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Buying a New PC - Round 3
3 years ago851 words
HardwareHelp?PersonalQuestions
Should I buy THIS computer??

Urgh, I've been putting this off for weeks despite thinking about it every day because there are so many options and I'm so out of my realm of experience and knowledge that the whole thing just feels like the worst kind of homework assignment... but Christmas is almost here, and I'd rather get this out of the way before then just in case it gets in the way somehow. Plus I'm still having lag etc every day which I'd really like to see the back of!

A refresher: I want to get a new PC, which I'd prefer to be a good one because I use mine all day every day for a lot of complex creative things, but I neither know nor particularly care about things like hardware specs or whatever, so I wrote a couple of posts recently asking for any suggestions from people who do know and care about that stuff more than I do. I got a few good long comments, which I greatly appreciate!

My best option might be to do something that Wolf suggested, which is to use a website that lets you select a bunch of components that they assemble; seems a nice medium between building my own (which I can't be bothered with) and getting one completely pre-made (which might be too limited). He mentioned a specific UK site where I could do that, ∞ PC Specialist ∞, and gave a list of part suggestions, with rationalisations for his decisions that are surely more informed than I can be bothered to be.

So based on those suggestions, I've selected the following on that site:



Case

FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS



Core components

Processor:
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)

Motherboard:
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!

Memory (RAM):
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)

Graphics Card:
8GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti - HDMI, DP



Storage etc

1st Storage Drive:
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive:
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)

This is something which is both important to me and which I'm unsure about. Currently I have a 1TB HDD as my main C drive which has my Windows install and most of the files I use daily, like the games I'm developing and other creative work; it's over 90% full currently. Originally this computer only had this drive, but later on I added a second 4TB HDD - I think it was a presumably older version of those BARRACUDA ones, the name rings a bell - of which I've filled 1TB, mostly with backups and stuff I rarely access.

My plan this time is to have a smaller drive with system files and a larger one with everything else; I assume that's what other people do? But I was hoping for the speed benefits of an SSD, and I'd be doing most of my work on the HDD with these selections...

(Also I'm assuming Windows would come installed on the 'M.2 Drive' here rather than the 'Storage Drive'?)



Power and Cooling

Power Supply:
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Processor Cooling:
PCS FrostFlow 200 Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste:
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND



System Refinements

This section has a bunch of stuff I don't understand, but I'm curious about the Sound Card bit. I vaguely remember struggling with some sound-card-related stuff while trying to record sound from my computer or something, years ago, but I assume issues like that are a thing of the past? There are 10 different options, up to £178 more expensive than the standard one, and I don't know what difference any of them would make. I compose music so sound is important to me, but I'm hardly an audiophile. I always use headphones.

There are also several Wireless Network Card options, and I don't know the difference between those either. My current PC has to use some USB thing to connect to Wi-fi at all, but it looks like this option allows it to be built-in or something?

There's also a USB/Thunderbolt Options bit, which seems to be for the number of ports on the back? The case only mentions having a small number of USB ports, which is a concern since I've got a bunch on my current PC, and they're all full; I'm needing to use an extension thing to fit more in.



I'm both eager to get this out of the way, and highly reluctant to actually make the decision since it's a big, expensive one - the selections here go a few hundred pounds above my not-remotely-strict £2000 budget estimate - and the decisions I'm having to make are outside my realm of knowledge, so I keep dragging my feet about it.

So I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts again! Is there anything you'd choose differently here? Anything you could say about the 'System Refinements' bits I don't understand?

8 COMMENTS

Shome1~3Y
Hi! Long time since my last comment, but I saw your tweet, so I'd like to give my two cents here. I'll provide a tl;dr at the bottom to summarize it, and make it easier to swallow.

First of all: plan sounds good! It's nice to able to customise your own pc while letting the actual assembly be performed by professionals; I think I would go about it the same way.

The hardware looks good to me. A 5900X is a very capable processor that should provide you with the necessary power for games and creative purposes alike for years to come. There's one slight catch, and that is that the 5000 series (of which the 5900X is a part) will be the last one for the AM4 platform. This means that if you were planning on a CPU upgrade somewhere down the line, you'd have to buy a new motherboard with it as well. But don't fret about this! The 5900X will not become outdated for a long, long time. So only consider waiting if you don't need a pc on a short term basis!

