Advise needed on WoW + Excel Build

[revolver]

Hello All,

First of all, Thanks to everyone who helped me out with the last build way back in 2010 (Yes, I still use the PC with only GPU upgraded to GeForce 1060).

Need help reviewing the build shown at the link below.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LG2FZZ


Budget: ~$2000 (I can stretch it to $2250 if the performance increase is substantial)
Resolution: 1440P @ 144Hz
System Purpose (gaming, workstation, HTPC, etc): World of Warcraft at max settings and very large excel files.
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc): Heavy Excel use with very large files.
Do you plan to overclock?: Yes, after couple years.
Country: US
Preferred Stores / Sites: Amazon
Parts that can be reused: None
Do you need an OS?: No
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)?: No, but I am planning to buy 1440p 144Hz monitor (Not counting towards the budget).

Few questions I have:
Can this build run WoW at max settings without much of an issue for couple of xpacs?
Should I go for 5900X? (Will that help at all with Excel or WoW?)
Should I upgrade to 3080 or 6800XT?
Should I downgrade the Motherboard? (I plan to overclock after couple years and I saw some good reviews for MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk).
Do I need more or less memory?
Any point in buying Samsung Evo 980?
In YouTube reviews like Gamer's Nexus & LTT, which game does Wow compare to in terms of FPS?

Although I already bought Ryzen 5600X and RTX 3070. I can wait for 3080/6800XT or 5900X to become available. Thanks again and sorry If I am coming off as a newb. Its been a while since I looked into computer parts.

[Temp name]

Few questions I have:
Can this build run WoW at max settings without much of an issue for couple of xpacs?

Probably, yeah. We don't know how Blizzard will change the performance, but WoW has never been super graphically demanding, maybe outside of the new ray tracing stuff

Should I go for 5900X? (Will that help at all with Excel or WoW?)

Nope.

Should I upgrade to 3080 or 6800XT?

Over a 3070? For WoW? Neither.

Should I downgrade the Motherboard? (I plan to overclock after couple years and I saw some good reviews for MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk).

You'd be fine with a B550 board

Do I need more or less memory?

Depends on how big your Excel files are. I'm actually not sure how Excel scales with memory.

Any point in buying Samsung Evo 980?

Sure, if you want to burn money. The 980 is just a PCIe gen 4 refresh of the 970, and since you probably aren't maxing out the PCIe gen 3 interface, there's no point.

In YouTube reviews like Gamer's Nexus & LTT, which game does Wow compare to in terms of FPS?

None of them. Games like WoW are super heavily single-threaded, so they tend not to make for good benchmarks when you want to show off how good a new CPU or GPU are.


Edited your list a little:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.99)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard ($219.99)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($149.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB AORUS MASTER Video Card ($599.99)
Case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case ($122.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1752.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-18 02:44 EST-0500
Replaced the CPU cooler with an aircooler. A 360mm is way overkill, but so is what I picked. They'll both be practically silent
Changed RAM to some with tighter timings, and dropped the RGB (mostly because I don't care)
Changed Case to something better.. It's way overpriced though, the case I picked should be like 80 dollars, not 120
Changed PSU because I didn't recognize it and I'm too lazy to look it up

Kept the SSD and MOBO even though you could cut costs on them with no performance loss, but whatever.

[Thunderball]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xpD3wz

1) We have no way of knowing that.
2) No. 5600X is plenty.
3) If you bought a 3070 already then no.
4) If you need WiFi it should be fine at that price. If you dont there are better options.
5) 32GB is fine.
6) No.
7) It doesnt. WoW is a very poorly optimized game, and no reviews will test those since it undermines the idea of the review process.

[Kagthul]

It seems that Excel really likes both high clock speeds AND lots of cores - because some functions rely on single-thread performance, and some functions can be spread across every available core.

RAM will be useful depending on how large the data sets are you are working with. In the post i link below, the guy is dealing with millions of data points and therefore needs scads of RAM.

RAM -speed- actually seems to provide a noticeable benefit.

So the amount of RAM you need is actually dependent on the size of the file and datasets.

Given how cheap decently fast 32GB kits are right now (barely more than 16GB of slower RAM was last year)... might as well.

My take:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6sHGJf

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($450.00)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Adorama)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($149.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Intel 665p 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB Founders Edition Video Card ($500.00)
Case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1704.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-18 18:36 EST-0500

Not too dissimilar to Temp's build, but i stepped it up to a 5800X for the extra cores (and slightly faster clocks), bumped the cooler up slightly from the DR4 to the DRP4, dropeed the MoBo and SSD to cheaper units that will serve you just as well.

The prices on the CPU and GPU were input manually, so add some extra for tax there, and it relies on being able to find an FE 3070 - otherwise the card is more likely to be in the in 550-600 range.

At that point you might consider a new 6800 (570$ MSRP) or 6800 XT (650$), or even stepping up to a 3080 if you want (GL finding ANY of these in the next few weeks though).

Went with info from this thread:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thre...files.3474375/

to determine what was needed.

