Well, I just finished the live stream by Wendel and… yeah blown away by TR. Price wise, it’s tad cheaper than the 10-core intel i9 which is nice.
Now that’s a really purdy htop… just look those cores (yes, only 12 cores).
Can someone confirm ECC is good to go on the Zenith Extreme board?
Anyone tried IOMMU on this as well?
Asking as I’m in Sri Lanka - way out in the sticks realistically speaking, so when I order I have to be sure 
Thanks!!
Well, I realised there’s one potential issue going ECC with Ryzen/TR - we know that faster RAM boosts performance via the ‘Infinity fabric’ - however, the fastest RDIMM ECC Ram I can see listed by Crucial (for example) is 2666 MHz.
I wouldn’t want to even imagine the cost of say 3600 MHz RDIMM RAM - thoughts?
You don’t need RDIMM (registered), regular unbuffered (UDIMM) is what you should be after.
and it only requires one extra memory chip to store the data and some silicon for computing parity.
What makes it expensive (between 50% and 100% extra in price) and slow is caused by Intel turning ECC ram into a niche for servers and workstations.
RDIMMs won’t work, you will need unbuffered ECC memory if you are going that route.
- 8 x DIMM, Max. 128GB, DDR4 3600(O.C.)/3200(O.C.)/2800(O.C.)/2666/2400/2133 MHz ECC and non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
– Asus
This info doesn’t help much. It just means that the system won’t crash if you install ECC RAM but that doesn’t mean it will actually correct errors, unfortunately.
In fact, the Asus Prime X399-A for example doesn’t support ECC, so chances that the Zenith does are rather slim:
My point was it does definitely not support registered memory.
Oh I see 
Well either way, I think the Zenith will most likely not support ECC. But the MSI board Wendell used in one of his recent videos does support ECC, so that might be an option maybe.
Thanks chaps, I will consider the MSI board - just rewatched the video @ 1:40
MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X399-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-AC.html#hero-specification
What’s surprising though - there’s no ECC support listed at all?
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X399-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-AC.html#hero-specification
https://www.msi.com/pdf/presale/X399-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-AC
I also checked the X399 AORUS Gaming 7
8 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 GB of system memory
Quad channel memory architecture
Support for DDR4 3600+(O.C.)/ 3466(O.C.)/ 3333(O.C.)/ 3200(O.C.)/ 2933(O.C.)/ 2800(O.C)/ 2667/ 2400/ 2133 MHz memory modules
Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules
Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
@wendell Could you review this board too, and check ECC in Fedora?
@noenken is there any performance benefit from RDIMMs vs un-buffered ECC?
Also chaps, what’s the fastest Un-buffered ECC you’ve seen out there?
Fastest I’ve found at Crucial is
They do have faster DDR4-2666 RDIMMs though (shame!)
Hilarious - MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC’s site does not confirm ECC.
B&H However, does.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1354436-REG/msi_x399_gaming_pro_carbon.html
- 8 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 128 GB
- Quad-Channel memory architecture
- Supports DDR4 3600+ (OC), 3466 (OC), 3333 (OC), 3200 (OC), 3066 (OC), 2933 (OC), 2667, 2400, and 2133 MHz
- Supports ECC UDIMM memory
No, RDIMMs are technically “slower” because of the buffering.
I don’t think you would see a difference in performance.
@noenken Rather surprised at the Zenith Extreme being almost $171 more than the MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC.
Thoughts on how they are justifying the price hike and (if at all) what I’d be missing out on the MSI X399 board?
From what I can see, the specs are pretty similar, although the Zenith has ROG badging, nicer look RGB (ugh…) but that alone isn’t enough to justify $170. Ok, the extra DIMM riser for the M.2 cards on the Asus is a nice tough I suppose.
The MSI X399 just seems to be better value, and we have confirmed ECC support thanks to @wendell’s review.
X399 gigabyte is next up and am testing fatality x399 now. Doesn’t look like I will get the zenith but it also has 10 gig Ethernet. The zenith is higher end but premium. I’ve had trouble with some high density ram kits on the boards so far (e.g. 128gb) but it’s down to software I think
Hmm, this might help a bit.
Hey @wendell looking forward to it mate.
I plan to grab this kit from Crucial for UDIMM ECC ram - CT2K16G4WFD824A / 2400MHz
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1193720-REG/crucial_ct2k16g4wfd824a_32gb_2_x_16gb.html
This is the fastest I could find from them so far that’s UDIMM.
I plan to upgrade part of my home-network to 10Gig in early 2018, at which point I’ll grab a couple Intel X520/X550 NICs. Not too fussed for Wifi on the Threadripper box; partially leaning towards the MSI board for now.
Unsure as to the chipset running on the ROG Areion 10G nic addon card though; Didn’t see anything obvious after a quick Google on that. Not sure about linux support.
Think about it: Is a life without an ROG-coaster even worth it? 
As Wendell said, 10Gbit is the star of the show here. Otherwise it seems to be ROG-tax mostly. The top end Asus boards are always a bit out there with their pricing. I would wait for a WS board from Asus or ASRock, pretty sure something like that is coming.
Just ordered this pair to have some early fun…
Aye, down the road I’ll probably swap the board to a WS model. Hard to imagine Asus not doing one.
On the topic of ‘Asus-tax’, indeed, it is super steep at what they consider ‘premium’. The Intel X520/550 10G nics can be added starting at $200, and you’ll at least be assured of compatible drivers in Linux (?)
My X540-T2 are being detected without doing anything, yeah.
Realistically it is more of a ROG-tax, most boards are reasonably priced as far as I think.
It picks up a lot when the box is red…
Tad OT: for IOMMU, is ECC RAM important? I recall @Wendell got IOMMU working on the Intel X299 Strix-E and that didn’t have ECC RAM?
Just wanted to double check on this.
BTW @Wendell what’s the fastest compatible ECC RAM you’ve tested with Threadripper?
I had originally planned to go for this 32GB UDIMM ECC 2400 MT/s kit from Crucial (CT2K16G4WFD824A), but it now has a lead-time till October. However, they do have a low-profile version with similar specs - CAS17 etc.
The VLP version is $20 more, but still 2400 MT/s.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1256180-REG/crucial_ct2k16g4xfd824a_32gb_k_pc4_2400_288p.html
For the infinity fabric though, I think I’d source a 3200 MT/s TridentZ kit and forego ECC - until I find some better info on compatible kits etc.
Amazon comment threads are full of people reporting boot up issues, although hard to judge which ones are related to recent UEFIs.
Ecc speed? 2400. Kingston kit
Non ecc is probably best for now.
