Retirement Present to Myself

[Pudgie]

Pudgie, curious - what's your total power draw with that system?

Hi Oboe,

I can't say right off as I don't have a meter to exactly measure the power draw at the inlet of the PSU but from what I can extrapolate from this HWINFO32 software its estimated approx. somewhere between 395W-450W at peak power usage (CPU, mobo, graphics card).

Hope this helps you out.

 

[oboe]

Yes that's exactly what I'm interested in.

I have a good quality 550W PS I'd like to reuse in my next build - I'm thinking about a Ryzen 1700 and a GTX 1080 but have not settled on anything yet.

Also mulling over whether to go with the lower cost B350 mobo or go X370.  I never intend to use 2 vidcards, not sure what other things I'm giving up with a B350, but I think it would help free $$ for a more expensive video card.

[Pudgie]

Yes that's exactly what I'm interested in.

I have a good quality 550W PS I'd like to reuse in my next build - I'm thinking about a Ryzen 1700 and a GTX 1080 but have not settled on anything yet.

Also mulling over whether to go with the lower cost B350 mobo or go X370.  I never intend to use 2 vidcards, not sure what other things I'm giving up with a B350, but I think it would help free $$ for a more expensive video card.

Hi Oboe,

Here is a breakdown of the various AMD AM4 chipsets & what features they provide:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=VI%2b3ssMp&id=985AD8C255C4C8432CAC12020B2AECEC1AAC040A&thid=OIP.VI-3ssMprbQwrzRCcb3VQAFNC7&q=b350+vs+x370+chipset+block+diagram&simid=607992720343630968&selectedIndex=27&qpvt=b350+vs+x370+chipset+block+diagram&ajaxhist=0

Hope this helps you out.

 

[oboe]

Thank you, sir! 

[Pudgie]

Update:

Well ole Pudgie just couldn't stand it any longer so I went ahead and got me an EKWB DDC 3.2 Elite PWM pump, drained the loop (I had initially installed a loop drain valve...makes this very easy... ), pulled the D5 pump, measured the dimensions and marked\drilled the PSU front shroud cover, mounted the DDC pump to the cover, removed the lower 120mm fan and remounted it in the bottom case fan mount (where I had the D5 pump mounted) to draw air in from the bottom of the case then installed a restrictor plate over the lower 120mm fan section in the front case section (to not allow any air drawn in from the bottom of the case to escape out the front of the case), installed the PSU shroud cover w\ DDC pump and fittings attached (dropped in w\o issue....didn't even have to move the 240mm radiator..... ) then retubed all back up w\ drain valve mounted in DDC pump outlet section (lowest place in the loop), refilled, purged & leak-tested loop then fired all back up and all is working well so I've got that behind me now.............

 

Now it looks good to me when I look thru the TG of this Fractal Meshify C to see the PSU shroud looking sleek instead of the hole so I'm happy now. Without touching anything the DDC pump speed came out to be at 2103 rpms vs the D5's 1385 rpms but I noticed that the operating temps were holding in the same range so left as set.

The 120\240 radiator combo is proving to be more than up to the job of keeping all cooled w\o a lot of fan RPM's so the 240 radiator will be in for the long haul.

Now I can really say it's done!

 

 

Hi All,

Here is a picture provided below of Team Red's internal layout after the pump change out in it's final form (I had forgot to take this picture at the time when I made the swapout....):

So far this box is running very well. The AMD Rx Vega 64 8Gb graphics card is a very strong vid card and is capable of much more performance but you WILL need to use a custom loop watercooling solution to tame the heat output to be able to use the power necessary to get all she can deliver....and a decent PSU to deliver this power. In fact, from all my testing to date, this GPU has shown to capably handle loads that will cause this Ryzen 7 1800X CPU to falter on....every time I have caught the ingame FPS dropping off the 90 FPS mark I have found this Vega GPU running at 75%-77% but the Ryzen CPU had at least 1 of the assigned CPU cores running the game at 100% usage & another 1 at 65%-75% usage. As soon as the CPU core loads dropped off the 100% usage mark the ingame FPS instantly went back to 90 FPS and stayed there........and all this w\ temps staying on the GPU below 50*C (normal range between 45*C-48*C) and CPU temp range below 56*C (normal range between 50*C-54*C) running a very high graphics rendering load on the GPU so the performance capability is there to be had.........

The DDC pump turned out to be a perfect match to this system over the D5 pump....not that this D5 was inferior, far from it....the D5 was actually way more pump than was needed which put it into operating conditions that it didn't need to be in to maintain a good service life (was turning far too slow which would cause issues w\ pump consistency\current regulation so to correct this issue the pump would over circulate the liquid flow thru the system causing the temps to run higher than they needed to which would cause the cooling fans to spin faster than they needed to....the DDC pump corrected all this when dialed in around 1850-1950 RPM's vs the D5 having to run at 1020-1350 RPM's just to level out the pump speeds but over circulate liquid flow).

