Can't get a 5950X, so settling for a 3970X instead - today. Thoughts, please?

[Hello Paul]

Right - I'd like to (at last) get this thing ordered today, and welcome anyone's thoughts and opinions, please, before I "pull the trigger"!

I'd REALLY like a 5950X and I'd REALLY like a 24GB RTX3090, but it looks like I'd be waiting forever for those, so it looks like I'll have to make do with whatever I can get. Which means paying about £1000 more for a seemingly older-tech Threadripper system ☹️.

I've specced pretty much the only graphics card that seems to exist - the GTX1660 Super - which will be woefully inadequate for my needs, and I'll replace it with whatever GPU becomes available with a large amount of VRAM that doesn't cost the earth - eventually. For now I'll either struggle along with this card, or swap the GTX1080Ti from my existing PC. It has 11GB VRAM, and Premiere Pro and After Effects chew through VRAM at a prodigious rate, which is why I'd like at least 24GB of the stuff ideally.

Also 32GB RAM isn't really enough, and I plan to add more myself. It's odd that PCS don't fit more than two 16GB DIMMs - I'm hoping this isn't a limitation of the system and I can buy myself another 64GB or so to bump it up. The way After Effects now does multi-frame rendering, there really is no upper limit to "how much RAM is enough"; Adobe recommends 2GB - 4GB per processor core, which on a 32-core 3970X would be 64-128GB. I assume the RGB PRO memory is the same thing but with pointless LEDs on it - is that correct? I'm not at all bothered with how this thing looks - it's all about the horsepower.

That case - I'm trying to keep the system as small as possible, but still keep the cooling happy, bearing in mind I plan to put something like an RTX3090 in there and often push the system pretty hard. Will the Corsair iCue 5000X be an ok choice?

I have a couple of SSDs, a mechanical drive and another M.2 drive in my current machine that I plan to transfer to the new system for general data storage. Apparently this board can take up to five M.2 drives, which is why I've chosen it, for future expansion of fast storage.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X 32 Core CPU (3.7GHz - 4.5GHz, 147MB CACHE)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG ZENITH II EXTREME ALPHA (DDR4, Wi-Fi 6, CrossFireX/SLI) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H150i RGB PRO XT 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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
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 14 to 16 working days
Price: £4,214.00 including VAT and Delivery

 

[Scott]

I genuinely wouldn't do what you are planning right now. It's full of negatives right from the off, as you have listed, and this is the last thing you want to do with £4k.

If you categorically must I would recommend some damage limitation...

Is 2x 2TB drives important? I would personally opt for a 500GB Primary and the 2TB secondary as fast storage, or perhaps the 4TB corsair for fast storage/cache. 2TB is an awful big drive for a primary and they just end up clogged with dross. Keeping it neat and tidy while using other drives is always best practice IMO.

For TR the Coolermaster 360 cooler is better, it has the appropriately sized cooling plate.
Drop Bullguard, nothing but hassle with it.

 

[Hello Paul]

"I genuinely wouldn't do what you are planning right now. It's full of negatives right from the off, as you have listed, and this is the last thing you want to do with £4k."

I agree...I'm still SO in two minds whether to go for a 5950X and just wait it out or do the 3970X. I'd like to get the order in today so it's in this financial year due to tax and stuff (Easter/good Friday/bank holiday monday means that Tuesday will be 2021/22 financial year), AND today the 130% tax 'super-deduction' thing starts (this is a purchase for my freelance business), so today is the one and only day to order! I think, encouraged by your scepticism, that I'll do a complete U-turn and spec a 5950X and just hope there are some processors on the way...and wait it out. I suppose my old system has served me well for the past ~6 years, so what's another few months?!

 

[Scott]

Totally get your reasoning but I think the 5950X is the wisest decision

 

[Hello Paul]

...Just got to figure out a spec now! I shall post a 5950X spec soon - I have no idea about cases or motherboards for that CPU!

