[Ginger Blog] Choosing some hardware

Hi! Yes, at first glance this set may seem like a bit of an overkill, but there are a number of nuances. First of all - I expect it to be relevant for as long as possible, as I'm pretty bad at changing computer components. And secondly, I want to try some new directions for self-development, including work with language models, streamlining, work in video editors, work with 3D and so on. My i7-6700K was pretty good for pretty a long time, but it's time for him to rest, and I want my new CPU be good for even longer =D

Ginger

I'm a software engineer and I assembly computers as a hobby. Do you know what hardware are you currently running? The parts you listed is generally overkill and unnecessary for most use cases. Are you mostly using it for Photoshop or other tasks? Send me a DM and I can answer any questions you have and help you choose parts.

Developerv

Yes, prices are higher in Finland...😅 But, in general, not that I have many options to choose from anyway😄

Ginger

Pricing right now is definitely good right now, atleast in the US lol. Best of luck!

The Great Kipper

I don't really expect any performance improvements from DDR5 memory at the moment (although if you saw what a mess of RAM I have in my computer right now you would be blown away, so it's not that clear-cut😅). But I would like to build a computer that won't need improvements for at least the next 5-7 years, and it looks like I can't do without the next generation of RAM in that case. On top of that, AM5 only supports DDR5. All in all, the price difference between DDR4 and DDR5 is not that big and continues to go down. I have used USB wi-fi and bluetooth adapters before and they did not perform well. In addition, at some point I ran out of free USB ports...😅 So this time I want it all integrated into the motherboard. Again, in terms of price difference, it's not such a big difference that I would again be willing to agonize with constant sudden usb-bluetooth driver shutdowns😅

Ginger

You probably won't notice a performance difference from ddr5 and ddr4 memory, even with differing frequencies. At this current time, hardware is well past what most consumer software can utilize. You may find that also going with the cheaper motherboard, and a pcie or usb3.0 wifi adapter might be a cheaper route with similar results.

The Great Kipper

Yup, the line between gamer and regular devices used to be much brighter. It used to be that when you bought a gamer device, you were sure of its quality. Now there are no guarantees, and ordinary hardware is often much more reliable than gamer hardware...

Ginger

Honestly in my experience, most of the time the basic hardware is more stable because it it written for more machines. I still buy the gamer stuff tho xD

Izzet

That looks pretty promising. I might really have to spend some extra time looking into it...

Ginger

https://youtu.be/DTFUa60ozKY Hardware Unboxed shows that most of the cheapest B650 boards can handle a 7950X without over heating the power delivery.

KellyNyanbinary

In terms of dry numbers, it really is - both use 70A and 14 power phases. However, I have already encountered that the quality of these motherboard cells can be quite poor, causing them to only be able to maintain a stable 70A for a limited time, but under prolonged load this can lead to overheating of the power cells and consequently a drop in performance. For most day to day tasks this may not be very noticeable, but with regular heavy loads it can become very pronounced. Again, this is what I learned from reading articles on the Internet - I didn't do all these little things myself... 😅 Although, to be fair, I have been a fan of Gigabyte's products for a long time and their motherboard does look pretty good. The thing that stopped me was that I was not able to find a simple and easy to follow chart to compare Gigabyte motherboards to each other (Asus had a handy PDF chart to compare motherboards to each other). But maybe I should really look into this further. As for the 7950X3D I understand it has better gaming performance and lower frequencies on half of the cores. As far as I can see the 7950X already provides more than good performance in all games. I'm not sure if it will be worth the extra 150 euro cost, at least for me 😅

Ginger

X670E only denotes the chipset. Power delivery is independent of the chipset. For example, the $340 ASUS PRIME X670E-PRO WIFI has 14 power stages for the CPU, with 70 A each. Meanwhile, the $200 GIGABYTE B650 AORUS ELITE AX also has 14 power stages for the CPU with 70 A each. Both of these motherboards are incredibly overkill for any Zen 4 CPU, which top out at 200 W or so (which would only need six 70 A power stages, at most). I recommend the GIGABYTE motherboard in order to save cost, and perhaps bump the CPU to the 7950X3D if you play lots of games. As for memory, it is correct that the Zen 4 CPUs max out at DDR5-6000. However, I don't trust motherboard QVL lists, as those have shown to be either unreliable or extremely optimistic. I will just get the cheapest DDR5-6000 kit (never use four sticks unless you need 128 GB of RAM) with decent latencies.

