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Post by Slinger on Jan 3, 2021 17:09:17 GMT
Colour me stunned! My case has just arrived, on a Sunday afternoon. Not only that, but all of the bits 'n' bobs that are supposed to be with it, are with it. I also received an email this morning telling me my CPU will be with me tomorrow. That just leaves the mobo - without which I can do very little because I need to see what space it takes up, because everything else either fits, or needs to be routed, around it - and the memory. Should anyone be vaguely interested the finished spec for the major bits will be... | Case | - | Corsair Carbide SPEC Series SPEC-01 RED
| | Processor | - | AMD Ryzen™ 9 3900XT
| | Processor Liquid Cooling | - | Corsair CW-9060024-WW Hydro Series H80i | | Memory | - | Patriot Steel Series 64GB 3600MHz DDR4
| | Motherboard | - | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX | | PSU | - | EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G5, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular | | SSD | - | Patriot Memory SSD Burst Series (960GB) |
Graphics card to be added when they're available again for less than the national debt of a small sovereign nation. |
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Post by MartinT on Jan 3, 2021 17:19:49 GMT
That should go like the proverbial merde/shovel confluence.
I assume the AMD CPU has onboard graphics to get you going?
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Post by Slinger on Jan 3, 2021 17:30:58 GMT
That should go like the proverbial merde/shovel confluence. I assume the AMD CPU has onboard graphics to get you going? Neither the CPU or the MOBO has graphics "built in" but I've got plenty of old cards that are good enough to set the machine up with. That's actually a plus as far as I'm concerned as it means two less things for the machine to worry about. |
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Post by MartinT on Jan 3, 2021 17:42:35 GMT
Ah, I thought that, as with Intel, most CPUs have some onboard graphics now.
I must admit that the lowly HD Graphics 520 in my i7 on this here Gigabyte does a fine job of 2560 x 1440 video on my 27" monitor. It's no gaming machine, though.
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Post by Slinger on Jan 3, 2021 17:52:55 GMT
Ah, I thought that, as with Intel, most CPUs have some onboard graphics now. I must admit that the lowly HD Graphics 520 in my i7 on this here Gigabyte does a fine job of 2560 x 1440 video on my 27" monitor. It's no gaming machine, though. I need the extra horsepower for graphics/3D modelling more than gaming, although I might be tempted to try some games on it. If I was using it for "proper" work I'd have found a way to justify 128GB of memory.  |
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Post by MartinT on Jan 3, 2021 18:10:30 GMT
Heh - our host servers running about 15 VMs each have 256GB RAM. 128GB for a single-use machine is a touch over-the-top. I find 16GB 'adequate'.
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Post by Slinger on Jan 3, 2021 18:56:50 GMT
In theory, one cannot have too much RAM (or anything else really -- GPU power... CPU power...) for rendering. Most of the big FX houses use render farms, either through an in-house network or there are some farms that can be accessed online these days I've read, but I'm way out of touch with that sort of stuff these days. Back in 2007 this render took 43 hours 15 minutes, on an Athlon 64 3500+ with 2 GB of memory. With the new machine I'd be surprised if it took half an hour.  |
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Post by MartinT on Jan 3, 2021 21:30:02 GMT
Agreed, very CPU intensive.
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Post by Slinger on Jan 5, 2021 23:41:29 GMT
I'm just waiting for the mobo now, and the three 4TB hard drives I picked up for £59.99 a pop, new, last night. They're made by a company named Sonnics, who I'd never heard of, so I looked them up, and they're based in the Isle of man. According to the "My Memory" site "Sonnics is a leading specialist manufacturer of technology products, offering a wide selection of storage solutions including external and internal hard drives" The company themselves say " Sonnics internal and external 2.5" & 3.5" hard drives are built to the highest standards of quality and go through extensive testing in our factory, Our hard drives are built in one of the largest clean rooms in the world." They're not going to say anything bad about their own kit though, are they? So, it's a bit of a gamble. Their external drives get some good reviews, and their internal drives get very few reviews that I can find, and those that I have found don't inspire much confidence in the reviewers. We'll see. |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 7, 2021 15:26:46 GMT
My three hard drives arrived this morning; very good service I'd say. I'm still waiting for the mobo
It would appear that Box.co.uk inform people of their "Get it by..." date for a bit of a chuckle, and no other reason. It also seems I am not alone in my opinion, although it looks like they've improved since my delivery was (yes, "was," it arrived as I was typing this) only 24 hours late.
Hopefully I can start assembling my hi-tech jigsaw tomorrow. I am going to attempt to avoid my usual "do-it-all-in-one-go" method, and add a few parts at a time rather than have shit stuff all over the table.
