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Hello again! It's been a very long time since I've been active in this hobby, or in this forum for that matter! So long in fact, that I've forgotten both the password and the e-mail address for my old account on [H]ardForum. Alas, I used to be quite active in General Hardware, with over 1,000 posts. My moniker was Markyip1.
Back then, I realized due to a career shift that I wouldn't have the time to partake in this hobby anymore. So I built an ultimate "swan-song" rig, which consisted of:
For general use, software development with lots of VMs, RAW photo image editing, and gaming--my 6-core 990X held up terrifically well. It's the first computer that I replaced not because I wanted more performance (it's still fine today--in all honestly) but because certain parts--like the 12 year old power-supply--were starting to go. The only changes made in nearly 10 years since the ASUS Rampage III Black and the 990X were getting rid of the water-loop not long after building the PC, and then upgrading the 460s to a single GTX-970 some years later. I also got rid of the 256GB SSD and put in a Samsung 850 1TB drive 5 or 6 years ago, and have been running the same install of Windows 10 ever since.
I decided a new PC was on the horizon when my 14 year old monitor, a Dell Ultrasharp 2407, went on the fritz during the holidays last year. Being the holidays, and thanks to a good deal at Microcenter, I was able to snag an ASUS PG27UQ for about $1000 (which is half-off the 4K, HDR10, 144mhz G-Sync behemoth!) Of course, the GTX-970 wasn't going to do well with it, so I took the savings from the monitor deal and picked up an RTX-2080 TI to go with it. Now many would laugh at putting an RTX-2080 TI into an X58-era system, but I have to say, it worked well enough with games like the Witcher 3 cruising at about 60 fps with all settings maxed, and next-gen beauties like Control working great as well with all the eye-candy (with DLSS on--the only caveat.) To be honest, I'd still be using the system (and dealing with failures and replacements one-by-one) if it weren't for COVID... I still don't have the time to re-engage in the hobby like I used to, but with travel on hold, I do have the time to build a second "swan-song" to last me through the 2020s (and beyond.) So, with the story laid out, here is what I've built:
-CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X (I was debating on the 3970x but didn't want the hassle of having to micro-manage core usage for games.)
-Mobo: ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha (An easy choice, given how well the Rampage III Black served me.)
-RAM: 128GB (4x32GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB - rated 3600mhz @ CAS 18 (it works well set to DOCP/XMP settings, with F-Clock set to 1800mhz. All voltages auto.)
-GPU: EVGA RTX-2080 TI FTW Ultra 3 (bought this with the monitor in December)
-SSDs: 2x WD Black SN750 NVMe 2 TB (considerably cheaper than the 970 EVOs at MicroCenter for the 2 TB models)
-Cooler: NZXT Kraken Z73 All-In-One (why have one (O)LED screen inside the case when you can have two?)
-Case: Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic XL (I love this... so much nicer than the Corsair 800D it's replacing.)
-PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 (overkill, yes, but this is the only PSU above 650 watts Microcenter had in stock, and they price matched to $100 cheaper.)
-Fans: 1x Corsair ML-120 white LED for the rear, 6x Corsair ML-120s RGBs for the side and bottom.
And carried over from my last PC:
-SSD 3: Samsung 850 EVO SATA-III 1TB SSD
-SSD 4: Crucial MX550 SATA-III 2TB SSD
-Optical: An ASUS Blu-Ray (UHD friendly) drive (which I had to put into an external enclosure...)
Plus, my mouse and keyboard, and backup drives, and headset.
And to close, here are my preliminary thoughts:
- It's a beast! I'm very pleased with its performance. In Lightroom classic, I was able to build both smart previews and 1:1 previews for about 1200 photos (taken off an external 7200RPM HHD) in about 2 minutes. Per Windows task manager, Lightroom was using all cores effectively. (Although I don't know if Windows Task Manager reports accurately.)
- It runs hot! I've spent a lot of time researching the Zen 2 Threadripper cooling situation. I certainly don't mind custom loops, but they're not a consideration because I don't have the time. I have a Noctua as a backup, but so far the NZXT is fine. I don't have PBO on, but with the RAM running at rated specs, I have the Infinity-Fabric overclocked and everything is stable and the system is cool enough and much quieter than my old build. (CPU runs at 40s-50s idle, and 70s-80s under load... 85c is the absolute peak.) Too bad about the Enermax coolers being junky... doesn't seem that there is a best-case solution for those who don't want to go custom loop.
- And lastly, UEFI is different! (So this is showing my lack of engagement over the last decade.) This is my first UEFI computer (except for my Macbook Pro.) When I first turned on the computer, it posted into the BIOS and everything looked fine. However, when I booted with the Windows 10 CD, I noticed that the computer would hang on the ROG logo and the Zenith's OLED screen was stuck at detecting HDD. Needless to say, I thought there was a hardware problem. Turns out, the hardware was fine... The copy of Windows on the CD was so old it didn't know what to do with NVME drives! All I needed to do was boot from a newer Windows 10 build. What I didn't realize is that on this board, through some UEFI magic I assume, the ASUS logo takes the place of the Windows logo through the boot process... that's what threw me off!
