Hi guys,
I just registered to L1T forum although I follow Wendell and the youtube channel since it has been created. I am a professional freelance software developer (15+ experience) and I am going to upgrade my workstation/gaming PC in the following weeks. I am only going to upgrade mobo and CPU and here are the parts I already own:
The PSU (I have two 80+ Gold power supply available: a Cooler Master 750W and a Thermaltake 450W, I am currently using the latter)
Fractal Design Celsius S36 (so, no Ryzen Threadripper…)
4x 8GB G-Skill Trident Z RGB (F4-3200C16-8GTZR)
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro (ASX8200PNP-1TT-C)
2x WD Green SATA-III HDD’s
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G
3x 140 mm PWM fans
I need a good system for heavy workloads (compilation, debugging/testing and virtualization) so I am definitely buying a 8+ cores CPU. Currently I own an Intel Core i7-7700K. The obvious (price/performance) choice is a Ryzen 2 or 3 (2700X/3700X as a bare minimum). What confuses me the most are AM4 motherboards: should I go for a X570, B450 or wait for B550? I watched and read a lot of material and I guess the MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk is a good choice but I don’t know when it is going to be released.
I fully switched to Linux since November so I NEED the system to be fully compatible with Linux (I use Arch BTW ).
Budget-wise I don’t really have a limit since it’s mostly a workstation but I also don’t want to throw away my money on some computer I am never going to fully use. Any suggestion is going to be appreciated.
PS: I am not a fanboy so I won’t complain with Intel suggestions.
To clarify above statement are your compile times cpu bound on memory bound? If you want fast cores and lost of threads then ryzen 3rd gen is good. If you need lots on memory bandwidth and cpu can be cheaper, stick to 2nd gen.
I wouldn’t rule out thread ripper just because you already have a cooler. In the grand scheme of things a cooler is low cost compared to your time and business needs. Threadripper would be better for virtualisation given extra ram and pice lanes.
On the b450 vs x570 debate, this is a question of overclocking and supporting features like 10GbE. X570 will have better options at the price.
On the intel vs amd debate, unless you want to save a buck and get a used Xeon, there are no current compelling options from intel that outcompete and high end consumer, prosumer or even last gen prosumer (x399) options.
I use x399 and it is stable and feature complete with manjaro. Just avoid vega 56’s if you don’t want your hair to look as grey as mine
The Ryzen 3800X seems to match my needs (and more).
I don’t really need PCIe 4.0 (nor 10GbE) for now but I guess it is a nice to have from upgradability point of view… I guess a good B450 should suffice. Do you suggest to wait to B550? As far as I got, the best B450 motherboards are the MSI Tomahawk and the Gigabyte Aorus Elite. Anyone has experience about using them of Linux? In particular I need to know about IOMMU groups and such…
Here are the prices I found on Amazon (Italy):
AMD Ryzen 3800X - 336,90 €
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX - 131,77 €
Gigabyte B450 AORUS Elite - 104,30 €
As I stated in the first post I own an nVidia GPU. The initial setup in as bit stressful on Linux given the configuration needed by proprietary drivers (kernel parameters, disable wayland, configure MPV, etc) but I did not find any blocking issue. I am playing various native games (Shadow of the Tomb Rider, XCOM2 war of the chosen, Pathfinder kingmaker and Pillars of eternity) and I am soon going to try some “emulated” games (Hellblade: Senua’s sacrifice and Divinity: original sin 2). I am not planning a GPU upgrade this year.
Off topic but it was never happy in my system. Shame because it is exactly the card to match my monitors and usage, just not stable.
Anyway, on topic, 3800x is a good CPU. If you can wait for the b550 you may as well get the newer platform, although realistically it is GPU, nvme and ram compatibility that will decide it. I don’t own either board so cannot comment further. Good luck
In the end I went with a Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite which, according to some owners in r/VFIO, provides some good IOMMU groups with no need for ACS override patch (whether I shall pass-through a GPU to a Windows guest VM). Also it seems to have some really good VRM’s for the price point and the components I’ve already had should work just fine with that mobo. I found it on sale on eBay at 226 € which is a very good price.
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