Custom Game Dev / Gaming Rig

C

CactusTryingToBeACanoe

New member
Hey,

I'm looking for a sanity check on my custom spec as listed below.

Answers to the standard questions:
Uses: Fairly heavy multitasking, including Game Dev Engines (Unity/Unreal), Video editing software (e.g. DaVinci), Graphics Editing Software (e.g. Photoshop/Gimp), Programming IDEs (e.g. Visual Studio/Rider), Custom tools, etc. Oh and having 3 million browser tabs open of course ;). Also gaming in graphically demanding games, but mostly offline / single mode (i.e. I don't care about competitive online multiplayer games).
Budget: Well, I was trying to keep it under £3k but I went just over that. Trying to stay close to that and obviously I could save by taking out some of the fancy stuff (like the braided cables)
Monitors: Not bought yet, but likely to go for a work setup with a 4k screen flanked by two 1080p screens. For gaming I would just use the 4K screen. Not desperately looking for 120 fps.

Additional notes:
  • I have combined a lot of Corsair components in the hope that would make it easy to control the RGB all in one place. (The Motherboard also has RGB but isn't Corsair so maybe that makes that a bit harder)
  • The plan is to use the 3 RGB front fans that come with the case as well as the 1 regular back fan that comes with it, with the 2 RGB fans that come with the iCUE cooler
Some specific questions:
  • Is there anything in this config that wouldn't work well with the rest of it?
  • Can I expect a fairly silent (within reason of course) rig or are there elements that would prevent this (e.g. if the fans would always be running too fast)
  • Can I expect the build by PC Specialist to be connected up such that I can control all RGB (so that's fans, cpu cooler, RAM, and Motherboard) through the Corsair tools (well, apart from the motherboard potentially)
  • Is there any way to know or control what brand GPU would be used? Does it matter much?
  • I have always been more of an Intel guy, but I'm not necessarily adverse to going for AMD. Would it be smarter to go for AMD for CPU and/or GPU for this rig?
Of course I am also open for any other comments or remarks that anyone likes to share about this rig. :)


Case
CORSAIR iCUE 4000X RGB Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX Case
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 24-Core Processor i9-13900K (Up to 5.8GHz) 36MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z790-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
4TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
8TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Braided Power Supply Cables
CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro (40 Series) - Black
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H100i ELITE LCD Display RGB 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 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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £3,218.00 including VAT and Delivery
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I'd certainly go with AMD for your purposes for the CPU. You can go for the 7950X3D which will give you the best of all worlds: amazing gaming performance and really good multi-core performance as well. This is also a much more forward-looking DDR5 platform as well.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE Bigger and better case
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
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW) Boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW) Game/project drive (more can be added later)
1st Storage Drive
8TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE Mass storage - much superior to the Barracuda
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Lots of room for upgrades
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Braided Power Supply Cables
CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro (40 Series) - Black Not remotely necessary: I'd get rid of these
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler A very good CPU cooler is a good plan for this build
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
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 7 to 9 working days
Price: £3,019.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/s9FvrRfbUd/
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
Fully agree with @sck451 on the above points. But don’t bother taking the free trial of Norton under any circumstances, it’ll be more trouble than it’s worth. Trust in Windows Defender.
 
C

CactusTryingToBeACanoe

New member
Hey both,

Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated.

Case: On the one hand I do like the 5000x but it's a massive beast (also in weight) which is why I stuck to the 4000x. You are making me reconsider this choice now though :)

CPU: Thanks for the AMD suggestion, I will read up on a comparison between that one and the Intel one and possibly follow up on your advice.

Motherboard/RAM: I wasn't sure of whether switching to DDR5 was worth it yet, but happy to follow your advice on that.

GPU: I saw you stuck to the RTX 4070 Ti I had selected. In the selection list I also saw the AMD RX 7900 XT, which I think is in a similar ballpark as the 4070 Ti, but has significantly more VRAM. Is there any benefit to having an AMD GPU if you have an AMD CPU or should I just stick to the RTX 4070 Ti if that is better?

Drives: I can see your logic, but I also feel this a partly a matter of preference (well, apart from the Ironwolf/Barracuda suggestion of course).

Power Supply: Sure, reasonable suggestion. I already went for something more than was needed (the configurator already issued a warning :) ) but some more room for future changes won't hurt.

Cables: Agreed not necessary. I thought it might make the whole thing look significantly nicer, but it's probably a pointless indulgence.

CPU Cooling: I see you have chosen the H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT whereas I chose the H100i ELITE LCD Display. Is the H115i better or is that just because of the cost? Personally I find the price difference small enough to choose the fancy LCD display if the performance is the same. Having said that, if you'd choose the 5000x wouldn't it make sense to go for the H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT as that has 3 fans which is a nicer fit for the case and only a small preference in price. (I would find the gap to the LCD version of the 3 fan one a bit too much though)

Operating System / Virus Scanner / Etc: I had no plans to take the Norton trial, just hadn't even looked at turning that off yet, just focused on the config for this post. As for Windows: I want Win 10 Pro but that is now unfortunately out of stock until September or so it says. So I'll have to do the windows install myself then.
 
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