Ram for Ryzen 3950x (Mhz)?)

[Flohre]

Hi there,
I let build a new audio workstation running a Ryzen 3950x.
The builder suggested ram with 3000 MHz.
I've read, that there are optimised packs running at a speed of 3600 MHz. Now I'm a bit confused.
What is the better choice?
Any Tipps or experiences?

Thank you all ;-)

[Doc Brown]

3600 MHz

I've read a lot about this and looked at the long thread on gearslutz regarding pc builds and 3600 is mentioned time and time again.

[Magicbuss]

I just finished a 3700x build and I did a ton of due diligence before buying the components.

My research showed that 3600 MHZ is the sweet spot for the new Ryzen's.

Here's one article for example
http://www.scanproaudio.info/2019/07...ake-an-impact/

Bear in mind that for whatever reason The Ryzen 3000 series performance is DIRECTLY tied to the speed of the Ram. Faster is definitely better and the price/performance winner is 3600mhz.

Your CPU performance will definitely be hindered by 3000mhz Ram.

[Funkybot]

3600mhz here too. Scan Pro Audio had an article saying that was key for low latency performance so I took their advice. 3950 with an ASRock x570 Creator motherboard.

[analogexplosions]

I JUST finished building a new 3950x system, and I went with 3600mhz.

Holy shit this thing is insanely powerful.

[Doc Brown]

Originally Posted by analogexplosions

I JUST finished building a new 3950x system, and I went with 3600mhz.

Holy shit this thing is insanely powerful.

That's the chip I decided to build around, care to share your build specs?

[analogexplosions]

Gladly!

I did a 3950x on a Gigabyte Aorus x570 Master motherboard.
64gb G.SKILL Trident Z Neo 3600mhz RAM
Nvidia RTX2080 Super Founders Edition GPU
Noctua CPU cooler and case fans (SO F'ing quiet!)
Lian Li Case
Thermaltake Smart Pro 850 watt PSU
2 x Samsung 970 EVO NVME drives (one for OS, one for active projects)
Windows 10 Pro

Seriously, this is the snappiest system i've ever worked on. I haven't found its limits yet and my audio buffer hasn't changed from 128 this system's whole life. Even on big sessions.

[Magicbuss]

Heres my 3700x build for reference:

DAW BUILD 2020 ($800)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3700x & included cooler $290
MOBO: ASUS TUF X570 Wifi $190
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB 3600mhz $120
GPU: ASUS GT 710 passive $59
CASE: Corsair 275R Airflow $58
FiWi: SYBA 1394A/B with TI chipset $38

Re-used from previous build:
Corsair 650W 80+ gold PSU
3 SSD’s + USB Backup HDD
Focusrite Sapphire Pro 24 interface
iLock

This system rarely gets above 40c/100f but it is noisier than my previous build because the airflow case is Soooo open. Perforated surfaces everywhere letting you hear the 120 MM fans working.

My previous build was essentially sealed so you didn't hear jack sh!t but it ran much hotter (50c +). My new case actually came with 3 120mm fans NOT including the CPU cooler. I ended up unplugging one of the case fans and I may unplug another one. These new CPU's use less power than they did 10 years ago when my previous DAW was built. And the old DAW only had 1 case fan plus the CPU cooler in an enclosed case.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by Magicbuss

I ended up unplugging one of the case fans and I may unplug another one. These new CPU's use less power than they did 10 years ago when my previous DAW was built. And the old DAW only had 1 case fan plus the CPU cooler in an enclosed case.

Are all your case fans plugged into the mobo so it controls them, and have you run the Asus Qfan analysis? My new 3700X build has a case with three 120mm fans, all plugged into the mobo, and after updating the bios in my Asus B550 Prime and running the Qfan analysis it's become fairly silent unless the CPU is really being taxed, which is how my previous machine was.

[Doc Brown]

Originally Posted by analogexplosions

Gladly!

I did a 3950x on a Gigabyte Aorus x570 Master motherboard.
64gb G.SKILL Trident Z Neo 3600mhz RAM
Nvidia RTX2080 Super Founders Edition GPU
Noctua CPU cooler and case fans (SO F'ing quiet!)
Lian Li Case
Thermaltake Smart Pro 850 watt PSU
2 x Samsung 970 EVO NVME drives (one for OS, one for active projects)
Windows 10 Pro

Seriously, this is the snappiest system i've ever worked on. I haven't found its limits yet and my audio buffer hasn't changed from 128 this system's whole life. Even on big sessions.

