MOBO and COOLING for AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX - any recommendations?

[baastyan]

Hi there,

I am about to buy new rig (workstation) running on AMD Ryzen 2990WX. I am working mostly on archviz (90%) and video/animation in After Effects (10%).

Here comes the specs that sound reasonable for me:
MOBO: MSI X399 gaming pro Carbon
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Red C15 4 x 16GB = 64GB
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1080Ti Gaming 11GB (will use the one that I have in my currect PC)
COOLING: AIO Enermax LiqTech TR4 360
SSD: Crucial MX500 500RG
PSU: Be quiet! 1200W Dark power Pro 11
CASE: Fractal Design XL R2
OS: Win10 PRO

So my question is: do you have any (other) recommendation when it comes to MOBO and COOLING for 2990WX?
Is there any reason to go for something more expansive like Asus Rog Zenith Extreme x399?
Basically I do not expect expect anything more from the MOBO then just to keep the stability when I OC my rig from 3.0GHz up to 3.4GHz (about 10%). I am not going to push any further.
And Cooling ... I do not want to use any custom liquid cooling, just a simple AIO.

[Magnum_design]

I have the Threadripper 2990 wx with same moderboard, but liquid cooling Fractal design s 24 plus 2 extra fans on the block. Extremely quiet solution if you set it up correct. ( took awhile though ). ( only ) 32G of ram running at 3200Mhz now. . Having some problem with crashes right now. Not sure what at the point ?? Can be a corrupt file or bad drivers. According to hwinfo temps are ok. Need some time to figure it out. It´s so quiet now so I could easily cool it more if that´s the case. Thinking it can be the power when I see your choice. My is 850watt. Is that to little? ( can not always trust the store that build it )


I´m not an expert in overklocking, but Bios seems simple enought to let you try. Not sure I should though?

Not many answers here, only more questions It´s so new this processor and we are the betas...haha

Btw. it really runs like a racinghorse this one !!!

[baastyan]

Thanks for chiming in Magnus!

I have the Threadripper 2990 wx with same moderboard, but liquid cooling Fractal design s 24 plus 2 extra fans on the block. Extremely quiet solution if you set it up correct. ( took awhile though ).

Could you share a photo of your rig and your full specs? Would be really good to see how your machine looks like.

Having some problem with crashes right now. Not sure what at the point ?? Can be a corrupt file or bad drivers. According to hwinfo temps are ok. ... Thinking it can be the power when I see your choice. My is 850watt. Is that to little?

Well ... this CPU might consume really, really a lot pwer when overclocked. It goes almost up to 900W in this test below!! (@ 4,0GHz) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vQQ...tu.be&t=29m10s
So when I saw this my first thought was that PSU must be 1200W the minimum.
Do you have both 8pin CPU power connectors plugged in your MOBO?
What"s your OC?
And what temperatures do you get?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

do you have any (other) recommendation when it comes to MOBO and COOLING for 2990WX?

This MOBO is really good. I have used it on several builds for clients since first Gen Ryzen and never had any issues with it. It also overclocks really nicely
Personally, I would go for an Asus Zenith Extreme, which costs 200 USD more. I have always been a fan of this lineup from Asus throughout the years and it offers more when it comes to manual OC
If you don't play with manual OC yourself and you don't care about the highest OC your CPU can achieve, you better save those 200$
This is just a personal preference for me and you should be fine with your X399 Pro Carbon.
Just keep an eye on Bios updates, it is very important now as These CPUs has just been released.

For cooling, The Enermax Liqtech is one of the best I have used with Threadripper. You can go with the 240 and you should be fine.. I don't see a reason for the 360 model and you will need enough space in your case for it.
More notes about your hardware choices,
Your RAM should be 3200 MHz, it really matters for your pure CPU performance.
Do yourself a favor and get an m.2 NVME.. I like the Samsung 970 Pro. It is definitely worth it for a machine like this.
For Power Supply, I can say 850 Watts is more than enough if you have a single video card. If you plan on adding more cards in future, go for higher wattage..

One question I have why replace an i9 7980XE with the new TR 2990wx? or you will be using both machines?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Having some problem with crashes right now

Means your OC is not stable.. I would recommend stress testing without OC first, to make sure that your setup has no problems.
Then you can share with us here your OC settings to find out what is causing your system to crash

PSU must be 1200W the minimum

I do think that 850 is more than enough for this CPU and one video card. At max OC with Enermax, power draw for the whole system is about 700 Watts

Do you have both 8pin CPU power connectors plugged in your MOBO?

