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[Request] Build Expansion Round Table v2 (Win11 Ready Build)


WanderingAries

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I've been playing a bit with the Beta OS' lately and decided to rethink my original concept of build expansion as my testing confirms that this hardware just won't make the cut without corner clipping.

 

Current build for reference:

Spoiler

 

 

The current line of thinking is to retain most of the hardware (case, drives, air cooling), but replace the main core components (CPU, RAM, Mobo) with current (as of budget allowing) versions of them that meet the desired requirements. It'll be mainly for video/picture editing as the bulk of my archival project has yet to be completed. IE: I still have to do things like get this high end VCR hand cleaned for one thing, so I don't damage any cassettes that remain (a ton to be precise). I'll likely be stripping the existing build down to a simpler version of itself to replace the y2k era frankenbuild that is my dad's PC. It'll be overkill for him, but I also won't be losing any $$$ in the deal either.

 

So what is my New wish list? Well here's what I've got to start with, but I'll need to bounce a Lot of new knowledge off you guys so that I can better understand what's out there now. Yes, I'm wanting to keep the budget under control, but I'm also wanting to get my 10+ years out of it again. Will not be overclocking, period.

 

  • Motherboard
    • Must meet the Win11 system requirements for future proofing
      • TPM 2.0+ (hardware or software)
      • UEFI based Secure Boot
    • Hardware Virtualization Capable
      • Hyper-V, etc (someone recommend a good reference guide for this please!)
    • Platform will depend on what we flesh out, so that's still in the air. I know I'll want lots of "PCIe Lanes" though.
    • Lots of SATA 3 headers as I'm currently using 6 for drives +1 for my optical in addition to the external SATA bay/ports on the case that I Do use when cloning or diagnosing. If I had to give a number, then I'd say no less than 8 headers (taking into account M.2 sharing)
    • Lots of M.2 for the OS and scratch drives
    • Lots of fan headers! I can't stress enough how quickly I ran out of fan headers with this current build as there are a ton of large fans in this case. Granted, I'd also really not want to mess terribly much with the current cabling either, but whatever.
    • PCIe Gen 4/5 (depending on when the budget exists). Honestly, I probably wouldn't be hurting with Gen 3, but you never know what the future holds as I have a habit of pushing the limits of my tech. For example, I've been toying with the idea of one of these for some reason.
    • UISB 3.x / USB C / Thunderbolt 4
      • So this is a fuzzy area as I've never plugged more than a couple things in at once (side effect of being half a room away?), But when I Do it's generally USB 3 HDDs, jump drives, or my KB/Mouse dongle. I do Now have a growing list of USB C based devices that I may or may not ever plug into the computer though. Thunderbolt because I also have Mac devices and being able to share TB based things may be a thing in the future.
    • RGB...not that big into it and it Better have an off switch or able to seriously dim the colors if I need to leave it running overnight *coughs* Spelunker *coughs*
    • Wi-Fi 6E+ built-in would be a bonus, but I may eventually end up hardwired
    • The newer 2.5 Gbps Lan would be Awesome, but I'm not likely to have networking beyond 1 Gbps anytime soon.
    • BT 5.x would also be an awesome feature for accessories, but at the same time, I've rarely used it TBH. Even when I Did it was file sharing and that was a bad idea anyway.
    • Below $500 would be nice as I've yet to look at the NVME drives yet too.
  • CPU
    • This is probably my biggest hurdle right now as I've not compared architecture in ages, so I'm leaving this wide open for now.
    • 8+ Cores @ as high of a speed as possible without OC
    • Would be Really cool if I can keep using my Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler to save some $$.
    • All teh lanes! Ok seriously though, the little I remember about it, I know that I don't wanna bottleneck at the CPU for PCIe lanes. I still need to read up on this tech some more.
    • While having an APU would be cool again (If say the GPU fails), but I'll still be able to use my GTX 970 until I need something better or it dies.
    • Again with the sub-$500 mark if possible.
    • For Intel
      • Apparently the Z590 platform according to what I'm seeing.
      • I saw the 11700K Rocket Lake series as a direct successor for my 3770k, but I'm also reading that the 12th Gens are around the corner as well. I liked that this had 8 core / 16 threads as that would double what I have now (and then some). I wasn't sure what benefit I'd get from an i9 TBH and certainly would like to keep my CPU cost in the sub-$500 range as much as possible. I noticed it's dual channel memory based, so I'm not sure what my limitations would be.
    • For AMD
      • A confusing mix of AMD4 and something call sTR4/x4/etc
      • I'm admittedly lost in both comparison and understanding the platform variety. From what I Do understand, I'm likely looking into either the Ryzen 7/9 or Threadripper series it seems, but the differences are confusing.
  • RAM
    • I'm currently running just fine with 32 Gb of RAM, but I'd like the Option to shoot the moon if necessary when choosing the motherboard. Realistically though, I'll likely be sitting at 32-64 Gb in the end unless I go heavy into VMs. Obviously the decision will be heavily based on the CPU platform, but I think the G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series looks pretty good.
    • Once everything else is decided, I'll look for the best deal on these as I'd like to stay below $300-ish at first.

