Graphic Design/Filmmaking/3d CGI Desktop

Steve O'C

Member
Hello all,

I am currently looking into a new desktop with the aim for graphic design, 3d CG and video editing, e.g. Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Topaz AI Tools, Blender 3d, DaVinci Resolve, etc. Thinking of purchasing in the next few weeks/months.

My Current PC Specialist build from 2014 is still going strong, but unfortunately, the CPU is so old that Adobe no longer supports it due to a lack of ‘AVX2 support’ and Windows 11 is not supported.

Main Monitor: BenQ SW271C (UHD, 10-bit colour, 60Hz)

Second Monitor: Huion 16-inch tablet screen (UHD, 60Hz)

Budget: ~£2500-3500 depending on if I upgrade the GPU.

Below is using options available in the Custom PC builder > Workstation > INTEL® Z790 WORKSTATION
Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

Many thanks,
Steve


CPU:

Intel i9-14900KS
A quick read around the web suggests Intel might be slightly better for this use case. Although, I'm willing to hear arguments for an AMD system.

Motherboard:

ProArt Z790 Creator WiFi
Or are there advantages to the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero?
I am not sure what's best for this, I want future proofing if possible.

RAM:

64gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000MHz
Although, for a little more money, there is the option of 96 GB 5600 MHz. I’m not sure I would be regularly making use of 96 GB at the moment, so it might be a waste of money. I do regularly work with large multi-layered files and have had situations with multiple smart objects that have caused Photoshop to struggle on my current 32GB system (but that is also probably down to my current storage drive situation).

GPU:

I currently own an Asus 2080ti ROG Strix, and it will probably make sense to wait longer before upgrading. That said, GPUs are getting used more and more for Photoshop tools/filters and AI tools like de-noising and upscaling.

Plus, I have a 4k 10-bit monitor and a 4k Huion screen tablet (The Huion tablet screen is currently set up to mirror the main monitor, so it is not always on.) I would like to potentially change to a two-monitor setup at some point. So, it might make sense to upgrade. However, with the GeForce 5000 series imminent, is it worth waiting a while?

Main Drive:

2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2

However, for a little more money, do I get more speed but less storage with the 1TB Crucial T705 Gen 5 M.2?
I currently have two additional HDD drives for bulk storage, but I would like to have some space on the system drive for editing larger files/projects, taking advantage of the faster drive times. My current system is running on a ~500 GB SSD but is already very full, and it’s basically just running Windows and apps, so I feel like 2TB is preferred.

Cache Drive/Scratch Disk:

I’ve read this is recommended, but not sure what’s the best solution. Is it still a useful thing to have, considering the speed of NVMe drives?
Is it wiser to have maybe two smaller drives? For example, one 1TB for the system/apps and another 1TB for active projects/files? Would a separate Cache Drive/Scratch Disk still make sense?

Power Supply:

Corsair Modular 1000 RMx Series?
Would 1000W suffice for this level of system, factoring in a potential GPU upgrade and additional drives? Or am I just wasting money at this point?
On the last build, I had a 600W supply but had to upgrade once I got the 2080ti, effectively adding ~£150 to the cost of the graphics card.

Processor Cooling:

iCUE H150i Elite Capellex XT?
I assume more money roughly means better, but is there a sweet spot? The most pricy ones have an LCD, which I am not fussed about. I do not care for RGB, but it seems like most of the coolers and fans on offer have it.

Case:
FRACTAL NORTH TG XL (BLACK) or CORSAIR 7000D?
It seems the options have reduced in the last few months since I have been looking? You seem to get a few more options if you go down the 'Gaming / Professional' builder. I would like to have space for possible upgrades, and some of these GPUs are very large. Would need to have space for the additional storage drives.

I quite like the look of FRACTAL NORTH, but I’m probably willing to sacrifice aesthetics for other benefits.
Also like the CORSAIR 7000D, but it seems you pay a premium for the black version?
Both these are quite pricy, but not a fan of the cheaper options available on the builder.

Extra Case Fans:

How many? Max out the case?
Not fussed about RGB, so probably the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Fans? or are the RGB Corsair fans also superior at cooling or quieter?
 

Steve O'C

Member
Hi all,

Below are a couple of build quotes, one Intel based, the other AMD. I have been reading about possible instability issues with 14th Gen i9's which has made me consider an AMD build. Does anyone have any experience with these issues or are these issues overblown?

