Messages

1

Hardware / Re: old threadrippers and win11 upgrade?

« on: 2025-02-17, 15:50:29 »

I would suggest not upgrading. One of my old Threadrippers has upgraded to win 11 overnight and after that, I just couldn't fix the network adapter not working issue.

Sadly there are no stable drivers or working drivers for the integrated LAN card on the board for WIN 11. I don't remember if it was Realtek or Intel but I just rerolled back to win 10.

2

Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen builds

« on: 2025-01-21, 14:27:41 »

Hi Elias,

I will try to answer as much as I can and to be as concise as possible.

Both of the systems I built for myself are with x870e motherboards and I heard from friends around that they couldn't run 192gb of ram with various sticks on x670e motherboards so I would avoid the older gen mobo's if going for 9950x.

I have built one system in the Asus X870e ProArt Creator and it is a solid board overall so yes I can suggest that one. There are still some issues with Win 11 and Lan drivers but you have 2 lan slots so you can always swap the cable in case something goes wrong. I hope they will solve these issues with future updates. For now, the 2.5gbe slot (Intel adapter) seems more problematic than the 10gbe slot (Aquantia).

Check the QVL list on the Corsair website for the kit you mentioned. If the Asus motherboard is compatible but if it is an EXPO made for AMD systems it "should" probably run without issues. At least in the dual channel you won't have problems.
When adding later more ram as you explained you just need to make sure to buy the same kit again so I would go for a kit that is as compatible as possible from the start.

Expo needs to be activated in bios so it is not a thing to be avoided it is a choice and you don't have to run it if your system is not stable when activated. I am 100% sure that in dual channel you won't have issues with it but when you add the remaining 2 dimms (in the future) you probably will start having some issues. Again this might be resolved with future bios updates.

Regarding the cooler, it is a high-performance cooler that works well but it is noisy. Again you can play with the fan curve in bios and set it to your liking.

I don't have experience with that case. But for best CPU thermals the cases to look for are Lian Li Lancool 216, Lancool 207, Antec Flux Pro, Phanteks XT Pro Ultra, Corsair 6500D Airflow....

For the SSD it is better to get an answer from someone else on the forum. I work directly from a server so SSD speed differences for me are irrelevant as I am directly bottlenecked by the 10gbe network.
I also don't know how Cinema4d works so I can't speak about that either.

Good luck!

3

Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen builds

« on: 2025-01-20, 12:41:38 »

The difference is as Juraj stated at best 5 maybe 7% better in production compared to the 7950x. But if you want the 192gb of ram I would go for the 9950x as I have some friends who did some builds recently on the newer X870e motherboards with the 7950x and had issues with running 192gb of ram.

I recently built 2x9950x workstations using G.Skill kits of 2x48gb ddr5 for a total of 192gb of ram for each machine. Expo doesn't work if you plan to populate all 4 motherboard slots. I have tried several Kingston and G. Skill kits before in configurations of 4x48 and EXPO doesn't work you can only run it stable with 2 dimms in the motherboard sadly.

On the other hand I don't care about EXPO as I only need the capacity (192gb) so the 3600Mhz stock is good enough for me.

Keep in mind that you will be paying a price premium for 4x48gb compared to 4x32gb and if you add the price premium of the 9950x you have in your country than you are probably gonna have a good GPU worth of money in your hands if you go the 7950x route. You can also save some money by buying a X670e motherboard (just a guess) but I would only do this if going to a 7950x.

If you are going for 128gb of ram make sure to get a KIT of 4x32gb not 2x kits of 2x32 as you will have more chance to get EXPO working in that case and probably more stable ram in your system. Sadly kits of 4x48gb are quiet rare and expensive at the moment.

As for the case I can suggest you a Fractal North standard version or XL. One of the best looking cases with ok quality and good airflow. The normal size case fits an Arctic 360 and the XL fits a 420.
The Arctic aio's are best value here in my country and have great performance. Other suggestions from the same brand as I only buy Fractal for the last 5 years would be the Meshify in all it's configurations as it also has solid airflow.

Torrent case is made to be used with an air-cooler. If you want to put an AIO you would need to remove the 180mm fans in front rendering the case obsolete in a way as you are already paying a hefty price for those 2 big fans in front of the case. Check out Gamers Nexus for case reviews on youtube they have the most detailed reviews for cases online.

For the PSU I wouldn't got below 850w gold rated from any of the reputable brands (Seasonic, Be quiet, Corsair...)

4

Hardware / Re: Which Monitor is best?

« on: 2024-11-11, 14:10:04 »

Hi Juraj, can you share some experiences with the PG32UCDP after 2-3 weeks of usage? I guess this is now your primary monitor? What do you use for your secondary monitor? Thanks in advance!

I am thinking on purchasing this monitor in the next few days and switch from my Dell 49 inch super ultra wide monitor which after 3 years of usage started to annoy me a bit in terms of pixel height (only 1440px).

5

Hardware / Re: Which Monitor is best?