[Temp name]

Not too dissimilar to Temp's build, but i stepped it up to a 5800X for the extra cores (and slightly faster clocks), bumped the cooler up slightly from the DR4 to the DRP4,

Yeah, as I said, I don't know how Excel scales with anything, so just stuck with the 5600x because I figured it'd do just fine.
And I also had the DRP4 in mine

[Kagthul]

.
And I also had the DRP4 in mine

For some reason i thought it was just the regular Dark Rock 4. Which, honestly, is probably still fine for that build.

[Temp name]

For some reason i thought it was just the regular Dark Rock 4. Which, honestly, is probably still fine for that build.

Oh it's more than fine. But the DRP4 will probably be quieter, since you'll likely be able to run it with no fan spin in gaming loads.

[revolver]

Thanks guys. Your help is very much appreciated.

CPU: I was able to buy a 5800X from Newegg (5600X is arriving sometime in December from B&H so I may cancel that order).

GPU: I am sticking with RTX 3070.

I would like to stick to Lian Li O11 Dynamic case for the aesthetics. Would the Air coorler (DRP4) you guys are recommending work with it? I am not sure if that case has enough mesh or holes for airflow.

Also, I had to order CPU and GPU bundles from Newegg with RAM and PSU respectively (its very hard to get the order through due to demand). Any of you know if I can return just the RAM and PSU while retaining the CPU/GPU?


Again, Thanks for helping me out!

[Kagthul]

There's nothing particularly wrong with that Oloy RAM. Its higher latency (C18 instead of C16) which will affect performance some, but we're not remotely talking about the difference between usable and not. Maybe a few % points of performance.

Ive never seen a Gigabyte branded PSU before, but they are a reputable company - look around for reviews of that model (particularly at Johnny Guru if theyve done a review).

If its reviewing well, its probably fine to keep it. As long as they used a decent OEM and had it built to a decent spec, its not going to be any better or worse thant he Seasonic for the most part. Seasonic's main selling point is that they are their own OEM (and the OEM for a lot of other brands) and have the best warranties around. But if its not an absolute garbage fire, the Gigabyte PSU is probably perfectly fine.

- - - Updated - - -

As for the DRP4 - nope. Wont fit in a PC-011 according to the specs on the boxes (check around and see if people have installed it anyway, often the specs are... well, lets not call it "wrong" but conservative, on purpose, to try to prevent issues). The PC-011 says it supports 155mm cooler height and the DRP4 is 165. the regular DR4 is 160.

So, it may actually fit and Lian Li is just hedging their bets, but definitely search around first and see if someone has made it fit and see if they had to do modifications to do so.

If you want to stick to water cooling, any 240mm AIO (or 360) should be fine.

The 011 is really meant to be used with water cooling.

[revolver]

Thanks all.

I've decided to just go for the 5900X since it seems like a better value than a 5800X with just $100 more. I tend to stick to the same CPU for a decade and upgrade just GPU + Monitor.

For the GPU, I now have the following parts.

Asus TUF RTX 3080

MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3070

GigaByte AORUS RTX 3070


I have a 28in 4K monitor that I am going to use for productivity (mostly Excel) along with a new monitor (I haven't found one yet but I am guessing either 28in, 1440p, 144Hz or 34in ultrawide, 1440p, 144Hz). Do you think I should go with the Asus TUF RTX 3080 ($200 more) or stick to the MSI or Gigabyte RTX 3070? I currently have an MSI MAG 570X Tomahawk motherboard which I can switch if there is something better.

Currently I see 2 options:

Option 1: 5900X + MSI RTX 3070 + MSI MAG X570 board
Option 2: 5900X + ASUS RTX 3080 + MSI MAG X570 board (I can switch to Asus if that changes any performance)



Also, I am not sure about curved monitor for excel use. I heard some people say it can be disorienting. How much should I be spending on a 28in, 1440p, 144Hz monitor? Any good deal on a monitor right now?

Sorry, I am really being indecisive at the moment. I would've preferred to stay around 2k but I think I can convince my wife with those additional RGBs and Lian Li case.....

Thanks again for all your help!

[Kagthul]

If you're going to go with the Ultrawide, then the 3080. The 3070 might come up a bit short there, as that is about 75% of the way to 4K in terms of pixels to push.

There is not really any likleyhood that switching motherboards is going to net you performance of any kind, and the Tomahawk is a fine board. I honestly wouldn't even go for the x570 version just because there's nothing there to benefit you and it costs more. The B550 version would be fine.

And as for performance between various versions of the same card... there's not likely to be any meaningful difference until you get into really exotic cards like a Kingpin or something.

[Kagthul]

Also, if you want to stick with the PC-O11 look but dont want to deal with liquid cooling and would prefer the Dark Rock Pro 4 air cooler..

Hardware Canucks just reviewed the new PC-O11 Mini, and it apparently will fit the DRP4 (hes using it in the video).

It can also slide the motherboard mount up and down, its pretty neat. ANd its 99$.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7RL...ardwareCanucks