The AMD builder does not seem to be as generous with CPU coolers and RAM options. That said, an advantage is reduced cost and I hear the socket is supported for a few more years.

96GB of ram is available on the Intel builder up to 5600MHz, where as the AMD builder goes up to 5200MHz.

Any thoughts?


Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG XL GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 24-Core Processor i9-14900KS (Up to 6.2 GHz) 36MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG MAXIMUS Z790 DARK HERO (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
96GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5600MHz CL40 (4 x 24GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM V2
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND APPLICATION
Extra Case Fans
1 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fan
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
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 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 - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,654.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/Intel-z790-workstation/qj3PGHqCXS/



Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG XL GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (2 x 32GB) KIT
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM V2
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
1 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fan
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
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 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 - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,335.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-workstation/QmZ3kGkAu5/
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
 

Steve O'C

Member
Ok, thanks for the link. That makes me want to do AMD. Below is a build that uses the Gaming/Professional configurator which has more CPU cooling options.

Case
FRACTAL NORTH TG XL GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM V2
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND APPLICATION
Extra Case Fans
1 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fan
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
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 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
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 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 - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £2,423.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/GTeBP9zbQp/
 

Steve O'C

Member
I have basically committed to an AMD build and am very close to buying but I made the mistake of hearing about PCIe lane sharing...

Ideally, I wanted to have the OS as one fast M.2, a scratch disc as a second fast M.2 and a third larger M.2 as project storage (I will also install an additional HHD as bulk storage).

The two high-end motherboards PCSpecialist offer are the ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO and the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7. The ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO has more M.2 slots than the Gigabyte. However, if I wanted x2 gen 5 M.2 drives, the first drive has 4 dedicated lanes, but a second gen 5 drive has to share the 16 lanes with the GPU, reducing the GPU to 8. There are also two gen 4 slots lower down on the board but they also seem to share 4 lanes if both slots are occupied.
Is the reduction of the GPU to 8 lanes a major issue to be concerned about?

M.2_1 - OS Main drive - Gen 5 Crucial T705 (dedicated 4 lanes for gen 5 drive)
M.2_2 - Scratch Disc - Gen 5 Crucial T705 (uses 4 lanes but reduces the GPU to 8 lanes)
M.2_3 - Empty
M.2_4 - Project Storage - Gen 4 2tb SOLIDIGM P44 PRO (uses 4 lanes)
M.2_5 - Empty

Alternatively, is there a better drive configuration and what is the lesser of two evils? - Could the third project storage drive be dumbed down to a SATA SSD with the scratch disc being a gen 4 in slot M.2_4, or should I just populate the second M.2 slot reducing the GPU lanes down to 8?

M.2_1 - OS Main drive - Gen 5 Crucial T705 (dedicated 4 lanes)
M.2_2 - Empty (preserving all 16 lanes to GPU)
M.2_3 - Empty (preserving all 16 lanes to GPU)
M.2_4 - Scratch Disc - Gen 4 2tb SOLIDIGM P44 PRO (uses 4 lanes)
M.2_5 - Empty
SATA SSD - Project storage

Any thoughts?
 

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Option 1 would be my choice, as the GPU at PCIe5.0x8 won’t see any slowdown, and PCIe 5.0x4 is 16GB/s (so plenty for primary & secondary drives). The P44 Pro will use a PCIe4.0x8 slot,which is the same speed as a PCIe5.0x4, so plenty of bandwidth there.

SATA is too slow for a SSD, and still uses PCIe lanes.
 
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Steve O'C

Member
OK, thanks Tony!

Googling suggest that the hit on current GPUs could be a couple percent. But, If I were to upgrade the GPU in the future, are newer high-end GPU's likely to massively suffer more from not having the full 16 lanes?

Is the slight loss of GPU performance worth the gains of a dedicated scratch disc?

Thanks,
 

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Even the most beefy current RTX5090 can’t saturate all 16 lanes of PCIe4.0, so there’ll be a while (maybe 10 years) before a 1080p/1440p GPU needs that bandwidth.

For info, in most games benchmarks the RTX5090 is not saturating PCIe3.0x16…which is the same speed as PCIe4.0x8…which is the same speed as PCIe5.0x4.
 
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