Log Meshalicious 3060ti Upgrade Project

[TinMegamiSensei]

Hello Everyone, first post and I am pretty sure if I don't get a good answer here I'll never get one.

About 3-4 years ago I built my first grown up games system, and it's been fairly good up to now. I can generally get medium/high settings 1440p or sometimes 4k with the help of DLSS in performance.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
NZXT Kraken Z63 98.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Asus ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL17 Memory
Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Samsung 980 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB Video Card
SSUPD Meshlicious (PCIe 4.0) Mini ITX Tower Case
Corsair SF750 (2018) 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply

I have since bought an LG C4 77" and with the PS5 Pro launching I'm looking at what my options are for upgrading to a 4080 Super/4070 Super TI to outclass the playstation for a while longer, with a view to potentially upgrading the CPU and MOBO in a few years maybe. I have a PS5 and from what I've seen the PS5 Pro is probably overall not going to make things look as good as they do now and hit around 60fps, so the value doesn't seem to be there in that upgrade.

From my limited knowledge and experience I reckon I should probably be upgrading the RAM to 2 x16 GB sticks and putting a new GPU in there.

However I can also see that none of the cards above some 4070 super TIs will fit in my case.

Getting close to 120fps in 4k on most games would be more than enough for me, though I suspect my CPU is a bottleneck somewhere along the line. I'd be happy enough with 60FPS + if I could crank the settings up.

So I suppose, to drill it down:

• What GPU should I be looking at. I fancy a 4080 Super, the Pro Art seems a good pick.
• Should I put in more RAM? 32 GB DDR4 3600 is my thinking
• Am I resigned to moving out of the Meshalicious case? I have had a look at a Mesh Roomy but I'm not sure which one. Lian Li A3 MaTX, Fractal Terra, something along those lines are the ideal replacement. I like the idea of a Fractal Ridge but PC Part Picker seems to rule it out, although it doesn't rule out other incompatible cases.

Any help is appreciated, I'm in no rush and I can do this properly.

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

a) Well, more RAM is always good. Right now, all the builds I do get at least 32 GB. My main system got 64 GB, which was one of the best things I ever did to myself.

Although the original thought was to use it for running VMs in parallel, 2 years forward, I only occassionally run VMs, because most of the applications that'd profit from a VM are either directly available or come with some kind of sandbox.
One certainly could use this amount of memory more efficiently, eg. by adding a RAM disk and then shoving the whole main system into it, or important applications, etc., but its a learning process, esp. when always having been the person who was left on the backburner in terms of good hardware (because, guess what, money doesnt grow on trees yet?).

b) Re: GPU, I cannot really help you, because I'm no gamer, but the ProArt certainly looks like a solid choice, esp. in terms of size. The aesthetics are just a nice bonus.

In terms of size, officially its up to 336 mm length, but in theory, you might even be able to cram something up to 355 mm in. The Meshroom S supports that, which is basically just an updated version, incorporating all the tricks, hacks and mods people have had established the last few years since the initial release of the original Meshlicious.

There is a comparison on Geizhals between the original Meshi, the Meshroom S and the Meshroom S V2: https://geizhals.de/?cmp=2605004&cmp=3105569&cmp=2801203&active=1

With that behemoth of cooling solution, you should be good with anything but a non-tamed 14900K
If you want to stay on the AM4 platform, the next best thing you can do to yourself would be a 5800X3D, or the easier to come by 5700X3D.

In terms of actual performance, you might want to take a look at this recent video by Hardware Unboxed, which tries to explain the GPU vs. CPU bottleneck in more detail:

c) Move out of the Meshi: I dont think you need to, except if you want to go smaller or have a different setup or approach in mind, eg. getting more portable.

If "more portable" is the goal, then something like the S400 V2 (ditch liquid cooling for air cooling; 10.8L), Lian Li/Dan A4-H2O (downsize liquid cooling; 11L) or the SFFTime P-ATX V3 (air cooling, maybe 120 mm AIO; 10.4L) should do.

If "beefier GPU" is the goal, you could stay with the Meshi (4 slot = approx 83 mm, 335 mm,with mods up to 355), or take a glance at the M2, N-ATX or various other cases in the 14 - 18L range. Although there seem to be not many below 20L that allow for that.

