Looking to build a 2nd PC Workstation Upgrade & Need 512GB RAM

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633987#Comment_121633987

This is the same issue I had when I built my Xeon W9. Both AMD and Intel went ECC registered only on these, and they're keyed differently from normal DDR5 as well, unlike DDR4. Which is also why the previous Threadrippers were good with either.

minitrue

Also wasn't that two quad kits but the board only takes 4 rdimms so 48GB rdimms will only get it to 192GB not the 384GB there.

Caseking want €240 for a 64GB 4800 rdimm (not in stock) or about €2k for a 128GB rdimm and last I was looking that difference is in and around the norm so 512GB on a 4 rdimm board is bonkers, 8*64GB on a Pro board (with Pro cpu) is actually a cheaper option if you have to have 512GB!

Crucial have 4800 CL40 and 5600 CL46 96GB rdimms for €510 and €562 which at least makes 384GB on the non-Pro more sensible here (imho) than the Pro board/cpu premium to get past 256GB. It's still very roughly €2k for 384GB Vs €1k for 256GB so a fair premium but given what the OP has said about how much ram they need either of those feel saner than I guess €1500+ to switch to the pro platform to get 8*64GB.

ZingK

Thanks for that.

As I was saying to one of the lads in PM previously, I don't have to have 512GB, that was just the dream. I could do a lot with 256GB and 384GB but would want a minimum of 192GB+.

The more RAM I can have the better. But another thing I found out which is something to note, it turns out the importance of extra MHz (clock speed) in the RAM may have a limited impact compared to other factors like core count and memory capacity. In simulation workloads, the processor's speed, the number of threads, and the core count are often more critical than RAM speed.

Maybe you knew that already? I deffo did not and had my heart set on getting the fastest RAM available to me, but now I am more keen on a high performance CPU emphasising core count and clock speed with good RAM capacity.

Thanks for all the help and advice, I really appreciate it.

ZingK

What do we think of this?

================================

Case

FRACTAL DESIGN TORRENT RGB MID TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960X 24 Core CPU (4.2GHz - 5.3GHz, 152MB CACHE)

Motherboard

GIGABYTE TRX50 AERO D (TRX50, ECC DDR5 RDIMM, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)

Memory (RAM)

256GB Kingston DDR5 4800MHz ECC Registered (4 x 64GB)

Graphics Card

12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 SUPER - HDMI, DP, LHR

1st M.2 SSD Drive

2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)

2nd M.2 SSD Drive

2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)

Power Supply

CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable

1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)

Processor Cooling

Thermaltake TOUGHAIR TRX40 High Performance Cooler (Special Offer)

Thermal Paste

STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Card

1 x 10GbE + 1 x 2.5GbE ONBOARD ETHERNET PORT

Wireless Network Card

ONBOARD Wi-Fi 6E / 7 (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)

USB/Thunderbolt Options

MIN. 8 X USB PORTS (MOBO DEPENDENT) @ BACK PANEL + FRONT PORTS

Operating System

Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

Operating System Language

United Kingdom - English Language

Warranty

3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Delivery

2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Build Time

Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

€5,316.00inc VAT and Delivery

================================

Is there anything you do not like here? Or are there any improvements you can suggest please?

Unfortunately I find myself getting a small bit impatient and really want a new system to work with ASAP.

As usual, any advice you have for me would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

EDIT:

Based on the below I am also considering upgrading the above build to a AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper 7970X, which will mean changing a few things.

AMD RYZEN THREADRIPPER 7960X SPECWS: FINANCIAL SERVICES & PROBABILITY BENCHMARK

Now for the financial services & probability tests, where Spec Workstation runs Monte Carlo simulations, Black-Scholes pricing, and binomial options pricing tests. While we don’t necessarily understand any of the real-world applications for these financial workloads beyond running the test, many people seemed to appreciate this particular test in our last review. The scaling is excitingly clean overall.

The 7980X gaps everything, holding a 60% lead over the 7970X. The 7970X’s lead over the 7960X is 27%, which itself rests closer to the 3970X in some of the prior tests. The 14900K is at the bottom of this particular chart.

Thoughts?

Spear

Better in some ways, not as good in others.

