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8+4pin or 4+4pin for Ryzen 9 3950X (16-core)?

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Hello!
So, I'm building my PC gradually (only have a RAM for now), and although my first build won't be really hungry for power, I'm going to upgrade it in the future and I want to keep my PSU while upgrading my CPU and GPU.

What I learned so far is that all better (VRM-wise) motherboards have 2 power connectors for CPU - 8pin and 4pin, and PSUs start to have that additional 4pin connector only from 750W or even 850W (weird Corsair RMi).

I want my PSU to be able to handle a Ryzen 3950X (16/32) with PBO and a top GPU (nvidia will probably release a 3080ti at the time I upgrade a GPU, and AMD will finally release something to compete with it and it will be power hungry as usual). Not sure how much would it consume, but I doubt it would exceed 750W, and the more watts are in a PSU the more it consumes, so basically my questions are:

1) Ryzen 9 3950X, 16-core, I suppose it's power-hungry, and I want to activate PBO. Cooled with a top air cooler.
Does it need that additional 4pin connector? I don't want my PC to burn, you know. And no 650W PSU has that connector, and not many 750W PSUs have it either...

2) 16-core Ryzen with PBO and a factory-overclocked successor of the RTX 2080ti/its competitor from AMD.
How many watts do they need?
 
D

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Does it need that additional 4pin connector? I don't want my PC to burn, you know. And no 650W PSU has that connector, and not many 750W PSUs have it either...
4+4 pin will handle 325w~ sustained without much issue, more CPU pins being "needed" is overrated and I'd be looking at the VRM layout on the board itself rather than how many CPU pins it has (more CPU pins won't mean it has a better VRM) always plug in all the CPU power pins, you might as well as there's no reason not to. As for the 3950x power consumption it'll likely pull around 200W-240W~ probably. As for the GPU high end usually pulls around the 270W~ mark. I'd recommend a 850W power supply for sufficient headroom.
 
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You should look close at the manuals for the motherboards you think about buying. But why the 3950x and not something cheaper? speciel use for all those cores?
 
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and the more watts are in a PSU the more it consumes
NO! Sorry but this is 100% totally false!!!!!

Computer components pull from the PSU only what they need, not what the PSU can deliver. For example, if your computer components (CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics, drives, fans, etc.) need 300W, they will pull from the PSU just 300W, regardless if the PSU is a 400W, 650W or 1300W PSU. And the PSU will pull from the wall, only what it needs to deliver that 300W which will be 300W plus a little more due to PSU inefficiency. So, if your "Gold" certified PSU is 90% efficient at that load level, that means it will pull from the wall ~333W (333 x .9 = 299.7W). Again, that is regardless if the PSU is a 350W, 550W, or 850W PSU.
So, I'm building my PC gradually (only have a RAM for now), and although my first build won't be really hungry for power, I'm going to upgrade it in the future and I want to keep my PSU while upgrading my CPU and GPU.
You really shouldn't buy your components bit by bit over time but rather save your money then buy all at once. There are a couple reasons for this. One is that manufacturers often revise models to fix bugs or improve performance or reliability. Motherboards and graphics cards are good examples. You may buy the motherboard only to find out when ready to build 3 months later, they revised the later production run with new firmware, or even changed out a component with a more reliable one. Had you waited, you would have got the latest revision (and possibly the latest BIOS update too).

But it is also important to remember that the retailer's return policy and the manufacturer's warranty period begins on the invoice date. Retailer's "no questions asked" return policies are often as little as 30 days. And many manufacturer's warranties are just 1 year. It would be a shame if it took you several months to acquire all your components only to discover one is bad right out of the box and the return policy has expired and/or the warranty is 1/2 way or totally gone.

I agree with checking out motherboard manuals. You can download those you are considering before buying. Then you can also become familiar with the installation, to include connector locations and front-panel I/O header pin-outs. You can do the same with the case manual as it's front panel connectors are not likely labeled the same as the motherboard's.
 
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Plus it seems like you're waiting for the next gen of graphics cards. You're probably going to be waiting at least 8 months, by then some things may drop in price. Are you sure you need a 16 core processor?
 
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by then some things may drop in price.
While true, that works both ways. Prices might and often do rise too - this is common with devices that use memory chips as well as precious metals - which are volatile markets to begin with. Then other factors can influence costs - like tsunamis and factory fires which we have seen before with drive prices.
 
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I'm finishing building my PC by the end of August.
I'm sure about my first CPU, it will be a Ryzen 3600, I'd like it to drop 10$ more because 249$ looks a bit too much. I'm also sure about my case - it's a Meshify S2 (165$) and I'm buying it probably next week.

I'm not sure about a PSU (Corsair RM750i (162$) doesn't have a second CPU cable, Seasonic SSR-750FX has it but costs same to the Corsair and according to reviews is worse, be quiet! Straight Power 11 750W also has the cable but also is worse than the Corsair for pretty much the same money; probably will add 9$ to get a Corsair RM850i), I'm waiting for a 860EVO 2.5" 1TB to drop from 191$ to 145$ that it costed a month ago, and I will probably buy a solid quality version of a GTX 1660ti if it costs ~330$ and not 350+$. And I'm still in-between Prime X470-Pro (188$) and Strix X470-F (225$).

