Futureproof Gaming/Rendering station on a budget!

[fufixiil]

Hey folks!

I'm about to order a gaming/rendering station for Cinema 4D + Octane render mostly, but also After Effects, Unreal Engine and possibly all sort of audiovisual development that's out there. What I'm looking for is the ability to fire up a computer and have somewhat uninterrupted workflow - mostly Ray Traced previews with Octane Render and fast enough physics simulation in Cinema 4D. I know rendering times will vary based on the scene complexity.

My monitor: Samsung S27C750 1080/60
Use: 3D Rendering with 4K output/ 1080p gaming with no focus on quality
Budget: Roughly €4000-4500
AMD vs. Intel: I'm aware of the AMD advantages, but I don't think this really matters to me. Should I look into it again?

EDIT: Cinema 4D is able to utilise only one core for most of its design tasks. On the other hand Octane Render is able to utilise a high number of cores, that's why I'm ok with the core count of i9 119000K.

Would anyone be that nice and look over my chosen specs to see if there are any red flags?

My current specs are:
Lenovo Yoga 720
Intel i7-7700HQ
GTX 1050 2GB Max-Q
16GB 2133MHz
Samsung MZVLB512 SSD

...this is a much needed upgrade as you can imagine!

Thanks in advance.

 

[AgentCooper]

AMD vs. Intel: I'm aware of the AMD advantages, but I don't think this really matters to me. Should I look into it again?

Dear god, YES! Please take a look this thread and reconsider...

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

With your budget you can get a machine that will shred the Intel for performance, I've just done a random spec as an example (the RAM is a placeholder, I'd actually suggest ordering with the lowest amount possible and sourcing 2x32GB 3200MHz yourself to add in upon arrival)

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB 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
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB 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 CORSAIR MP400 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 3480 MB/R, 3000 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i 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)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB 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
Firefox™
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: €4,553.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

 

[Steveyg]

Yeah don't buy Intel, you also should be look at another case. I have the same case and it's fine for me but your components will turn that into and oven and just cook the parts inside. It definitely needs a good airflow case

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Dear god, YES! Please take a look this thread and reconsider...

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

With your budget you can get a machine that will shred the Intel for performance, I've just done a random spec as an example (the RAM is a placeholder, I'd actually suggest ordering with the lowest amount possible and sourcing 2x32GB 3200MHz yourself to add in upon arrival)

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB 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
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 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 CORSAIR MP400 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 3480 MB/R, 3000 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i 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)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB 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
Firefox™
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: €4,566.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/z4R89T6wtP/

Regarding the RAM, i'm sure @SpyderTracks told me (might of been Nurse) that the 5000 Series work better with 4 sticks?
Its when its 3600MHz that there seems to be an issue, but you can underclock it an increment or two and it looked like its then stable.

Or is this so theres room to grow, with the rendering aspect of it?

Would echo the panic over taking Intel, they really arent in a good place with their current offering, and after being told some more about how 11th Gen has gone backwards with performance when compared to their own 10th Gen... Its kinda shocking how much theyve dropped the ball. I dont think they'll be real competitors for a while yet.

The original spec listed also has some real hurdles, even if you stick with Intel. I wouldnt want to pack all that into the case thats been chosen or using the PCS cooler on a build thats going to run as hot as that will... you'll bake it to death.

 

[AgentCooper]

Regarding the RAM, i'm sure @SpyderTracks told me (might of been Nurse) that the 5000 Series work better with 4 sticks?
Its when its 3600MHz that there seems to be an issue, but you can underclock it an increment or two and it looked like its then stable.

Or is this so theres room to grow, with the rendering aspect of it?

A little bit of both, really. Having just the two sticks gives the opportunity for more if there's some really memory intensive rendering going on. And also because it tends to be audio production that reaps the rewards of the 3600MHz RAM (another handy nugget of info from the Spyder), OP may not get any tangible benefit for their uses. If the performance is relatively similar, seems a faff to have to mess around with the clocks of the higher frequency RAM to get it running stable.

