AMD 3900X. Am I Doing This Correctly?

[ThatNewGuy01211]

Attached is my build list I'm thinking of getting with some tax money once it arrives. Been doing weeks of homework on each component to get the most decent I can for the price range and compatibility. Recently it has been the RAM portion of things. 3600mhz seems to be the way to go, as well as Trident or a variant of. But, my confusion comes with any mention of rank in regards to ram and also not sure which of the two options below I should get. Reading and seeing that 4 slots full is better than two and just want to confirm best as I can before the time comes. I may very well change some other parts out between now and actual purchase time but to me atleast this seems as though a solid base to start. I will also mention that i already have a Corsair Ax1200i that I will bring over from my current build to this new one. Do things look optimal below? Another point of contention to me is the Unify vs getting maybe a Crosshair VIII. MSI seems fine just would love any opinions or experiences on either side of the coin. Thanks to anyone reading and contributing.

[Samfisher]

Why are there 6 modules of RAM?  Think you added too much by mistake.  there's 2x8 and 4x8

[ThatNewGuy01211]

Just now, Samfisher said:

Why are there 6 modules of RAM?  Think you added too much by mistake.  there's 2x8 and 4x8

Just edited lol

[Samfisher]

2 minutes ago, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

Just edited lol

Looks the same to me, first image still has 6 modules, and last image is specifically 4x8   But those timings and everything else are great.

[Strandox]

Hi mate,

 

Everything seems to be in order although there are a few things i would change depending on what the PC is going to be used for. what will you be using it for if you don't mind me asking.

 

Cheers,

 

Theo.

[ThatNewGuy01211]

Graphics card also subject to change. There are 580 million sku's out there and hopefully something is announced or drops by then. But, I can say I'm leaning towards EVGA when the time comes. Potential question as to Air Cooled GPU vs a hybrid. Anyone with any comparisons or or bias towards one vs the other 

[ThatNewGuy01211]

7 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

Looks the same to me, first image still has 6 modules, and last image is specifically 4x8   But those timings and everything else are great.

Was asking for opinions on one option for the ram vs the other based on: B die, Ram Rank (which I've just learned about and can't distinguish), and the fact and question is 4 full Ram slots will perform better than just the one set of 2. And to @Strandox will be a gaming pc. Going for as future proof as I can get for the money and don't really want to step down to any 8 core 

[ThatNewGuy01211]

9 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

Looks the same to me, first image still has 6 modules, and last image is specifically 4x8   But those timings and everything else are great.

And in regards to timings, from what I've learned lower is better, the set of 2x8 has slightly better timings but I'd rather not spend 300+ for two sets of them. But, are the settings for the 4x8 really not that far off? I will end up researching and learning more on tuning them manually and such once i get it all and OC everything And I'm also wondering and making sure they are both B die and fully adequate

[Samfisher]

5 minutes ago, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

Was asking for opinions on one option for the ram vs the other based on: B die, Ram Rank (which I've just learned about and can't distinguish), and the fact and question is 4 full Ram slots will perform better than just the one set of 2. And to @Strandox will be a gaming pc. Going for as future proof as I can get for the money and don't really want to step down to any 8 core 

2 or 4 sticks of RAM would make no difference in performance at stock seeing as the CPU and mobo only support dual channel memory.  Overclock.net and a few other enthusiast forums also believe that 2 sticks are better for stability if you're doing manual tightening of RAM timings, but you already have pretty good RAM so XMP with 4 sticks would be no problem.  B-Die only matters if you're doing anything manual.  Its also pretty sensitive to heat, anything above 45c seems to crash a lot of systems I see.

 

You're already getting fairly low latency RAM, which is one of the advantages of B-Die, they start lower and usually can get a little bit lower.

