Threadripper 2 Workstation

zircon · October 4, 2018

I've been waffling for the last few weeks on Intel vs. AMD for my next workstation build, but with Intel's supply shortages and lack of forward compatibility I'm leaning toward the red camp now. Especially after reading reviews of TR2 and seeing how powerful PB2/PBO can be, pushing single threaded performance to within striking distance of Skylake X.

Intended uses:

Music production & sound design
Game development in Unity
Video editing & rendering in Sony Vegas
Photoshop
Light gaming
Lots of file compression

From what I've read, manual overclocking is nearly useless for TR2; the built in PB2 and PBO seem to do just as good a job for almost all use cases. So, I probably won't be overclocking now. However, I'd keep the option open in case a future Threadripper model with more headroom could be slotted into the board.

Questions:

Do I have enough cooling? The Noctua seems to be the best option for TR2 in terms of both cooling & performance, but I'm wondering if the Thor has enough with its 3x large fans and 1x 140mm fans otherwise. I have a 5820k right now in the same case and it does seem well-cooled...
Is 3200mhz memory @ 16 CAS latency good enough? Will I be able to hit that reliably if it's on the mobo's QVL?
Speaking of motherboard, this one seemed like the best balance of features and price. There's a higher priced ROG Zenith Extreme board as well with lower DPC latency for audio, but not sure it's worth the price.

Any other insight or potential issues are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

* Note: The extra Noctua fan there will be used w/ the CPU cooler. I want to maximize my PB2/PBO headroom on air.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 2950X 3.5GHz 16-Core Processor ($899.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U14S TR4-SP3 140.2 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming ATX TR4 Motherboard ($363.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($314.78 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Pro 1.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($397.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 2.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($577.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 2.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($577.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X 8G Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Rosewill - THOR V2 ATX Full Tower Case ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($90.00 @ Newegg Business)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($21.85 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($21.41 @ OutletPC)
Total: $3465.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-04 11:16 EDT-0400

October 4, 2018

Are you sure you need THAT much Solid State storage? I'd take a 1TB or 500GB SSD and then 2 2TB HDD's.

Cooling looks ok. 3200mhz is plenty for memory, I'm not sure if you can achieve such speeds natively on TR, but you can overclock it to support it if it doesn't.

Who needs a DVD/CD writer these days?

zircon · October 4, 2018

Heh, I left out the 4tb of non-M2 drives I'm bringing as well.... Yes, I do need all of that. The kind of audio work I do often involves products that are hundreds of GB each.

I was trying to figure out the memory speed thing as well. The Asrock board's QVL lists that memory as compatible at 3200mhz / 4 dimms. Hard to find info otherwise though.

October 4, 2018

1 minute ago, zircon said:

Heh, I left out the 4tb of non-M2 drives I'm bringing as well.... Yes, I do need all of that. The kind of audio work I do often involves products that are hundreds of GB each.

I was trying to figure out the memory speed thing as well. The Asrock board's QVL lists that memory as compatible at 3200mhz / 4 dimms. Hard to find info otherwise though.

If it says it's compatible, it's probably ok.

But do you need all the SSD speed to do audio work? You can save a 1000 bucks by going for HDD's.