emergency workstation build! anyone with a threadripper 3970x?

[super gnu]

ive always build my own workstations, i really enjoy doing in depth research and getting everything just right. ive been gradually planning my next workstation, to replace my ancient 4.6 ghz 3930k. its been upgraded as far as it can go.


but, unfortunately, with 3 jobs on my plate, my machine has started randomly switching off, and refusing to turn back on until i reset the bios and reduce clocks. i suspec its dying... rapidly.

so the new workstation build has become urgent. no more waiting for the 64 core to come out!


this means im searching for advice. im looking at the 3970x, probably with a gigabyte designare motherboard, due to the possibility of 4x gpus down the road. for now ill just get a single 2080 TI gpu, since i want to wait for the ampere gpu's with improved rtx cores before going crazy.

my main question is regarding ram. i want 128gb. does the new threadripper play nice with 128gb at decent clockspeeds? a friend had heaps of issues with 128gb on the old 32 core threadripper.

if so, anyone recommend a 128gb 3600 mhz kit? something proven to work? no time to wade through a hundred forums!

i also need a really good cpu watercooling block for threadripper... ive got an external watercooler so the rest of the system is taken care of.

any tips or suggestions from experience?

thanks all!

[psanitra]

I`m running 128Ghz TridentZ 2933 CL14 kit on 3970x and Zenith II, i`m not sure if you will be able to run 3600, probably not.3200 is more likely to work. Definetly check the mobo memory QVL list on the Gigabyte website. What`s in there works.
For waterblock, Watercool Heatkiller IV PRO is still best you can get. I run it with 2x360PE rands from EKWB and under load 63degrees at all core 3950Hhz, no OC no PBO.

[super gnu]

thanks for the reply, im going a bit bonkers trying to figure out ram. 3200 ram is obviously much cheaper than 3600, so thats good.. although now ive seen corsair do 4x32gb kits at both 3200 and 3600, and they are MUCH cheaper than 8x16.. timings are not too different.. so need to know if 4x32 is better/worse same as 8x16.. one obvious benefit is room for expansion.


ive also been looking at the qvl lists, but they have very little in the 128gb category.. for example the 32 gb sticks are only qualified for 2 slots! and 128gb on the qvl lists is generally really low clocks, despite a few reports ive seen online of people having no issues with 8x16 at 3200mhz.

[Karol.Osinski]

Hi, I don't wanna overtake the topic but could you guys roughly explain why RAM speed matters a lot to you? We recently got 3970x with 128gb and to my surprise they are just 2666mhz, I cursed our seller that he sold us a shitty RAM, but then I saw some benchmarks on CGdirector.com and it indeed states that RAM speed is much more importand on AMD platform, though the speed increase from 2666mhz to 3200mhz was something like 1-2%...Is it worth it then?

btw given the "slow memory" the 3970x is a total beast easily outperforming our 2990wx.

[glorybound]

It would be great if someone built V-Ray computers. I mean, test out everything and built a machine that takes everything into consideration and build the beast. Not BOXX, which in my opinion is overpriced and underperforms (with my limited knowledge of them). What if I went out and purchased a 64 core AMD just to find out V-Ray won't use but 32 of the cores? Even a low, medium, and high-performance machine option, based on budgets. Karol's example of RAM is a good example.