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Wrote all of that and forgot to poke @GM Tahquitz and @Hyperstrike

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For AMD, TR4 and STR4x are Threadripper platforms.
These chips are nearly identical to the the Ryzen series with higher core counts and slightly different multi-core optimization and tight speed-binning.  They're functionally identical to the server-grade Epyc chips.

Forget about Threadripper, Threadripper Pro or Epyc.  The chips alone are outside your budget.

The current connector for Ryzen is AM4.

Here's a suggestion for an AMD platform.  Note: I've included the 5800x.  I ALSO included the 5900X.  Given the choice, you're better off with the 5900X.  It's a $70 flex.  Considering you're not at your $1300 max build level due to the board and the memory being under-budget, $70 is eminently doable.

I COULD give you a similar Intel machine.
But, frankly, AMD is where it is at right now.  A 5900X and the Intel 11900K are virtually identical in gaming.  Basically they trade the wins back and forth on a game-by-game basis.
In actual WORK, the 5900X annihilates in multi-threaded workloads.  Intel simply can't make up for the extra 4 cores and 8 threads.
Though, in single-threaded workloads, the 5+Ghz 11900 wins.
PCI lanes: Intel: 20  AMD: Chip has 24 (4 reserved for motherboard interconnect).  And the motherboard has an additional 20 (4 of which are for the motherboard interconnect).  So, in the end, you have a total of 36.  To get any more, you'd have to step up to either Threadripper or EPYC.

https://secure.newegg.com/wishlist/sd/6eDG3vWq_-_XfNM_-_CoK7weIA==

64GB RAM
And with a board with 8 SATA, scads of USB ports and 2 M.2 slots.
The power system on the DH board is an OVERKILL setup.
And the networking is NOT Killer NIC CRAP.
One of the things I accepted when I bought my ASROCK board was that I'd have to put up with Killer crap with minimal Intel support.
Already over it and have a nice 10GB Intel dual-port NIC due to arrive on Monday.
Lots of fan headers.  But if you're going nuts with fans, buy a couple fan hubs and gang them together (front panel, top, rear).  It allows you to set fan profiles in gangs as well.

For NVME, I recommend the Samsung 980 Pros, or the Seagate FireCudas of the latest generation.  And as big as you can afford.  They're not really hot-swappable.  And you're going to want duability, especially in the scratch drive.

The Samsungs are slightly more performant.
The Seagates are slightly more durable.

About the only board that's more desirable right now is the as-yet unreleased EVGA X570 board.  But we don't know how far out that is.

