Question "Re-Balancing" my rig collection - my "main rigs".

[VirtualLarry]

Well, with the Folding@Home Dec. race over with (See the Distributed Computing sub-forum for more details, or to sign up for future ones!), I've decided to re-arrange my rigs.

I had:

(two of these)
RaidMax Cobra case
ASRock Z170 Pro4S ATX mobo
Intel G4560 Kaby Lake dual-core w/HT
(currently) a single 4GB DDR4-2800 DIMM
two RX 570 cards, one of the boxes has two 8GB varieties from MSI, the other box has two XFX 4GB cards (basically identical).
240GB Kingston SSD, older, but still decent

A couple of R5 1600 rigs
One:
Azza ATX case (really cheap, really crappy) and Antec Neo Eco 620(C?) PSU
other had Rosewill Line-M mATX case with Rosewill Valens 600W 80Plus Gold PSU
ASRock AB350M Pro4 mATX (both rigs)
one rig had 2x 16GB (2x8GB) Team Vulcan DDR4-2400, the other had 2x (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 Vulcan ram too. Both rigs would only run it at 2400 speed, and I had to bump up the DRAM voltage at that speed as well.
one rig has a 2GB RX 560, the other had an XFX RX 470, now it has a Sapphire RX 470 mining card, which only has a DVI-D, and won't do 4K UHD over an HDMI mechanical adapter.
one rig has a 240GB SSD and a 4TB HDD, the other has a 120GB SSD.

Also, have a few 2200G rigs floating around, some with A320 boards, one with a Gigabyte or Asus B350 mATX board.

Purchased some Intel 512GB 545s SATA6G 2.5" SSDs, for $54.99 ea., from Newegg during BF, and an HP EX920 512GB M.2 PCI-E NVMe (as fast as a 970 EVO) for like $90.
Bought two Rosewill MAGNETAR (yes, they spelled it originally in all caps) cases. They were originally like $100 cases, discontinued and marked down to $30 or so. They've been as low as $20 AR, I think.
Bought two Gigabyte AX370-Gaming ATX AM4 mobos
Bought two GSKill DDR4-3000 Ripjaws V 16GB (2x8GB) RAM kits
Bought a bunch of PSUs during Nov./BF, a pair of EVGA G1+ 650W 80Plus Gold (10 year warranty, maybe 12), a couple of Rosewill Capstone 650W PSUs, and some other Rosewill and Seasonic Bronze PSUs. (I've decided to only use Gold PSUs in my own rigs, where applicable.)

One complication, is that I finally licensed both AB350M Pro4 mobos for Windows 10 Pro. Honestly, they were OK boards, but they're not the greatest, and overclocking the R5 1600 CPUs, always resulted in some (fairly rare) BSODs, even with AIO WC.

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My plan for these rigs:
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Have a pair of "main rigs":
Rosewill Magnetar case
Gigabyte AX370-Gaming ATX mobo
ditch the WC, ditch the overclocking
AMD Ryzen R5 1600 CPU
GSkill 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 (Previous Team Vulcan never really ran at full rated speed, but these GSkill DO.)
Intel 512GB 545s SATA6G 2.5" SSD
Seagate 4TB HDD (have two, one's still in an enclosure)
EVGA G1+ 650W PSU
Potentially 2x RX 570 cards, one rig would have the 2x 8GB models, the other rig would have the 2x 4GB models.

And then have two pairs of secondary rigs:
One pair, with the G4560, with either 4GB and no GPU and 240GB SSD and low-end PSU (Rosewill Glacier), as a "Browser box", OR
One pair, with the G4560, with 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-2400 Team Vulcan RAM, 240GB SSD, and an RX 570 4GB XFX card, and optionally a 1-2TB HDD for Steam game storage, and try to sell them as gaming rig.
(The RaidMax Cobra case has an aggressive "Transformer-like" front bezel, and some nice tool-less features, and fairly decent cable management, due to the "widebody design". It would make a very nice gaming rig indeed for some High School kid.)

and
One pair, with the ASRock AB350M Pro4 boards, 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 Team Vulcan, running at 2933 (because they won't run stable at full 3000 speed), with the 2200G APUs, and NO GPU, and a fresh SSD (120GB or 240GB, I have some of each), and a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro, inside the Rosewill Line-M mATX cases, air cooling with stock heatsink, and with the Rosewill Valens 600W 80Plus Gold PSU.
(Would make a really nice browser / media-consumption box, capable of 4K UHD. I know some people that could use one of these.)