More cores is good, it's 50% more compared the other options.

But less RAM. Though the 512GB is an ideal case, it's not vital, so the core increase may be of more use generally compared to the extra RAM.

Increasing the RAM would mean swapping all the DIMMs out for highly expensive 128GB ones, to the point of it being prohibitive. But if the full 512GB case is just a fringe one, that probably isn't a showstopper.

minitrue

Looks like the cooler is rated by Thermaltake for 280W but the cpu will draw up to 350W stock and if you wanted you could go past that to the limit of your cooling. Holding it to 280W might keep you closer to the sweet spot for efficiency though.

If you were going to consider throwing more cooling capacity and hence power at the cpu (or just wanted it to be ready to take a drop in upgrade to a 4090) you might want to increase the power supply past 850W. For now given you aren't trying to run the cpu and gpu flat out at the same time and won't have the sort of cooling to let you throw mountains of power at the cpu anyway, 850W should be fine.

Given you were looking at €5300 with the 24 core and the 32 core would be 27% faster (give or take not too much, probably a good enough figure to use), the 32 core should be better bang for your buck for the cpu task on the total system price at up to about €1400 more for it. From everything you have said so far it sounds like dialling back on the gpu or ssd's would be a bit of a non-issue (in terms of the primary workload anyway) if that's what got the cpu upgrade in?

ZingK

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121681784#Comment_121681784

Thanks a mil for that feedback. I think the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X 32 Core is the way I should go too. It is VERY expensive but it will mean I can work faster and as you said it seems like the best bang for buck. I can consider reducing some things like you suggested. I also appreciate the feedback regarding the power and processor cooling. I will try and see what I can get for myself. If I find a build I will post here.

One question I had was regarding the Motherboard, I was only given 2 options and 1 is not currently available. What is the difference between these? gigabyte trx50 aero d versus asus@pro ws trx50? Is one superior to the other and why?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/compare/ASUS_Pro+WS+TRX50-SAGE+WIFI_vs_Gigabyte_TRX50+AERO+D/BHitems/1798225-REG_1798090-REG

Thanks.

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121681857#Comment_121681857

No dramatic differences, just a premium in price for the better regarded Asus name.

The Gigabyte sacrifices PCIe slots for more m.2 slots, giving it a total of 4 compared to the Asus's 3 slots. But you can easily added m.2 drives onto carrier cards into the PCIe slots of the Asus instead. But if you don't plan to make use of either all the m.2 slots or the PCIe slots, than the difference is academic.

The Asus one is setup for x2 PSUs. You can either use one large PSU, or two smaller ones.

ZingK

================================

Case

FRACTAL DEFINE 7 XL BLACK QUIET TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X 32 Core CPU (4.0GHz - 5.3GHz, 160MB CACHE)

Motherboard

GIGABYTE TRX50 AERO D (TRX50, ECC DDR5 RDIMM, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)

Memory (RAM)

256GB Kingston DDR5 4800MHz ECC Registered (4 x 64GB)

Graphics Card

16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti SUPER - HDMI, DP, LHR

1st M.2 SSD Drive

2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)

1st M.2 SSD Drive

2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)

Power Supply

CORSAIR 1500W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable

1 x 1.5 Metre IEC C19 UK Power Cable

Processor Cooling

ENERMAX LIQTECH TR4 II 360mm

Thermal Paste

STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Card

1 x 10GbE + 1 x 2.5GbE ONBOARD ETHERNET PORT

Wireless Network Card

ONBOARD Wi-Fi 6E / 7 (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)

USB/Thunderbolt Options

MIN. 8 X USB PORTS (MOBO DEPENDENT) @ BACK PANEL + FRONT PORTS

Operating System

Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

Operating System Language

United Kingdom - English Language

Windows Recovery Media

Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account

Office Software

FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)

Anti-Virus

Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License

Browser

Google Chrome™

Warranty

3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Delivery

2 DAY INSURED DELIVERY BY PALLET TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Build Time

Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products

Price: €6,846.00 including VAT and Delivery

================================

12GB Super would have been preferred but that is not available. I play some games, so little that it does not seem worth it. The SSDs could have been downgraded. But I used a bit of a "fck it" mentality here.