It will display an error message at start, but system will boot if one of these is not connected, and he will not be able to perform any OC.

[baastyan]

Muhammed_Hamed
Thanks for your tips!

This MOBO is really good. I have used it on several builds for clients since first Gen Ryzen and never had any issues with it. It also overclocks really nicely
Personally, I would go for an Asus Zenith Extreme, which costs 200 USD more. I have always been a fan of this lineup from Asus throughout the years and it offers more when it comes to manual OC

I was also thinking about ASUS but what really scared me was this video
https://youtu.be/TvXKkOQpgps?t=14m25s
The differences between Zenith and MEG Creation are just huge there!
Did you experience simillar issue with high temperatures on your ASUS rig?

And overclocking the MEG is pretty easy:
https://youtu.be/kxl47gUcm4A?t=9m33s

The only problem is that these MOBOs seem to be not available here in Europe yet (at least I could not find them yet).

Your RAM should be 3200 MHz, it really matters for your pure CPU performance.
Do yourself a favor and get an m.2 NVME.. I like the Samsung 970 Pro. It is definitely worth it for a machine like this.

Is this such a significant difference between 3000 MHz and 3200 MHz? just 200MGz - not much IMO
I got really nice offer for G.SKILL Ripjaws V Red C15, 3000 Mgz ... and if I would upgrade it to e.g. G.SKILL TridentZ 32GB 3200 Mgz, CL15 then I need to pay extra 250 USD for only 200Mgz upgrade!! (keeping the same CL)
I have been reading for years that RAM speed do not matter that much when it comes to performance in 3D and rendering. But I have never had AMD before ... maybe this case is different?

Regarding Samsung 970 Pro. I have 950 PRO on my 7980XE rig and it's working good, but again ... Samsung 970 Pro is about 200$ more expansive than Crucial SSD.

One question I have why replace an i9 7980XE with the new TR 2990wx? or you will be using both machines?

You are right. I am going to use both machines (probably: 7980XE work station + 2990WX as a render server). I have at the moment 6 render node machines and I am pretty tired with fixing issues and upgrading software on each of them. And one 2990WX has similar performance to all 6 machines in total (i7-3930K and dual xeons x5670). 6 machines means almost 6 time more problem to be fixed.

The other scenario is that I will give 2990WX machine to my colleague at the office who will be using it as a workstation.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

I was also thinking about ASUS but what really scared me was this video

The MEG has an insane VRM cooling, probably the best in the industry. In the last 3 years Manufacturers have been lazy when it came to VRM cooling, but it is quite nice to see this new trend of proper VRM cooling now. I do think that all other manufacturers will follow up with similar products, specially with this high end platform.
That being said, nothing is scary about VRM cooling with the Zenith extreme even if you push things to the limit. This board is rock solid in my testings for nearly a year and half now and there is 0 problems with it. I've built over 25 systems with this board.
Thing with this test is proper airflow.. So with open test benches like both of these videos have, there is barely any airflow and temps usually are higher than expected.
If you have a mid to full sized tower, with good airflow you shouldn't worry about any VRM cooling issues. I usually use the Cooler master H500P, which looks really nice and you can setup good airflow with it easily.
And like I said before, go with MSI MEG or the gaming pro carbon if you want. They both are good enough
The differences that I talked about with the Zenith Extreme is that advanced users prefer it for extreme OC... I'm talking about the limits of what your CPU and Chipset can offer, so you will probably have to play with ring ratio, base ratio or assign raitos per core if needed.
If you will not be doing any of this you better save these 200$

And overclocking the MEG is pretty easy

This is basically how you OC any CPU on any platform not just TR4, so nothing here makes this board different from others
OC shouldn't necessarily be complex. It is as simple as applying a ratio and a core voltage.
So if you apply ratio of 40 and you get a crash with your stability test, you restart and use 39 ratio and try again. Most 1950Xs can handle 3.8 to 3.9 with 1.35 volts
Very few TR CPUs can reach 4 GHZ easily.

Is this such a significant difference between 3000 MHz and 3200 MHz?