As for the big difference in platforms, it's Infinity Fabric.
Old NVIDIA AMD boards used a technology called HyperTransport instead of the conventional "bus" architecture.
Infinity Fabric is a successor technology for handling interconnects and communication between devices in the system.
It's not very OC friendly in terms of "Big Numbers" overclocking.  At least in the current generation.
But it's still an extremely high-speed, low-drag way to let all your devices talk to one another.
 

Edited by Hyperstrike
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If you want to be godlike, pick anything.

If you want to be GOD, pick a TANK!

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These comparisons are making me blind at this point and so far I'm restricting to NewEgg, but I know that's bound to keep my parts knowledge base rather limited as well. So here's what I've got based on that for now. If you'll notice, I'm starting at the bottom of the barrel, while doing things like doubling my current storage capacity numbers since user data will be on the existing SSDs). By the time I'm ready ($$ etc), then we'll probably be seeing PCIe 5 and such. :p

 

AMD Build     Currently ~$1,500

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Intel Build (for kicks)   Currently ~$1,300

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Again, just in case things change drastically over the next year or so (whenever I'm actually ready to do this), I'm leaving both paths open for now.

Edited by WanderingAries

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17 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

These comparisons are making me blind at this point and so far I'm restricting to NewEgg, but I know that's bound to keep my parts knowledge base rather limited as well. So here's what I've got based on that for now. If you'll notice, I'm starting at the bottom of the barrel, while doing things like doubling my current storage capacity numbers since user data will be on the existing SSDs). By the time I'm ready ($$ etc), then we'll probably be seeing PCIe 5 and such. 😛

 

AMD Build     Currently ~$1,500

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

Intel Build (for kicks)   Currently ~$1,300

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

Again, just in case things change drastically over the next year or so (whenever I'm actually ready to do this), I'm leaving both paths open for now.



Honestly, just get the 520's.  In the 1GB variety.
If you're going to be beating on these drives, you want the higher capacity.  As it translates into longer device lifespan.
They're also readily available NOW.  With the 530's, you're going to be contending with stocking issues for several months.
The actual performance difference is going to be unnoticeable for you without benchmarking software.

As someone who bought the Taichi product for his X570 board?
The board itself isn't bad.
The Killer NIC is absolute CRAP!  I've only had my system together for 3 months and I'm OVER the Killer NIC.  I ordered a nice Intel 10GB NIC.  It arrived today, sans the full-height bracket.  So I gotta wait for that.  But once it goes in, I'm disabling the Killer NIC and uninstalling all the Killer software.
And that's pretty much all the ASROCK boards offer.
Pick someone who delivers either an branded Intel or a Realtek chipset.
In my estimation, spend the extra you're currently "saving" over the AMD rig and buy the Asus ROG Maximus APEX board.

If you want to be godlike, pick anything.

If you want to be GOD, pick a TANK!

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Oh and if it wasn't clear. This is probably going to be a 2022+ build eta.

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Old Forums  <||>  Titan Network  <||>  Heroica! (by @Shenanigunner)

 

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  • 1 year later

Re-poking the dragon on this one again. Now that the X3Ds are out (probably not actually considering based on everything I've seen) and both platforms have had some time under their belt, I'm wondering what we think about a 13th Gen vs 7000 series with the same concepts in mind? I just went back and watched / read some RL reviews and it seems like it's kind of a tightrope really. The most I might be doing in the future (that I can see at this point) is toying with VMs, finishing the AV project with the help of software that may use AI driven design, and honestly not much else. Right now, my 2019 MBP is handling my VM fix just fine and I'm not really messing with it beyond archiving OS ISOs as they come (MacOS, Windows, etc). I don't plan on getting a new case, nor am I looking into watercooling. The more I look at builds though, the thought of throwing the old parts into a (new) storage server comes to mind, but at the same time, I don't really need one and practically speaking, don't have the space for something that big. Let alone the added power consumption. So it may be best just to cleanup and sell of the parts Post upgrade. Hell, I've got the boxes to everything. 😛

 

