X299 Owners Club

[Zyll Goliat]

Ok guys few updates and info's from me and my X299 SkylakeX machine....
So I have 64gb 4x16 on 2133Mhz that I OC on 2800Mhz and everything was working OK but now I decided to get more RAM and decided to add 4x32Gb on 21333Mhz it's same Samsung brand/Reg ECC ram....FYI seems like everything working flawlessly 'tho now my memory OC is almost impossible I managed to tweak a bit timings and to rise memory to work on 2200Mhz but that is it......All in all now I have 192Gb of ram in total Reg Ecc(quad channel) that works totally fine on X299 Platform on my Asus Rog Gaming E motherboard(older bios only) ......Ahh yeah I also upgrade my Case and went for NZXT H5 Flow/black didn't do yet any RGB because honestly don't care that much about RGB I will maybe add only cold-blue light in the future and that's it....

 

[lexluthermiester]

Ok guys few updates and info's from me and my X299 SkylakeX machine....
So I have 64gb 4x16 on 2133Mhz that I OC on 2800Mhz and everything was working OK but now I decided to get more RAM and decided to add 4x32Gb on 21333Mhz it's same Samsung brand/Reg ECC ram....FYI seems like everything working flawlessly 'tho now my memory OC is almost impossible I managed to tweak a bit timings and to rise memory to work on 2200Mhz but that is it......All in all now I have 192Gb of ram in total Reg Ecc(quad channel) that works totally fine on X299 Platform on my Asus Rog Gaming E motherboard(older bios only) ......Ahh yeah I also upgrade my Case and went for NZXT H5 Flow/black didn't do yet any RGB because honestly don't care that much about RGB I will maybe add only cold-blue light in the future and that's it....
View attachment 357057

Holy crap that's a lot of RAM.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

Holy crap that's a lot of RAM.

Yeaha lot indeed.....btw managed to get it to work on 2400Mhz manually tweaking timings not as fast as it was when I had 64Gb(only) but it is good enough for that amount of ram....

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeaha lot indeed.....btw managed to get it to work on 2400Mhz manually tweaking timings not as fast as it was when I had 64Gb(only) but it is good enough for that amount of ram....

A little bit more voltage wouldn't hurt them either. Say from 1.2v to 1.25v or 1.25v to 1.3v depending on what DIMMs you're running.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

A little bit more voltage wouldn't hurt them either. Say from 1.2v to 1.25v or 1.25v to 1.3v depending on what DIMMs you're running.

Ohh yea already did that.....it's old rule from previous platform when you have 8 slots for memory usually it's better to add a bit V especially when you do memory/OC

 

[masterdeejay]

8x16Gb Hynix DJR ECC REG 3200@4000.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

8x16Gb Hynix DJR ECC REG 3200@4000.

View attachment 357608

That's really nice man.....how much did cost 3200Mhz ECC Reg?

 

[masterdeejay]

That's really nice man.....how much did cost 3200Mhz ECC Reg?

It was aprox 16 usd per stick

 

[Zyll Goliat]

It was aprox 16 usd per stick

Ahh that was cheap....it's not easy to find fast reg ecc memory especially used they are usually slower speeds.....

 

[masterdeejay]

Speed doesnt matter, just buy any hynix cjr or djr chip modules all of them are capable to reach 3600-4000.
The only anti oc modules are the 4rx4 or load reduced models.
The old 2133 modules can run at least 2666-2933.
Some of them can do over 3000.
The optimal is 2R per channel, so 8 x single rank or 4 x dual rank.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

Speed doesnt matter, just buy any hynix cjr or djr chip modules all of them are capable to reach 3600-4000.
The only anti oc modules are the 4rx4 or load reduced models.
The old 2133 modules can run at least 2666-2933.
Some of them can do over 3000.
The optimal is 2R per channel, so 8 x single rank or 4 x dual rank.
View attachment 357623View attachment 357624

THX for the tips.....'tho it's to late now I am full of memory now unfortunately I have 4x32Gb that are not good OC I also have 4x16gb and those can go up to the 2800Mhz easily so now I have 192Gb in total but so far I managed to get them to work on 2400Mhz.....well at least those was cheap around 20€ per stick for 32gb...

