Note: I was not sponsored or given any of the components either for free or at any discount in this post, I just want to share my personal opinion about my last computer build!
Why build your own Computer?
I have always liked building my own computers, I feel that it gives me more control over optimization of that machine that I want to work on and the joy of combining parts into a computer is maybe something that started already when I was building LEGO as a child. Furthermore it’s a affordable way of maximizing you performance to affordability. Julian Erksmeyer helped me select components and build the computer in Prague a couple of weeks ago.
We decided for DDR4 ram although DDR5 has already been around for a while, mainly because I wanted 128 GB and from what I had read and heard DDR5 is not yet stable at 128 GB. I might however in a year or two buy a new motherboard and upgrade the ram to 256 GB or more DDR5 ram.
Components Used
CPU: 1x Intel Core i9-13900K
Motherboard: 1x MSi PRO Z790-P (ddr4 version)
RAM: 1x G.SKILL RipJaws 5 Series F4-3200C16Q-128GVK 128 GB
CPU Cooler:1x Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler
PSU: 1x Seasonic Prime PX 1000W
Fans: 1xNoctua NF-A12x25 LS-PMW
Fans #2: 2xNoctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PMW
GraphicsCard: 1x Gigabyte 4090 GAMING OC
Case: 1x Fractal Design Define R6 (I wanted Fractal North, but sold out everywhere at the time)
SSD System: 1x 2 TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD (MZ-V9P2T0BW), 2 TB
SSD Storage: 1x 4TB Crucial P3 Plus 4TB M.4
Total cost ca 5 000 EURO including VAT
Problems
As always with building your own computer there are some quirks and work arounds you have to consider. There were no major problems this time but there is one issue that I already knew about before starting the build. The new massive graphics card I decided to go for, mainly for video editing, has it’s power connector located on the side of the case. It is a pretty tight spot to put the cable and there are many reported cases of cables melting because of a too strong bend in the case. So I will be running my machine with an open door until my angled adapter will arrive from CableMod hopefully in the next few weeks!
After Using it for a Week
So how much faster is it actually? Well I notice that Photoshop still eats memory like a horse for my big files. On my previous build (2019) I had 64 GB ram and Photoshop would constantly eat all of that when I worked on large files. Pretty much the same happens now with 128 GB ram but it’s still much faster than before, maybe the faster hard drives helps a bit as well. Some comparison with my previous build:
System Startup: before 20 seconds, now 12 seconds
Photoshop Launch time: before 10 seconds, now 4 seconds
Open one of my large PSB files: before 01:45 min, now 01:10 min
Open another of my large PSB files: before 01:52 min, now 01:13 min
Save one of my large PSB files: before 12:51 min, now 10:25 min
So what does this say? Well it seems Photoshop is still not very optimized to todays technology, it’s very seldom that the CPU or GPU has to start working hard (100%) in Photoshop, it still mostly seems to be the speed and amount of RAM that matters, and to some extend the speed of the harddrives when the RAM gets used up and it has to rely on the scratch disk. The GPU is however very useful when editing and rendering videos.
Furthermore I had major problems using After Effects on Windows 11, it kept crashing and re-booting my system, completely unusable! I went back to Windows 10 and it works perfectly with After Effects, not sure if this is a Windows or Adobe problem but it’s for sure not playing well together. So stay off Windows 11 if you need to use After Effects!
I’m not much of a gamer anymore but it was nice to fly Flight Sim on ultra graphics smoothly while cruising over my hometown and Prague.
