PC-Build for CORONA & 3Ds MAX, Help me

[danielhagene]

I'm about to do a new build for my home computer, optimized for modelling in MAX and rendering with Corona (arch-viz, heavy scenes). Does anyone have any tips on what components should or could be switched out/in? Unsure about the graphics card, is it overkill?

Case: Corsair Obsidian 500D Tempered Mid Tower
Power: Corsair TX750M, 750W PSU
Processor:AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X
Cooling: Deepcool Castle 280 RGB
Graphics: ASUS GeForce RTX 2080 Turbo
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X399-E Gaming, Socket-TR4
RAM: HyperX Fury DDR4 2666MHz 32GB x2

Is it safe to buy two sets of RAM? Or should I buy a 64GB set?
And last thing; Back when I went to school everyone used to say that Intel was better than AMD when it came to 3Ds MAX, is that just hear-say? If not, why?

[JViz]

Hi

why are you buying the 2950x? get 3900x, it's newer faster and cheaper.

[danielhagene]

Was looking at the Threadripper 2970WX, but its too expensive so I just went down the threadripper line to 2950. But ye, looking at the benchmarks the 3900x seems like a more reasonable choice.

Thanks! :)

Any tips for a graphics card? I dont want to spend too much on a card that is OP for what I'm doing. Not going to play any 4K games on the side.

[3dboomerang]

I got the best advice ever on a forum when posting my computer: get a secondhand GTX 1080Ti, it has 11Gb Vram and it's running my max urban scenes, which are heavy, smooth like a baby's a$$.

I paid 400€ for it, worth every euro. New graphic cards that have 11Gb Vram are 1000€ and more atm...

[Juraj]

There are I believe two threads at least where low-end Threadripper 29xx is compared to high-end Ryzen 39xx.

In short: (Rest of answers are in those respective threads)

- Ryzen 3900X and 3950X right now are better choice than 2950X/2970WX in terms of price and single-core performance.
- But the platform itself (Ryzen runs on AM4, Threadripper on TR4) while offering some very expensive motherboards as well and of newer generation (X570, only necessary for 3950X) is more inferior because it's only dual-channel and support only 4-DIMMs (and less PCI-e lanes, but this is non-issue).
- What this mean in practicality is, that if you want to run fast 128GB memory, it is very easy to do so on Threadripper ( 8x 16GB 2933MHz CL15-16 memory kits) and very complicated for Ryzen ( 4x 32GB 2600 CL 16). The fast 32GB Modules at 2933 MHz CL 16 are not rated to be run at 128GB configuration, maybe because they are 1.35V, hard to know. It could work, it probably won't, and wouldn't be stable.

And that leads to last point, both Threadripper and Ryzen need 2933 MHz memory at least to run at full speed esp. with Corona. With 64GB that is also the fastest speed for Threadripper, Ryzen could run on 3200 if the board has good VRM (VRM is for both CPU and Memory). Not 2666.

So if you always need only 64GB, get Ryzen, nothing to ponder. But if you'll need 128GB, Threadripper is still better choice. This is all it comes down to right now.

[romullus]

Ryzen could run on 3200 if the board has good VRM (VRM is for both CPU and Memory). Not 2666.

Is this only aplicable to X570 boards? I've tried to search for 64GB kits, compatible with X470 boards, but without much success. At least nothing in the 3000-3200 range. But of course, my hardware knowledge is extremely limited, so maybe i don't know what to look for.

[Juraj]

You don't need Ryzen compatible memory, that's just marketing, if I understand what you are asking. If not, sorry.
Two years ago those Ryzen kits were mostly expensive Samsung B-Die yields which proved to be more stable than others and Ryzen was very picky.

But since then situation has changed and you can get pretty much any memory running.

So you can use any 3000-3200MHz 64GB Kit that you will find. My rule, is to always buy the cheapest memory. Always works :- ). Difference between cheap Corsair LPX 3000 CL15 and G-Skill 3000 CL15 with double the price is only that the latter was "maybe" hand-picked, chosen from better performing yields and the only practical benefit is that it might be overclockable.
No one sensible overclocks memory anyway.

I mentioned the VRM only because faster and higher capacity memory puts lot more stress onto memory controller. That's the reason why 64-128GB 3200MHz is not stable with Threadripper 2990WX for example. While single 4GB module can run even at 4600 MHz I guess for Ryzen :- ). So the boards with stronger VRM dedicated to memory should be able to have much better chance of running faster memory stable.

[romullus]

Ah, that's great to hear! I thought that if RAM kit is not on motherboards QVL list, then it's incompatible with that board and will not work.

[Juraj]

Ah, that's great to hear! I thought that if RAM kit is not on motherboards QVL list, then it's incompatible with that board and will not work.

