PC for intensive processing

[cobito]

Finally I'm going to choose the Be quiet Power Zone 2 850W. It's in tier B+ like the Corsair (thanks @Sylver for this concept, I didn't know about it) but it's quieter and more efficient for 12€ more.

About the motherboard, for now I'm sticking with the Gigabyte because of the overcurrent issues that have been found (and supposedly fixed) in the Asrock motherboards.

About the case, I've been thinking about a ASUS Prime AP201 (90DC00G0-B39000) that seems to fit the cooler. The only bad thing is that the rear fan is 120mm, although I see that 120mm rear fans are the norm in these cases. The truth is that there's not much to choose from with the 168mm that the Noctua needs in height.

And about the fans, I think a couple of Be Quiet! Pure Wings 3 PWM, one 120mm for the back and another 140mm for the top, will be enough for now (I'll see later if more is needed).

I'll place the order at the end of this week. If no one says anything, these will be the final components.

[cobito]

I've been trying to buy the RAM and it's very complicated with those capacities. At the Corsair store, they've increased the price by €50 for each pair of modules in 3 days. And in the rest, either there's no stock, or the prices are skyrocketing. Moreover, there are only three models available and the only one with acceptable frequency and latencies is the one from Corsair.

So I'm going to change the strategy. As I will buy a PC for my own use and enjoyment in a few weeks, I'm going to get a Mushkin Redline ST (2x32GB) at 6400MT/s and CL30 that was what I had planned for that PC and with that I can hold on a bit. When I buy my PC, I will return to see how the issue of 2x64GB is going, to see if there is more variety, more stock and more reasonable prices.

[cobito]

Things are starting to arrive. Let's see if I can get my hands on it this weekend

[cobito]

Everything is ready and I have scheduled a few hours this weekend to work on it. I will do a lot of testing before putting it into production.

The heatsink is a monstrosity. I didn't expect it to be so big. Let's see if everything fits now.

[cobito]

I said I would start this weekend but I couldn't resist. I'm going to do a small review of each thing (more of a first impression).

Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC

Well as I said before, it's a monster. Inside the main box, there are two other boxes: one with tools, anchors and screws and another with the heatsink.

The tool box is a bit fancy. It's divided into compartments and comes with a screwdriver that looks pretty good (certainly much better than the typical ones that usually come with other things). It comes with:

• An installation manual
• Cables to adapt the fan connector to different standards
• An accessory called NM-ISW1 that is said to improve contact on LGA 1700 sockets (doesn't apply to me).
• A mask to help apply thermal paste on AM5 socket.
• Screws and anchors (separated according to whether it's for Intel or AMD sockets).
• Thermal paste
• A Noctua badge that's pretty cool, because it's metallic and quite thick.

Everything well organized and very clear. So that even a fool can assemble it. I hope that a very fool like me is capable.

The heatsink itself is quite tall and very, very wide. In fact, it's practically a regular cube. It weighs quite a lot and the fans look good (watch out for them, they have a protection and the interior fan has to be removed to take it off).

Regarding performance, I'll say something when I start pushing it.

The next micro-review will be of the motherboard, but tomorrow.

[pos_yo]

@cobito said in PC for intensive processing:

The heatsink itself is quite tall and very, very wide. In fact, it is practically a regular cube. It weighs quite a bit and the fans look good (be careful with them, they have a protection and the internal fan has to be removed to take it off).

!!8 HEAT PIPES!! Well, Noctua has a very good reputation. They say that this heatsink cools better than some liquids (I suppose all-in-one low-end ones with very thin radiators).

[Sylver]

@cobito What a thrill to see so many new toys together

Indeed, the powerful Noctua are a beast in size (and weight).
At the risk of the professionals tearing me apart, between you and me, I recommend fitting it from below or tying it from above, something ultimately to counteract the torque force it exerts on the motherboard.
Yes, they end up bending because of the tremendous weight of these heatsinks... Otherwise, they are a marvel in efficiency.

Best regards!

[cobito]

@Sylver said in PC for intensive processing:

@cobito What a joy to see so many new toys together

As if the Three Kings had arrived.

Well, I've been busy with the case. As a positive surprise, all sides can be removed without a screwdriver, which I didn't expect. In addition, the holes for screwing in the fans have some slack that allows you to position the fans precisely to match key parts of the motherboard such as the air outlet of the heatsink and the heatsink of the power mosfets.

But it has two downsides: one is not very important, which is that it doesn't have disk activity LEDs. Surely today, storage is not such a bottleneck as before and it's no longer necessary (or it's the fashion not to have it), but this PC is going to mount a mechanical drive and being able to visualize the activity helps to know how things are going.