Then, for some tertiary box action, take the A320 mobos and the spare B350 board, and BUY some Athlon 200GE ($60) APUs, and throw those in there, into their existing Rosewill FBM-xxx cases, with smaller EVGA and Rosewill PSUs (400W-ish). Unsure if I licensed those mobos yet with Windows 10, I might have, will have to check that out. One of them has an 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4-3000 Team Vulcan kit (again, only able to run at 2667, maybe 2800).
(Those would also be for office / browser boxes. With dual-channel RAM kits, they would be good for watching 4K videos and YT as well as basic office work.) Throw in an appropriately-sized SATA6G SSD (These A320 mobos lack M.2 PCI-E sockets.) Would have to also BUY a 2x4GB Team Vulcan or other DDR4 RAM kit, $50 or so.

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Accomplished:
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I've already put together one of the Magnetar case rigs, with the Gigabyte X370 ATX board. It went together fairly easily. I did notice that the SATA modular cables on the EVGA G1+ 650W, were a little short, once you got to the part with the connectors. Like 3-4 in. between connectors, they barely reach between the drive mounts on the case. If I wanted to fill all of the drive mounts in the Magnetar case, I might need four SATA modular cables, and the PSU only included three, and darn it, there are only three modular places to plug them in, yet there are two "Periph" (molex string) sockets too. If only the molex and SATA strings had interchangable sockets, then I wouldn't be in this bind. I may have to break down and use a molex string or two, and then use Molex-to-SATA power adapter cables. Sigh.

I did, however, besides getting Windows 10 Pro on there, also put on Windows 7 64-bit Pro, thanks to a handy tool on Gigabyte's support page for that mobo, that injects the USB3.0 and NVMe drivers into a Windows 7 64-bit image file.

I then rounded it out with a Linux install. All three OSes are installed to their own drives, and I use the BIOS boot menu to select which one when I boot. Which means that if one of them auto-reboots, it will land in Windows 10. But since Windows 10 is basically the only OS out of those three that will auto-reboot regularly, it works out.

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I now have both Magnetar / Gigabyte AX370-Gaming / Ryzen R5 1600 / 16GB GSkill DDR4-3000 / 512GB Intel 545s SATA SSD rigs built.
I also have my previous main rig, shoe-horned into the other Rosewill Line-M case, removed the AIO WC 120mm, and installed with Ryzen 2200G APU.

So, I have a pair of Rosewill FBM-xx cases, EVGA PSUs, Biostar A320MH Pro mATX boards, now I just need a pair of Athlon 200GE APUs for those boards, and some RAM. I have one stick of 8GB DDR4-2667, and might be getting the twin of that stick back, those would work OK for the A200GE APU builds.

Then I just have to work on the RaidMax Cobra / G4560 / Z170 Pro4S / 4GB DDR4-2800 / 240GB SSD builds, and pull out the RX 570 4/8GB GPUs, and re-distribute them between my rigs, and decide whether or not to make the G4560 rigs "browser boxes" or "gaming rigs". Wish I had some buyers lined up, they would make decent playable gaming PCs with the 4GB RX 570 cards, or possible the GTX950 2GB and R7 260X 2GB cards I also have around here. Maybe those would be more appropriate?

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Ok, still happy with my Rosewill Magnetar rigs, AX370-Gaming mobos, Ryzen R5 1600 CPUs, 16GB GSkill, Intel 512GB 545s SATA SSD, etc.

I pulled a 2200G out of one of the AB350M Pro4 boards. I had previously done some testing with that, and those rigs didn't seem fully stable with mining on the APU, for some reason. I think it's a lack of appropriate "gusto" on the Vsoc plane on those motherboards, or maybe they're just worn out. Anyways, I can see the same thing happening for "APU Gaming", should I end up selling them to someone for that usage, so now I'm thinking of pulling the other 2200G out of the other AB350M Pro4 rig, and dropping in either a pair of Ryzen R3 1200 CPUs ($89.99 @ Newegg), or maybe even a pair of 1700 CPUs ($169.99 @ Newegg). But that would require dGPUs. Of which, I've got 2x RX 570 8GB (both in my main rig), 2x RX 570 4GB (one of which is in my secondary AX370-Gaming PC, and of which, I was thinking of putting each of them, back into the G4560 boxes, and putting 16GB of DDR4 in each of those, and maybe adding a HDD, and selling / giving them away as "Gaming PC"s). I can put my 2GB RX 560 into my secondary AX370-Gaming PC, just to drive my other 4K UHD screen.

