Log Full Circle

[Soul_Est]

You might also want to search R9 Nanos on ebay. I was just browsing ebay and they had several under $300, this card was insanely overpriced during the mining craze. There is even a brand new white Asus R9 for $349 that I am half tempted to buy.

Thank you for the recommendation and a link to what you mean. I looked but as I'm in Canada, the cost is significantly higher. Around $379.00 CAD (for the cheapest one) all told before adding in the shipping which brings it to $417 CAD total. The one you were looking at is around $461.00 CAD and won't ship to me.

That is why I have been looking at the RX 570 Pulse ITX which is around $279.99 CAD and $316.39 CAD including tax.

I will keep an eye out for them as they can be of excellent value.

 

[rfarmer]

Thank you for the recommendation and a link to what you mean. I looked but as I'm in Canada, the cost is significantly higher. Around $379.00 CAD (for the cheapest one) all told before adding in the shipping which brings it to $417 CAD total. The one you were looking at is around $461.00 CAD and won't ship to me.

That is why I have been looking at the RX 570 Pulse ITX which is around $279.99 CAD and $316.39 CAD including tax.

I will keep an eye out for them as they can be of excellent value.

Shame they are so high, hope you find one soon. Back in Jan when I was shopping for an itx card during the mining craze, when everything was pretty much unavailable, the R9 Nanos were going for $600+. I was surprised to see the prices so low.

 

[Soul_Est]

Shame they are so high, hope you find one soon. Back in Jan when I was shopping for an itx card during the mining craze, when everything was pretty much unavailable, the R9 Nanos were going for $600+. I was surprised to see the prices so low.

I hope so too. The current prices are tempting despite coming from the U.S.

I have acquired my processor so the list looks like so now:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($446.34)
Memory: Team - T-Force Dark 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (Purchased For $126.23)
Total: $572.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-16 21:20 EDT-0400

Yeah, I probably could have gotten the processor for ten dollars cheaper. Meh. It's the memory that I'm excited about. That set is a unicorn (like the RX 570 Pulse ITX and RX VEGA 56 Nano).

 

[Soul_Est]

One more update as I start getting into the how stretch for the parts. After some looking around and waiting, I got a SSD, a video card, and a wireless card. A motherboard is on the way. Here is what the specs are now:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor (Purchased For $446.34)
CPU Cooler: Dynatron - T318 Fanless CPU Cooler (Purchased For $13.04)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG Strix B450-I Gaming Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard (Purchased For $228.25)
Memory: Team - T-Force Dark 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (Purchased For $126.23)
Storage: ADATA - XPG SX6000 128GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (Purchased For $58.74)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 570 4GB PULSE ITX Video Card (Purchased For $228.89)
Other: Intel 9260 (Purchased For $25.46)
Total: $1126.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-01 01:18 EDT-0400

So far, it's shaping up to be a multi-threaded monster compared to the glorified i3 based ThinkPad X201 that I use now. The video card was especially good at ~$200 CAD before import fees. Now to start working on an adapter for that T318.

A solution for powering this machine continues to elude me however. I ordered a PDCB from AliExpress and will be getting a Meanwell EPP-400-12. The main issue is about the connectors on the PDCB for DC-in and 5V/12V out. I messaged the seller clarification.

 

[Legion]

LP/SFF Cooler mounting adaptors for AM4

This guy had an easy way to get the Dynatron up and running on AM4

His conclusions
LP/SFF Cooler mounting adaptors for AM4

Have a good read of the whole thread before you commit

 

[Soul_Est]

LP/SFF Cooler mounting adaptors for AM4

This guy had an easy way to get the Dynatron up and running on AM4

His conclusions
LP/SFF Cooler mounting adaptors for AM4

Have a good read of the whole thread before you commit

Dang, that was interesting to read. Thank you so much for telling me. I will have a look further into this after my motherboard arrives.

 

[Windfall]

To bad I can't read that. Does anyone have contact with the admins on [H]? Even if they won't fully unban me, could I at least view the site?

 

[AleksandarK]

To bad I can't read that. Does anyone have contact with the admins on [H]? Even if they won't fully unban me, could I at least view the site?

Try in incognito tab in chrome?

 

[Windfall]

Try in incognito tab in chrome?

Doesn't work. It's an IP ban.

 

[AleksandarK]

Doesn't work. It's an IP ban.

