Author Topic: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)  (Read 519954 times)

2019-07-17, 14:08:27
Reply #480

TomG

  • Administrator
  • Active Users
  • *****
  • Posts: 5434
    • View Profile
Ah how I remember dreaming of one day owning an SGI machine! Thank goodness those days passed :)
Tom Grimes | chaos-corona.com
Product Manager | contact us

2019-07-18, 02:25:34
Reply #481

Njen

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 557
    • View Profile
    • Cyan Eyed
I was in an office that converted the unused O2's into mini bar fridges. Very nerdy.

2019-07-19, 16:24:56
Reply #482

Juraj

  • Moderator
  • Active Users
  • ***
  • Posts: 4743
    • View Profile
    • studio website
Ah how I remember dreaming of one day owning an SGI machine! Thank goodness those days passed :)

You would still be paying mortgage :- )
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!

2019-07-19, 17:57:07
Reply #483

TomG

  • Administrator
  • Active Users
  • *****
  • Posts: 5434
    • View Profile
Haha, yes, and kicking myself for it too!
Tom Grimes | chaos-corona.com
Product Manager | contact us

2019-07-22, 09:49:09
Reply #484

Vlad L

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 7
    • View Profile
Hi there, I finally managed to read all 33 pages of this thread and get some general overview of what it is to buy a 2990wx workstation
Although, I still don't understand some of the points that folks in this thread may know about basing on their personal build experience.
I'm planning to buy the following workstation

CPU: 2990wx
MB: Gigabyte Aorus extreme (as I look towards GPU render in the future)
RAM:  Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 PC3000Mhz 64GB
SSD: Samsung 500Gb 970 EVO Plus, 2280, M.2, NVMe
PSU: ATX Corsair HX1200, 80 Plus Platinum
Case: Fractal Design Define S2 Blackout, ATX, Midi-Tower
Cooling: Was thinking about some AIO like NZXT Kraken 72 or  EVGA CLC 240 but have doubts

So my main concern is cooling - I don't have any experience in cooling or overclocking. I'm not going to OC this CPU in 3.8-4.2 Ghz range but something like 3.5-3.7 is very desirable (If I can get something like 41 s in corona benchmark that would be cool). If overclock in this range is available via PBO option that would be awesome.
I've read about AIO not covering the whole CPU plate but if I overclock in the range of 3.5-3.7 will it be stable using for example the above mentioned Kraken or EVGA? I've thought about the Silver Arrow or Noctua NH-U14 but I'm in a situation when I have to buy from a certain vendor and they don't have it, besides I've heard that they may block the upper GPU slot or not fit due to high RAM modules (corsair have stupid big LED on top)


2019-07-22, 10:38:50
Reply #485

Juraj

  • Moderator
  • Active Users
  • ***
  • Posts: 4743
    • View Profile
    • studio website
Everything is sound except the cooling. LPX is low-profile memory so it will not be blocked by air cooling towers, and U14S is quite offset so it doesn't block even quite tall memory these days.

Top GPU is slot is correct though, but it depends on the board. Michal Timko has build Aorus + U14S, maybe he can post quick info or snapshot if the top GPU slot is blocked or not.
I think Noctua lists this info as well on their webpage.

If that would be the case, still buy only TR4 dedicated coolers (Liqtech II, didn't check if others are already on market). It's not about "mild" overclock, those coolers you listed will not overclock it at all and they are bad idea in general, you absolutely do want to cover the heatspreader for 2990WX.
(For 2950/2970 you could get away with any cooler).

My personal suggestion is to get 128 GB right away, it's much more cheaper these days and it might not last again forever. Ondra is cooking some super cool stuff under the hood at the moment but 128GB will always be very welcome. My life is so much easier now that I have 128 in all workstations and nodes.
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!

