Advice on choosing double socket motherboard for Epyc 7T83 or 7J13: TYAN vs Gigabyte

[O.T.T.]

Hi all, I'm going to build a new system based on Epyc top-of-the-line 3rd generation dual CPU. Now, I need to select the motherboard and I narrowed the choice down to 2 possible candidates: TYAN S8253GM2NE or Gigabyte MZ72-HB2 (HB0 it's also fine).

I would therefore like to know your valuable opinions, especially from users who own one of these two motherboards or who at least have direct experience with TYAN and/or Gigabyte server-class motherboards. To help the discussion, below I provide some additional information about my needs and personal considerations on the two products mentioned.

My goal is not to build a server but a super-workstation for advanced chess analysis: for this reason, I'm mostly interested in the sheer computational brute force of CPUs and core count rather than features useful in server applications or the monstrous number of PCI express lanes that these beasts make available.

So the priority is that the motherboard allows me to push the CPUs to 100% ... and maybe even beyond (I mean a moderate overclock, sustainable without damage even for 24/7 use). It goes without saying that absolute stability and reliability must be guaranteed.

Unfortunately I found very few opinions and no serious reviews: I can't consider a "review" as such if it limits itself to listing the technical characteristics of the motherboard, posting 2 photos and saying that it works... It's incredible how there is no site, not even the presumed specialized ones, which offers a performance comparison between two or more motherboards of this class...which has always been a very normal practice for any review of desktop or workstation motherboards.

Below, my personal considerations:

1) I like TYAN mobo design much more than Gigabyte: I strongly believe that the sockets arranged in parallel allows a much more effective cooling of both the CPUs and the MOSFETs, especially for air cooling: I plan to use the Fractal Design Torrent chassis, which is currently the best solution on the market for air cooling, in combination with Arctic Freezer 4U SP3 which is (IMHO) the best air cooler currently available for these CPUs. Gigabyte's design is intended for whoever needs large graphics cards - which are useless for my project - at the price of heavily sacrificing CPUs cooling. It is probably a viable choice, as long as you use an advanced and custom liquid cooling system, which as far as I'm concerned it's only a PITA and a not trivial and not essential expense.

2) on the other hand, it is clear that Gigabyte's motherboard offers much more complete expansion solutions than TYAN's...but I only need to connect about ten HDDs/SSDs. Plus, one card for USB 3.1 Gen 2, one for audio (!), and maybe one for M.2

3) TYAN is much cheaper than Gigabyte: it's possible to find it at $300 less, on average.

4) my main concern it's about the reliability of the two motherboards and their ability to make the most of the CPU: I haven't been able to collect info in this regard...any feedback?

5) another aspect that could greatly influence the choice is the BIOS: I downloaded the manuals of both mobos and read them completely (over 300 pages ): apart from the fact that I don't think I will use 99% of the available options, the only thing I understood is that Gigabyte provides a much richer BIOS than TYAN and probably more user-friendly, but I don't know if there are any additional features compared to TYAN that could be useful to me. For ex. something that allows CPU overclock or boost CPU performance somehow: there is someone that has any opinion on this?

6) I've read that the management of the fans on TYAN is not exactly the latest trend ... if I understand correctly the user can only set the minimum rotation speed of the fans (in %) and then the board "decides" autonomously when to increase it and by how much. I could be fine with that, provided that when the CPUs works at 100% (basically all the time for my application ) the motherboard manages the fans well, even bringing them to maximum speed if necessary and that it does it quickly! By the way, I'm not sure if Gigabyte mobo allows for a more modern and powerful management, like a user-set profile for a specific fan. Again, any feedback/opinion on this?


For starter, I think this is enough info: hope you guys will be interested in this topic and can join the discussion. Thanks in advance!

 

[ipmanchess]

Hi..when your system is build up & running i hope you are interested to run some Chess-benches!
You can have a look here on my website and you get a idea how fast your system is in compare with others who has a dual Epyc system..
Ipman Chess

Good luck with your system..
Ipman.

 

[O.T.T.]

Hi..when your system is build up & running i hope you are interested to run some Chess-benches!
You can have a look here on my website and you get a idea how fast your system is in compare with others who has a dual Epyc system..
Ipman Chess

Good luck with your system..
Ipman.

