High end build, but is it overkill? I really want to build it, but is it a waist of money?

[Walter K.]

Hi all. Could someone/anyone look at my list and tell me their thoughts? Am I going too big for no reason, or is this a good, futureproof build? Are the parts compatible? Any info would be helpful. The truth is...I just don't know, and for the price, I don't want any missteps. I am not a gamer, but I would love to have the option to do so if I choose. I am a multitasker. I do music production. FL Studios mostly. I run a program in the background called display fusion that is on 24/7 and drains on my current pc. I also do a lot of writing, uploading, downloading, movie watching, and music streaming. I have 3 32 in. TVs, and a 75in flat screen, studio monitor speakers, desktop speakers, and 3 8tb external hard drives connected to my current pc.

Here is the parts list.

CORSAIR OBSIDIAN 500D RGB SE Mid-Tower Case
. ________________________________________

GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Xtreme (AMD Ryzen 3000/X570/E-ATX/PCIe4.0/DDR4/Aqantia 10GbE LAN/RGB Fusion 2.0/Fins-Array Heatsink/3xM.2 Thermal Guard/USB3.1/Gaming Motherboard)
________________________________________

AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
________________________________________
Corsair Hydro Series H150i PRO RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
________________________________________

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64GB DDR4 3200 Memory
________________________________________

Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology
________________________________________
CORSAIR HXi Series, HX1000i, 1000 Watt, 80+ Platinum Certified, Fully Modular - Digital Power Supply
________________________________________

Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Xtreme 11G Graphics Card, 3X Stacked Windforce Fans, 11GB 352-bit GDDR6, Gv-N208TAORUS X -11GC Video Card
________________________________________

ASUS Sound Card Essence STX II
________________________________________

Samsung 860 Pro 4TB SATA III 2.5-Inch Client SSD
________________________________________

Corsair QL Series, Ql140 RGB, 140mm RGB LED Fans
________________________________________

Corsair QL Series, Ql120 RGB, 120mm RGB LED Fans
________________________________________

Corsair K55 RGB Gaming
________________________________________

Corsair MM800 Polaris RGB Mouse Pad
________________________________________

Corsair – Dark Core RGB Pro Mouse.

 

[Arkaign]

First off, Display Fusion seems bugged, there are many many threads discussing horrific performance no matter what CPU you have, but a fix is in this thread :

DisplayFusion and Windows 10 1903 constant CPU usage • Discussions • DisplayFusion by Binary Fortress Software

DisplayFusion will make your multi-monitor life much easier! With powerful features like Multi-Monitor Taskbars, TitleBar Buttons and fully customizable HotKeys, DisplayFusion will make managing your multiple monitors easy.

www.displayfusion.com

Even with just a 4C/8T, once this is applied, performance resumes to negligible impact.

Next up, FL has a huge drop-off with regards to more than 6 Cores from discussing with various other audio professionals, but faster IPC + clock speed has a dramatic impact. I think the fastest you could use would be a 10700K OC with DDR4-4000 CL15 or 3600XT heavily tuned with 1.9Ghz IF clock and CL13/14 3800 DDR4. That's pretty exotic stuff though, so for your use I'd probably recommend either :

3700X 8C/16T
10700K 8C/16T

Combine with a less expensive motherboard, as the only real reason to go that extreme is for exotic OC, or if you have a 10GBe network and absolutely want an onboard solution, rather than a superior PCIe dedicated NIC with it's own controller and cache, such as Intel X550 controller based cards. These result in dramatically better network performance without the lag and CPU overhead of the integrated stuff. If you are on gigabit lan or do not need extreme local network transfer speeds, this isn't an issue. Anyway, the performance difference of Zen2 CPUs on B550/X570 motherboards is basically nil between any decent mid-range model to the highest end option, but the price ramps up beyond all common sense.

With Intel Z490, this is less cut and dry. If you will only run stock or stock + MCE, then any mid-range motherboard is fine. However, because overclocking the K series to high all core static 5+GHz range is a pursuit of some, those indeed are optimal on the boards in the $250+ range with extremely robust power delivery and VRM quality. Zen2, more efficient and nearly pointless to OC beyond their exceptional stock performance, does not benefit to the same degree. Thus a $140 motherboard will run 99% the same performance potential as a $500 motherboard.

Next up, 3200 is suboptimal for Zen2 performance. As much as the actual OC is almost pointless for Zen2, RAM tuning and optimization is extremely noticeable at improving responsiveness and bandwidth. Running the Infinity Fabric at 1.8Ghz with DDR4-3600 CL14 is excellent, and in some cases it's now achievable with improved Zen2 batches to get 1.9Ghz IF and run DDR4-3800 CL14. Ryzen Memory calculator is worth looking into, as well as various YouTube videos on tuning DDR4 with Zen2/3000 series.

By stepping down to a 3700X (or splitting the difference and getting a 3900X), and backing down the motherboard tier a notch or two, along with bumping up to higher quality ram, you should achieve a better value and more well rounded result.

A final note is that the 970 SSD is the older gen3 PCIe version, and more performance is available by finding a much faster gen4 nVME SSD. Samsung's upcoming 980 series is late to arrive, but something like a Sabrent Rocket or Aorus is already available, and I think represent better value vs Samsung's pricing.

 

[Walter K.]

By stepping down to a 3700X (or splitting the difference and getting a 3900X), and backing down the motherboard tier a notch or two, along with bumping up to higher quality ram, you should achieve a better value and more well rounded result. .

Thank you for your great advice. I did a lot of soul-searching after I posted this and it turns out, I did everything you suggested.in this paragraph. You were spot on, and I appreciate it.