Threadripper BUILDERS thread

[Kirito]

I'd like to see the same, and I expect to be disappointed, frankly, on sizing, pricing, and features. If you're going to try and sell me an $800 board, it better come with a 360mm copper radiator and block connections for vrm cooling. Instead, I expect to see !!-*LED*-!! much-wow, sprawling plastic covers and other such garbage. EATX just let's them do more of that. It's embarrassing to the industry imnsho.

Anyway, in preparation, I'm trying to figure out what kind of case I might live with. The Carbide 540 is an interesting choice. With cases just getting taller, and with so many of them eliminating front drive bays, it's getting harder for me to find a decent case I know that the tdp makes this impossible, but I find myself pining for my A3000-sized case....

What do you have in your rig that needs front drive bays? Still rocking optical media? Amiga sized case... With a threadripper in it? 😏 I would love to have an ncase m1 with a potential asrock itx tr4 board but physics and practicality is no fun.. How about the more recent Lian Li cases?

 

[dlerious]

Hmm.. I've had bad experiences with msi, asrock was nice except bios options, last gigabyte board was a p35t-dq6... Would really prefer not to pay for Asus tax especially with their shenanigans of late.. Is it that difficult to have a high end non tacky board with a nice functional bios? Something like asus ws but atx(?) budget should be about 350£ or even 450/500 if it's a proper board that'll last ages.. That old ultradurable board with an e6300 is still running a fileserver for me! Just has a few broken USB slots after all this while.

I'm not too crazy about MSI, but their B450 boards were pretty good and the reviews for the X399 MEG Creation were positive. I really like my Asrock X370 Taichi. My Asus Crosshair is ok and my X399 Zenith Extreme was about the same. I feel like I'm paying more for the name than the quality with Asus any more - at least on the AMD side. Don't know how far back I have to go for Gigabyte (Athlon days). I've liked what I've seen in reviews for their top 3 X570 boards.

 

[Beavermatic]

My Asus Crosshair is ok and my X399 Zenith Extreme was about the same. I feel like I'm paying more for the name than the quality with Asus any more - at least on the AMD side.

This. The Zenith Extreme x399 was an ok board when it wasn't giving me bios update-related woes. It also had just too damn many bells and whistles and to meeting components that drive up the price. Really think $500-$600 for a board is damn ridiculous anyway.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Anyway, in preparation, I'm trying to figure out what kind of case I might live with. The Carbide 540 is an interesting choice. With cases just getting taller, and with so many of them eliminating front drive bays, it's getting harder for me to find a decent case I know that the tdp makes this impossible, but I find myself pining for my A3000-sized case....

Speaking of A3000, I'd love to check this case out.

 

[scannall]

Speaking of A3000, I'd love to check this case out.

I much prefer that form factor. Hard to find though outside of HTPC cases.

 

[dnavas]

What do you have in your rig that needs front drive bays? Still rocking optical media?

Yeah, I dropped in-case magnetic media before I've tossed my optical stuff. The spinning rust is in the NAS on a 10Gb network. As it is, I had to give up one of my bays when moving to the fractal r5. The nice thing about the front bays is that they gave me a chance to add "other stuff" to my case. Used to have a nice card reader on the front. Bit pointless on the r5 anyway. [And no, this isn't off-topic, as that is the box holding my 2950 threadripper build ]

Amiga sized case... With a threadripper in it? 😏

Crazy, right? Wouldn't be any room for a card, and I'd need an external radiator.
And yet....

How about the more recent Lian Li cases?

Got any in particular? I just had a peek at their website and nothing really jumped out at me....
I'm not married to the Carbide, and my backups (Corsair 750 and others of that ilk) are just :meh: Mostly too dang tall.

 

[StefanR5R]

Sadly, the Corsair Carbide 400/400Q series of cases was discontinued. One of the most compact cases which can hold E-ATX (and SSI-EEB after drilling additional mounting holes). No drive bays though.

(Oh, the 400C seems to be available still.)

 

[Beavermatic]

While tommorow is expected to be the big day of announcement for TR3.... Seems that Intel has budged releasing their latest HEDT processors until November 25th after initially setting it for tommorow as well.

