New system - no gaming, but heavy graphic design

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   Budget:

$3,000-ish, but flexible

Saved Ticket #: 2661852 ($2,617 after $200 off)

I have a busy, home-based corporate design and development business, heavily multi-tasking, three large monitors and a bit of an open-tab addiction (never fewer than about 175 Chrome tabs). I spend most of my time in Adobe Creative Suite, and MS Office, including occasional professional video editing and very rarely some light 3D (inside of Photoshop, mostly). No gaming (recovering FPS addict), just 60+ hours a week of frantic creative and coding work on many simultaneous projects, and a little Netflix playing in the corner of one monitor to keep me from getting bored.

I have a nearly 9-year old Digital Storm system, which is holding up pretty well, with some upgrades I've made along the way (better video card, SSDs, doubled the RAM). I have a huge Cooler Master case with six fans (top, front, back and side) and a Noctua CPU air cooler, and it runs quiet.  But I'm ready to hand it down and get a new great system.

On my DS system from 2011, I've been getting by with:

* Intel Core i7-3930K (6 cores)

* 32MB DDR3 1600 RAM

* GeForce GTX1050 Ti video card (running 3 monitors)

* ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard

I remain a little confused about # of cores, AMD vs.Intel (since I'm not gaming but also not rendering 3D graphics).  I see a lot of advice on the forum about upgrading from the stock fans, but all that RGB lighting seems a little silly.  And liquid cooling just sounds insane to me, but I assume it's pretty safe, even over the long-term.

Any thoughts on this case, configuration, or am I good to go?

Thanks in advance. BTW, The folks on this forum are the greatest - after years of miserable, expensive Dell computers, in 2011 this forum walked me through configuring and customizing a DS system that has worked beautifully for almost NINE years.

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daniel940 Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Nov 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 16	Quote Reply Topic: New system - no gaming, but heavy graphic design Posted: 22 Oct 2019 at 8:19pm
	Budget: $3,000-ish, but flexible Saved Ticket #: 2661852 ($2,617 after $200 off) I have a busy, home-based corporate design and development business, heavily multi-tasking, three large monitors and a bit of an open-tab addiction (never fewer than about 175 Chrome tabs). I spend most of my time in Adobe Creative Suite, and MS Office, including occasional professional video editing and very rarely some light 3D (inside of Photoshop, mostly). No gaming (recovering FPS addict), just 60+ hours a week of frantic creative and coding work on many simultaneous projects, and a little Netflix playing in the corner of one monitor to keep me from getting bored. I have a nearly 9-year old Digital Storm system, which is holding up pretty well, with some upgrades I've made along the way (better video card, SSDs, doubled the RAM). I have a huge Cooler Master case with six fans (top, front, back and side) and a Noctua CPU air cooler, and it runs quiet. But I'm ready to hand it down and get a new great system. On my DS system from 2011, I've been getting by with: * Intel Core i7-3930K (6 cores) * 32MB DDR3 1600 RAM * GeForce GTX1050 Ti video card (running 3 monitors) * ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard I remain a little confused about # of cores, AMD vs.Intel (since I'm not gaming but also not rendering 3D graphics). I see a lot of advice on the forum about upgrading from the stock fans, but all that RGB lighting seems a little silly. And liquid cooling just sounds insane to me, but I assume it's pretty safe, even over the long-term. Any thoughts on this case, configuration, or am I good to go? Thanks in advance. BTW, The folks on this forum are the greatest - after years of miserable, expensive Dell computers, in 2011 this forum walked me through configuring and customizing a DS system that has worked beautifully for almost NINE years.

