HARDWARE UPDATE

Hi everyone! :D

Finally, let's talk about hardware, and see how your amazing support is helping me!

Many components I have been using until today, come from my very first build back in 2017, with a tight budget, and no intention to make any heavy rendering.

Now that I heavily stress my PC every single day, I've decided to pick components that will last me a little while, and that will allow me to realize more powerful builds in the future.
I know some of you are as passionate about hardware as I am, so let's dig in!

CPU

I have chosen a Ryzen 5 3600.
It's not a definitive choice: I've realized that the Zen 3 architecture will bring us great upgrades once again. So I'll wait for a Ryzen 7 4700X or a Ryzen 9 4900X to go out, and for their prices to drop, and I'll get one of those.
I do not render with my CPU: Iray only wants GPUs.
But I do need it to set up the scenes. And that's a single-threaded workload, so there was no need right now to opt for a Ryzen 7.
I've seen a -24% improvement in loading and clearing times, and that's huge (on some scenes, we're talking about minutes, and I do that countless times every week).

CPU COOLER

I've chosen an Arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO. Apparently, it's the best one in the mid-budget category. So far, so good: it's silent, easy to mount, and it keeps the temperatures low.

MEMORY

I've gone with 32GB of 3600MHz C16 RAM (2x16).
There are situations where I need more, but I'll always be able to add two more sticks down the line, without losing much overclock room.

MOTHERBOARD

Well, this is painful. I've never spent this much on a single piece of hardware that wasn't a GPU: ASUS TUF X570 WiFi.
But I'm happy of the purchase: so far, it's great under every aspect.
I was worried about the fan, but it's inaudible even at 2400rpm.
I know it's overkill for a 3600, but I won't have to change mobo anytime soon.
It'll surely support the 4000 series, maybe the 5000 or even the 6000 one.
It has so many functions I didn't even know existed (I love the fan curve control), the included WiFi and Bluetooth are top-notch.
There are many fan headers, so I didn't need to buy any switch.
The overclock is very easy and stable (at least compared to the low-budget boards I've used so far). I easily brought the 3600 from 3.6 to 4.2GHz, and the RAM from 3600 to 3800MHz.
It has PCIe 4.0 (maybe one day I'll get a faster SSD for the Daz library? I can't complain of my current Samsung 860 QVO), but more interestingly it has 2 PCIe x16 slots.
Current GPUs don't come even near to saturate a x16 PCIe 4.0 slot, but 3000 GPUs may use that.
Regarding Iray, high bandwidth reduced the time needed to start a render, but, more importantly, gives a much more responsive viewport (that nowadays it's not responsive at all).

CASE

The Fractal Design Define C is absolutely great!
Yep, I know, the front is not open, so some people are worried about airflow.
But I like a sober aesthetic, and it has noise absorbing foam all over.
It also supports 140mm fans, so the final result is very silent.
The airflow seems good to me, the temperatures are lower than what I'm used to.
It has dust filters all over, and the cable management is very easy.
The materials are also good.

FANS

I've currently installed 3 fans, all PWM and from Corsair line of magnetic levitation fans: 1x120mm behind, and 2x140mm on the front.
I wouldn't have thought that a 140mm fan could move that much hair with such a low noise.
I could add two more 140mm fans on the top if I needed them, but I'm currently keeping it closed.

PSU

My goal would be to have a Ryzen 9 and two high-end GPUs one day, and a PSU can last for many generations.
I found a great sale for the Corsair HX1200I, and so I took it. It should support everything I'll need, and it's very high quality.

My GPU is still the RTX 2060. I run out of VRAM sometimes, but with some optimizing it still does its job.
This surely is one of the worst times to buy a GPU, since the next generation is not far away.
If I'll get a RTX 3080 one day, I won't retire the RTX 2060, but I'll use it together with the 3080, since the motherboard and the power supply can handle two GPUs.

I hope I didn't screw up any choice, let me know what you think, if you want!

I wish you all a great day,
LenioTG :D