The 3070ti is a very capable GPU as well and is a perfect fit for the 5900X. If you game and create games on 1080p (full HD), then it is absolutely enough for your needs. If you plan on playing and playtesting games in 4K, it will get the job done, hitting 4K 60fps with high fidelity in modern titles these days, but it is less futureproof. So if 4K is something you're interested in, you might consider a 3080 (or AMD's equivalent, 6800XT) or above. Again, don't worry about this at all if you plan on sticking with 1080p/1440p. It even does a good enough job for 4K, really, but I'm saying it juuust in case. Keep in mind the GPU market is very overpriced currently due to worldwide shortages; you will not be paying MSRP for any GPU you end up choosing. This doesn't look like it will be over anytime soon, either.

RAM and motherboard look fine to me, nothing to really say about that.

Storage also looks good. Definitely get at least 1 nvme drive like you're already planning to. Use this for your operating system and games you play frequently. I don't know how much of an effect the SSD has on assets for Unity and the like, but if it's noticeable, you could consider swapping an HDD for a 2.5 inch SSD. These aren't the same as M.2 drives, and instead look for like your traditional hard drives. I think the most important factor here is price. If they're marginally more expensive than their HDD counterpart, go with a SSD (either M.2 or 2.5i, again depending on your budget). But if it's way more expensive than a traditional HDD, compared for the utility you'd derive from it, a HDD will be just fine as well.

Can't speak much about Power Supply, cooling and thermal paste, I think these would all work well. Does the 750W unit leave enough headroom if you use it in conjunction with the 3070ti and 5900X? I don't know their respective power draws, but in general you will want to be a little above the overall power consumption of your system, so if you haven't looked at that, be sure to do so.

Audio. If you are serious about audio, consider getting an audio interface. This is an external soundcard on steroids, mostly used by people who are serious about music or composing. I have one for creating music in FL Studio, as does pretty much everyone who uses a DAW (digital audio workstation) of sorts. If you don't have one, I would consider getting one. They come as cheap as around 100 pounds. I have the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, as do many others, and it has served me well.

Connectivity: Frankly, I don't know toooo much about ports, but I think having plenty of USB A and C ports would go a long way. Thunderbolt is nice if you want to charge external hardware and also has some other niches that might be worth looking into. Unfortunately, I can't recommend you the best course of action here, because I wouldn't exactly know myself. Sorry!

Hope this little rundown will be useful! I think what I said is far from an universal truth, just my look onto things. It's a little much, a lot to take in if you don't have much knowledge about it, so I hope it's not too confusing! Maybe others can shed a light onto it as well, to make it a little bit easier to grasp.

tl;dr

Your selection looks good! Will provide you with plenty of satisfaction for years to come. Ask yourself some questions on the topics of upgradability, futureproofing and budget allocation to find out what you find important. But if you were to go for this specific build, I'm sure it will serve you well!
3
Tobias 1115~3Y
First, thanks for providing your detailed thoughts about this! I've been dragging my feet about it for ages because it's an expensive decision, and there's a lot I don't know, so all the jargon feels similar to how someone might if they were told they had to write an important essay about the neurological underpinnings of schizophrenia and the specific imaging techniques used to reveal them... or something like that. It's outside my realm of knowledge, is my point! Several things you mentioned just don't mean anything to me because I'm missing all the context that becomes implicit with experience.

Whether or not one CPU is better than another isn't something I understand, for example. I don't even really know what a CPU is! I can say with a high degree of confidence that it's unlikely that I'll be upgrading any of the computer's parts though, for the same reason I'm not building my own from scratch. I'll just get a completely new one in a few years, like I'm aiming to do here.

I don't think that I have a 4K monitor, and that high-resolution+framerate gaming sort of thing isn't something I've ever done. I wonder whether I'd get into it if I actually had the technology for it, but it seems unlikely to me. Seems more fitting for fast action games, which don't interest me anyway.

I included a link in the post to the website I was using - this one - because it gives me a limited number of options for each part, since that's way less overwhelming than all the choices in the world, and I don't think it has any options for 2.5 inch SSDs?

How much should I be concerned about power supply stuff? I don't know anything about that and haven't given it any thought!

