Need an update on the "new" techs for a x570 / 3950x planned rig

Wolrajh · June 17, 2019

So, I'm planning to buy a 3950x when it will be available. Since it's not an upgrade but a full new rig, I'll be getting a x570. Also, it won't be a gaming rig, hence some special needs.

I know we don't have any benchmarks yet so this won't be about results but more about a quick crash course on techs as time have passed since I bought my old i7-4790k, with its old DD3 1600 and almost first gen SSD.

As you can guess, there is much I don't know

1- What ram frequency and channel should be supported with the 3950x/x570 combo ? My understanding of current gen is that DDR4 2933 is the official "best" supported while 3200 is actually the better choice and should work in most case right with just XMP enabled. I reckon we won't know for sure what's the sweetspot with the ryzen 3000 is until tests are actually conducted, but I read that 4266 may be it. I suppose those are currently extremely expansive, and I'll need the full 64gb package.

2- Stockage. This is basically my biggest unknown here. I read about those new things all the cool kids have, like NVMe and M2, but this is a topic that wildly confuses me. I'll need one efficient drive for my OSes, one big, super mega efficient drive for my work files ( I may want to be able to access sequences of >1gb files as close as possible to realtime ), and at least one old fashioned Sata drive. So should I aim for 2 M2 NVMe drives and one sata ? If so, how can I even find them on pcpartpicker ? What checkboxes am I supposed to actually check ? With the addition of PCIe 4.0, will I have to wait for a new gen of M2 to be able to take advantage of whatever PCIe 4.0 has to offer ?

3- PCIe 4.0. All I know about PCIe is mostly that this is the port we plug our GPU in. Nowdays it seems to do much more or something. Lanes are also limited, and available number of lanes should probably vary per motherboard models. I'll still be able to plug in a 2080ti and those 3 aforementionned disks without diminishing any performances, riiiight ?

4- USB-C. It's something I often see mentionned. My phone sure uses a USB type C connector. Is that all there is to it or am I missing something ?

5- Cooling. Again, we don't know how much those things will heat, but it's a given : they always heat. I used to just strap a Noctua. Could it be a good idea to future proof the rig with watercooling in case I want to carefully overclock ? Also, I may think of replacing the "standard" Ryzen with a threadripper at some point and keep virtually everything but the CPU and motherboard, so maybe it will need some more serious cooling there too.

That's all I can think of for now, but these are all things I don't really understand. Figure I should go through the pain of updating my own brain with all those infos just to be ready to choose "right" come September, I guess.

Thanks !

whelm · June 17, 2019

AMD themselves state 3600 is the price/performance sweet spot, and 3733 is the pure performance one.

GoldenLag · June 17, 2019

5 minutes ago, Wolrajh said:

but I read that 4266 may be it. I suppose those are currently extremely expansive, and I'll need the full 64gb package.

3666mhz is for max performance.

6 minutes ago, Wolrajh said:

Stockage. This is basically my biggest unknown here.

come back in a while.

any cached SSD + a mass storage drive is more or less recommended. uncached SSDs arent great for OS workloads.

7 minutes ago, Wolrajh said:

I'll still be able to plug in a 2080ti and those 3 aforementionned disks without diminishing any performances, riiiight ?

depends on the board and configuration. most likely be fine. there is a ton of IO on x570 anyway.

8 minutes ago, Wolrajh said:

USB-C. It's something I often see mentionned. My phone sure uses a USB type C connector. Is that all there is to it or am I missing something ?

USB-C just points to the shape of the port. not a lot more to it.

9 minutes ago, Wolrajh said:

Could it be a good idea to future proof the rig with watercooling in case I want to carefully overclock ?

good aircooler are just as good as AIOs and way more reliable.

9 minutes ago, Wolrajh said:

Figure I should go through the pain of updating my own brain with all those infos just to be ready to choose "right" come September, I guess.

just come here and ask for a build.

just list your requiements, budget and region. people here will put together the rest.

xg32 · June 17, 2019

1 hour ago, Wolrajh said:

.

1. planning on cl14 3600.

2. I'm personally waiting on pcie 4.0 nvme ssds, rumored at 5gb/s, although not really necessary, no hdd planned, there are lanes directly to the cpu just for the nvme ssd.

3. will be fine.

4. just marketing, but it is smaller and more convenient, the 2080 ti also has a usb-c port regardless.

5. full water/loop>air>AIOs, if you plan to fully oc the 3950x and you don't mind water, this might be the gen to do it.

Wolrajh · June 17, 2019

Nice, thanks for those answers.

1- I guess I was mislead by what was essentially an overclocking feat for the ram. 3600 seems more reasonnable and less of a sudden and huge jump.

2- Good to know I will have to keep an eye on any PCIE4.0 nvme ssds announcements - would be a shame to not actually profit from one if not the biggest X570 feature.

3- Also good to know there shouldn't be any issues with the lanes. It really goes over my head!

4- Alright. Appart from my phone, I never saw a device using usb-c specifically, so I was really wondering what was the hidden meaning of it. Guess it's not very important at the end of the day.

5- Yeah figured so. Maybe I'll just stick with good air cooling. Benches should give me a better understanding of my cooling needs. I'll probably have to extrapolate from the 3900x benchmarks, though. Don't think I'll be able to wait for too long after the 3950x is released as my current workstation really is becoming useless fast, but I can still use cloud solutions for now.

1 hour ago, GoldenLag said:

just come here and ask for a build.

just list your requiements, budget and region. people here will put together the rest.

Thanks! I did that not long ago, early May. and got some nice advices, but I decided to put it on hold to see what AMD would announce. Now I don't see a point in buying a 2990wx anymore - I'm quite sure the 3950x won't be as efficient for my sims tasks but the price difference, IPC, and frequency will give me more breathing room and polyvalence.