Home workstation - build vs buy, brand or component recommendations

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#2454642 4-Apr-2020 21:03

Jase2985:

most newer pieces of video/image editing software will let your GPU do the heavy lifting, and its generally a heap faster than using even a 8 core 16 thread CPU. so i wouldn't totally throw away the idea of low/mid range gfx card

a 1660 is $400. not that much in the scheme of things.

i would also get a 1tb nvne drive for the boot drive

I do basic video editing rarely, Premier Elements doesn't support use of a GPU, so it'd be money largely wasted. My 2600K CPU is fine for video, so a 50% faster CPU would be good. I can always add a faster GPU later if I need one.

I don't keep data on my boot disk, to keep the Macrium Reflect image small, so a 1TB NVME drive isn't really going to help me unless I partition it - not sure if that's a good idea or not. Plus I already have good quality Samsung 960 Pro SATA drives, plenty of life left in them and what I do isn't I/O heavy, so I don't know if I'll even bother with NVME. If I do it'd probably be 256GB for OS, programs, swap. Might add NVME later, easiest thing to replace is the disk.

Not sure what I'd use instead of ReFS storage space mirror. Maybe just bare NTFS drives, with an internal backup nightly.

wazzageek

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#2454648 4-Apr-2020 21:06

I'm getting in the same space (i7 4770) - a few years back when researching different cooling, I ended up going with water cooling.

From the reviews I read and the specs, getting a decent amount of cooling with a low level of noise, water cooling was much cheaper.

Some to aid in making the process a little more complicated.

FWIW, currently I'm considering keeping the case I already have (and the plethora of drives) and upgrading the motherboard, CPU, RAM and going with an nVME boot drive. (I haven't figured out my cooler yet, whether to get brand new, or stick with the current.)

Reading this thread today makes me wonder if I shouldn't been looking at getting a new case/PSU and being able to onsell/donate my current hardware ...

rb99

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#2454655 4-Apr-2020 21:18

Can't pretend this is entirely news to me, but that PC I did added up to about $2580

3700X $584

1660 Super $477

ASRock mobo $429

Rm750X power $240

RAM $224

R5 case $199

970 Evo 500GB $169

Noctua $198

2 extra case fans (cos bugger it) $32 and $29

I had Windows 10 already

It adds up.

Did I say that before ?

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

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timmmay

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#2454657 4-Apr-2020 21:24

wazzageek:

I'm getting in the same space (i7 4770) - a few years back when researching different cooling, I ended up going with water cooling.

From the reviews I read and the specs, getting a decent amount of cooling with a low level of noise, water cooling was much cheaper.

Some to aid in making the process a little more complicated.

FWIW, currently I'm considering keeping the case I already have (and the plethora of drives) and upgrading the motherboard, CPU, RAM and going with an nVME boot drive. (I haven't figured out my cooler yet, whether to get brand new, or stick with the current.)

Reading this thread today makes me wonder if I shouldn't been looking at getting a new case/PSU and being able to onsell/donate my current hardware ...

I'm going for a new case as the current one has front USB ports failing, and they're handy. Plus then I can reuse the computer for something else, sell it, give it away, etc.

I've never looked at water cooling. Do you like it, and how's the cost? I don't love the sound of the many fans in my case... from memory one PSU, two front, one CPU, one rear exhaust. I guess if you're trying to cool a CPU, a GPU, and a few hard drives it's not going to be so easy?

mdf

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#2454661 4-Apr-2020 21:46

For RAM, if I'm remembering correctly, Ryzen sells 3000-series as "optimised" for DDR4 3200MHz. You can go higher, but some speeds seem to perform better than others because... timings... infinity fabrics... QVL...

I may not have _quite_ understood everything and so was just going to go for DDR4 3200 myself.

Geektastic

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#2454682 4-Apr-2020 22:36

TL:DR but all things being equal I would have said buy an iMac and be done with it. But you knew that! Seriously though, an iMac would be ideal for what you want to do with it except maybe some of the peripherals if you aren't wanting to use Thunderbolt.

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timmmay

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#2454718 5-Apr-2020 06:08

Geektastic:

TL:DR but all things being equal I would have said buy an iMac and be done with it. But you knew that! Seriously though, an iMac would be ideal for what you want to do with it except maybe some of the peripherals if you aren't wanting to use Thunderbolt.