 

[masterdeejay]

Few tips for Intel I9 79xx overclocking.
You can gain a lot of performance from the Mesh and memory overclocking. https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/skylake-x-memory-benchmarks.18793466/
Because this cpu arch is optimized for server loads not for games.

The mesh connects the cores and cache to the IMC. This adds latency. It is like the CCX problem in ryzen cpus.

Average skylake-x can do 30x mesh multi at 1.1-1.2v but it will increase the temps a lot!
You don't need to overvoltage the VCCIO and VCCSA voltage for memory overclocking just the uncore/system agent voltage. +350mv is for 4000-4200mhz, above that can degrade the cpu.
My asrock mobo give to much voltage in auto mode.

7980XE delided water cooled
4.5Ghz all core, HT off, 3.2Ghz Mesh, 4000mhz ram
AVX2 4Ghz, AVX512 3.5Ghz
It is recommend to reduce the AVX offsets.

The ECC REG memory is slower (few %) than the non ecc reg memory because the REG chips add extra latency. And more rank you use more hard to overclock.
For the ecc reg max dimm voltage is 1.35v-1.4v without extra cooling. The easiest way to determine the max oc is by searching the memory module die type.
just a few:

Hynix
4Gbit MFR
3000-3300Mhz

4Gbit AFR
3600

Hynix DJR
above 4000

Hynix CJR
3800-4000

Samsung D-die
3600-3800

Samsung C-die
3600-3800

Samsung E-die
3200-4000

Most of the ecc reg modules have much higher quality chips than the average desktop dimms, that means can reach higher clocks but the timings are worse. Newer modules (see date code) easier to overclock. The more overclockable chips are die and date code depended. Don't need to buy the higher default freq modules. A good die new chip 2133mhz modules can do better overclock than a worse die older 2666 modules.
The bandwidth is still very good because the quad channel and comparable to DDR5 dual channel. Latency is high, you can reduce it with the TRFC timing.



For games Hyperthreading is not needed for gaming because most of the games not scaling above 8-10 cores.
The ecc reg support is with the older micocode, so most of the newer bioses cant work with ecc reg but you can replace the new bios microcode part to the older one. I have a custom bios with a lot of new things but with older micocode for the ecc reg support. Older microcode not contain the meltdown/spectre fixes so no performance penalty.

 

[SharpBlue]

I'm looking to upgrade from my X79 platform to an Asus ROG STRIX X299-E motherboard with likely a 7820x cpu. The rest of the internet says this is a bad idea/waste of money, and then suggests components that are twice as expensive. My math shows this is comparable to a Ryzen 3600x in performance and price, but the x299/7820x is slightly cheaper with way more options on the motherboard, but less of a cpu upgrade path than a Ryzen based system.

Secondly, how picky are these X299 boards, specifically this Asus ROG board, when it comes to RAM? I saw here that you guys are getting REG ECC ram to work and overclock, when supposedly ECC ram isn't supposed to work at all. Also, the support docs say that only certain ram kits will work in quad channel with all 8 slots loaded? Is this true? I'd be looking to get 32gb in 2 or 4 sticks at first, and then add more later, with this setup eventually becoming an upgrade to my home server some years down the road when I upgrade this PC again.

What do you all think?

 

[lexluthermiester]

What do you all think?

I think that is a good combo performance-wise and if you can get them for a fair price, go for it. The 7820X is a solid 8core CPU and with a very mild OC will give a good boost. Do yourself a favor, with the quad channel memory that platform provides, you don't need super fast DDR4 to get great RAM performance. Get some quality DDR4-2667 or DDR4-3200 with CL16 timings and call it a day. 4x8GB would be more than most programs/game need. Should not be expensive.

Also, there will still be an upgrade path when that CPU starts hitting the buffers. From a 7820X you can go to a 9900X, 9920X, 10900X or 10920X all of which grant a good bump in IPC, clocks and extra cores.

