Questions for new VFX-workstation PC

JerDes

New member
hi all!

First-time pcpspecialist user here, I'm very keen on ordering a new machine this week. Purely to be used as professional workstation for visual effects work. So mostly running 3D-software (Maya, Houdini, Clarisse, etc), Photoshop, Nuke, Resolve, etc ... but also Unreal Engine (hence the RTX 3090).

It's been a while since I got a new machine (my current workstation is a very old HP Z800... got this over 10 years ago!)

For my new machine I'm looking for decent CPU and GPU power. I was initially looking for a Threadripper but they still seem to be hard to come by and probably a little over my budget. I'm aiming for a price up to around 5000 GBP.

I was hoping to get a full liquid cooling (for the RTX as well) to reduce the noise of the machine, but there aren't too many cases available at the moment, when selecting a Ryzen9 system. Also, I'm not looking for any fancy LED disco-lighting, I'd prefer a closed case that doesn't light up my entire room at night... and that doesn't seem to be an option. Any advice on getting full liquid cooling (cpu+gpu) would be great!

Below I've configured a PC using the configure-page: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-am4-gen3-pc/
Unfortunately, the cooling options here don't include a GPU liquid cooling, only a CPU liquid-cooling option.



Some questions:

CPU
:
I have no knowledge anymore in regards to overclocking... whether I need it, whether it's safe and won't kill my machine or shorten its lifespan ... or if I'd benefit from it with the software I'd be running on it. Any thoughts?

GPU:
I'm just assuming the ASUS 3090 is better than the NVIDIA one, from quickly glancing over some online reviews. Am I correct?

RAM:
How come there's only 3000 MHz RAM available for expansion up to 128GB? And not the faster 3600 MHz one? Is this not supported by these motherboards/cpu's?

HARD DRIVE Access:
I'm very used to the easy swappable drives in my HP Z800. Some of these new cases seem to be quite cumbersome to swap/add extra drives. Any better advise on a case? I might go for the bigger [THERMALTAKE CORE X71 TEMPERED GLASS EDITION GAMING CASE] since that one seems to have easier access to the drives, than say the Fractal Define 7... since I might want to expand my hard drives later on - adding 4 x 20TB drives on a RAID, for extra data storage.
It looks like a lot of the liquid cooling systems take up the space of where hard-drives should be, in a lot of these cases?



Temp. Configuration:


Case

FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core (3.4GHz @ up to 4.55GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
128GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
24GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3090 - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7300MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
4TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7300MB/R, 6900MB/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)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Series 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
10/100/1000 GIGABIT 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 Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
Price: £4,800.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-overclocked/zKddkWvG4v/



Thanks a lot for reading, and for any insights you might be able to share!
Jerry
 
Last edited:

JerDes

New member
ah! brilliant!! Thanks!!

Looks like that case is available on the Liquid Series anyways! something must've gone wrong on my end when I tried building it then...it didn't seem available for me.

Yeah your proposal looks interesting! Quite a bit more expensive for just getting extra watercooling for the GPU.. but I think it might still be worth it... as these GPU's tend to be quite noisy from what I hear.

I also noticed you pumped up the wattage on the power supply, which is good. I've had issues with my GTX 1080 in my HP Z800 (I have to actually UNDERclock the card, or my PC just reboots out of the blue, because the PSU can't handle that card, haha) ... so I have a general distrust for PSU's and would prefer to get one that's too heavy rather than just enough.

Thanks again!

Regarding extra data storage (more for archival purposes and video material), I think I might look into external storage options instead (NAS with thunderbolt connection). So I think this Fractal Define 7 case might do the trick.
 
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