VPN it is then

 

[Soul_Est]

^ or friends

Spoiler: From [H] with love

 

[Legion]

Dang, that was interesting to read. Thank you so much for telling me. I will have a look further into this after my motherboard arrives.

Happy to help

 

[Soul_Est]

Just got started on my temporary power supply until I finish planning the layout for the build. So far, I've been looking over the necessary EPS cable and getting the pins I need:

Spoiler

I already have a 4-pin ATX connector. I plan to splice the wires from the Molex cable to the pins to provide the last four pins. This will supply the CPU the power needed to test everything.

 

[Soul_Est]

Quite a bit has happened since the last post. The system is fully assembled without a case now. There is much tuning to be done to rein in the power consumption and heat output under load. Under Arch Linux, I saw the full system load hit as high as 255W (incl. ~20W for the PSU) when compiling a Linux kernel with the CPU set to boost to 3700MHz on all cores and SMT turned on. When gaming in Strike Suit Zero on 1920 x 1080 on High, the system would hit ~170W (incl. ~20W). This is actually surprising given how much power the system could pull in total.

That said, I wanted to play Warframe and tune to system completely so I installed Windows 10, drivers, HWMonitor, Ryzen Master, MSI Afterburner, Ryzen DRAM Calculator, Thaiphoon Burner, and Steam, and started testing. For the CPU, I have been able to achieve a 0.1125V (112.5mV) undervolt. I will work on getting the RAM tuned correctly. I had been able to run the kit using the D.O.C.P option in the UEFI but now that is no longer the case. I have gotten the safe and fast timings and voltages for them using Thaiphoon Burner and Ryzen DRAM calculator. As the kit can go to 1.4V max, I do have some headroom. Now if only, I can figure out a way of removing the red decorations from the kit without voiding my warranty.

Any regrets? Yes. I overestimated just how much performance I needed for the tasks at I'm doing or the games that I play. That said, it is a ~$150-$200 difference and I would hit the ceiling for a lower power configuration rather quickly once I get to compiling and rendering. The extra money "saved" would have gone to cooling, power, game controllers, and saving to the eventual case. The largest benefit of going lower power would have been getting the system to hit a ~200W maximum for full system power usage (with a Ryzen 5 2600) and not needing PCI-E power from the PSU (in the case of the bus-powered(!) RX 560 Aero ITX at 60W(!)). The others would be powering the system from one Mean Well EPP-200-12 + a PDCB and having better overall portability. Speaking of PDCBs, I received a 250W, 12 Volt unit that I ordered a couple weeks ago from a seller on AliExpress and it will not work in its stock form with Full Circle due to its connectors getting in the way. Oh well, time to get the L9a-AM4 for the system now.

@Legion
I did test the T318 on the system before mounting the stock cooler. It just fit and mounting would have been relatively easy if I had the right hardware at the time. That said, my setup would have been such that my results would have ended up similar to @SaperPL 's.

 

[Legion]

@Legion
I did test the T318 on the system before mounting the stock cooler. It just fit and mounting would have been relatively easy if I had the right hardware at the time. That said, my setup would have been such that my results would have ended up similar to @SaperPL 's.

The biggest problem would have been getting a "good" mount with the T318.
Without a mounting kit, using nuts and bolts is a pita to actually get a good solid mount with optimum contact.
And as we've already seen from the results on the [H], it's not as good as one might imagine.

Hopefully not long to wait now for the Alpenföhn Black Ridge (Dan HSLP 48), although I don't expect miracles from that either. There's only so much you can dissipate from dinky coolers.
If you have the space, the NH-L12s is a much better option for an 8 core AM4 part. (Ram height permitting)
The newly announced Ryzen 2700e at 45w is a very interesting SKU, 8/16 at 45w is very enticing for a dinky, moblie render box.
You can ofc tune what you have and a lot of motherboards now let you select 95w and 65w power profiles in the bios.

 

[Soul_Est]

The biggest problem would have been getting a "good" mount with the T318.
Without a mounting kit, using nuts and bolts is a pita to actually get a good solid mount with optimum contact.
And as we've already seen from the results on the [H], it's not as good as one might imagine.