I'm particularly interested in what you said about audio. I've never used a DAW - I keep meaning to at least experiment, but I like the notation of Sibelius and wouldn't know where to start - and I'm not an audiophile who cares about ultra-subtle variation in sound quality or whatever (which is why I was fine with my music using the default midi soundset for years). What difference does an audio interface make, exactly? And are there options for that part on that website I linked to?

I still feel overwhelmed and entirely out of my comfort zone about all this, especially with people suggesting different things! But thanks again for your help. Hopefully I can finally come to a decision soon...
0
MontyCallay101~3Y
I've mentioned before that I think some of these parts are overkill (I still doubt you need a 12-core CPU) so if you wanted to save an easy ~150£ you could go for a Ryzen 7 3700X instead, still a very powerful processor.

Motherboard and RAM are fine. I remember reading somewhere that it's technically better to have two (larger) sticks of RAM rather than four smaller ones, but that's probably in the barely perceptible category.

I don't know what kind of monitor you have, but if it's not 4k, I expect that the ASUS Dual RTX 3070 would be perfectly fine as well as a GPU selection. That's another 300£ off your budget!

I hope it isn't grating that I'm trying to chime in with more *cost-effective* choices, but that's part of what I would consider when building a PC for myself or someone I knew. If you have the money and nothing better to do with it, by all means go for it (though you will suffer from diminishing returns)!

If you're unsure about storage, the 1TB SSD for your system and daily files seems to be fine compared to your current setup? You could spend an extra 100£ on a 2TB SSD instead. You can always partition the SSD if you want to have one part exclusively for your C drive. It would depend on how large your development setup is, I suppose. I would imagine Windows would come preinstalled on the SSD, especially if there are drives especially labelled as "storage". As said by Shome, you can always install more SSD storage later if you need it.

Power and cooling will be fine, especially if you're not looking to add or overclock anything.

I wouldn't overthink the wireless network card and sound card setup. Technically you can get an external sound card setup (Shome seems to have more experience here) but for normal (non-audiophile) use-cases it's not needed these days. If you can get your PC with a Wireless card included, that's fine (and might mean you'd have to set up an antenna somewhere), but probably won't make a difference if you're having no issues with your USB Wifi card setup.

Regarding USB ports - the case only mentions having 3 front USB ports because the number of back USB ports is determined by your motherboard. Your motherboard has six USB-A ports and one USB-C port on the back, so you will hopefully have enough.

Your selection looks good, all in all!
1
Tobias 1115~3Y
I'm finally getting around to this 10 days late because making a decision about this is the most gruelling of chores! But thanks for helping out with that!

Chances are a lot of the choices I have here are far more powerful than what I need - I mean the relatively ancient computer I'm currently using still handles most of what I do without much issue - but the limits of my knowledge mean that I can either choose the biggest numbers and hope for the best, or rely on the decision of someone more knowledgeable. I've also been holding off making a decision since I'm hardly rolling in cash, so finding something cheaper but still sufficiently powerful and future-proof would be ideal.

I'm wondering whether having two 2TB SSDs - one for most of my work, the other for additional space if I need it - might work best. Storage space is at least something tangible to me and something I have a better idea of my needs for than all the other parts.

Going through your the parts you specifically mentioned:

I know next to nothing about CPUs, but the 7 and 3700 seem significantly lower than 9 and 5900, so would that be sufficiently future-proof, or might I regret not getting something more powerful in a couple of years?

The website I linked to in the post doesn't seem to have ASUS Dual RTX 3070 as an option (unless I'm missing it; my eyes glaze over when looking at the long lists of technical names that aren't meaningfully different to me). I think it has ASUS Dual RTX 3060 though?
0
MontyCallay101~3Y
No one can tell you what you need to be sufficiently future-proof unless you know what the issue is with your current setup vs your needs. My Dad, who mostly needs his PC for general business work, upgraded his seven year old laptop a few years ago with an SSD and it works fine for him until this day.

If it's "just" your hard drives, then getting a PC with equivalent parts to the other ones you have now will probably last you at least few more years as it is, unless for some reason in the future your needs drastically change. If you want a slight upgrade, you could just look at what you have right now on a ranking (e.g. [LINK] ) compared to other parts and consider something on that basis. Then you can get a sense of if you need a 3700 or a 5900 etc. This is how you can build an understanding of these things, picking hardware isn't rocket science! GPU-wise, I would also consider using a standard design (one of the ones without a name other than "NVidia GeForce") as opposed to one that's been overclocked and overhauled with custom coolers out of the box, which you probably won't find necessary and makes it more expensive.