3200 MHz is very essential for Threadripper. People used to pay over 1000 Euros for 64 GB kits during inflation of RAM pricing a while back
It is 100% worth it.
RAM speeds doesn't matter for Intel and older AMD platforms, but this is completely different when it comes to Ryzen architecture
Ryzen loves high speed memory and you should make sure that this specific RAM kit is ryzen compatible before you buy.
Using the proper XMP profile for your 3200 MHz RAM, will give Ryzen 1950X around 10% boost with Vray, Cinebench and any kind of multicore rendering (this is without touching any CPU OC settings)
250 USD is 100% worth it for this kind of performance boost.
The more cores you have, the more you will benefit from your high speed memory.
And yeah 3000 compared to 3200 with 32 cores will make a difference. The TridentZ works nicely with TR4 too

Samsung 970 Pro is about 200$ more expansive than Crucial SSD

Look for a 960 Pro or 960 EVO, not necessarily the Pro version. an NVME is very essential for this kind of build in my view

You are right. I am going to use both machines (probably: 7980XE work station + 2990WX as a render server)

This i9 has a better single threaded performance than Ryzen, so it would work really nicely as your main machine. Many modifiers, tools and commands in Max are single threaded
Same with PS, Ae or any other tool you use.
This i9 can OC nicely too and with OC, its multi core performance will be 80 to 90% of the new 2990wx
Don't run it at stock frequencies

[Magnum_design]

Thanks for chiming in Magnus!


Could you share a photo of your rig and your full specs? Would be really good to see how your machine looks like.



Well ... this CPU might consume really, really a lot pwer when overclocked. It goes almost up to 900W in this test below!! (@ 4,0GHz) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vQQ...tu.be&t=29m10s
So when I saw this my first thought was that PSU must be 1200W the minimum.
Do you have both 8pin CPU power connectors plugged in your MOBO?
What"s your OC?
And what temperatures do you get?

Yes I will upload a photo soon I have had a lot to do recently...

When it crashed all the time the oc was 3500 Ghz and memory 3200Mhz. For some reason the cooling wasnt enough. I think the fans was set wrong. ( Or overklocking a beast like this comes with a price ) Now i´m running on default speed since I reset my Mob to default. Memorys down to 2133 Mhz. Need to fix memorys back to 3200. Never done any oc myself so I´m a bit unsure how?

Temperatures are a big question. How do I get a 100% correct reading of cpu temp ? I have Hwinfo now that says Cpu( Tcdie) min 35 max about 56 And Cpu ( Tctl ) min 62 and max 87, When it was clocked to 3500 Ghz it was close to 100 deg on maxtemp. The storeguy said this was ok

In Bios my cpu temp is around 38

MyThreadripper 2990 wx rig is:

Fractal design define Rs
Corsair Rm850i 850w
Corsair vengeance 32 Gb 3200Mhz
Samsung 970 Evo
Fractal design S24 and 2 extra corsair fans on the block for lower rpm
X399 gaming pro carbon Mob

[Muhammed_Hamed]

When it was clocked to 3500 Ghz it was close to 100 deg on maxtemp. The storeguy said this was ok

Use Ryzen master app to monitor the correct temps at full load
If you get close to 100 degrees, your CPU will throttle and you will lose a lot of performance.. At least make sure your RAM is running at 3200 MHz ,this will give you a good boost even without any CPU OC

[Magnum_design]

Use Ryzen master app to monitor the correct temps at full load
If you get close to 100 degrees, your CPU will throttle and you will lose a lot of performance.. At least make sure your RAM is running at 3200 MHz ,this will give you a good boost even without any CPU OC

Thank you, will do that. It´s comforting that it won´t burn up, just loose speed... How do I do this in the Bios the correct way. there is a menu "try memoryspeed" ( Msi gaming carbon pro x399 ) where you can choose speed. Is that the way? Or do I have to read more about overklocking memorys?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Magnum_design
I can tell you exactly how to OC your memory
First of all, go to save and exit and click on restore defaults
Then on your left, clock on the big OC icon, and scroll down to Dram settings,
you will find XAMP.. You need to set it to enabled
Now you should see below it something like DDR4 3200 MHz, indicating that your RAM is now running at its factory OC
now save changes and reboot..
If this worked for you, I can show you how to OC your CPU too.. Let me know what kind of CPU temps you are getting now with no oc.. This will determine how far we can go with CPU OC..

Best,
Muhammed

[Magnum_design]

Magnum_design
I can tell you exactly how to OC your memory
First of all, go to save and exit and click on restore defaults
Then on your left, clock on the big OC icon, and scroll down to Dram settings,
you will find XAMP.. You need to set it to enabled
Now you should see below it something like DDR4 3200 MHz, indicating that your RAM is now running at its factory OC
now save changes and reboot..
If this worked for you, I can show you how to OC your CPU too.. Let me know what kind of CPU temps you are getting now with no oc.. This will determine how far we can go with CPU OC..

