New pc for rendering

Hello chaps. It’s time to change my old xenon E5-2620 v4 processor.
I will use this pc for professional works in Vfx and animation. Houdini rendering CPU and GPU.
As mostly of the time I work remotely with studio’s machine I would like to stay a bit low with the budget but having something workable :slight_smile: Already have 1 RTX 3080 and RTX 2080 from the old pc.
I’d to receive some advice if there’s something wrong on this configuration I did.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 4.5 GHz 16-Core Processor (€558.30 @ Amazon Italia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core Liquid CPU Cooler (€103.86 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: Asus ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO ATX AM5 Motherboard (€647.04 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR5-5600 CL40 Memory (€519.99 @ Corsair)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€179.65 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€179.65 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Fractal Design Torrent RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (€254.67 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: Corsair HX1200 Platinum 1200 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€283.70 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €2726.86

Thank you

Looks solid but don’t expect 4x DDR5 DIMMs to run at 5600 MHz on a dual channel CPU (see: DDR5 4 dimms on am5 -- what's working, what's not?)

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Sorry I’m not expert in this, what does it means?
The ram will run at different speed? Does this affects performance?
Thx

Ok ,so let’s see here. You want a GPU workstation, and here is the PCPP list?

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 7950X €558.30
CPU Cooler Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core €103.86
Motherboard Asus ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO €647.04
Memory Corsair Vengeance RGB 4x32 GB DDR5-5600 CL40 Memory €519.99
Storage Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 €179.65
Storage Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 €179.65
Case Fractal Design Torrent RGB ATX Mid Tower Case €254.67
Power Supply Corsair HX1200 Platinum €283.70
Total €2726.86

CPU - more than good enough, actually you could probably go down a notch or two, but why bother.

Cooler - Will do the job for sure, I’d personally go air over liquid cooling but that is a preference thing. You could shave off €25 here, but given the overall budget, again, why bother?

Motherboard - A €300 motherboard will be a far, far better investment here, going beyond that is just pointless.

RAM - Four sticks are not as good as two sticks, and while the situation is improved AM5 boards still do not allow you to run full speed. If you can make do with two sticks now and upgrade, I would switch this to a 2x48 GB kit for a total of 96 GB. It is a better compromise IMO.

Storage - Samsung drives are still a premium, great drives but you can get cheaper and with a little extra capacity, I would buy a mirrored 4TB setup personally.

Case - Torrent is a bit expensive for what it is, but it is a great case. Up to you if you find that worth it.

PSU - 1200W should do the trick, yes.

Now, here is my counter-recommendation given a €2.5k budget.

PCPartPicker Part List

So, same specs pretty much, just cheaper parts overall that perform pretty much the same thing(s).

  • The 7950X is the current best CPU on the platform, but a case could be made for building a 7700X system now and then upgrading later to the 9950X rumored to come out this summer - in your case, the 7700X would be a substantial performance sidegrade with the same amount of cores only 3x more performance. You could of course also wait a few months for the Zen 5 lineup proper, but since that is still 4+ months out…
  • The ProArt is, hands down, the best motherboard for creators right now, but that €500 price tag is still high. Two other solid recommendations here are the ~€300 MSI Tomahawk X670E or ASRock X670E Steel Legend.
  • The Peerless Assassin is about as good as a Noctua NH-D15 according to reviews, but costs about a third of the price.
  • You will lose 32 GB of RAM but increase your potential capacity to 192 GB and it is both lower latency and higher clocked.
  • KC3000 is €10 cheaper than the Samsung drives, so it is an alternative, but not the best alternative.
  • Meshify is a really solid case and saves you €80.
  • The ADATA PSU is also really good value, if you can get past the fact that it is a lesser known brand.

So, between €500-€900 savings. What do I recommend you do with this money? Sell your 2080 and 3080, and buy a 4090, or invest in a Pro card even.

My two cents, feel free to mix and match however you please. At the end of the day it is your PC, your time, your money and your experience. :slight_smile:

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Check out puget bench

They also do a lot of interesting articles on topics and hardware related to content creation

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That’s a sensible recommendation.

I personally would upgrade for little money to a WD SN850X 2TB

very very very thank you! :slight_smile:
I think I will follow your advices. Thanks again
just a question about Mb, does the Proart motherboard support 2 GPU? like 3090 or 4080

Look at the pcie lane layout in the mobo manual as well as the spacing for the number of slots wide your gpus are

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Technically speaking you can run a 2080, 3080 or even 4090 in an x1 slot. It is compatible for it. Now why you would ever WANT to do that, is another question. But you could.

As for how the ProArt is wired, you have three x16 slots that support x8 / x8 / x2, plus four m.2 slots that are wired x4 / x4 / x4 / x4. So yes it can support two cards, no they will not be in SLI since SLI is pointless nowadays (just share directly over PCIe instead, is faster).

  • You likely want to go for the 7950X3D due to lower TDP (it’s slightly slower but not by much at all)
  • No idea about AIO stuff so can’t help you on that one
  • Asus ProArt X670E-Creator WiFi is much better value and in your case it you’re not really loosing out on anything
    AM5 Motherboards Sheet (X670/B650/A620) - Google Sheets
  • If stability is of interest you might as well go for ECC RAM
    Micron 32GB DDR5-4800 ECC UDIMM 2Rx8 CL40 | MTC20C2085S1EC48BR | Crucial EU (also cheaper than your current ones)
  • I would go for either the Crucial P5 Plus or T500 due to stability and firmware concerns
    The Fractal Torrent ones are probably fine, I would go for the R-series though
  • The PSU is likely overkill and you can probably find a bit cheaper

You can find most parts cheaper using idealo.it or similar service

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