New threadripper workstation build

[Vizioen]

Hi,

I'm almost going to pull the trigger on buying my new threadripper workstation with the following specs. Just wanted to double check if this is a right decision because this is going to set me back a lot of money (about €14.500) and I want to make sure it's the right one.

CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X Boxed
Cooling: Corsair iCUE H150i RGB PRO XT, Watercooling
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 128 GB (4x 32 GB) - DDR4 3600
GPU: MSI RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X 12G NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12 GB GDDR6X
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX TRX40-XE GAMING, Mainboard - 90MB14M0-M0EAY0
SSD (For OS): Seagate FireCude 530 2TB
SSD (For Library and workfiles in Raid 0): 2x Seagate FireCude 530 4TB (and another 2 of these in raid 0 in my older workstation)
Case: Fractal Design Define 7 Black Solid, Tower-Gehäuse - FD-C-DEF7A-01
PSU: Corsair AX1600i , PC-Netzteil - CP-9020087-EU (MPL stock)
Monitors: 3 x Dell UltraSharp U2720Q Zwart - 210-AVES

As you can see I'm going to put 2 PCIe SSDs in raid 0 for my library and workfiles, I'm going to do the same in my other workstation that is in another country (because I'm going to work in 2 countries about 50-50% of my time). I would sync all my library and work files with a cloud service like Egnyte. I'm not so sure about this decision yet though. So if anyone has some remarks please say so.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Hi Ashely

The build looks pretty good overall, good job!
One suggestion is to change the cooling to Cooler Master 360 Threadripper edition, as it covers the entire CPU block. The H150i is gonna perform worse as it covers around 50 to 60% of the the CPU block

And what are the timings on your memory? I hope it is not CL18 or higher
It is gonna be worth to downgrade to 3200 and find better timings, timings are pretty important for Zen architecture

There are better choices of cases, but feel free. This one focuses on being silent more than cooling
My personal favorite is Lian Li 011 Dynamic XL which offers very good cooling performance, and comes with no fans.. you can equip it with up to 9 fans

Other than that, the build looks pretty good. could go for 850 Watts PSU if you don't plan on buying more GPUs
1600W is overkill

And for peace of mind don't bother with Raid 0 .. there is just no need for it with PCIe Gen 4
Under normal circumstances you will not get to the rated 7k read speeds because of windows 10
Maybe in some benchmarks and specific loads, but not in every day use

Best,
Muhammed

[francomanko]

if you at some point are planning to nvlink those 2 3080ti, make sure they are the same height cards.

[Vizioen]

Hi Muhammed,

Thank you for your answer.

Concerning the cooling I might change it to the CM ML360 TR4, thanks for the tip.

As for the RAM the website states 3600Mhz CL18. I have no idea about timings, but does that mean the memory will perform better at 3200 Mhz at CL16 instead of 3600 Mhz at CL18? Which timings do you recommend and do they come in DDR4 128GB 3600Mhz? I found 3600 with CL16, but they cost more ofcourse. Also not sure if they won't be too high.

I also found this comment, it's for Ryzen but I think the same applies to TR no?

To judge actual latency in terms of time, you need to take the CL rating and divide by clock speed.

• CL16 / 3,200,000,000 = 5 nanoseconds
• CL18 / 3,600,000,000 = 5 nanoseconds

So, given that the memory strobe access time are basically the same, the DDR4–3600 will outperform the DDR4–3200 by about 12% in sequential access times while still being synced at a 1:1 ratio with the Infinity Fabric between the CCX units on the chip.

Expect these speeds to vastly improve on Ryzen 4000 desktops for universal support of RAM speeds of DDR4-4200 and higher. Ryzen 4000 is a 7nm monolithic die so there will be none of that funny business with multiple dies on the CPU to slow things down.

Concerning PSU, I would like to test PBO from the Threadripper, or do you recommend not to? I might plan on buying more GPUs in the future, but not for now though. I'm pretty happy with my previous Fractal Design and TR 3970x, never had any big problems afaik. The Lian Li is also more expensive and every €100 less is a plus.

Concerning Raid 0 I'm not doing it for the speed gain, I want to partition the drive in 2 and 6 TB and map them to V and W for my work. For sequential reads Raid 0 performs a bit worse too I heard. But an 8TB drive has QLC and aren't as reliable I've read when it comes to performing after they are 40-60% full.

[Vizioen]

if you at some point are planning to nvlink those 2 3080ti, make sure they are the same height cards.

Hi Franco, there's only 1x 3080ti for now, but maybe in the future I will have more than 1, I have huge scenes and GPU isn't for me for now. Thanks for the pointer

[Muhammed_Hamed]

CL18 is not too bad for 32 GB sticks, specially if you plan to add more RAM later
if you go with 16 GB sticks you will find much faster RAM.. 3600 Cl16 and lower
3200 CL14 as well
But again if you need to add more RAM later, stick to 32 GB sticks.. it should be fine, I still suggest finding faster sticks (unless you are on a budget)

You can experiment with PBO yes, you can do OC as well and get a much higher score than stock

This board should be great with that, I haven't touched RAID on this platform honestly.. it is been a long while actually, RAID is always more headache on top of what you have(might be easier or more reliable now)

On another note, this GPU doesn't support NVlink as far as I know .. Need 3090s for that

Best,
Muhammed

[Vizioen]

Thanks for your insights Muhammed.

Is CL16 a lot faster than CL18? I see in your signature that you have these? I could be mistaken but isn't it better to occupy 4 slots instead of 8 slots? Wasn't planning on adding RAM in the near future either.

I ran a raid 0 for 7 years for my OS with 2 sata SSDs in my older dual xeon workstation and it still works to this day. I wasn't planning on buying a second GPU in the near future (1-2 years) so by then I'll probably just sell or reuse the 3080ti for another purpose and add 2 newer GPUs.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Is CL16 a lot faster than CL18?

Yes, Even from CL16 to CL17 you would feel the difference(depending on what you do)
3600 CL16 is great, you will find it affordable at 16 GB sticks.. you will find 4000 as well with some crazy tight timings, if you see a good deal go for it

But again for upgradability in future it is not too bad if you stick to 32 GB sticks

Don't bother much with memory if it will cost you a lot more though, there are other things you can spend this time and effort on

I could be mistaken but isn't it better to occupy 4 slots instead of 8 slots?

4 slots are minimum for quad channel, more than 4 is fine and will bear identical performance. Filling all 8 slots might cause stability issues, but Bioses are better at this now

I ran a raid 0 for 7 years for my OS with 2 sata SSDs in my older dual xeon workstation and it still works to this day

Good to hear!

It makes me want to get back to this again haha

Have a lovely night!