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New Build After 8 Years.

Do you have a definitive parts list now @Aquinus ? :) I've recently gone from my 5960X MSI X99 combo to a Hero 8 with a 3900X (waiting for a 3950X I think....) which has been a great combo for me so far. I will say that running on air cooling for me does seems to be a little limiting for any overclocking or tweaking, temps can get quite warm for me at around 80C or so running CineBench for example...

Looking forward to seeing what you end up with and how you feel about the upgrade when its all complete :)
 
biffzinker said:
Anyone that has no use for a dedicated graphics card. A Ryzen 5 3400G is s fairly capable Quad with eight threads, and RX Vega 11 graphics.
www.techpowerup.com

AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 Specs

AMD Raven, 1240 MHz, 704 Cores, 44 TMUs, 8 ROPs
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com
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Who is going to buy a top tier $300+ motherboard to pair with a $50 cpu? I totally get it for the lower end.
 
moproblems99 said:
My Taichi came with WiFi but my office is hard wired anyway. I wonder why these expensive AM4 bother with video outs. However, the real coup de Grace was the Taichi came with a brilliant, beautifully hand crafted unlabeled pocket screw driver. Convertible from flat to phillips even.
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Ideally I would hardwire it, but I haven't gone through the trouble of dropping some CAT6. I have an attic that can be turned into more living space which would include an office and possibly a telecom closet. Until I decide to pull the trigger on doing that (there's a lot of crap in the attic as well,) I'm probably going to stick with wireless. Between my tower and the AP is one hollow wall, a couch, and maybe 15 feet to the AP. My current setup gets me about 150MBit down on a ~215Mbit connection. I've been leaning towards ASUS because 3 of the last boards I got from them were pretty good and I was happy with them. The P9X79 Deluxe in particular was a really nice board to work with.
phill said:
Do you have a definitive parts list now @Aquinus ? :) I've recently gone from my 5960X MSI X99 combo to a Hero 8 with a 3900X (waiting for a 3950X I think....) which has been a great combo for me so far. I will say that running on air cooling for me does seems to be a little limiting for any overclocking or tweaking, temps can get quite warm for me at around 80C or so running CineBench for example...

Looking forward to seeing what you end up with and how you feel about the upgrade when its all complete :)
Click to expand...
I'm getting close with the pcpartpicker.com list in the first post. I update it as I change my mind about components. I'm feeling pretty good about my choices here so far. As for cooling, I'm already feeling that one. The 3930k gets really toasty when you push it past 4.2Ghz. I got the H100i because the 130mm air cooler I had before just couldn't keep it cool. It did fine for the 3820, but couldn't handle the 3830k when i really tried pushing it. The H100i actually does a great job, I love it, but my poor Vega 64 doesn't get that kind of treatment like it deserves and it would run a lot better and a lot more quietly if I put it under water. The reference cooler is very loud when you push it and it definitely can be pushed. I still need to pick out the water cooling components. I'm probably going to go with EKWB for the blocks, but I'm not sure about everything else. The only thing I've convinced myself of is a 360mm rad, nothing too thick. If I can find one that allows for decent airflow without doing a push-pull setup, I'd probably opt for that.

A custom loop isn't something I've done before, so I figured that I would be spending more time finalizing my decisions on those parts than the others because if I do it, I want to do it right.

Edit: Monitoring this stuff is going to be important to me too. Ideally, I will want to be able to run `sensors` in Linux to see what's going on with things like pump load and water temperature. I have to do some investigation on that front too.
 
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I definitely need some water cooling for my 3900X but I would think that the 3950X might be slightly better with the temp side of things. I'd love to track down a 3950X but also have the cash for one :laugh:

A custom setup isn't the most difficult thing to do with soft tubing, it's where I started and I don't ever look back :)

There's a load of knowledgeable people in TPU who can help with that setup and recommend whatever you need :) The thing with Linux, is that some of the sensors are a little hit and miss with how they read it which is a shame :(
 
Hardcore Games said:
That is why I use Windows 10, I have a large collection of games to entertain me with.
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Those concerns are secondary to me. I'm happy with the array of games I already can play, not to mention I have an Xbox One X and Nintendo Switch in the other room. To me, my ability to write software on my tower and have a platform that I'm comfortable developing on is far more important than playing games well, otherwise, I would have tolerated botched upgrade after botched upgrade with Windows like I did over 4 years ago.