Article suggest Intel likely knows a bit more about AMD's expected launch and is likely altering it to match the actual TR3 launch time. Soooo.... guessing that means TR3 will probably be announced tommorow but not actually start hitting stores until on/around November 25th? That's actually great news... let's me squeeze in one more paycheck so I can comfortably blow a colossal amount of funds on a new TR3 and mobo without worry lol.

https://wccftech.com/intel-10th-gen-x-series-cascade-lake-x-hedt-cpus-delay-november/

 

[StefanR5R]

guessing that means TR3 will probably be announced tommorow but not actually start hitting stores until on/around November 25th?

There are rumors.

BTW, this is a builders thread, not the rumor mill. Just saying. :-)

Oops!

 

[DrMrLordX]

Pretty sure TR3 goes on sale on the 19th.

 

[Ajay]

There are rumors.

Hmm, it would we weird if AMD didn’t release the clocks speeds along with the core count. Hopefully some mobo vendors will release their designs as well, since there have already been teaser shots.

 

[Beavermatic]

Welp without a sub -$1,000 threadripper now, I guess this is my stop. Looks like AMD is drinking from the Intel cup with pricing this time around.

That's a shame too because I really enjoyed my old tr1950x and my current tr2950x and that price range in which they were originally aimed at. Felt awesome getting something that powerful and premium for a relatively fair price. I wasn't too much concerned about x399 compatibility cuz I assumed it was going to require a new board anyway, but even after a new board and even just the entry level thread ripper 24c this time it's going to put you at near $2,000.

Instead I have now just ordered a crosshair iii formula x570 board, and waiting for the 3950x to release. Stepping it down to plain old Ryzen this round... But still has a pretty decent performance gain (or so it would seem) over my current 2950X so I guess it's a win/win either way. Besides all I do with my home desktop is just media and gaming and browsing the internet, so the thread ripper was always pretty much overkill or unwarranted in my scenario anyway.

Hope everyone here that builds a TR3 system has some fun in doing it! As for me... maybe next time, Threadripper.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Welp without a sub -$1,000 threadripper now, I guess this is my stop. Looks like AMD is drinking from the Intel cup with pricing this time around.

That's a shame too because I really enjoyed my old tr1950x and my current tr2950x and that price range in which they were originally aimed at. Felt awesome getting something that powerful and premium for a relatively fair price. I wasn't too much concerned about x399 compatibility cuz I assumed it was going to require a new board anyway, but even after a new board and even just the entry level thread ripper 24c this time it's going to put you at near $2,000.

Instead I have now just ordered a crosshair iii formula x570 board, and waiting for the 3950x to release. Stepping it down to plain old Ryzen this round... But still has a pretty decent performance gain (or so it would seem) over my current 2950X so I guess it's a win/win either way. Besides all I do with my home desktop is just media and gaming and browsing the internet, so the thread ripper was always pretty much overkill or unwarranted in my scenario anyway.

Hope everyone here that builds a TR3 system has some fun in doing it! As for me... maybe next time, Threadripper.

Yeah I am in the same boat, No way I am blowing more then $1000 for a cpu then another $600-1000 for a darn motherboard.
Besides I have been sitting on a Gigabyte x570 Aorus Master motherboard for like going on 5 months now waiting for a 3950x.
So hoping I am able to actually snag one up before the scalpers buy them all up.
Maybe in the future when prices drop I will be able to go threadripper 3000..

 

[Beavermatic]

Yeah I am in the same boat, No way I am blowing more then $1000 for a cpu then another $600-1000 for a darn motherboard.

That's exactly it. Unless your livelihood (career/profession) relies on it, there's no other justification for buying a processor over $1000. Probably even lesser ($700 or less) for almost everyone in reality aside from profession exception.

And the same logic goes for processors that go upto $3k, $5k, $7k+ prices..m those are likely not even to be a option for anything aside from science, medical, research, bigdata, Enterprise, etc.

Seems AMD is aiming to keep TR3 out of reach for you *unless* you're putting it to use as intended. Almost as if they implemented a 'punishment' tax just to buy it as enthusiast or hobbyist to deter you.

