First time build advice

[Rusty]

Hi,

I'm looking to build my first PC and would appreciate some help looking over my proposed build.

I plan to use the machine daily for 3D modeling & rendering from C4D & Octane + others. Things that are important to me in this build are viewport speed, render performance and fan noise. I'm located in the US and my budget is $5000+ (thanks to GPU shortage :S ). I would probably consider upgrading parts in 3-4 years.

With this build do I need an upgrade on the CPU cooler and Power Supply?

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4GHz 16-Core Processor ($1034.99)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 ($89.90) Is there a better fan I can get?
Motherboard: MSI X570 Tomahawk ATX AM4 ($262.13)
GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Graphics Card - 24G-P5-3987-KR - 24GB GDDR6X - iCX3 ($3000.00)
Memory: 64GB (4 x 16GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 C16 ($364.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 2TB M.2 Solid State Drive ($299.99)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx Series RM750x 750W Power Supply ($143.19)
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($128.63)

Thank you and I love the site! has been super useful

 

[Jerry James]

Hi,

I'm looking to build my first PC and would appreciate some help looking over my proposed build.

I plan to use the machine daily for 3D modeling & rendering from C4D & Octane + others. Things that are important to me in this build are viewport speed, render performance and fan noise. I'm located in the US and my budget is $5000+ (thanks to GPU shortage :S ). I would probably consider upgrading parts in 3-4 years.

With this build do I need an upgrade on the CPU cooler and Power Supply?

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4GHz 16-Core Processor ($1034.99)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 ($89.90) Is there a better fan I can get?
Motherboard: MSI X570 Tomahawk ATX AM4 ($262.13)
GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Graphics Card - 24G-P5-3987-KR - 24GB GDDR6X - iCX3 ($3000.00)
Memory: 64GB (4 x 16GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 C16 ($364.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 2TB M.2 Solid State Drive ($299.99)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx Series RM750x 750W Power Supply ($143.19)
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($128.63)

Thank you and I love the site! has been super useful

That beQuiet! cooler is pretty much the best you can get for air cooling. You could switch to a liquid AIO cooler, but performance should be around the same for most workloads.

Yes, definitely up that power supply. The RTX 3090 is known to draw large amounts of power momentarily, so it's best to go at least 850W. At that budget, I'd just go 1000W tbh Good power supplies last a long long time and give you much more flexibility for future upgrades. Swapping out a power supply is a pain. Buy as high as you can now.

Everything else looks good to me

 

[Zuranthus]

the Threadripper 3960 is worth considering to go along with your 3600 RAM, you can even drop down to an RTX 3080 Ti if the 3090 puts you over budget. don't forget you have to enable the higher RAM speed in your BIOS

 

[Jerry James]

the Threadripper 3960 is worth considering to go along with your 3600 RAM, you can even drop down to an RTX 3080 Ti if the 3090 puts you over budget. don't forget you have to enable the higher RAM speed in your BIOS

The viewport performance of the 3960X is lackluster compared to the 5950X, so it's not the best choice for someone doing active work within applications
It's more geared towards professionals who want to run render workloads and/or need heaps of PCI-E lanes.

 

[Rusty]

Thank you for the feedback! For a novice like myself, I'm really excited to go build my first PC now.

For CPU fan I will stick to the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 as I can see if I need water cooling later and upgrade the PSU to 1000W (thinking the be quiet! Straight Power 11).

I will definitely need the viewport speed of the 5950X as I'm modeling a lot before rendering (for any other readers this CG Director article helped me decide when first considering a route https://www.cgdirector.com/best-computer-3d-modeling-rendering/).

Cheers!

Here is the final build:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4GHz 16-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Motherboard: MSI X570 Tomahawk ATX AM4
GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Graphics Card
Memory: 64GB (4 x 16GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 C16
Storage PCIe-SSD: Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 2TB M.2 Solid State Drive
Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W 80 Platinum
Case: be quiet! DARK BASE PRO 900