The second problem is a compatibility issue between the case and the power supply. It consists in that the elbow of the power cable of the case is in the opposite direction to what it should be, so you have to force the cable a bit so that it bends. It's not a critical failure but it doesn't look quite right.

To finish, I left the processor installed, something that doesn't have much relevance but it looks so beautiful!

On the board, at first glance it meets everything I need in the sense that it has exactly two connectors for two CPU fans and two more for two case fans. That is, that per board, you couldn't control a fifth fan. So in that sense, it's fair with what I had in mind.

Let's see if tomorrow I can mount the heatsink, which is what scares me the most.

[pos_yo]

@cobito said in PC for intensive processing:

To finish, I have left the processor installed, something that does not have much relevance but it looks so beautiful!

The Ryzen AM5s are beautiful. I have the 7700 and it's a shame about the heatsink, which doesn't let you see it.

[cobito]

Last night I wanted to mount just the heatsink but one thing led to another and in the end it was almost ready. The heatsink wasn't that great. In the end, the board with all its components looks like this:

At first I thought I would have to remove the heatsink to be able to plug in the memories but no, you just have to remove the external fan.

Then I installed the board in the case. It wasn't easy because of the weight, but helping myself with the heatsink (don't let anyone know), I was able to put it in. One of the screws was a bit difficult because of the heatsink. I'm not sure if it would have been better to install the heatsink afterwards because it's easy to screw it to the anchors.

@Sylver said in PC for intensive processing:

At the risk of professionals lambasting me, between you and me, I recommend fitting it underneath or tying it from above, something ultimately to counteract the torque force it exerts on the motherboard.

I put a bracket around the entire heatsink to transmit part of the mechanical load to the case. I didn't tighten it much and made sure there was some slack with the external fan.

Regarding the motherboard, I don't like that the P8 power connector is right above the heatsink of the mosfets. I understand that it's the best place from an electrical point of view, for distance to the load, but from a thermal point of view it's very bad as it obstructs the convection flow of hot air. Even with the 140mm fan on top, that cable makes cooling difficult. I don't know if it's a thing of this model, the brand or the fact that it's microATX and there's no other way to do it.

Regarding the lack of a hard drive activity LED, the final solution was to use the case's power-on LED as an activity LED.

Then I connected a screen, a keyboard, the power supply and... it didn't do anything. A red LED that said dram lit up. After searching a bit, the only thing I found was that I had to change the RAM configuration, but if there was no video signal or anything, little could be done.

I got a bit desperate because I thought I had fried something. I tried both modules separately in all the slots and nothing. I took out the BIOS battery, cleared the CMOS and it was still the same. In the end, I installed the memories, turned it on and left it for a while. After a while (maybe minutes), it gave a video signal and started to work.

I configured the BIOS and since then it boots up fast and on the first try. I don't know if this is normal behavior or if the board isn't very compatible with the memories.

Now I'm installing Windows 11 to test it. I hope to be able to put it into production next weekend.

[Sylver]

I'm glad it's almost ready @cobito

Don't worry, no one will ever know about helping with the heatsink to fit the board (when I did it, no one noticed either ).
Good point about the brackets, even if it's not the most orthodox, it will help a lot to mitigate the weight on the board.

Unfortunately, the location of connectors in very small form factors is always uncomfortable, either for accessibility or for interfering with other tasks, small things always have some small drawback, but as they say, anything goes.

I suppose you'll pass the HL test to see if you make the top 10, you'll let us know

Best regards!

[cobito]

I already have Windows 11 installed and updated. I have also updated all the drivers and the BIOS with the Gigabyte tool. I have anchored the hard drive, collected the cables and the PC is closed. In the end it ended up like this:\n

\nAs far as the assembly is concerned, I consider it finished.\n

@Sylver said in PC for intense processing:\n

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I suppose you will pass the HL test to see if you make it to the top 10, you will let us know \n

\n

\nThat was the first thing . Third in single-core and twenty-second in multi-core. A substantially better and worse result respectively compared to another 9900X that someone sent a while ago. I see that we both use some memories with a similar performance, so the difference is due to pure CPU.\n

There is one thing I am noticing: when I use a single thread of execution, the temperature skyrockets to 70ºC and the fans start to blow. On the other hand, when I launch 24 threads, the temperature stays around 60ºC and the fans are not heard. Is that normal? In the first case, the frequency is 5.6GHz and in the second it goes to 4.4Ghz, that is, according to specifications.\n

PS: By the way, what a damn hell is Windows 11 with a mechanical drive. It is noticeable that they have invested zero cents in recent years to optimize the system in that sense.