Realistically though, I could probably keep going with my 3770k setup for a while longer (at least until Win10 loses support), and my Actual usage barely pushes the current system as it is. Even after adding the new 120Hz TV/display into the equation, my GTX 970 only saw a mild bump in usage to ~25% in vRAM vs the previous ~5%. At nearly idle (save a couple Edge tabs), the system itself is only using ~6 Gb of system RAM. The CPU is showing its age though as more and more I see all core spikes in usage (I love my metric gadgets!) while simply browsing or watching youtube. Gaming is basically dead on the PC itself as console is just that much less painful for my hands (probably less power draw too). The more I look at my usage now and how it may even keep dropping in the future, reality seems to make me rethink how much I want to overbuild. >.<

 

Either way, I like my builds to last 10+ years and I've had good luck so far with self-built (community designed) systems, so I really do often ignore the total build price as it's a long-term investment (while getting deals at the time). I just wish my mobile devices held out that long.

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Old Forums  <||>  Titan Network  <||>  Heroica! (by @Shenanigunner)

 

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8 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

Re-poking the dragon on this one again. Now that the X3Ds are out (probably not actually considering based on everything I've seen) and both platforms have had some time under their belt, I'm wondering what we think about a 13th Gen vs 7000 series with the same concepts in mind? I just went back and watched / read some RL reviews and it seems like it's kind of a tightrope really. The most I might be doing in the future (that I can see at this point) is toying with VMs, finishing the AV project with the help of software that may use AI driven design, and honestly not much else. Right now, my 2019 MBP is handling my VM fix just fine and I'm not really messing with it beyond archiving OS ISOs as they come (MacOS, Windows, etc). I don't plan on getting a new case, nor am I looking into watercooling. The more I look at builds though, the thought of throwing the old parts into a (new) storage server comes to mind, but at the same time, I don't really need one and practically speaking, don't have the space for something that big. Let alone the added power consumption. So it may be best just to cleanup and sell of the parts Post upgrade. Hell, I've got the boxes to everything. 😛

 

Realistically though, I could probably keep going with my 3770k setup for a while longer (at least until Win10 loses support), and my Actual usage barely pushes the current system as it is. Even after adding the new 120Hz TV/display into the equation, my GTX 970 only saw a mild bump in usage to ~25% in vRAM vs the previous ~5%. At nearly idle (save a couple Edge tabs), the system itself is only using ~6 Gb of system RAM. The CPU is showing its age though as more and more I see all core spikes in usage (I love my metric gadgets!) while simply browsing or watching youtube. Gaming is basically dead on the PC itself as console is just that much less painful for my hands (probably less power draw too). The more I look at my usage now and how it may even keep dropping in the future, reality seems to make me rethink how much I want to overbuild. >.<

 

Either way, I like my builds to last 10+ years and I've had good luck so far with self-built (community designed) systems, so I really do often ignore the total build price as it's a long-term investment (while getting deals at the time). I just wish my mobile devices held out that long.


Basically, is this JUST going to be a gaming system?

If so, the Intel chips are more economical at this juncture.

If you plan on doing real work with the machine and want as much grunt as possible (SQL, VMs, etc), the regular 7000 series is currently a better buy.

The situation to wring performance of of the 7000 series chips in games is an utter hack.
Using the XBox bar to turn off half the chip?  PASS!
This is a sign that the X3D platform isn't quite ready yet.

So, if what you've got now meets your needs, fine.

The only reason I could justify building my rig during the middle of COVID scarcity was the fact that my original rig was on its way out.  I'd popped the SAS controller and thus couldn't trust the motherboard anymore.

If you want to be godlike, pick anything.

If you want to be GOD, pick a TANK!

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9 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:


Basically, is this JUST going to be a gaming system?

If so, the Intel chips are more economical at this juncture.

If you plan on doing real work with the machine and want as much grunt as possible (SQL, VMs, etc), the regular 7000 series is currently a better buy.