Basically, I'll need 6x dGPUs, and I could pull the second 8GB RX 570 out of my main rig, and put it into my secondary, and move both RX 570 4GB cards, into either the G4560 rigs, or into the AB350M Pro4 rigs, if I add a 1700 CPU to them. I also have a pair of 2GB dGPUs (older stuff) that I could throw into the G4560 rigs, and maybe put a single 8GB stick of DDR4 into them instead. Maybe 8GB of DDR4 and a 2GB dGPU would be more appropriate for the types of games that someone would want to play with a G4560 dual-core w/HT as a main CPU?

 

[whm1974]

Personally I would just run Windows 7 and Linux instead of three OSes. And only Win7 if I actually need to.

 

[VirtualLarry]

How do people feel about 4GB DDR4, versus 1x8GB DDR4, versus 2x4GB DDR4, for a browser box with an AM4 APU (200GE or 2200G), or a G4560? What about with an SSD?\

What about a lower-end gaming box? Would 1x8GB DDR4-2667 suffice for gaming, with a G4560 and a 2GB mid-grade (RX 560-equivalent) GPU? Likely more of an e-sports box, than a AAA gaming box, but it should still be mostly viable for games.

Trying to decide how to allocate RAM for my down-rev boxes. I could, in theory, put 2x8GB DDR4-2400 into the G4560 boxes, along with the RX 570 4GB cards. Would that be more viable for AAA gaming?

Edit: I have at my disposal, 2x (2x8GB) DDR4-2400 (Team Vulcan), 2x4GB GSkill DDR4-2800, and currently, 1x8GB Corsair DDR4-2667, though I might be acquiring a second DIMM back from a friend.

 

[whm1974]

At this point while 4GB would work along with an SSD, but why cripple the system, especially with the 2200G? I wouldn't use the 200GE at all unless I need a 35W TDP APU or if I can't afford anything better.

 

[VirtualLarry]

No, the Ryzen R5 1600 and 2200G boxes are both getting 16GB of DDR4. (Gigabyte 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 Ripjaws V for the 1600, Team Group Vulcan 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 @ 2667 for the 2200G.)

I'm talking about the down-rev boxes, the G4560, which, with a dGPU installed, should be much less dependent on the need for dual-channel RAM, and 8GB total should be enough for e-sports gaming, and the A320 boards don't OC, so the A200GE would seem a logical drop-in for them, and with the only 3 CUs onboard, they really can't take much advantage of dual-channel RAM anyways.

The only real question I have is, 16GB for the G4560 boxes, with the RX 570, or 8GB (one DIMM) for the G4560 boxes, and a 2GB GDDR5 dGPU from my collection, and then thus a single 4GB DDR4-2800 @ 2667 DIMM for the A200GE boxes?

Edit: But is a single 4GB DIMM too little for an A200GE "browser box"? I've not yet used one, so I'm not sure how powerful they are for browsing. Should Firefox's Content Process Limit, be set to 4 (to match max threads), or 2 (to match max cores)? I've been setting mine to "same as max cores".

 

[whm1974]

A single 8GB stick should with the G4560 provide you have a dGPU, but I would still choose an 8GB as well for the 200GE. And of course SSDs for both of them.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, SSDs for all of the aforementioned rigs.

I guess I could pick up some Team Elite (non-heatspreader, cheaper) DDR4-2400 8GB sticks, or a 16GB kit, for cheap-ish, and throw those in the A200GE rigs.

 

[whm1974]

Yes, SSDs for all of the aforementioned rigs.

I guess I could pick up some Team Elite (non-heatspreader, cheaper) DDR4-2400 8GB sticks, or a 16GB kit, for cheap-ish, and throw those in the A200GE rigs.

I would just put in 1x8GB for the 200GE and save the 16GB kits for the higher end APUs/CPUs.

 

[ElFenix]

how many people do you have in your household?

 

[VirtualLarry]

how many people do you have in your household?

LOL. Just me. Yeah, I know, I have "excessive desktop PCs". They come in useful during the Dec. F@H race though.

