5950X and 6800XT

[Sarra]

So, I've decided to tear down my rendering/gaming box and move over to something different. The CPU, GPU, memory, and PSU will be retained, but the rest will be new parts. I originally went with a Fractal Design Meshify C Mini, and a Noctua NH-D15S. This was fine when I had my 3900XT, it got slightly toasty during the summer in gaming, and I could run it without throttling on typical render projects. Then, I found a 5950X on sale for less than the MSRP of a 5900X, so I jumped on it. And my NH-D15S is not quite up to the task; Turning PBO on basically breaks even, and on longer renders, especially during the summer, it'll throttle.

 

I've decided to ditch the Meshify C Mini and start with a Torrent; The ASRock Micro ATX board will get swapped out for a B550 Gigabyte Aorus Pro V2, and I'm going to upgrade the SSD from a MP600 to a MP600 Pro.

 

Now, I need to decide what to do for cooling. The case supports up to 420mm rads on the front and bottom. Let's say the peek temperature in my room, without the computers on, is somewhere between 80-82°F, and with my existing computer configuration, it gets up to 88° when gaming.

 

Should I go overkill on the radiators and run like a dual 360 setup? You seriously need to keep in mind that I can, and will, be doing renders on this box that keep the CPU at 100% for over 40 hours at a time (oh my GOD, how I HATE Windows update, Microsoft can seriously die in a mega fire), and potentially keep my GPU pegged at 100% during that time as well. I intend to go with EK for most, if not all, of the components, and my system isn't a show system, so I seriously don't care about how it looks. I just don't want my CPU throttling during a 40 hour long render. I do intend to cool both the CPU and GPU using the loop; I doubt any components in the system besides those two will actually warrant WC.

[dizmo]

AMD chips run hot. I imagine you'll see some form of throttling if you're running it like that for that long, doesn't really sound like overkill. Just make sure you get good fans.

 

You can delay Windows Update for a month at a time.

[Sarra]

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

AMD chips run hot. I imagine you'll see some form of throttling if you're running it like that for that long, doesn't really sound like overkill. Just make sure you get good fans.

 

You can delay Windows Update for a month at a time.

Yeah, going to get Noctua fans.

 

Both of my machines will randomly reboot at night for windows updates, even though I specifically disabled that in Windows. Not really a huge deal, I'm going to move over to Linux on at least one system pretty soon, and if Steam OS is as good as I'm hoping it will be, both.

[dizmo]

5 minutes ago, Sarra said:

Yeah, going to get Noctua fans.

 

Both of my machines will randomly reboot at night for windows updates, even though I specifically disabled that in Windows. Not really a huge deal, I'm going to move over to Linux on at least one system pretty soon, and if Steam OS is as good as I'm hoping it will be, both.

Odd. I hit the delay button a few times every month and I've had no issues. That was over a year ago.

[Sarra]

Just now, dizmo said:

Odd. I hit the delay button a few times every month and I've had no issues. That was over a year ago.

Doesn't give an option, just reboots itself in the middle of the night. No warning, nothing. Kinda sucks 'cause I usually have a Linux VM up on at least one machine at all times... It never gets shut down, just blasted by Windows. o.x

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, Sarra said:

Doesn't give an option, just reboots itself in the middle of the night. No warning, nothing. Kinda sucks 'cause I usually have a Linux VM up on at least one machine at all times... It never gets shut down, just blasted by Windows. o.x

You don't have the pause updates option?

[RONOTHAN##]

14 minutes ago, Sarra said:

will get swapped out for a B550 Gigabyte Aorus Pro V2

May I ask how much you're spending on that board, and where you're looking for boards? It's not like there's anything wrong with that board, it's just that IMO there are better options in that price range (at least in the US). 

 

Anyway, for everything else, personally if you're gonna be water cooling the system, the Torrent isn't really a great option. The Torrent's biggest advantage is the included fans, if you're gonna be removing them anyway and replacing them with radiators and Noctua fans, you might as well get something else. The Meshify 2 is a good option if you want to do a custom loop, it's big and has more thought put into how to water cool it than the Torrent does. 

