Thoughts welcomed …

[Simon]

I’m contemplating replacement of my current machine on account of it not being supported under W11.
Intended use is: general desktop, video editing, website creation, media streaming and occasional gaming.
Monitors: 1 x Dell U3818DW + 2 x Dell U2913WM.
I intend to re-use my GPU (EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Super FTW3) and my twin Seagate Barracuda ST10000DM0004-1ZC101 disks and a Logitech Z-5500 sound system to attach via S/PDIF.

I am an inveterate over-specifier (quality and performance) and find that, over time (a decade or so), this tends to pay off for me. But I like my components to be balanced in performance terms. I’m looking for cool, quiet and pretty with enough performance to get things done as soon as I’ve thought of them.

Anyone see any issues with this build? Especially with the re-use of the GPU?
Anybody know if PCS configures RAID in the BIOS (I hope so).
I’d prefer 4x24GB Corsair RAM (per the QVL) and have asked PCS about that.
I’ve also asked PCS if it can run the SATA power and data cables for me, like they will for the GPU.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE LINK 9000D RGB AIRFLOW SUPER TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/128MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
8TB CORSAIR MP600 PRO NH NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 7000 MB/R, 6100 MB/W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
6x Slim USB 2.0 External Blu-Ray Writer
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 LCD RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2 x 35cm Corsair LS350 Aurora RGB Light Strips
Extra Case Fans
10 x Corsair ICUE LINK RX120 RGB PWM Fan + Controller Kit
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
Firewire
2 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI-E Card (2 x 6 pin)
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
48 HOUR INSURED PALLET DELIVERY TO UK (MON-FRI, INC. HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book
Price: £3,773.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/h0xcWYFuKT/

 

[TonyCarter]

For your RAM, and if it was me, I'd buy the smallest, cheapest RAM from PCS and then put in 2x48GB 6000MHz sticks for 2 reasons...1) it gives you the best speed for the limited memory controllers on this chipset, and 2) it leaves space if you decide more RAM is more beneficial than fast RAM down the line (you can just add another 2 identical sticks and down clock them so that they work).

I don't see a boot drive listed, just the 2 SSDs you're going to put into RAID...and I can't help with how PCS configures this as most people now use external NAS / Thunderbolt enclosures to handle this sort of thing for them (as they prefer to configure it to their own tastes).

You also have the weaker Arctic thermal paste in the build.

 

[Simon]

For your RAM, and if it was me, I'd buy the smallest, cheapest RAM from PCS and then put in 2x48GB 6000MHz sticks for 2 reasons...1) it gives you the best speed for the limited memory controllers on this chipset, and 2) it leaves space if you decide more RAM is more beneficial than fast RAM down the line (you can just add another 2 identical sticks and down clock them so that they work).

I don't see a boot drive listed, just the 2 SSDs you're going to put into RAID...and I can't help with how PCS configures this as most people now use external NAS / Thunderbolt enclosures to handle this sort of thing for them (as they prefer to configure it to their own tastes).

You also have the weaker Arctic thermal paste in the build.

Many thanks, TonyCarter. That is very helpful.
Your suggestion of ordering the smallest/cheapest RAM if PCS decide not to be flexible had crossed my mind. I had foolishly assumed that the memory controllers would handle all slots equally well; if that is not the case then 2x48GB is a good idea. I think it unlikely I’d ever need more than that, but never hurts to have an option.
I favour RAID-0 as it enables me to use the space more efficiently and delivers a small performance boost. I don’t need resilience as I’m very confident in my backup regime. Your question raises a worrying doubt. I have no experience with M2 and NVMe. But I currently boot from a pair of Samsung 850 Pro SSD (SATA6) in RAID-0 and assumed I could do the same with the NVMe SSDs (M2). Is that not the case? I’m moving away from NAS (never one to go with the crowd!). Depending on how PCS configures it (I’ll probably perform a bare metal install of the OS anyway) I would want the RAID disk to be partitioned into a 250GB system volume with the remainder for a data volume. The HDDs will contain my audiovisual assets that will migrate from my NAS.
I chose the better of the two thermal pastes offered by the configurator?

 

[Ekans2011]

I chose the better of the two thermal pastes offered by the configurator?

No, you don't; Corsair’s pre-applied XTM70 is superior to the Arctic MX-4.

