...yeah, it's time. I've finally found games I actually want to play that require a half-decent machine, I make all my money on the computer, and I regularly do video editing as well. I always keep my machines for a long time, so they need to be as future-proof as possible and I can't justify saving up for a PC unless it's going to be good enough for the foreseeable future. So here's where my head is at, I'd be grateful for any advice.
tl;dr https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xjP3yF for the general idea, but I'm open to other ideas. It's going to be a linux machine, and all AMD since I hear the drivers work better/are less fiddly. Aesthetically, I like an all-white motif but looks are secondary to pure power and long life. I would like to be able to emulate PS4, Xbox 360, run S&box so my kid can make games, and render my clip shows at high speed. The budget I'm targeting is about £2k. Will mean saving up for a couple months. Parts I'm considering:
CPU
- Ryzen 9 9950X3D (I'm most excited about having a strong CPU, this one appeals to me even though it's a bit of a splurge)
- Ryzen 9 7950X3D
- Ryzen 9 7900X3D
GPU
Anything AMD, 16gb preferred but at least 12gb. AMD RX 6800XT or higher perhaps. RX 7800 XT or similar would be great.
Memory
16gb preferred, DDR5, not too fussy about brand. Maybe someday another 16gb if it becomes worthwhile.
Storage
1 or 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD, any really who cares. I don't need a lot of storage, most of my games are lightweight indies or backed up on my server.
Power Supply
Anything 850-1000w, preferably modular? I dunno.
Cooling
Possibly an AIO liquid cooler. I'm iffy on that, would be happy with a fan if it's more recommended.
Case
Fractal does a nice white wood effect one (North XL), as does Antec (Flux Pro). Happy with anything that matches, but don't really love showy RGB, prefer understated and clean looks.
I don't think it's always easy to add DIMMs down the line even if they have the same model number; sub timings are likely to be different kit-to-kit and can cause some complexity / issues.
I think I would aim for 2*16 GiB DDR5, but I can totally understand the apprehension in today's market. An 8 core granite ridge CPU can still get plenty of good work done.
Here's my system. If you have any workloads you'd like perf tested (like video rendering using the cpu), let me know. I typically use fedora workstation but have windows 10 and 11 disks attached for work / sw testing.
I did kind of assume I'd have to sell off the old RAM and buy all fresh ones if I went that route. I could take a flyer on going to 32GB and just holding off another paycheck or two, thanks for the tip.
You've got quite the setup, looks like a sweet rig. How does it do with video rendering tasks like with Kdenlive?
Ah, that's a fair point. Hope all goes well whichever route you decide taking.
thank you! I'm so sad with component costs; looking at the bill of materials in today's pricing is disgusting. Most of the other peripherals have accumulated over time with prior systems but storage and memory pricing really takes the piss.
I've not used kdenlive in a hot minute but it chews through x264 jobs pretty decently. If you have a sample project somewhere I can get kdenlive installed and have a crack a little bit later.
Poring over Cinebench ratings and comparing the options to my current chipset, I think there's really no need to trouble you - it seems like whatever CPU I end up with is going to have surreal performance compared to this old Core i5 4 core chip I've been rendering with. You've given me some food for thought, though!
It's taken me a bit of time to digest how far things have come in the last decade. Now it'll just become a question of what to do with this bigass old iMac. Server with a giant screen or smth I dunno.
it's no real trouble to me. lmk if you get curious and I can take a look.
platform wise, I think you'd be well served by any contemporary amd or intel option. I hope you're in for a transformative upgrade when that time comes 😊
as for the old imac? could it be made into a dedicated retro games system? 😅
It already is one, so yeah lol