The VRM on the X670E Hero is a 18+2+2 phases @ 110A each. It can handle any OC no matter what and i'm certain it will have np with a 9950X either. I did try a 5.2ghz all core OC just for fun and seemed pretty stable, didn't keep it though as this was a studio's control room main pc. Stability and reliability come first.
(It should be stable permanently anyway, since 5.2ghz is the default max simultaneous boost for all 16cores. Power consumption though skyrockets when this is permanent, even when idling)
The cooler of the build was a Corsair iCUE H170i Elite and it is one of the most capable coolers, as it can handle 300W with np. It is also one of the most expensive ones hehe. If anyone reading gets interested in paying 230euros for it, beware, it uses 140mm fans so it's larger than most AIOs that use 120mm fans, so not every pc case is compatible with it. My case here was the LianLi 011 Dynamic EVO XL. The previous slightly older 011 XL - non EVO model for instance, is not compatible with it.
Now WiFi7 is a huge advancement in Wireless tech and i was meaning to write a post just about it, but very few routers/switches right now actually can support it and they are expensive. Things will change of course but 'till then WiFi7 is more of a future proof feature.
The main thing here is, theoretically it can reach 40Gbps because it transmits on many channels at once (as wifi6 does but with double speed and more enhancements in place). In action it's much lower but with the right switch or router it can still reach about 10gbps on multichannel broadcast which is insane, especially for the wireless standards most people are used to.
So i wouldn't worry much about WiFi7 vs WiFi6 unless you have a 10gbit Internet connection and the appropriate router. If true, you have my envy.
In my sense, pc building should be set it and forget it, so you might be better off with what we call the "tried and tested" imho.
You be well

 

Last edited: Oct 22, 2024

I think if I return the X870 board, I will probably return the 9950X and replace with a 7950X too, as it's only about 60% of the cost in my area and will likely yield similar performance for my use cases with similar core count and clock speeds. The cooler I have is the Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer III 320. The H170i Elite is a 420 I think, but I didn't have the space for a Liquid Freezer III 420 in my case, so limited to the 320! Such a coincidence though, cos my case is the Lian Li 011 too, just the original Air and der8auer branded variant The 320 is still the best in class for its size though, according to the likes of Wendel, Gamers Nexus, JayzTwoCents, and so on, so should be able to keep up hopefully, though potentially with slightly more noise due to 120mm fans instead of 140mm fans.

I have pretty much best routers available at consumer level in my country provided by my internet provider. As I have 1GB fibre, they provide a pair of the Eero 6 Plus routers, which can only do up to WiFi 6E, so WiFi 7 is probably not something I'm gonna need imminently, particularly as I plan to connect it with a wired ethernet cable anyway for better stability.

I now have the X870E and 9950X in my machine for a final day of troubleshooting before I dismantle. I also have the ASUS X670E Crosshair Hero and 7950X now too. All are returnabel, so no big deal. But I am hedging my bets a little and not gonna unpack the X670E and 7950X until I see the Intel launch reviews and benchmarks tomorrow

07:16 onwards talks about some Intel stuff though, and probably not looking good so may stick with the X670E and 7950X option....

 

Last edited: Oct 23, 2024

Personally, after hearing stories about 13th and 14th Intel generations thermal issues with cpu downgrade, I have decide to go dual computers instead. I don't do recording, only audio. Each computer has its own sound card and they are 100% digitally connected without any AD/DA conversion through ADAT. There are others different protocols on the market and tools like VE PRO. And you get a real boost instead of the few % between generations.

 

Last edited: Oct 23, 2024

This cooler is absolutely fine, the newer v3 and its predecessor v2 have been my gotos in most pcs i build the last years. They can cover all the way up to top end cpus offering best in class cooling with low noise and come very cheap because they are Arctic's own design, so they don't pay a license premium to Asetek like the majority of CLCs. Asetek practically invented the closed loop cooler and most vendors use Asetek's design for the pump and radiator like the Corsair i mentioned, which is an exception in my builds, the goal was to have adequate cooling with as less noise as possible even at 100% loads.

