New Ryzen 5900X build

[MikeB]

I'm currently looking at the following, although I'm going to switch the psu for a 'gold' one.

Very nice setup - Good Luck!

[MikeB]

For Ryzen 5900X and SF, is there any point in going to 128 GB of RAM?

What about a used GPU? Under $200 if possible.

Really depends, for an Lc0 type engine, not so much , for SF/Komodo/Ethereal engine , most definitely. With high-end CPUs, hash tables get filled up very quickly. For Lc0 type engines , it does take longer to fill up the hash table.

It also depends om your usage - are you running one engine with maximum threads or are you using multiple engines with one thread , such as a developer would. Generally speaking more RAM the better, especially if are also doing other thing with PC while engine is run. Generally speaking today , most apps today are RAM hogs, especially internet browsers. A conservative rule of thumb is that with 64GB of ram , you are probably only going to be using 32 GB hash, with 128 GB of RAM , you could probably use 96 GB of hash as long you were not crazy with the multitasking. Also the larger RAM will allow you to use Large/Huge Pages more easily and then you get about 10% speed pickup when using a fair number of cores. Large Pages will not activate if the systems decides there is not enough memory to activate. I wish now I went with 256GB RAM.

GPU depends on the engine you plan to use - an LcO type engine, you probably want to upgrade; for a SF/Komodo/Ethereal engine - not so much. Just checked GPU prices, they are so high now that GTX can be used for bitcoin with pytorch. I would pick one up during the next Bitcoin winter, not a question of if , a question of when.

[cma6]

Excellent reply on CPUs from Mike. New build will used for SF and possibly general use at the same time, but no lco till probably 2023 when GPUs may again become affordable (assuming another crypto decline.)
On my main chess system currently (2x Intel-Xeon-E5-2686), I use SF with 4096 MB (out of 64 GB RAM) for infinite analysis. Should I currently be using 32 GB (32,678 MB) of RAM for my infinite analysis?
When that system becomes slave system, could I use 4 GB of RAM for system and 60 GB for 36 cores, or 16,384 MB/core?

On the GPU, I have an adequate GTX 650 Ti boost. It gives 1980 x 1080 display resolution. Would you recommending another one of those or can I go down from there?

Thanks, CMA

[yurikvelo]

3-6 man TBs take up only 150 GB. Is it worth downloading 7-man Syzgy TBs (how big?) when one can access them online, often from within the GUI?

Why you need to access to 7-man if game outcome will be defined by search many many moves earlier. Your opponent will resign at least 20 moves before conversion to 7-man.

If you plan to build costly rig, you fight for ELO, enhance your search tree with tb7 hits.

You don't have to download full TB7 set, most of them will never occur in real game.
You don't have to download DTZ if you don't care with 50-move rule. And even if you care about 50-move rule, not downloading DTZ won't influence much.

Here is list of 7-man files, sorted by occurence, in sets up to 3.5 TB, starting from 120 Gb set


J column = cumulative size of files
G column = % of occurences in real games

Even 120 Gb file set covers >60% real games
1 Tb SSD can store 940 Gb of 7-man files, which cover 92% real games
With 4 Tb SSD you go to 98.3%

If you need 50-move rule, you can buy cheap HDD and store DTZ on HDD.

Not all files should be stored on fastest possible PCI-E SSD.
Author can have 2 fast 512 or 1 Tb PCI-E and cheap 2 Tb SATA SSD for $180 or 2 * 1 Tb SATA SSD for 2 x $90 = $180 to store less frequent files.
These SSD can be cheap - no need for fast write speed, no need for DDR cache, no need for big SLC cache, no need for durability (no care about TBW, no care about sudden loss).
Also there is no need to keep free space for durability and speed, as it is read-only disk.

I think this is much better investment compare to 64 or 128 Gb DRAM, unless you have special tasks for such amount of DRAM

[Graham Banks]

I'm currently looking at the following, although I'm going to switch the psu for a 'gold' one.

Very nice setup - Good Luck!

Thanks, Mike.
Now have to wait until our current lockdown goes down a level, before I can pick it up.

[Frank Quisinsky]

Hi there,

a strong combination:

- Fractal Design Define 7 Black Solid
- Seasonic PRIME GX-1000
- ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII DARK HERO, mainboard
- AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, processor
- NZXT Kraken Z73 360mm, water-cooling
- ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti TUF GAMING OC V2 LHR (expensive, maybe Lc0 freaks not expensive enough).
- Corsair DIMM 32 GB DDR4-3600 Kit x2 = (64Gb)
- Samsung 980 PRO 1TB, SSD (or x2)
- ASUS ROG Strix XG248Q 60,5 cm (23,8 Zoll)

Created for a friend for some days, not a chess player.
A very strong motherboard but expensive!
After all, a very strong system ... at the moment I am thinking to buy the same.

On the other hand I have an Intel i9-10900k system with 10 cores.
Additional is an Intel i9-10980XE system with 18 cores interesting for me.

Best
Frank

But for myself (not an Lc0 fan, to boring mid-game chess with to many blunders) I like this one:
- ASUS GeForce GTX 1650 Phoenix OC (but maybe the card is to strong). On the other hand I need a good graphic card for the monitor I have written before.

[Frank Quisinsky]

Hi there,

I like the system and I am testing a bit!

The board have a passive chipset-cooler (important) for X570-PCHs
The Fractal have good coolers, a lot of place here, strong quality.
For me it can more soundless ... like to add "be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140 mm PWM" in my own Fractal case.
The RTX 3600 TI graphic card isn't soundless but quiet enough I think.

Processor is great with overclocking features from 4th generation (ZEN-3).

Maybe Seasonic GX-850 is enough but I am sure my friend have interest to buy with time a stronger graphic cards.
So I will get the old one



Really a gamer ...

I like the Asus monitor a lot, a dream for a gamer!
But I have more two different 27er DELL monitors in my brain.

Maybe the information helps a bit for create strong chess systems with AMD processors.
For myself the Intel processor is more interesting I think.

This one:
- Intel® Core™ i9-10980XE, processor extreme edition ... 18 cores!
- ASUS WS X299 SAGE/10G, mainboard

For my features FCP-Toruney's (better as to used notebooks I had at first in my brain).
And I like the network features from the board.

Best
Frank

OK, the AMD 16-Core system seems to be a bit stronger as the Intel 18-core system for computer chess.
But in addtional to my i9-10900 I have is the Intel combination more interesting (but more expensive as the AMD combination).