RED REDEMPTION

THERE IT IS, our 16-core Threadripper rig. We set out to build a relatively affordable streaming machine based around AMD’s reshuffling of its Threadripper series. The X series is designed with the pro-gamer in mind, the YouTuber, the Twitch streamer. Its immense clout, alongside improved memory latency and multitasking capability, through multiple application use and pure grunty video rendering performance, makes it an ideal jack of all trades.

The build process was a cakewalk. Installing the CPU, RAM, PCIe SSD, and cooler outside the case first made it particularly easy. Be Quiet!’s Dark Rock Pro TR4 is perhaps the easiest mounting solution we’ve seen from the German manufacturer. And its beefy stature is enough to keep things ticking over quite nicely—if you’re willing to do a bit of tweaking….

Once we started testing, we noticed a few issues. Notably with clock speed. Precision Boost Overdrive, AMD’s auto-overclocking feature, varies clock speed depending on temperature. Our system seemed to be trying to hit a 68 C sweet spot. If apps tried to push the processor above that, PBO would throttle the CPU, and performance would degrade (in this case, with successive Cinebench runs). It’s less than ideal, and one reason why we ditched it and started looking into overclocking. Aiming for an 80 C maximum (still 20 C lower than TJMax), we started our OC run trying to hit 4.0GHz. Switching the VRMs to a balanced current mode instead of thermal mode lead us into VRM temp issues (even with the Asus VRM heatsink), and the processor throttled itself again. We jumped back into the BIOS, and dropped to 3.9GHz and temperature VRM mode. We left the voltage on Auto, and just played around with the ratio. It’s possible you could get 4.0GHz stable, without throttling the VRMs, but 3.9GHz is easily possible.

Gaming performance was ridiculously close to the zero-point. For 4K gaming, CPU upgrades show little benefit. Also, the RTX 2080 performs almost identically to the 1080 Ti. One thing to note: Our ROG Zenith Extreme motherboard did require a BIOS update before we began installing Windows, to make it compatible with the RTX GPUs.

So, we were left with a 16-core, 32-thread 3.9GHz machine, with 64GB of DDR4 clocking in at 3,200MT/s, a 1TB Crucial P1 M.2 PCIe SSD, and a nice quiet rig, operating at 70 C. Pretty good in our eyes. Although the price is a bit much, it’s only $130 more than our test bench was originally specced at.

The Be Quiet! Dark Rock 1Pro TR4 features twin 140mm fans, to keep those heat fins dissipating Threadripper’s thermal energy.Tucked away down here is 2a special heatsink Asus will send your way if you’re using more than a 16-core Threadripper. It’s free on request, and helps keep the VRMs cool when dealing with so many cores.The RTX 2080 Ti ROG Strix 3has a triple-slot cooler design, and it’s a beast. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t concerned about GPU sag.These cables may look 4familiar—they started out life in our Dream Machine 2017 PC. Here, they’re hooked up to our beefy HX1200i.