AMD Ryzen R9 3950X new build

[dragontamer5788]

I would want 3 NVMe internal drives for Win10; 7-man TBs; everything else. (No more HDDs in any personal computer systems.)

Each NVMe drive uses 4x PCIe slots. 3x NVMe drives is 12x PCIe lanes, I'm not even sure if an AM4 motherboard would support so many NVMe SSDs.

I'm only aware of Threadripper motherboards that have that many NVMe slots. Maybe with port-bifurcation and a Hyper M.2 x16 card you might get there but... I've never done something with that many NVMe slots.

You should benchmark your system and try to determine the actual bandwidth-requirements of the 7-man TB. SATA-SSDs are a lot cheaper, and hard-drives are way, way, way cheaper. Serving so many I/O slots is going to be expensive.

GPU: I might be looking at 1 or 2 X RTX 2070 Super; or is this a waste of time and not worth bothering about because I really need 2 X RTX 2080ti to be competitive in lc0?

I don't actually know any LeelaZero performance characteristics. So I'll defer to others.

What about RAM, case, and cooler recommendations?

* Case: This is a deeply personal choice. Find where you want to put the computer. Measure out your room, and determine the size. In general, bigger-cases are easier to work with (more room for your hands to fit inside as you plug cables or move stuff around). If you don't have any preference, I'd suggest any $100+ Full Tower case as a beginner build. If you have space constraints (fit under a desk or whatever), you'll have to measure it out and pick it out yourself.

* Power Supply: Hard to say how big you need yet. Once we nail down the components, we might be able to pick out a PSU.

* RAM: Chess likes lots of RAM, but I don't think chess-engines care very much about the speed of RAM. Video games care a lot about RAM Bandwidth and latency timings however. I'd suggest a set of CAS16 1.35V 3200MHz DDR4 sticks as a starting point, unless you knew that you needed better specs than that (ex: Lower latency or higher bandwidth). Be sure to test XMP settings and run Memtest86 to verify your RAM is free of errors.

* Cooler: A high-end tower-cooler for $90 is sufficient for any CPU 200W TDP and less, while higher end air-coolers can go up to 250W dissipation. I don't like liquid-coolers at all, they're too risky. Air is simpler to setup. There is a convenience factor for liquid-cooling: you can move the radiator around the case and optimize your air-flow. But the added complications (case-compatibility, leakage worries, pump-unreliability, etc. etc.) makes me stay away from liquid.

[Zenmastur]

Thanks to Zen, Dragon & Dann for the replies. Zen's 3950X build looks to be a value system for all the components.
However, Giga got rather negative reviews on Amazon so I would be looking for a mid-level ASUS mobo if anyone has suggestions.
So I would aim more for a mid-level 3950X build

I would want 3 NVMe internal drives for Win10; 7-man TBs; everything else. (No more HDDs in any personal computer systems.)

GPU: I might be looking at 1 or 2 X RTX 2070 Super; or is this a waste of time and not worth bothering about because I really need 2 X RTX 2080ti to be competitive in lc0?

What about RAM, case, and cooler recommendations?

Thanks, cma

I chose the MB because it's 12 phase VRM is up to the task and it's relatively cheap. You can of course select any MB you like.

The reason I didn't include HDD's or SSD's is because I have no way to know what a person plans to store on them or how they are to be used. Better to let the end user decide what's best for their needs.

As far as graphics cards, I have no way to know what a user wants. If the system is to be used purely for A/B analysis then there is no need to have even an RTX 2060 super. Any cheap card would do. On the other hand some people will want as much GPU power as they can afford. This is a pretty wide range and impossible for me to spec without further instruction, so I chose a card that is near minimum for NN engine as to do other wise the GPU cost could dominate the cost of the system and thus skew the NPS of the main CPU. As it is those figures would change quite a bit if a cheap video card was spec'd.

The cooler is either the box cooler, a NH-D15 or 15s for AM4 socket or a NH-U14S TR4-SP3 for sTRX4.

The memory spec'd was 64Gb DDR4-3200.

The power supply shouldn't be picked until you have all other components picked first.

You need to pick your own case. I suggest you pick a high air-flow mesh case of the appropriate size needed to fit the cooler and graphics cards you will be using.

Regards,

Zenmastur

[cma6]

I would want 3 NVMe internal drives for Win10; 7-man TBs; everything else. (No more HDDs in any personal computer systems.)

Each NVMe drive uses 4x PCIe slots. 3x NVMe drives is 12x PCIe lanes, I'm not even sure if an AM4 motherboard would support so many NVMe SSDs.

ASUS PRIME X570-PRO mobo:
Expansion slots--3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors
2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)

Storage--3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors :
1 x M.2_1 socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support

Does that provide enough PCIe slots?
Actually, I only need 2 NVMe drives, as the "everything else" can be on SATA--SSDs

[dragontamer5788]

I would want 3 NVMe internal drives for Win10; 7-man TBs; everything else. (No more HDDs in any personal computer systems.)

Each NVMe drive uses 4x PCIe slots. 3x NVMe drives is 12x PCIe lanes, I'm not even sure if an AM4 motherboard would support so many NVMe SSDs.