Thank you.

What sound card are you using? I'm leaning towards rme but that's still up in the air. I am leary of using Nvidia gpu cards because everyone I ever had gave me high dpc latency. Looks like you have an impressive build. My old Windows 7 2600 machine is not doing so hot and it's long overdue for an upgrade.

[Magicbuss]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

Are all your case fans plugged into the mobo so it controls them, and have you run the Asus Qfan analysis? My new 3700X build has a case with three 120mm fans, all plugged into the mobo, and after updating the bios in my Asus B550 Prime and running the Qfan analysis it's become fairly silent unless the CPU is really being taxed, which is how my previous machine was.

Yes they are all plugged into the MOBO. I have not run (or heard of) Asus Qfan. Thanks for the heads up.

[Magicbuss]

Originally Posted by analogexplosions

Gladly!

I did a 3950x on a Gigabyte Aorus x570 Master motherboard.
64gb G.SKILL Trident Z Neo 3600mhz RAM
Nvidia RTX2080 Super Founders Edition GPU
Noctua CPU cooler and case fans (SO F'ing quiet!)
Lian Li Case
Thermaltake Smart Pro 850 watt PSU
2 x Samsung 970 EVO NVME drives (one for OS, one for active projects)
Windows 10 Pro

Seriously, this is the snappiest system i've ever worked on. I haven't found its limits yet and my audio buffer hasn't changed from 128 this system's whole life. Even on big sessions.

I'm curious... Is your DAW also a gaming PC (or maybe you do video editing)? Because I cant understand why you'd need a GPU with that much power. I'm still waiting on my GT 710 fanless so I've been using the GT210 fanless GPU from my last DAW. It works perfectly for Reaper and web surfing, its silent and it uses very little power.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by Magicbuss

Yes they are all plugged into the MOBO. I have not run (or heard of) Asus Qfan. Thanks for the heads up.

Besides letting Qfan analyze the effect of the fans at various speeds and CPU stress levels, you can also manually set your own temperature thresholds and curves for the fans to start speeding up or slowing down.

On my Asus B550 Prime a newer bios from a month ago added improved fan control that made my fans even more quiet.

[Magicbuss]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

Besides letting Qfan analyze the effect of the fans at various speeds and CPU stress levels, you can also manually set your own temperature thresholds and curves for the fans to start speeding up or slowing down.

On my Asus B550 Prime a newer bios from a month ago added improved fan control that made my fans even more quiet.

Does Asus have an automated Bios updater that can be run from windows? I use Lenovo's at work and its so simple to update them. I remember the bad old days of crossing your fingers during a bios flash update and hoping nothing bad happened.

[somebodyelseuk]

Originally Posted by Magicbuss

Does Asus have an automated Bios updater that can be run from windows? I use Lenovo's at work and its so simple to update them. I remember the bad old days of crossing your fingers during a bios flash update and hoping nothing bad happened.

I think they do., at least they used to.
I need to check, myself. Done two BIOS updates recently and had a hard time getting the f***er to boot after. Go to motherboard site and look for utility downloads. I think it was called Asus EZ Updater.
I have the same board

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/TU...Desk_Download/

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by Magicbuss

Does Asus have an automated Bios updater that can be run from windows? I use Lenovo's at work and its so simple to update them. I remember the bad old days of crossing your fingers during a bios flash update and hoping nothing bad happened.

I'm running Xubuntu Linux so I copied the bios to a flash drive and then in the bios setup there is an "EZ Flash" tool, but for Windows 10 it looks like there is a "Win Flash" flash utility like your Lenovo has.

https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008276/

[Flohre]

Hi there,

thank you for your answers:-) And higher RAM-MHZ leads to higher performance, less Latency, more Plugs? I wonder how big the difference is between 3000Mhz and 3600Mhz

[steenhuis]

Ryzen 9 3900X processor. 12 core.
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V F4-3600C19D-16GVRB total 32 gig.
mainboard Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO
SSD 4 tb samsung evo pro (system)
storage Samsung 860 QVO 4TB total 12 tb SSD
Windows 10 64 bit

Soundcard 1 focusrite scarlett solo
Soundcard 2 Xair 18 digital mixer and soundcard (18 channels)

No issues, all software running stable.