 

[Scott]

More than happy to help. The Hero is the ideal motherboard for the 5950X but not available right now so you'll have to slum it with a STRIX haha. If they become available during your wait for the 5950 it would be worth switching it out though.

 

[Hello Paul]

Yes - I instinctively went for the ROG STRIX X570-F because:
1. It was the most expensive, therefore I assumed (naively maybe!) that it's the "best"
2. It seemed to have quite a few fast PCI slots. I know very little about PCI speeds/widths/etc!
What would the 'Hero' board offer over this one?
Does this board have no wifi? I have specced a separate wifi card.

Here's the spec (below). I've gone for the smallest case that will apparently fit the board/GPU in. Might there be cooling issues, using a small case? I'm probably not gonna order the RTX3090 today because that would delay the build even further, but I've included it in this spec to show what the system might eventually be. I don't anticipate ever needing anything other than one beefy graphics card in this build. I'll go with the GTX1660 Super today...just as something to tide me over until I can get a decent card. I suppose there's a slim chance that an RTX3090 might become available when a 5950X becomes available and I can upgrade the order...maybe. Maybe not.

Memory: Any idea why if I spec 3600MHz RAM, the max. that PCS offer is 32GB (2x 16GB)? I assume, as per my 3970X build (above), I can buy another 6x 16GB and fill it up with 3600MHz RAM? I'm also assuming that 3600MHz RAM would not be a waste and would in reality be faster than, say 3200MHz (i.e. I'm not filling the machine with RAM faster than it could take advantage of).

I've specced a 1TB M.2 for the system, plus a 2TB M.2 for projects/video, and also decided to throw in the biggest drive I could find for longer term storage of projects etc. It's a shame that none of these boards (as far as I can tell) support more than two M.2 drives...unless I'm mistaken? Ideally, I'd like, at a minimum:
- M.2 System
- M.2 Projects/video
- M.2 Cache
- Big mechanical long-term storage


Case
CORSAIR 175R RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core (3.4GHz @ up to 4.65GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
24GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3090 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
16TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 150 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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 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
Google Chrome™
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 - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £4,548.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-overclocked/TE79eCM7wb/

 

[Scott]

I would strongly advise against such a case. As you suggest, a small case with powerful components won't mix well.

The Hero offers better VRM (Voltage Regulation Management). It's important for maximising the boost clocks, getting the most out of the system, etc. The Strix is no slouch so it will do you fine, the Hero is just a better option.

I've changed things about a little. I would seriously consider cloud storage rather than a 16TB HDD. It's just not a good purchase to be honest. I've kept it in for your comparison though. 3x M2 drives would be good but they are quite hard to come by for now. The key with these ones is that they offer maximum speed, the boards which offer 3 drives tend to have 2 fast and one conventional speed. I would probably just use the second M2 drive for the cache and the fast storage though, no issue with using it for both.

With the RAM, this standard of desktop only offers 2 channels, or 4 slots. This means you can only put 4x sticks of RAM in. The maximum it can take is 4x 32GB which would be 128GB, but I've specced it with 64 here. 64GB will hopefully be more than enough for you but if not I'm not sure if 3200 x 4 is compatible. I know there are issues with 3600 and with the CAS differences there isn't much in it performance wise. The 3200 should be neck and neck with the 3600, especially with 4x16 on board.

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.9GHz/72MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3090 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
16TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB 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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 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 (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £4,509.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/RdvHGbPRfB/

 

[Bigfoot]

Have a look at the hardware recommendations and benchmarks for CPUs and GPUs for After Effects and Premiere at Puget Systems. These might help you decide what is best for you.

 

[Hello Paul]

I would strongly advise against such a case. As you suggest, a small case with powerful components won't mix well.
...
I've changed things about a little. I would seriously consider cloud storage rather than a 16TB HDD. It's just not a good purchase to be honest. I've kept it in for your comparison though. 3x M2 drives would be good but they are quite hard to come by for now. The key with these ones is that they offer maximum speed, the boards which offer 3 drives tend to have 2 fast and one conventional speed. I would probably just use the second M2 drive for the cache and the fast storage though, no issue with using it for both.