2019-07-22, 12:36:59
Reply #486

Vlad L

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 7
    • View Profile
Thanks for your answer Juraj.
So, is it still better to buy Enermax LiqTech TR4 II 360 (even though they may have this leakage issue)? I've just heard that there is alphacool eisbaer 420 with a mounting plate for TR4 (although it doesn't cover 3.5mm of CPU from two sides as the pump plate is 63х63 and CPU is 52x70) anyone heard of it? From what Juraj said I assume this is still not a very good idea.
I would gladly buy 128 RAM but as always the budget is very tight.
So if to sum it up the best options are either  LiqTech TR4 II 360 or Noctua NH-U14S and Silver Arrow TR4. Is Noctua NH-U14S still better than all AIO except for the Enermax? (Maybe it is a good idea to buy U14s and even if it blocks the top GPU slot I may insert the 1st GPU in the bottom 16xPCIe and when I have the money for the second one I may just buy another cooling system - hope there will be more of them in the future.) 

2019-07-22, 12:57:46
Reply #487

Juraj

  • Moderator
  • Active Users
  • ***
  • Posts: 4743
    • View Profile
    • studio website
Quote
Is Noctua NH-U14S still better than all AIO except for the Enermax?

Unquestionably.
(There was some attempt by ROG Ryujin but it's not TR4 specific either..no-go).

And there indeed might be other AIO solutions in future when Zen2 Threadrippers come. Well, I guess at least, but by that time, NH-D15 TR4 will also be available.
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!

2019-07-23, 17:13:49
Reply #488

engiu

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 20
    • View Profile
Thanks for your answer Juraj.
So, is it still better to buy Enermax LiqTech TR4 II 360 (even though they may have this leakage issue)? I've just heard that there is alphacool eisbaer 420 with a mounting plate for TR4 (although it doesn't cover 3.5mm of CPU from two sides as the pump plate is 63х63 and CPU is 52x70) anyone heard of it? From what Juraj said I assume this is still not a very good idea.
I would gladly buy 128 RAM but as always the budget is very tight.
So if to sum it up the best options are either  LiqTech TR4 II 360 or Noctua NH-U14S and Silver Arrow TR4. Is Noctua NH-U14S still better than all AIO except for the Enermax? (Maybe it is a good idea to buy U14s and even if it blocks the top GPU slot I may insert the 1st GPU in the bottom 16xPCIe and when I have the money for the second one I may just buy another cooling system - hope there will be more of them in the future.)

Hi,I thinlk that the problems with the Enermax LiqTech were in the first release, this is the LiqTech II, just because it has been updated.

Are there still problems with Windows 1903 and Corona Render? Can I update?

2019-07-23, 18:48:18
Reply #489

Vlad L

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 7
    • View Profile
I've checked several internet shops for user reviews and they are mostly negative for Enermax Liqtech II as well. I decided not to risk.
I've checked U14s specs and its heat spread is only 180 W according to the specs. However Noctua says it is compatiable with 2990 even with a medium overclock. I think I will give it a try. Well at least michaltimko has the same cooling and MB and he was able to get 41 s at benchmark - that is more than enough for me.

2019-07-26, 09:16:56
Reply #490

engiu

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 20
    • View Profile
I've checked several internet shops for user reviews and they are mostly negative for Enermax Liqtech II as well. I decided not to risk.
I've checked U14s specs and its heat spread is only 180 W according to the specs. However Noctua says it is compatiable with 2990 even with a medium overclock. I think I will give it a try. Well at least michaltimko has the same cooling and MB and he was able to get 41 s at benchmark - that is more than enough for me.

Scared of your words I wrote to the customer service od Enermax, I told them that I don't really want to risk and if I had to change it for security. They asked me the serial, than they told me that my serial isn't affected by any problems. Hope their are right!

2019-07-30, 03:20:53
Reply #491

twoheads

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 261
    • View Profile
Hi guys,

Unfortunately I'm the next guy who's thinking about new workstation so my two cents here:

-3dsmax 2016 (no plans for upgrade)
-overclocking is not my cup of tea (not a tech guy so to speak) actually I've never built a PC, so doing it by myself is a big concern.
-corona is priority but I'd like to give fstorm a try some time.
-I need new rig quite desperately but I can wait for new chips if it's worth it.