Best,
Muhammed

I´ve read that the highest memory for Threadripper 2990 is 2933 Mhz. It´s a bit confusing?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

The CPU is limited to 2933 MHz..Still you can benefit from high speed memory kits like the one you have or the Gskill Tridentz that I recommended above. Even something like 4000 MHz Dominator Plat will work, but you will need to set the DRAM frequency manually to 2933
So, If the built in XMP profile doesn't work for you, disable XMP and set DRAM frequency manually to 2933 or 3000

[baastyan]

Using the proper XMP profile for your 3200 MHz RAM, will give Ryzen 1950X around 10% boost with Vray, Cinebench and any kind of multicore rendering (this is without touching any CPU OC settings)

Finally I have time reply you. Thank you again for putting so much effort with answering my questions!
Still considering few options for RAM.
One questions is... do you think it might be risky to buy 2 kits of dual G.Skill Trident Z (each kit is: 2 x 16GB) instead of one kit of four sticks (4 x 16GB)? In the shop where I am going to but RAMs they have only dual kits no four stick kits.
Another thing is that I did some research and tried to confirm your info about boosting the speed of rendering when using higher speed of RAM. Actually in few sources that I found the results does not show any significant difference of rendering speed. E.G.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI9s...tu.be&t=30m50s
So my question is: did you test any rig with 2990WX? As i uderstood you have great experience with rigs running on 1950x, but maybe it does not work exactly the same for 2990WX machines?

Look for a 960 Pro or 960 EVO, not necessarily the Pro version. an NVME is very essential for this kind of build in my view

I bought 970 EVO. Should be fine.

This i9 can OC nicely too and with OC,
Don't run it at stock frequencies

Well ... in Janury (when I bought my i-9 rig) I OC the maching up too 4.00GHZ. I thought it is not much. So i felt pretty save. But gradually, for few last months, the temps of CPU rised from about 70-75 (while rendering) up to 85-95!
And one day I got this (see below). And then I reset my bios to default. And now my temps are 70-75 again. I do not think thermal paste was an issue. Will need to figure it out when I have some more time.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

do you think it might be risky to buy 2 kits of dual G.Skill Trident Z

2 kits of 2 Dimms should work. Generally any matching RAM sticks will work, they don't need to be part of the same kit.

So my question is: did you test any rig with 2990WX?

One single CPU so far as I was away recently. I used the TridentZ RAM with it, but didn't have time to try anything else. I will be back at our office soon hopefully to build more of these

but maybe it does not work exactly the same for 2990WX machines?

It does work 100% the same way with the 2990WX.. And having that many cores will make this speed boost bigger
Thing is this CPU is based on the same Ryzen architecture as the 1950X
I have always recommended the Tridentz to all my clients for a reason. It just works like magic with Ryzen compared to anything else.
https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...eed-gives-bsod
10% speed boost from 2666 to 3200, which is a very big deal. This speed boost is consistent amongst all Ryzen CPUs I tested, even things like the 1300X and 1400X

The video you posted above shows Cinebench and Corona benchmark has no boost from high speed RAM.
Thing about these 2 is that they take few seconds to finish and usually they are not accurate with high end CPUs.. In Aida benchmark, you can clearly see a difference as it runs for few more minutes and focuses more on RAM performance
I'm not sure if he is using Tridentz RAM in his testing or something else. There are other specs that can make other 3200 memory slower/faster
To sum up, you will be fine with the 3000 MHz RAM you mentioned in your first post. It is not bad at all. But personally spending this kind of money on a machine, I would spend the extra 200 Euros or so on the Tridentz to reach the edge of what my new hardware can offer.

I bought 970 EVO. Should be fine

Cool.. Definitely worth it

the temps of CPU rised from about 70-75 (while rendering) up to 85-95!

This kind of temps are not normal for default settings or a 4GHz OC..
It might be something with the cooler or the board, not only the thermal paste application, so it is worth to investigate whenever you have time
The only thing that Intel CPU have over AMD is the kind of crazy OC you can achieve with these.. With the 7980XE you should be able to reach 4.5 GHz at worst case.. if you are lucky with this chip you can get to 4.7 or 4.8 easily