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Ryzen 9 3900x Workstation Solver Build

Ryzen 9 3900x Workstation Solver Build

With Ryzen 3000 CPUs now available, we will be revising our current recommendation for our AMD consumer platform build. The following build, at the time of writing, will set you back approximately 2,000 USD.

In this build, we will be using a motherboard that utilises the x570 platform, as opposed to x470 from our previous AMD consumer build. AMD’s new x570 platform includes numerous benefits over x470, mostly relating to newer interface standards which allow for higher performance interface devices. For a more detailed breakdown of the benefits of x570 over x470, see this post by MSI.

CPU

Ryzen 9 3900x

12 cores, 24 threads. Runs at a base clock of 3.8 GHz with the ability to boost up to 4.6 GHz straight out of the box with 64 MB of L3 cache.

CPU Cooler

NZXT Kraken X52 Liquid Cooler

In our previous Ryzen 7 2700x build we recommended using the Wraith Prism CPU cooler that came provided with the CPU. According to research conducted by www.gamersnexus.net, performance on the Ryzen 9 3900x is sensitive to how well it is cooled, with an optimal performance achieved at a temperature of around 55 degrees celcius. Therefore we recommend to use a liquid cooling solution on this build to achieve optimal cooling performance.

Motherboard

Asrock x570 Taichi ATX

We are sticking with the Asrock Taichi line for this build and going with the latest x570 model. This board comes with built-in wifi and bluetooth, 7.1 CH HD Audio and Gigabit LAN to name a few of it’s features.

RAM

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3200

As a disclaimer, faster RAM may be available for this build, but it can be hard to source faster 64 GB kits, and the price difference may be fairly large. AMD puts the performance sweet spot at 3600 MHz and a CAS latency of 16. See this slide for reference:

Lower latency means better performing RAM. If you would like to learn more about RAM on Ryzen, we recommend this article by anandtech.com.

This kit is 2×16 GB, so you will have to purchase two kits if you would like to fully populate the RAM slots on this board.

Storage

Gigabyte AORUS NVMe Gen4 2 TB

Also available in a 1 TB variant, this NVMe Gen4 SSD takes advantage of the x570 platform’s updated interface standards which allows for very high write speeds. However, we feel that for work with poker databases, and also when loading save files into Monkersolver, our previous recommendation, the Samsung 970 EVO Plus is still a faster option, naturally at the cost of NVMe Gen3 write speeds.

Video Card

XFX Radeon RX 560 4 GB

Basic graphics card that can drive dual 4k monitors for productivity, as well as some light gaming. What graphics card you use isn’t overly important for this build, so select one according to what other use cases you may have in mind.

Case

Lian Li PC-O11AIR

CPU performance under Ryzen 3000 is sensitive to temperatures as mentioned above. This case produces low thermals that are critical for optimal performance.

We can also recommend Coolermaster H500P Mesh and Phanteks Evolv X for some additional aesthetics options.

Summary

This is our current recommendation for a Ryzen 9 3900x build. This build will also be compatible with the Ryzen 3950x that is coming in September 2019, AMD’s 16-core/32-thread flagship on the consumer platform.

We hope this build was useful for you. Please leave any comments below, and subscribe for future updates.

Edits: Exchanged NZXT H510 case for Lian Li PC-011AIR due to improved cooling performance. – 10.09.19

This Post Has 14 Comments
  1. Overall solid build but I thinkt that
    1. waiting until September for the 3950X is probably a good idea. You pay around 10% more for the entire build but you should get around 30% more performance for monker
    2. I’m not sure about watercooling. Last time I build a pc I did some research and it turned out that high end normal heat sinks do at least the same job and are sometimes even better. They are also cheaper. The only downside is that they are sometimes noisy.

    Also what do you think about buying used? you can get old servers for extremely cheap. Especially some of the higher end Opterons ( Like e.g. 6380) offer super good bang for your buck when it comes to monker in my experience. Servers usuallly also have a decent ammount of ram in them when you buy them.

    1. I think if you can wait a bit longer for the 3950x, that’s a good idea. As far as cooling is concerned, as long as you can reach a CPU temperature of 55 degrees Celsius under load (may be different for the 3950x when it is launched), you should be good to go. I would not recommend buying servers that run on DDR3 RAM. They will be much slower than newer platforms running DDR4.

  2. Can you get the same exact build with the 3950x? Also, do you have any recommendations for a slightly better graphics card? I might like to do light gaming, but nothing crazy

    1. Yes, this build can be used interchangeably with a 3950x. For a better graphics card for gaming, you may want to look at an RX 580 or GTX 1660 (regular and Ti).

      1. Great, thanks. one more question- could you add more ram into this build and if so how much? 128gb seems doable but 256 might need different components.

        1. The maximum amount of RAM supported by the Ryzen 9 3900x and 3950x is 128 GiB. In order to achieve this, you will need 4×32 GiB RAM modules, since x570 motherboards typically only come with 4 RAM slots.

  3. Okay.. any chance you could create an optimal build for 128GiB ram? sorry that this is lots of questions, but there is very good info here for a newb like me. 64GiB ram would be great but I have heard that it is still pretty slow for preflop spots, so I think 128 would be better and worth the extra investment

    1. You can use the same build for 128 GiB RAM. 32GB RAM modules are still fairly new, so availability at the time of writing is sparse. However there are some 1x32GB RAM SODIMM sticks available. Let me link you to some of the products in question that you can currently purchase on Amazon:

      CORSAIR Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000

      https://amzn.to/2ZGOexv

      CORSAIR Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666

      https://amzn.to/2ZEeqgi

      CORSAIR Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400

      https://amzn.to/2MShwqI

      These are compatible RAM modules that I can currently source on Amazon. I have listed them in order of speed.

      Aforementioned graphics cards:

      Radeon RX 580:

      https://amzn.to/2MQZSDV

      Nvidia Geforce 1660 Ti:

      https://amzn.to/2zMWpgY

      As far writing a new build goes, we will post an updated build with the 3950x once it’s launched.

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