Considering building two pc’s

[Luno papi]

I’ve only had my recent build finished since January. And already onto what I’m gonna build next. My next build will be probably be early to mid next year. I’ve mentioned that I plan to make a build into a desk as the case as well. Recently I’ve been thinking what do I do with my old build which should in a years time still be a solid build. I was thinking about what if I have two function pc’s built into the desk and I just use one for tasks it’s better for and build the new pc to do better what the struggles. (I’m also waiting till end of the year to see what the next lot of gpu’s are like which will make a big difference)

So may question is who has two pc’s side by side that they use for different tasks? My example would be one for gaming and one more for rendering and editing.

 

[trents]

As of now, rendering PCs benefit from CPUs that have a lot of cores for parallel processing and benefit from a lot of memory. Some rendering and editing software can also use the GPU to assist with processing the render but only to a point so having the fastest GPU out there is not critical for that task.

As of now, gaming tends to benefit from CPUs that have high per core frequencies but not so much from many cores beyond a certain point - and of course, potent video cards. Gaming tasks as of now generally don't need a ton of memory. As of now, 16 is plenty so beyond that is a waste of money, as of now.

These are very general guidelines but your question is very general and hypothetical. Things are always changing in the world of computer technology.

 

[caddi daddi]

On this kvm switch I have my daily driver/ websurfer and the other is my 3d animation work flow rig.
on the other kvm is my gaming rig and also my 3d rendering rig.
Hanging on my wall is my file storage rig and on the table below that is my folding@home testing rig.
there are more but those are the main ones I use day in and day out.

 

[Luno papi]

On this kvm switch I have my daily driver/ websurfer and the other is my 3d animation work flow rig.
on the other kvm is my gaming rig and also my 3d rendering rig.
Hanging on my wall is my file storage rig and on the table below that is my folding@home testing rig.
there are more but those are the main ones I use day in and day out.

And your say happier with multiple computers specified for use over say one that can do most but not overly specific?

Also thank you very much I hadn’t even considered using a kvm switch although with the amount of options you have I see why you do!

 

[Luno papi]

As of now, rendering PCs benefit from CPUs that have a lot of cores for parallel processing and benefit from a lot of memory. Some rendering and editing software can also use the GPU to assist with processing the render but only to a point so having the fastest GPU out there is not critical for that task.

As of now, gaming tends to benefit from CPUs that have high per core frequencies but not so much from many cores beyond a certain point - and of course, potent video cards. Gaming tasks as of now generally don't need a ton of memory. As of now, 16 is plenty so beyond that is a waste of money, as of now.

These are very general guidelines but your question is very general and hypothetical. Things are always changing in the world of computer technology.

Oh maybe my clarity I understand hardware enough, it’s more directed to people who have multiple builds designed specifically over say one general build to cover multiple needs.

 

[trents]

And that is the question I tried to address. Pick the hardware and the software for each of the machines you intend to build according to the intended use.

 

[caddi daddi]

If it were not for rendering 3d animations and the fact that I enjoy building these things, I would have only one big, powerful beast of A machine as there is A good bit of work maintaining more than one complicated build.

 

[Luno papi]

If it were not for rendering 3d animations and the fact that I enjoy building these things, I would have only one big, powerful beast of A machine as there is A good bit of work maintaining more than one complicated build.

Thanks man, out of curiousity what do you use mostly. Like which setup is the most important to you?

 

[Luno papi]

And that is the question I tried to address. Pick the hardware and the software for each of the machines you intend to build according to the intended use.

Sorry man still misunderstanding, I know my intended uses. I’m just using it as an example. The question I’m trying to ask is who finds either using two for a specific use each allowing maximum for that use or one build which covers both but possibly a slight drop in performance for one use or another. So more a functionality question.