That's what I liked about the first two releases of Threadripper... It felt like we got to cheat the system and get something we weren't supposed to have as enthusiasts; a premium tech for slightly above mainstream CPU prices. I guess that has changed now though.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Could always upgrade your 1950x to a 2990wx when prices fall instead of buying the 3000 series right this minute.
Unfortunately for me I sold my 2950x and Taichi Mobo only after about a week or two of use.
So no x399 upgrades for me
Sort of regretting getting rid of it casue it was a fine little work horse which I could have upgraded to 2990wx myself now.
Thats fine though, what ever it is what it is and I am sure the 3950x will do great thing for me.

 

[dnavas]

That's exactly it. Unless your livelihood (career/profession) relies on it, there's no other justification for buying a processor over $1000. Probably even lesser ($700 or less) for almost everyone in reality aside from profession exception.

Oh, I dunno, it isn't THAT bad. I mean, sure, I'm pretty disappointed (putting it mildly) at the pricing, but cheap computers in the early 90s were $3k, and that's before adjusting for inflation. What both the pricing and the socket change means is that I can't justify the yearly upgrade. If per core pricing gets stuck at this level for 5+ years with incremental cost increases following incremental value increase, then I think we'll be justified for going Rambo on their corporate behinds, but otherwise I assume that Zen3 will see some kind of price decrease, and maybe we'll get a better view of motherboard longevity.

I fear this is somewhat off-topic for this thread. We are literally !TR Builders :> . We should let those that are going to build do so in peace!

 

[DrMrLordX]

With the 3950x, AMD has less incentive to price anything TR3 below $1k. Sad but true.

 

[dnavas]

Liqtech TR4-II 280 death watch: kicked the bucket. 91C idle temps -- I could hear the pump, but I don't think it was being effective. Something like a year old, which I gather is about what people are getting out of them. Original Noctua back on. Would really like some of the effort that's been put on motherboards this round to have been put into an effective AIO instead. Ah well.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@dnavas

I wonder what was the market penetration of the various Liqtech TR4 coolers. Do most Threadripper buyers just use custom water? Why have so few AiO providers out there added larger blocks to their existing 280mm and 360mm designs?

 

[dnavas]

Why have so few AiO providers out there added larger blocks to their existing 280mm and 360mm designs?

Good question. I have to assume there's an addressable market, or I'm a special snowflake. :shrug: With the new round at 280W, the backup (air) plan looks less attractive. Enermax's block seems fine, it's the rest of it that seems to go wrong :>

 

[Ajay]

Good question. I have to assume there's an addressable market, or I'm a special snowflake. :shrug: With the new round at 280W, the backup (air) plan looks less attractive. Enermax's block seems fine, it's the rest of it that seems to go wrong :>

I think OEMs will use custom cooling designs for their workstation towers. Seems like air would be pretty limited for some of heavy workloads that can be run (AVX). You can do air in servers because of heavy air conditioning and screaming fans. So, I would imagine custom liquid cooling will be used. Tough to tell for sure until until systems start hitting the market.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I think OEMs will use custom cooling designs for their workstation towers.

That leaves the DiY crowd in the lurch, so to speak. Unless they also go custom water.

 

[Ajay]

That leaves the DiY crowd in the lurch, so to speak. Unless they also go custom water.

True, but the product stack pricing placement is going to going to almost eliminate the DIY treadripper market. EKWB and others will still offer threadripper water blocks. So, yeah - people maybe have to go all in on a diy system. We'll know better when reviews post actual power numbers.

 

[cellarnoise]

I was looking forward to upgrading my 1950x system, but it is still my hobby sidekick system. New threadripper prices are too high to get me to jump on it early. 280w likely needs liquid cooling as even the new dual tower noctua coolers may struggle at full tilt.

3950x is powerfull, but the dual channel memory holds it back sometimes.

 

[DrMrLordX]

3950x is powerfull, but the dual channel memory holds it back sometimes.

It may not. The new memory controller is really nice. I think you just need fast DDR4. For example, when running DDR4-3733 14-16-14-28 1T, my 3900x @ default turns in a memory read score of 58923 MB/s according to AIDA64. In contrast, AIDA64's records indicate that a 2990WX with four channels of DDR4-2933 gets 68474 MB/s of memory bandwidth. Methinks the 3950X will not be starved for bandwidth.