Thank you! I'm already a "follower" of your website since long time ago Your work is commendable and a real reference for (computer) chess enthusiasts

I was shocked to see the 103 billions nodes/sec from that "little" cluster by "confidential user": I suppose it's some
government apparatus or a research center...but since, lately, chess benchmarks on extremely powerful clusters - of the type that is hardly used for chess analysis purposes - are popping up like mushrooms on the net I also thought of the semi-fantasy hypothesis that they are "tools" provided by Chinese government to Ding Liren for his preparation, in view of the match for World title. Years ago the Bulgarian government did something similar for Topalov, in preparation for his match against Kramnik.

Of course I'm planning to test my new rig thoroughly, but at the moment I'm struggling to decide which motherboard to buy and a little disheartened by the lack of feedback/replies to my post. From a features point of view, Gigabyte's motherboard seems like a no brainier but I've read some things in the (scarce) reviews that I found that didn't convince me... and then I'm absolutely not convinced by the design in terms of ideal cooling of the CPUs/MOSFETs.

On the other hand, there really isn't half a review or feedback on the TYAN motherboard and I'm afraid that its "prehistoric" management of the fans could prove to be a big minus, despite the fact that the design should guarantee cooling performance clearly superior to that of Gigabyte.

 

[alex_stief]

I've read that the management of the fans on TYAN is not exactly the latest trend ... if I understand correctly the user can only set the minimum rotation speed of the fans (in %) and then the board "decides" autonomously when to increase it and by how much. I could be fine with that, provided that when the CPUs works at 100% (basically all the time for my application ) the motherboard manages the fans well, even bringing them to maximum speed if necessary and that it does it quickly! By the way, I'm not sure if Gigabyte mobo allows for a more modern and powerful management, like a user-set profile for a specific fan. Again, any feedback/opinion on this?

For fan control, Gigabyte wins hands down. It is pretty close to the kind of fan controls usually found on desktop motherboards. Maybe with a less polished UI. But you can set custom curves for any subset of fans, based on any sensor value you want.
Side-note: Gigabyte's support for these products sucks. Just in case that's something you considered.

 

[O.T.T.]

For fan control, Gigabyte wins hands down. It is pretty close to the kind of fan controls usually found on desktop motherboards. Maybe with a less polished UI. But you can set custom curves for any subset of fans, based on any sensor value you want.
Side-note: Gigabyte's support for these products sucks. Just in case that's something you considered.

Thank you for the feedback. Yeah, I knew that feature by Gigabyte mobo. In fact, it's the main reason for which I'm still considering Gigabyte. Also, I read about the poor customer / after sale service...of course I'm considering this aspect too, but I don't think any other manufacturer would offer a good customer service if you are not a big player. For ex., I experienced one of the worst customer service (and double socket mobo) ever from Asus years ago when I built my 2x Xeon 2687w workstation.

 

[alex_stief]

IMO, the whole VRM cooling thing is not worth the analysis paralysis. There is more that goes into component temperatures than their placement on the board.
Gigabyte's MZ72 boards do fairly well here. Certainly better than Supermicro boards. I built a system with two 32-core CPUs (7543) and Noctua NH-U14s CPU coolers. It was fine. And if you run into trouble with VRM temperatures, you can always put some small fans on them.
The most important bit to avoid problems with these builds in workstations is case airflow. If you have enough of that, most temperature problems solve themselves. Fractal torrent is a great case for air cooling, but IMO not ideal for dual-socket SP3. Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 is what I would recommend, with a focus on bottom-to-top airflow.

 

[O.T.T.]

IMO, the whole VRM cooling thing is not worth the analysis paralysis. There is more that goes into component temperatures than their placement on the board.
Gigabyte's MZ72 boards do fairly well here. Certainly better than Supermicro boards. I built a system with two 32-core CPUs (7543) and Noctua NH-U14s CPU coolers. It was fine. And if you run into trouble with VRM temperatures, you can always put some small fans on them.
The most important bit to avoid problems with these builds in workstations is case airflow. If you have enough of that, most temperature problems solve themselves. Fractal torrent is a great case for air cooling, but IMO not ideal for dual-socket SP3. Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 is what I would recommend, with a focus on bottom-to-top airflow.

Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated. So, in your opinion MZ72 cooling does not pose any real problem whereas the pro given by added features and advanced BIOS are clear plus. I know that it's feasible to add small fans over VRM but I strongly prefer a simple and clean approach / solution. Objectively speaking, the CPUs placement on Gigabyte board is poor in regards to cooling and especially VRMs will inevitably suffer a lot.

Your suggestion of the Phanteks case is interesting: I had a look at it a while ago but I don't remember why I ultimately discarded it... I've had an excellent experience building a P400A based rig, so I don't mind at all the idea to rely on another product from the same company.