For reference my current build has a ryzen 9 3950x and a rog strix 2080ti. I would continue to use that but depending on what the next gen GPU and CPU’s are like when they come out which should be before my next build. I will decided which combinations of those I will use. Ideally gaming comes first for me so I assume my newest build will be optimized towards that

 

[caddi daddi]

I much prefer my workflow rig, to be honest, A little six core at 5.2ghz with A gtx 980, it's A bad azz little power house

 

[trents]

Okay, so you are not necessarily planning to build two special purpose machines you were just soliciting opinions as to whether it would be better to go with one machine that covered all the bases or two dedicated machines. Am I tracking with you now?

 

[Luno papi]

Okay, so you are not necessarily planning to build two special purpose machines you were just soliciting opinions as to whether it would be better to go with one machine that covered all the bases or two dedicated machines. Am I tracking with you now?

Yup that’s the one

 

[caddi daddi]

For rendering video and gaming I'd build two rigs.
depending on the rendering software, I'd use an ITX rig with 1 nvme drive and A sata ssd add in A monster gpu, say an Evga 2060 with the cut down 2080 gpu aboard.
Rendering can take from minutes to weeks to finish, who wants to wait weeks to be able to game..........

 

[Zerileous]

Yeah I think that's the main benefit. Being able to render and game at the same time. Even threadripper can post acceptable gaming performance with Zen 2 and of course the 9900k would do well at both in some cases. So if you just wanted to have a gaming machine that you render on occasionally, I think it would be a bit of a waste, because I bet even your current system can handle most rendering pretty well.

In other words if you make money from rendering or have enough money to not care, then go for it!

 

[Luno papi]

For rendering video and gaming I'd build two rigs.
depending on the rendering software, I'd use an ITX rig with 1 nvme drive and A sata ssd add in A monster gpu, say an Evga 2060 with the cut down 2080 gpu aboard.
Rendering can take from minutes to weeks to finish, who wants to wait weeks to be able to game..........

Honestly thank you so much for you input man, probably the exact type and experience of person I wanted to respond.

 

[Luno papi]

Yeah I think that's the main benefit. Being able to render and game at the same time. Even threadripper can post acceptable gaming performance with Zen 2 and of course the 9900k would do well at both in some cases. So if you just wanted to have a gaming machine that you render on occasionally, I think it would be a bit of a waste, because I bet even your current system can handle most rendering pretty well.

In other words if you make money from rendering or have enough money to not care, then go for it!

In my head the plan is to use my current to continue to render and build a new gaming setup start of next year maybe end of this year (we’ll see how hard my back pocket gets hit with everything going on)

I really like my current build I remember trying to figure out with would render and game pretty balanced and for the price the 3950x was near unbeatable for balance. but I know the next gen of GPU is towards the end of the year and I’m a glutton for the latest and greatest. So I want to boost my gaming and probably go the 9900k with next gen GPU and hopefully not too long past that I’ll upgrade my current to be a better render machine.

Lastly I render for fun, I know it sounds like not fun but for me it is. And thank you for you feedback you clearly understand what I want to achieve

 

[caddi daddi]

you need to check all of your software for what it all likes, solid works likes the fastest single core performance you can get, for the rebuild function and A Quadro for final rendering.
Blender likes all the cores you can muster along with the most powerful and as many gpus you can throw at it.
in playing in this, try to keep in the back of your head, while your only rig is rendering you are not learning.
There are other options for rendering, render farms, like sheep it are not A bad option and some people, like me, rent out rendering time on our rendering rigs.

 

[Luno papi]

you need to check all of your software for what it all likes, solid works likes the fastest single core performance you can get, for the rebuild function and A Quadro for final rendering.
Blender likes all the cores you can muster along with the most powerful and as many gpus you can throw at it.
in playing in this, try to keep in the back of your head, while your only rig is rendering you are not learning.
There are other options for rendering, render farms, like sheep it are not A bad option and some people, like me, rent out rendering time on our rendering rigs.

I have a feeling I’ll be picking your brain a bit in the future! Thanks for that man, I’ll have a proper look through where I want to go software wise and you will be hearing from me haha

 

[caddi daddi]

you're welcome to at anytime, that's why we are all here.