Corsair XTM70 vs ARCTIC MX-4 | igor´sLAB

www.igorslab.de

 

[Simon]

Well, who’d have thought! Not me, obviously. I’ll certainly change that, then. Many thanks to you (and TonyCarter) for pointing that error out to me.

 

[Ekans2011]

Well, who’d have thought! Not me, obviously. I’ll certainly change that, then. Many thanks to you (and TonyCarter) for pointing that error out to me.

It would be a preferable choice even if the performances were comparable because it is pre-applied by a machine, which eliminates the human factor that might lead to application mistakes.

 

[TonyCarter]

I'd recommend not partitioning an SSD. If you need a boot/apps drive then have a boot/apps drive - don't put it on a partition on a RAID.

The NVME m.2 SSD are much faster than SATA SSDs, and so whilst you may see a big increase in speed due to going from 600MB/s SATA to 6000MB/s NVME, I'm not sure you'd even notice the extra speed of having 2 in RAID0...and unlike HDDs, SSDs give very little warning of impending failure.

If it was me (and I wanted high speed over capacity), I'd put a 1TB Crucial T705 as my boot drive (gen5 so about 12000MB/s and very fast with all the system access request - less so on huge file transfers) and keep 1 (or a pair of) 4TB Corsair MP6000 Pro or Samsung 990 Evo Plus (not the Pro, as they're not particularly well regarded and the Evo Plus model has some of those issues fixed from day 1) for your data. That way you'd only have to recover 1 drive if it fails.

 

[Simon]

I'd recommend not partitioning an SSD. If you need a boot/apps drive then have a boot/apps drive - don't put it on a partition on a RAID.

The NVME m.2 SSD are much faster than SATA SSDs, and so whilst you may see a big increase in speed due to going from 600MB/s SATA to 6000MB/s NVME, I'm not sure you'd even notice the extra speed of having 2 in RAID0...and unlike HDDs, SSDs give very little warning of impending failure.

If it was me (and I wanted high speed over capacity), I'd put a 1TB Crucial T705 as my boot drive (gen5 so about 12000MB/s and very fast with all the system access request - less so on huge file transfers) and keep 1 (or a pair of) 4TB Corsair MP6000 Pro or Samsung 990 Evo Plus (not the Pro, as they're not particularly well regarded and the Evo Plus model has some of those issues fixed from day 1) for your data. That way you'd only have to recover 1 drive if it fails.

I think we may not be going to agree, at least entirely, on this one. I have heard quite the opposite regarding Pro versus EVO, certainly for the 850s that I have, and have had the former in RAID-0 and partitioned for years with no problem whatsoever. I suppose I might put in a 1TB SSD as an unpartitioned boot/apps drive but it would be rather a waste of space. I'm not anticipating much performance benefit from RAID, but I do like the ability to better manage space allocation and see no prospect of me not creating an 8TB SSD RAID unless I can find good evidence that this leads to problems (with NVMe SSDs) that don't seem to exist in the SATA world. I will do some research on the 990 Pro vs EVO Plus just in case, though, so thank you for raising that. Drive failures are always inconvenient, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to recover multiple disks from my backups.

 

[Ekans2011]

Samsung drives are a poor choice anyway; they are far from the quality and reliability that they formerly had, and the price is still more than Corsair, SolidiGM, Crucial, and others. You are obviously free to choose anything you want, but I would definitely avoid them.

Users say Samsung’s latest Pro SSDs have health problems

Samsung’s Pro 990 SSD might be dying faster than expected.

www.theverge.com

Samsung SSDs Dying! 980 Pro, 990, 970 EVO PLUS, PM9A1 and More Reporting Failures - Everything We Know So Far!

Samsung SSD Failure Reports Increasing - What is happening? Note, Feb 15/02/23 - There is Updated Information on the Samsung M.2 NVMe SSD Firmware Issue. You can find out more in the article and video below: Samsung 990 Pro SSD Firmware Failures UPDATED Video - HERE Samsung 990 Pro SSD Failures U

nascompares.com

Samsung 990 Pro Firmware Update Addresses Failing SSD Health

The update fixes the underlying cause of the rapid health declines, but it's not all good news.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[SpyderTracks]

I think we may not be going to agree, at least entirely, on this one. I have heard quite the opposite regarding Pro versus EVO, certainly for the 850s that I have, and have had the former in RAID-0 and partitioned for years with no problem whatsoever. I suppose I might put in a 1TB SSD as an unpartitioned boot/apps drive but it would be rather a waste of space. I'm not anticipating much performance benefit from RAID, but I do like the ability to better manage space allocation and see no prospect of me not creating an 8TB SSD RAID unless I can find good evidence that this leads to problems (with NVMe SSDs) that don't seem to exist in the SATA world. I will do some research on the 890 Pro vs EVO Plus just in case, though, so thank you for raising that. Drive failures are always inconvenient, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to recover multiple disks from my backups.