What you'd need to upgrade to improve your experience isn't even particularly difficult to find out, if you can find a situation where things aren't performing adequately you can check the usage of your components at that time with the task manager. If my hunch that the hard drive is mostly the issue is correct, then that allows you to pick parts on that basis. Similarly if the CPU is the limiting factor etc. For the little time that will take, surely that is superior to having to listen to folks guessing at what you need and you preferring to pay the maximum out of uncertainty!
1
Tobias 1115~3Y
I'd say the creative stuff I'm doing all day every day is heavier than general business stuff, and Task Manager often shows me that my CPU or Memory are at 100%. Plus I get frequent lag, programs take forever to load up (though it's usually worst in the mornings), the computer itself needs about half an hour to start up and almost as long to shut down, and sometimes it just briefly freezes, or crashes entirely (that's like a once-a-month thing though). It just generally feels old or clogged up; 'tired'. That could just be me personifying in my ignorance and PCs don't work that way, but I find it hard to believe that running one all day every day for years wouldn't wear it out in some way or another.

Oh, and occasionally I want to play relatively modern games, but a simple Lego game I got recently barely ran at all because it used something like raytracing, I think? I forget. It'd be nice to have something that could run modern stuff on the rare occasions I'd like to.

I checked that comparison site, but again it's just a bunch of code names and numbers, and I don't know what any of them mean so it's basically the same "so I should go with the biggest numbers?" situation as just comparing their names. I don't have a clue what numbers would be sufficient for me.
0
MontyCallay101~3Y
Great, that's valuable to know!

A lot of these figures on hardware comparison sites act more like heuristics for comparison, especially benchmark scores. GPUs are easier because, when lost, you can refer to real-world benchmark scores (gaming speeds) whereas how much you get out of your CPU depends much more on how you use it.

I remember that you had some kind of quad-core i5 processor? One thing to keep in mind is that increasing number of cores doesn't necessarily mean increasing your performance, since some programs and tasks only use a single core, which is why the single core performance metric exists and is relevant. In the unity forum ( [LINK] ) the consensus seems to be that Unity, for instance, mostly benefits from single-core performance. So it might make sense to get an 8-core rather than a 12-core, given an even single-core speed. I would probably revise my recommendation after seeing the single-core improvement on the 8-core Ryzen 7 5800X over the 3700X, and getting the 5800X over the 12-core 5900X still saves you >100£ for what is, as I gather, the same single-core performance. So that seems like a good compromise!

Memory issues are annoying, but it's comparatively cheap and you're getting plenty of it, so that's great as well!

As far as I know, the performance of components itself doesn't actually significantly wear over time unless something goes wrong, and then they'd be "broken" rather than "old", which is why the used parts market exists. There's a good description here: [LINK]

So the start times are probably related to your drive speed, and reinstalling the OS from time to time also helps to mitigate a lot of bloat-based slowdown and crashes, but that's probably not something you want to deal with at this point!

Enabling ray-tracing in most titles that support it is, as far as I know, optional, and will cost you a ton of performance even if you have a GPU that can do well at it, which afaik yours (a 10-series, I think?) doesn't, since it was made before ray-tracing even was a thing. So I'd consider maxing out your GPU as optional, since you're not the person to go for maximum graphics settings on everything etc. Comparing GPUs is vastly easier. Look up benchmark performance and the settings they use (and remember that you have a 1080p monitor). So while a 3080 has, on paper, apparently about 35% better performance than a 3070 ( [LINK] ), it's unlikely you need that performance for 1080p gaming, considering that for that Lego game, benchmarks ( [LINK]&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de - this is supposed to be a single link, I don't know what's going wrong here, just paste the rest in as well I guess) show that even a (last-gen!) RTX 2070 as well as a 3060ti are completely sufficient to run the game at an average of above 60fps with ray-tracing on, which is the maximum refresh rate of most monitors. You'd probably be just fine with a 3060ti or 3070 even for games that come out in the future, as long as you're not looking to max out all of your settings.
1
astralwolf92~3Y
Before you make the plunge, shoot a message to another local retailer and get their suggested part list for your budget! Compare and contrast/ post them here. It is possible to get a better deal from them!
1
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