With that said, I think a little bit of an update is in order.

Unfortunately my upgrade plans are on hold due to COVID-19. Since future employment is uncertain, I'm choosing to hold on to the money that I was planning on building a new machine with. Depending on how the job search goes and how much money I have in the bank, I'll likely make another attempt, but at this point it seems to be worthwhile to wait and see what the next generation of Ryzen chips will have to offer. So while my poor old X79 machine is aging, it still works just fine, so I'll probably see where things are in the next few months.
 
@Aquinus a very prudent idea. The current state of things will leave a lot of people I know in dire straits as they start to regret the initial wave of panic buying that could have been better invested in paying the bills.

As to Linux, I've been on cloud 9 with kubuntu this past week, but I wouldn't dare dedicate my desktop to it even though I love it 10x more than any other distro I've tried. Matisse functioning as it should performance-wise is extremely dependent on 3 things: up-to-date AGESA in an up-to-date BIOS, up-to-date chipset drivers, and a scheduler that understands variances in silicon quality across the cores. Without Windows, you deprive it of 2 out of 3 essential components. On my chip for example, there's a vast gulf in performance between Core 0, my worst and the go-to core for most programs, and my best, Cores 5 and 7. The current N7 process is a wild ride, you can get any distribution of cores in yours, which is why the Windows scheduler improvements were so important. You don't notice it with one of the lottery ticket golden chips, but you'll definitely know if you end up with one like mine.

Also, sensors are interesting in Linux. Most that I've found over the years read basic CPU sensors and are command line-based. The few GUIs are pretty half-assed. And that's on Intel platforms, which are pretty much ready to go out of the box on most popular distros. At the very least, I'd keep a small Windows installation around to dual boot so you can get at better sensor monitoring and essential benchmarks if you need it.
 
tabascosauz said:
@Aquinus a very prudent idea. The current state of things will leave a lot of people I know in dire straits as they start to regret the initial wave of panic buying that could have been better invested in paying the bills.

As to Linux, I've been on cloud 9 with kubuntu this past week, but I wouldn't dare dedicate my desktop to it even though I love it 10x more than any other distro I've tried. Matisse functioning as it should performance-wise is extremely dependent on 3 things: up-to-date AGESA in an up-to-date BIOS, up-to-date chipset drivers, and a scheduler that understands variances in silicon quality across the cores. Without Windows, you deprive it of 2 out of 3 essential components. On my chip for example, there's a vast gulf in performance between Core 0, my worst and the go-to core for most programs, and my best, Cores 5 and 7. The current N7 process is a wild ride, you can get any distribution of cores in yours, which is why the Windows scheduler improvements were so important. You don't notice it with one of the lottery ticket golden chips, but you'll definitely know if you end up with one like mine.

Also, sensors are interesting in Linux. Most that I've found over the years read basic CPU sensors and are command line-based. The few GUIs are pretty half-assed. And that's on Intel platforms, which are pretty much ready to go out of the box on most popular distros. At the very least, I'd keep a small Windows installation around to dual boot so you can get at better sensor monitoring and essential benchmarks if you need it.
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The latest kernels actually are improving support by quite a bit. 5.7 should be coming with some nice sensor output such as power consumption numbers. Testing at Phoronix seems to indicate that CPU scheduling is definitely not a weak point when it comes to Linux builds with modern Ryzen chips. From that perspective, I actually think Ryzen performs quite well. Even the mobile chips seem to be slapping down Intel's offerings, so I'm not really worried about how it would perform to be completely honest.

Honestly, as long as I can run `watch sensors` and see temps and voltages, then I'm happy.

Mind you, I haven't run Windows (not even to dual boot,) for over 4 years and I don't need to start now.

