Work Chill ð
Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far, and that you enjoy this great track specifically focused on getting the right vibes for work and/or study.
Let's take a look at what I, as a non-tech professional, would put together for a future-proofing, high-end creative workstation (if I were ready for the pain... watch ð ).
AMD Threadripper Pro 3975 WX
The AMD 3975WX (32 core, 64 thread) CPU should be more than enough to power through almost all modern creative workflows. It currently retails around AU$4,000. There is a 64 core unit retailing around AU$8,800, but unless the workload is at the highest end of video and/or 3D animation, you might not ever need to go that far. The 3975WX has all the latest bells and whistles of course, including the AMD Memory Guard security feature. Basically, a beastly CPU.
ASUS Sage WRX80E Board
Although the product shot here shows a wifi antenna, most people using a system like this would probably spend most of the time hooked up to a high speed ethernet network. This particular motherboard has absolutely everything I could ask for, as well as plenty of expansion options if ever needed. Currently retailing at around AU$1,600, it would probably make the best partner for the 3975WX to ensure maximum future-proofing moving forward.
3090 GPU
At this stage in the game, with the 4000 series seeming likely to launch before the global GPU prices stabilise again at anything near the recommended retail prices, I wouldn't buy this card. But if I were under pressure to complete a system like this right away, then some version of the 3090 GPU would have to be the way to go if 3D modelling and rendering, and video creation at high resolutions, were required. Mind you, the specific card pictured currently retails for AU$4,000 (yes, as much as the very high-end workstation CPU ðĪŠ ).
64 - 128 GB RAM
In none of the workflows that I've currently tried to experience or learn about have I come anywhere near needing to exceed 64GB of RAM (which I'm currently running). At least for the things I've tried to do, RAM hasn't been the bottleneck. But I suppose there may be a need in the not-too-distant future for 128GB or more. And so if I were to invest this much into a creative workstation, then I would probably go with a 128GB kit like this one (currently retailing around AU$1,750). The price tally has already made me dizzy, but those are just the core bits so far, nowhere near the full system yet.
Power Supply
There are already rumours that the next generation of GPU's might need something like 600W of power at the top end. To put that into perspective, my current system (AMD 3900X and 3060Ti) has never needed to draw more than around 400W combined, maybe not even that much. So again, for the sake of future proofing as many components as possible, I would probably go with a power supply like the one pictured (retailing at AU$839. It's fully modular, energy efficient and has a 10yr warranty.
Storage
The 2TB NVMe on the left would be more than enough for OS and the most common design and development software, serving as a pretty stable system drive. It retails around AU$710. The very large 18TB HDD below would also be way more than enough for an internal storage drive for actual working files in almost all cases I think, with most files in a production environment likely found on some sort of server setup rather than an individual workstation. That specific unit retails at AU$1,040.
So why don't I just upgrade?
- I am pretty certain that parts like the GPU and CPU will be outclassed by the next gen, which might get here pretty soon (6-12 months possibly), and I am not in a huge rush;
- If you've been adding up the price tally as we went along, you would have reached a figure around $15,000 to $20,000, without many important things like a case to put it all in, a display of decent quality, and more, so I need to be sure my work and profitability would justify that kind of spend on a system in the short-term (irrespective of what long-term projections look like).
3. Even if I could get together that kind of money for a single system, and didn't need anything else more important to go with it all, I wouldn't yet be able to justify it based on the fact that my current system is handling all but my experimental/learning tasks perfectly fine.
And so eventually, when the work demands it, the budget is there, and the growth of the site and MOOVPAD project itself justify it, I might go with a system like this (if not for me then for the person doing the 3D and creative things). At which point, there would probably be more than one of these bad boys needed (likely quite a few), and that is a terrifying prospect in itself! For now though, my little battler of a system is looking better all the time, right? ðĪĢ
Stay awesome,
EMH