Can't decide on a TRX50 board

[mattventura]

I'm still using an X79 as my daily driver and I think it's time to upgrade.

I'm going with HEDT because I want to have enough PCIe lanes for GPU + 40GbE (with future 100GbE) + several U.2/U.3 drives + whatever random expansion cards I might feel like in the future. Since I plan to use 2.5" NVMe drives, it would be nice if there were onboard connectors (Gen4 or Gen5). My use case is both development things (compiling + testing, want fast disks + lots of RAM + lots of cores) and gaming (want good single threaded performance).

In no particular order,

First contender: Supermicro H13SRA-F
Pros:

• Generally positive experiences with Supermicro
• Has a Gen4x8 MCIO connector on-board
• Built-in IPMI
• Generally no-frills

Cons:

• VRM heatsinks look pathetic compared to other options. Maybe it's expecting forced airflow, or maybe it's just not built for OCing.
• MCIO connector will get bottlenecked because it's chipset lanes, and the chipset only connects to the CPU with Gen4x4
• Expensive ($899)

Second contender: ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI
Pros:

• Not as much experience with ASUS, but has been okay in my experience
• Excellent VRM and VRM heatsinks

Cons:

• Expensive ($899)
• Paying for lots of things I don't need (wifi, dual PSU support, 10gbe and 2.5gbe onboard)
• Only a single SlimSAS x4 NVMe port, so I'd need to also put a retimer card on it (another ~$100)

Third: GIGABYTE TRX50 AERO D
Pros:

• Lower price ($599)
• Decent VRMs

Cons:

• Haven't had great experiences with Gigabyte
• No onboard SlimSAS or MCIO for 2.5" NVMes
• As with the ASUS, paying for things I don't need (wifi, 10gbe, 2.5gbe)
• Barely any PCIe slots - one for GPU, one for networking, one for NVMe retimer, nothing left for future expansion

Fourth: ASRock TRX50 WS
Pros:

• Not the least expensive, but still a good price ($699)
• Best 2.5" NVMe options - 2 SlimSAS Gen4x4, and one MCIO Gen5x4
• The SlimSAS and MCIO are CPU lanes - no chipset bottleneck
• VRM fans

Cons:

• I have blown up VRMs on ASRock boards with only moderate overclocks. I trust this thing to OC about as far as I can throw it.

Based on this, I'm leaning towards the ASRock, but wondering if anyone has tried any of these boards.


Rest of build plan so far:

• Lian-Li O11 Dynamic XL
• ??? TRX50 motherboard
• Threadripper 7960X
• ??? RAM (probably 4x16GB or 4x32GB - how important is RAM frequency on these?)
• Re-using my GPU for the time being
• Re-using 2x 3.84TB CD6 Gen4x4 U.3 drives
• Custom loop watercooling (CPU for now, will water cool next GPU as well).
• MSI MPG A850G

 

[jei]

Curious design on (Supermicro) Threadripper compared to EPYC.

edit: Fixed images.

 

[mattventura]

Curious indeed. All of the CPU's Gen5 lanes go directly to the PCIe slots, but I'm not sure where the rest of the CPU's 24 Gen4 lanes are going. 8 to the two M.2 slots, 4 to ethernet, 4 to the chipset, 2 to the BMC. Looks like 6 lanes still available.

 

[NPS]

If I understand this correctly, there should be even more gen4 lanes:
https://www.servethehome.com/wp-con...zen-Threadripper-7000-Platform-Comparison.jpg
48x gen5
4x to TRX50
40x gen4 (-8 for m.2, -4 for eth, -1 for BMC leaves 27 lanes unused and at least 24 available, depending on bifurcation below x4)

Given that amount of lanes, the MCIO situation is even more unsatisfying.

 

[mattventura]

If I understand this correctly, there should be even more gen4 lanes:
https://www.servethehome.com/wp-con...zen-Threadripper-7000-Platform-Comparison.jpg
48x gen5
4x to TRX50
40x gen4 (-8 for m.2, -4 for eth, -1 for BMC leaves 27 lanes unused and at least 24 available, depending on bifurcation below x4)

Given that amount of lanes, the MCIO situation is even more unsatisfying.

I think that may be lumping CPU and chipset lanes together.

I'm seeing a lot of conflicting info. Wikipedia says 48 Gen5 + 24 Gen4 from the CPU. Puget Systems says 48+32 CPU + 8 chipset. TechPowerUp says 88 usable (assuming 48 Gen5, 8 Gen4 from chipset, but that would imply the CPU has 36 gen4 lanes). Really conflicting info here.

 

[RolloZ170]

Fourth: ASRock TRX50 WS
Pros:

• Not the least expensive, but still a good price ($699)
• Best 2.5" NVMe options - 2 SlimSAS Gen4x4, and one MCIO Gen5x4
• The SlimSAS and MCIO are CPU lanes - no chipset bottleneck
• VRM fans

Cons:

• I have blown up VRMs on ASRock boards with only moderate overclocks. I trust this thing to OC about as far as I can throw it.

don't compare consumer boards with this, TRX50 WS uses Dr.Mos style VRM power stages with integrated OCP/OTP.

