Used 3900X, 1950X, or 5XXX Series Chip? Older EPYC?

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I have been thinking about my next build. I still want to center my machine around VM’s. I want to be able to have some card for a display, have my other cards go to a Windows VM and a spare for either use in linux itself or in another VM.

I originally tried to do this with a gen 1 3900X, however I broke it by accident, and even then when I tried I basically pushed the chip all the way to the limit, and it just couldn’t do it. I was hoping the tech on the IO die would help, but either my chipset was too early, or it was just the wrong processor. It would just… refuse to passthrough. I did everything right, and when I tried to boot stuff… nothing would happen.

So, I’m thinking about what I could do. I was told threadripper would be a good possibility, I was even thinking about first gen Epyc on that ITX asrock board. Point is, I can’t drop a stack on a 5800X or something like that, nor the newest board. If I could even go X370 or X399, bonus cuz those boards are cheap, I just don’t know if any of them are even… Good.

Its been 2 years since I put that first machine together, and we have some newer tech now. But with what I am aiming to do, I don’t need the newest thing. I just need a capable chip.

The motherboard needs to allow for a 290, HD7770, and a giga-accel X8i. The 290 can be on a X8 lane, I don’t care, and the 7770 will act as a display / spare. If it has 1.5 gig eth, bonus, 2 nics, bonus, not required. My main concern is the processor and the chipset.

I don’t really care if the processor isn’t The “BeSt FoR gAmInG”, it’ll be better than what I have. Just unsure what to look at.

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Well for one the 5800X is under $300 these days, and the 5700X also exists at $250.

Two; top end X370 boards were not terrible and can be had for sometimes reasonable prices on eBay, and they have AGESA updates to support Zen 3 as of a couple months ago.

Three; The ASRock ROMED4ID-2T does not support first gen EPYC (Naples) processors.

Four; X399 or even old SP3 boards are not a terrible option for just spamming PCI-E if you don’t care about being stuck on Zen 1/Zen+

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Define “Gen 1 3900x”?

What OS did you use? Honestly VMWare ESXi is the best thing to use for a project like you are describing.

Original Threadripper is the cheapest option if you just want PCI-E lanes and don’t care about modern CPU performance.

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Theres 2 gens of the 3900X as there was a bug that needed a patch. XT line came out and replaced it then they renamed it back to 3900X.

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They renamed it back? I never knew this. I have a first gen 3900x, never had an issue with it. Runs flawlessly and cool.

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The issues had to do with the VFIO platform and the IO die, and how some other things worked that in specialized environments, college labs for example, the chip would fail tests outwright. In normal desktop use you won’t have problems.

You can tell this by the ID code on the CPU. After a point they fixed it, it got melded in with the XT, and some of the XT fixes got melded back

you know what I think I’m just gunna get a 3900X again

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Seems you are dead set on AMD, but have you checked out LGA3647 recently? I picked up a ASUS Z11PA-U12S + Xeon 4108 with cooler + 16gb ram for $350CAD recently and got a Xeon 6230 for about 220ish used, seems to be dropping in price a lot more lately. Hoping to pick up a 2nd gen scalable when I can to get a little better IPC

And is running my Radeon Pro Duo + Titan V + nvidia t400 with ease along with more memory capacity and memory channels than x399 has to offer

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For the stuff I do, I have basically been doing the same shit since I owned an AMD Phenom 955, with added upgradces as my needs have changed over time slightly. When I try a lot of stuff with Intel I get weird hangups. If someone has some reassurance about it and can post something about their experience, I might try it.

ATM I’m on an X79 system and I had to overclock it to make it play games correctly. Never had that on an AMD system, even an out of date one.

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Considering the size of your peripherals + count, I imagine ATX (+) is expected sizing

For likes of x299, a good lot of them boards will offer dual Gb-NICs
The PCIe divvying will vary greatly - help to look at the layouts, for desired slot support
Can go for something like a i7-7800x [on the cheep side], getting feel of the platform

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LGA3647, I just don’t see much of, but the pricing been going through some plummets

SP3 may need to be read up, on per mainboard basis
Some boards may support ALL Epyc series, or may only support a particular Gen _
Epyc CPUs have the same qty of PCIe lanes - ultimately choosing between core ct./freq.

X399 CPUs have the same qty of PCIe lanes - ultimately choosing between core ct./freq.
Also the factor of Gen2 TR, for greater core ct. [still] and better memory support
ASRock PG6 and Taichi boards, do pop up <=300 NEW at times [both offer dual NICs]

Re: Gen1 TR
For gaming, I’m sure not nearly great [compared to competition then], but should do fine

My experience with Noctuas sTR4 3U heatsink, has been rather welcoming [1920x]
But I could foresee it being overwhelmed, should a beefier TDP chip be used [220W+]

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I haven’t tried much, in the way of gameplay… I’m slowly nerving up, to more fumbling
Working with an RX6600XT at UW-1080p display [closer to 1440p pull]
Doom 4, Supreme Commander, Metro 2033 – given a go

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You need more I/O …

H12SSL board
Epyc 7282
64-128GB DDR4
Samsung PM9A1 SSD’s

You have that weird card that I’ve never hard of so I’m not sure if you’re doing some kind of special processing… if you’re handling video workloads I would say go with ESXi and a Tesla M40/K80/M60 or something like that.

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Brud if I were doing video I have G5’s and PS3’s doing dick all and my desktop has a 290. I could do something WAY better than a single desktop are you kidding me?

However your point on IO makes me thonk

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No doubt - didn’t know what you were doing with it so I was speculating.

You have a bunch of PCI-E cards (similar to what I am going through but I’m poverty tier) - if you’ve been saving up since the 290 generation for a new box and you feel like now is the time to pull the trigger, That’s how I’d do it.

The alternative would be Threadripper Pro… but be ready to shell out pallets of cash… even TRX40 is expensive as crap.

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No actually I got my 290 recently for a steal XD its just what I have.

Why in the god damn would I go past TR 1? And I don’t say that in tense, I mean just anything past TR 1 is a rip off.

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Given the performance (and security improvements, etc.) vs. price difference between 3900x and say, 5800-5900x I would steer clear of the 3900.

Older EPYC is going to be more difficult/quirky to build, slower clocks for single thread and likely more expensive in terms of board, etc.

Unless you need the PCIe, but if you’re considering 3000 series at all I’m guessing you don’t.

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Compared to an X79 system I don’t think I care

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That last board looks crazy I love it

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Last board is huge lol

My 3900x btw never had issues even with multiple VM’s running, doing encodes as well (even at the same time) etc

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