Help with 7900 non-X Parts selection

longblock454

longblock454

2[H]4U
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Nov 28, 2004
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Finally time to move on from Sandy Bridge and a 1080. My workflow likely resembles content creation, mostly code compiles, some encoding and hopefully some light gaming in the future. My current monitor is 1440, don't game yet but would like to explore some stuff like Universal Sandbox and maybe some space exploration type games, but haven't researched to see what is out there yet. I want to keep this power friendly as this room is completely solar powered, I'm also 100% Linux. This will be my first AMD machine (aside from the System76 6800U lappy i just got a coupe days ago) since the Geode Days.

Looking for MB (any form factor), storage and RAM suggestions. I need room for a graphics card, 1TB of fast-ish storage and a x710 network card with enough PCIe for all. I'll probably start with reusing my 1080 as I don't see any midrange RDNA3 cards out yet, but look forward to dropping the 1080 and doing without propriety drivers. I will not be OCing but might want to take advantage of some memory tweaking. In the past I've had the best luck with Asus and the worst with Gigabyte but all of that has been long enough to reset the clock, so no brand loyalty. Don't care about audio as that is offloaded to a DAC, no onboard wifi and think RGB is retarded. So really just a basic board right?

What I can't keep up with is things like RAM, channels, interleaving, specific "B" chips etc and want to maximize all, hard to keep track of these specifics. 64G of ram, whatever configuration maximizes interleaving + channels etc.

Prefer to purchase from Amazon, no MC here in Indiana and would be quite reluctant to give Newegg any of my money. I'm also not stuck on the 7900, just seemed to be a good fit from my searching.
 
So far I have these items in-mind:

7900 non X
ASUS Prime B650-PLUS
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO (seems the 990 isn't much of an upgrade)

Still clueless on what/how fast memory to get.
 
longblock454 said:
Very interesting, thanks for the link! Wish he would have tested faster memory, Newegg is showing lots of options including some all the way up to DDR5-8000.
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After DDR5 6000, Zen 4 goes into a gear down mode, which increases latency. Its unclear what speeds you might have to hit, to compensate for that. And even then, its probably not even possible to get to that speed at all, on Zen 4.
Basically, you shouldn't set the RAM speed to anything faster than 6000. So, what you then decide, is what timings you want to pay for (or try to manually tweak towards, if you can).
 
longblock454 said:
So far I have these items in-mind:

7900 non X
ASUS Prime B650-PLUS
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO (seems the 990 isn't much of an upgrade)

Still clueless on what/how fast memory to get.
Click to expand...
1. Ryzen 7000 sweetspot right now is 6000mhz mem frequency & memory controller, and FCLK still limited to 2000, above that, you will need silicon lottery or luck.
2. This is the selection of ram based on your needs (64gb, fast memory) but also cheaper:
https://www.amazon.com/G-Skill-RipJ...386442011&sprefix=64gb+6000mhz,aps,726&sr=8-4

Based on primary timing, it's probably using Hynix M-Die which is quite good overclocker, but you have to lower your expectation because overclocking on 64gb kit, with limited IMC capability of ryzen 7000 will be very hard.
You can try to enable XMP of that kit (6000mhz 32-38-38) of which I'm quite optimistic can be run stable for daily usage.

3. For motherboard, why don't you take a look at this ASRock B650E PG Riptide wifi:
https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-B650E...1676689716&sprefix=asrock+b650,aps,521&sr=8-1

It's based on B650E chipset with support for 1x16 PCIE 5.0 graphics.
 
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Everything I've read suggests that 4 sticks is a bad idea with current DDR5 memory controllers. I'd stick to 2x32 if you need 64GB, Also, I don't know that spending for fancy memory timings will help you all that much given what you're doing. Maybe if you're doing long (30+ minutes) encoding runs; otherwise, taking 45 seconds off a 10 minute build isn't going to be worth $100's extra to most people. It's not like gaming where a brief fps drop can be noticeable and annoying.
 
longblock454 said:
Could I benefit from going 4x16G vs 2x32G? Better heat spread possibly?
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I would get 32gb x2 sticks:
1. DDR5 chip is hot. It would need as much free space between dimms and direct airflow if clocked more than 6000+ using 1.35v++
2. Less pressure on IMC meaning very easy to tune for higher frequency / tighter timings.
 
Update, ended up with the following:

7900 Non X (might upgrade the stock cooler just to limit the noise at high load)
ASUS Prime B650-PLUS
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO
G.Skill RipJaws S5 Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5 6000 CL32-38-38-96 1.40V, F5-6000J3238G32GX2-RS5K
SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB (picked this solely based on reviews with about 30sec of consideration, was going to wait but said screw it)

Everything has arrived and is up and running. Need to find some Linux memory benchmark tools and perhaps try a bit of tweaking, but otherwise I'm happy and it's obviously a massive upgrade, thanks for the help.

Will also be exploring some 4X Space games. I played quite a bit of Spaceward Ho on my parents B&W Mac way back in the day.
 
longblock454 said:
Update, ended up with the following:

7900 Non X (might upgrade the stock cooler just to limit the noise at high load)
ASUS Prime B650-PLUS
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO
G.Skill RipJaws S5 Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5 6000 CL32-38-38-96 1.40V, F5-6000J3238G32GX2-RS5K
SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB (picked this solely based on reviews with about 30sec of consideration, was going to wait but said screw it)

Everything has arrived and is up and running. Need to find some Linux memory benchmark tools and perhaps try a bit of tweaking, but otherwise I'm happy and it's obviously a massive upgrade, thanks for the help.

Will also be exploring some 4X Space games. I played quite a bit of Spaceward Ho on my parents B&W Mac way back in the day.
Click to expand...
If you want something to monitor the video card and set fan curves, look into CoreCTRL. That's what I use for AMD. It also does some monitoring of AMD CPUs but it's very limited on that front. It's also possible to do some video card overclocking but you'll need to look into that further from the CoreCTRL site because it requires adding a parameter for the kernel at boot but the site will tell you how to do that. I originally started using the program for setting fan curves but love the monitoring and use the overlocking options a little.
 
longblock454 said:
7900 Non X (might upgrade the stock cooler just to limit the noise at high load)
Click to expand...
Ryzen 7900 comes with Wraith Prism RGB, correct?
If you it to be silent, you can limit the fan speed in the bios.
Set fan curve per temp point, for example like this:
Temp. 35c 20%
Temp. 55c 35%
Temp. 75c 50%
Temp. 95c 70%
The last time I use that cooler, at 70% it's not loud.

But if you really want to upgrade, then Thermalright Peerless Assassins 120 Black/White is the best choice right now.
It's the best perf./$ air cooler right now.
 
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