2990wx build completed

[Markfw]

I can't believe it. At stock, in linux mint its running all 64 cores@100%, and a RTX 2060@100% and its only drawing 330 watts from the wall ! (kill-a-watt) With 6 fans and an AIO pump ! I ran the geekbench test and got over 61k on multi, so its really working.

I did not check the power while running geekbench, as I know its not stressing it. The power usage is running BOINC, 64 clients, and F@H on the video card.

 

[Markfw]

Well, I thought my Enermax cooler was working OK, but it throttles really bad, so I will have to buy another air cooler.....

 

[DrMrLordX]

Is that one of the original, flawed Enermax AiOs, or is that the second "fixed" revision?

 

[ericlp]

I'd never buy another enermax, I tossed mine in the trash.... Didn't even bother to RMA when the second one took a crap in 3 months... Buy a custom loop or go air... Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 works well on a 1950x even at 24/7 100% load.

 

[Markfw]

Is that one of the original, flawed Enermax AiOs, or is that the second "fixed" revision?

Not sure it matters, the second version died on me too. I will be using the wraithripper tomorrow (done tonight) as it was on there before and had tons of heat pouring out of it. This just has cool air coming out. And I am kind of pissed when I found out I have to clean my custom water every 6-9 months. I ordered another Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 to replace the last AIO I have on my threaripper. It will be here in a week. That one is not full contact, and on a 1950x artic cooling or something. Still works, but I don;t trust it.

Air cooling forever !

Edit: eric beat me by seconds.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Not sure it matters, the second version died on me too.

Bleh. Figures.

And I am kind of pissed when I found out I have to clean my custom water every 6-9 months.

Gotta get out the sludge. I think it's theoretically possible to build zero-maintenance (AiOs do this all the time) but it's seldom done. Any loop that uses glycols or similar has to be cleaned just to prevent gel buildup.

Air cooling forever !

One of the things that baffles me is that there are still so few AiOs out there with proper support for Threadripper. All you would have to do is replace the small AM4 block on an existing AiO with a larger block such as on the Enermax units. Must be insufficient market demand.

 

[Arkaign]

Boss stuff Mark! Is it kicking butt for your DC tasks?

Speaking of that, do you have a cliffs notes guide for ATers to join you in the quest to crush cancer?

 

[ao_ika_red]

Boss stuff Mark! Is it kicking butt for your DC tasks?

Speaking of that, do you have a cliffs notes guide for ATers to join you in the quest to crush cancer?

There you go.
https://forums.anandtech.com/forums/distributed-computing.15/
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/distributed-computing-project-list.2494315/
Mark is mostly active on Rosetta@home (CPU only), WorldCommunityGrid (CPU only so far), and Folding@Home (nVidia optimised).

 

[Markfw]

I can't believe it. At stock, in linux mint its running all 64 cores@100%, and a RTX 2060@100% and its only drawing 330 watts from the wall ! (kill-a-watt) With 6 fans and an AIO pump ! I ran the geekbench test and got over 61k on multi, so its really working.

I did not check the power while running geekbench, as I know its not stressing it. The power usage is running BOINC, 64 clients, and F@H on the video card.

OOPS, it was throttling... Update, its takes 500 watts with the 2060 and all 64 cores@100%. I should have known that 330 was too little. Also it has 4 fans. Not sure how all that break down, but at the moment its running windows, and Ryzen master says 250 watt for the CPU.

 

[Markfw]

So, I bought 4 of them total, and 4 failed. I sent one to aigomorla, and here are the other 3, all dead, I used the fans from one of those on my other 2990wx, the dual rad water cooled one (not done yet)

I still have one new one from my second RMA, but I will only use it in an emergency, as I know it will fail also.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

I too am super happy with my build. I am currently running handbrake and running an encoding video test from 1080p to 720p/30fps H.264 and what normally took 100 minutes with an R7 1700x@4.0Ghz is now only taking 21 minutes with a stock 2950x.

Not only that but with the 1700x it would max out at 100% cpu usage on all the cores and now on the 2950x it is balancing the task between all the cores but only with a max of about 40-65%.
If this is the kind of performance I am getting with the 2950x I cant even imagine what its gonna be like when I upgrade to the 2990wx or 3990wx in the near future.

Also dropped memory usage down from about 20GB to 1.7GB just going from Windows 10 to Linux running all the same apps and programs,this is just completely insane!!

 

[DrMrLordX]

So, I bought 4 of them total, and 4 failed. I sent one to aigomorla, and here are the other 3, all dead, I used the fans from one of those on my other 2990wx, the dual rad water cooled one (not done yet)

Which element is it that fails in those things? I wonder if it's possible to take the larger block off those units and put them on other AiOs that don't fail?

 

[Markfw]

Which element is it that fails in those things? I wonder if it's possible to take the larger block off those units and put them on other AiOs that don't fail?

Maybe someone could. But from what I know, a sealed system is tricky. Its the pump that gets gummed up, due to the materials, and the fluid they used.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Maybe someone could. But from what I know, a sealed system is tricky. Its the pump that gets gummed up, due to the materials, and the fluid they used.

Interesting. So the block is still potentially useful . . . maybe. But you're right, if the system isn't designed to be moddable from the start, then hacking it apart and using it with another AiO is probably not going to work. It'll put a maintenance cycle on the receiving AiO, for starters.

 

[Markfw]

Update. So, the stock 2990wx with 2060 is 550 watts with all CPU's and video card@100% running about 58c with a wraitripper at about 1.0 vcore. Stock runs@ about 3200.

