jrsall92

I think that mobo is not ryzen 3000 ready and cannot be updated without a compatible cpu. I know that AMD had (has?) a program that would lent you a cpu to update your mobo and then send it back (all that for free afaik). Look here for some more info in a similar issue:
 

You don't have to order a new cpu for this. The way I see it, either you look if that program stil exists or you return your mobo for a x570 or an MSI b450 one (afaik, MSI mobos are the only ones not requiring a cpu for bios update)

You can take you system to a pc shop and ask them to update your bios, as they must have ryzen 2000's lying around, you don't need to buy a cpu.

I'll order a CPU to try this, thank you.

Fair enough. BTW is that a socketed or soldered cpu?

Anyhow, the important thing is to have a functioning pc with the storage you need attached to the network. There are many ways to use, connect and stream from/to it through software. For example, using something like vnc or remote desktop, you don't need any screen or keyboard/mouse, just the ip. That way you can save some money on a good WiFi card. The way you connect to your router(eth/wifi) doesn't affect anything other than speed, which in most cases the router is the bottleneck. The setup, to the best of my knowledge, is the same regardless. After the initial setup I don't expect you to interact much with it other than to store/download media and stream from it, but I digress.

The bottom line is, there are some descisions you need to make, as with any pc build:
1. What kind of storage are you using? I.E. the number, size and type of drives (nvme, ssd, hdd, 2.5", 3.5").
2. The above will mandate what case you will need. This is an area where you can save some bucks and unless you don't pick anything stupid (like a full tempered glass/plexi case with small to no openings for airflow) you should be fine. But DO make sure that there is decent airflow (1 intake 1 exhaust as minimum).
3. The previous 2 answers plus the chipset that supports your cpu will affect the motherboard you'll need. I.E. you need adequate amount of sata ports, ram slots and of course to fit in the case you selected. Any mainstream brand should be ok in this case. On your discretion, a mobo that offers wifi could offer you some flexibility as well; in a good network, your ISP speed would be the limit, not your connection preference.
4. Grab a psu to support your gpu and cpu +50Watts to give it some overhead. I think a 500-550W non/semi-modular psu will suffice here.

That should give you anything you need to start.

He’s already got one though. It’s free.  It’s probably just sata not NVMe...point!  Find out what kind of card the m.2 is and make sure it fits in the m.2 on the new board.

On that:
 

Both SATA3 and USB 3 use 10:8 data transmission, meaning for every 10 bits of data, only 8 are actual information... the other 2 bits are error correction.
 
So you have SATA 3 with a maximum bandwidth of 6 gbps or 6 billion bits per second. That means an actual  (6 / 10) * 8 = 4.8 gbps .. There's 8 bits in a byte.. so you're looking at 4.8 * 1,000,000,000 / 8  = 600,000,000 bytes per second.  That's 600 MB/s or 572 MiB/s (the measurement unit used when you look at file sizes, you'd transfer 572 MB file in one second)
USB 3 or USB 3.1 gen 1 has a maximum bandwidth of 5gbps .. doing the same math, we have a maximum speed of 500,000,000 bytes per second
 
So:

SATA 3 : 600,000,000 bytes per second.
 USB 3 : 500,000,000 bytes per second.
 
USB 3 has other disadvantages over SATA3 ..
 
1. it's half duplex, meaning a device can not send and receive data through the cable at the same time.
 
So when you transfer a file through USB 3 from an external device, several times during transfer the hard drive has to pause to receive message from the other end which says "Ok, i got everything so far, keep going" or "Hey dude, this packet of data is damaged, send it again" and then it will resume transferring data...  SATA 3 will keep transferring while it receives messages from the sata controller, without pauses.
 
2. USB 3 packs all the data that goes through the cable in packets of certain sizes, and there's a limited number of packets that can be sent through the cable to the PC within each second. Because of this packaging of data, for every packet of data, there's a number of bytes of information that's part of the "packet definition" which don't contain useful information, they just make it easier for the usb controller to process the data packets going through the cable. So even though the maximum bandwidth is 500 million bytes, you don't even get those 500 million bytes
 
Also due to the limited number of data packets that can go within a second, it's quite possible that you could not actually send up to 500,000,000 bytes in a second. These limitations were more severe with USB 2.0 where even though the theoretical maximums were something like 46 MB/s in reality, you wouldn't be able to transfer more than around 33-35 MB/s due to the way data was packed and send through the cable.
 
Your NVME SSD connects to the computer through multiple pci-e lanes, where each pci-e lane is capable of 500 MB/s in each direction (for pci-e v2.0 lanes) or 980 MB/s in each direction (for pci-e v3.0 lanes)
Your SSD probably used 4 pci-e lanes to communicate with the computer, giving it a maximum speed of 2 GB/s or ~3.9 GB in both directions.  The benchmarks show 1400 MB/s when reading from SSD which indicate the use of at least 2 pci-e v3.0 lanes, or 4 pci-e v2.0 lanes.
 
The mechanical hard drive performance is limited by the mechanical drive itself, not the interface.
 
Have a look at the datasheet: https://www.hgst.com/sites/default/files/resources/TS-7K1000-ds.pdf
 
As you can see, the maximum transfer rate (from platters to the 32 MB of cache memory on the hard drive) is listed as 1284 megabits per second - if you divide that by 8, you have 160.5 MB/s (millions of bytes).
 
