I’m looking to build a new PC for game development with Unreal Engine 5. The maximum amount I want to spend is €3,000. Additionally, due to space constraints, I’ve decided on Mini-ITX.
In general, is this a reasonable setup for working with UE5 (3D games with Ray Tracing)? Or should something be optimized? I have somewhat limited knowledge in this area, so I’m grateful for any help!
As sleek & handsome this case is, the small form factor may become a nuisance. It’s not going to be fun to build .
is this a reasonable setup for working with UE5
It’s a powerful and well rounded system, no doubt, and with an excellent power supply to boot, but…
One note, 8pin EPS can provide up to 235W, the TDP of the 7950X is 170W. That’s TDP, though, not the theoretical power draw. The wattage is closer to 230W. See where I am going with this. It’s a power hungry monster CPU.
If you attempt to manually overclock or that 280mm loop somehow manages to keep the temps down in that small case, the boost clocks may creep up so much the CPU may come close to the hardware power limit. I’ve seen people pushing 7950x beyond 5.3GHz on all cores. Taking the silicon lottery into account where not all CPUs are identical, breaching 300W is not impossible. Do have a quick read on AMD’s PBO. Now, I’m talking about a fringe case scenario and dramatising a bit, ofc. It would be fine 99.9% of the time, surely.
But I find it hard to recommend the E in X670E, 450 Euro for a mobo is steep, indeed. And nothing (?) will be able to take advantage of PCIe 5.0 for another couple of years. Not the 4080 that you’re surely not replacing anytime soon, right?
tl;dr:
consider a larger case
consider a cheaper x670 chipset (or even an ATX B650 mobo) rather than the edgy x670E
optionally, invest the overflow cash into an additional ssd. Direct Storage is a reality now. Try getting an extra 1 TB SSD that pushes beyond 6GBs. The WD_BLACK SN850X is now mature enough to find bargains on, for example. It can be added later, ofc.
Thank you very much for your very detailed response! Taking your suggestions into account, I have updated my list. You can find the current list here:
The following changes have been made:
The motherboard has been replaced with the more affordable “ASUS TUF Gaming B650-Plus.”
The power supply has been upgraded to a stronger 850W one (be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850W ATX 3.0).
An additional SSD (Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD 1TB, M.2) has been added.
Unfortunately, I have to keep the case (be quiet! Pure Base 500) in the same size, as I don’t have the space for something larger. I hope that’s still okay with the current setup.
What do you think? Can it stay this way? This even puts me a little under my maximum budget
The power supply has been upgraded to a stronger 850W one (be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850W ATX 3.0).
It was more about the motherboard than the PSU, which was fine, me thinks. This one comes with a whopping 10 year warranty, nice. Keeping it quiet may be important if the case does sit on top of the desk. The TUF mobos have decent enough reputation, afaik.
for any new builds don’t underestimate the AI both for generated images and running unlocked chatgpt like models that can run locally/offline. Take those requirements in consideration, push the VRAM as much higher as you can afford.
blender for example will be able to generate meshes and textures with AI
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Thank you very much! You have really helped me a lot!