First-time PC advice needed for various creative endeavours

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ClaireC

New member
Hello! I'm in the film/TV industry as an artist and my PC is nearly 9 years old, so it's time for a serious upgrade so that people stop laughing at me.

Use: I'd love to primarily use this PC to explore my hobbies like video editing as well as photo editing and 3D modelling/sculpting/rendering etc with some occasional gaming. Some of the software would be Maya, Z-Brush, Substance Painter, Houdini, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, UE5.

Notes
- I'm only interested in raytracing capable GPUs for the freedom of trying it out.
- I'm not super invested in how quickly things calculate/load as long as it works for what I want, and works for a long time.
- I plan to pay for backup cloud storage because I am scared of the drives failing.

Monitor: think I have 2x Samsung 1920x1080 27" curved HD monitors?

Budget: I was originally looking for something under £1800 but now I'd like to aim below 2k after looking into things.

Please let me know if there's anything I'm going overkill on (or vice versa).
I would really appreciate any additional help/advice with my setup as I've never done this before and it's a big investment to me.

THANK YOU :)

-----------------------------------------------

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS 2 ARGB GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 16-Core Processor i7-13700K (Up to 5.4GHz) 30MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B760-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, PCIe5.0, USB 3.2)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
PCS GRAPHICS CARD SUPPORT BRACKET
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE 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
ONBOARD LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.0 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Price: £2,006.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/4w58pCUrHX/
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Sorry, Claire, that no one got back to you.

With this kind of system, you're inevitably looking at a degree of compromise, partly because there are no graphics cards at a reasonable budget that look like a good bet. For your creative uses, Nvidia is definitely the best option. However, you also really want a graphics card with 10GB or more of VRAM. There is no card that will fit in your budget here, so we have to compromise. I think for you the best bet may be the 4070, now that it has come down in price quite a bit.

Also, for CPUs, Intel is probably slightly ahead in the creative stakes, but behind in gaming. I'd be inclined to go with AMD, because it gives you a chance of upgrades down the line and is also notably more efficient and cool. It also gets you onto DDR5 at a reasonably affordable price, which will be a benefit as time goes by.

So with all that said, here's what I'd tentatively recommend.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS 2 ARGB GAMING CASE (BLACK) Good gaming case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.4GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5) Good all-rounder CPU (the 7900(X) would be an upgrade for content creation, but possibly a downgrade for gaming)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE) Not needed
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) Boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2700MB/sW) Games/projects drive
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE Are you sure you needed two of these? An easy upgrade later if you need it
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Plenty of capacity for future upgrades
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100i ELITE RGB High Performance CPU Cooler A really good modern CPU cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS You have loads of USB already
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
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 - Approximately 7 to 10 working days
Price: £1,930.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/wpqC027pUr/
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Also, for gaming, your monitors will be a bottleneck. For content creation it doesn't matter enormously, but for gaming you really want to be looking at 1440p with this kind of system. Maybe an upgrade in a few months?
 
C

ClaireC

New member
sck451 said:
Also, for gaming, your monitors will be a bottleneck. For content creation it doesn't matter enormously, but for gaming you really want to be looking at 1440p with this kind of system. Maybe an upgrade in a few months?
Click to expand...
sck451 said:
Sorry, Claire, that no one got back to you.

With this kind of system, you're inevitably looking at a degree of compromise, partly because there are no graphics cards at a reasonable budget that look like a good bet. For your creative uses, Nvidia is definitely the best option. However, you also really want a graphics card with 10GB or more of VRAM. There is no card that will fit in your budget here, so we have to compromise. I think for you the best bet may be the 4070, now that it has come down in price quite a bit.

Also, for CPUs, Intel is probably slightly ahead in the creative stakes, but behind in gaming. I'd be inclined to go with AMD, because it gives you a chance of upgrades down the line and is also notably more efficient and cool. It also gets you onto DDR5 at a reasonably affordable price, which will be a benefit as time goes by.

So with all that said, here's what I'd tentatively recommend.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS 2 ARGB GAMING CASE (BLACK) Good gaming case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.4GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5) Good all-rounder CPU (the 7900(X) would be an upgrade for content creation, but possibly a downgrade for gaming)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti AND ABOVE) Not needed
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) Boot drive
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2700MB/sW) Games/projects drive
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE Are you sure you needed two of these? An easy upgrade later if you need it
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Plenty of capacity for future upgrades
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100i ELITE RGB High Performance CPU Cooler A really good modern CPU cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS You have loads of USB already
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
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 - Approximately 7 to 10 working days
Price: £1,930.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/wpqC027pUr/
Click to expand...
Hey no worries at all, thanks for replying I appreciate it, it helps me towards making a good decision!

Sorry, I've been quite busy to get back to you myself.

I just wanted to ask you a few things about what you've changed in my build.

The SSD drives: Why did you decide to have a single one just for the boot drive? I understand a fast SSD with space will work the best, but surely it doesn't need that much more room to run well? Will it break easier adding software onto the same bigger one? Is it easy to install a second SSD if I need it? I was thinking of 1TB and then adding another later if required. You're right about the second storage drive, I will do the same for that. (I'm used to having a 250 SSD with a 1TB storage drive, so I think I'll be more than fine in the short term haha).

The processor cooler: I read that people often go overboard on these as they usually use the same components, but I also wanted mine to last, so I thought a Corsair would be better than the Frostflow series. You upgraded this to an H100i, but the only difference I'm aware between the H100x and the H100i is the H100i might be slightly quieter, but runs the same. Do you know anything else?

USBS: You mentioned having "loads of USBs" but how many do I have in this build? I thought It was only 4 which is little to me. I would like to have more ideally.

Also additional dumb question, but I want the option to be wireless or ethernet connected on this, is it 100% possible with my current build?

Thanks so much again!
Claire
 
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