Threadripper

frozenfrozen

Wrote this thread already and I bluescreened before posting it

1. What is your budget? [€ not sure but realistically 3k++ because of what I want it to do]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming/Video editing/3D Modelling/HTPC/Internet] (If gaming include which games)

Photoshop, After Effects, CasparCG, and Resolve / Media Composer / Premiere
I think a gaming gpu would be the best bet for me even though CasparCG people recommend a quadro because of unlimited NVENC sessions rather than 3. The threadripper will probably not have any issue with several realtime videos streams without offloading to gpu.

I have a blackmagic decklink studio 4k to go in if I need 10bit colour output which seems to be the only other benefit I'd have from quadro. But I don't even need that at the moment nothing is HDR I do.


Only game I play is osrs so luckily whatever I get will have no issue with that

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes/No]
yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Hard drive/DVD Drive/Case/PSU/etc.] (If possible state brand and model of the parts to ensure compatibility)

Will be using current pc until I swap over to the new one fully working so can't really reuse anything except hard drives.

5. Do you need a monitor? [Yes/No]

I'd like something high refresh rate and 4k but they seem to be crazily expensive at the moment so I can keep using my Dell U2711 for now unless I've missed something good and affordable. But next screen has to be over 60hz

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]
27" or maybe ultrawide but I can wait to get a screen so no need to include it

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] [Yes/No]
1440p now

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.]
no

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes/No]
yes

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser]
any

9. When are you purchasing? [In x days]
when parts list is complete

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [South Dublin City/Cork City/Kerry/etc.] not needed


Replacing my current 3930k and gtx 580 from 2011/12.

Thinking threadripper 3970x is the right level of overkill to last years. Unsure of the rest. I have 32GB of ram at the moment and its fine so 64GB is probably enough. Having said that I don't do anything 4k (video editing) yet so I could easily see myself outgrowing 64GB when that is the case. From watching youtube videos I understand ram speed has a big impact on overall TR performance so I won't get a cheap 128GB kit just for the sake of having it.


Will be used for work every day so don't mind going a bit overkill on everything but once a parts list starts coming together I'll have to start choosing what's really worth it. It's not going to be one of those mental builds I see on pcpartpicker that seemingly all threadripper builds are

K.O.Kiki

3970X is 2 grand by itself.
Are you sure you wouldn't be fine with a 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X (754 euro) / 24-core Threadripper 3960X (1380 eur)?

frozenfrozen

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

3970X is 2 grand by itself.
Are you sure you wouldn't be fine with a 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X (754 euro) / 24-core Threadripper 3960X (1380 eur)?

The real answer is yes I'd be completely grand with either of those but I think the performance difference is big enough over the 3960x (on paper) that it would be noticeable day to day? I think if I was saving 30 seconds a few times a day it would be worth it since I am constantly waiting for things to finish before I can do some more work.

Just looking at reviews like this https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-threadripper-3970x-review/4 the 60 and 70 are very close but on the more multi-threaded applications the gap is pretty big, since I'll be running a few of the applications with close results at the same time I'd imagine I would get a better experience while something is flat out working in the background?

K.O.Kiki

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15121/the-amd-trx40-motherboard-overview-/14

I'd give that a read about motherboards.

As for a system, maybe something like this?

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Threadripper 3970X 3.7 GHz 32-Core Processor (£1746.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 50 TR CPU Cooler (£61.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI TRX40 PRO WIFI ATX sTRX4 Motherboard (£389.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£211.80 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£136.79 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB KO ULTRA GAMING Video Card (£309.70 @ Amazon UK)
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500DX ATX Mid Tower Case (£93.96 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£114.51 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £3065.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-19 00:38 BST+0100

frozenfrozen

Thanks very much for that, also.... the price of the higher end trx40 boards :O !!

Only thing I think I might genuinely miss is 10G ethernet but the price differences are just massive and I could always add a card for 10G. It's strange that they only have 4 pcie slots with so many lanes available. I'll have a gpu, the blackmagic decklink, and a TBS satellite card so will be grand with 4 anyway.

I have a 750ti I can borrow from another pc that I might use till the 3000 nvidias are announced hopefully alongside small price cuts to 2000's. And from reading a few maybe unreliable things the quality of nvenc encoding will be vastly improved in 3000 due to all of the streamers asking for it so it might actually just be worth going for 3060 or whatever they will be called. It's apparently the end of this month they're being announced. I'll still have to use software encoding for proper things but higher quality nvenc would be good for everything else that uses it.

It is a lot more expensive but do you have an opinion on if I should go for ECC memory? Seems to be no performance hit and all of the forum posts I've read are basically if crashes don't cost you money then don't get ECC so I presume that puts me into the ECC category.

I also might go for a bigger cpu cooler just based on reading its actually quite hard to keep a TR cpu from thermal throttling. Not sure which to go for but tbh they're all in and around the same price so I'll just dig through some of the reviews

Thanks again for putting that list together

K.O.Kiki

The Freezer 50 TR is a very good cooler: https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/james-dawson/arctic-freezer-50-tr-cpu-cooler-review/all/1/
AFAIk you would need a 280mm AIO to beat match its performance.

As for GPU, since it's an EVGA you should be able to avail of their 90-day step-up program: https://eu.evga.com/support/stepup/