Which Hardware should I buy ? - Page 2

mackerel · 2018-12-25, 10:19

Whatever system you get, definitely fill up the ram channels. If going X299 route, that's overclockable. If going the i3-8100 route, I think you might need a Z370/390 mobo if you want to run above standard ram speeds, but not 100% on that.

Hard to call between them. One fast system, or two smaller cheaper systems. Also depends if you intend to use it for other reasons later on too.

Mark Rose · 2018-12-25, 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by mackerel

If going the i3-8100 route, I think you might need a Z370/390 mobo if you want to run above standard ram speeds, but not 100% on that.

Not worth it. The extra money on faster RAM and motherboard to potentially overclock it is the price of a second CPU.

As a note to MLoerke though, it is worth spending on a Gold rated power supply, as it will pay for itself in electricity savings over time.

2019-01-01, 06:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

Not worth it. The extra money on faster RAM and motherboard to potentially overclock it is the price of a second CPU.

As a note to MLoerke though, it is worth spending on a Gold rated power supply, as it will pay for itself in electricity savings over time.

What means Gold rated ?

94% efficiency ?

axn · 2019-01-01, 07:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by SELROC

What means Gold rated ?

94% efficiency ?

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plu...certifications, it is 90% (looking at the 50% load)

EDIT:- Obviously, 92% for EU

2019-01-01, 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by axn

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plu...certifications, it is 90% (looking at the 50% load)

EDIT:- Obviously, 92% for EU

94% efficiency at 100% load is rated Titanium.

M344587487 · 2019-01-01, 11:15

80+ Gold rated is typically the sensible choice because you can pay through the nose for higher tiers and you should aim for ~50% load because that's where the 80+ rating guarantees the most efficiency. This can be tricky for higher tiers unless you're running multiple GPUs because they tend to have a much higher capacity.

bhelmes · 2019-01-01, 17:09

Instead of a harddisk you could also use a min. 4 Gbyte Usb-stick,

Prime95 · 2019-01-01, 19:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhelmes

Instead of a harddisk you could also use a min. 4 Gbyte Usb-stick,

I did that, not recommended. The ones I bought did not stand up to continuous use. I replaced them with very cheap SSDs and have had no trouble.

Mark Rose · 2019-01-02, 07:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prime95

I did that, not recommended. The ones I bought did not stand up to continuous use. I replaced them with very cheap SSDs and have had no trouble.

+1. All the cheap USB sticks I used for this purpose failed in under a year. I did pick up some 16 GB Samsung thumbdrives and they're still holding out, but cheap SSDs are the way to go.

nomead · 2019-01-02, 07:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prime95

I did that, not recommended. The ones I bought did not stand up to continuous use. I replaced them with very cheap SSDs and have had no trouble.

Seconded. Consumer grade USB sticks are not designed to withstand such constant use. Same goes for SD cards (hint for those running Raspberry Pis etc. Keep your data backed up.) They usually have very light wear levelling algorithms, if any at all. And industrial grade sticks / cards are so much more expensive that cheap SSDs are indeed the way to go now. The reliability is probably about the same as on any TLC SSD.

What makes them cheap (for name brands, not Chinese SSDs of completely unknown origin) - for example, Kingston A400, or PNY CS900, just to name a couple, is that they don't include any RAM cache, just a controller and TLC NAND chips. Even small writes will then generate a whole flash block write and erase of the old block. Most of the housekeeping is done in the background so it's not a huge problem in light use. But in general use, when the SSD gets fuller, small random writes will grow slower and slower. Some drives will even reserve a portion of the flash as pSLC (pseudo-SLC) since it's faster to write just two voltage levels instead of eight. And after the write activity is over, the data will then be written again elsewhere in the flash array as TLC.

Or network boot, but that's probably not worth it for just one machine.

wildrabbitt · 2019-01-10, 09:46

Quote:

Ram speed is very important. Buy at least DDR4-3200. Get DDR4-3600 if it isn't much more expensive. My SkylakeX system has 4 sticks of 4GB DDR4-3600.

I thought RAM speed only really mattered for trial factoring?

Is it important for LL tests too?

2019-01-01, 17:09	#18
bhelmes Mar 2016 19×23 Posts	Instead of a harddisk you could also use a min. 4 Gbyte Usb-stick, Last fiddled with by bhelmes on 2019-01-01 at 17:10

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2018-12-25, 10:19	#12
mackerel Feb 2016 UK 2⁶·7 Posts	Whatever system you get, definitely fill up the ram channels. If going X299 route, that's overclockable. If going the i3-8100 route, I think you might need a Z370/390 mobo if you want to run above standard ram speeds, but not 100% on that. Hard to call between them. One fast system, or two smaller cheaper systems. Also depends if you intend to use it for other reasons later on too.

2019-01-01, 11:15	#17
M344587487 "Composite as Heck" Oct 2017 3B6₁₆ Posts	80+ Gold rated is typically the sensible choice because you can pay through the nose for higher tiers and you should aim for ~50% load because that's where the 80+ rating guarantees the most efficiency. This can be tricky for higher tiers unless you're running multiple GPUs because they tend to have a much higher capacity.