Computer Upgrade King Shows Off a Compact 32-Core Ryzen Threadripper PC
by Anton Shilov on May 28, 2019 9:00 AM EST
Workstations based on AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processors with up to 32 cores are available from the vast majority of boutique PC makers. Since we are dealing with hardware for demanding tasks, PC builders tend to leave a lot of space for expandability, so the majority of AMD Ryzen Threadripper-powered PCs are rather large. Computer Upgrade King decided to do something different: its 2990WX-based Stratos Micro uses a Micro-ATX platform and is therefore smaller than its competitors. Meanwhile, it still offers leading-edge performance and expandability, as we discovered at Computex.
Computer Upgrade King’s Stratos Micro featuring AMD’s 32-core Ryzen Threadripper W2990WX uses ASRock’s X399M Taichi motherboard, the only Micro-ATX mainboard for AMD’s TR4 socket on the market. Being compact, this platform still has four DDR4 DIMM slots (thus providing quad-channel performance), three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, eight SATA ports, a U.2 port, three M.2-2280 slots for NVMe/PCIe SSDs, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, USB 3.0 ports, USB 3.1 connectors, Purity Sound audio, and so on.
The Stratos Micro comes equipped with AMD’s Radeon VII graphics card, 32 GB of DDR4 memory, a 2.5-inch SATA SSD, and so on. To ensure proper cooling, the PC maker uses a custom soft-tube open loop cooling solution and to provide enough power for the CPU and the GPU it uses a 1300 W power supply.
Because the Stratos Micro is aimed primarily at enthusiasts looking not only for performance but also cool look, it comes in a custom chassis with loads of controllable RGB LEDs that can be customized to enable unique lighting effects matching style of the owner.
Obviously, like all extreme workstations, the Stratos Micro is not cheap. The default configuration costs $4999 and when the specs are beefed up, only sky is the limit.
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YoukY63 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Not bad. But I still beat them with my Thermaltake Core G3 build (23 vs 28 liters). :)Threadripper with AsRock Taichi ATX motherboard, 3x M.2 SSD, 2x 3.5" HDD, water cooling (Liqtech 240mm), Corsair SFX 600w PSU.
It is tight but fits perfectly well. :)
Clock Master - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
Thermaltake Core G3 only supports single 240mm rad and you have only 600W SFX PSU. This PC has fully clocked 32core 2990Wx supported by 2 x 240mm rad including 45mm in front with 2080 ti and 1300W ATX. That's not even a comparison as the 4L smaller G3 can only get you only a 16 core 2950X and 2080 at max with almost $100 added cost of having to go Corsaur 750W SFX on the PSU?YoukY63 - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
So a 750W is possible, you admit it yourself.For the cooling of a fully powered 2990Wx, I am not too much worried. Liqtech 240 might be "only" 240mm, yet it is thick (45mm too) and rated at 500W+. While TR4 2990Wx peak at 250W.
I swapped the original fans for 2 Noctua Industrial 2000rpm PWM, silent at rest, terribly efficient at load.
The only question mark being for the GFX compatibility. I would need to measure the space remaining for it. But at the same time, TR4 is not really a gamer thing... ;)
On the other hand, I have my full load of RAM (8x16GB), which makes much more sense for a workstation than a gamer GFX. While this model can only accommodate 4 sticks. And how many HDDs?
Clock Master - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
Only limitations would be MATX mobo reducing options to AsRock X399M with only 4 DIMMs and HDDs are limited to 1x3.5in down below, 1x2.5in mounted to PSU shroud and 3xm.2 onboard but for most that's more than enough. Fits up to 340mm length GPU. Big differentiator is ATX PSU allowing for much lower cost and higher capacity as well as the dual 240mm rad mounting which allows much better cooling capacity.Keep in mind though that 32c 2990WX is very difficult to fully clock at boost on all cores and single 240mm is barely enough for 16c 2950X. This PC has 600-2000rpm ARGB ring fans with 3mm H2O pressure so they are driving good airflow through 45mm rad.
YoukY63 - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
I believe you when you say that the 2990Wx is a beast to cool down. I only have a 1950x, but even this one, I feel the heat coming out of the case when it is running at max! :DActually having 128 vs 64GB is a major difference, especially for people using memory intensive software (Matlab and genomic analysis software for example in my field of research).
My Noctua fans have 3.94mm of static pressure at max speed, so they can also efficiently cool the processor and bring fresh air into the case, which by the way is particularly well ventilated thanks to many (mesh covered) vents. Yet they can slow down to 450rpm, which is why they seem so silent when CPU activity is normal.
I just checked the space for the graphic card: about 274mm of space before reaching the radiator. Which is just what is needed for a "normal" RTX2080Ti finally (267mm for the FE according to nVidia). :)
I wish more brands try to make compact cases, especially thin ones. Yet, functional enough to feat even the beefiest CPUs and GPUs.
Clock Master - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
G.Skill and Zadak are 2 memory manufacturers that have 32GB UDIMMs so technically 4x32GB = 128GB is option.YoukY63 - Saturday, June 1, 2019 - link
From what I know, it is not compatible. When tested on this website a few months ago (https://www.anandtech.com/show/13694/double-height... only 3 motherboards were compatible. With the limited interest for these memory sticks, probably not so many manufacturers will make efforts to support 32GB double height sticks (limited to Intel for now anyway).boozed - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
"Compact"?stevenktran3885@gmail.com - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Brought a set up from online and you see oh 1-5 days shipping cool. But then they don't tell you wait 1-3 days for processing where they call you to confirm which was 3 days later for me. Then email you saying waiting 30 days for a tracking number and than tell you oh we're sorry we're out of stock we can't make your set up you paid for and say wait until another shipment which took 5 business days cause they don't open on weekends. than they wanna be like oh we're putting your pc together which takes 30mins max even for a slow person took up to 4 days. and finally ships it taking 4 days to come so you're basically waiting basically 30 days I would never ever ever ever brought anything from this place if I knew how bad the online store was.