 

[fufixiil]

Dear god, YES! Please take a look this thread and reconsider...

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

With your budget you can get a machine that will shred the Intel for performance, I've just done a random spec as an example (the RAM is a placeholder, I'd actually suggest ordering with the lowest amount possible and sourcing 2x32GB 3200MHz yourself to add in upon arrival)

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB 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
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB 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 CORSAIR MP400 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 3480 MB/R, 3000 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i 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)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB 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
Firefox™
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: €4,553.00 including VAT and Delivery

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

Thanks for this! To correct myself - I was not aware of the AMD vs. Intel situation, haha. I've reconfigured to Ryzen 9 5900X. Also, why would you source the RAM yourself? Is it cheaper to get somewhere online?

 

[fufixiil]

Yeah don't buy Intel, you also should be look at another case. I have the same case and it's fine for me but your components will turn that into and oven and just cook the parts inside. It definitely needs a good airflow case

Thank you! Do you think CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW would work well?

 

[fufixiil]

Regarding the RAM, i'm sure @SpyderTracks told me (might of been Nurse) that the 5000 Series work better with 4 sticks?
Its when its 3600MHz that there seems to be an issue, but you can underclock it an increment or two and it looked like its then stable.

Or is this so theres room to grow, with the rendering aspect of it?

Would echo the panic over taking Intel, they really arent in a good place with their current offering, and after being told some more about how 11th Gen has gone backwards with performance when compared to their own 10th Gen... Its kinda shocking how much theyve dropped the ball. I dont think they'll be real competitors for a while yet.

The original spec listed also has some real hurdles, even if you stick with Intel. I wouldnt want to pack all that into the case thats been chosen or using the PCS cooler on a build thats going to run as hot as that will... you'll bake it to death.

Thanks so much for this! I'm keeping the RAM slots empty for a possible upgrade somewhere down the line.

 

[AgentCooper]

Thanks for this! To correct myself - I was not aware of the AMD vs. Intel situation, haha. I've reconfigured to Ryzen 9 5900X. Also, why would you source the RAM yourself? Is it cheaper to get somewhere online?

It's not that it's cheaper, but you can only get 64GB of the 3200MHz frequency RAM in 4x16GB from PCS. Getting 2x32GB yourself gives you that room to expand in future.

 

[Steveyg]

Thank you! Do you think CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW would work well?

5000D is a great option

 

[fufixiil]

It's not that it's cheaper, but you can only get 64GB of the 3200MHz frequency RAM in 4x16GB from PCS. Getting 2x32GB yourself gives you that room to expand in future.

Got it! Thanks for this.

 

[fufixiil]

5000D is a great option

That's great! Thanks a lot.

 

[fufixiil]

Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

... or using the PCS cooler on a build thats going to run as hot as that will... you'll bake it to death.

Oh no.

I've just noticed that you did recommend a different cooler. I remember wanting to look for a better air cooler later as none of the good ones were available while configuring my build. (Not a fan of liquid cooling tbh)

Is the PCS FrostFlow 150 that bad? Would it be in the 80 degrees+ under load? My PC is awaiting shipment now.

 

[Steveyg]

Oh no.

I've just noticed that you did recommend a different cooler. I remember wanting to look for a better air cooler later as none of the good ones were available while configuring my build. (Not a fan of liquid cooling tbh)

Is the PCS FrostFlow 150 that bad? Would it be in the 80 degrees+ under load? My PC is awaiting shipment now.

They are unreliable, some are fine some fail. I can't recommend liquid cooling enough in a closed loop.

It's far more efficient and will extend the life of your CPU by keeping it cooler, been using liquid coolers now for over 10 years and never had an issue with them

 

[fufixiil]

They are unreliable, some are fine some fail. I can't recommend liquid cooling enough in a closed loop.

It's far more efficient and will extend the life of your CPU by keeping it cooler, been using liquid coolers now for over 10 years and never had an issue with them

Just changed it over the phone to Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler. The PCS support is absolutely amazing. And so have you. Thanks so much!