In 1-1.5 years I will gradually upgrade the CPU and the GPU, also the motherboard if needed, but I'm sure I don't want to upgrade a PSU that I'm buying.
 
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1) Ryzen 9 3950X, 16-core

105w, binned silicon, so, not a lot more power than a 3900x does, the 3900x consumes 142w, so expect the 3950x to be around 160w. It's a lot more sense to purchased the 16 cores than a 12 cores, same thing can be said for the 6 x 8 cores, ccx needs to be fully populated to work properly, if you disable one of them, some apps will not work as supposed to, so 8 and 16 cores cpus are a much better deal in that sense but I think 16 cores is threadripper territory, will need a lot of bandwidth, not sure what amd will do to minimize its performance loss due to that.
 
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Not sure what you mean by 2nd PSU cable. The Corsair will work but I would prefer the Seasonic.
 
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Higher-level X470 motherboards and probably all X570 motherboards have two CPU connectors: 8-pin and an additional 4-pin. This is what I mean.
 
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Higher-level X470 motherboards and probably all X570 motherboards have two CPU connectors: 8-pin and an additional 4-pin. This is what I mean.

It was already discussed that those extra 8 and 4 pin are pretty useless. Those manufactures are just trying to justify their rip-off increase hehe

Only world record overclockers pushing things with ln2 and voltage 2.0 or higher hehe but i dont think they will buy those $300 boards for the job eheh, those people will buy those $800 or more for the job.

 
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Read motherboard manuals from their individual manufacturer websites.

Also look up user buildzoid on youtube, he will tell you what's really needed and what's not.
 
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It was already discussed that those extra 8 and 4 pin are pretty useless. Those manufactures are just trying to justify their rip-off increase hehe

Only world record overclockers pushing things with ln2 and voltage 2.0 or higher hehe but i dont think they will buy those $300 boards for the job eheh, those people will buy those $800 or more for the job.

A 9 year old link? People (i.e. me) could think that the current AX 850 wouldn't let you use all of the ESP+PCI-e plugs at the same time. That link doesn't bring any useful information to OP.
 
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A 9 year old link? People (i.e. me) could think that the current AX 850 wouldn't let you use all of the ESP+PCI-e plugs at the same time. That link doesn't bring any useful information to OP.

It could be a billion year old link, that power requirement has not changed, 8 pin still a 8 pin and still deliver the same power today that delivered 9 years ago.
 

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I'm finishing building my PC by the end of August.
I'm sure about my first CPU, it will be a Ryzen 3600, I'd like it to drop 10$ more because 249$ looks a bit too much. I'm also sure about my case - it's a Meshify S2 (165$) and I'm buying it probably next week.

I'm not sure about a PSU (Corsair RM750i (162$) doesn't have a second CPU cable, Seasonic SSR-750FX has it but costs same to the Corsair and according to reviews is worse, be quiet! Straight Power 11 750W also has the cable but also is worse than the Corsair for pretty much the same money; probably will add 9$ to get a Corsair RM850i), I'm waiting for a 860EVO 2.5" 1TB to drop from 191$ to 145$ that it costed a month ago, and I will probably buy a solid quality version of a GTX 1660ti if it costs ~330$ and not 350+$. And I'm still in-between Prime X470-Pro (188$) and Strix X470-F (225$).

In 1-1.5 years I will gradually upgrade the CPU and the GPU, also the motherboard if needed, but I'm sure I don't want to upgrade a PSU that I'm buying.
The new Corsair RM ( 2019 refresh ) power supplies has all the connectors you need from 650 watts up to 850 watts so check them out.

 
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Hello!
So, I'm building my PC gradually (only have a RAM for now), and although my first build won't be really hungry for power, I'm going to upgrade it in the future and I want to keep my PSU while upgrading my CPU and GPU.

What I learned so far is that all better (VRM-wise) motherboards have 2 power connectors for CPU - 8pin and 4pin, and PSUs start to have that additional 4pin connector only from 750W or even 850W (weird Corsair RMi).

I want my PSU to be able to handle a Ryzen 3950X (16/32) with PBO and a top GPU (nvidia will probably release a 3080ti at the time I upgrade a GPU, and AMD will finally release something to compete with it and it will be power hungry as usual). Not sure how much would it consume, but I doubt it would exceed 750W, and the more watts are in a PSU the more it consumes, so basically my questions are:

1) Ryzen 9 3950X, 16-core, I suppose it's power-hungry, and I want to activate PBO. Cooled with a top air cooler.
Does it need that additional 4pin connector? I don't want my PC to burn, you know. And no 650W PSU has that connector, and not many 750W PSUs have it either...