In closing I'm very happy w\ Team Red's performance and her appearance......for my very 1st custom watercooled setup.

 

[DaddyAce]

Looks like a nice setup and very well thought out, as usual Pudgie!   

[Pudgie]

Looks like a nice setup and very well thought out, as usual Pudgie!   

Thanks, DaddyAce!

 

[Pudgie]

Update after 5 months running:

Team Red is running very well since the EKWB DDC 3.2 pump install. Haven't had to do anything to her since.....all runs well and w\o issue.
After running her a while I did make a fan cooling profile change to the 120mm rear radiator fan (EKWB 120mm EVO Hi-Static) to increase it's ramp up speed on temp increases (this rear radiator gets the coolant output flow from the RX Vega 64 vid card before it goes to the CPU, using CPU temps to control rear rad fan speed ops....did this since I flashed the vBIOS from XFX stock Vega to the XFX Liquid-Cooled Vega which increased the voltage output to the GPU\mem). Left all else as originally set.

This move really put Team Red into prime time operation now as my Ryzen 7 1800X CPU rarely goes over 48*C w\ rear 120mm rad fan speeds hovering around 1142-1324 RPM's, the front 240mm radiator fans (also 2-EKWB 120mm EVO Hi-Static) rarely spin up from the min set speeds of 942 RPM's so the RX Vega 64 runs around the 42*C-46*C range using a pretty aggressive game\driver graphics profile.

All else is operating fine.

Haven't been flying much lately due to working on my front lawn (leveled out, reworked sprinkler system and laid turf...fake grass), side yard (doing the same as front yard) then working on my 2nd retirement present ('09 Ford Mustang GT 45th Anniversary Glass Top Edition w\ 4.6L V8 and Ford Tremec TR 3650 5-speed manual trans black on black). Got front yard completed, Mustang almost complete (got a few more mods\upgrades to install before she's where I want her to be) and side yard is currently in progress.

Once I get all this finished I'll be back to flying on a more regular "schedule"..............

 

The next upgrades I have planned for Team Red will be an Intel Optane 2.5" SSD w\ M.2\U.2 adapter and cable and maybe a new Ryzen 7 2700X\2800X CPU. TBH I really don't need either of these (especially the SSD but that never stopped me before, the CPU upgrade has some merit as it will be faster than my current 1800X and at this time shows to MSRP for $389.95 which is less than what my 1800X listed for at launch) as my box is performing well but I really don't like how hot my Samsung 950 Pro 512Gb NVMe M.2 SSD is getting (M.2 slot is located below the vid card PCI-E x16 slot....SSD normally runs around 50*C-55*C) tis why the potential upgrade to Optane 2.5" mentioned earlier as the back side of my Fractal Design Meshify C case has excellent airflow for cooling.

Just posting to give an update on progress.

See ya up!

 

[oboe]

Good to hear, Pudgie!

Hey, IS there a Ryzen 2800X?  I haven't found/heard anything yet on it - just the 2700X.

[Pudgie]

Good to hear, Pudgie!

Hey, IS there a Ryzen 2800X?  I haven't found/heard anything yet on it - just the 2700X.

Hi Oboe,

No, only officially the Ryzen 7 2700X......
The rest is me hoping that the fake rumor of the Ryzen 7 2800X 12 core\24 thread AM4 CPU somehow became real............... 

But if that did happen it would essentially severly hurt the Threadripper series CPU's so most likely not gonna happen.

But the specs of the 2700X do look pretty good as well as the suggested MSRP of $389.95....................

But it never hurts to dream.................

 

 

[Denniss]

a 2800x would at best be a selected chip with higher clockspeeds than 2700x

[Pudgie]

Well it's been a little over a year on ole Team Red and to date she's still running along just peachy!
The EKWB\XSPC watercooling setup has been stellar.....performing excellent w\ no issues or hiccups since swapping out the D5 pump w\ the DDC pump w\ no loss of any coolant at this time. Coolant is in excellent condition w\ no clouding, no growth and no sediment\pigment separation so all is going good there.

