Amd & raid

[MackTheKnight]

Hello Everyone!

A question for you folks that are more familiar with AMD than I. I haven't done an AMD build since the first Athlon 64's came out, just because Intel always seemed to hold an edge over them. However, with Intel's latest X299 chipset and their limited PCI-E Lanes, except on the very expensive CPU's, I am now thinking of making the leap back over to AMD. (1700X, most likely)

My question is how well does AMD handle RAID configs on x370. About the same as Intel in terms of r/w performance?

I currently have 4 Samsung SSD's in 2 RAID0 arrays, and would like to keep that same config for the time being, until I have some extra cash to move to M.2 NVME drives.

Not sure when I'll pull the trigger. Still trying to justify it as my trusty 3930K is still doing a great job, aside from the lack of proper USB 3.0 support without an add-on card, and oculus nagging that they don't support it with the rift, even though it works fine in all my flight sims.

Edit: Before someone says "google is your friend", I did find some info: http://blog.quindorian.org/2017/03/r...nchmarks.html/

Looks like AMD is the best way to go. Now I just need to decide if I should wait for threadripper or not. =D

Thanks very much,
Mack

[Bartacus]

I think it's worth going to AMD just to give Intel a fat pair of middle fingers. I was in a similar boat but with a 3820, and really had no need to upgrade, other than needing a new toy to play with. So I went with a Ryzen 1700 on an Asus Crosshair 6 Hero. My advice for Ryzen:

1) Get good RAM, and I mean REALLY good RAM if you go Ryzen. Make sure you get good Samsung B-die sticks, preferably single rank. Other dies (and dual rank kits) will work, but B-dies seem to work best ATM.
2) Don't expect great overclocking. Most Ryzen 7 CPUs will not hit 4Ghz, at least not with any stability and a SERIOUS amount of voltage. Mine needs crazy volts just to run at 3.8-3.9Ghz.
3) Expect to do a LOT of tweaking if you want to get the most out of it. Especially with memory speeds. Ryzen benefits from higher memory speed more so than Intel due to the infinity fabric, but getting your ram running at higher speeds (over 2966) is a crapshoot ATM. Due to this, you'll need to be on top of BIOS updates too, more than you normally would on the Intel side.

X370 is a good platform, but you really need to be the "get your hands dirty" type to get the most out of it.

[nass]

bad thing about raid is moving it too a new board or platform unless your have an add on card that you can move over. Otherwise your redoing it all on the new chipset driver setup.

Only have one drive in my x370 board for now so haven't played with its raid feature's. I also have the ch6 and believe it has all the toys to redo a raid setup. As that is s common feature on all boards nowadays

quote:
" AMD X370 chipset :
8 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s),
Support Raid 0, 1, 10 "

[MackTheKnight]

Thanks for the feedback, Bart!

I think it's worth going to AMD just to give Intel a fat pair of middle fingers.

Agreed, they seem to have really lost touch with reality!

I was in a similar boat but with a 3820, and really had no need to upgrade, other than needing a new toy to play with. So I went with a Ryzen 1700 on an Asus Crosshair 6 Hero.

It is indeed hard to justify. I do IT Support for a chemical factory for a living - so I somewhat justify it as part of learning the new chipsets that are out there, but who am I kidding? LOL I also have a Crosshair 6 Hero in my shopping cart - Glad you are happy with yours!

1) Get good RAM, and I mean REALLY good RAM if you go Ryzen. Make sure you get good Samsung B-die sticks, preferably single rank. Other dies (and dual rank kits) will work, but B-dies seem to work best ATM.

This seems to be the hardest part - finding RAM that will actually work well. Kind of embarrassed to ask, but how do you know if you're looking at B-Die sticks or not? Also hard to find good ram with no RGB (Not a fan of this latest lighting craze) This is the set I was seriously considering: http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=099478

If you have some better suggestions, I am all ears!

2) Don't expect great overclocking. Most Ryzen 7 CPUs will not hit 4Ghz, at least not with any stability and a SERIOUS amount of voltage. Mine needs crazy volts just to run at 3.8-3.9Ghz.

Assuming you had your 3820 at 4.4 Ghz or so - Did your migration to Ryzen feel like a side-grade as opposed to an upgrade? This is the one issue I'm still struggling with as I have my 3930K at 4.4 stable.