Appreciate the thought, but not at all suitable. Can't take internal disks so it's messy with disks everywhere, lots of power supplies means it's less reliable, doesn't use any of my software, backup systems, or my experience. Plus Apple costs more.

wazzageek

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#2454921 5-Apr-2020 11:59

timmmay:

I'm going for a new case as the current one has front USB ports failing, and they're handy. Plus then I can reuse the computer for something else, sell it, give it away, etc.

I've never looked at water cooling. Do you like it, and how's the cost? I don't love the sound of the many fans in my case... from memory one PSU, two front, one CPU, one rear exhaust. I guess if you're trying to cool a CPU, a GPU, and a few hard drives it's not going to be so easy?

Forgot about the front USB Ports!

Really like the water cooling - it was much cheaper than equivalent fans, plus substantially quieter. I was worried about liquid inside a PC, but so far, no problems. (Going on at least 5 years).

The test was converting DVD's to sit in my library - with air cooling, I could do two at once before the CPU got too hot - with the liquid cooling, I was able to do about 5 or 6 at once - all cores on the CPU maxed out, and the CPU temperature didn't even get into the warning region. (The biggest issue I had at the time was keeping the CPU cool)

Here's what the inside of the computer looks like - there's two fans in the top of the case (exhausting up), two in the front, and the two on the radiator. There's three fans on the GPU, but overall the noisest fan is in the one in the PSU.

I was pleased to get air cooling without the flashing lights (I really don't like all the case lighting, etc.).

HTH

timmmay

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#2454977 5-Apr-2020 13:20

Ah, so water cooling only replaces the CPU fan. Not sure that really makes much difference does it? I can run my CPU at 100% for days on air cooling, it hits about 60c which is fine.

I don't like case / fan lighting, I just want a black box that sits on the floor. I put my laptop on top of the case, so any case I buy I'd rather not have top fans.

wazzageek

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#2454989 5-Apr-2020 13:38

Watercooling the CPU made a massive difference to my system - if you're current aircooling is working for you (and quiet enough) then I'd stick with that.

The extra case fans were really a case of "there's room for them" - so I stuck 'em in :-)

Jase2985

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#2455180 5-Apr-2020 15:53

The water cooling wazzageek is using is termed an AIO (All in one) so its the pump tubing radiator and fan you can change the fan but the rest is a kit. the smaller 120mm radiator sized ones are around the same price as a tower cooler. the top range air cooler will run at the same temps if not slightly cooler though. its only when you go to a bigger 240/280mm one where the AIO gets better cooling.

unless you run you CPU maxed out a lot of the time or overclock then a stock cooler is probably going to be alright for you.

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#2455184 5-Apr-2020 16:00

Jase2985:
The water cooling wazzageek is using is termed an AIO (All in one) so its the pump tubing radiator and fan you can change the fan but the rest is a kit. the smaller 120mm radiator sized ones are around the same price as a tower cooler. the top range air cooler will run at the same temps if not slightly cooler though. its only when you go to a bigger 240/280mm one where the AIO gets better cooling.

unless you run you CPU maxed out a lot of the time or overclock then a stock cooler is probably going to be alright for you.

Given that a mid range CPU generally comes with a cooler I decided to suck it and see with the stock cooler. It worked alright so never bothered with an aftermarket one.

networkn

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#2455185 5-Apr-2020 16:01

With your requirements, the chances you'd need or want AIO Cooling is zero. You don't even want a decent GPU, so there isn't really any need to cool anything that a standard cooler wouldn't cover well and truly.

Jase2985

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#2455189 5-Apr-2020 16:06

Exactly. i game on my Ryzen 5 3600 along with doing a lot of video trans-coding so i brought a bigger noctua tower air cooler. if it wasn't for that i would likely be using the stock one.

timmmay

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#2455199 5-Apr-2020 16:35

Yeah stock will be fine for me. I'll wait until after lockdown finishes to buy, want to make sure I still have a job! Likely, but you never know.

I've been looking at motherboards, too many options with subtle and ambiguous differences between them. Making a spreadsheet to help decide on one, but probably no point until I'm ready to buy.

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