The rest is all to help me with work, speed up my results and make me more productive which is honestly the real reason I am here.

Are we happy with this? I understand waiting and building it myself or getting someone here could be slightly cheaper but I have a 3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour). And from my very VERY rough estimates, I was not saving enough. The key is I need the system ASAP too as have been waiting for ever.

Have not bought yet, will downgrade to 12GB Super if it becomes available.

Thoughts please?

Spear

It's a monster machine, with a monster price tag.

It meets a balanced set of your needs though, lots of cores, solid GPU, lots of RAM. It's future proofed with 10GB network, PCIe 5 and lots of expansion options. And in a couple of years, when 128GB DIMMs drop in price, 512GB could reachable too.

I guess it's a question of whether the pricetag can be balanced against the work and earnings it can bring.

ZingK

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121682401#Comment_121682401

Thanks a mil, that is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for.

My last PC has given me the opportunity to buy this potential build so I am very confident it will pay for itself eventually. 🤞

I can also still make it slightly cheaper if I decided to downgrade GPU then I potentially need less power and processor cooling. I could also downgrade the SSDs. But this will be likely the build I am going for.

TyTy.

Spear

I may be about to muddy the waters with this, but:

https://wccftech.com/msi-256-gb-ddr5-memory-support-intel-700-600-motherboards-easy-compatibility/

ZingK

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121705962#Comment_121705962

I can still cancel. Hit me with a build that compares to this and I will consider it.

================================

Case

FRACTAL DEFINE 7 XL BLACK QUIET TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X 32 Core CPU (4.0GHz - 5.3GHz, 160MB CACHE)

Motherboard

GIGABYTE TRX50 AERO D (TRX50, ECC DDR5 RDIMM, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)

Memory (RAM)

256GB Kingston DDR5 4800MHz ECC Registered (4 x 64GB)

Graphics Card

16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti SUPER - HDMI, DP, LHR

1st M.2 SSD Drive

2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)

1st M.2 SSD Drive

2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)

Power Supply

CORSAIR 1500W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable

1 x 1.5 Metre IEC C19 UK Power Cable

Processor Cooling

ENERMAX LIQTECH TR4 II 360mm

Thermal Paste

STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Card

1 x 10GbE + 1 x 2.5GbE ONBOARD ETHERNET PORT

Wireless Network Card

ONBOARD Wi-Fi 6E / 7 (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)

USB/Thunderbolt Options

MIN. 8 X USB PORTS (MOBO DEPENDENT) @ BACK PANEL + FRONT PORTS

Operating System

Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

Operating System Language

United Kingdom - English Language

Windows Recovery Media

Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account

Office Software

FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)

Anti-Virus

Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License

Browser

Google Chrome™

Warranty

3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Delivery

2 DAY INSURED DELIVERY BY PALLET TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Build Time

Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products

Price: €6,846.00 including VAT and Delivery

================================

ENERMAX LIQTECH TR4 II 360mm reviews are annoying me. I did contact the Enermax support team and they assured me that there are no issues with the latest versions of their cooler but some recent reddit posts and certain reviews on amazon.com disagree with that statement. The crowd who are building my PC did not sound too convincing regarding this cooler either tbh.

Anyway it got me thinking, while I value high performance and the latest technology, longevity and reliability of my new system is essential.

I still really like this build though so would prefer if you told me I will be fine going with this. The chance to go to 512GB RAM one day and future proofed for upgrades as was said to me before is very appealing.

So for now I am going with this, the order is in there, and when it is built I will monitor the cooler and upgrade it if necessary when more options become available to me. That is my current plan.

Spear

Compares, no, not quite. Anything based on an Intel 6xx/7xx chipset would still be lacking in several areas, mostly core count, long term expandability (less PCIe lanes and m.2/PCIe slots), plus there's no long term option for 512GB. And none of these could be addressed/revisited longer term either. But I just wanted to you to have seen all options before it's too late. Given the cost involved, buyers remorse could hurt on this.

Cuddlesworth

It was around a year for the 48gig dimms to properly come to market from the articles around the chips and the bios supporting them. Apparently it might be longer as AI wants them.