Comparison, I just updated the other 2990wx to a good water cooling setup. It will do (all running with 1080TI and all 64 threads@100%)

3950@ 780 watts, 65c @ 1.3 vcore

or (my preferred setup)

3800@ 690 watts, 54c @ 1.2 vcore.

I think this is a good comparison, but the 2060 takes a LOT less for the video card, (like 100 watts or more less than the 1080TI)

Soooooo, the 2990wx@ stock with the rest of the fans and system takes about 390 watts, not sure on all the system usage. 4 fans.
The 2990wx@ (virtually) 4 ghz takes 430 watts, but 8 fans and a pump. Taking the fans into consideration pretty good for OC'ed.

 

[ericlp]

There are plenty of water blocks for Threadripper like the Heatkiller one. Tho, I wouldn't use any parts from an Enermax in it, except for the fans. The enermax weren't made to mod or even refill the liquid. If you want to mod, get a custom loop.

 

[Markfw]

There are plenty of water blocks for Threadripper like the Heatkiller one. Tho, I wouldn't use any parts from an Enermax in it, except for the fans. The enermax weren't made to mod or even refill the liquid. If you want to mod, get a custom loop.

This ia part of whats wrong with the Enermax TR4 AIO. All the fins are clogged. He says his has them, but not as severe, but he says it will affect performance. Well, this is from a failed one. And my latest failed one, when you turned the power on, you could see the Enermax lighted logo for a second or two, them it dommed. I say pump failure on that one, probably from clogged lines or rad.

Anyway, they are crap. I have 3 I have not even RMAed, since it Just have to replace them anyway. 100% failure rate.

 

[Atari2600]

Well, I thought my Enermax cooler was working OK, but it throttles really bad, so I will have to buy another air cooler.....

I have to admit Mark, I got the mk2 version of the TR280 around month or so after your issues - and its still going like a train on a 2950.

Idle temps at <40 degC, and will run all cores at over 4GHz.


[I do have a Silver Arrow sitting on the shelf from hold ups on the old RMA though, so it is a good backup.]

 

[DrMrLordX]

There are plenty of water blocks for Threadripper like the Heatkiller one. Tho, I wouldn't use any parts from an Enermax in it, except for the fans. The enermax weren't made to mod or even refill the liquid. If you want to mod, get a custom loop.

Well yeah, custom water from the start would be preferable. It's just a shame that nobody has thought, "hey, let's just put a bigger block on our AiO and ship it" instead of trying to use AM4 AiOs with hacked installation hardware for TR4. Enermax was the only company that did it, and we see how that turned out.

For my own personal use, I would not be hacking apart AiOs.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I'm seriously jelly.

Man, my local microcenter has open box 2990wx for $1050. I am really tempted because it would be wickedly awesome, but the price of the total platform is just too much, the heat at full blast is too much to cool quietly, and while I would love more cores to speed up my HEVC encodes, I'm thinking it might be better to just wait a year and pick up 3950x on the cheap.

 

[Markfw]

I'm seriously jelly.

Man, my local microcenter has open box 2990wx for $1050. I am really tempted because it would be wickedly awesome, but the price of the total platform is just too much, the heat at full blast is too much to cool quietly, and while I would love more cores to speed up my HEVC encodes, I'm thinking it might be better to just wait a year and pick up 3950x on the cheap.

at stock a Noctura, or a wraithripper would not be noisy. A little heat.... Too bad they won't sell me that on the internet...

 

[fleshconsumed]

at stock a Noctura, or a wraithripper would not be noisy. A little heat.... Too bad they won't sell me that on the internet...

I have really low tolerance for noise. I've been silentpcreview member for longer than I can remember. My noise floor is about 700 rpm for 120mm fan. None of the fans in my desktop spin faster than that unless the system is at full load, and even then it's pretty quiet. This past weekend I upgraded wife's 4790K to Ryzen 1600 from Microcenter and because I didn't have the right bracket for a proper heatsink I had to temporarily use stock cooler that came with the 1600 box, that sucker spins at 1300rpm on "silent" setting and is driving me bonkers, it's the loudest thing in the entire room. Can't wait till I get AM4 mounting bracket for Scythe Ninja 4 from amazon so that I can take that noisemaker out.

I simply cannot imagine having 1900RPM fan that's necessary to cool 2990wx at full load. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself to stop myself from getting one.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Hey mark, what version of linux are you using these days on your threadripper builds if you dont mind me asking??

 

[fleshconsumed]

I too am super happy with my build. I am currently running handbrake and running an encoding video test from 1080p to 720p/30fps H.264 and what normally took 100 minutes with an R7 1700x@4.0Ghz is now only taking 21 minutes with a stock 2950x.

Is that a typo? How can 16 core 2950x be 5 times faster than 8 core 1700x@4.0GHz at media encoding? These numbers do not make sense.

 

[ericlp]

Anyway, they are crap. I have 3 I have not even RMAed, since it Just have to replace them anyway. 100% failure rate.

I agree with that, I am not sure what how contamination is getting into the Enermax, sure is a shame since, 150 bucks is a lot of money.

The problem is, it could be the coolant liquid itself is somehow wrong mixture, or some metal chemical reaction that is causing it. Or maybe they didn't properly flush out the system before adding the liquid.... I could be wrong, but my gut feeling is, that the liquid is contaminated. Since if it was a metal type of contamination it would take longer than 3~6 months to get clogged with whatever seems to be growing in the loop.

Might be worth a try, to drain these things, take a soft toothbrush, and rubbing alcohol, and clean the fins ... I'd probably flush it out a few times with distilled water / alcohol mix and dry it out .... And then adding some sort of anti growth/corrosion to distilled water solution.