I'm building a PC for productivity purposes such as video editing (DaVinci Resolve), Virtual Machines and coding. I need some help choosing the motherboard and graphics card. I'm also considering an extra GPU for a VM but I'm thinking it might be unnecessary.
Motherboard
This is what I'm thinking of:
- Three PCI-E X16 slots
- Three or more M.2 slots with PCI-E Gen 4
- WiFi and Bluetooth
- Decent Rear I/O - multiple fast USB ports (10 Gbps) and at least one Type-C port
- No heatsink fan if possible
Budget: ~ $450 (ideally less)
Maybe I'm asking for too much here and maybe I don't need all of these specs however I'd like some future proofing. The MSI MPG X570S EDGE MAX WIFI motherboard seems suitable however there doesn't appear to be enough PCI-E bandwidth for two GPUs? I also like the ASUS ROG STRIX X570-E GAMING WIFI II motherboard but it only has two M.2 slots.
There is currently a $90 difference between the two boards. The ASUS is 5000 series ready so I assume no BIOS update required.
Graphics card
I need some recommendations. At a minimum, it needs to support two 4K monitors (three would be ideal) and 4K video editing.
Budget: $800
Recommendations on other parts would be appreciated. I have already purchased the 5950x, a Corsair RM850x and 3200MHz C16 32GB RAM.
Based on your I/O needs, it sounds like you'll need a workstation class (e.g. 5995WX) platform.
The 5950X only has 40 PCIe lanes, 24 directly from the CPU, and 16 via the chipset.
You're looking for 3 x 16 lanes + 3 x 4 lanes = 60 lanes, so significantly more than what the platform can offer.
The boards that you've linked (and others that could exist) will be using PCH chips to split out the PCIe lanes, but be aware of the limitations that has for the sort of professional applications you're doing. Even then, I don't think there are any boards that would be offering up to 60 PCIe lanes in total.
The futureproofing comment also doesn't make any sense either. You're already buying into a product that is out-of-date, and when comes the time that you realistically need that sort of I/O, the 5950X will already be many generations behind. You're better off getting a 7900X, which is a similar price to the 5950X, it'll have similar performance (despite the core deficit), and you'll have features such as DDR5, PCIe Gen 5…etc. which will ease the need for lanes (as you can get the same throughput with less lanes) and you'll have a platform that is (hopefully) supported for generations to come.
Sinking $500 into a motherboard for a dead platform sounds ludicrous to me.
EDIT: Only read now that you already bought the 5950X, in which case, I would suggest buying the cheapest motherboard available. When it comes time that you need more I/O, you realistically should be upgrading the platform at that point in time.