 

[SharpBlue]

I'm also eyeballing the 7920x, but it's twice as expensive. For ram I'll start with 32gb but I want more because I play with generative AI software and that eats quite a lot. That's one of the reasons I like the X299 platform, because of the quad channel ram and boards with 8 ram slots. It's too bad the cpus max out at 128gb. I really wish these boards could take Xeon cpus.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm also eyeballing the 7920x, but it's twice as expensive.

The core aren't as fast though. For gaming and similar tasks, the 7820X is the much better value!

Intel Core i7-7820X Specs

Skylake-X, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3.6 GHz, 140 W

www.techpowerup.com

Intel Core i9-7920X Specs

Skylake-X, 12 Cores, 24 Threads, 2.9 GHz, 140 W

www.techpowerup.com

If you want a happy middle ground, go with the 7900X

Intel Core i9-7900X Specs

Skylake-X, 10 Cores, 20 Threads, 3.3 GHz, 140 W

www.techpowerup.com

You get good 3.3ghz base clocks, 44PCIe lanes, 10cores, and they're very inexpensive ATM.

 

[mtosev]

As a fellow X299 user when do you people think this platform will be dead and require an upgrade?

 

[lexluthermiester]

As a fellow X299 user when do you people think this platform will be dead and require an upgrade?

It's still supported officially by Windows 11 and the performance is still very much relevant. So if you can find a good deal on parts it's worth it. The quad channel memory alone is a very worthy feature.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I'm looking to upgrade from my X79 platform to an Asus ROG STRIX X299-E motherboard with likely a 7820x cpu. The rest of the internet says this is a bad idea/waste of money, and then suggests components that are twice as expensive. My math shows this is comparable to a Ryzen 3600x in performance and price, but the x299/7820x is slightly cheaper with way more options on the motherboard, but less of a cpu upgrade path than a Ryzen based system.

Secondly, how picky are these X299 boards, specifically this Asus ROG board, when it comes to RAM? I saw here that you guys are getting REG ECC ram to work and overclock, when supposedly ECC ram isn't supposed to work at all. Also, the support docs say that only certain ram kits will work in quad channel with all 8 slots loaded? Is this true? I'd be looking to get 32gb in 2 or 4 sticks at first, and then add more later, with this setup eventually becoming an upgrade to my home server some years down the road when I upgrade this PC again.

What do you all think?

And strictly speaking from a monetary perspective, the rest of the internet would be correct, unless you have specific requirements that only this platform can fulfill or access to the hardware at an excellent price, just like the X99 platform is available for today. But I don't think X299 has gotten that cheap yet, it certainly hasn't on the high-end. From my perspective, it's all about how much money you are going to put down. The X299 platform is still very robust performance-wise and will certainly provide a great deal of flexibility as an HEDT platform, providing 24 chipset-bound PCIe lanes in addition to the CPU lanes (I believe it maxes out at 48 combined when using a 10th Gen Cascade Lake-X i9).

Zen 5/Ryzen 9000 will outperform this platform (even accounting for i9-10980XE processor) in AVX-512 and provide DDR5+ECC support with comparable memory bandwidth and much larger CPU cache, considering the 10980XE is still a cool $650-700 on AliExpress, which means buying a Ryzen 9 9950X machine is, in 99% of cases, a better idea if you don't already own a X299 board. On the level you're looking to buy, a Ryzen 5 9600X machine will likely leave every single 7th Gen Core i7 in the dust regardless of workload (both Kaby-X and Skylake-X derivatives), particularly considered AVX-512 performance. That leaves its PCIe lane availability on the table, but with the bandwidth consideration and that bifurcation also does the trick in many cases/is widely supported in both socket AM4 and AM5 motherboards.

If you want the last generation of Intel HEDT, this is it. Don't look anywhere else. If you want Intel HEDT but on a budget, go back a generation - Broadwell-EP Xeon v4 chips are extremely cheap - I scored a 14-core 2680v4 for ~$15 USD the other day. These should still be a relative upgrade over X79. If you want highest price/performance/benefit ratio, this certainly isn't the way to go.