 

[ky56]

I hope I'm not not reviving a dead topic.

@mattventura It's amazing how much this post looks like I wrote it. Also on x79 and looking at a new HEDT build and ended up on an almost identical list of hardware, requirements and reasons.

I think your first choice, the Supermicro board, is the right one. I also think 10G Base-T is useless and really don't want it taking up valuable board space and lanes.

For starters, something to note about Gen 4 speeds and above is you are almost certainly going to require a Retimer. So I question the signal integrity issues of the on board connectors as Wendel from L1T and many others on his forum have had many troubles getting Gen 4 let alone Gen 5 to work properly even with retimers in some cases.

I have an IcyDock MB699VP-B V3, LinkReal SlimSAS riser/retimer and a Gen 4 SSD however I don't have a motherboard that has gen 4 or above to test wether my config with or without a retimer even works yet. So take this advice with a grain of salt until I can run my own tests.

I'm personally leaning to the side of overkill and would get the feature simplistic supermicro board and get a Linkreal Retimer on top. (The Linkreal retimers are much cheaper than the competition and are real retimers rather than just redrivers).

In regards to the VRMs. I had the same thoughts and since you already plan on custom watercooling the motherboard. Might I suggest a slighty DIY hack to replace the VRM heatsinks with a watercooled block. Such as a Heatkiller SW-X 60 or SW-X 80. Whichever fits better.

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

don't compare consumer boards with this, TRX50 WS uses Dr.Mos style VRM power stages with integrated OCP/OTP.

This. Any board worth a damn should run any CPU, even a 7995WX, all day long. Perhaps not on LN2 but with reasonable airflow it will.

 

[ky56]

This. Any board worth a damn should run any CPU, even a 7995WX, all day long. Perhaps not on LN2 but with reasonable airflow it will.

Since I really like my watercooled, quiet, low airflow kind of build, I think I'm still going to do a before and after temperature comparison. But that's nice to know and I did read the thread and saw the Dr MOS info before posting. But I'm still assuming that if you don't have good airflow going over those heatsinks, it's not going to perform as well or last.

Also if that's true. Does the ASUS WS board also use Dr MOS power stages and if so why does it need giant heatsinks with fans?

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

Since I really like my watercooled, quiet, low airflow kind of build, I think I'm still going to do a before and after temperature comparison. But that's nice to know and I did read the thread and saw the Dr MOS info before posting. But I'm still assuming that if you don't have good airflow going over those heatsinks, it's not going to perform as well or last.

Also if that's true. Does the ASUS WS board also use Dr MOS power stages and if so why does it need giant heatsinks with fans?

Even with high-end powerstages you need proper cooling on a TR board. This isn't your run-of-the-mill 7950X or 14900K.

 

[ky56]

Even with high-end powerstages you need proper cooling on a TR board. This isn't your run-of-the-mill 7950X or 14900K.

My staged plan on watercooling everything is to waterblock the two sets of VRMs that I can see and then use the Alphacool mini blocks on chips I have identified as getting too hot. Either by testing which ones burn my finger or get a little sophisticated with a thermal camera.

I don't see how this could go wrong. At all. /s

Joking aside. If you're looking to extend the life of your system as far as possible, preventing anything from running at high temperatures sounds like a good plan on paper. Either by high airflow or mini waterblocks.

BTW I have never custom watercooled a system before. I just bought some for my current system and have recieved some of the parts and am still waiting for the rest to arrive. This new HEDT build is really just theoretical for me at the moment. It'll probably be months before I can afford this system.

 

[StevenDTX]

Im leaning toward the H13SRA-F . I wont consider anything without IPMI.

I may even buy a complete SuperWorkstation (Ack...a pre-built!) directly from SM.

 

[mattventura]

At the end of the day, I think I'm going to go with the ASRock.

My main gripe with the Supermicro is that the onboard Gen4 x8 MCIO connector gets bottlenecked through the Gen4 x4 connection from the chipset to the CPU. Meanwhile on the ASRock, the SlimSAS and MCIO connectors are all on CPU lanes.

The advantage of the SM is that it has the most Gen5 slots, but I don't need all those. I'd be using one slot to run a gen3 or 4 network card, one slot for a retimer for gen4 SSDs. Then, regardless of which x16 slot you use for your GPU, the remaining x8 slot would then be blocked by a triple-slot GPU, leaving me with no room for expansion. Meanwhile on the ASRock, a triple-slot GPU in the top slot only blocks a gen4x4 slot.

All in all, I would have enough slots and connectors for all of my hardware and have a Gen5x16 slot, Gen5x8 slot, and Gen5x4 MCIO connector to spare for future expansion.

As much as I like having IPMI, I don't think I really need it for a desktop. Cases where I'd actually need to power on/off my desktop remotely are few and far between. I don't need remote KVM, because I would be physically at the desktop.

