AMD Threadripper 3990X build for my PhD

[Vikrant1105]

Budget : £7000

Location

Aim: For simulations in CST Design Studio (Solidworks) on Antenna and Radio Frequency propagation. This system will be my desktop machine for my PhD Research.

Monitor: Dell 27 Gaming Monitor: S2719DGF. Planning to add one more Dell FHD monitor.

CPU: AMD Threadripper 3990X 2.9 GHz 64-Core Processor

Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming ATX sTRX4 Motherboard OR Asus Prime TRX40-Pro

CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i RGB PRO XT 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler OR be quiet! Dark Rock Pro TR4 OR Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3

GPU: PNY Quadro RTX 4000 8 GB Video Card. Not sure if CST Design studio would use this to accelerate simulations if im using it for driving my displays also.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

SSD: Sabrent 1TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280

HDD: Seagate Barracuda Compute 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive

PSU: Corsair HX Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Case: MasterBox MB501L

 

The PC would be expected to run at full load for longer time (might be several days when running simulations).

Quite confused about the cooler, not many reviews available online for coolers that can handle Threadripper 3990X. Not sure but will a tower cooler help in keeping the VRMs also cool while running at high continuous loads which a radiator based AIO might not do?

How about the case size and ram clearance if i decide to use a tower cooler?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

 

[Quadrum]

Threadripper unfortunately gives off a ridiculous amount of heat. To be honest, I would probably go with the largest water cooler you can find. Also I would invest in some higher speed ram as with Threadripper and Amd they can take advantage of high mhz ram. Maybe go with ddr4 4000. I don’t know anything about your particular workload although it sounds like a lot of fun, which is why I’m wondering why you choose that particular quadro. Good luck with the build and the research!

[mariushm]

Is the software you're gonna use capable of using ALL the 64 cores and 128 threads?

 

I'd suggest looking into whether it would be better to go with a much cheaper 3970x processor, which will also give you much higher clocks per core that will benefit applications which use less amount of threads.

For example, 3970x does 3.7 ghz to 4.5 ghz  while the 3990x is 2.9 ghz .. 4.3 ghz

 

The 3990x does have lots of extra cache, double the amount of 3970x but again, see benchmarks and how applications scale before committing

 

Also read this, which affects Windows and lots of applications :  The Windows and Multithreading Problem (A Must Read) - The 64 Core Threadripper 3990X CPU Review: In The Midst Of Chaos, AMD Seeks Opportunity

 

I'm fine with your memory choice, and your power supply .... you mention it but you should check if your software benefits from a quadro card before spending so much money on it.  Maybe go with 128 GB of memory if you think the software is gonna use that much.

Go with a 7200 rpm mechanical drive, or maybe go with 2 configured in raid 1 , for data safety.... when you're spending around 5k are you really gonna bother with an extra 20-30$ on a mechanical drive, or 100$ for a 2nd drive?

 

 

[SupaKomputa]

18 minutes ago, Quadrum said:

Threadripper unfortunately gives off a ridiculous amount of heat. To be honest, I would probably go with the largest water cooler you can find. Also I would invest in some higher speed ram as with Threadripper and Amd they can take advantage of high mhz ram. Maybe go with ddr4 4000. I don’t know anything about your particular workload although it sounds like a lot of fun, which is why I’m wondering why you choose that particular quadro. Good luck with the build and the research!

I'm againts using high clocked ram as it would not guarantee stability and it would add more heat. 3200mhz would be fine.

All in one water cooler won't cool the VRM, only downward fan do that and it's rare to find downfacing fan in a high end heatsink.

[GoldenLag]

1 hour ago, Quadrum said:

Threadripper unfortunately gives off a ridiculous amount of heat. To be honest, I would probably go with the largest water cooler you can find

Actually at stock its fairly controllable. As such he should just stick to a good aircooler. 

[Vikrant1105]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

Is the software you're gonna use capable of using ALL the 64 cores and 128 threads?

 

I'd suggest looking into whether it would be better to go with a much cheaper 3970x processor, which will also give you much higher clocks per core that will benefit applications which use less amount of threads.

For example, 3970x does 3.7 ghz to 4.5 ghz  while the 3990x is 2.9 ghz .. 4.3 ghz

 

The 3990x does have lots of extra cache, double the amount of 3970x but again, see benchmarks and how applications scale before committing

 

Also read this, which affects Windows and lots of applications :  The Windows and Multithreading Problem (A Must Read) - The 64 Core Threadripper 3990X CPU Review: In The Midst Of Chaos, AMD Seeks Opportunity

 

I'm fine with your memory choice, and your power supply .... you mention it but you should check if your software benefits from a quadro card before spending so much money on it.  Maybe go with 128 GB of memory if you think the software is gonna use that much.

Go with a 7200 rpm mechanical drive, or maybe go with 2 configured in raid 1 , for data safety.... when you're spending around 5k are you really gonna bother with an extra 20-30$ on a mechanical drive, or 100$ for a 2nd drive?

 

 

Well the software is designed to run on workstations as well as servers with multi-CPU and several cores. Some Universities install it on a big server or even cluster and then allow its students to use it by using a queue method but since my supervisor wants a dedicated machine so we are building a workstation purely for us. So, im quite certain that the application will be able to handle 128 threads but still i take your suggestion and will check this with the software provider. Only thing is, these software provider start recommending Intels due to their corporate obligations so i'm doubtful if they will say anything once they hear AMD. Another reason for choosing 3990X was to future proof the system for several years as our project will continue well beyond my PhD and will be handed over to the next student who will be working for the project. I do remember Linus mentioning in the review video of 3990X that there is nothing that can use the 128 threads right now but i'm hoping that some years down the line the support might come.

 

My real headache right now seems to be the choice of cooler. The AIO that i have mentioned doesn't seems to be covering whole of the CPU die whereas the air coolers have a bigger plate to cover it completely. Totally confused about the cooler.

[OldSkool]

On 4/11/2020 at 8:44 AM, Quadrum said:

"Threadripper unfortunately gives off a ridiculous amount of heat."

completely untrue, my 3990x hasnt gone over 64degrees yet, and im talking under load. 
Im using a noctua air cooler push/pull. No need for a watercooler. 
AMD does not run hott, not anywhere close to intel.. but also not very close to hott either

[Quadrum]

1 hour ago, OldSkool said:

completely untrue, my 3990x hasnt gone over 64degrees yet, and im talking under load. 
Im using a noctua air cooler push/pull. No need for a watercooler. 
AMD does not run hott, not anywhere close to intel.. but also not very close to hott either

I did not realize so many people spent 4000$ on a chip. And I definitely trust your info more than mine as I got my info second hand from other people. But 64 degrees on air with 64 cores sounds like you won the silicon lottery! Glad to know amd is crushing it even more than I already thought

[ThreadripperFan]

As a Threadripper 3990X owner who also uses this CPU for scientific computations I can conform that a Noctua nh-u14s tr4-sp3 air cooler with dual fan configuration is sufficient to keep this CPU cool. Do not use the water cooler. 

The advice from Quadrum to use 4000Mhz ddr4 memory is also bad. First of all there is no reason to go above 3600Mhz, but instead I would advice you to increase your capacity and use 128GB of ram. Many scientific applications quickly use 2GB per core. Actually I put 256GB of ram in my system and in some applications It already goes above 200GB.

 

For the motherboard I would advice the newer asus XE-gaming instead of the regular E-gaming since that one is better for use in combination with the 3990X. The regular E-gaming also has problems of running the memory at speeds higher than 2666Mhz. 

 

You can contact me for more advice, I have some hands-on experience with this CPU within a scientific application context.