The interface is SATA3 (6 gbps or 600 MB/s) and you could potentially get such high speeds if you're reading data from hard drive's cache all the time (for example you load a playlist in your music player, play a song and then go automatically to next song.. if the files were physically one after another on the hard drive, the drive could copy the next song already in its 32 MB cache and when your music player tries to read the file, it could read it in memory at up to 600 MB/s)
 
This number is less than the maximum USB 3 or SATA3 or even SATA 2 (3 gbps or 300 MB/s)  but SATA 2 or SATA3 should give slightly faster transfer speeds than USB 3 simply because of that half duplex thing of usb 3.0 and because the extra processing time that the chip which converts sata to usb brings in.
 
Hopes these explanations help.
 
 
 

aha.  Well media center PCs are low power, quiet, and have a lot of storage.  They need a video card, but generally only enough to drive the monitor/TV. They also do audio, so the correct ports to fit your audio system would be handy.  You may be streaming stuff, so a solid connection system would help.  Will you be running wired or wireless?

I'd just take whatever valuable from your previous pc, throw in a low cost mobo+case+psu (I'd spent around 200$ in total for those), install plex, done. You can additionally add more storage, just make sure the case you get supports more than a couple ssd's. I think Fractal has some quality cases, small in size but still able to stack some drives inside and you can get them for around 80$ or less. Add a quality low power psu for an other 50-60 and you're left with 60-70 for a mobo. Here you don't need to overspend, it's a locked cpu, so no need to go for a Z-series chipset. Just make sure it has enough memory slots (btw don't mix and match ram kits) and sata ports.

Model training specifically is such a niche market, I would be surprised if anyone outside of the data science community would even understand how to make a relatively useful benchmark for that. 
 
But anyway, who trains models locally? 

Hmmm that makes me think it could be a cpu+mobo combo issue, try a cpu benchmark like prime95 and see how's your stability then. Could be that you have an issue with the mobo's vrm, starving your cpu under load causing it to crash.

I forgot to address your cpu and chipset drivers question: for intel cpus you usually get the drivers from intel, so I guess it's a similar situation with amd. Also about the benchmark, have a look at the channel and what other youtubers are using and try some. Unigine comes to mind and 3DMark, as well as some games like TR.
 
@Mark Kaine he's having issues with an rx580 as well, not only with 5700 xt.

If you google DDU you'll find out that it's a utility to delete drivers CLEANLY (safe mode and all). Also try to update your directx. As to why ARK runs, what are you using to render: DirectX or Vulcan? If you have DOOM (or any other game that can use both), try running it with each one and see if any one of them fails. Even if the memory diagnostics are coming clean try to use only one dimm at a time and at all slots, both of them on both channels (if you have more than one) and of course make sure you have them on the same channel as the mobo's manual suggests.

Can you try a benchmark? Also, did you by any chance used to have the OS disk in a pc with an nvidia gpu? Regardless DDU your gpu drivers and try again. What speed is your RAM operating at? Where both dimms part of the same package or purchased separately? On the subject of RAM, have you tried using only one dimm at a time and in all available slots? Finally do you have all of windows updates and cpu and chipset drivers? (Often overlooked)
 
Edit: on close inspection of your DxDiag file I see that AUEPMaster is failing and based on this I suggest that you remove it.

Can you try a benchmark? Also, did you by any chance used to have the OS disk in a pc with an nvidia gpu? Regardless DDU your gpu drivers and try again. What speed is your RAM operating at? Where both dimms part of the same package or purchased separately? On the subject of RAM, have you tried using only one dimm at a time and in all available slots? Finally do you have all of windows updates and cpu and chipset drivers? (Often overlooked)
 
Edit: on close inspection of your DxDiag file I see that AUEPMaster is failing and based on this I suggest that you remove it.

Can you try a benchmark? Also, did you by any chance used to have the OS disk in a pc with an nvidia gpu? Regardless DDU your gpu drivers and try again. What speed is your RAM operating at? Where both dimms part of the same package or purchased separately? On the subject of RAM, have you tried using only one dimm at a time and in all available slots? Finally do you have all of windows updates and cpu and chipset drivers? (Often overlooked)
 
Edit: on close inspection of your DxDiag file I see that AUEPMaster is failing and based on this I suggest that you remove it.

Thank you for the quick reply, those specs are pretty much what I wanted, along with a good price as well - this is one I will consider quite seriously. It's also nice to be able to get a good, in-depth, quality review on a product, something that can be sometimes difficult to find nowadays. Thank you again.

Dell Latitude 5580 (link:http://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/latitude-5580/spd/latitude-15-5580-laptop/n010l558015emea)
 
The company I'm working for as a developer (back end - heavy projects with Intellij) provided it for me instead of a desktop PC. It blazes through anything, BUT it's not for gaming. I'm using it with 2x1080 24" screens without any issues. My open applications usually include Intellij, Chrome/FF(~ > 10 tabs open), SQL Server Management Studio, a few terminals, SourceTree + whatever else I need at the time, i.e. Acrobat.
 
From my recent student life experience, gaming on a laptop sucks after a while. Gaming laptops are heavy, loud, drain battery like an Eskimo drinking water in Sahara, are hard to move around and fricking expensive. Also, not suitable for the class when you want to carry something light and with battery life longer than the time you need to drink your coffee. Also, after a while you'll want a gaming keyboard and a gaming mouse and a gaming mousepad, and so on and so forth.
 
TL;DR
Get a quality laptop for your needs that will last you long enough for you to finish college/uni/whatever. If you feel the need for gaming that bad get a cheap desktop or even better a console (yes a console, it rocks in dorms with other students).
 
I hope this helps.