Hopefully not long to wait now for the Alpenföhn Black Ridge (Dan HSLP 48), although I don't expect miracles from that either. There's only so much you can dissipate from dinky coolers.
If you have the space, the NH-L12s is a much better option for an 8 core AM4 part. (Ram height permitting)
The newly announced Ryzen 2700e at 45w is a very interesting SKU, 8/16 at 45w is very enticing for a dinky, moblie render box.
You can ofc tune what you have and a lot of motherboards now let you select 95w and 65w power profiles in the bios.

It is probably what I'll end up doing with the 2700X: Lock it to a 2.2GHz for rendering and compiling and allow a healthy boost for gaming or clock speed dependent workloads. @dondan said it would be Q4 2018 for the Black Ridge if all goes well. Looking forward to it.

 

[Valantar]

@Soul_Est care to elaborate on your PSU setup? I've been wondering about those AliExpress 12V plug-in boards (they're so damn cheap!) - does yours seem to live up to its rating? Anything worrying you? I won't be powering anything near a 2700X (the plan is an APU of some sort, likely whatever high end model they launch next year), but it's always nice to know the PSU won't blow up Also, am I reading you right that your motherboard requires an 8-pin EPS (i.e. refuses to boot if you only connect a 4-pin), or did you do that mod just to be a bit more safe?

 

[Windfall]

@Soul_Est Get a ONE2 Distro board from @Thehack when it comes out. It's a perfect addition to a meanwell build.

 

[Soul_Est]

@Soul_Est care to elaborate on your PSU setup? I've been wondering about those AliExpress 12V plug-in boards (they're so damn cheap!) - does yours seem to live up to its rating? Anything worrying you? I won't be powering anything near a 2700X (the plan is an APU of some sort, likely whatever high end model they launch next year), but it's always nice to know the PSU won't blow up Also, am I reading you right that your motherboard requires an 8-pin EPS (i.e. refuses to boot if you only connect a 4-pin), or did you do that mod just to be a bit more safe?

I am currently just using an ATX power supply with the machine right now. The plugs on the 12V plug-in board prevent it from plugging in. The motherboard won't require the 8-Pin EPS connector but the APU/CPU might. The 8-pin EPS connector is absolutely necessary for the Ryzen 7 2700X but probably won't be for the APU at stock clocks. APUs can still pull a fair amount of power though.

@Soul_Est Get a ONE2 Distro board from @Thehack when it comes out. It's a perfect addition to a meanwell build.

Thanks for the heads up. I may just do so. Had I researched the Mean Well EPP power supplies sooner, I would have gone with a Ryzen 5 2600 or Ryzen 7 2700 and a RX 560 AERO ITX as that would get me near 200W and the EPP-200-12 is a 2" x 4" board. The entire build could be in a slim, console style instead of whatever this may turn into.

 

[Soul_Est]

After having mounting a Noctua L9a-AM4 on the machine and putting it through it's paces so far, I am impressed with the performance so far. The system is effectively mute in a living room environment and needs a quiet power supply for desktop use. The 2700X can regularly boost to just over 4200MHz on up to five(!) cores and remain under 80C (Under Windows at least). This bodes well for CAD, Gaming, Digital Art, Rendering, and Compiling. I do need to move onto Linux and figure out how to get the kernel to let the processor handle it's clocks.

The RX 570 Pulse ITX performs well and is dead silent at idle and muted when gaming. This is under Windows and I'll need to get fan control going (which works under the open source drivers!) under Linux. This will be rather trivial.

The 120GB M.2 PCI-E 2x SSD I have is woefully small under Windows. A 1TB M.2 SATA III drive only costs four times what I paid for the current one. May pick that up later this year or early next year.

The B450-I Gaming is a mixed bag. It performs fine and the audio solution is great to my ears but the inclusion of RGB with the lack of fine tuning such control is annoying. I really like the two M.2 slots though as I see now why NVMe speeds are so lauded by many.

The RAM works at the rated speeds provided that I don't try to undervolt the 2700X at all. May replace with 16GB is the future as my needs grow.

While I generally dislike Windows for multiple reasons (I work with it everyday), Microsoft's mentality towards their customers is baffling. I have two XBOX One S controllers but I can only use one via Bluetooth but multiple at a time when using the XBOX One controller dongle under Windows. Why?! I have testing this on Android and multiple XBOX One S controllers can connect to my phone so why not under Windows? Given the Play Anywhere initiative that Microsoft has been pushing, you'd think they would want you to play anywhere... /rant

I going to go use the system now.