Edit: When it comes to sensors, he's an example of what I have already which is more than enough.
Code: 
$ sensors
amdgpu-pci-0300
Adapter: PCI adapter
vddgfx:       +1.06 V  
fan1:         747 RPM  (min =  400 RPM, max = 4900 RPM)
edge:         +58.0°C  (crit = +85.0°C, hyst = -273.1°C)
                       (emerg = +90.0°C)
junction:     +59.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C, hyst = -273.1°C)
                       (emerg = +110.0°C)
mem:          +57.0°C  (crit = +95.0°C, hyst = -273.1°C)
                       (emerg = +100.0°C)
power1:       23.00 W  (cap = 220.00 W)

nct6776-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
Vcore:          +0.95 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +1.74 V)
in1:            +1.01 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
AVCC:           +3.28 V  (min =  +2.98 V, max =  +3.63 V)
+3.3V:          +3.26 V  (min =  +2.98 V, max =  +3.63 V)
in4:            +1.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in5:            +2.04 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
in6:            +0.80 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)  ALARM
3VSB:           +3.42 V  (min =  +2.98 V, max =  +3.63 V)
Vbat:           +3.34 V  (min =  +2.70 V, max =  +3.63 V)
fan1:          1739 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan2:          1457 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan3:             0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan4:             0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan5:             0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
SYSTIN:         +31.0°C  (high =  +0.0°C, hyst =  +0.0°C)  ALARM  sensor = thermistor
CPUTIN:         +41.5°C  (high = +80.0°C, hyst = +75.0°C)  sensor = thermal diode
AUXTIN:         +37.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, hyst = +75.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
PECI Agent 0:   +36.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, hyst = +75.0°C)
                         (crit = +92.0°C)
PCH_CHIP_TEMP:   +0.0°C  
PCH_CPU_TEMP:    +0.0°C  
PCH_MCH_TEMP:    +0.0°C  
intrusion0:    ALARM
intrusion1:    ALARM
beep_enable:   disabled

nvme-pci-0400
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite:    +27.9°C  (low  = -273.1°C, high = +72.8°C)
                       (crit = +75.8°C)
Sensor 1:     +27.9°C  (low  = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
Sensor 2:     +36.9°C  (low  = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +35.0°C  (high = +81.0°C, crit = +91.0°C)
Core 0:        +33.0°C  (high = +81.0°C, crit = +91.0°C)
Core 1:        +32.0°C  (high = +81.0°C, crit = +91.0°C)
Core 2:        +35.0°C  (high = +81.0°C, crit = +91.0°C)
Core 3:        +35.0°C  (high = +81.0°C, crit = +91.0°C)
Core 4:        +35.0°C  (high = +81.0°C, crit = +91.0°C)
Core 5:        +35.0°C  (high = +81.0°C, crit = +91.0°C)
 
Quick update of the tl;dr variety. I have a job again, but I'm contract and I need a lot of memory to do this job all while being in a mobile device, so I decided to go full retard. The Dell Precision Workstation was a close second, but it didn't scratch my itch.

1596510044976.png
 
16" mac isn't actually terrible. Have fun with adapter life though.

I'd also repaste with cryonaut since those i9s run hot and apple let's their silicon stay at 99c. I understand it's also possible to undervolt on mac os and would strongly recommend.
 
dgianstefani said:
16" mac isn't actually terrible. Have fun with adapter life though.

I'd also repaste with cryonaut since those i9s run hot and apple let's their silicon stay at 99c. I understand it's also possible to undervolt on mac os and would strongly recommend.
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A couple of years ago I was using a 2015 15" Macbook Pro for work and I enjoyed using it, it was a good laptop. One of my biggest gripes about the HP Spectre is that it's a tiny laptop (although it's quick for the size.) Another couple of motivators are the two 5k Ultrafine displays I have that need TB3 and I'm pretty sure that this is the only laptop that can drive both displays at 5k. I also have Airpods and an iPhone 11 Pro Max, so I figured that if I go with Apple then everything plays nicely together.

Honestly, I haven't turned my tower on for over 3 weeks.

Also, I already know about adapter life though. I already use the 5k displays with the 3xUSB-C hub and the Spectre has two TB3 and only 1 USB-A port. So, nothing new there. :P
 
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