-2990WX
-MSI MEG (Asus Zenith ALPHA is bit too pricy)
-Silver Arrow TR4 or Noctua UH14 TR4
-Corsair RM850X 850W or SeaSonic PRIME Gold 1300W
-Corsair Vengeance LPX, DDR4, 16 GB,2933MHz, CL16   (64GB total but obviously I prefer 128)
-Plextor 1Tb PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 2280 M9Pe(Y)
-WD 6TB 7200. 256MB Red Pro NAS
-GPU is not my priority if I can say that but seriously no idea which one to choose. Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 OC 6GB GDDR6 (192 Bit), 2xHDMI, 2xDP, BOX  or MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 11GB GDDR5X? (expected 3dsmax, substance painter viewport efficiency)
-Fractal Design Define R6
-win 10 Pro

What do you think?
I'm open for any suggestions

cheers
TH

PS: since I'm not a tech guy I need someone to build machine for me, do you suggest to buy all parts and let the guy assemble it?
« Last Edit: 2019-07-30, 03:32:59 by twoheads »

2019-07-30, 18:02:41
Reply #492

Juraj

  • Moderator
  • Active Users
  • ***
  • Posts: 4743
    • View Profile
    • studio website

-2990WX
-MSI MEG (Asus Zenith ALPHA is bit too pricy)
-Silver Arrow TR4 or Noctua UH14 TR4
-Corsair RM850X 850W or SeaSonic PRIME Gold 1300W
-Corsair Vengeance LPX, DDR4, 16 GB,2933MHz, CL16   (64GB total but obviously I prefer 128)
-Plextor 1Tb PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 2280 M9Pe(Y)
-WD 6TB 7200. 256MB Red Pro NAS
-GPU is not my priority if I can say that but seriously no idea which one to choose. Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 OC 6GB GDDR6 (192 Bit), 2xHDMI, 2xDP, BOX  or MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 11GB GDDR5X? (expected 3dsmax, substance painter viewport efficiency)
-Fractal Design Define R6
-win 10 Pro

PS: since I'm not a tech guy I need someone to build machine for me, do you suggest to buy all parts and let the guy assemble it?

Hey man,

Everything good, all options would work. I'll just write my personal notes on it. Regarding building, yup, you can just hire some local student to help you build it for few bucks, there are plenty enthusiasts who enjoy doing it. But you can also do it yourself after one youtube tutorial, the good stuff with Threadriper is that it's stupid-proof, it's impossible to hurt the CPU and the process of mounting it is very easy because there are brackets.

From tests it looks like Silver Arrow isn't actually better then UH14S despite having more heatpipes and mass. So just choose based on sympathy I guess, I had higher hopes for this cooler. In Q1 2020 NH-D15 TR4 and that will be finally worthy cooler.

For PSU, these are two very different choises:

Corsair RM850X is PSU made by ChannelWell (CWT), this is big OEM maker that makes quality PSUs for most brands. The highest quality Corsairs use mostly Seasonic as OEM. Corsair doesn't build their own PSU, only puts brand sticker on it.
There is nothing wrong with it, it just puzzles me sometimes why people think it adds additional Quality Control or something. It doesn't.
RM-Series is also budget series, although not super cheap. The contender against it is Evga G3, or Seasonic FOCUS Gold.

Seasonic PRIME, is on whole another level, it's different quality tier, it's basically the best you can get. Prime level conteder is Corsair AX series.

I always go for the best when it comes to 24/7 workstation with beefy CPU & GPU. So either Seasonic Prime, or Corsair AX (which is also Seasonic for most models). Basically you never go wrong with Seasonic.
Gold level efficiency is good enough, no need for Platinum or Titanium. Here is important to say that build quality (capacitators,etc..) are more important than efficiency. So Seasonic PRIME Gold, is better than Seasonic Focus Platinum.

How much watts you need depend on how many GPUs you plan to add in future, overclocking and if you want the PSU to stay in passive/silent regime when not rendering.
You actually only need 750W PSU for 2990WX for top-grade GPU (250W + 300W when both run 100perc. rest of the system including PCI-e SSDs will still fit.
The reason why I always go for 1000W+ is so passive regime when not rendering, ie. when the load on your PSU is less than 50perc., it will turn off the fan. This is nice feature even if you don't plan to use two GPUs.

When buying memory, try to buy one 64GB package (4x16GB). When you add another it will still work fine. But if you buy more fragmented, you could run into issues. Even with latest AGESA updates, Threadripper is picky by nature. No need to test your luck.