2) 16-core Ryzen with PBO and a factory-overclocked successor of the RTX 2080ti/its competitor from AMD.
How many watts do they need?
See below...
4+4 pin will handle 325w~ sustained without much issue, more CPU pins being "needed" is overrated and I'd be looking at the VRM layout on the board itself rather than how many CPU pins it has (more CPU pins won't mean it has a better VRM) always plug in all the CPU power pins, you might as well as there's no reason not to. As for the 3950x power consumption it'll likely pull around 200W-240W~ probably. As for the GPU high end usually pulls around the 270W~ mark. I'd recommend a 850W power supply for sufficient headroom.
Mostly agreed. The only thing I would change about this statement is the PSU wattage recommendation. I would recommend a 950-1000w from a quality brand like EVGA, Seasonic, SilverStone or Corsair. Even Newegg's own brand, Rosewill, would be a good choice. Choose a modular PSU as it makes cable management easier and they will have all of the connectors you need.

Here are some examples of what would be good choices;

For the premium parts you are going to buy, a premium PSU is required for long term stability.
 
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Seasonic SSR-750FX is out of stock and would probably be within my budget, SSR-750PX or SSR-850FX are 100% out of it.
According to PSU tier list, Corsair RM and RMx 750W and Seasonic Focus Plus are only mid-range, for that price it's a robbery.
 
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It could be a billion year old link, that power requirement has not changed, 8 pin still a 8 pin and still deliver the same power today that delivered 9 years ago.
That discussion you linked to was back in the days when Intel HEDTs MB starting having extra 8 pins. Of course 8 pin back then is still the same today, but I was under the impression that OP was worried if the MB would boot without both connectors plugged in. A GPU will not run if one of the two were missing. Sure from the perspective of total power delivery 24+8+8 is total overkill.
 

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See below...

Mostly agreed. The only thing I would change about this statement is the PSU wattage recommendation. I would recommend a 950-1000w from a quality brand like EVGA, Seasonic, SilverStone or Corsair. Even Newegg's own brand, Rosewill, would be a good choice. Choose a modular PSU as it makes cable management easier and they will have all of the connectors you need.

Here are some examples of what would be good choices;

For the premium parts you are going to buy, a premium PSU is required for long term stability.

Check the OEMs on Rosewill.
 
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FTR, I'm okay with the top tier Rosewills. Many have received excellent reviews and have proven to be very reliable. But like Corsair and perhaps just about any other brand (and product), I recommend avoiding their entry level models - especially when it comes to power supplies.
 

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NO! Sorry but this is 100% totally false!!!!!

Computer components pull from the PSU only what they need, not what the PSU can deliver. For example, if your computer components (CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics, drives, fans, etc.) need 300W, they will pull from the PSU just 300W, regardless if the PSU is a 400W, 650W or 1300W PSU. And the PSU will pull from the wall, only what it needs to deliver that 300W which will be 300W plus a little more due to PSU inefficiency. So, if your "Gold" certified PSU is 90% efficient at that load level, that means it will pull from the wall ~333W (333 x .9 = 299.7W). Again, that is regardless if the PSU is a 350W, 550W, or 850W PSU. You really shouldn't buy your components bit by bit over time but rather save your money then buy all at once. There are a couple reasons for this. One is that manufacturers often revise models to fix bugs or improve performance or reliability. Motherboards and graphics cards are good examples. You may buy the motherboard only to find out when ready to build 3 months later, they revised the later production run with new firmware, or even changed out a component with a more reliable one. Had you waited, you would have got the latest revision (and possibly the latest BIOS update too).

But it is also important to remember that the retailer's return policy and the manufacturer's warranty period begins on the invoice date. Retailer's "no questions asked" return policies are often as little as 30 days. And many manufacturer's warranties are just 1 year. It would be a shame if it took you several months to acquire all your components only to discover one is bad right out of the box and the return policy has expired and/or the warranty is 1/2 way or totally gone.

I agree with checking out motherboard manuals. You can download those you are considering before buying. Then you can also become familiar with the installation, to include connector locations and front-panel I/O header pin-outs. You can do the same with the case manual as it's front panel connectors are not likely labeled the same as the motherboard's.
True although PSU's tend to have a sweet spot too. Like when i was getting mine going by reviews it's best performance was around the 250-350w which is were my system generally hits.

But yes his comment is totally wrong in every sence.
 
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True although PSU's tend to have a sweet spot too.
Cheap ones with "bell" shapped efficiency curves have a sweet spot, for sure. But the whole point of 80 PLUS certification is to ensure a relatively "flat" efficiency curve across the full range of expected loads - effectively eliminating such "sweetspots" (± a couple insignificant percentage points here and there).

So if a 500W supply is 80% efficient at 50% load, and a 1000W supply is 80% efficient at 25% load, if you put a 250W load on both supplies, they will both pull from the wall the exact same amount of power and they will both waste the exact same amount of energy in the form of heat.

FTR, power supplies with a bell shaped efficiency curve are perfectly suitable for electronics that present a constant load on the supply, as long as the load and supply are properly paired and matched so that peak efficiency point at the top of the bell is at that constant load point.

But of course, computers don't put constant loads on their supplies, varying from near no load at idle, to maximum load when fully taxed. Hence the 80 PLUS Certification program was developed.
 
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