What do you think about this 2990WX build?

[ymrider21]

Hello, I'm looking at upgrading to a 2990WX workstation build. I don't plan on overclocking it but would like the option to in the future. I'm trying to save money where I can without sacrificing too much performance. Any advice on this build would be much appreciated.

AMD 2nd Gen RYZEN Threadripper 2990WX 32-Core, 64-Thread, 4.2 GHz Max Boost (3.0 GHz Base), Socket sTR4 250W YD299XAZAFWOF Desktop Processor
Corsair Hydro Series H100i PRO Low Noise 240mm RGB Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 240mm (CW-9060033-WW). Support: Intel 2066, AMD AM4, TR4.
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) AMD X399 Compatible Desktop Memory Model CMK32GX4M4B3200C16
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G1+, 80 Plus Gold 1000W, Fully Modular, FDB Fan, 10 Year Warranty, Includes Power ON Self Tester, Power Supply 120-GP-1000-X1
SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 2280 250GB PCIe Gen3. X4, NVMe 1.3 64L V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V7E250BW
ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming sTR4 AMD X399 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX AMD Motherboard
Phanteks Enthoo Pro TG PH-ES614PTG_BK Integrated RGB lighting Tempered Glass Side Panel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Black
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 GV-N1060WF2OC-3GD 3GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card

[jjones431]

That GTX video card is more appropriate for gaming. I suggest a Nvidia PNY card.

As for case you might consider a high airflow case if you are going to go with a big case, e.g. Corsair 540 & Cooler Master HAF EVO. With the above two cases the power supply and drives are on the back of the mobo and in a separate area. Former has better quality.

You also need some fault tolerance in the drives via RAID.

As for the watercooler, are you sure it can handle the new 250W Threadripper and not just the old lower TDP? Just a personal opinion, but watercooling is susceptible to leakage.

Supermicro also has better build quality than ASRock but they only make AMD mobo for Epyc processor which is faster than Threadripper. The new Threadripper has 32 cores but 16 of the cores access the memory via the other 16 cores thus slowing it down. Hope that helps

[jjones431]

Another minor issue with your mobo is this. The pcie bus for triple at x16 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2) / x16 (PCIE4) and for quad at x16 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2) / x16 (PCIE4) / x8 (PCIE5)). That means at most you can use two x16 pcie cards. The rest are x8 but if you go for ASRock X399M Taichi, which has only 3 slots, but all three at x16 so you can get put three x16 cards even though this mobo is mATX, i.e. triple at x16 (PCIE1) / x16 (PCIE2) / x16 (PCIE3))*.

[jjones431]

Sorry forgot to add, your memory should be ECC.

[ymrider21]

That helps a lot, thank you.

My main goal is to have faster optimization times in NT8's strategy analyzer, so I may be going about that incorrectly. I'm going to research your suggestions some more, but here are my quick questions/thoughts:

Video card: I'm unfamiliar with workstation cards and am unsure which one to get. I would like support of 4 monitors though. I'll look into this more.
Case: I really like the Corsair 540.
Hard drive: I've setup RAID before but never realized the advantage of fault tolerance. Will look at two m.2's or two 2.5" ssd.
Watercooler: That could be. I'll double check the manufacturer's site. Would you just go with the high air flow case and air cooler instead of watercooling?
Mobo and CPU: The Epyc and Supermicro look like a great combo, and I didn't know that about the Threadripper. Do you think this would offer faster strategy analyzer optimization times? Also, great catch on the other mobo.
Memory: Another great point and lesson for me. I'll look into ECC more and rebuild my list around a true workstation setup if you think that would be best to accomplish faster optimization times.

I really appreciate your time on this. Thanks again for the help.

[NinjaTrader_PatrickG]

We do not officially have any specific hardware recommendations outside of the installation guide. In addition to having sufficient hardware power, you'll want to also make sure your NinjaScript code is efficient as well. The strategy's code has the potential to have a bigger performance impact than any specific hardware item would. Here is a link to the NinjaScript best practices section of the help guide for your reference. If you need any assistance with code optimization or other NinjaScript questions, please start a thread on the NinjaScript sub-forum or write into us at PlatformSupport[AT]NinjaTrader[DOT]com

[jjones431]

> main goal is to have faster optimization times in NT8's strategy analyzer, so I may be going about that incorrectly.

You should start by asking how is NT8 bound for what you are trying to do. Is it network-bound, i.e. most of the time it is waiting for data to be downloaded so that a strategy can be run on the data? Is it disk-bound in some way, i.e spending most of the time reading and writing to the disk, which is unlikely. Lastly is it CPU-bound, i.e. it is spending most time during calculations. Once you have answered you can decide where to focus your resources.

> Video card: I'm unfamiliar with workstation cards and am unsure which one to get. I would like support of 4 monitors though. I'll look into this more.

Nvidia Quadro Pxxxx is the latest and even the lowest end P2000 is enough because you are not bound by graphics like a gaming software would be.

> Hard drive: I've setup RAID before but never realized the advantage of fault tolerance. Will look at two m.2's or two 2.5" ssd.

For best performance the disk should go directly to the cpu via pcie lanes. I think NVMe might be overkill if disk is barely used. If your process is disk-bound then why not get some memory and run a disk cache program like this http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supercache.php. That is better bang for a buck than say RAID 100 NVMe disks.

> Watercooler: That could be. I'll double check the manufacturer's site. Would you just go with the high air flow case and air cooler instead of watercooling?

More parts = more problems. Temperatures will be lower with water cooling but it still needs fans to cool the radiator. As for air cooling, this will do the job: Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 Ryzen Threadripper Epyc CPU Cooler

> Mobo and CPU: The Epyc and Supermicro look like a great combo, and I didn't know that about the Threadripper. Do you think this would offer faster strategy analyzer optimization times?

The server and workstation market is merging. See ASUS WS C621E SAGE mobo as an example. It uses Xeon chips that were originally for servers but are used on this "WS", for workstation" mobo. I have seen floating point benchmarks on Epyc that are amazing when compared to Xeon with similar cost. That is why both Threadripper and Epyc are doing well, great price-performance. If your software is CPU-bound then you need to find what is it doing. If it is floating point then compare the floating point benchmarks of various CPUs. There is no easy answer.

[sledge]

Sounds like overkill.

32gb ram only?

[jjones431]

sledge: Sounds like overkill.

In the hardcore hardware build forums I recently heard a phrase, never ask why but rather how!

As for 32gb ram, I don't know the layout of the mobo but it is quad channel memory and if he using 4x8gb then hopefully he has saturated the memory bus if they are dispersed appropriately in the 8 memory slot mobo.

[ymrider21]

Thanks for the great feedback, jjones431. I'm definitely limited by my CPU at the moment. It runs at near 100% and is an i7-7820x with 4x8gb of ram appropriately placed in the mobo per the manual. I'm trying to simplify my strategy's code the best I can right now. This build is my next step. Thanks again.

[MH358]

Appending a related note here on AMD's 2990WX vs. EPYC memory issues, and the relationship (and potential fix) of speed issues as they relate to the OS...not just the number of channels:

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/283114-new-utility-can-double-amd-threadripper-2990wx-performance

[MH358]

Adding also: a well-deserved and interesting discussion on the need or no-need for ECC RAM.

https://blog.codinghorror.com/to-ecc-or-not-to-ecc/

[sledge]

Thanks for the great feedback, jjones431. I'm definitely limited by my CPU at the moment. It runs at near 100% and is an i7-7820x with 4x8gb of ram appropriately placed in the mobo per the manual. I'm trying to simplify my strategy's code the best I can right now. This build is my next step. Thanks again.

How's the build working out?