AMD build opinions - Photoshop/gaming PC for my niece

[JD]

My only experiences with a 2700X and a 2700 are in my "servers" with less than ideal RAM choices and at 4x16GB. One of them has a 4x16GB 3200 set which can only run at 2933, the other has a 2400 set.

I would think you can get at least 3200 out of that 3600 set, but do let us know!

 

[Lysrin]

Will do! Thanks for commenting @JD

 

[Marzipan]

the Zen+ can do up to 3200mhz while the Zen 2 can do up to 3600mhz, though officially it only supports 3200mhz.

I know Zen an Zen+ were very finicky when you used 4 DIMM's...not sure about Zen 2, it may play a more friendly game.

 

[JD]

I did some tinkering with my RAM last night (same set of Neo's you bought, though of the 2x16GB variant), I used the values from Ryzen DRAM Calculator (https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-dram-calculator/) which seem to work without issue. Used the CJR profile as I think it's the closest match. Bumped the speed up ever so slightly to 3666MHz too. I tried 3733MHz but wasn't stable, seems like it might need around 1.4V on the memory which I'm not certain about running. Other people seem to be doing that though...

So you might be able to do the same if the XMP profile doesn't work out-of-box for you. The Calculator had varying changes though, some timings were tighter and others looser.

I forgot to record the before benchmark though, so I need to go back and reset to defaults at some point...

 

[Lysrin]

So the parts have all arrived and I started the two builds. The stock AMD CPU coolers are actually pretty nice looking!

One thing that's puzzling me is the 4 pin + 8 pin CPU power connectors on the board. Internet wisdom seems to say you can run with just the 8 pin; that the 4 pin is only needed for extreme overclocking (won't be happening in these builds).

Do you guys concur with not needing the 4 pin? Would save me a cable to route.

One of the builds is the 2700X and the other is a 3600X. Would having just the 8 pin connected work in both instances?

And lastly, did you ever have that feeling when you are doing a build for someone else that you're sure their case is just a small ATX case, so "Nah! I don't need to double check that!" ...then you find out it's a mATX case... after you bought the ATX motherboard Luckily local Canada Computers had a Corsair 100R in stock for sale price of $59.99 + a $10.00 mail-in rebate. So that'll do.

 

[lowfat]

I did some tinkering with my RAM last night (same set of Neo's you bought, though of the 2x16GB variant), I used the values from Ryzen DRAM Calculator (https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-dram-calculator/) which seem to work without issue. Used the CJR profile as I think it's the closest match. Bumped the speed up ever so slightly to 3666MHz too. I tried 3733MHz but wasn't stable, seems like it might need around 1.4V on the memory which I'm not certain about running. Other people seem to be doing that though...

I forgot to record the before benchmark though, so I need to go back and reset to defaults at some point...

Are you running 1:1? I was running 3800MHz ram and I didn't realize that my board would automatically unsync if you passed 1800MHz fclk.

One thing that's puzzling me is the 4 pin + 8 pin CPU power connectors on the board. Internet wisdom seems to say you can run with just the 8 pin; that the 4 pin is only needed for extreme overclocking (won't be happening in these builds).

Do you guys concur with not needing the 4 pin? Would save me a cable to route.

One of the builds is the 2700X and the other is a 3600X. Would having just the 8 pin connected work in both instances?

Completely optional. You'll never pull enough power unless you are using LN2.

 

[Lysrin]

Thanks @lowfat ! I definitely don't think the nieces will be looking into LN2 overclocking, but I'll keep the cable handy just in case

 

[JD]

Are you running 1:1? I was running 3800MHz ram and I didn't realize that my board would automatically unsync if you passed 1800MHz fclk.

Mine drops down to half the RAM frequency after 3600MHz unless I specifically set the frequency. I was attempting 1:1 in all cases though.

Agreed that just the 8-pin will be fine. These X570 boards just have insane VRM designs that I'm not sure are really even necessary.

 

[Lysrin]

Finally got the two builds, 2700X and 3600X, up and running! Nice builds in the end.

RAM question again. By default with the BIOS set to load Optimized Defaults, the 3600 RAM is defaulting to 2166. I don't want to overclock the CPUs in their systems. I only have stock cooling and their case airflow is just OK. Plus, they don't need OCing. I know on my current Intel system when I turned on XMP it automatically overclocked the CPU.

So in this case, if I don't want to overclock the CPU, should I just leave the RAM at what it's defaulting to?

I haven't Googled this much I'll admit. I want to get the PCs to them this weekend so hoping you guys can give me a focused answer from your experience.

 

[JD]

You can adjust the RAM up to 2933MHz on the 2700X and 3200MHz on the 3600X without "overclocking" anything on the CPU side as that's the supported frequencies. It's just that the default JEDEC profile is always the lowest minimum speed to ensure compatibility with everything.

Though I think you'd be fine running XMP/DOCP on both of them. The 2700X may need extra tweaking or drop it down to 2933-3200MHz.