The man from Dell PC…he says NO!

[shagly]

My first contact with a PC was, like many, at work. That was a Dell and I promised myself that when I bought one, that would be a Dell too. That time came in 2003 and when it came time to move from Windows XP to 7, I decided to update the PC too, that was in 2011 and another Dell. Dell had gone through a number of business changes in between times and I think some things got lost along the way as I had to have the motherboard replaced and we’ve suffered similar problems at work.
Well, another 8 years has ticked by and the time has come to update again. Although I could carry on (unsupported) with Windows 7 (I never upgraded the OS as “If it ain’t broke, why fix it) but although everything works well, tech has come a long way since 2011. My first choice was a new Dell but after checking the spec. and thinking I’d have to do some upgrading myself, warnings of the case being too small and excessive heat and noise added to my misgivings about my previous problems – maybe they are 8 years worse – I started to reconsider.
I’ve never done a BIY (Build It Yourself) and despite being a self-confessed Geek I’m thinking that is a network bridge too far so here I am.
I’m far from a gamer, never had and probably never will have, either a console or PC game, so I’m dreaming about a super-PC and this (after a few tries) is my best shot –
Case CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 275Q QUIET CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-9700K (3.6GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM) 64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card 11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Intel Optane Memory 32GB INTEL® M10 OPTANE MEMORY - USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD
Power Supply CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling Corsair H60 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 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
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[Smoggyuk]

Looking at the specification I see some impractical choices that won't really add any benefit without any context. if you're not gaming on the machine are you able to provide details of what the machine will be used for?

64GB of RAM, RTX 2080Ti and the M10 drive stand out immediately as a strange choice as they're somewhat overkill in a lot of situations.

 

[Oussebon]

As above, what are you using the system for? And what is the budget?

If you're gaming, what monitor are you gaming on? A 4k TV?

In terms of optimising for quiet, I'd suggest the Fractal Define R6 case, the RM850x PSU, and (depending on CPU choice) the Noctua cooler.

 

[shagly]

Firstly, thanks for your time and your comments people.

As for what choices I'd made, each item was based on Googleing, though of course they were isolated queries, not as a collection.
Then comes what I'll be doing with it all - it's for home use, mostly video editing/re-coding and 3D CAD.
I am, indeed, looking to keep things quiet (including the price) as our "office" is a small room next to our bedroom, the dividing wall being the one at the head of our bed. I chose the Corsair purely on my knowing the name and footprint size. I've just looked at the Define R6 and it looks similar so, are there advantages over the Corsair?
The 750 PSU was flagged as more than I needed but based on future proofing (and noting the ultra quiet tag) I stuck with it but for another £22 I'm happy to go with your suggestion.
Lastly, but by no means leastly, what I know about cooling could be written on a pin head with a felt-tipped pen so any advice there is welcome. After watching the video for the Corsair on their website, I thought there might be enough with their 2 fans but I see that the R6 has 3 and room for a DVD/Blu-Ray.
The M10 was a bit of an afterthought based on its price as part of the total and Intel's advice.

 

[Oussebon]

The 750 PSU was flagged as more than I needed but based on future proofing (and noting the ultra quiet tag) I stuck with it but for another £22 I'm happy to go with your suggestion.

The RM850x is semi passive, unlike the VS and TXm PSUs, such that it can cool itself without needing to use its fan at all in many situation. So in real terms it will generally be not quiet but silent.

I am, indeed, looking to keep things quiet (including the price) as our "office" is a small room next to our bedroom, the dividing wall being the one at the head of our bed. I chose the Corsair purely on my knowing the name and footprint size. I've just looked at the Define R6 and it looks similar so, are there advantages over the Corsair?

Probably better for airflow (not just with the stock fan configuration but by design) and I believe it has a built in fan controller. And it's a quiet case.

As for what choices I'd made, each item was based on Googleing, though of course they were isolated queries, not as a collection.
Then comes what I'll be doing with it all - it's for home use, mostly video editing/re-coding and 3D CAD.

64GB RAM sounds like it would be excessive, with 32gb being fine.

On the other hand, you'd probably want to look at the i9 9900k CPU or the AMD R9 3900x for video editing / transcoding. I'd lean towards the 3900x.

based on its price as part of the total and Intel's advice.

Taking the advice of companies who take things to sell you, perhaps especially in the field of consumer electronics and PC hardware, is probably not the ideal!