Hope this helps you make an informed decision, mate.

 

[SharpBlue]

The core aren't as fast though. For gaming and similar tasks, the 7820X is the much better value!

Intel Core i7-7820X Specs

Skylake-X, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3.6 GHz, 140 W

www.techpowerup.com

Intel Core i9-7920X Specs

Skylake-X, 12 Cores, 24 Threads, 2.9 GHz, 140 W

www.techpowerup.com

If you want a happy middle ground, go with the 7900X

Intel Core i9-7900X Specs

Skylake-X, 10 Cores, 20 Threads, 3.3 GHz, 140 W

www.techpowerup.com

You get good 3.3ghz base clocks, 44PCIe lanes, 10cores, and they're very inexpensive ATM.

Good catch, I didn't even notice the much slower base clock of the 7920x. Probably because I'm used to the option to enable a constant all core turbo, effectively making the turbo clock into the base clock. Like my current 4930k is 3.4ghz base and 3.9ghz turbo, but with "all core turbo" enabled on the motherboard, it just runs all cores to 3.9ghz and stays there as long as it needs to for the work load. Is that possible with the LGA2066 CPUs?

And strictly speaking from a monetary perspective, the rest of the internet would be correct, unless you have specific requirements that only this platform can fulfill or access to the hardware at an excellent price, just like the X99 platform is available for today. But I don't think X299 has gotten that cheap yet, it certainly hasn't on the high-end....

Well, I got the Asus Rog X299 motherboard for $80, and I can get a 7820x for $50, so it's getting there on the low end. I paid $100 for my MSI X79 GD45 with a 3930k on it in 2021, and that was a steal back then, so I think it's fair to say I got an excellent price on at least the motherboard. The 7820x seems roughly similar to the Ryzen 3600x in terms of overall performance, maybe slightly slower than the Ryzen. But I would have paid $10-20 more for an AM4 motherboard and $20 more for the CPU. Granted, I would have had a better upgrade path with an AM4 platform... but I don't know, I just like Intel stuff better. I'm not an Intel a fanboy, AMD is very respectable, maybe it's the old looking zif socket, or the janky cooler mounting, or the lack of features on the motherboards in the price range I was looking at... or all three. Sort of like the difference between driving an old Cadillac vs a newer Honda.

Anyways, I think I made an alright decision. The only thing that makes me second guess is that the little i3 12100 stomps the 7820x in single core performance, and I could have gotten an entire 12100 SFF system for $40 more than just the X299 motherboard and CPU, and it would have used 1/4 the power.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Well, I got the Asus Rog X299 motherboard for $80, and I can get a 7820x for $50, so it's getting there on the low end. I paid $100 for my MSI X79 GD45 with a 3930k on it in 2021, and that was a steal back then, so I think it's fair to say I got an excellent price on at least the motherboard. The 7820x seems roughly similar to the Ryzen 3600x in terms of overall performance, maybe slightly slower than the Ryzen. But I would have paid $10-20 more for an AM4 motherboard and $20 more for the CPU. Granted, I would have had a better upgrade path with an AM4 platform... but I don't know, I just like Intel stuff better. I'm not an Intel a fanboy, AMD is very respectable, maybe it's the old looking zif socket, or the janky cooler mounting, or the lack of features on the motherboards in the price range I was looking at... or all three. Sort of like the difference between driving an old Cadillac vs a newer Honda.

Anyways, I think I made an alright decision. The only thing that makes me second guess is that the little i3 12100 stomps the 7820x in single core performance, and I could have gotten an entire 12100 SFF system for $40 more than just the X299 motherboard and CPU, and it would have used 1/4 the power.

Oh hell yeah, a ROG X299 with a 7820X at $130 total investment is a siiiick deal! Enjoy your rig man... and don't worry, over time you have a LOT of upgrade potential to cover with it. May your rig serve you well

 

[lexluthermiester]

Is that possible with the LGA2066 CPUs?

