, get at least a 4TB or even higher, which you can probably get at the same price as a 1TB SSD. And you're also better off installing Windows on your M2 drive as it is significantly faster than installing it on the Evo.

As far as the RAM goes, depending on what you need it to do, you don't always need 64GB of RAM, and "future proofing" is a huge moot point.

 

[magnglass]

If you're handling large files you're probably better off getting a high capacity HD instead of investing in more SSDs, get at least a 4TB or even higher, which you can probably get at the same price as a 1TB SSD. And you're also better off installing Windows on your M2 drive as it is significantly faster than installing it on the Evo.

As far as the RAM goes, depending on what you need it to do, you don't always need 64GB of RAM, and "future proofing" is a huge moot point.

Thanks for the response. Would installing windows on the M2 drive have a huge impact while working with other programs though, moving files round etc..? From what I read, it seemed that Windows on NVMe vs SATA mostly made a difference when it came to turning on the computer and loading Windows faster.

By the way, I was also thinking of maybe getting Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 instead of the Corsair water cooler. Would it be a bad idea to go with an air cooler on TR 2950x?

Also, any other thoughts on the Power Supply being too much? (1000W might be better?)

 

[g-unit1111]

If you're handling large files you're probably better off getting a high capacity HD instead of investing in more SSDs, get at least a 4TB or even higher, which you can probably get at the same price as a 1TB SSD. And you're also better off installing Windows on your M2 drive as it is significantly faster than installing it on the Evo.

As far as the RAM goes, depending on what you need it to do, you don't always need 64GB of RAM, and "future proofing" is a huge moot point.

Thanks for the response. Would installing windows on the M2 drive have a huge impact while working with other programs though, moving files round etc..? From what I read, it seemed that Windows on NVMe vs SATA mostly made a difference when it came to turning on the computer and loading Windows faster.

Yes, that's exactly the reason why you would install Windows on the M2 as opposed to any other storage drive, and data transfers are even faster if your motherboard has native NVMe support.

By the way, I was also thinking of maybe getting Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 instead of the Corsair water cooler. Would it be a bad idea to go with an air cooler on TR 2950x?

That's definitely a good choice. The only reason why you wouldn't go with the Noctua is RAM clearance issues especially if you're using something like Trident Z or a RAM module with a large heat sink. You won't run into that problem with an AIO.

Also, any other thoughts on the Power Supply being too much? (1000W might be better?)

No. The most power consuming components on a PC are the CPU and GPU. You would only need a 1KW+ PSU depending on how many GPUs that you plan to run. If you're only running a single GPU you don't need anything more than 750W. If you're running two or plan to run two (or more), that's when you get the 1KW or more.TR4 CPUs may consume more power than your average Ryzen / Intel CPUs, but they're definitely not the FX-9590. You should be safe with a 750W / 850W PSU.

 

[Zerk2012]

I disagree with that I would use a regular SATA SSD for the OS and programs and add a fast M.2 drive for a scratch drive. Unless money is not a issue then M.2 for both but a seperate M.2 for a scratch drive for sure.

 

[g-unit1111]

I disagree with that I would use a regular SATA SSD for the OS and programs and add a fast M.2 drive for a scratch drive. Unless money is not a issue then M.2 for both but a seperate M.2 for a scratch drive for sure.

Would it really make that much of a difference though? And also if you're building on X399 couldn't you use multiple M2 drives? Because if money is no object then I'd have two M2 drives and you could install the OS on one drive (and have it be a ~250 - 500GB) and then use another, large capacity M2 for a scratch. And then you could add whatever drives you need for storage and programs. That's what I would do in that case.

 

[magnglass]

That's actually a great idea.

Getting two SSDs: EVO 970 1TB and 860 SATA 1TB is only 20$ cheaper than having 3 SSDs: EVO 970 1TB, EVO 970 500GB, 860 SATA 500GB, so for the $20 I'd probably go with it. Same storage space but Windows will be sitting on an NVMe.

What what I read in the MB manual, it should have 3 M.2 slots, 4x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. I only plan on one GPU (1070Ti, possibly replaced at a later point, but always only one GPU). That means that there should be enough on the motherboard to handle 2 NVMe drives, one SATA drive, a hard drive for storage and the GPU 1070Ti, I guess?

 

[g-unit1111]

That's actually a great idea.

Getting two SSDs: EVO 970 1TB and 860 SATA 1TB is only 20$ cheaper than having 3 SSDs: EVO 970 1TB, EVO 970 500GB, 860 SATA 500GB, so for the $20 I'd probably go with it. Same storage space but Windows will be sitting on an NVMe.

What what I read in the MB manual, it should have 3 M.2 slots, 4x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. I only plan on one GPU (1070Ti, possibly replaced at a later point, but always only one GPU). That means that there should be enough on the motherboard to handle 2 NVMe drives, one SATA drive, a hard drive for storage and the GPU 1070Ti, I guess?

Yes. Although keep in mind that any time you use an M2 slot the motherboard will disable a SATA port (usually SATA-0 and SATA-1) so don't plug any additional drives into those slots.