Build a Ryzen workhorse
Just because AMD’s new chips offer great value for money, that doesn’t mean we have to scrimp and save, says Alan Dexter.
THE CONCEPT
We’re always comparing hardware here at APC. Every review, build and feature sees us comparing components (or whole systems) against what has gone before; either explicitly when picking components, or more subtly when alluding to performance metrics.
Intel has basically dominated the market when it comes to DIY workstations for the last five years (or more) with the X99 platform and its eight-core Core i7 or up to 16-core Xeons have been the go-to parts if you want to build a machine for 3D rendering, super-resolution video work and today's other supremely demanding computing tasks.
The arrival of AMD's Ryzen chips has changed all that, and while there's still some work to be done when it comes to making these CPUs appealing for mainstream rigs targeting 1080p gaming, when it comes to work tasks, the red team is very definitively back on the table.
So this month, we've chosen to focus on Ryzen's key area of strength — constructing a machine that's made to handle workstation loads. As such, the component choice sometimes isn’t the standard desktop fare we're used to in PC Builder — the Radeon Pro WX 7100 that can be found inside this machine is aimed at serious CAD work, for instance, not playing the latest games at 4K. With that said, it’s time to get building...
STARTING ON THE RIGHT FOOT
Obviously, the starting point for this build was the Ryzen 7 1800X, the high-end of AMD’s current Ryzen lineup. We did briefly toy with the idea of trying to build a machine on a much tighter budget, to see what sort of value for money we could squeeze out of AMD’s new architecture, but we ultimately decided that could wait until more low-end Ryzen CPUs have landed. If you're building a Ryzen rig right now, it's more than likely to be for high-end work-oriented tasks, and in that sense, rendering-time is money after all. Once we’d decided on the chip to use and the general ethos of building something that needs to at least give Intel’s finest a run for its money, a lot of the other components came together quite easily.
On the motherboard front, we went for the MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon. Into that, we slid four 8GB sticks of Corsair’s sleek Dominator Platinum RAM, alongside a serious graphics card in the form of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100. There are plenty of all-in-one solutions for keeping a Ryzen cool, but here we wanted to go with an air cooler, and so reached out to Arctic, who provided us with a Freezer 33 for our build. We’ve used our standard combo of an M.2 SSD and 7,200rpm HDD for storage, which give us a good base for a fast boot drive, coupled with plenty of space for data at the same time. We eased all of this gorgeous gear into the spacious Corsair Carbide Air 740 case, and powered it all with the frankly overthe-top HX1200i Platinum from Corsair as well.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to building PCs: check the core components outside of the case first, and the more optimistic route of throwing it all together in the chassis, and only finding out if you’ve got problems once you flick the switch. For this build, we were of the more pessimistic persuasion, partly because our chip had some bent pins that needed straightening. It also means you have lots of room when piecing together the cooler. The Arctic Freezer 33 was fairly straightforward, as it uses the backplate that comes with the mobo. Even so, we ran into a few problems while screwing in the heatsink, which resulted in a screw sheering. We had a spare backplate, but if you’re not so lucky, don’t force it. Like we did.
ROOM FOR POWER
We love compartmentalised cases, because they promote good airflow and clean builds, and the Carbide Air 740 gives you plenty of space in both sections for your components. The rear area is for the power supply and your hard drives, with removable drive cages for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives. There is ample space for the slightly oversized power supply we used in this build, and the fact that it is completely modular made for a particularly easy installation. A thumbscrew helps position the PSU in place with a tiny retaining bracket, as you get it lined up with the rear grille, which is a neat addition.
"We've chosen to focus on Ryzen's key area of strength — constructing a machine that's made to handle workstation loads."
CAPACIOUS INTERIORS
Sliding the motherboard into place was every bit as easy as installing the power supply. In fact, because the PSU is in its own compartment, it frees up plenty of space around the motherboard, making this one of the easiest installs we’ve ever done. After clipping the rear IO shield into place, the board slotted in neatly. One thing to note here is that we had to spin the rear case fan around, so that it was working in tandem with the Arctic Freezer 33, as opposed to fighting against it. We could have avoided this by installing the cooler fan the other way around, but we didn’t want to obstruct the RAM slots, despite there being plenty of clearance.
