MSI MEG X399 Creation for 2nd Gen Threadripper

[That_Sound_Guy]

The power draw of TR2, 8 dimms, 4 m2+card, high end gfx, external SSD's/spinners for storage/wm's, the mobo itself and whatever else peripheral cooling is something I'd also like to know. Adding water, rad fans and pumps - yikes. The TR2 alone is what, 200w?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Also 10G will eat up another 2-4x depending on number of ports, leaving about 56x.

Yeah, it depends on how much bus bandwidth overhead a 10GbaseT adapter needs.

Mine are 8x gen 1 adapters, which translates to ~16Gbit/s according to my calculations. That's a 60% safety margin.

At PCIe gen 3, for two 10gig ports, you'd need ab out 2.53 PCIe lanes worth of bandwidth. Since you only hvae binary choices of 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16, this means that unfortunately they will have to use 4x...

...unless the motherboard can cleverly combine the lanes and use the bandwidth from the left over 1.5x for somethign else. USB ports? Audio?

I don't have a clear understanding of how PCIe lane division works for on board devices.

Kind of makes me wonder why we haven't seen gen 4 motherboards yet. I mean, the standard fro PCIe gen 4 has been final for a year now. Heck, version 0.7 of the gen 5 standard was released a couple of months ago.

Maybe the industry is just going to skip 4 and go straight for 5?

 

[FrgMstr]

I don't have a clear understanding of how PCIe lane division works for on board devices.

I have asked for a PCIe block diagram.

 

[Trimlock]

If that expander is full, it’d probably take around 45watts to fully power (based on the 970 evo 2tb. An 8 PCIe slot only provides 25 but I’m sure this will work in a 16 slot as well.

 

[LuxTerra]

Kind of makes me wonder why we haven't seen gen 4 motherboards yet. I mean, the standard fro PCIe gen 4 has been final for a year now. Heck, version 0.7 of the gen 5 standard was released a couple of months ago.

Maybe the industry is just going to skip 4 and go straight for 5?

It takes time. I wouldn't expect to see PCIe 4.0 shipping in many products until 2019. PCIe 5.0 is probably 2021 give or take. There are cases where these standard transitions happen much faster, but usually that's because several companies create pre-standard products and they sort of get rolled into the standard. Hardly ideal. Also, that generally requires a significant demand signal to justify going at risk. Outside of datacenter use, there's not a significant demand signal for PCIe 4/5. Sure it would make Intel's generally chopshopped PCIe lane configuration usable, but that's on Intel not a real consumer need for bandwidth beyond 16x PCIe 3; really, what we need is reasonable lane counts for PCIe 3 (thank you AMD). Even the Intel XXV710-DA2 (2x25GbE) I have in my file server is fine at PCIe 3. It's really dual port 50GbE single SERDES and the aggregation beyond 100G that need PCIe 4 and 5. Even a 1080Ti barely notices going from 16x to 8x lanes and that's mostly the occasional increase in latency due to the lanes being full rather than a sustained need for even 8x bandwidth.

 

[FrgMstr]

I don't have a clear understanding of how PCIe lane division works for on board devices.

Best I can do right now.

 

[FrgMstr]

I know the CPU-Chipset interface is closely related to 4x PCIe, but that diagram says DMI 3.0, which is not right for an AMD chipset.

I already asked MSI engineering for one that is laid out with all lanes identified.

 

[FrgMstr]

The MEG X399 Creation was just delivering 532 watts of CPU Package Power with Prime95 SmallFFTs and not breaking a sweat.

 

[FrgMstr]

Do you think the 19 phase VRM is worth it though?

From my initial tests, if you are going to be overclocking the 2990WX, then absolutely. If not, any X399 board is as good as the next. Buy on features.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

One thing I do like on the MSI Creation is the inclusion of Bluetooth 5.0.

You can buy the same card for <$30 right now, if you want one, for whatever board. The basic module that most board makers include (slow WifI, BT4.2) is entry level but they do work.

 

[FrgMstr]

New UEFI out for this board late yesterday. Starting up testing again now.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/MEG-X399-CREATION

 

[FrgMstr]

Would love it if all core overclock could get high enough that you don't have to choose between max multithreaded performance (all core manual) and max single threaded performance (PB2)

That never crossed my mind.

 

[Nobu]

You can buy the same card for <$30 right now, if you want one, for whatever board. The basic module that most board makers include (slow WifI, BT4.2) is entry level but they do work.

You have to be sure your board has a slot that will work first, though, and that you order the right card ([half]mini pcie, m.2, and which key it uses). Otherwise, you'll have to either return or get a pcie adaptor card.

 

[0100]

Can someone suggest 4x16GB quad channel ram kit for this board with a 1950x? I would like to stay in the $600 range.

I was thinking about this one: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233891

I am just hesitant because of this review from 10/2017 writes " Cons: It is not compatible with MSI X399 motherboard and AMD threadsripper 1950x"

BUT it's listed on the MEG x399 creation QVL. CMK64GX4M4A2666C16 ver4.31

I am thinking the guy who put up the review on 10/2017 didn't have ver4.31, but who knows, and how can I be sure I will get version 4.31.

Any suggestions?

 

[FrgMstr]

just wondering what you thought of this board after your testing as I'm coming from the Gigabyte Aorus extreme on a 2950x but I'm having all sorts of issues on PCI express USB cards so wondering if this PCI lanes and greater phases will help my issue?

No clue what you're issue is.