If "nicer aesthetics" is the goal, then its totally up to you, IDK your taste of fashion and art

But to me, sth. like the Fractal Design Era 2, or the Terra, look indeed "warmer" in aesthetics than say, the very industrial-looking A4-H2O. Could also go for the Hyte 3, which certainly has a different look than the Meshi. Yet another different style would be the Cooler Master NCORE 100 Max, or the Ncase M2 "Cheese grater". Maybe your budget even allows for something like the McPrue Apollo series, which acc. to a lot of other folks, pulls of the Mac Pro aesthetics extremely well.

PCPartPicker is all nice n dandy, but only a good help when it comes for the generic layout stuff, and the potential wattage and cost calculations. I'd rather head over to the SFF PC Master List, which lists an enormous amount of cases, with lots of filter options, some being available easily in the wild, some via Ali Express, and some are gone out of production, but pop up occassionally in the used / second hand market.

cu, w0lf.

 

[TinMegamiSensei]

a) Well, more RAM is always good. Right now, all the builds I do get at least 32 GB. My main system got 64 GB, which was one of the best things I ever did to myself.

Although the original thought was to use it for running VMs in parallel, 2 years forward, I only occassionally run VMs, because most of the applications that'd profit from a VM are either directly available or come with some kind of sandbox.
One certainly could use this amount of memory more efficiently, eg. by adding a RAM disk and then shoving the whole main system into it, or important applications, etc., but its a learning process, esp. when always having been the person who was left on the backburner in terms of good hardware (because, guess what, money doesnt grow on trees yet?).

b) Re: GPU, I cannot really help you, because I'm no gamer, but the ProArt certainly looks like a solid choice, esp. in terms of size. The aesthetics are just a nice bonus.

In terms of size, officially its up to 336 mm length, but in theory, you might even be able to cram something up to 355 mm in. The Meshroom S supports that, which is basically just an updated version, incorporating all the tricks, hacks and mods people have had established the last few years since the initial release of the original Meshlicious.

There is a comparison on Geizhals between the original Meshi, the Meshroom S and the Meshroom S V2: https://geizhals.de/?cmp=2605004&cmp=3105569&cmp=2801203&active=1

With that behemoth of cooling solution, you should be good with anything but a non-tamed 14900K
If you want to stay on the AM4 platform, the next best thing you can do to yourself would be a 5800X3D, or the easier to come by 5700X3D.

In terms of actual performance, you might want to take a look at this recent video by Hardware Unboxed, which tries to explain the GPU vs. CPU bottleneck in more detail:

c) Move out of the Meshi: I dont think you need to, except if you want to go smaller or have a different setup or approach in mind, eg. getting more portable.

If "more portable" is the goal, then something like the S400 V2 (ditch liquid cooling for air cooling; 10.8L), Lian Li/Dan A4-H2O (downsize liquid cooling; 11L) or the SFFTime P-ATX V3 (air cooling, maybe 120 mm AIO; 10.4L) should do.

If "beefier GPU" is the goal, you could stay with the Meshi (4 slot = approx 83 mm, 335 mm,with mods up to 355), or take a glance at the M2, N-ATX or various other cases in the 14 - 18L range. Although there seem to be not many below 20L that allow for that.

If "nicer aesthetics" is the goal, then its totally up to you, IDK your taste of fashion and art

But to me, sth. like the Fractal Design Era 2, or the Terra, look indeed "warmer" in aesthetics than say, the very industrial-looking A4-H2O. Could also go for the Hyte 3, which certainly has a different look than the Meshi. Yet another different style would be the Cooler Master NCORE 100 Max, or the Ncase M2 "Cheese grater". Maybe your budget even allows for something like the McPrue Apollo series, which acc. to a lot of other folks, pulls of the Mac Pro aesthetics extremely well.

PCPartPicker is all nice n dandy, but only a good help when it comes for the generic layout stuff, and the potential wattage and cost calculations. I'd rather head over to the SFF PC Master List, which lists an enormous amount of cases, with lots of filter options, some being available easily in the wild, some via Ali Express, and some are gone out of production, but pop up occassionally in the used / second hand market.

cu, w0lf.

Thank you for a nice detailed response