SMALL SCREWS
Once the motherboard was in place, it was a straightforward task of installing the memory and the M.2 drive. The only awkward bit here was getting the heat spreader — that MSI includes to keep those M.2 temperatures in check — screwed into place. This uses a very small screw, which escaped our grasp a few times when trying to anchor it in place. In hindsight, we should have installed the M.2 drive before placing the motherboard in the case. It’s also worth noting that we’re using the top M.2 slot, as there are two slots on this motherboard.
CABLE GUY
The next step was to spin the case around so we could work on the cabling after installing the hard drive. The Carbide Air 740 uses a tool-free design for holding your hard drives, which means that popping the data drive into the system was really easy — clip the drive into the caddy, then slide it into the cage. There’s only room for three 3.5-inch drives in this cage, although there’s space for four 2.5-inch drives as well. Cabling was also straightforward, thanks to the copious number of rubber-edged cutouts on the motherboard tray.
SINGLE SLOTTER
The Radeon Pro WX 7100 is something of an oddity in these days of over-sized coolers, because it’s just a single-slot card. There’s an air of no-thrills seriousness about its design, and it’s refreshing to not have to worry about making room for a two- or three-slot behemoth. The card only requires a single six-pin power connector, too, which was easy to route around the back of the motherboard. We connected the rest of the cabling at this point as well, pulling it as tight as possible around the back to keep airflow clear on the business side of things — particularly important when using an air cooler on the CPU.
The everyman workhorse
The big selling point of Ryzen is the multi-threaded performance at a great price. This machine promotes that ethos in a succinct way without compromising in order to get its point across — you could definitely build a cheaper workstation with the same core, but it wouldn’t be as rounded a machine. This is a PC that has an eye on its price tag, while knocking out solid performance at the same time.
The build itself was surprisingly straightforward, with the Corsair Carbide Air 740 making for a great basis for a clean build. After constructing so many ITX systems, it’s refreshing to have so much room around the motherboard. If you’re going to augment your own workstation with plenty of SSDs and hard drives, this comes heartily recommended — although if you want to install lots of 3.5-inch hard drives, you’re going to need to come up with your own mounting system, because the included cage only holds three drives.
The other component that impressed us was the Arctic Freezer 33. Even allowing for the fact we overtightened one of the mounting screws, and needed to grab another backplate, we’d still class it as an easy install. (Besides, that was our fault, not Arctic’s.) The Arctic Freezer 7 Pro was an incredibly popular option back when the Core i7-920 was king, and while it’s doubtful that the Freezer 33 will regain the throne in these days of all-in-one coolers, it’s worth considering for your own builds.
When it came to testing, we could have left the Ryzen 7 1800X running at stock speeds, but that would have felt like we were wasting the chip’s true potential. We couldn’t get this chip running at 4GHz stably (it would boot fine, but then fall over during a hearty benchmarking session), so settled for a solid 3.9GHz instead. There is an argument to be had for not overclocking at all when dealing with a workstation, but it’s in our DNA to push CPUs as hard as possible, and we weren’t about to change that stance. Even so, for reference, we did initially run the chip at stock settings, and saw Cinebench R15 post scores of 149 in singlethreaded loads, and 1,600 with the multi-threaded test.
It’s worth bearing in mind that this is our standard benchmarking suite, and leans more toward gaming than the hardware in this machine is happy with. The Radeon Pro WX 7100 is essentially an RX 480 with slightly slower clocks, which equates to a rather sound thrashing from our test machine (which employs a Fury X for the gaming heavy lifting). You can hit smooth frame rates in most games with some tweaking, but if you’re serious about relaxing with your workstation, you would be better off going with either a more powerful card, or conversely a cheaper one.