Forum > System Builds & Upgrades
Built my own home server
carskick:
I plan to keep this server configuration over the next 5 years or so at least, so I wanted to get a good one without spending crazy money.
I've actually built almost 10 Ryzen machines in the past few months, for both our household and for customers. The Ryzen 2000 and 3000 chips both are just fantastic. I've covered almost the entire range:
First I built my wife and I Ryzen 3700x machines, I built a Ryzen 2600 & a 1600AF machine, one for our guests/son to use and the other to sell, then I've build a 3900x and a 3950x for customers doing video editing and workstation use, I've built a 3200G budget build for a customer, and finally, the 3600 Server.
All of the higher end 3000 chips were stable with the Infinity Fabric at 1800 using 3600Mhz RAM, with the 3600 being the exception. It was the only one I used a x470 chipset instead of x570, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I wouldn't think so. In any case, I'm just running it at 1600/3200 with tighter memory timings. Since it's the server, stability is more important than raw speed, so I'm happy to run the memory under spec with just slightly tighter timings, lower chance of RAM errors.
From 2013 to 2018, I built nothing but Intel Systems, and I'm happy to be switching back to AMD! I just wish they'd get their act together with their video card drivers.
I do have 2 qualms with Ryzen 3000 Chips: Idle/lightly threaded power consumption and CPU temperature readings.
The Ryzen chips like to boost. AMD has their mid to higher end chips setup to boost to the edge of what their architecture is capable of to keep single threaded performance high, but it causes huge spikes in voltage and power consumption. This is planned operation by them, but it makes power consumption quite high during lightly threaded use compared to an Intel CPU. That being said, in moderate and heavy use, it uses far less power than a comparable Intel while being as fast or faster. In addition to their boosting techniques, the IO chip always uses 9 to 15W (The more chiplets you have, the higher it gets), even during idle. I wish they had a way to down clock the IO chip, which would get idle power consumption closer to Intel. X570 chipsets are power hungry, too, which was why I went X470 in the server build. It saves 7 to 10 watts all the time with that difference alone.
The other issue are CPU temperature readings. The Ryzen Master doesn't have an issue, but every other temperature monitor, including what the BIOS uses, has 10 degree spikes that gradually drop ever 8 to 12 seconds. This means if you base your fan profiles off of CPU readings, your fan speeds are all over the place. Since most AM4 motherboards have MOSFET temperature monitoring, I've been basing my fan curves on this, since it's a much more gradual up/down based on sustained use.
Otherwise, I love the Ryzen platform.
And yeah, Noctua is fantastic, especially now that they have black fans instead of just brown for when aesthetics matter. They are a little pricey, but the quality and longevity seem to be worth it. I've been going higher end with my builds as of late. For low end PCs, I generally refurbish prebuilt Ivy Bridge/Haswells, because of the bang for the buck vs new.
scuzzy:
It will still be awhile before my next build, as my current systems are still doing very well. I have stayed with Intel for my last couple builds or so, but you do have me thinking of the possibility of trying AMD again. One thing though, I'd rather not have a burning hot chipset that requires an active fan.
Either way, looks like you put a lot of thought into your builds and their performance. Not surprising, I suppose. :)
carskick:
Thanks, I obsessively keep up with the latest hardware and tech news. I have for years, as you can imagine! :)
The X570 chips only "need" the fan during excessive PCIe lane usage or if ambient temperatures are really high. My main PC keeps the Chipset fan off until 60C, and then I have it set to spin really low until 70C. Even still, it hardly ever turns on, and if it does, it's off again pretty quick. I thought the same thing, but don't let that scare you away from X570.
buffalo2102:
Just to echo Carskick about the fan - it's a non-issue on my X570 Aorus Elite. The fan very rarely even comes on and I can't hear it when it does. I have 2 x PCIe 4 SSDs and the fan still doesn't come on even when doing large file transfers between them.
The position of the fan on the board is a consideration though. A lot of X570 boards have the fan positioned directly under the GPU and that's obviously not ideal.
scuzzy:
That's helpful to know. I still don't know if my next build will be AMD or Intel based, but I will likely have to start thinking about it before too long. My current builds are approaching 5 years old. They still get the job done and remain dependable, but I also know that everything has an expiration date.
Scuzzy; except Poasters, apparently.
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