It’s much like the Intel thing, you have to stay up to date generation to generation.

The 990 Pros are poor drives and tend to fail early, the only failures we get for SSDs are the PCS branded drives and the Samsung 990 Pros.

The Other options are far better for endurance while performing around the same

RAID just isn’t of any relevance these days certainly with SSDs, there’s no need and it ultimately leads to more issues than it solves. It’s a legacy technology

 

[griffpatch]

Samsung drives are a poor choice anyway; they are far from the quality and reliability that they formerly had, and the price is still more than Corsair, SolidiGM, Crucial, and others. You are obviously free to choose anything you want, but I would definitely avoid them.

Users say Samsung’s latest Pro SSDs have health problems

Samsung’s Pro 990 SSD might be dying faster than expected.

www.theverge.com

Samsung SSDs Dying! 980 Pro, 990, 970 EVO PLUS, PM9A1 and More Reporting Failures - Everything We Know So Far!

Samsung SSD Failure Reports Increasing - What is happening? Note, Feb 15/02/23 - There is Updated Information on the Samsung M.2 NVMe SSD Firmware Issue. You can find out more in the article and video below: Samsung 990 Pro SSD Firmware Failures UPDATED Video - HERE Samsung 990 Pro SSD Failures U

nascompares.com

Samsung 990 Pro Firmware Update Addresses Failing SSD Health

The update fixes the underlying cause of the rapid health declines, but it's not all good news.

www.tomshardware.com

That's some interesting articles - I note the last one says that the issue is now fixed by a patch - I assume after 2 years this will be standard on any new drive.

 

[SpyderTracks]

That's some interesting articles - I note the last one says that the issue is now fixed by a patch - I assume after 2 years this will be standard on any new drive.

They still fail regularly.

You seem to be extremely brand loyal regardless of performance, I've never understood that approach.

 

[Simon]

Samsung drives are a poor choice anyway; they are far from the quality and reliability that they formerly had, and the price is still more than Corsair, SolidiGM, Crucial, and others. You are obviously free to choose anything you want, but I would definitely avoid them.

Users say Samsung’s latest Pro SSDs have health problems

Samsung’s Pro 990 SSD might be dying faster than expected.

www.theverge.com

Samsung SSDs Dying! 980 Pro, 990, 970 EVO PLUS, PM9A1 and More Reporting Failures - Everything We Know So Far!

Samsung SSD Failure Reports Increasing - What is happening? Note, Feb 15/02/23 - There is Updated Information on the Samsung M.2 NVMe SSD Firmware Issue. You can find out more in the article and video below: Samsung 990 Pro SSD Firmware Failures UPDATED Video - HERE Samsung 990 Pro SSD Failures U

nascompares.com

Samsung 990 Pro Firmware Update Addresses Failing SSD Health

The update fixes the underlying cause of the rapid health declines, but it's not all good news.

www.tomshardware.com

Interesting. Having read your links it

It’s much like the Intel thing, you have to stay up to date generation to generation.

The 990 Pros are poor drives and tend to fail early, the only failures we get for SSDs are the PCS branded drives and the Samsung 990 Pros.

The Other options are far better for endurance while performing around the same

RAID just isn’t of any relevance these days certainly with SSDs, there’s no need and it ultimately leads to more issues than it solves. It’s a legacy technology

Samsung drives are a poor choice anyway; they are far from the quality and reliability that they formerly had, and the price is still more than Corsair, SolidiGM, Crucial, and others. You are obviously free to choose anything you want, but I would definitely avoid them.

Users say Samsung’s latest Pro SSDs have health problems

Samsung’s Pro 990 SSD might be dying faster than expected.

www.theverge.com

Samsung SSDs Dying! 980 Pro, 990, 970 EVO PLUS, PM9A1 and More Reporting Failures - Everything We Know So Far!

