AMD Desktop 8000 series

Yeah, it doesn't have to be top tier stuff. My 32GB memory kit was $70 s/h and motherboard was $150 new. While I was intentionally playing silly buggers getting the cheapest shit imaginable, if you don't fixate on brands and model marketing, you can get a pretty solid motherboard for $200-250, and with a little bit of research into memory module IC's, a near top of the line speed memory kit for about the same in 64GB, or half that in 32GB.

 

To be honest my current PC does everything I need, but faster processing is always good when batch processing data can take overnight/etc. I don't have to do that often enough for it to be an urgent thing though.
RAM is a consideration. Some of the CAD software I use for work maxes out my current 128GB and starts paging, which is painful and slows everything down significantly - I'd love to go to threadripper, but the cost is a bit crazy when you work for yourself and the $$ come out of your own pocket.

Will probably wait and see how they go in the wild.

 

For 9000 series discussion I've created a new thread here:

https://forums.overclockers.com.au/threads/ryzen-9000-series-discussion.1343863/

 

For the mobile sku's I have created a new thread as well - https://forums.overclockers.com.au/threads/strix-point-ryzen-ai-300-series-mobile-zen-5.1343864/

 

4x48GB dimms are here and now.. hopefully 64Gb dimms are in the near future.

Threadripper is pricey, I tried to price up a system for a workplace, and it easily blew the budget for it. Particularly if you want to build a system to take advantage of its advantages. IE, lots of memory, decent CPU say 32 cores, decent fast storage and decent fast compute compatible GPU. It quickly blew out past $10k. It was also so big as to not be able to be a desktop and would have to end up in the server cabinet. Which then kind of changed things as it was more likely to be a server and virtualised workloads. Which meant then you needed desktops for people to use, to then access the server. But because the software is still pretty heavy duty and at times would need to work on the thinclients directly, those thin-clients needed to be beefy too. Things quickly spiralled..

Where as a desktop system even pretty loaded, $5k still hauls arse.

 

Wake up this sleeper thread...
Interesting to see Asus latest bios implementation of AGESA 1.2.0.2 makes 2500 FLCK so easy to do on my random 8600G retail chip, even with a cheap set of Samsung B die RAM OC to 6000MT/s & stable for MTP over 500% coverage (for some weird reason MTP is always slow with the last thread, doesn't matter on what AM5 board or CPU I use or even Windows version)
View attachment 99831

 

I have something for this sleeper thread.

TL;DR: budget rig, 8400F delid @ 5.1Ghz all core, MSI B650 Bomber, 48GB KLEVV 6000C30 @ 8000C38.

A while ago I sold my gaming rig and bought a laptop for a couple of years due to work and child commitments. I've now sold my laptop and built a budget workstation. I run dual 4K (144hz) screens for work, graphic/web design and the occasional game, and after running a zen3+ laptop, any tuned desktop is going to be miles ahead.

I've acquired an Aliexpress 8400F for $144, an MSI B650M Bomber Wifi for $169 and a 48GB kit of KLEVV 6000C30 (Hynix M-Die) for $229.

I've also bought a Byski socket plate ($10) [for even mounting pressure] and a Honeywell PTM7950 pad ($10)

Total cost ~$600 after GST/postage, misc sundries etc.

(I have a hand-me-down 6900XT from my lounge gaming PC (where all the AAA games are played) after its 9070 XT upgrade, and already had cases/fans/cooler/PSU/LM/spare 1TB NVME etc from past rigs)

I've de-lidded the 8400F (massive gains, >15C across the board under load) using the tooth floss method [no iron required, these CPUs are TIM not solder], applied liquid metal to the die/IHS, fitted the PTM7950 pad beneath a spare OEM Wraith Prism cooler I've had unused in it box since my 2700X days.

I've just spent the weekend dialing in the rig, the 8400F is on TSMC N4 and doesn't scale as well with clocks as the 7000 or 9000 desktop cpu's with a steep wall, but they are a lot more power efficient. As they are only clocked to 4750Mhz peak, even with max PBO, CO's, 10X scalar and +200 FMAX, the best I could get was a sustained 4850Mhz with 4950Mhz boost. Instead I've opted with an all-core OC, and found my sweet spot at 5.1Ghz @ 1.275V (rigorously stress tested and stable).