ASUS PRIME X570-PRO mobo:
Expansion slots--3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors
2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)

Storage--3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors :
1 x M.2_1 socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support

Does that provide enough PCIe slots?
Actually, I only need 2 NVMe drives, as the "everything else" can be on SATA--SSDs

Probably. I don't know what you'd put into the x8 slot, but you'd need some kind of extension. If that motherboard only supports 1x M.2 slot, then you need to convert the x8 slot into an M2 slot somehow.

[Zenmastur]

I would want 3 NVMe internal drives for Win10; 7-man TBs; everything else. (No more HDDs in any personal computer systems.)

Each NVMe drive uses 4x PCIe slots. 3x NVMe drives is 12x PCIe lanes, I'm not even sure if an AM4 motherboard would support so many NVMe SSDs.

ASUS PRIME X570-PRO mobo:
Expansion slots--3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors
2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)

Storage--3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors :
1 x M.2_1 socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support

Does that provide enough PCIe slots?
Actually, I only need 2 NVMe drives, as the "everything else" can be on SATA--SSDs

Probably. I don't know what you'd put into the x8 slot, but you'd need some kind of extension. If that motherboard only supports 1x M.2 slot, then you need to convert the x8 slot into an M2 slot somehow.

If you want more NVMe support buy an NVMe to PCIe RAID card. They come in several configurations and aren't too expensive.

Regards,

Zenmastur

[Zenmastur]

As a side note: I purchased a 3960x this morning. The MB I'm looking at is the ASROCK TRX40 Creator. It has 3 NVMe slots and 4x PCIe Gen. 4 X16 slots. So it can support up to 4 GPU's of your choice!

Regards,

Zenmastur

[cma6]

As a side note: I purchased a 3960x this morning. The MB I'm looking at is the ASROCK TRX40 Creator. It has 3 NVMe slots and 4x PCIe Gen. 4 X16 slots. So it can support up to 4 GPU's of your choice!
Regards, Zenmastur

Zen:
That is great. The TR 3960X was the ideal processor I wanted all along. It gives the big step up in nps from what I currently have:
35.944.207 npd Intel Xeon E5-2686v3 @2.2GHz 36threads BMI2. (I have 2 X Xeon E5-2686v3 @2.2GHz = 36 cores).

34.924.232 nps . AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2 2950X @3.5Ghz 32 threads BMI2

56.083.242 nps AMD Ryzen R9 3950X @3.9Ghz 32 threads pop

79.539.175 nps AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3 3960X @3.9Ghz 48threads

Please keep us posted on your system components and how it runs.

Thanks, cma

[Dann Corbit]

cma6:
Please put your comments after the end quote marker. Your quoted responses are hard to read

[dragontamer5788]

As a side note: I purchased a 3960x this morning. The MB I'm looking at is the ASROCK TRX40 Creator. It has 3 NVMe slots and 4x PCIe Gen. 4 X16 slots. So it can support up to 4 GPU's of your choice!

Regards,

Zenmastur

4x physical x16 slots, but its a 16+8+16+8 configuration.

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/TRX40%20C ... cification

quad at x16 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2) / x16 (PCIE3) / x8 (PCIE4))*

And it might be subject to NVMe restrictions too. Be sure to read the manual!

Also note: the AQUANTIA AQC107 isn't a top-tier networking brand (Mellanox or Intel). Keep an eye on the 10GbE and keep an eye out for any reported driver issues.

[Zenmastur]

Zen:
That is great. The TR 3960X was the ideal processor I wanted all along. It gives the big step up in nps from what I currently have:
35.944.207 npd Intel Xeon E5-2686v3 @2.2GHz 36threads BMI2. (I have 2 X Xeon E5-2686v3 @2.2GHz = 36 cores).

If your already running 36Mnps the 3960X would be the minimum upgrade I would consider. I wanted a 3970X but I need a new computer and I got tired of waiting. But, I think the 3960X is a good compromise and it was available immediately.

Please keep us posted on your system components and how it runs.

Now that I have the chip I'm in no hurry. The parts list at most stores is pretty picked over from Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales so I'm going to wait just a little more to get the parts I “really” want as opposed to simply picking through the leftovers.

All I really need to make it run is a MB and a cooler. I have 64GB of DDR4 2800 (relatively slow) memory on hand and a workable GPU. So, I will build with these and then replace the slow memory with 128GB of fast to VERY FAST (DDR4 3600 or 3800) memory. I think I want to wait to see what the Nvidia RTX 3000 series brings before investing in new video cards. Hopefully they will be faster, draw less power, and be less expensive. I mostly use AB engines for analysis and CC so waiting for the video cards won't be a big deal.

4x physical x16 slots, but its a 16+8+16+8 configuration.

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/TRX40%20C ... cification

quad at x16 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2) / x16 (PCIE3) / x8 (PCIE4))*

And it might be subject to NVMe restrictions too. Be sure to read the manual!

Yes, I'm aware of the restrictions and conflicts. I plan on using only 2 graphics cards, and an NVMe raid controller (maybe).

Also note: the AQUANTIA AQC107 isn't a top-tier networking brand (Mellanox or Intel). Keep an eye on the 10GbE and keep an eye out for any reported driver issues.

Yeah, I have seen a lot of complaints about this chipset. I don't have any 10Gb Ethernet in the house currently. So, to start with this won't be an issue, but latter on I may have a need for it so I would like to make sure it's working properly. I guess I can barrow a switch and a NAS box to test it after I've dealt with all other issues.

Regards,

Zen