My only concern now is that Windows 10 isn't listed as being officially supported on the AMD website, and Win11 LTSC isn't planned until the second half of 2024.

 

[Railgun]

I've got the Asrock board with a 7970x. Currently in a hack/temp setup doing a F@H competition.

It will get the full WC treatment, and I'm looking for a solution for the VRMs as well as I really don't want 4x 40mm fans...ever. Triple slot GPUs...wouldn't be the first time I hacked one to make it a single slot bracket.

IPMI I can live without. Like the ASUS, though I've not explicitly seen anything, I suppose it's possible to leverage an IPMI AIC. Whether the ASUS version would work with the Asrock board however...

I opted for this due to the Gen5 MCIO port and the Gen5 M.2 slot, so storage is better covered. Can leverage an M.2 to U.2 adapter to get a better performing SSD there. I don't need Gen5 PCIe slots across the board. Should a GPU come out that would require it, I'm already fine. I can't fathom what else would be required for even a Gen5 x8 slot. By the time anything IS required, this will have already been replaced with a new generation setup.

That said, it still has a x8 slot free which would support 200Gb networking, which will never be required for me. There's STILL a free x16 slot which will cover 400Gb...which very few people, let alone me would require. I can potentially leverate these slots for more storage, but it's not required as I have a NAS and local things I do (photo/video editing, among other things) I'll have more than enough.

Given the limited boards so far released for this platform, this worked best for me. I suppose I could have waited a bit longer, but I got a killer deal on the CPU so here we are.

 

[mattventura]

Update: I've had the system running great for a couple weeks.

Running it with my old GPU (1080ti, going to upgrade that next), 7960X, 4x16GB 6400Mhz RAM. One XG7 1TB M.2 as a boot drive, two 3.84TV CD6-Rs for data. One 40GbE ConnectX-3 card.

Gotta say, this board definitely has the most sane block diagram of any of the TRX50 boards, and even some of the WRX90s. The ASUS WRX90 makes the same mistake as the Supermicro TRX50 - two SlimSAS ports bottlenecked through the X4 chipset link.

The VRM fans can be controlled just like any other fan (they are voltage controlled rather than PWM), so the noise from those 4 tiny fans really isn't bad. You can run them on a fairly low curve without overheating the VRM. I've gotten this thing to peak at over 500W for the CPU with a little overclocking, and the VRMs weren't screaming.

The only things I noticed that weren't perfect are:

• One of the fan channels can't be controlled by the graphical fan curve editor in the BIOS, but you can still manually input the numbers for your curve.
• SlimSAS ports don't seem to support hotplug (even after a rescan). Haven't tried anything with the MCIO port yet. But the BIOS seems to at least have the basics for PCIe hotplug support - it worked with a PCIe switch card, and also the board allegedly supports a thunderbolt AIC.
• M.2 slots do not support 22110, only 2280 and 2260(?)

One thing to note - the board is between ATX and E-ATX size. It uses the ATX screw pattern, but is a little longer.

 

[kgcdctx]

Update: I've had the system running great for a couple weeks.

Running it with my old GPU (1080ti, going to upgrade that next), 7960X, 4x16GB 6400Mhz RAM. One XG7 1TB M.2 as a boot drive, two 3.84TV CD6-Rs for data. One 40GbE ConnectX-3 card.

Gotta say, this board definitely has the most sane block diagram of any of the TRX50 boards, and even some of the WRX90s. The ASUS WRX90 makes the same mistake as the Supermicro TRX50 - two SlimSAS ports bottlenecked through the X4 chipset link.

The VRM fans can be controlled just like any other fan (they are voltage controlled rather than PWM), so the noise from those 4 tiny fans really isn't bad. You can run them on a fairly low curve without overheating the VRM. I've gotten this thing to peak at over 500W for the CPU with a little overclocking, and the VRMs weren't screaming.

The only things I noticed that weren't perfect are:

• One of the fan channels can't be controlled by the graphical fan curve editor in the BIOS, but you can still manually input the numbers for your curve.
• SlimSAS ports don't seem to support hotplug (even after a rescan). Haven't tried anything with the MCIO port yet. But the BIOS seems to at least have the basics for PCIe hotplug support - it worked with a PCIe switch card, and also the board allegedly supports a thunderbolt AIC.
• M.2 slots do not support 22110, only 2280 and 2260(?)

One thing to note - the board is between ATX and E-ATX size. It uses the ATX screw pattern, but is a little longer.

I really like Asrock. And I don’t see many 22110s around so I can live with that.

How is BIOS?

 

[mattventura]

I really like Asrock. And I don’t see many 22110s around so I can live with that.

How is BIOS?

The BIOS is....fine? I'm sure the ASUS BIOS is probably better in terms of overclocking features, but the ASRock BIOS gets the job done. There's a few things that are rough around the edges, like the aforementioned missing fan, a few undocumented items, and some empty menus (like the SGPIO menu). No major issues.