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Post by Slinger on Jan 9, 2021 16:44:24 GMT
I was removing the address labels from the box that my case came in, prior to recycling it, when I saw this:  My parcel travelled from Hong Kong, to Poland, which is where the Amazon.de "fulfilment centre" seems to be. I Googled "Bielany Wroclawskie" and all was revealed. According to Wikipedia "Prior to 1945 it was in Germany."  |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 11, 2021 16:53:56 GMT
It turns out that going with a standard SSD rather than an M.2 drive solution was quite prescient of me. Now I've had a good look at the spec for the mobo I've spotted the footnote that says " SATA5 and SATA6 ports will be unavailable when installing a M.2 device in M.2 slot." As I'm intending to use 5 SATA ports (1 x SSD + 3 x 7200RPM 4TB + 1 x DVD) that would have rather ruined my plans. I still haven't started assembling the beast, my concentration is a bit here and there at the moment, which is not the best frame of mind for assembling expensive electronics. There's absolutely zero rush, so I can take my time for once. Good news " Every MSI motherboards are certified by strict mechanic that feature convenient pin-header keep out zone." Phew, that's a relief. |
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Post by MartinT on Jan 11, 2021 21:45:56 GMT
It turns out that going with a standard SSD rather than an M.2 drive solution was quite prescient of me. Now I've had a good look at the spec for the mobo I've spotted the footnote that says " SATA5 and SATA6 ports will be unavailable when installing a M.2 device in M.2 slot." Ah yes, saved by a good guess! Shame, though, as M.2 is quite a bit quicker than SATA6. |
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Post by MikeMusic on Jan 12, 2021 11:50:32 GMT
Good news " Every MSI motherboards are certified by strict mechanic that feature convenient pin-header keep out zone." Phew, that's a relief. Life Saver ! |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 12, 2021 17:27:20 GMT
I'm watching a "release event" from NVIDIA and amongst the new technology, laptops, screens, and assorted self-congratulatory back-slapping they've just announced the new RTX 3060 graphics card, which, they say, is twice as fast as the card I'm running at the moment, has 12gb of graphics memory, and will "start" at $329.00. It's out, worldwide, in late February, and I'll believe the $329.00 when I see it. In fact, I probably won't believe anything until I can actually buy one.
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Post by petea on Jan 12, 2021 18:53:52 GMT
I use a 'trash-can' MacPro in the UK and decided to upgrade the graphics card to its maximum specification at the end of last year via the Mac Factory in Berlin (last chance before the transition period ended) as the card in it was the minimum required to support the latest version of the video grading software I use (DaVinci Resolve). Getting hold of the cards is tricky and changing them is not simple. Mac Factory often have them, but will only supply them if they fit them (shipping and labour is included though). Even with trading in the old one and it being a company purchase (ie no VAT), there was not much change from £1200! I think there is probably a moral in that tale somewhere (given what your build is costing)!  Mind, it still amazes me what Apple managed to cram in to such a small cylinder. I use the older Mac Pros here Germany and they are somewhat less compact (as are the latest), but incredibly long-lived. |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 12, 2021 20:12:48 GMT
I use a 'trash-can' MacPro in the UK and decided to upgrade the graphics card to its maximum specification at the end of last year via the Mac Factory in Berlin (last chance before the transition period ended) as the card in it was the minimum required to support the latest version of the video grading software I use (DaVinci Resolve). Getting hold of the cards is tricky and changing them is not simple. Mac Factory often have them, but will only supply them if they fit them (shipping and labour is included though). Even with trading in the old one and it being a company purchase (ie no VAT), there was not much change from £1200! I think there is probably a moral in that tale somewhere (given what your build is costing)! Mind, it still amazes me what Apple managed to cram in to such a small cylinder. I use the older Mac Pros here Germany and they are somewhat less compact (as are the latest), but incredibly long-lived. I think I learned all I know about colour grading from the extras on one of the Lord Of The Rings Blu-rays. Still I know what it is, which is probably more than most people. When I worked in a 3D graphics studio for a few months - some years ago now - there was a pretty even split between Macs and PCs but I remember the PC/Mac wars. Even when, a bit later, I was Admin of a computer graphics forum people still got heated about them. At one time, of course, thing like Resolve would only have been available for the Mac because the Mac was the only " proper" graphics platform. It took a long time for that young upstart, the PC, to be accepted. With two sets of developers working on software though, the game has become much more innovative. The guys in that studio have a lot to answer for (I was there as an HTML programmer, not as an artist, obviously) because when I left I left with copies of Photoshop, Poser, Rhino, and a few other choice bits of software that I'd learnt to use while I was there. I was also made an "Honorary Animator" using Flash. They are indirectly responsible for everything I now post that's been Photoshopped, as well as my 3D modeling, which is another thing I want to get back into, and another reason for the new PC. As I remarked to Martin, there's no such thing as too much ram for rendering. Well, that was a ramble, wasn't it? I'll shut up now.  |
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Post by MartinT on Jan 12, 2021 22:42:56 GMT
My school is full of hundreds of Windows computers in ICT suites, libraries (there are more than one) and in staff work areas.
When I walk into the Art department, they have 20 iMacs. I just smile to myself and shake my head a little. The influence of old opinions still holds sway.
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Post by Tim on Jan 13, 2021 12:00:05 GMT
Paul, In stock just a few moments ago and not likely to last long as they are being bought right now - KFA2 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB at Scan - £319.99 Just in case you are still thinking of a 2060? Nice build by the way |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 13, 2021 12:28:38 GMT
Paul, In stock just a few moments ago and not likely to last long as they are being bought right now - KFA2 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB at Scan - £319.99 Just in case you are still thinking of a 2060? Nice build by the way Cheers, Tim,. I think I'm going to hold out until the end of Feb though, and see if this revamped RTX 3060 card NVIDIA was talking about launching yesterday materializes. That 2060 is the baby of the range, and even at £319.00 I'd say it was at least £20 overpriced, if not £30 or £40. I've just ordered another Patriot Burst SSD, 240 GB this time, to act as a dedicated scratch disc for Photoshop. It'll be really interesting to see how the machine behaves when rendering complex 3D models too. I might not have time to make dinner, watch a bit of telly, go to bed, get up, have breakfast, and check to see how far it's got any more, on the really heavy-duty stuff. |
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