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I asked a question here and I was told to create another question asking for a mainboard recommendation.

So far the parts I have in my Amazon Cart are the following:

Anyways though if there's a Mainboard recommendation that fits my required needs it'd be amazing to get some help, thanks!

The requirements:

  • Must feature one sTR4 (the threadripper-) socket
  • Support for 2x PCIe 3.0 x16 is required
  • Support for at least 2 SATA-3 drives and an PCIe NVMe SSD
  • Support for at least 4 RAM sticks and at least 32GB total
  • Price should be 300 USD or less on amazon.com
  • The mainboard should also not feature known spacing issues with 3rd-party coolers (don't need to research hard on that one)
  • As the case isn't picked (yet) any standard desktop format is acceptable

It is preferable to make good use of the budget and get a durable mainboard over the cheapest possible fitting the requirements.

Cfinley
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GodzillaDude
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  • Logically, the next component after the mainboard, could either be a) the RAM b) the graphics card(s) or c) the persistent / long-term storage. – SEJPM Sep 17 '17 at 19:09

1 Answers1

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The CPU cooler that is available for bundling on amazon is the Corsair H115i, which is a water cooler with 2x 140mm fans (for cooling the hot water coming from the CPU). This is the most powerful of Corsair liquid coolers and would have been my recommendation indeed. However one needs to see first whether such a 280mm radiator fits in the case first.

Right now, there are exactly 6 Threadripper-compatible mainboards on the market, of which the following 3 are avaible on Amazon.com:

All of which satisfy the following:

  • They have 8 RAM slots for a total maximum of 128GB of RAM
  • They have at least 2 full-speed PCIe 3.0 x16 slots
  • They have at least 2 M.2 slots with a PCIe 3.0 x4 connection
  • They have at least 2 USB 3.1 Gen2 ports
  • They have at least 6 SATA-3 ports
  • They have at least 4 Fan headers (the PSU will likely have some as well)

Form-factor wise the ASUS is EATX and the other two are standard ATX sized. Connectivity-wise all but the Gigabyte one have Intel GBit Ethernet (the Gigabyte one has a RivetNetworks controler) and all but the ASUS one have WiFi capabilities.

So given they all satisfy all relevant constraints I could think of, I think the MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC, despite its ridiculous name, is the best pick out of the three because it has the most standard form-factor and sits at the cheapest price-point.

SEJPM
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  • Man I'm so grateful for all this help you're providing, thank you. I'm still kind of lost within all of this and am just looking at your recommendations and adding them on Amazon. Someone told me that it's best to get like 6 or 7 different memory slots in the computer so in the future I don't have to buy a different one and can just put in more memory. I have no idea what's going on man I really need some help. – GodzillaDude Sep 24 '17 at 20:35
  • Can you explain it like you're explaining it to an 8 year old? Thanks man. – GodzillaDude Sep 24 '17 at 21:01
  • @GodzillaDude ok, the non-technical explanation can be summarized as: There are 6 mainboards compatible with the CPU you picked. Of those 6, three of which are available with your favorite reseller Amazon. All these three cost 350-400USD and have all the high-end features you could possibly wish for. My recommendation fell onto the MSI board because of details (such as size, wifi and price). As for the RAM slots, because you'd have to get the exact same RAM sticks again for a later upgrade, more often than not, one will just get a new set at which point >4 slots is nice but pointless. – SEJPM Sep 24 '17 at 21:07
  • As for the grand scheme of things: About 1350USD are planned now and I would recommend you make three distinct questions for the three components listed in the comment under the question. – SEJPM Sep 24 '17 at 21:10
  • My head is gonna explode i have no idea what to do. This is my list of what I have: For the CPU I can either get the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950x or the Intel Core I9-7900x Processor (I don't know which of the two I need to get. Which one is better for 3D Rendering? I hear intel is better but I'd like your opinion for clarification.) For the Motherboard, there is either MSI Gaming AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 SLI CFX Extended-ATX Motherboard (X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC) that one or – GodzillaDude Sep 24 '17 at 21:17
  • ASUS PRIME X399-A AMD Threadripper TR4 DDR4 M.2 U.2 X399 EATX HEDT Motherboard with USB 3.1 Gen2, AURA Sync RGB Lighting and 3D Printing Mounts. I'd like to know which one you think is better for my main priority Blender 3D Rendering. For the GPU there is this one I found called ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 TI 11GB VR Ready 5K HD Gaming Graphics Card (ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-11G-GAMING) which is $750. I don't know if that's a good graphics card but I know I'll use GPU rendering a lot. And that's all I have. So I have the two choices for the CPU and Motherboard, and have a GPU but don't know if – GodzillaDude Sep 24 '17 at 21:24
  • it's good to get. If you can give me your input that'd be great man, again thanks for being so generous and helping me out! – GodzillaDude Sep 24 '17 at 21:25
  • @GodzillaDude Given your budget, the AMD Threadripper 1950X will be the best CPU for the 3D rendering workload that you have, because you can split it up in many small tasks which can be done independently by the 16 cores of the AMD as opposed to the 10 cores by the Intel processor. The Intel processor would be faster on a per-core basis, but this doesn't compensate the larger number of cores of the AMD. As stated in the post my recommendation is the MSI mainboard you found, but either can be made work (you just need to state which you picked). – SEJPM Sep 24 '17 at 21:40
  • As for the GPU I can just re-iterate the recommendation I have already given: Please make a separate question for it. The focus on GPU rendering is good to know and will definitely influence the recommendation. But given that your budget is 3k USD (as opposed to the "original" 7k), other options may be faster for a better / similar price-point. – SEJPM Sep 24 '17 at 21:42