 

If you're gonna water cool it, given the price of radiators I'd aim for dual 360s. A 360 and a 240 would be plenty for this system (I wouldn't go much below that), but since 240mm rads and 360mm rads are like $5-10 apart at most, I'd just spend the extra cash to get it. 

[Sarra]

38 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You don't have the pause updates option?

I don't get the icon in the taskbar. It never pops up a box stating there are updates ready. It just downloads them, and waits. Then, without any warning, it installs and reboots itself.

 

39 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

May I ask how much you're spending on that board, and where you're looking for boards? It's not like there's anything wrong with that board, it's just that IMO there are better options in that price range (at least in the US). 

 

Anyway, for everything else, personally if you're gonna be water cooling the system, the Torrent isn't really a great option. The Torrent's biggest advantage is the included fans, if you're gonna be removing them anyway and replacing them with radiators and Noctua fans, you might as well get something else. The Meshify 2 is a good option if you want to do a custom loop, it's big and has more thought put into how to water cool it than the Torrent does. 

 

If you're gonna water cool it, given the price of radiators I'd aim for dual 360s. A 360 and a 240 would be plenty for this system (I wouldn't go much below that), but since 240mm rads and 360mm rads are like $5-10 apart at most, I'd just spend the extra cash to get it. 

The ASRock board I've got, the X570M Pro4, has pretty low-end VRM's; the Heatsink gets really, REALLY toasty.

 

I'd like to run the 5950X with PBO turned on with higher power limits, and not trash the VRM. I also want to run a GPU, a 10G Networking card, and have room left for other expansion options in the future. I could throw a waterblock on my 5950X and watercool it, but the VRM's wouldn't last. I have ECO mode turned on, actually, to take some more stress off the VRM's, It helps, but they still are really hot. I turned the system off and 40 minutes later, I still couldn't touch the heatsink because it would burn me.

 

That, and the Gigabyte board, despite being $200, is just a better built board. I want to be able to run this system for at least the next 5 years; My Xeon box is currently on year 6. The ONLY reason I'm considering dropping it is I don't think I can get 10G networking on it.

[Motifator]

4 minutes ago, Sarra said:

My Xeon box is currently on year 6. The ONLY reason I'm considering dropping it is I don't think I can get 10G networking on it.

Why not? Plenty of good 10g NICs out there...

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Sarra said:

That, and the Gigabyte board, despite being $200, is just a better built board.

I mean, for $200 you can get an B550 Taichi, a board with so many more features in comparison. ASRock boards are very hit or miss, but the B550 Taichi is definitely one of the hits. 

[dizmo]

48 minutes ago, Sarra said:

I don't get the icon in the taskbar. It never pops up a box stating there are updates ready. It just downloads them, and waits. Then, without any warning, it installs and reboots itself.

You have to change it in the Windows Update settings...

[fonzz1e]

5 hours ago, dizmo said:

You have to change it in the Windows Update settings...

u can change it in your local gpo if he's using windows pro, my win10 20h2 haven't been updated since last year... I only install the update I need 

 

also Torrent is not a good case for watercooling unless u can get hold of rads for 180mm fans

 

o11 Evo, meshify 2 (or the 2xl), phanteks pro2 or 5000d would be better 

[Motifator]

If they're going down the upgrade route, I'd prolly opt for the new Lancool 3. Full tower Lian-Li for good price. Lots of room to work with. Would also recommend looking elsewhere than Noctua for fans, as other fans like P12s exist for cheaper while performing similar. I'd keep the board though.

[Sarra]

12 hours ago, Motifator said:

Why not? Plenty of good 10g NICs out there...

It's a haswell based system. It's got a PCIE 3.0 16X slot for a graphics card, and a PCIE 2.0 4X slot. There aren't enough lanes to run both of the 1X slots at the same time as the 4X slot, and I'm currently using both of them for SATA controller cards. Basically: It doesn't have enough PCIE lanes.

 

12 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I mean, for $200 you can get an B550 Taichi, a board with so many more features in comparison. ASRock boards are very hit or miss, but the B550 Taichi is definitely one of the hits. 

