# Cool/Efficient cruncher



## Boatvan (Jul 11, 2019)

Hi all! It has been a while and my output is low due to heat in my area. I wish I could crunch year round but energy costs and heat are keeping me from doing this in the summer. I wanted to ask, in your opinion, what is the most efficient and cool running crunching processor you know of? 

My baseline is two PowerEdge r610 servers, fully populated with old xeons. I am looking to replace those with one efficient cruncher (single processor). My ppd will be lower by consolidating but it is better than dealing with those beasts!


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## Deleted member 178884 (Jul 11, 2019)

Ryzen, the more cores the better ideally.


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## mstenholm (Jul 11, 2019)

Xx Tek Tip xX said:


> Ryzen, the more cores the better ideally.


A real low power/high yield solution is a 1800 in a decent x470 board running Linux. You know this thread of course. This leave you with plenty off options to upgrade to at least twice the output provided you can keep the VRMs cool.


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## silentbogo (Jul 11, 2019)

Boatvan said:


> My baseline is two PowerEdge r610 servers, fully populated with old xeons. I am looking to replace those with one efficient cruncher (single processor). My ppd will be lower by consolidating but it is better than dealing with those beasts!


I'll put my +1 for undervolted Ryzen 7 1700 or 1800.  The only other power-efficient alternative may be Xeon D-1541, but those embedded boards are super-expensive and will definitely be slower than Ryzen.


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## thebluebumblebee (Jul 11, 2019)

> Power efficiency of Zen 2 is good, definitely improved over previous generations, probably due to the 7 nanometer production process. What caught our attention was *multi-threaded energy usage*, which measures how much total energy is used to complete a specific task—it takes into account not only power draw, but also time required to complete an operation. Here,* the Ryzen 9 3900X claims the top spot as the most energy-efficient processor we have ever tested*. Temperatures are a bit high, though, with 79°C, but all the performance has to come from somewhere.


Just say'n.  Also, Intel "T" processors are really good as well.


silentbogo said:


> The only other power-efficient alternative may be Xeon D-1541, but those embedded boards are super-expensive


I've always wanted to see some numbers from the Xeon-D's.


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## silentbogo (Jul 11, 2019)

thebluebumblebee said:


> I've always wanted to see some numbers from the Xeon-D's.


Multi-threaded performance is crazy, considering it's a 45W part. On passmark it's listed at only 20% slower than Ryzen 7 1700. I've always wanted one(even now when it's a bit outdated), but the price is still steep. I think now it may be cheaper to build an entire Ryzen 9 rig, than getting a D1541 board alone (both Supermicro and Asrock variants are priced at ~$1000 or so)


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## infrared (Jul 12, 2019)

I've only got my 6700k plodding along @ 4.0ghz 1.2v atm (seems weird to me setting vcore to _less _than 1.4v! ), an undervolted ryzen would definitely be more efficient but this isn't too bad at 65w package/55w cores. 52c average. I still have to stop it on the really hot days, not because the hardware is hot but because I am! lol


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## Boatvan (Jul 14, 2019)

Sorry for abandoning this thread. I've been quite busy. I was thinking ryzen was the way to go. I also don't want to break the bank so that is another plus. I am certainly not married to a manufacturer so I will look into the 1700 or the 1800. Thanks for the tips!

EDIT: Speccing out a 1700 on pcpartpicker. Any power supply recommendations? I would like it to be somewhat efficient. Also, for a 24/7 cruncher any cooler suggestions?
EDIT2: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MwQxnH hopefully no egregious errors here but this is what I was thinking.


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## infrared (Jul 14, 2019)

Boatvan said:


> Sorry for abandoning this thread. I've been quite busy. I was thinking ryzen was the way to go. I also don't want to break the bank so that is another plus. I am certainly not married to a manufacturer so I will look into the 1700 or the 1800. Thanks for the tips!
> 
> EDIT: Speccing out a 1700 on pcpartpicker. Any power supply recommendations? I would like it to be somewhat efficient. Also, for a 24/7 cruncher any cooler suggestions?
> EDIT2: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MwQxnH hopefully no egregious errors here but this is what I was thinking.


That would be an amazing crunching rig in terms of power efficiency and value. Personally I'd try to step up to a B350 board for a bit more control over clocks, but can't really argue with a $60 A320. Should be able to handle a 1700 with a downdraft cooler. And I was going to suggest going for a lower wattage psu, but looking at the price you might as well go with what you have.

I think when I upgrade my main rig to a 3700x or 3800x I'll move my 1800x to my HTPC and let it crunch away at say 3.3ghz 1.0v 24/7, I wonder if i could get it away with a passively air cooled setup hmmm.


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## Boatvan (Jul 14, 2019)

@infrared I think I may take your suggestion on the board because I will most likely be buying the 1700 used. I may take a whack at putting up a WTB in the proper section to see if I have any bites when I am ready. If not, there are plenty of fleabay listings with good ratings. If there is a reason I should not do this, please let me know. I agree with the PSU statement that it is a bit OP but a good price.


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## thebluebumblebee (Jul 14, 2019)

I'm so slow....
The A300 motherboards will not support the 3xxx series of processors.  I'd suggest something in the B450 range such as ASRock B450 PRO4 for $5 more after MIR.  *Deal ends Thursday*

If this is a dedicated crunching box, a 750 watt PSU is WAY too much.  My 1700 pulls 131 watts from the wall with a gold rated 450 watt PSU.

$270 for a 1700 is nuts (they're most likely running out of stock and the price is actually going up).  Newegg has the 2700 for $201, and that comes with a cooler - therefore *$110 cheaper*.  If you want a cooler that will be quieter than that, the Scythe FUMA (there's the Rev B and the newer version 2) does a great job at a great price.  The fan in the middle of the FUMA sits so low that it blows air at the VRM's.