Regarding waiting for other CPU, there are only two options:

If you already have good render farm and don't need absolute multi-core performance, Ryzen 3950X might be good choice. It can even take 128GB memory because last month 32GB DIMMs became available in mainstream market (non-ECC), but they aren't fast though.. (2666 CL19 for 128GB kit, that's not good enough for Ryzen).
Otherwise next Threadrippers will probably arrive late Q4/2019 or maybe even Q1/2020. That can be long waiting.

Regarding GPU, if you want brand-new RTX, get the cheapest one with 8GB memory, I lost count which one is it right now with billion models available. The memory is lot more important for viewport than raw performance. Esp. if you plan using Optix Denoiser  in IR.
I still believe second-hand cheaply bought 1080ti 11GB is the best option, but I have huge scenes and I want to see all textures in 4-8k in my viewport, have multiple Photoshops open,etc..
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!

2019-07-30, 21:15:46
Reply #493

twoheads

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 261
    • View Profile
Hey Juraj

First of all huge thanks for your reply, really appreciate it!!


When it comes to waiting for new CPU's.... well, technically i could wait but I really need more efficient/powerfull machine. My good old "workstation" in fact is old and quite obsolete. Upgrading makes absolutely no sense at the moment, so as you mentioned I've got two options:  wait couple months kicking myself (best case scenario) or build new WS as fast as possible (september most likely). The truth is I'm not gonna be able to stretch my budget and buy CPU twice as expensive as 2990WX so the question is what can we expect from new chips? For example the same core count, comparable price but less power consumption? Any other possible benefits? 3 gen threadrippers mean totally new architecture so as I presume new socket?

COOLING - brand name doesn't matter to me so probably I'll go with Noctua UH14S

PSU - For now one GPU will do but in the future who knows, so Seasonic, bottom line.

RAM - I consider buying 64GB pack for start and expand it to 128 later. Do I need to buy exactly the same brand for extra 64GB pack? It smells like trouble, maybe buying whole 128GB set is wiser decision?

GPU - I've never bought any used gpu in my life but if you say so, maybe it's the way to go? Any particulair brand to avoid? Should I look for GPU's still on warranty? Lot of CGI companies sell their "old" gpu's but I wonder if they are still ok after years of 24/7 work.

TH

2019-07-31, 00:03:54
Reply #494

Juraj

  • Moderator
  • Active Users
  • ***
  • Posts: 4743
    • View Profile
    • studio website
Threadrippers 3 are long way ahead and judging by the situation with Ryzen boards (X570), Threadrippers will come with similiar price hike. Beefy VRM + PCI 4.0 (possibly 5.0), the boards for them will likely cost lot more than MSI MEG or Asus Alpha. I would say 700-800 Euro. So I believe the whole thing will be more expensive now that even Ryzen is entrenching HEDT territory with 3950X model.

That said, Ryzen 9 3950X will come in September and will cost 1/3 of what 2990WX cost, and will be probably be less than 1/3 slower in multithreadring (in fact I expect even better, maybe 50 seconds result in Corona Benchmark). And it will be much better in single-thread due to architecture changes and much higher boost clock.
But it's dual-channel 4-dimm platform, so you have to buy those 32GB Dimms. (There is one one X570 WS board from Asus that takes ECC kits, but those don't come in high-speed modules either).

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14658/corsair-unveils-32-gb-vengeance-lpx-ddr4-dimms-64-gb-128-gb-dualchannel-kits

For some reason the the 128GB package (4x32) is only 2666 CL18 at 1.2V, but 64GB package is available in 3000 CL20 1.35V. These just came onto market, so I haven't seen anyone test it, but I wonder if one of the X570 boards with bigger VRMs would be able to handle two of those 64GB packages at 3000 CL20 in 128GB Configuration. Maybe worth sending email to Samsung what they think ?

You technically don't need the same brand but it's risk. Even different generations/revisions of the same memory can be issue for Ryzen/Threadripper. Also right now the memory is at it's cheapest almost, you can get 2x64GB LPX kits for <650Euro Total. I paid lot more than than last October for half that amount :- ).

The GPU thing...well used market is always risk. Some GPUs that were used for mining are actually pretty safe as they were run on lower voltage but you never know.
You can also go for RTX 2070 "Regular" or "Super", which has 8GB Vram.
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!