HockeyBuck Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS Veteran Joined: 27 Jul 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1608	Quote Reply Posted: 22 Oct 2019 at 10:17pm
	Welcome back daniel940...! I have ordered 4 DS systems since 2011, and they all serve daily and never fail to impress. Time for a brand new system for the next 9 years or so...lol. Doesn't matter if you are not gaming right now...you should easily maintain the capability to get back into gaming if you choose to later on. Your selection of the 12 core Ryzen 3900X CPU should be a good choice for your graphic design and photo editing use. Liquid cooling using the sealed maintenance free AIO Corsair H115i Pro cooler is very safe, and liquid cooling is the most efficient & effective cooling for your processor. Good choice. Suggestions: Motherboard....You chose an acceptable, but entry level Asus Prime 570 mobo, and upgrading to the better Asus 570X Strix-E or the MSI X570 Pro Carbon mobo both would get you better quality capacitors and on board wifi...and generally an expected longer lifespan. The Asus Strix-E is a very solid board. Both have all the latest bells and whistles on board. RAM....Your described usage tells me you probably could make good use of 64 GB Corsair RAM...and I don't say that very often. RAM is very inexpensive right now so take full advantage! PSU... Use the solid Corsair 850W Gold Efficiency model...10 yr Corsair warranty...nuff said... GPU....I do suggest you move up to the NVidia RTX graphics cards... The RTX 2070 Super being considered the sweet spot mid range video card with 8 GB VRAM. The reason is not necessarily about gaming, it's about the capability to drive Hi Resolution multi panel 1440P/2k IPS quality pro displays better. You should also know that in the Adobe world of creative graphics and photo programs, NVidia has recently added the RTX video card fleet to turning on special Adobe features that now will work with the Adobe products to enhance their professional use of the Adobe color space. This is something you used to have to pay big bucks to get on NVidia Quadro pro video cards...just recently made available on the RTX gaming cards. Don't forget Ray Tracing as well. The RTX 2070 Super would work, the stronger RTX 2080 Super 8 GB VRAM card has more GPU cores, and the RTX 2080 Ti has the most GPU cores and a whopping 11 GB VRAM and is the best choice for 4K panels and VR. Consider RTX. Case Fans..... For the quietest and best cooling case fans, I do suggest the Corsair LL Fan Upgrade, or the best Corsair ML Fan upgrade. LL have a 2 yr Corsair warranty and a lot more RGB lights on both inner hub and outer ring...ML have the very best Magnetic Levitation bearings and a 5 yr warranty. ML will be the quieter choice of the two. Weather or not you choose to use the RGB lighting on these fans or not, having them allows some changeable personal expression just as fun as the cool RED paint option you selected for your Velox case....lol. The difference is that you can change the RGB colors, or turn them down or off completely today and do something different tomorrow. You use the Corsair iCUE program to control all Corsair RGB equipped components and Corsair peripherals... and can sync them all. See what you think my friend... Want your new DS rig to keep up for the next 9 yrs for you, like mine have...lol. Edited by HockeyBuck - 22 Oct 2019 at 10:20pm

Cretae Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS Veteran Joined: 22 Mar 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7331	Quote Reply Posted: 23 Oct 2019 at 4:42am
	Okay, HB has some excellent points, but I'm the snark in the weeds that tries to save you $$. I think you'll love the CPU. For longevity, you may well want a better mobo. I agree you should consider an RTX for it's forward-looking tech. It's not entirely clear to me, but Deep Learning Super Sampling may be of use to you. That may be what HB is talking about with Adobe. More RAM will serve you very well, but I recommend you step back from the Dominator to the Vengeance for $ savings. The extra 32 GB will vastly overcome the slight 200 MHz speed difference. IMO, the DS RAM would be just fine, but the cost difference for the Vengeance is so slight, the Lifetime warranty from Corsair rules. Case fans upgrade is not something you said you want for looks, and the miniscule difference they would make in either temps or sound isn't worth the money IMO, if you don't care for the bling. If you upgrade the mobo, the Vengeance RAM and the GPU to an RTX 2060, you're at around $3K wih the discount. My 2 cents.

daniel940 Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Nov 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 16	Quote Reply Posted: 23 Oct 2019 at 9:56am
	Thanks to both of you for all of the information, and I appreciate both perspectives. I'm slapping myself on the head for not thinking of 64MB of RAM. What a noob mistake to think my current RAM needs will equal my future RAM needs. One question, though - you recommend 64GB DDR4 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance over the 3200 MHz DS Performance Series? Is that b/c of the Corsair lifetime warranty or b/c there's really no difference between the two speeds?

HockeyBuck Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS Veteran Joined: 27 Jul 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1608	Quote Reply Posted: 23 Oct 2019 at 10:42am
	Lol...I would still recommend Dominator over Vengeance, but nothing to do with speed. Dominator uses their highest quality uber binned memory modules and most effective heatsink for RAM. I doubt the speed difference would ever be noticeable. The NVidia RTX Adobe improvements I was talking about were just released in July...... NVIDIA’s latest Studio driver will add support for 10-bit color in Adobe Photoshop CC, Premiere CC and other OpenGL-powered apps. The updates apply to all GeForce RTX GPUs. This is very big news. Previously, you had to buy an expensive Quadro RTX card if you wanted to use a 10-bit HDR monitor during any kind of video or photo editing. Thanks to this update, GeForce RTX cards can now support a 10-bit HDR workflow. The Corsair fan designs are specifically engineered to improve airflow, air pressure, reduce fan sound, and with high performance bearings for longevity. The stock fans are merely low bid props for budgets. You can contact DS and make changes...they are easy to do! Sometimes DS even sends folks to the forum to develop a build...but we can spot stuff you have overlooked. DS is used to it happening...lol. Edited by HockeyBuck - 23 Oct 2019 at 10:49am

New system - no gaming, but heavy graphic design

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