KellyNyanbinary

The X670E chipsets provide more power stability due to better power circuit elements and simply more power phases. Hi-End processors can run on weaker power circuits, but will not be able to show their full power if the power system is not powerful enough 🤓 It has something to do with power, voltage, amperage and everything else that is too complicated for me, so I just use the conclusions from the articles 😅

Ginger

I've heard that 6000Mhz is almost the limit, so I think I really don't need it higher 😄

Ginger

7950X3D costs too much😅 I even thought to have 7900X instead of 7950X for some time, but 7950X showed himself pretty good. Thanks for compatibility list! It helps a lot!

Ginger

Damn, getting lost the warranty because of memory wasn't approved sounds scary for me... Got to spend more time on choosing 😅 For some reason patreon isn't loading your new comment for me, so I'm answering here.

Ginger

I’m not sure why X670E is required if you just need WiFi and Bluetooth. Most B650 boards offer those too.

KellyNyanbinary

For Ryzen 7000 series, look for ddr5-6000 or less as more requires instability on the chips Fclk, corsair or G skill are the way to go for ram brands right now.

Boots

I thought so as well, Until I had a board die and the manufacturer was iffy about warranty repair because my memory wasn't on the tested and approved list.

Inusan

So one thing you may want to consider is amd just came out with the amd ryzen 7950x3d variant. It is an upgrade for some stuff but a side grade from the regular. Also that memory isnt on the HCL for that motherboard and may have compatibility issues. https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/prime/prime-x670e-pro-wifi/helpdesk_qvl_memory/?model2Name=PRIME-X670E-PRO-WIFI that is the compatibility list. You can reach out to me if you have any more specific questions or issues.

Drksilenc

As far as I know, memory and motherboard incompatibilities are almost non-existent these days. However, I should probably really look that information up 😅

Ginger

In fact, I have an all-in-one water cooler from DeepCool. I've heard they can provide a free AM5 mount kit if I need it. I have been using Intel products for a long time, but the recent reviews of the Ryzen 5000 series have been so enthusiastic that I now have high hopes for the Rynen 7000 😄

Ginger

Yeah, 8GB might not be enough in today's world... I'm afraid to take memory sets consisting of 4 modules, because, as far as I understand, on AMD motherboards it leads to frequency decrease of RAM almost by 2 times... Nevertheless, I want to take 64GB (2x32) with a reserve for the future, so that at least 5 years do not think about updating the computer 😅

Ginger

Okay, I'll see what Corsair has to offer in terms of similar characteristics

Ginger

Corsair also seems to me to be a very reliable memory manufacturer. I have RTX2080 for now, I don't think I'll be changing it anytime soon.

Ginger

Just make sure the memory chips are on the tested list for that motherboard.

Inusan

Overall a good pick. I'm using a Ryzen 5700 and it is working well for me. I use an all in one water cooler and radiator setup for it made by Corsair. With AMD, the only real downside is drivers and heat management. Since you aren't doing any overclocking, heat management is a non-issue. Overall the setup looks good!

Renn

I currently have 64 GB ram from 4 sticks of the Vengance series, which I got due to an oopsie on my part when I ordered my first pre-built PC I only bought 8 gb ram and thought it meant two sticks of 8 but was rather 8 total KEKW I just skimmed it. For the past year I've heen playing games like elden ring on only 8 gb ram and was wondering why I had to have BOTH of my graphics cards running so hard

EvergreenMoth8

For RAM I would recommend either Corsair or G-Skill. Ignoring RGB the Vengance line is very good and has good reviews ignoring one's about its coloring, G-Skill's Trident line also gets good reviews and they are both around the same price range.

EvergreenMoth8

I've always been a big fan of corsair vengeance for RAM personally but G skills are a solid choice aswell. Did you have a graphics card picked out?