Interested in IOMMU & ECC on the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme TR board

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

  • Crucial 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 ECC UDIMM / CT2K16G4WFD824A

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.

1 Like

@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

3 Likes

Hmm, this might help a bit.

  • More SLI bridges than anyone would realistically need. Games are so poorly optimised for SLI, IMHO it’s a waste.
  • Extra thermistors, meh those don’t cost much.
  • Dual antenna Wifi on the Asus board; MSI adds this via a PCI card that’s included.
  • Both have Bluetooth 4.2
  • 10GB NIC, although I’d prefer a proper Intel one X520/X550 etc.
  • Stickers… LOL.

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? :thinking:

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.

2 Likes

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 (?)

1 Like

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…

2 Likes

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.

2 Likes

For someone who is as paranoid about a flipped bit as me, ECC is necessary in all systems. :wink:

But strictly technically speaking, you are not required to have working ECC memory for IOMMU.

Thing is @comfreak I share your sentiments on flipped-bits as I plan to setup my TR system as my core-dev box.

In the event I were to run some VMs for ‘server duty’, ECC would be handy. Heck, one task I have is to setup a ZFS replication box. Rather than buying the hardware for yet another FreeNAS build, I could potentially VM/IOMMU an HBA controller; if I don’t go with ECC RAM, well…, I’m not so sure I’d be able to trust my data there.

Then again, I would value performance boost from the faster RAM; Guess I’ll go non-ECC now and bite the bullet in setting up the Replication box.

I’ll most likely replicate the components I’ve used in my primary FreeNAS build.

1 Like

If you do go that route, please let me/us know. I am planning on trying that out too at one point. :wink:

1 Like

I did it with xen for years it was fine and had no problem importing the pool into it’s current home on bare metal hardware a Xeon e3

2 Likes

Do you think the same could be possible using something like Proxmox?

As long as the zfs version/features is not going from newer>older I don’t see why not

2 Likes

Despite of wendell’s video I contacted MSI and asked about ECC function and recieved:
“Regarding your concern,we are sorry,do you mean the motherboard X399 GAMING carbon ac?we are sorry,this motherboard does not support ECC Function.”

1 Like