« on: 2024-09-17, 22:11:00 »

I am reviving this thread after some time. Has anyone tried so far the new Dell U4025QW ultrawide IPS black monitor? And any new monitors on the horizon that are worth trying?

6

Hardware / Re: Hardware/RAID question.

« on: 2023-11-17, 10:15:07 »

I would also avoid this route because there is a potential for corrupt data. The safest solution to this would be to get a single big drive (which you might also use later for backup) and copy all data to that drive. Afterwards you can wipe all data on the M2 ssd's and start over with raid 5 or 0 since those raids will give you the biggest possible storage pool. Be careful with raid 0 though.

I used to run raid 0 with my m2 ssd's a few years back when they were much more expensive and I didn't have any issues for 2 years straight but after that I just reverted back to raid 5.
Now I just use 14tb hdd's in raid since I didn't find or experience any benefits from using ssd's over the 10gig network.

7

Hardware / Re: Configure New PC 7950x or 13900K

« on: 2023-09-13, 20:08:07 »

@mvpetropolis

You shouldn't be going anything below a 280 in my opinion for the 7590x or 12900k. 360 is ok of course and even the 280 Arctic Freezer gives better results then a 360 in some online reviews.

8

Hardware / Re: Configure New PC 7950x or 13900K

« on: 2023-09-13, 08:32:26 »

Hello there. Both cpu's heat up a lot and if that is one of the main reasons for picking one over the other I would then go for the 7950x. It has a one button solution in Ryzen Master called Eco mode.
By going Eco mode you cut the temperature 30 degrees you also cut the performance a bit but that is the trade off and you can always switch back directly from Windows.

You should also look for a good case with great airflow combined with a big AIO. The Artcic Liquid freezer II 420 is quiet good and yet cheap compared to the competitors. You could also throw a Noctua NH-d15 but from experience I know you will get better results with the bigger AIO, unless you go for a quiet expensive case with superb airflow (fractal design torrent) and cut the margin even more.

Keep in mind that for Intel you need to go for Win 11 to get the best possible performance. You can also play with the settings in Bios to achieve better temperatures but Ryzen is much easier for that. You asked about the difference between 13900k and kf. K is with the onboard VGA while KF is without it. The cpu's should be identical in performance but you always have the silicon lottery part.

I don't know what to tell you about the ram. To be honest ddr4 had ok prices a year ago while ddr5 was 50% more expensive (depends on the market). Now, looks like overnight to me :) prices have been cut in half or even more. ddr5 is cheaper then ddr4 used to be and ddr4 is just crazy cheap now :)

At the end of the day it all depends on your budget and the prices available to you in your market/country. Whatever you choose you won't make a mistake since the performance of both Ryzen and Intel is really close if not identical sometimes ( for our case scenario, rendering, modelling, etc...). Just play with the components, watch some reviews and see what you can get for a good price. Good luck!

9

Hardware / Re: Which Monitor is best?

« on: 2023-07-13, 23:10:41 »

I have the U4919dw for nearly 3 years now, I have been using it as a single monitor and I can state that for pure work (modeling and rendering, photoshop) it isn't that good.
On the other hand, for review work or any kind of work where you want to spread and compare images with markups next to each other this monitor is fantastic!

Color accuracy is great out of the box, I can also confirm that and lately this has not been the case with all the Ultra sharp monitors.

I think that a single 32inch 4k monitor is far superior for pure work in 3ds max due to its vertical pixel count than the 49 inch. The hassle begins when you start introducing a second monitor and to be honest a double 32 inch option is just too much screen for me. Going with a smaller second screen will create all kinds of issues with the UI, scaling, moving stuff from monitor to monitor and so on, and this can only be solved with some third party plugins or by playing with the display scaling and messing with more advanced windows settings.
This is my experience from Windows 10 that might be solved on Win 11, maybe somebody can shed some light on this?

Maybe the OLED 42 LG TV would make a nice experience but I also like to work in a light environment and the dimming would just drive me crazy after some time.

Another option that is maybe the best in my opinion for those who want to go single monitor, would be the 40 inch 5k Dell display. The only issue is that it costs quiet a lot or it used to cost quiet alot, haven't checked the prices for a long long time...

10

Hardware / Portable laptops & integrated gpu perfromance

« on: 2022-12-05, 00:00:52 »

I am looking to buy a portable laptop for light work and I was wondering if anyone on the forum has experience with the integrated gpu's on laptops.

What are your experiences with the Iris Xe (12th Gen Intel) and Radeon 680M (Ryzen 6000) cards? Can they run Max at all? I am not planning to render but rather prepare models, import and export models and do some on-the-go quick postproduction.

For now, I found the HP Elitebook 840 or 845 to be an interesting mix of portability and performance. Latest gen CPU's, support 64gb of ram (not that I need for light work), a long-lasting battery, and a 16:10 aspect ratio with 400 nits.

If anyone has something else to propose I am all ears :) thanks!