 

[ElFenix]

LOL. Just me.

you can only use 1 computer at a time. i don't see the point of having separate browsing boxes, esports boxes, and 1080P AAA gaming boxes, let alone multiples of each. 1 box can do all that (especially if you don't have a graphics card and processor eating up 500 watts and dumping it on you - i understand having a separate low power box and only turning on the max gaming box when necessary). watch that show on netflix about everyone cleaning out their closets. sell most of the rest of it - that's why you have it, isn't it?

 

[VirtualLarry]

watch that show on netflix about everyone cleaning out their closets. sell most of the rest of it - that's why you have it, isn't it?

I read a few articles recently about that show, Sounds like good stuff, I could use some cleaning in this apt. / slash "warehouse". I don't have Netflix. Yeah, I'm "that guy" that doesn't watch TV.

The down-rev boxes, I want to sell off all of them. (The G4560s, the A320 Biostar boxes, once I get some A200GE APUs to toss in them, and possibly the 2200G boxes with 16GB of DDR4-3000 and Rosewill Line-M cases, I really like those cases.) I would be keeping the Rosewill Magnetar cases, the Gigabyte AX370-Gaming ATX boards, the R5 1600 CPUs, 16GB GSkill DDR4-3000, and in each of them, 2x RX 570 cards, most likely. At least one RX 570 card.

Edit: I put two RX 570 8GB cards into my "main" PC. Plugged in both 120mm front intake LED fans, mobo had fan connectors for them, thankfully. Moved my drives over from the other box. Re-configured F@H for two GPUs, and 6 CPU threads (one per physical core). 637K PPD combined, 390W at the wall, according to my KAW. Not too shabby.

CPU temp (on stock cooler, stock speeds) on air, 73C max, GPU temp (for both GPUs, top and bottom) around 70C max. Lower-speed RPMs on the GPU fans, although it's kind of cold outside here in the winter, and cold inside too.

 

[JRzoid]

I have a few systems the 7700k/EVGA

and just got not long ago the 2600x and msi X470.

They run well still. Flashed both and upgraded bios.

 

[whm1974]

Other then building a Ryzen APU system for my dad I don't see myself building another system anytime soon.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I re-built the AB350M Pro4 board rigs, in the Rosewill Line-M micro-ATX cases, with the Rosewill Valens 600W 80Plus Gold PSUs, I put in a pair of Athlon 200GE APUs, and a single 8GB stick of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2667. Actually, I think one of them has 8GB, a 256GB SSD, and a DVD-RW, and the other has 4GB, and a 128GB SSD. Both with Win10 Pro. Not bad little "browser boxes". I overclocked both of them to 3.80Ghz @ 1.400V. Probably overkill on the voltage, but they won't overheat, they don't draw that much power.

I re-built a rig with a Rosewill FBM-something-or-other case, and a Biostar A320MH Pro AM4 micro-ATX board, and I don't even remember the PSU. I put my remaining Ryzen R3 2200G APU in that one, and the other 8GB Corsair DDR4-2667 stick. It already had a Toshiba TR-200 240GB (DRAM-less, TLC) SATA SSD in it, with a copy of Win10.

My Gigabyte AX370-Gaming board in my main rig, well, the primary PCI-E x16 slot seemingly died, so I have a Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO WIFI to replace it with, and hopefully get my other 8GB RX 570 in there and mining too. Just need to find some time and mental effort to swap them around. (What a major PITA.)

The first G4560 in the Raidmax Cobra case, I put 2x8GB Team Elite DDR4-2400 @ 2800 1.35V, and my Sapphire 4GB RX 470 "mining" (DVI-D only) card, and a 240GB (used) SSD that was in there since I first built those rigs, with half with Win7 Home, and half with Win10 Home, both activated.

The second G4560 rig, in the same model case, I put 2x4GB OLOy DDR4-2400 @ 2667 1.35V, and no dGPU. 240GB SATA Kingston SSD (used), just Win10 Home (activated) on that one. Could put in a Sapphire 2GB RX 560 card (refurb), or a GTX950 2GB GDDR5 (used).

It's really a shame that you can't overclock the G4560 CPUs, they would seem to be made for that sort of thing. Maybe with 10th-Gen dual-core/quad-thread Intel CPUs? 10nm maybe? We can hope. (After all, AMD "caved", and allowed the A200GE to be overclocked, with AGESA PinnaclePI 1.0.0.6. At least, on both of my MSI as well as ASRock B350 boards.)