As I found out the hard way recently, you'll need more than 8 GB of RAM for a 16 threaded system.  16 GB should be fine, and I'd look at DDR4-3000 or 3200.  As always with Ryzen, make sure the RAM is on the motherboard QVL list.

To me, the problem with a "too large" PSU is that the low loads that you'd be dealing with put the PSU in it's lowest efficiency range.  Then I looked at prices.  I forgot, when something new is introduced to the market, PSU prices always go up.  I'm always looking for deals that are about $0.10 per watt, normally after a MIR.  On July 3rd, I posted in Hot Buys that the Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-550FX 550W could be had for $52 after a $25 MIR.  Now it's $96! (I actually like semi-modular PSU's for this application)

You'll need some sort of video card, at least to set it up.  You can always set it up to remote in later.


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## Boatvan (Jul 14, 2019)

@thebluebumblebee That is a good point about the PSU. I will downsize to 450 gold. I am also going to bump up the RAM to 16 as suggested and if my A+ training taught me anything, I will check the compatibility list lmao. I am seeing some good deals on the b450 boards too so no problem there. This may be a few weeks off at least, but I am getting more and more serious about it. I should probably invest in a kill-a-watt too just to see how inefficient some things are in my house lmao


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## thebluebumblebee (Jul 14, 2019)

This chart is so interesting for what we do.







Which brought about this statement:


> Power efficiency of Zen 2 is good, definitely improved over previous generations, probably due to the 7 nanometer production process. What caught our attention was multi-threaded energy usage, which measures how much total energy is used to complete a specific task—it takes into account not only power draw, but also the time required to complete an operation. *Here, Ryzen 7 3700X claims the top spot as the most energy efficient processor we have ever tested*.



So, the 3700X is more efficient than the 2700 which is in turn more efficient than the 1700 (had to dig for that last one)  Of course, $330>$200>~$100   (The 3700X at $330 would be a no brainer against a 1700 at $270)
*Also, you have to be careful with out of the box support for the 3000 series CPU's for 300 and 400 series motherboards.*


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## thebluebumblebee (Jul 15, 2019)

And then Newegg did this. And this.


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## Boatvan (Jul 16, 2019)

I just bought this tbh. 2700x with cooler for 199 on prime day lmao





EDIT: Link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B428M7F/


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## thebluebumblebee (Jul 16, 2019)

That'll do.


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## Boatvan (Jul 19, 2019)

So there has been a change of plans... I got the 2700x and made it my daily driver for now. Built it using a bunch of prime day deal parts that are arriving in waves now. I was a fool to think that I would build this cool new system and make it a dedicated cruncher lmao. I will take the 3770k setup I was using and turn that into a dedicated cruncher along with the other 3770k system that is already ready to do so. If anyone is curious, these are the specs: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Pxq6TB

I already owned the m.2,  EVGA 980, and case (which I do not recall the make and model of it atm)

I will NOT let this go uncrunched however, even if it is only part time!

So in summary,
2X 3770K crunchers full time (still better than the old Xeons)
1X 2700X daily driver part time cruncher. Just playing around with OC

The true test of my OC. A night of 85% stress on it.





 Very new to overclocking so it may be kind of lame, but I have my 2700x system in a rudimentary OC:
Turned on DOCP to match my memory
4.0GHz @ what appears to top out at 1.25 volts under load. I have it set to 1.175 volts in the AMD utility but I am not sure what it does with that specific setting.





Temps are OK for the stock cooler. Cinebench Extreme yields a score of 477 with temps peaking at around 79*C
Ran Prime95 on mixed tests until I got bored (10-12 minutes)


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## phill (Aug 1, 2019)

Very glad to see you got this sorted and apologies for not replying or seeing this sooner  

Both of my 1700X's that I have I find are pretty decent, 130 to 175w at the wall for the full system with a RX 480 Strix installed and all air cooled.  For 16 threads, it's rather decent I think considering my SR-2 is chomping away at 410w for 24 threads that are about half as efficient   Thankfully, I don't run that thing unless the sun's out  

What work units are you running on it @Boatvan ?  The open Zika seem to do pretty well on a AMD from what @thebluebumblebee has said and @mstenholm   I run a few other units with them but they do yeld some good scores 
I bet you'll find that the R610's you had where about half the performance of your 2700X   I hear the 2700 is pretty decent for a 65w unit..  Now the 3700 is out and with all the IPC etc, it's probably the new champ


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## Boatvan (Aug 15, 2019)

@phill sorry for not seeing this earlier. I am running all projects on all of my crunchers. I could probably increase ppd if I discriminated, but I can't in good conscience uncheck any of them since they are all really good causes. I took the OC off of this a week ago. It was fun to play with, but I deemed it unnecessary really.  Was pushing the comfort level for temps.

In the winter, the r610's may start chooching along again... Haven't decided yet. Gonna have to renew my VMware licence if so...

Also, everyone give it up for @phill as he just hit 15m points according to FreeDC!


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## phill (Aug 15, 2019)

Is not a problem  

I think I just run certain tasks for my AMD hardware and then leave the Intel setups use all of them    I find a lot of the time leaving things stock or even under volting/downclocking for crunching/folding etc. is a lot better option than trying to overclock and push the hardware.  I think it just adds more heat/power etc and doesn't really gain masses...  That said I have overclocked my 5960X but I've not really pushed it massively far but that still trails behind the likes of my 1700X's at stock  

Thank you for the mention on the milestone   I saw it last night and was rather surprised lol   Trying to catch up Arjai


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