Samsung SSD Failure Reports Increasing - What is happening? Note, Feb 15/02/23 - There is Updated Information on the Samsung M.2 NVMe SSD Firmware Issue. You can find out more in the article and video below: Samsung 990 Pro SSD Firmware Failures UPDATED Video - HERE Samsung 990 Pro SSD Failures U

nascompares.com

Samsung 990 Pro Firmware Update Addresses Failing SSD Health

The update fixes the underlying cause of the rapid health declines, but it's not all good news.

www.tomshardware.com

Interesting. I read the linked articles (but not yet researched the issue more widely). I have to say that I couldn't be more delighted with my Samsung 850 Pros, but it seems there is evidence that the current Samsung SSDs may not be as good. Thanks for pointing that out. At this rate I may end up with a single vendor (Corsair) to quarrel with if things go wrong. I'm liking this machine less and less as time goes by. I'll update the specification to include a 1TB Corsair SSD (boot/apps) and an 8TB Corsair SSD (data). The Barracudas, in RAID-0, are not getting changed whatever anybody says. I've also, sadly, downgraded the RAM as suggested by PCS. Apparently the 6000 sticks are less stable. Really?

 

[griffpatch]

They still fail regularly.

You seem to be extremely brand loyal regardless of performance, I've never understood that approach.

Brand loyal, ha - not at all - I've never bought any of these before - I just wanted to know if the issues were still prevalent or if it was just an issue in the past. I just am interested in the fast, but larger drives. The other 2TB drives are less interesting to me right now. But I really appreciate you flagging the issue, and after doing some research I can indeed see you are absolutely right to warn of these drives. Here's what I extracted from ChatGPT lol
---------------------
As of March 2025, the reliability of Samsung 990 Pro SSDs continues to be a topic of discussion. While Samsung previously released firmware updates aimed at addressing rapid health decline issues, some users have reported that these updates did not fully resolve the problems. For instance, a user observed a 2% wear level after writing only 11.6 TB of data, which is faster than the expected rate based on the drive's rated endurance.

Additionally, there have been reports of early failures with the 990 Pro series. In one case, a user experienced multiple drive failures within a short period, even with firmware updates applied.

Given these ongoing concerns, it's advisable to exercise caution when considering the Samsung 990 Pro SSDs. Exploring alternative SSD options from reputable manufacturers may be prudent to ensure reliability and performance.

 

[Simon]

It’s much like the Intel thing, you have to stay up to date generation to generation.

The 990 Pros are poor drives and tend to fail early, the only failures we get for SSDs are the PCS branded drives and the Samsung 990 Pros.

The Other options are far better for endurance while performing around the same

RAID just isn’t of any relevance these days certainly with SSDs, there’s no need and it ultimately leads to more issues than it solves. It’s a legacy technology

I note your opinions. Thank you.

 

[Scott]

I'm not sure if there's a misunderstanding with the consideration of the advice being given. It's not being offered through guesswork or anything, it's through experience and knowledge of the individual parts indepth. None of it is based on past experience or whims, which is how it seems to have been interpreted initially.

Many of us spend a silly amount of time researching all of these individual parts and nuances so that when folks come on for advice, we can be quite accurate and succinct. We aren't guessing or relying on things such as Chat GPT, which has became quite popular. I would always advise people to avoid AI for advice, AI simply scrapes the net for a consensus. Anyone spending any time on the net manually gathering a consensus will find it laughable as there is so much native bias it's unbelievable.

Anyway...


Recent Samsung drives of the M2 variety have had issues. Previous ones were absolute gems. The original 950 drives were absolutely fantastic, it slowly went down hill till falling off a cliff with the 980s. The 990s were meant to be the saving grace but unfortunately they had woeful reliability, my guess is this was down to profit margins, always the downfall.


Going over the main talking points outside of that:


CPU - With the gaming being occasional I'm not sure that the X3D would be worth it. The non X3D chip will handle gaming with aplomb and every other use is bang in line with the X3D counterpart. I would have the X3D purely because I enjoy a bit more gaming, but I would have no qualms saving some dosh and opting for the sibling.

RAM - I would be surprised if 64GB (2x32@6000Mhz) wasn't the ideal choice for your needs. I get that you may be looking to the future, but by the time it's relevant (if it ever is) there will likely be a game changing DDR5 available that may just get some performance that's worthwhile. Simply swap out the current sticks if it becomes relevant. I don't think 2x48GB would be a game changer for any scenario that I can think of. As suggested, 4x isn't a good choice unless you're happy with manually timing the RAM. You can still get the full performance out of 4 sticks but it does require some fettling in the BIOS with a custom RAM profile.