The M.2 module only accelerates one drive, so only 1 HDD would benefit. And for the price you pay for an Optane module and a 2TB 'PRO' HDD, you could buy a 2TB SSD. Optane modules are a bit like the latest incarnation of SSDs, except they also waste an M.2 slot you could put an NVMe drive into instead (e.g. as a future upgrade).

The PRO HDDs are not worth it, especially at the smaller capacities, where a 2TB PRO HDD is about twice the price of a normal HDD.

To suggest alternatives - how are you planning to use your storage? What kind of files are you planning to store on each drive?

What;'s the budget and what price did that system come to? Will help suggest alternatives without breaking the bank

 

[shagly]

Is it wrong to be this excited about a new PC?

This all very much appreciated and why I posted here. I like to think that I know a lot about a lot and have been on plenty of steep learning curves over the years when it comes to tech, both hardware and software but why start a new one when people like you are around? People across the interweb who still don’t fail to surprise me with how prepared they are to share their knowledge (for free). It restores your faith in human nature – I think we all need a bit of that.

Back to business –
The R6 is a bit on the big side for the space I’ve got in the “office”, being 543 deep, which is one of the reasons I swapped out the Carbide 200R (497) for the 275Q (460) in the first place so I might have to stick with that.
Everything else I’m signing up to –
Out goes the 750w and in with the 850, out with the i7 and in with the i9 along with the M10 Optane and standard Barracudas in place of the Pros.

I’ve got 2 NAS connected to our LAN, both RAID configured, one for backing up (Acronis True Image) the USBs I use for work along with private stuff from the PC and another configured as a media server.

I’m still under 3 grand with that spec and at less than £8 a week, based on the 8 year cycle, I reckon I can (literally) live with that.

Again thank you very much for your time and for sharing your expert knowledge.

Now, where’s my letter to Santa… 🤔

 

[Oussebon]

How are you using the SSD and HDDs?

 

[shagly]

SSD for the OS and the HDDs for the other stuff.

 

[shagly]

Being the geek that I am, I’ve been Googleing and noticed that the maximum RAM speed for the i9 is 2666 MHz. Not knowing anything about overclocking, if I specify faster, will PCS overclock the system to access it at the higher speed? Or would I be better off specing 2666 and if so, am I going to lose anything by doing that?

 

[Wildcard]

Assuming the i9 only supports 2666MHz RAM (I didn't double check), if you buy faster RAM it will just end up running at 2666MHz anyway and you wasted money.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Being the geek that I am, I’ve been Googleing and noticed that the maximum RAM speed for the i9 is 2666 MHz. Not knowing anything about overclocking, if I specify faster, will PCS overclock the system to access it at the higher speed? Or would I be better off specing 2666 and if so, am I going to lose anything by doing that?

Where does it say that? The RAM support is via the motherboard chipset, not the CPU, so that chip should support 3200MHz happily.

 

[shagly]

Where does it say that? The RAM support is via the motherboard chipset, not the CPU, so that chip should support 3200MHz happily.

The websites - Intel "Memory Types - DDR4-2666" and Gigabyte - "DDR4 4266(O.C.)/4133(O.C.)/4000(O.C.)/3866(O.C.)/3800(O.C.)/3733(O.C.)/3666(O.C.)/3600(O.C.)/3466(O.C.)/3400(O.C.)/3333(O.C.)/3300(O.C.)/3200(O.C.)/3000(O.C.)/2800(O.C.)/2666/2400/2133 MHz memory modules"

 

[Scott]

The RAM speed is native support, the chipset determines the actual speed hence the "OC" comments next to the speeds. This is all handled automatically using XMP profiles built into the RAM/Motherboard BIOS.

Have a play around with this....

This is the ultimate Gaming/Workstation combo IMO. I'm not sold on the storage configuration but you'll know best with that.

Oh, I selected the Noctua but if you can hold off till the middle of the month go for the H100 RGB Platinum cooler. It has ML fans on it and it's damn near silent with maximum cooling potential. IMO it's a better choice than the Noctua as the on-board fans will work for extraction and they're very high quality. I have the H115 RGB and it's insane. Don't think it'll fit in that case though.

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 275Q QUIET CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
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
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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
Genuine 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® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
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 12 to 14 working days
Price: £2,690.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/xpccugR492/