3) Expect to do a LOT of tweaking

Well prepared for that - all part of the fun!


Cheers,
Mack

[MackTheKnight]

Thanks for the reply, Nass!

bad thing about raid is moving it too a new board or platform unless your have an add on card that you can move over. Otherwise your redoing it all on the
new chipset driver setup.

I am prepared for a full reload of everything. I've an external RAID5 Synology NAS, that I run weekly backups to. Can never be too careful when running RAID0!

-Mack

[nass]

Carefull with your ram selection ripjaw not sure it is samsung b-die I went with flareX been running 3200 since got it, just make sure is on your boards approved list.

[MackTheKnight]

Thanks, Nass. I'll check out FlareX

[nass]

Hynix die not doing so good on these boards. My kids trident was hynix based g.skill

[Bartacus]

This seems to be the hardest part - finding RAM that will actually work well. Kind of embarrassed to ask, but how do you know if you're looking at B-Die sticks or not? Also hard to find good ram with no RGB (Not a fan of this latest lighting craze) This is the set I was seriously considering: http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=099478

If you have some better suggestions, I am all ears!

Damn, I only have 2x8GB sticks and I paid almost the same price for mine! I'm not sure how to tell if RAM is made with Samsung B-die, outside of Google searching the exact serial number of the ram. EDIT: but if you get high speeds AND tight timings, there's a good chance it's probably B-die. 3200 CL14 kits, 3600 CL15 kits, etc. If you see a 3200 kit that's CL16 or worse, it probably isn't B-die.

Assuming you had your 3820 at 4.4 Ghz or so - Did your migration to Ryzen feel like a side-grade as opposed to an upgrade? This is the one issue I'm still struggling with as I have my 3930K at 4.4 stable.

Yeah mine was at 4.3 (since the 3820 was multiplier limited, and 43 was as high as it went). Honestly, in day to day work, there's no difference that I can see. I went from 2 SSDs in RAID0 with the x79 rig to the Ryzen with NVME, and for daily tasks, gaming, etc, I saw no measurable difference. Benchmarks are another story though. Now keep in mind that my needs are very simple, and I don't do anything that utilizes all the cores. If I had a need for processing power, I'm sure the difference would be huge.

[Necrodead]

The samsung B die is almost always a lot more expensive. My g.skill trident (16-18-18) turned out to be samsung E-die, which will get you 2933 easy, but not above that without bclk overclocking. (performance is very similar at this level so if you want to save some money it is an option.)
Cheapest B-die right now is LED ram by Geil. Kinda weird:
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...82E16820158162
Next cheapest is about $70 more;
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...82E16820231914
and for those prices I would rather say screw it and go RGB.
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...025.1495428872

The flair X is good ram, but its about the same as the trident X, really expensive.

[MackTheKnight]

Thanks so much, Guys. This gives me something to go on. RAM pricing is ridiculous right now! I may wait till late summer/early fall to see if the prices go down. But maybe they could go up more...

[MackTheKnight]

Well after much research and forum browsing, it seems that not many folks are having luck with 32 GB Memory kits for Ryzen. The only 4 DIMM kits on the QVL for the Asus Hero are F4-3200C16Q-32GFXR & F4-3200C16Q-32GFX, which I can't seem to find in stock anywhere.

That leaves me in a holding pattern until more bugs are worked out of Ryzen motherboards and additional memory support is added.

Thank you again for your input, Gentlemen!

-Mack

[Bartacus]

Ram prices are indeed retarded. But since I bought my ram a while ago, it hasn't gone up *any more*. But as I am also retarded, I still paid over $300 for 16GB of ram, this kit specifically:

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...-306-_-Product

I don't regret it one bit with my Ryzen rig, as it seems to be running stable at 3466, with 16-15-15-35-50-1T timings. No complaints here, other than the price.

[MackTheKnight]

That's actually a pretty good deal, based on what I'm seeing, Bart. Don't be beating yourself up, as I think that is one of the better kits.

Sadly I'd like to get 2 kits for 32 GB but from what I've also been reading, Ryzen doesn't like to run them at 3200+ Mhz with all 4 DIMM slots populated. At the same token, I can't find a 2 X 16 GB kit that will run over 2400 Mhz.

Running 32 GB on my x79 board, and going back to 16 feels like a step in the wrong direction.

-Mack