[jbraner]

Do you have to tweak any setings for the 3600 MHz RAM? Or do you just use "stock" settings?
I'm looking at a 3950x build too and I read the articles about 3600 MHZ RAM.
They talk about "AMD optimised RAM" so I wondered if you need to tweak any timings in BIOS or anything?

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by jbraner

Do you have to tweak any setings for the 3600 MHz RAM? Or do you just use "stock" settings?
I'm looking at a 3950x build too and I read the articles about 3600 MHZ RAM.
They talk about "AMD optimised RAM" so I wondered if you need to tweak any timings in BIOS or anything?

On my Asus B550 Prime CSM the stock timing for RAM is 2133, but there is a DOCP function that is like Intel's XMP that reads the SPD from the DDR4 and sets the overclocked timings to match. Anything over the base clock of 2133 is considered overclocking.

[Edgemeal]

2133? The official supported ram speed for Ryzen (Zen2 and upcoming Zen3) is 3200. AMD Infinity Fabric currently maxes out at ~1900MHz, and is why 3600 ram is the sweet spot.

BTW, on Intel systems enabling XMP voids the CPU warranty, so if you ever have to RMA an Intel CPU and they ask you, "was XMP enabled?", just say no. Intel's own desktop benchmarketing always have XMP enabled, so why can't we?

[jbraner]

Hi G'bo,

I'm still doing some research, but hope to build this soon.
I'll just check when I actually get the thing built

I was thinking that the "AMD optimised RAM" (or whatever it's called) might have SPD settings to choose From. I was just wondering if I'll have to type in timings etc myself - or if it's easier than than that (like just choose 3600).
I guess all will be revealed...

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by Edgemeal

2133? The official supported ram speed for Ryzen (Zen2 and upcoming Zen3) is 3200. AMD Infinity Fabric currently maxes out at ~1900MHz, and is why 3600 ram is the sweet spot.

BTW, on Intel systems enabling XMP voids the CPU warranty, so if you ever have to RMA an Intel CPU and they ask you, "was XMP enabled?", just say no. Intel's own desktop benchmarketing always have XMP enabled, so why can't we?

DDR4's lowest frequency is 2133, so most motherboard manufacturers default to that speed for RAM. A search for Ryzen and 2133 will find tons of references to people trying to get their faster DDR4 to run the right speed.

I'm using PC3200 DDR4 with my 3700X and it took a BIOS update for me to get it to run at the advertised speed. My board has the B550 chipset and has only been out a month or so.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by jbraner

Hi G'bo,

I'm still doing some research, but hope to build this soon.
I'll just check when I actually get the thing built

I was thinking that the "AMD optimised RAM" (or whatever it's called) might have SPD settings to choose From. I was just wondering if I'll have to type in timings etc myself - or if it's easier than than that (like just choose 3600).
I guess all will be revealed...

With the BIOS my board shipped with if I selected the one and only profile coming from the SPD, the machine wouldn't boot, but Asus is pretty good about trying three times to boot and then using default settings so you can get back into the BIOS.

The B550 based mobo I bought has only been out a month or so, and a BIOS update from a couple weeks ago made it so selecting the profile for my PC3200 DDR4 works reliably at the advertised speed now.

[jbraner]

but Asus is pretty good about trying three times to boot and then using default settings so you can get back into the BIOS.

Also my old P8Z77-V motherboard has a jumper you can use to reset everything back to default. The nuclear option!

[analogexplosions]

Originally Posted by Doc Brown

Thank you.

What sound card are you using? I'm leaning towards rme but that's still up in the air. I am leary of using Nvidia gpu cards because everyone I ever had gave me high dpc latency. Looks like you have an impressive build. My old Windows 7 2600 machine is not doing so hot and it's long overdue for an upgrade.

I'm using an RME Digiface Dante. I absolutely love it.

[analogexplosions]

Originally Posted by Magicbuss

I'm curious... Is your DAW also a gaming PC (or maybe you do video editing)? Because I cant understand why you'd need a GPU with that much power. I'm still waiting on my GT 710 fanless so I've been using the GT210 fanless GPU from my last DAW. It works perfectly for Reaper and web surfing, its silent and it uses very little power.

I do post-production for films.

[Magicbuss]

Originally Posted by analogexplosions

I do post-production for films.

OK, thats what I figured. I'm strictly audio so I can get away with a low power passive GPU.

[BrentHarmon]

What is your motherboard. Because that's where you can find out what the maximum amount of memory your motherboard can handle.