Building a workstation, trying to choose between 7700k and 1700

[Rifter]

As an excited new Ryzen owner, I'd have to agree to the above.

When I bought my R7 1700 and my B350 motherboard, I plugged everything together and it "just worked." As stated above, the majority of issues you hear about are people trying to run their memory at higher clocks.

However, I am not running an NVME and haven't paid attention to anyone with issues with them (I didn't know these issues existed until you posted.)

The Intel setup will be a solid, safe choice.

Ive been running NVME since i built my system, zero issues.

 

[Atari2600]

If this is a proper work machine I would buy a Dell/etc workstation with support.

I wouldn't.

I'd rather buy a machine that wouldn't break rather than have to deal with it being down for a week before Dell get round to fixing it - and the Dell is much more likely to break in the first place.

If your any way versed in IT, you'll be quicker sorting the problem yourself sourcing cheap stopgap bits from a local store than dealing with Dell.

 

[terpsy]

Unless you have a specific need for X370, I'd pick up a 1700 + ASRock B350 board and OC to maybe 3.6 GHz and call it a day.

As for the RAM . . . how much do you need?

EXACTLY what I did.

Have my 1700 at 3.6GHZ on the spire cooler, and it needs no extra voltage or anything.

 

[coffeemonster]

I appreciate all of the feedback. Sunday morning I had decided on the 1700X and ASRock AB350 Pro4. Unfortunately, I have only 3 vendors to choose from: Amazon, Newegg, and B&H Photo (and I can't order through Amazon or Newegg from 3rd party sellers). The ASRock board was in stock on Newegg Sunday morning, but isn't any longer. It's not in stock at Amazon either. B&H Photo doesn't carry ASRock boards.

What a pain.

Also, the 1700X doesn't come with a cooler. None of the coolers I wanted to buy (CM Hyper 212 Evo, Cryorig H7, Noctua NH-U12S) come with the AM4 brackets. I'd have to go through some process to request them AFTER my processor/board and cooler arrives.

I'm told that my order has to be in today, so I can either settle for a 1700 to get a stock cooler, and find a different motherboard, or I can just say screw it, and order the Intel build. The fact that the 1700x is on sale right now on Amazon for $350 doesn't make it any easier to settle for the 1700.

Don't know if this interests you at all but there are a few decent cooler options that don't even require a backplate change and just use the old style AM3 brackets.
http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=72772
https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Aluminum-Heatsink-Heatpipes-2-75-Inch/dp/B01JEJ0WX2/
of course you couldn't push 4gh OC with them but they would be more than sufficient for a stock 1700X

 

[Rifter]

I wouldn't.

I'd rather buy a machine that wouldn't break rather than have to deal with it being down for a week before Dell get round to fixing it - and the Dell is much more likely to break in the first place.

If your any way versed in IT, you'll be quicker sorting the problem yourself sourcing cheap stopgap bits from a local store than dealing with Dell.

This is true, dell home support is not the same as dell business support.

 

[jlee]

This is true, dell home support is not the same as dell business support.

There is a reason I said "Dell workstation with support."

I wouldn't.

I'd rather buy a machine that wouldn't break rather than have to deal with it being down for a week before Dell get round to fixing it - and the Dell is much more likely to break in the first place.

If your any way versed in IT, you'll be quicker sorting the problem yourself sourcing cheap stopgap bits from a local store than dealing with Dell.

Based on this post, I have my doubts that you have experience with business support from major vendors. If your industry is fine running on cheap stopgap bits, go for it.

I like my four hour on-site part delivery...I've also not noticed a reliability problem with any of the Dell workstations we're using - granted, these are workstation class machines, not desktops. There is a difference.

 

[Atari2600]

This is true, dell home support is not the same as dell business support.

That *is* Dell business support. These are Precision "workstations"... that seem rather incapable of doing much work - that I would blame on Dell skimping on the subsystems as much as possible.

Based on this post, I have my doubts that you have experience with business support from major vendors. If your industry is fine running on cheap stopgap bits, go for it.

I like my four hour on-site part delivery...I've also not noticed a reliability problem with any of the Dell workstations we're using - granted, these are workstation class machines, not desktops. There is a difference.

See above - these are workstations.

If we've a problem, the response is measured in at best days. Perhaps a quirk of where we are located. Perhaps indicative of the quality of Dell support outside a few hotspots - or perhaps not. Either way, Its quicker for me to run a few miles down the road and grab a part to get the machine back up and running than wait on Dell. Then get a proper part ordered with the immediate pressure off.

We've had the front panels go in a few stations. Dodgy batch maybe. Dead boxes till they come out and replaced them.


Anyway - based on my experience, I'd never recommend a Dell outside of a laptop (they do some nice chassis there at decent prices).

 

[rbk123]

If you know how to build your own, your own support will be 1 bajillion times better than what Dell can provide.

 

[Yakk]

Ryzen is the better CPU, but the platform isn't business deployment ready yet. One offs are fine, hundreds are a very, very big issue.

 

[alexruiz]

Ryzen/AM4 at stock is extremely stable.
As "at stock" I also mean DDR4-2133, just auto settings, no fancy XMP stuff.

All the issues you read about are coming off the memory compatibility running at >2133 speeds or CPU overclocking.
A workstation based on the 1700X would be a killer machine.

 

[DrMrLordX]

EXACTLY what I did.

Have my 1700 at 3.6GHZ on the spire cooler, and it needs no extra voltage or anything.

Sounds about right. The Spire cooler is plenty good for stock volt OC.

Ryzen/AM4 at stock is extremely stable.
As "at stock" I also mean DDR4-2133, just auto settings, no fancy XMP stuff.

All the issues you read about are coming off the memory compatibility running at >2133 speeds or CPU overclocking.
A workstation based on the 1700X would be a killer machine.

Memory OC is really easy on the ASRock boards though. All I did was put in some b-die, volt it to 1.4v and set SoC voltages to 1.05v in the UEFI, set 14-14-14-14-32 DDR4-3200 (yes, 4 14s) in Ryzen Master, and reboot that sonofagun. Bam, instead mem OC. Some folks can do it all through the UEFI, but my board is picky about that still.