Storage - Without doubt the best high end solution is a 1TB crucial drive for the primary and a good Corsair drive for the secondary (2-8TB). No M2 drive is going to get any benefit from RAID at all. It's completely redundant now, even the benefits with slower storage are a thing of the past. I get the habitual nature and the want to stick with it, I'm a stickler myself for some things, but it's just not something that can be debated outside of a want. As above, Samsung are best avoided at this juncture. I love the brand and I would happily return if they get the finger out (I have a 950 in my laptop and it's been great, I also have a couple of SSDs and they are fantastic as you have found..... the Pro SSDs are fantastic).

Paste - Stock paste is better than the alternative. I had issues with the application on my laptop as well so I always recommend avoiding where possible. I've noticed that the current laptops are being shipped with sheet which is a fantastic move. I'm hoping they move this approach/availability to desktops as well.

 

[Ekans2011]

Paste - Stock paste is better than the alternative. I had issues with the application on my laptop as well so I always recommend avoiding where possible. I've noticed that the current laptops are being shipped with sheet which is a fantastic move. I'm hoping they move this approach/availability to desktops as well.

I recently replaced the liquid metal on my laptop with a TG Phasesheet PTM; as @SpyderTracks can confirm, I am very pleased, if not surprised, with the results, especially given how difficult it is to achieve the proper contact force required for optimal distribution and thus the lowest possible layer thickness on a laptop heatsink. I expect it will become widely used on desktops in the near future as well.

 

[Simon]

I'm not sure if there's a misunderstanding with the consideration of the advice being given. It's not being offered through guesswork or anything, it's through experience and knowledge of the individual parts indepth. None of it is based on past experience or whims, which is how it seems to have been interpreted initially.

Many of us spend a silly amount of time researching all of these individual parts and nuances so that when folks come on for advice, we can be quite accurate and succinct. We aren't guessing or relying on things such as Chat GPT, which has became quite popular. I would always advise people to avoid AI for advice, AI simply scrapes the net for a consensus. Anyone spending any time on the net manually gathering a consensus will find it laughable as there is so much native bias it's unbelievable.

Anyway...


Recent Samsung drives of the M2 variety have had issues. Previous ones were absolute gems. The original 950 drives were absolutely fantastic, it slowly went down hill till falling off a cliff with the 980s. The 990s were meant to be the saving grace but unfortunately they had woeful reliability, my guess is this was down to profit margins, always the downfall.


Going over the main talking points outside of that:


CPU - With the gaming being occasional I'm not sure that the X3D would be worth it. The non X3D chip will handle gaming with aplomb and every other use is bang in line with the X3D counterpart. I would have the X3D purely because I enjoy a bit more gaming, but I would have no qualms saving some dosh and opting for the sibling.

RAM - I would be surprised if 64GB (2x32@6000Mhz) wasn't the ideal choice for your needs. I get that you may be looking to the future, but by the time it's relevant (if it ever is) there will likely be a game changing DDR5 available that may just get some performance that's worthwhile. Simply swap out the current sticks if it becomes relevant. I don't think 2x48GB would be a game changer for any scenario that I can think of. As suggested, 4x isn't a good choice unless you're happy with manually timing the RAM. You can still get the full performance out of 4 sticks but it does require some fettling in the BIOS with a custom RAM profile.

Storage - Without doubt the best high end solution is a 1TB crucial drive for the primary and a good Corsair drive for the secondary (2-8TB). No M2 drive is going to get any benefit from RAID at all. It's completely redundant now, even the benefits with slower storage are a thing of the past. I get the habitual nature and the want to stick with it, I'm a stickler myself for some things, but it's just not something that can be debated outside of a want. As above, Samsung are best avoided at this juncture. I love the brand and I would happily return if they get the finger out (I have a 950 in my laptop and it's been great, I also have a couple of SSDs and they are fantastic as you have found..... the Pro SSDs are fantastic).

Paste - Stock paste is better than the alternative. I had issues with the application on my laptop as well so I always recommend avoiding where possible. I've noticed that the current laptops are being shipped with sheet which is a fantastic move. I'm hoping they move this approach/availability to desktops as well.