For those curious, 5.2Ghz @ 1.4V was about the wall, but just made the CPU hot and the cooler loud for day to day use, not worth it.

This combination runs icy cold, in games and general testing (Cine/CPUZ/Timespy) I'm only seeing about 80W and 65C. In some of the more extreme stress tests I'm seeing peaks of 120W and high 70's, stable and completely reasonable. Interestingly, despite the all-core clocks, at idle/light usage the power consumption is not perceptibly different to when it was stock or CO+PBO, using about 12W idle even fixed at 5100Mhz.

For memory, I dialed in two profiles - 6200C28 and 8000C38. The 6200C28 was easy done, but 8000C38 took some finesse (technically the board is only rated to 7800Mhz SR). After finding a really tight voltage combination I got there in the end. After testing in AIDA and a few games, I found the 8000C38 to be significantly faster, in bandwidth, latency and FPS (avg, peak and 1% lows).

I'm super pleased with the results, rig is super snappy in Windows and is pretty unlikely to be the bottleneck in anything I would play, considering I'm gaming at 4K with settings dialed back and up-scaling to meet that ~ 100-144hz zone of the monitors and comfortably smooth / reasonable input latency.

Pics

Delid:









Build:




[I'm not too fussed about aesthetics, it's tidy enough]

CPU screenie:



Memory screenie:


(6200C28)


(8000c38)

Game examples:


(Far Cry New Dawn)


(Shadow of the Tomb Raider)

 

That's impressive mate, a nice clock and huge on the RAM, far out. Top job.

Out of curiosity - was the 9070XT purchase worth it coming from the 6900?

 

Cheers mate, was a pretty frictionless process to be honest. I struggled a lot more with the 64GB DR on my other rig. As for the 9070 XT upgrade being worth it, so much of 'it depends'.

The TL;DR is ~ 30-50% uplift where it matters most.

For my use case it was an excellent upgrade. I really target 90+ FPS and ideally would like to see ~120. I also have that rig hooked up to a 4K 120Hz TV of a decent size and can see the fine detail.

When you see benchmark comparisons, generally they're an average across a range of games and will show that ~ 25-30%. But if you cut out the games where you don't need the FPS (e.g. games that are already 200-300-500 FPS) and instead focus on those struggling at <120 FPS on the 6900 XT (usually because they're newer with heavier engines) the average uplift is more significant.

The 6900 XT was never great at 4K gaming (comparative scaling), was really more of a beast for 1080 and 1440p. I found myself consistently lowering quality settings to the borderline of significant perceptible degradation, and needing to use FSR. FSR3 quality at 4K is usable, but any lower is pretty bad.

As the 9070 XT is much better suited to 4K and has the much more reasonable FSR4, more akin to a DLSS3.5, which means that if/when needed FSR balanced and FSR performance are now acceptable options [FSR Quality is ~ +30%, FSR Performance is ~+60% FPS].

On top of this I was pretty spooked by all these new UE5 games with baked in 'global illumination' and really wanted something that could cope better, as another thing the 6000's don't do well is RT. In fact, we have just been playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (fantastic game) which is this exact scenario. Considering I'm only on 60 fps with quality tweaks (though perfectly reasonable as it's turn based and third-person exploration), I shudder to think at where my quality settings would have been on the 6900 XT for this frame rate.

I can't justify the same upgrade for my workstation as I tend to play lighter games, strategy/first person shooters/deck-builders etc. Even though it's 4K, I think it'll be plenty for me, but I'll upgrade if it gives me grief. The aim would instead be to trickle down from our primary AAA rig when the time is right with newer gens .

 

Solid post, thanks heaps! I agree with your assessment on the 6900 and 4K - it'll do it handily with tricks, but I usually end up dropping stuff back to 1440 and winding up the detail to compensate - it doesn't look terrible on the 43" 4K panel, surprisingly enough!

I'm considering going this way instead of 7900XTX/4080 Super - I like the VRAM of the 7900 but it seems like I'll be buying into the same sort of corner, and the 4080 Super is rare as hen's teeth (and likely to become even more so with 5080 prices being balls).

We do the trickle-down thing too - 6900 will go to the young fella, which means he'll need more radiator to make it work in his rig. The joys...