That's all I have for now... looking forward to a decade or more of service from this great machine! Thanks for reading!
Back then, I realized due to a career shift that I wouldn't have the time to partake in this hobby anymore. So I built an ultimate "swan-song" rig, which consisted of:
- Intel Core i7 990x
- 24GB RAM
- 2x nVIDIA GTX-460s in SLI
- 256 SATA-III SSD
For general use, software development with lots of VMs, RAW photo image editing, and gaming--my 6-core 990X held up terrifically well. It's the first computer that I replaced not because I wanted more performance (it's still fine today--in all honestly) but because certain parts--like the 12 year old power-supply--were starting to go. The only changes made in nearly 10 years since the ASUS Rampage III Black and the 990X were getting rid of the water-loop not long after building the PC, and then upgrading the 460s to a single GTX-970 some years later. I also got rid of the 256GB SSD and put in a Samsung 850 1TB drive 5 or 6 years ago, and have been running the same install of Windows 10 ever since.
I decided a new PC was on the horizon when my 14 year old monitor, a Dell Ultrasharp 2407, went on the fritz during the holidays last year. Being the holidays, and thanks to a good deal at Microcenter, I was able to snag an ASUS PG27UQ for about $1000 (which is half-off the 4K, HDR10, 144mhz G-Sync behemoth!) Of course, the GTX-970 wasn't going to do well with it, so I took the savings from the monitor deal and picked up an RTX-2080 TI to go with it. Now many would laugh at putting an RTX-2080 TI into an X58-era system, but I have to say, it worked well enough with games like the Witcher 3 cruising at about 60 fps with all settings maxed, and next-gen beauties like Control working great as well with all the eye-candy (with DLSS on--the only caveat.) To be honest, I'd still be using the system (and dealing with failures and replacements one-by-one) if it weren't for COVID... I still don't have the time to re-engage in the hobby like I used to, but with travel on hold, I do have the time to build a second "swan-song" to last me through the 2020s (and beyond.) So, with the story laid out, here is what I've built:
-CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X (I was debating on the 3970x but didn't want the hassle of having to micro-manage core usage for games.)
-Mobo: ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha (An easy choice, given how well the Rampage III Black served me.)
-RAM: 128GB (4x32GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB - rated 3600mhz @ CAS 18 (it works well set to DOCP/XMP settings, with F-Clock set to 1800mhz. All voltages auto.)
-GPU: EVGA RTX-2080 TI FTW Ultra 3 (bought this with the monitor in December)
-SSDs: 2x WD Black SN750 NVMe 2 TB (considerably cheaper than the 970 EVOs at MicroCenter for the 2 TB models)
-Cooler: NZXT Kraken Z73 All-In-One (why have one (O)LED screen inside the case when you can have two?)
-Case: Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic XL (I love this... so much nicer than the Corsair 800D it's replacing.)
-PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 (overkill, yes, but this is the only PSU above 650 watts Microcenter had in stock, and they price matched to $100 cheaper.)
-Fans: 1x Corsair ML-120 white LED for the rear, 6x Corsair ML-120s RGBs for the side and bottom.
And carried over from my last PC:
-SSD 3: Samsung 850 EVO SATA-III 1TB SSD
-SSD 4: Crucial MX550 SATA-III 2TB SSD
-Optical: An ASUS Blu-Ray (UHD friendly) drive (which I had to put into an external enclosure...)
Plus, my mouse and keyboard, and backup drives, and headset.
And to close, here are my preliminary thoughts:
- It's a beast! I'm very pleased with its performance. In Lightroom classic, I was able to build both smart previews and 1:1 previews for about 1200 photos (taken off an external 7200RPM HHD) in about 2 minutes. Per Windows task manager, Lightroom was using all cores effectively. (Although I don't know if Windows Task Manager reports accurately.)
- It runs hot! I've spent a lot of time researching the Zen 2 Threadripper cooling situation. I certainly don't mind custom loops, but they're not a consideration because I don't have the time. I have a Noctua as a backup, but so far the NZXT is fine. I don't have PBO on, but with the RAM running at rated specs, I have the Infinity-Fabric overclocked and everything is stable and the system is cool enough and much quieter than my old build. (CPU runs at 40s-50s idle, and 70s-80s under load... 85c is the absolute peak.) Too bad about the Enermax coolers being junky... doesn't seem that there is a best-case solution for those who don't want to go custom loop.
- And lastly, UEFI is different! (So this is showing my lack of engagement over the last decade.) This is my first UEFI computer (except for my Macbook Pro.) When I first turned on the computer, it posted into the BIOS and everything looked fine. However, when I booted with the Windows 10 CD, I noticed that the computer would hang on the ROG logo and the Zenith's OLED screen was stuck at detecting HDD. Needless to say, I thought there was a hardware problem. Turns out, the hardware was fine... The copy of Windows on the CD was so old it didn't know what to do with NVME drives! All I needed to do was boot from a newer Windows 10 build. What I didn't realize is that on this board, through some UEFI magic I assume, the ASUS logo takes the place of the Windows logo through the boot process... that's what threw me off!
That's all I have for now... looking forward to a decade or more of service from this great machine! Thanks for reading!