[Sylver]

@cobito said in PC for intensive processing:

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That was the first thing . Third in single-threaded and twenty-second in multi-threaded. A substantially better and worse result respectively compared to another 9900X that someone posted a while ago. I see that both of us use some memories with a similar performance, so the difference is due to pure CPU.

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Congratulations on the podium in single-threaded Now we close the validations and leave the ranking symbolically like this

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@cobito said in PC for intensive processing:

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There is one thing I am noticing: when I use a single thread of execution, the temperature skyrockets to 70ºC and the fans start to blow. On the other hand, when I launch 24 threads, the temperature stays around 60ºC and the fans are not heard. Is that normal? In the first case, the frequency is 5.6GHz and in the second it goes to 4.4Ghz, that is, according to specifications.

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The temperature itself is good. Regarding the noise, it is true that my NH-D14 increased its speed progressively when it passed 70ºC with the 2600K, but not to the point of saying that it was blowing a lot.
What really blows is what my RX 5700 XT does when I play with everything on ultra, that is really a scandal
Have you checked the temperature/fan settings in the BIOS? Surely it can be regulated from there, in case that when it works as a server it makes some extra noise.

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Best regards!

[pos_yo]

@Sylver said in PC for intensive processing:

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Don't worry, no one will ever know about using the heatsink to fit the motherboard (when I did it, no one noticed either ).
Good point about the brackets, even if it's not the most orthodox, it will help a lot to mitigate the weight on the motherboard.

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Ah, but it's not asynchronous? Oh... I don't do that either, do I?

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@cobito said in PC for intensive processing:

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PS: By the way, what a damn hell Windows 11 is with a mechanical drive. It's clear they've invested zero cents in the last few years to optimize the system in that sense.

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That's why I don't want to know anything about that operating system. I was testing with a Ryzen mini PC on Linux and I didn't have to install a single driver. When I reinstalled W11 for my wife to use it, I realized why I don't like using it... Even to install it, I had to install the Realtek drivers first because Windows wouldn't even let me install them. And then (this is Chuwi's fault), I had to download the drivers through one of these software (I don't remember which one, but it was open source)...

[cobito]

I'm almost finished with the tests. Last night I got hooked on Counter Strike Source, which I know isn't the greatest, but it's been my first game on a decent PC in many years. Playing at 200fps with everything maxed out and an integrated GPU isn't bad at all, even though it's a pretty old game.\nApart from that, I've significantly reduced the noise by modifying the temperature/rpm profile from the BIOS as @Sylver suggested. Now I can see in more detail that the temperature spikes when the memory test starts, reaching 85°C (for me it's an excessive temperature but not dangerous). On the other hand, the moment the multithreading starts, the temperature drops. I see the same behavior with other programs. For example, when the Steam client demands power from a single core and the rest is at rest, it also heats up quite a bit and with Firefox it's the same. But when I start a demanding game (eg: Counter-Strike 2), the temperature drops again quite a bit.\nThe profile stays this way, unless you tell me that it's not advisable to get close to 90°C even occasionally.\nThere's another thing happening to me: when I activate the EXPO or XMP profile of the memory, it seems that SMT is deactivated. From the HL benchmark I see that the performance of the memory test doubles its result while the pure CPU tests remain more or less the same. I think it's not normal that SMT is deactivated but as I don't see any penalty in CPU performance and the memory improves quite a bit, for now I'm not going to give it much importance. I suspect it's a bug in the BIOS, but I read that it can be a limitation of the memory controller. Anyway, in a few weeks I'll change the memories, so I'm not going to spend more time on this.\nI've also tested the energy consumption at rest, under load with one thread and with full load. The measurement was made with a power meter measuring from the AC outlet of the power supply. This is the result:\n- At rest: 42W.\n- HL benchmark, one-thread test\n· Test #1: 87W\n· Test #2: 83W\n· Test #3: 88W\n· Test #4: 92-115W\n- Multithread test:\n· Test #1: 152W\n· Test #2: 148W\n· Test #3: 152W\n· Test #4: 158W\n- BeamNG.drive (normal quality): 77-85W\n- Counter-Strike 2 (default settings): 83-91W.\nThe consumption is similar to the i5-3570K that is currently on the market while the performance is about 13 times superior in general terms when they are at full load.\nI'm going to install Debian Stable now, which is the system it's going to stay with.