[ThatNewGuy01211]

Just now, Samfisher said:

2 or 4 sticks of RAM would make no difference in performance at stock seeing as the CPU and mobo only support dual channel memory.  Overclock.net and a few other enthusiast forums also believe that 2 sticks are better for stability if you're doing manual tightening of RAM timings, but you already have pretty good RAM so XMP with 4 sticks would be no problem.  B-Die only matters if you're doing anything manual.  Its also pretty sensitive to heat, anything above 45c seems to crash a lot of systems I see.

the set of 2 have better timings anyways, and as stated above I plan on tinkering/OC with some things once I get it. Nothing too crazy but still

[Strandox]

1 minute ago, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

Was asking for opinions on one option for the ram vs the other based on: B die, Ram Rank (which I've just learned about and can't distinguish), and the fact and question is 4 full Ram slots will perform better than just the one set of 2. And to @Strandox will be a gaming pc. Going for as future proof as I can get for the money and don't really want to step down to any 8 core 

I think unless I'm doing custom watercooling then I'll always go for air on a GPU, not sure why but I always feel safer plus with nVidia keeping all the best chips for themselves in the founders edition cards you won't necessarily get a faster card, just a slightly cooler one. plus you pay the premium of even owning one which can be way more than $100 over the MSRP. For gaming this will have no problem at all but I don't think stepping down to an 8 core will have much of an adverse effect either. personally I'd step down to the 3700x and slap a nice AIO on there and do some overclocking.

 

EVGA cards are the way to go in my opinion. thermals are always pretty good from my experience, overclocking is normally quite stable even when pushing the card a lot. Just got my 2070s FTW3 and I'm definitely enjoying my time.

 

Cheers,

 

Theo.

[ThatNewGuy01211]

13 minutes ago, Strandox said:

Hi mate,

 

Everything seems to be in order although there are a few things i would change depending on what the PC is going to be used for. what will you be using it for if you don't mind me asking.

 

Cheers,

 

Theo.

What things would you change? 

[Strandox]

Just now, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

What things would you change? 

haha beat you to it

 

[Samfisher]

Just now, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

the set of 2 have better timings anyways, and as stated above I plan on tinkering/OC with some things once I get it. Nothing too crazy but still

RAM OC can take a really long time to perfect, weeks and months cos memtests and stress tests don't tell the whole story.  Like I had an issue with RAM timings where 1 out of every 20 boots it would fail for some reason and auto switch to the backup BIOS, and I would boot and notice sluggish performance and when I check my RAM speeds it defaulted to 2133 again.  There's so many timings to test that it can take quite awhile.  I'd go with the 2 sticks unless you really need the RAM, but even then 2x16 might be better if they have modules with comparable timings.

[ThatNewGuy01211]

1 minute ago, Strandox said:

I think unless I'm doing custom watercooling then I'll always go for air on a GPU, not sure why but I always feel safer plus with nVidia keeping all the best chips for themselves in the founders edition cards you won't necessarily get a faster card, just a slightly cooler one. plus you pay the premium of even owning one which can be way more than $100 over the MSRP. For gaming this will have no problem at all but I don't think stepping down to an 8 core will have much of an adverse effect either. personally I'd step down to the 3700x and slap a nice AIO on there and do some overclocking.

 

EVGA cards are the way to go in my opinion. thermals are always pretty good from my experience, overclocking is normally quite stable even when pushing the card a lot. Just got my 2070s FTW3 and I'm definitely enjoying my time.

 

Cheers,

 

Theo.

Timing of your post lol, and yea seems almost like EVGA gets first dibs after Nvidia keeps what they want of the lot. Would love to get a FE and put a block on it but that's quite aways and more than a few dollars out. Also forgot to mention that I will have a Scythe Fuma 2 as a CPU cooler. If it doesn't cut it I will be getting an AIO 

[ThatNewGuy01211]

1 minute ago, Samfisher said:

RAM OC can take a really long time to perfect, weeks and months cos memtests and stress tests don't tell the whole story.  Like I had an issue with RAM timings where 1 out of every 20 boots it would fail for some reason and auto switch to the backup BIOS, and I would boot and notice sluggish performance and when I check my RAM speeds it defaulted to 2133 again.  There's so many timings to test that it can take quite awhile.  I'd go with the 2 sticks unless you really need the RAM, but even then 2x16 might be better if they have modules with comparable timings.

And two is cheaper lol atleast between these two. Very likely will just stick to the XMP for a good amount of time until my knowledge base gets more up there. Only been in the game a few months. 

