New workstation specs

[Liamthanks]

Hi all,

I am looking at building a PC to use from home for some private work or to be able to work from home when sick. I have been doing a bit of research and have put together what I believe to be a sufficient system for the projects I intend to work on. Can you advise if there is anything below that is overkill or potentially needs to be upgraded to get the perfect system? I was thinking that potentially a Ryzen 5 CPU could be a cheaper alternative.

CPU: AMD AM4 Ryzen 7 1700X - 3.4Ghz 8 Core, 16 Threads - ($319)
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-M2 - ($105)
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB - ($395)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 3200 16gb (2x 8gb) - ($225)
SSD: WD Blue 3D 500GB SSD - ($119)
HDD: Seagate 3.5" Barracude 2TB - ($85)
Case & Power Supply: Thermaltake Versa N-25 w/ 600W Power Supply- ($115)
DVD Writer: Asus SATA DVD Writer - ($18)
Total:$1,381

[Liamthanks]

Thank you all for your feedback, greatly appreciated.

Scott, I will look into pricing on that item. At this point I figured it'd be easier to source all the hardware from one supplier, but I might look into sourcing each item individually if the costs are significantly cheaper.

[Lingwisyer]

If you show your supplier your shopping list, they maybe willing to give you a deal to bring to overall price to around the same. That is what I did when I built my last computer, they gave me a better price on a few of the items I was going to get from them as they could not quite match the other stores price on the other items.

Going to a single store also opens up the option of having them build the computer for you if you are willing to pay a bit extra. If you go with this path, they will cover faults and warranty replacements if there are any issues. If you build it yourself, you will have to pay for system testing and such if there are any issues, so you will essentially have to provide your own support. So, you will be more out of pocket, but if there are issues, you will save yourself time and trouble.



Ling.

[Laszlo Nagy]

My desktop is very similar to the configuration you are trying to put together, and I am very happy with it. A few thoughts:

SSD: I agree with the guys who recommended the Samsung EVO SSD. The EVO is much cheaper than the PRO and the PRO is not that much faster to justify spending so much more money on it for me. On the other hand, these NMVe SSDs with the M2 connector are multiple times faster than SATA SSDs.

HDD: I agree with the RAID suggestion. AMD Ryzen chipsets support RAID for no additional cost. So I actually bought 2x3 TB HHD and put them in a RAID array for data redundancy (I think that is RAID 1). I have no worries about data loss no at all.

RAM: I would recommend 32 GB of RAM, you would not want to save money on RAM. In my experience, the most important system components in order of priority for me are:

- RAM (amount of RAM, not clockrate)
- CPU
- Storage (NMVe SSD)
- GPU

If you run out of RAM, your work is slowed down considerably, regardless of how good your other system components. You can have 16 threads of CPU cores running at 4 GHz, but if you run out of RAM, your system slows down considerably. You will be using this machine for at least 4-5 years because CPUs are not getting that much faster these days so a new computer lasts a lot longer than, e.g. a decade ago. By enough RAM, that is my point.

[Liamthanks]

Hi all,

So I put the station on hold to give me some time to put some money away. I've gone and got a quote for the below system which sits just shy of $2K. I was hoping to spend about $1.5K, but obviously need the PC to perform now and for years to come. Is it a viable option to drop down to a Ryzen 5 and maybe get a lower spec GPU?

AMD Description Price
CPU AMD AM4 Ryzen 7 2700X - 3.7Ghz 8 Core, 16 Threads $469
Motherboard MSI B450M PRO-M2 $104
Graphics Card Asus GeForce GTX 1060 6GB $339
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 3200 32gb (2x 16gb) $340
SSD Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 500gb $170
HDD Seagate 3.5" Barracude 2TB x2 ($85 ea) $170
Case Thermaltake Versa N-25 w/ 600W Power Supply $119
DVD Writer Asus SATA DVD Writer $16
Operating System Windows 10 Pro $199
Monitors Asus VP278H27" Monitor x2 $199
Keyboard & Mouse Microsoft 7N9-00028 Wireless KB&M $84
Total $2,209

[Srinivas]

Have a look at the recently release GTX 1660 graphic card, better performance and with in the price range. Hope this helps.

[Liamthanks]

How important is the GPU on these systems when the rendering is CPU based?

[Anonymous]

GPU affects your day to day interaction with the software, how fast the screen redraws pans etc and whether you get artifacts such as pixelation tearing etc.
Buy a good GPU, I would recommend a proper workstation card (Quadro) over a gaming card (GeForce) as the drivers and hardware are more reliable. You can buy a mid level quadro P2000 5Gb for about AUD$550 that will be enough for Archicad unless you are working on large projects where I would suggest going to the newer RTX4000 8Gb but it costs in excess of AUD$1500

Scott

[Liamthanks]

It's good to learn this stuff, as I had no idea about the different requirements of a GPU. Does the Quadro have the ability to run games as well? The intention was to be able to casually game on this as well as work.

[Liamthanks]

Interestingly, the GTX 1060 sits on par with a Quadro P2000 based on the Graphisoft tests. Does the P2000 perform better in other aspects?

https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/83528/

[Anonymous]

Reliability is where a quadro card wins out over a GTX card, you will find multiple posts on these forums where people experience totally random issues which are caused by the GTX drivers especially the GeForce experience software.
GTX is like a sports car, can get you there very quickly but will require troubleshooting and unplanned maintenance whereas a Quadro card is more like a prime mover designed to run at full load each and every day with minimal downtime