Yes and no. It depends on the motherboard you choose. The ASUS & AsRock model generally allow for that and MSI also has a some features to play with as well. Not sure about others, can't remember.

For example: In one of my systems I have a 7900X with a base of 3.6 and an all-core sustained boost of 4.1. No voltage changes on that system. Another system has an ASUS workstation board with a 9900X clocked at 4.1 base with all-core 4.4 boost, which needs a bump in voltage of .085v, which is not shabby at all.

If you need to keep things on the inexpensive side, get the ASUS board and 7820X you mentioned earlier with 4x8GB DDR4 3200. OC the 7820X a bit and enjoy!

 

[WhiteNoise]

My game server rig is X299. I built this PC when the Chip and board was released and it's been great.

Intel Core i7 7800X
Corsair Hydro Series H115i 280mm
MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK
evga GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 iCX

 

[Zyll Goliat]

I'm looking to upgrade from my X79 platform to an Asus ROG STRIX X299-E motherboard with likely a 7820x cpu. The rest of the internet says this is a bad idea/waste of money, and then suggests components that are twice as expensive. My math shows this is comparable to a Ryzen 3600x in performance and price, but the x299/7820x is slightly cheaper with way more options on the motherboard, but less of a cpu upgrade path than a Ryzen based system.

Secondly, how picky are these X299 boards, specifically this Asus ROG board, when it comes to RAM? I saw here that you guys are getting REG ECC ram to work and overclock, when supposedly ECC ram isn't supposed to work at all. Also, the support docs say that only certain ram kits will work in quad channel with all 8 slots loaded? Is this true? I'd be looking to get 32gb in 2 or 4 sticks at first, and then add more later, with this setup eventually becoming an upgrade to my home server some years down the road when I upgrade this PC again.

What do you all think?

I have X299 Asus Rog Strix E Gaming paired with 7940X and YES the ECC memory will work on this mobo but only on older bios anything above bios vers. 1004 will not work with ECC Reg memory....I personally love to have a lot of ram so atm I have 192Gb installed(4x32+4x16) and everything works like a charm.....Sure it's an "Oldish" platform but it's HEDT so most mobo's are really good quality built and nice options in bios for OC and tweaking and when it comes to the performance if you OC this platform which is a must when it comes to the IPC it's somewhere around Ryzen 3000 series but you will have quad channel memory and possibly more cores depends of your CPU.....

 

[SharpBlue]

Yes and no. It depends on the motherboard you choose. The ASUS & AsRock model generally allow for that and MSI also has a some features to play with as well. Not sure about others, can't remember.

For example: In one of my systems I have a 7900X with a base of 3.6 and an all-core sustained boost of 4.1. No voltage changes on that system. Another system has an ASUS workstation board with a 9900X clocked at 4.1 base with all-core 4.4 boost, which needs a bump in voltage of .085v, which is not shabby at all.

If you need to keep things on the inexpensive side, get the ASUS board and 7820X you mentioned earlier with 4x8GB DDR4 3200. OC the 7820X a bit and enjoy!

I ordered both the board and the CPU. For the overclock, I would be perfectly happy with an all core clock of 4.5, but I'd even be ok with 4.3.

I have X299 Asus Rog Strix E Gaming paired with 7940X and YES the ECC memory will work on this mobo but only on older bios anything above bios vers. 1004 will not work with ECC Reg memory....I personally love to have a lot of ram so atm I have 192Gb installed(4x32+4x16) and everything works like a charm.....Sure it's an "Oldish" platform but it's HEDT so most mobo's are really good quality built and nice options in bios for OC and tweaking and when it comes to the performance if you OC this platform which is a must when it comes to the IPC it's somewhere around Ryzen 3000 series but you will have quad channel memory and possibly more cores depends of your CPU.....

Hey, thanks for the info! I play with generative AI stuff that often eats a lot of ram so I'd like to have plenty as well, but the 1004 bios is pretty old, I'll have to look at all the changes since then... I wonder if a modded bios could be made. Do you know if the newer bios versions can handle more than 128gb of standard non-ECC ram?