The AMD Ryzen 7 1800X CPU has been a solid, consistent performer on this Gigabyte GA-A370X K5 mobo as well as the XFX Radeon RX Vega64 8Gb graphics card (w\ BIOS flashup to XFX Radeon RX Vega64 8Gb Liquid Cooled BIOS) which has been running very well under this BIOS so far to date. The watercooling system has handled this card well, rarely getting over 42*C-45*C operating temps while rendering a fairly heavy graphics setting load. I had been running Adrenalin 18.5.3 drivers for quite some time but just recently upgraded to Adrenalin 18.9.3 drivers......man I missed something along the way (been spending a LOT of time w\ my other retirement present since I got both my yards redone.....working on\modding & tuning my '09 Ford Mustang GT 45th Anniversary Glass Top 5-speed manual and attending weddings over the summer-seems that everybody in our families wants to get married this year so been OOT as well) but it is evident that AMD has figured out some driver tweaking\optimization since the 18.5.3 drivers as this RX Vega 64 8Gb vid card using the exact same graphics settings prior is running AHIII at same consistent 90 FPS but GPU speeds are MUCH lower now ingame than before....some 500-600 MHz lower (1347 MHz avg to 767 MHz avg) w\ mem speeds also down from 945 MHz to 500 MHz so this is a good surprise to see!

Been looking at the progress of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU and have noted the pricing is starting to drop on these some so I might consider getting 1 to pick up some extra CPU core speed and efficiency over my Ryzen 7 1800X CPU in the near future (have already flashed mobo UEFI to latest vers to accommodate the new Ryzens on my mobo).

The only issue w\ this setup that I ran into was w\ Win 10 ver 1809 somehow on it's own resetting the Windows Time service from automatic to manual (which started throwing off the mobo UEFI clock when Win 10 was shutdown....wouldn't sync up w\ online time services so OS would lose time then write the wrong time to UEFI thru cache when shut down throwing everything off). Found my mobo's batt was getting a little low on power in the process of TS'ing so replaced this as well as reset the service back to automatic....all is working fine since but this was weird.....1st time ever experiencing this happening on a PC. This occurred while the system was restarted after being shut down for a few days while we were OOT attending 1 of the weddings this summer.

All in all ole Team Red has been a winner. This Fractal Design Meshify C case is worth it in spades, an excellent case w\ good airflow capability to house a powerful system in a small footprint that has some eye appeal to go w\ it.

 

 

[streakeagle]

I have only one question, how cost effective is this rig? If you spent the same money on an Intel/nVida rig, which would be faster? If you built an Intel/nVida rig with similar performance, how much would it cost? As I understand it, the AMD rig would save some money on the cpu side, but you lose performance and/or money to the nVida gpu lineup. I have come across a lot of games that were optimized for nVidia. Its not fair, but that is the reality, "the way its meant to be played". My principal application is DCS World with and without Oculus Rift. My current rig has been and apparently will be adequate for a while. But I have been looking to the future and keep waiting for AMD to release something that really blows away the competition in performance and/or price... such as the Radeon 9700 Pro/9800 Pro and the AMD Athlon 64 way back when. For gaming Ryzen seems to break even on performance but have a slight price advantage. But none of the AMD Radeon gpus can match nVidia's top tier cards in price or performance.

[Denniss]

2700X may gain small additional gaming performance due to reduced internal latencies and better clockrates but I'd actually wait for a Zen2 based CPU next year.

[Pudgie]

2700X may gain small additional gaming performance due to reduced internal latencies and better clockrates but I'd actually wait for a Zen2 based CPU next year.

After reading up on the capabilities of zen2 cpu's recently...…...think I'll wait on 'em as you've suggested...……...

I averted a potential catastrophic event w\ ole Team-Red as I caught my ole Corsair TX850W V2 PSU finally breaking down on me before it was able to take out my system (started getting some random power shutdowns across the PCI-E rails to my vid card and CPU 12v+ rail started getting unstable causing some issues w\ CPU shutting down erratically) so I shut her down until I got the new PSU ordered and delivered:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151215

Got all swapped out Sunday and running fine w\ no signs of wear\damage to any of the components so Team-Red is back in the saddle again!

 

Have to say that the Corsair PSU served me well...…...bought and initially installed it in my then new Intel X79 system build on 5-13-12 and it's been run hard thru 3 full system upgrades over 6 yrs of operation time so I can't complain...............

While in the process of swapping out the PSU I also drained out, flushed and refilled the watercooling loop since I had to remove the reservoir to access the main mobo PSU power plug. Noted that the coolant was showing early signs of breaking down (had turned a dull red color instead of the bright red color of fresh coolant....using the EKWB Blood Red Cryofuel Concentrate w\ 900mL of distilled water) after a year of hard running usage but none of the blocks, pump, tubing or reservoir showed any signs of any growth forming anywhere so all was good. Reloaded system w\ a fresh mix of coolant so she's good for another year.

Just so you know I ran my system thru SeaSonic's PSU Wattage Calculator w\ CPU and vid card set for full speed\power settings along w\ full component loadout (including my WC loop) over a 8 hr run cycle (which it will never hit) and calculator estimated maximum power wattage usage at 699W so it recommended to use a 850W PSU.................

Gonna like the 12 yr warranty that comes w\ this sucker!