PC build help - workstation-gaming

[ZeroGroundZero]

Hello all,

Fairly new to PH and judging by the amount of replies in this section of the forum it looks to be well populated with knowledgeable types


I'm looking to build myself a desktop PC which I can use for work when working from home, and also for personal gaming use at the weekends.

The type of work tasks I'll be looking to use it for are CAD, 3D modelling/rendering and video editing.
For the weekends the type of gaming I'll be looking to do are mainly flight sims, possibly some car racing sims and 1st person shooters.


So after reading the internet I can mainly only find stuff about either a workstation build or a gaming build, but not something that can easily handle both.

I'm not exactly looking for top of the line ultimate speed/performance on this build, just something that would comfortably do the above tasks and run the latest sims/shooters etc. with ease.

So with that in mind I guess I'm looking for best value for money rather than a deep wallet high budget, given that PCs run out of date within a few years anyways.
Its been a good 10 years since my last build, I'm a bit out of touch with current performance vs prices, so wondering if the above is possible within £1500?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[alorotom]

Surely you just need a gaming build as this will encompass all the needs of the workstation whereas the workstation build likely wouldn't be upto par for gaming??

[ZeroGroundZero]

alorotom said:

Surely you just need a gaming build as this will encompass all the needs of the workstation whereas the workstation build likely wouldn't be upto par for gaming??

That was my initial thought but having read a few articles it seems a workstation build has certain processors and internal bias for large amounts of computational tasks, such as CAD rendering, whereas the game builds are focussed on the graphics cards.

I can't remember where I read it but I think one article mentioned if I started with a workstation build and then fitted a gaming graphics card then you couldn't go wrong. But I guess I'm wanting to gather other opinions or if anyone on here has gone down similar path to what I am after ?

[Hoofy]

alorotom said:

Surely you just need a gaming build as this will encompass all the needs of the workstation whereas the workstation build likely wouldn't be upto par for gaming??

That's what I thought.

It's like when you find out someone has bought a new phone for £1k because it's more powerful than everything else but they only really use it for posting on Instabook, rather than playing 3D games.

[phil4]

I think within reason a decent gaming PC should manage to act as a workstation.

For example a Quadro P5000 has 16Gb RAM, but if you need that, buy a Titan RTX with 24Gb.

There will be limits, some specific CAD software might insist on a Quadro graphics card rather than a GeForce. But in essence it's the same CUDA cores they use in both cards. I guess if you need 28 cores, then the 14/18 core limit on i9's might restrict you if you're sticking with Intel.

But in terms of horsepower, upto a (very expensive) point a reasonable spec'd gaming PC will be as good as if not better than a similar price workstation.

As for £1500, that'll buy you a reasonable PC... to get some ideas, try https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/custom/gaming/pc#anc

[paulwoof]

agree with other comments, There isnt really a defining line between gaming/workstation until you get into very specialised stuff, Gaming type stuff is just generally branded and marketed to the gaming side through RGB lights and fancy looking things, The hardware itself is effectively the same unless your workstation is required for very specialised tasks on a high level. Thats where the quadro's and HEDT's come in.

Just a side note as you mentioned flight sims and alike, Performance on these is generally limited by single core CPU performance due to how they operate. for this Intel CPU's are usually the winner here (the i5/i7/i9 unlocked K chips are the popular variants) but the new Ryzen 3000 series are now only marginally behind and significantly cheaper as well as motherboards.

[ZeroGroundZero]

Good replies cheers.

Just been watching this vid on youtube (link below) - it has a build spec in the info below the vid.
Seems to be reasonable value , but to be a good game PC as well as the workstation that is listed, what graphics card would you guys recommend?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qsZCp_sJYM

[paulwoof]

a quick run through would be:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/g4VzNq

Im not up to date with where all the graphics cards sit what with nvidia bringing out a million different refreshes and bumping pricing up in each category, The new AMD 5700xt seems to get good reviews although AMD GPU's always seem to be a bit more hassle than nvidias, but iteats out nvidia's 2060 Super for less money. but depends really what resolution monitor you will be looking at using,at 1080p it will be overkill, You could save some money there, 1440p and you will be sorted for some time to come.

Many of the parts are interchangeable, just happens to be stuff ive used and had good experiences with, not to say there arent other options.

black fridays up at the end of the month, may be worth waiting to see if anything comes up, although graphics cards seem to rarely go on offer.