Building a New RIG

[dj1992]

Hello guys, my friend is in need of a new RIG which will be mainly used for intensive video editing, animations and image editing - Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Lightroom, InDesign, Premiere Pro, Dreamweaver. He has asked me to help him out and so far, there is a bit of debate going on between us. He has decided on the following components-4790K, ASUS Z97 WS Motherboard(just because he is hell bent on using quad SLI). For the RAM, I have decided on the GSkill Sniper 32GB (4*8GB). And as for the graphics, he is buying 2 GTX 980's for now and will buy another 2 within a couple of months. Now, what I am trying to tell him is that the 4790K has 16 PCI-E lanes and so, with 4-way SLI, the cards will work at x4, which I think is going to hurt performance. Also, the 32GB RAM will not run at quad-channel but only dual-channel. So my question is Should I tell him to hold out on this build and go for the X79 chipset? The gurus over here have so much knowledge and so I figured I should discuss with you all before making the jump on this RIG.

 

[EarthDog]

Well, the latest is the X99 chipset. X79 is the last generation.

If he wants quad SLI (why? Is he running 3x 4K monitors or just like to waste money for no reason?) he should go 5930K on X99 board.

With X99, not like it matters much anyway, he can run quad channel DDR4.

 

[trents]

Not sure what you mean when you say, "shall I tell him to hold out on this build and go for the X79 chipset." He doesn't have to hold out. That chipset has been out for a while. And why not go for the X99? The price is about the same.

It seems to me your friend needs to look at the Xeon series CPUs for his intended use. Those apps in the list would benefit from more cores I'm thinking. How many and how large are the displays he intends to use?

 

[dj1992]

Exactly earthdog, I am jest fed up trying to make him understand he will not need quad sli. trents, for the monitors, he will be using 3 27' Asus 1440p 120Hz. Even for this setup, I think 2 980''s will suffice.

 

[dj1992]

Trents, as for holding out, I meant to say that should I order this setup right away or should I make him upgrade to the X99 chipset?

 

[trents]

The motherboard doesn't cost anymore. But realize that the X99 chipset boards are not socket 1150 so the i7-4790k will not work in them. The X99 boards are socket LGA 2011 v.3. He would have to move up to the more expensive Xeon CPU series which is really what he needs to do anyway given his intended use.

What he needs to realize is that with his stated application goals he would benefit much more from a performance standpoint by going to a Xeon/x99 setup with dual video cards than with a 4790k and four cards. The money he would save on the video cards would more than offset the more expensive CPU.

 

[dj1992]

Hello guys, I just had a talk with my friend. He is okay with 2 980's
But now, he is considering a FX 9590 and ASUS Sabretooth 990FX since he believes that 8 cores will be better than 4 cores with hyperthreading. So what do you think? Go with the FX 9590 or stay with the 4790K? He will be overclocking BTW.

 

[EarthDog]

For 3x 1400p, I would start out with 2 980's. If that isn't enough, grab 3. But no way in hell would I start out with 4 as scaling is terrible from 3 to 4 cards so you pay $550 for a GPU and get an additional 10% of performance (arbitrary number, but it is low). I would still use X99 platform and 5930K.

The Xeon processors, they can come with a lot of cores, are a lot slower and would suffer for his gaming uses and put a glass ceiling on his SLI performance. Not to mention they are locked (though straps could overclock them...). Not to mention, a lot of the apps you listed are accelerated by the GPU anyway. I don't see a point in a Xeon CPU personally.

 

[dj1992]

For 3x 1400p, I would start out with 2 980's. If that isn't enough, grab 3. .

I think that even with 3 cards, the SLI setup will get bottlenecked since there are only 16 lanes the 4790K can support. 2 980's are okay though. And what do you think about the 4790K vs FX 9590...which one will be better for his work? Let's see if I can convince him to go with the X99 and the 5930K

 

[Audioaficionado]

If he's got money to burn, he could get a couple of Titan X cards instead of 4 GTX 980 cards. Titan X has 12GB of VRAM compared to GTX 980 4GB.

 

[EarthDog]

I think that even with 3 cards, the SLI setup will get bottlenecked since there are only 16 lanes the 4790K can support. 2 980's are okay though. And what do you think about the 4790K vs FX 9590...which one will be better for his work? Let's see if I can convince him to go with the X99 and the 5930K

My suggestion was with using X99/5930K, never the 4790K/Z97...

You can get Z97 boards with a PLX chip that will make more lanes if he doesn't want to pay the premium for X99/5930K (which he should want to for his work and needs).

As far as the 9590... I wouldn't do it as he will have a glass ceiling in SLI with that CPU. Intel pushes multi-GPU configs much better than AMD. For his work only, it should be ok.

 

[trents]

My mistake about the Xeon CPUs. I was confusing them with the Haswell E series which I assume the E stands for Extreme. Yeah, my vote would be with the 5930k. He would want to look at water cooling if he is going to overclock that, however. The 5930k is rated at 140W TDP stock.

 

[EarthDog]

I think the E stands for Enthusiast? They have an 'extreme' CPU in the 5960X (octo core), and others are still using the "K" nomenclature for unlocked multipliers.

 

[trents]

Hello guys, I just had a talk with my friend. He is okay with 2 980's
But now, he is considering a FX 9590 and ASUS Sabretooth 990FX since he believes that 8 cores will be better than 4 cores with hyperthreading. So what do you think? Go with the FX 9590 or stay with the 4790K? He will be overclocking BTW.

An overclocked 4790k will outperform the FX 9550 in essentially all applications and will produce much less heat. The FX 8 core AMD CPUs do not have 8 true physical cores. That is a misconception.

 

[bob4933]

If hes planning 2 980's right now, and 2 980s in the not to distant future... then just get a titan x.

it'll be WAY more powerful, and ironically cheaper...

 

[EarthDog]

With that above (trents post) he is limiting himself to 2 card SLI with Z97 unless he gets a board with a PLX chip on it.

 

[trents]

With that above (trents post) he is limiting himself to 2 card SLI with Z97 unless he gets a board with a PLX chip on it.

Don't misunderstand me, I wasn't advocating going with the Z97/4790k. I was only pointing out for comparison's sake that the FX-9550 doesn't even outperform the 4790k, much less the 5930k.

 

[Audioaficionado]

If he's got money to burn, he could get a couple of Titan X cards instead of 4 GTX 980 cards. Titan X has 12GB of VRAM compared to GTX 980 4GB.

If hes planning 2 980's right now, and 2 980s in the not to distant future... then just get a titan x.

it'll be WAY more powerful, and ironically cheaper...

Yeah surprisingly two GTX 980s do cost more than one Titan X. If I only had a grand to burn...

 

[EarthDog]

Don't misunderstand me, I wasn't advocating going with the Z97/4790k. I was only pointing out for comparison's sake that the FX-9550 doesn't even outperform the 4790k, much less the 5930k.

I got it, was just adding to it.

 

[Dlaw]

If hes planning 2 980's right now, and 2 980s in the not to distant future... then just get a titan x.

it'll be WAY more powerful, and ironically cheaper...

Actually, dual 980s are more powerful than a single TX. What you gain from going TX versus dual 980s is no SLI issues, and you save $100.

For OP's uses, X99 with a single TX would probably do him fine. If not, he was planning on going quad eventually any way, add another TX for $200 cheaper than quad 980s.