The situation to wring performance of of the 7000 series chips in games is an utter hack.
Using the XBox bar to turn off half the chip?  PASS!
This is a sign that the X3D platform isn't quite ready yet.

So, if what you've got now meets your needs, fine.

The only reason I could justify building my rig during the middle of COVID scarcity was the fact that my original rig was on its way out.  I'd popped the SAS controller and thus couldn't trust the motherboard anymore.

 

In reality, gaming is basically done for PC. The games that I Do have for PC could probably run on half a potato inside of a VM three nests deep as they're mostly pre-y2k~CoX era and rarely played. So I guess that swings things towards the 7950x (or whatever comes next) and the joys of trying to untangle the Motherboard choices. On that front, I'd likely be switching to Seagate 530s for the boot and app drives along with probably one more for a scratch drive (mirroring what I have right now). So long as they don't share the ports, I'd probably be ok with just a 6 SATA port board, but 8 would still be nice if I don't lose something else feature wise. I noticed some of the board do weird bandwidth sharing across different buses. PCIe Gen5x16...2 would be nice, but so long as the other slots aren't halving the primary, then I guess it wouldn't matter, but I'd need at least one more slot for the Wifi 6e card I nabbed. IDK what kind of ports I'd need otherwise, but Thunderbolt 4 would be cool as well as some USB-C ports for future proofing. It tried playing on newegg, but it was getting kinda messy. I did find that I'd need to get a new CPU cooler though as the one I have won't work beyond AM4 according to the listings I've read. I'll just get another 212 (newer version) for that I guess. Not gonna think about ram until the board is decided on. The PSU is going strong, so I'm not sure I'd need to swap that unless there's some weird requirement from the board. It IS a 1kw unit, so it's not like I should have power capacity issues.

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Gonna drop this here as he even goes over basic, yet important information across several dozen boards:

 

 

 

And before I forget, here's what appears to be an active chart for motherboards in general!

Edited by WanderingAries

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  • 1 year later

With all the time I've spent relearning things while trying to help with that other build, I've been side-building my own system's parts list as well. It really helped narrow things down a bit. Here's the basic parts list as I'm not going to bother putting all the various fans, etc that I have in the system right now. I did find out that my existing case limits AIOs to 240 though, so unless I change cases, the liquid option for the CPU cooler isn't Actually compatible in that SKU. As it stands, there's not going to be Too much of a difference in the two builds aside from the GPU and PSU most likely as I won't need a newer GPU anytime soon.

 

  • Motherboard
    • Asus ROG STRIX X670E-E
      • For my purposes, I may consider the X870-E for the USB 4, but I'm nowhere near budget ready on this, so I'll leave it be for now.
  • CPU
    • AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
      • This seems to be the best of the series for general productivity without the hassle of dealing with "core parking" and the other setup concerns. Otherwise, I was looking at the 9950x originally.
  • CPU Cooler
    • AIR
    • AIO
      • ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III
        • Only like 50% more than the Air Cooler, but if I use it in this case, then I'll lose the top 2x200mm exhaust fans and I've not looked into the cooling balance that would impact.
  • RAM
    • G.Skill Flare X5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30-40-40-96
      • This is where I've learned the most actually as I was still going by the old adage of "lowest CL, ignore the other numbers". Then I looked into builds that have the CPU and found out that the stability sweet spot for DDR5 is the 6000. It seems that the total timings should now be looked at as well, so while there may not be a noticeable difference between CAS 28, 30, 32. The timings range does matter. So having the middle numbers as close to the first, while also being the same as each other, makes for more stable RAM. The lower the last number the better of course, but there doesn't seem to be much of a choice in that one.
  • GPU
    • EVGA FTW3 ULTRA GAMING iCX3 GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB
      • I may actually look into testing the visual performance of just the APU initially, but I did buy this card to serve as my last EVGA card and probably the last one I'd really need anytime soon since I don't Really game on the computer anymore. I Do need to get through my backlog, but those are mostly old games.

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