Dear Scott

Thank you for that. I'm not sure how I have given the impression that I am not grateful for the advice and experience being offered. That is why I reached out to the community, after all. And I have expressed thanks to those who have volunteered their help. I believe wisdom is demonstrated by asking for advice, perhaps testing or challenging it, considering it carefully and then deciding whether or not to accept it. And that is what I have tried to do and I'm sorry if it has come across in any other way. Ultimately, it is my purchase and I have to take responsibility for the decisions. It is impossible for me to know the level of expertise of every person who contributes to a forum. and sometimes one comes across people with axes to grind. I am DEFINITELY not making that accusation, but trying to explain that I would be an idiot just to accept anyone's opinion just because they are helping out of the kindness of their hearts. It is clear that I am way out of date, but I also have a fair bit of experience. So, I am very grateful and politely respectful of the advice offered but do not feel obliged to accept it without first considering it carefully.

To date:

• I have accepted the advice on paste without demur. And when I apply it myself, I do use a carbon fibre sheet!
• I have accepted that a single, unpartitioned 1TB SSD is a better alternative than using a partition from a pair of 4TB SSDs in RAID-0 for the OS and apps. This is an extra cost and as it is unlikely to ever be more than 25% full it is quite poor value for money. But so be it.
• I have gone further and changed the pair of 4TB to a single 8TB drive. This means that I can use that space more effectively and flexibly, without recourse to RAID.
• It is regrettable that Samsung appears to have lost the plot. The intervention of griffpatch led to an accusation by SpyderTracks that griffpatch appeared to be brand loyal. I am also brand loyal; until a brand lets me down and then my loyalty transfers. The benefit of reaching out to the community is that I am now aware that both Intel and Samsung, to whom I have been loyal for many years, appear to be no longer reliable and hence I am working to avoid falling into those traps by considering other vendors.
• We don't need to debate RAID further. The Barracudas (SATA, obviously) in my current system are working well in RAID-0 and this is how they will stay in the new rig. There are good reasons why I do this, but it isn't something that I need anyone's help with. Performance (i.e. speed) is the least important factor in that argument.
• As to RAM, I have been advised by PCS to use 2x48TB @5200. You have suggested 2x32GB @6000. I'm intrigued that your suggestion is stable then 2x48TB @6000 would not be as has been stated by PCS. As to whether 64GB is adequate, you are probably right. But I like to over-specify and although I'm only an occasional gamer, the video editing does benefit from as much RAM as one can afford.
• So far as CPU goes, again you are probably right. But I have read that the X3D will be beneficial to video editing as well as gaming. And if I choose to over-specify then I think that is my prerogative. What would be interesting to know is whether my pre-existing GPU will provide better hardware acceleration to the rendering process than either CPU. And if it is the limiting factor I'm betting that the X3D will provide more acceleration to that task than its sibling. They'll all do the job (I'm still rendering stuff on my current machine), but since I'm thinking of upgrading I'd be inclined to choose the best that I can afford even if it is overkill.

I hope that clarifies any perceived misunderstanding and I look forward to working further with any forum member that is prepared to offer their time and expertise, so long as they don't mind me testing the strength of the evidence underlying their opinion.

 

[griffpatch]

@Scott - Just want to apologise if I offended you or anyone! I was chipping in because I was dead interested (and yes I do indeed use LLMs a lot in my job & for research - but not Naïvely lol) and I am very appreciate of the advise on the SSDs that led me to this info - thank you guys!

With regard to @Simon 's RAM - Your spec says: "96GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5200MHz" so, that is slower than the 64GB 6000MHz kit. At present PC Specialist doesn't appear to stock any ram kids larger than 64GB at speeds of 6000MHz which is a shame.

 

[Simon]

The discussion on RAM has been an evolving one. I’d like to have 96GB 6000MHz. This is not an option that PCS supports. I asked if it could supply it as 4x24GB 6000MHz and was advised by TonyCarter to order the smallest/cheapest RAM from PCS and purchase 2x48GB 6000MHz, pointing out the advantages of 2 stick implementations rather than 4. PCS advised that 2x48GB 5200MHz was the best option and gave the impression that their testing may have encountered issues with 2x48GB 6000MHz. SpyderTtacks has recommended 2x32GB 6000MHz. Pending more definitive advice, the specification reflects the advice from PCS, much as I dislike the option. Just thought that might clarify the situation.