With the RAM, this standard of desktop only offers 2 channels, or 4 slots. This means you can only put 4x sticks of RAM in. The maximum it can take is 4x 32GB which would be 128GB, but I've specced it with 64 here. 64GB will hopefully be more than enough for you but if not I'm not sure if 3200 x 4 is compatible. I know there are issues with 3600 and with the CAS differences there isn't much in it performance wise. The 3200 should be neck and neck with the 3600, especially with 4x16 on board.

Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
...

Thanks for your suggestions and input! Any reason why PCS don't offer 32GB modules at anything faster than 3000MHz? It'd be a shame if I wanted to upgrade to 128GB in future to have to rip out all those 16GB modules and replace them with 32GB ones. Would I really not notice any difference between 3200MHz and 3600MHz?

For the storage, I've opted for:
8TB Samsung 870 SSD for general storage
1TB Samsung 980 PRO M.2 for the system (I often have to have multiple versions of apps such as After Effects installed for comapitibilty with various clients' systems...ugh!)
2TB Samsung 980 PRO M.2 for projects + video + cache - which isn't ideal having them all on the same drive, but I'm hoping that this drive is so blazingly fast that I won't notice any bottlenecks

I've specced the GTX1660 Super for this build:

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.9GHz/72MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
8TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB 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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 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
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £3,474.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/nNZAwjdaAF/

 

[Scott]

That all looks fine to me.

With the RAM, the 3600 has slower timing. It's actually the exact same RAM only configured differently based on how it is binned. There are more expensive 3600mhz offerings which DO offer a speed advantage, but PCS don't offer these at the moment.

I think, with regards to the larger DIMM size, it's down to compatibility. You would need to call PCS and ask if they could use 2x32GB 3200Mhz DIMMs though. I'm sure they will accommodate if they can.

 

[Hello Paul]

That all looks fine to me.

With the RAM, the 3600 has slower timing. It's actually the exact same RAM only configured differently based on how it is binned. There are more expensive 3600mhz offerings which DO offer a speed advantage, but PCS don't offer these at the moment.

I think, with regards to the larger DIMM size, it's down to compatibility. You would need to call PCS and ask if they could use 2x32GB 3200Mhz DIMMs though. I'm sure they will accommodate if they can.

I'm on the phone to them right now - they reckon the 3000MHz RAM (which I can spec to 128GB) will be sufficient for the 5950X. Is that accurate? I don't want the RAM slowing things down.

The biggest DIMMs they offer at 3200 and faster is 16GB, not 32GB.

 

[Hello Paul]

Right - I just went ahead and ordered this. I guess I'll have plenty of opportunity to change things (at the risk of being bumped to the back of the queue) because it's not going to be built any time soon, with that 5950X!

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.9GHz/72MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
128GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
8TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB 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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 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
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
TIMED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £3,690.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/jeuNgNjWKx/

 

[Scott]

I would stick with the 3200mhz personally. 3000 will work fine but it definitely won't be optimal. The 5000 series are made with 3200+ in mind.

 

[Hello Paul]

I would stick with the 3200mhz personally. 3000 will work fine but it definitely won't be optimal. The 5000 series are made with 3200+ in mind.

Seeing as PCS don't seem to sell any 32GB DIMMs faster than 3000, then maybe I should spec it with "throwaway RAM"; something like 4GB of 2400MHz and then buy some decent RAM separately.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Seeing as PCS don't seem to sell any 32GB DIMMs faster than 3000, then maybe I should spec it with "throwaway RAM"; something like 4GB of 2400MHz and then buy some decent RAM separately.

That's what I would do personally, it's worth aiming for 3200MHz with Ryzen.