Advice for scientific computing / gaming machine

H

HefRhy

Member
Hi all,

I don't really have experience of custom builds and am looking for your advice. I'd like to get a desktop machine that performs well while gaming, and also has a large amount of RAM and processing power for some scientific computing. I've made a first pass attempt, but I didn't really know what I was selecting for many of the options. In particular, I was hoping for 64Gb of RAM but couldn't see that as an option. If anyone could cast an eye over and let me know if this is a suitable setup or if you would make any substitutions, I would really appreciate your expertise. This is pushing my budget a bit at £3300, so any unnecessary expenditure can go.

Case: PCS SPECTRUM II ARGB MID TOWER CASE (PWM)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™ i9 10 Core Processor i9-10900X (3.7GHz) 19.25MB Cache
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X299 UD4 Pro: USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM): 64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card: 24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive: 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable: 1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling: CORSAIR ICUE LINK H115i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste: STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting: 50cm ARGB LED Strip
Sound Card: ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card: 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card: Tenda AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) 2400Mbps/5GHz, 600Mbps/2.4GHz
USB/Thunderbolt Options: 2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS

Additionally, I plan to dual boot with Windows and Linux Mint. I assume the process of this is exactly the same as with every other machine I've done this with in the past?

Thank you for your help!
Hefin
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Where would the priority lie with regards to the utilisation of the system?

For computational prowess the 7950X would be the one to go for. If you were willing to drop a slight performance bump for gaming then the 7950X3D would be the go to. Note that there isn't a lot in performance here, but if you wanted to eek out every bit of computational power then the 7950X would offer an edge.

Does the software favour the CPU/GPU or can it utilise both? What software are you using?
 
H

HefRhy

Member
Hi Scott, thanks for your reply. It will be used for crunching data in R, and I'm looking for a significant upgrade from the HP Envy laptop I'm currently using. It would be good if I have the option of using a CUDA-enabled GPU for some deep learning, but this will be an occasional use case.

My laptop uses Intel core i7-6500 CPU @ 2.5Ghz x2, with 11.6Gb.

If either of the 7950X or the 7950X3D offer a significant upgrade from my current laptop, I would probably be happy with the 7950X3D.
 
Last edited:
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
I gather you are programming R to do the number crunching? Are you programming for multi-core utilisation, or do you know if the program involved does?

No matter what route we go down the 6500 is going to be completely blown out the water so you definitely don't need to worry there. There can be no comparison to the power you will have from this level of desktop build.

With regards to the CUDA deep learning. The 4090 is by far and away the most powerful GPU on offer for this task. It's a very expensive outlay though so I would want to be sure you were getting the benefit of it. Which monitor are you using for gaming? It would likely be prudent to take this into consideration in case there was a compromise with the little use of the deep-learning side of things. Perhaps gear more towards the monitor for gaming than the deep learning.

Below is going all out. You can see it's gone over budget but you can't get anything performance wise that's better than this. It's ridiculously powerful. From here we really want to tweak the GPU to your gaming needs with deep learning in mind. With the CPU, the 7950X3D is a multi-core monster with 32 threads, there's no point in having 32 threads if you're only likely to be using 1 core for your number crunching. The likes of the 7800X3D would likely offer the same performance you were after with that being the case.

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.7GHz/144MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 32GB) AMD
Graphics Card
24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Price: £3,467.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/U73saXvy6T/
 
H

HefRhy

Member
Hi Scott,

I appreciate the time and effort you've put into this! :)

Yes, I'm programming R to process data and the work can often be sped up by running in parallel (though 16 cores is possibly more than I would need). Deep learning would be an occasional use so I can definitely compromise there, and tbf I hadn't even considered a monitor yet. If there's a cheaper alternative graphics card that would still allow me to play modern games with decent FPS (I don't need >120 FPS) I would be happy to make that compromise. A suggestion on monitor would be much welcomed too ;) Do I need 2 SSDs? Could I stick with just a single 1Tb?

Really grateful for your advice.
Hefin
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Ok, will be very easy to get inside budget then. What is the budget for the gaming monitor? Are you looking at a multi-monitor setup? If the main use of the monitor is gaming, with the rest of the tasks just being generic single monitor tasks, then an ultrawide monitor may be a good choice. It'll give you a great deal of screen space while only utilising one screen. For gaming it would be stunning, you would want approx £500 for such a monitor though IMO. You can save a bit if you don't want it super pretty on the eyes (A non-IPS screen for example).

I'm going to write a post on storage later, I'm having to explain the reasoning more and more nowadays so better to just have a link to reference I think. Will post back with it once I've completed it, the short version is that you definitely want multiple drives.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
As promised:

Why more than one storage drive?

I've been meaning to put something like this together for a while. In recent weeks I've found myself writing this more and more so thought I would just post my thoughts in a thread that I could link to. So the reason for this thread is to try and give insight as to the reasoning behind having...
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk
 
H

HefRhy

Member
Thanks for the link to your thread; it makes a lot of sense. As an aside: would I install linux mint on the same drive as my windows installation, and just use the second one for my data?

How about this monitor: ASUS XG32VC 31.5" ROG Strix, it isn't ultrawide but it would suit my needs. The 12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070Ti gets me down to budget, does that seem a reasonable compromise to you?
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
I had actually forgotten about the Linux use. You can have it on the same drive, but I would definitely recommend not doing it this way. I've went back into the config and added a second drive specifically for Linux. It doesn't need to be 500GB but there aren't any decent savings to be had with any of the other offerings so this is where I would go.

For flat panel gaming AMD offer far better value at this level. The 6950XT or the 7900XTX would be my main considerations. With £500 for the monitor I would definitely go with the Gigabyte ultrawide over the ASUS (link below). Either the 6950XT or the 7900XTX would do the job nicely. The 7900 has more power but you pay a bit more. Just get whatever suits the budget best :)


Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.7GHz/144MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 32GB) AMD
Graphics Card
24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR, 1625MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £3,487.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/wnwKcDddN8/
 
H

HefRhy

Member
Thank you. Because of your generous advice I felt confident enough to take the plunge and buy :D I opted for the 6950XT, which dropped the cost a little. My current laptop has lasted me 9 years and I'm pleased I'm going to have something that will hopefully last me the next 9/10 years (with scope to upgrade too!). I'm really grateful for the time you've taken to help a stranger on the internet!

Best wishes
Hefin
 
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