11

Hardware / Re: I NEED HELP with a PC build

« on: 2022-11-21, 15:02:04 »

The TUF is an ok motherboard. I haven't checked the vrm but I think it is ok for the 7950x and I guess you won't be overclocking.

Yes, you would need ddr5 since 7000 series CPUs don't support ddr4, and if you plan on going 128gb ram at some point get 32gb ram sticks so you can upgrade from 64 to 128 by just adding 2 more sticks.

NH-D15 is their biggest cooler so it should be ok. Make sure to get a case that supports the height of the cooler heatsink+fans. A really good case is the Fractal design torrent. It is a bit more expensive but the quality is outstanding and the airflow is fantastic!
I have one and I am really pleased with it.

As for the monitor I could give you 10 recommendations but it would be great if you can give an estimated budget/price range for the monitor.

Best,
V

12

Hardware / Re: I NEED HELP with a PC build

« on: 2022-11-19, 00:22:02 »

I would most definitely advise going the 7950x route. The 3000 Threadripper is basically a dead platform now. It is already more than 12 or so months that I can't find a single trx40 motherboard in a 600km radius around my location :).

Haven't yet tried the 7950x but for the past few months, I find myself sitting always in front of a 5950x workstation and just turning on the DR server on my 3990x workstation. The snappiness of the 5950x system is just way ahead of the 3990x and it is so noticeable that I might just send all the TR systems to the farm and change most of the ws machines with the newest 16core Ryzens or Intels. Though I am leaning more toward the 7950x since it is more efficient than it's Intel counterpart.

As for your build go for the AIO rather than the Hyper 212 just check the am5 socket compatibility. The CM cooler isn't really suited for that wattage so a 360 or 420 aio should be ok. The X670E motherboards are overkill and only if you need PCIe gen 5. If you want to save some money you have the same Strix board with the B660 series which is quite good.

13

Hardware / Re: LG 32UN880-B monitor

« on: 2022-10-18, 20:30:32 »

I got 2 of those monitors in the office. They look quite simple on the outside yet minimalistic and good. The ergo arm is really great and setting up is super easy.

Colors out of the box nothing special so I had to calibrate them but still quite okay. Compared to the cheaper 27 LG 4k alternatives (got a few, big mistake) the colors out of the box are 10 times better but compared to something like my DELL U3219Q they are worse. If you are not calibrating and you had LG before you won't notice a difference :).

If you can grab it at a discount I would say go for it! Just keep in mind that it is a 4k 60hz panel.

14

Hardware / Re: New budget PC: i9 12900 or Ryzen 9 5950x?

« on: 2022-10-01, 17:50:00 »

5950x = noticeable multithread performance boost over 12900k
12900k = so and so single core performance boost over 5950x

In short words, your rendering/interactive rendering speed would be better with 5950x while your single core performance would be a lil worse than 12900k but nothing major as the first mentioned thing.

I would personally go for the 5950x it tends to overheat less and works better for 3d rendering out of the box. Or you can wait a month or two and get the newest 13900k (will support ddr4) which from what I hear will be a noticeable boost over the 12900k, especially in rendering.

You also have the 7950x that just released but tends to get rather hot and is only ddr5 and since you mentioned budget I would skip ddr5 all along :).

15

Hardware / Re: I want to build a Threadripper 5995XWTR Workstation - your help please

« on: 2022-08-18, 11:56:37 »

Given the fact that the 3000 series WX (pro) CPU's are around 3-5% slower in benchmarks than their 3000 non-pro counterparts, I reckon the 5000 pro series should be at the best 5-10% faster than the 3000 non-pro series.

I would recommend the WRX80 Sage mobo from Asus. I just built a 3000 series WX machine with it and it is a top-notch quality motherboard! I don't know about the MSI you could do some research and see what you need more of the options. The Sage has Dual Intel 10gbe ethernet which is a really nice feature. The motherboard also has a built-in Aspeed Graphics chip so you could run this machine as a rendering node without the graphics card which I am doing and actually save some money :).

Those motherboards support 2TB of ram so I guess you could technically populate all 8 slot with 256 but I am not sure. Check the QVL of the motherboard on what is supported.

Everything else seems in order apart from the cooler. I built the node in the same case you want to order (just without the window). The socket of the motherboard is rotated 90 degrees to horizontal. TR non pro cpu's on TRX40 motherboards have their sockets vertical. The cooler you mentioned in the text is not gonna provide a full coverage of the CPU and even if you go for a U14S TR4 cooler you will end up exhausting air to the PSU bracket which is positioned at the top of the case above the motherboard.

I suggest going for a waterloop or if you want to go with a fully budget option like I did then go for this:
Arctic Freezer 4U SP3

This cooler is rotated by 90 degrees, it provides full coverage of the CPU and will suck air from the 2 big 180mm fans of the Fractal torrent positioned frontally. Again since you are going for a windowed case this cooler is quiet ugly and I would rather go for the waterloop option!

Happy part hunting!