It really used to be the case 2 years ago. But even then QVLs are incomplete and you can read between lines and extrapolate.

For example, maybe they tested Corsair "CMR64GX4M4B3000C15" but you can only find "CMR64GX4M4C3000C15" in your local shops. The only thing that changes was 'B'  to 'C' which in Corsair means just another generation of the same memory. If B worked, than C, D, and so on will work as well.
Or maybe instead of CMR it will some different 3 letters, and it's basically just heatsink or RGB difference, same modules.
Or they tested only 32GB Kit, but not 64GB of same, or just dual-channel instead of quad-channel.

The QVL are just safety but because they often feature very few modules you can actually buy in Europe, they are almost useless. When I bought MSI, the QVL was 95perc. of Memory brands I have never even heard of. There are only 3 DRAM manufacturers in world right now (4th will enter) so there is big chance that something not on QVL is just sold under different brand.
So I took a risk and bought different one, worked just fine. Then year later bought different set because the original stopped production, and they work together as well.

Of course, nothing is ever guaranteed which is why it is good idea to buy from e-shop Vendors where you can return the product easily. I have this local e-shop here where I returned 4 server kits in one week because the Asus WS Xeon board was too picky :- ). The lady didn't understood word of what I wrote as reason for returning but I always got my money back in 10 minutes and went home with new kit to try.

But your Ryzen experience will not be so problematic. But if you buy older X470 board, update the bios first to latest possible. Lot of the updates are just memory compatibility improvements.

[romullus]

Thanks for the valuable information Juraj! It will help me great deal when time will come to pick components for new PC. I probably will buy RAM from amazon, it might be pricier than in my local shops, but it will be much easier to return goods, if such need will arise.

[Juraj]

Just one word of caution (you probably know but just in case because I had certain luck for dishonest people this summer..), Amazon has both private sellers and is seller directly.
If you have option to buy from 'Amazon warehouse' vs private seller, go for the Amazon directly.

If the price difference is much better in favor of private seller, check if the seller isn't some newly registered scammer selling all sorts of odd stuff from memory to mattraces.

Amazon offers certain protection, but it's not like PayPal you can use in eBay that will 99perc. side with you and instantly returns your money. With Amazon you would have to use Credit card to have same level of protection.

I never had any scam from Amazon but I 90perc. of time buy directly from Amazon Warehouse, not private sellers, but I've seen few obvious scammers there when the price was "too good to be true".

[romullus]

Oh wow, i definitely didn't know that you can get scammed when buying from amazon. Thanks a bunch for letting me know that, for sure i will be extra cautious now. Actually, i never bought anything from amazon yet, but i thought that it's super safe to shop there, even when you buy from third party sellers. Apparently not so much.

[JoeVallard]

I've seen over on the AMD Reddit page some people ordering Ryzen CPU or Radeon Cards and in the box ends up being older parts 5+ years.

As for building a PC, at this point unless you absolutely need a computer right now. Its probably just better wait till next month. The 3950x will be out and we will get a better sample size of benchmarks and hopefully we will see some info on Threadripper 3000.

[danielhagene]

Ok, so here's the new build with the 3900x. Anything that should or could be better or worse?

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i RGB Platinum
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero, S-AM4
Graphics: ASUS GeForce RTX 2070 ROG STRIX
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600MHz 64GB
Power: Corsair TX750M, 750W PSU

Another question:
I found a RAM-set of 128GB at he same price as the 64GB set.
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600MHz 64GB
4x16GB DDR4 3600MHz (PC4-28800) CL18, XMP 2.0
vs
HyperX Fury DDR4 2666MHz 128GB
8x16GB 2666MHz (PC4-21300) DDR4 CL16
I realize that the 128GB set is slower, but would it be noticeable?

[Juraj]

Danielhagene,

please read my post about memory for AM4 again more carefully.

- You only have 4 memory slots. You can't use 8 modules with 4 slots. So to have 128 GB of memory, you need to use 32 GB modules. Those came to market only one month ago, only sold by Corsair (they are made by Samsung only).
- And the kit rated for 128GB is too slow for Ryzen. Have a look at this graph, I highlighted the in red the only one rated to work 128 GB.
- So unless someone tests using 2x time the 1.35V kits and proves it is stable (but if it was, Corsair would be selling it that way directly, which they aren't and that tells us something).




Regarding speed in general, Ryzen does support up to 4200 MHz, but not at 64GB capacity. The highest stable speed for 64GB is +/- 3200MHz. You can of course buy faster memory and try running it and if it crashes, just lower the speed in bios. At that point you will just waste money on expensive memory. 3600 will not provide any benefit over 2933(3000)/3200, but 2666 is slow.

Same advice as always, if you believe you need 128 GB of memory, don't buy Ryzen, buy Threadriper.