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Threadripper PC built


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If I fill my shopping cart with 1950x Threadripper parts,

I easily reach 4500 € (incl. 19% VAT)

Not the cheapest but far from most shiny parts.

 

I am interested in ECC RAM, 64 GB in this case

SDRAM 2400 the fastest I can see.

 

GPU is a 1080 without Tee

 

Air Cooler

 

SSD + SATA data SSD

 

But what about those about 6 different boards ?

I can hardly see any differences beside the prices.

Is it only the sound chip ?

 

My Quality sorting for motherboards is about :

Asus

Gigabyte

MSI

Asrock

...

Is that reasonable ?

 

Asus are eATX standard and extend a bit to the right.

While others vendors are standard ATX.

Looks like there isn't much Space to the right side for most Fractal Design chassis.

 

Your thoughts ?

 

Edited by zoomer
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CoolerMaster has some nice roomy chassis models with good air flow.


Regarding motherboards, Asus first and Gigabyte/MSI second and then nothing else except for specialized motherboards from e.g. Intel. There are reports that some MSI motherboards for Threadripper have some memory speed issues but those were solved by BIOS updates, so if you do get a MSI board then make sure it has the very latest BIOS update applied (either do this yourself or get it done by the supplier if they can do that for you)

 

For non-ECC RAM it should be possible to get 3200 RAM speed but officially up to 2400 is supported. I don't know about max speed ratings for ECC RAM.
Because ECC RAM is more expensive and has benefits over non-ECC RAM in a limited number of situations you may want to think about if you really need ECC RAM.

 

If there is a Ti version of an nVidia GPU I would get that over the non-Ti version. They usually have a bit better cooling a stability than the non-Ti versions.

 

Have you considered the new Intel Xeon W processor as well? That one is aimed at workstations and said to be better than an i7 or i9.

Though a Threadripper setup might still have the better cost/performance ratio.

 

For SSD data drive I would take a serious look at the Transcend SSD370S 1 TB SSD drive.  (There is also a SSD 370 (without S) but that is a different one). It reportedly has a very high write capacity, better than most other SSD drives including Samsung so it should last longer (or can sustain more abuse) and about the highest transfer speed for a SATA SSD. M.2 SATA card SSD is not faster than a regular SATA SSD.

For a system drive you may want a NVME or a PCIE SSD,  more expensive but as fast as you can get for any SSD.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Im pro Asus as well, the parts cost more across the board, but I find that not only do they seem better made and to last me a bit longer, they also have a much lower rate of dead on arrival parts and also they tend to include all the small screws, cables and other connectors that cheaper options don't have. Normally, when it comes to the different models within the same range but at different price points its more about the advanced motherboard features or level of compatibility with hardware. If you have any specifics you're comparing let me know and I can take a look.

I have a Fractal Design R5 case, it houses my 1080 with no space issues, but I had removed the HDD rack from the right/front since I only needed one SSD and one HDD and they fit easily into the upper drive bays. Not sure how snug everything would be if I hadn't removed those racks.

However as to the cooling: I suggest liquid, probably not a full custom loop but an all-in-one cooler. The threadripper gets REALLY toasty under even mild overclock from what I've seen and basic air coolers aren't able to keep it down, leading to thermal throttling and you not getting all the power you paid for. 

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Thanks for the answers,

so I wasn't that wrong with Asus and the following order ...

 

Overclocking is not wanted for GPU or CPU.

 

Yes, I want ECC. I often had error message the next morning instead of renderings with non ECC machines,

and never with ECC RAM. Some Boards mention standard RAM up to 3600.

 

Xeon welcome, yes. But 18 core Xeon is $2k while 16 core TR is only $1k.

 

Fractal Design cases for me are the least visually disturbing cases and well thought internally.

Pity they aren't available in lighter Aluminium as an upgrade like the Lian Lee I had in the past.

But I am open for everything that comes near to a Mac in appearance and build quality.

 

I think the Top Asus is just more expensive because it includes a 10 Gb Network card.

Beside some special offers, prices between brands look pretty identical.

And the main specs like Slots, RAM, NVME, Ports, .... look nearly identical, even between all 3 Asus

Boards. I just see different Sound Chips.

 

 

And for GPUs ?

Similar quality ranking ?

 

I had Asus or Gigabite in the past and never problems.

But I hear people buying EVGA and such. Maybe just for higher clock speeds in gaming.

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I have used Asus and EVGA primarily in GPUs, never had or helped anyone that had a big issue with a specific brand unless there was a certain model that had some sort of defect but that was more about the model than the company, like a certain GPU mainboard having a bad solder that led to rapid failure or something like that. 

Performance wise, I see only minor difference between similarly priced GPUs from different manufacturers and most of the time it only shows up in benchmarks, not so much or at all in daily usage. 

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4 hours ago, zoomer said:

Fractal Design cases for me are the least visually disturbing cases and well thought internally.

Pity they aren't available in lighter Aluminium as an upgrade like the Lian Lee I had in the past.

I'm using a CoolerMaster CM690, it has plenty of cooling options including openings for water cooling if you want to use that. One advantage it has over most other cases is that the middle drive bays are a bit smaller so that you can more easily  fit a somewhat larger GPU. Plenty of space for drives (1 SSD, 4 HD and an optical drive without the 960GTX being a problem to fit in).

 

5 hours ago, zoomer said:

I think the Top Asus is just more expensive because it includes a 10 Gb Network card.

Beside some special offers, prices between brands look pretty identical.

The difference is with driver and bios support, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI are good at that. EVGA and Asrock probably too, but with the smaller less know brands I don't know.

 

5 hours ago, zoomer said:

And for GPUs ?

Similar quality ranking ?

Yes similar ranking, though most nVidia GPU's are based on the reference card from nVidia and therefore perform similarly,  only with overclocked cards and some additional features you may see some differences between brands.
If you are looking for a Quadro card then you'll most linkely end up with a PNY GPU. I had one in the past and had no issues whatsoever with it.

 

What you do need to look at closely are the connections, some brands can have quite different connectivity options for an otherwise similarly specced GPU (processor and RAM). So it may be that your preferred brand may not have a card with all the connections you want/need (e.g. DVI instead of displayport or viceversa, or just one displayport in one brand and two or three with another brand for an otherwise similar GPU).

 

For me it is all Asus if possible for motherboard and GPU. This time I did get a MSI GPU because the Asus one with similar monitor connection specs was sold out at the time and couldn't afford to wait. So far no problems with the GPU whatsoever.

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1 hour ago, Art V said:

The difference is with driver and bios support, Asus

 

I meant Asus Top Model Board vs the cheaper Asus options in the standard price range.

 

And like the fractal design, your CM690 has the cable channels not far beside the most right ATX screws.

That is where the Asus (e)ATX Boards extends and need some other 1,5 - 2,5 cm.

Both the top model and their cheaper designs ...

Some Case Models even start to bend their sheet metal outwards from that point.

All other brands use standard ATX form factor.

 

BTW,

no interest in optical drives if avoidable and HDD cages will be thrown out.

Long GPUs shouldn't be an issue.

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