[Strandox]

2 minutes ago, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

Timing of your post lol, and yea seems almost like EVGA gets first dibs after Nvidia keeps what they want of the lot. Would love to get a FE and put a block on it but that's quite aways and more than a few dollars out. Also forgot to mention that I will have a Scythe Fuma 2 as a CPU cooler. If it doesn't cut it I will be getting an AIO 

From the teardowns I've seen, the founders cards seem like an absolute pain to work with anyway. Go for EVGA always my reliable go-to. The Scythe should be fine but if you want some fat overclocks then I'd still liquid cool it

 

Happy building!

 

Theo.

[Samfisher]

1 minute ago, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

And two is cheaper lol atleast between these two. Very likely will just stick to the XMP for a good amount of time until my knowledge base gets more up there. Only been in the game a few months. 

More than adequate.  I got the same RAM but could only find the CL18 versions.  The CL16 ones were extremely hard to find locally so I just manually tried to OC the RAM.  Did fine, at around 16-18-19-48 or something but would've gotten the stock CL16 one if I could find them.  There's even a CL14 one on G-Skill's website, and exactly 0 retailers have them in stock or even carry them at all

[ThatNewGuy01211]

2 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

More than adequate.  I got the same RAM but could only find the CL18 versions.  The CL16 ones were extremely hard to find locally so I just manually tried to OC the RAM.  Did fine, at around 16-18-19-48 or something but would've gotten the stock CL16 one if I could find them.  There's even a CL14 one on G-Skill's website, and exactly 0 retailers have them in stock or even carry them at all

Yea it definitely seems finicky to find the primo stuff. And i definitely need to up my skills points a bit because i really can't even remember what the numbers for the timing mean lol just know lower is better. 

[Samfisher]

8 minutes ago, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

Yea it definitely seems finicky to find the primo stuff. And i definitely need to up my skills points a bit because i really can't even remember what the numbers for the timing mean lol just know lower is better. 

Take your time.  RAM OC is not needed, yours are low enough

[ThatNewGuy01211]

38 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

Take your time.  RAM OC is not needed, yours are low enough

Most definitely! Luckily able to find a good set of em in the wild. Thank you everyone whos read and replied to this point. Always learning 

[ThatNewGuy01211]

22 hours ago, Samfisher said:

2 or 4 sticks of RAM would make no difference in performance at stock seeing as the CPU and mobo only support dual channel memory.  Overclock.net and a few other enthusiast forums also believe that 2 sticks are better for stability if you're doing manual tightening of RAM timings, but you already have pretty good RAM so XMP with 4 sticks would be no problem.  B-Die only matters if you're doing anything manual.  Its also pretty sensitive to heat, anything above 45c seems to crash a lot of systems I see.

 

You're already getting fairly low latency RAM, which is one of the advantages of B-Die, they start lower and usually can get a little bit lower.

My only question here is, if i were to enable XMP, that's technically applying a minor OC to my CPU as well, correct? How would that then fare if i were to try to oc my cpu, or if i already had my CPU overclocked. Would that destabilize everything? Or would i dampen my original CPU overclock to offset. I would imagine there is different procedures pre and post CPU overclock 

[Samfisher]

1 hour ago, ThatNewGuy01211 said:

My only question here is, if i were to enable XMP, that's technically applying a minor OC to my CPU as well, correct? How would that then fare if i were to try to oc my cpu, or if i already had my CPU overclocked. Would that destabilize everything? Or would i dampen my original CPU overclock to offset. I would imagine there is different procedures pre and post CPU overclock 

RAM overclock only affects the Infinity Fabric, and IIRC it doesn't affect core clock OC's that much if at all.

[ThatNewGuy01211]

1 hour ago, Samfisher said:

RAM overclock only affects the Infinity Fabric, and IIRC it doesn't affect core clock OC's that much if at all.

Researching more has brought up or re brought up rank for ram, im seeing plenty of people saying 4 sticks perform better than two. Then reading the opposite lol. Then led myself to the buildzoid memory layout video so then im trying to see if my board is daisy chain or t top which lead me to forums and each company seems to have slews of issues whether bios related or other wise. Lots of information or misinformation and solid answers seem hard-ish to find when wading through it all. And then i defer to here lol