I recall looking at the Taichi board and something about it didn't suit my needs. I think I would rather have more PCIE lanes to the addin slots than to M.2, but there was something else about it that had me look elsewhere.

 

5 hours ago, fonzz1e said:

u can change it in your local gpo if he's using windows pro, my win10 20h2 haven't been updated since last year... I only install the update I need 

 

also Torrent is not a good case for watercooling unless u can get hold of rads for 180mm fans

 

o11 Evo, meshify 2 (or the 2xl), phanteks pro2 or 5000d would be better 

The Meshify 2 was actually my alternate to the Torrent. I think that I will be going with the Meshify 2 for the gaming machine, and transplant the old system (with other core components) into a Meshify 2 XL case, since I'm (hopefully) going to be running a bunch of 10+TB harddrives in it for a vault.

[fonzz1e]

On 7/17/2022 at 11:42 PM, Sarra said:

I think that I will be going with the Meshify 2 for the gaming machine, and transplant the old system (with other core components) into a Meshify 2 XL case, since I'm (hopefully) going to be running a bunch of 10+TB harddrives in it for a vault.

some advice from me,

• watercooling does transfer more heat from your pc into the room, so make sure u have sufficient airflow in your room too

 

misc things

• if you have old pc hardware, build an unraid pc (mine runs on my old i7 4770k + msi z87 matx mobo + dell perc h310 + sata adapter)
• i have move all my hdd into my unraid pc, my old case silverstone tj08-e now holds 8 hdd
• my main pc now only using 1x m.2 nvme & 1x sata 2.5" ssd
• i tend to remove unused hardware from pc case & store them in its box (examples: hdd cage/trays, cable cover plates, screws)

[Sarra]

7 hours ago, fonzz1e said:

some advice from me,

• watercooling does transfer more heat from your pc into the room, so make sure u have sufficient airflow in your room too

 

misc things

• if you have old pc hardware, build an unraid pc (mine runs on my old i7 4770k + msi z87 matx mobo + dell perc h310 + sata adapter)
• i have move all my hdd into my unraid pc, my old case silverstone tj08-e now holds 8 hdd
• my main pc now only using 1x m.2 nvme & 1x sata 2.5" ssd
• i tend to remove unused hardware from pc case & store them in its box (examples: hdd cage/trays, cable cover plates, screws)

Yeah, I have to use a floor fan in the summer, or my room gets stupid hot. Even if I just have a monitor on, no PC or anything. My door is always open, so not such a big deal. Awesome in the winter, though, I can basically temperature control my room with my PC.

 

As for unraid... I'm more likely to decomission my old machine, since I don't have enough SATA ports, and even if I did, the case that machine is in doesn't have room for enough drives. I'm going to run Kubuntu with ZFS for my data vault needs. :3

[Luggage]

On 7/20/2022 at 1:25 PM, Sarra said:

Yeah, I have to use a floor fan in the summer, or my room gets stupid hot. Even if I just have a monitor on, no PC or anything. My door is always open, so not such a big deal. Awesome in the winter, though, I can basically temperature control my room with my PC.

 

As for unraid... I'm more likely to decomission my old machine, since I don't have enough SATA ports, and even if I did, the case that machine is in doesn't have room for enough drives. I'm going to run Kubuntu with ZFS for my data vault needs. :3

Compare the price of 2X360/2X420 ek rads with a mo-ra or alphacool supernova - go external and spare yourself a lot of case head-ache.

 

[Sarra]

1 hour ago, Luggage said:

Compare the price of 2X360/2X420 ek rads with a mo-ra or alphacool supernova - go external and spare yourself a lot of case head-ache.

 

The price isn't the most important thing to me; Overall performance is.

 

If I could toss a 360 rad that's a meter thick and get amazing performance on an external setup, I would (okay, someone, find me a 360X1m rad ploz, I seriously want to do that now).

 

That said, I am going to be doing, at times, extreme duty; 24+ hour renders during the summer months, in the hottest room of the house, with the worst ventilation, and lots of dust. Not opposed to going external. I just need to to be at least attached to the case.