I am saying this before launch and you 'll all see if i'm wrong or not. Don't ask me to reveal how i know. The new Intel Ultras will be about on par with the 14900K in performance and perhaps a 5% better in some cases or even a little lower in others. Not better in gaming for sure. Thermals and power consumption though, will be matching or even surpassing AMD's cpus in some scenarios as their main goal for this gen was to achieve what we call "performance per watt". TSMC offers the best EUV lithography in the world with a ton of quality testing so i am almost sure these cpus will not have any of the 13th/14th gen problems as they are not Intel made. Still, there is the issue that some DAWs cannot take advantage of Intel's efficiency cores and this, although not their fault, remains a disadvantage for Intel against AMD's all-performance cores for their desktop series cpus. And i mention this, because soon we will see a similar cpu design (big/little cores) hitting the stores by AMD hehehe.
The new efficiency cores in Core Ultra have been boosted in clock and will now support a wider variety of instructions so it's a matter of how any DAW will handle these, because there's no doubt the perf. cores will be fast.
One last thing, i keep seeing all these synthetic benchmarks that offer a perspective in single/multi-core performance but only ScanUK and Puget Sys have specific benchmarks for what we do here, us audiosexers. So don't be fooled by performance in ie. Geekbench, it does tell a "story" about a cpu but not a specific one for what we do here.
All my best

 

I think I am done with this X870E and 9950X and plan to dismantle today and return asap. I am now in a position where AMD customer service are blaming MSI and MSI customer service are blaming AMD and their drivers and chipsets. Unacceptable as a consumer, and of the two it is MSI who are slow and unresponsive, taking a minimum of 2 or 3 days to respond to each email, and those replies are unhelpful and just following basic scripts for troubleshooting demonstrating they've not even read my support request properly, whilst AMD have responded several times a day at time and asked more constructive questions. Therefore, I think I've checked out with this now and will definitely be returning.

On the Intel Ultra Core 9 285K side of things, where would you anticipate that being in terns of readiness out of the box and performance against the 7950X for our AudioSexers use case? Reading the above, it sounds like the 7950X is the better option due to significantly more performance cores as it will like be at least 2 or 3 years before software and DAWs catch up to best utilise the Intel architecture?

 

please give your opinion to those who have a 14900k like me and 0 problems in 12 months, for music production is always better intel, there is nothing more to extend.
even the 14900k is going to be better than the 285k as its GHZ has decreased.

 

No pump noise?

You may like:

https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-cpu-cooler-picks-hardware-busters/

 

You got unlucky, maybe the motherboard is defective or the BIOS or even the CPU.
I would send back both motherboard and CPU and get an ASUS motherboard and a new 9950X.
A friend build a ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI + 9950X and it is working fine excluding iLOK, need AGESA 1.2.0.2a check the last post at https://community.amd.com/t5/general-discussions/ilok-not-running-on-amd-zen5-processors/m-p/704056
Someone else build an Asus PRIME X870-P + 9950X and it is working fine excluding the iLOK.
But the best iLOK fix is R2R...

As a last resort, try disabling C-States in the BIOS.

 

You might give the 9950X a try with a GIGABYTE AORUS X870E series https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/comp...E/BHitems/1852684-REG_1852685-REG_1852678-REG

Anyway, avoid ASUS. They screwed 7950x customers with overvoltage issues ruining their customers 7950X CPU's.

 

Hasn't that Asus issue got fixed now in their BIOS updates? Granted, bad of them to do it in the first place, but shouldn't affect anyone getting one new now as long as BIOS is updated I presume.

 

I can't decide what option to go with, partly down to impatience and annoyances clouding my thoughts. The options spinning around my head are below with green cheapest and red most expensive (I have 96GB DDR5 and Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer III 320 AIO in hand already):

Option 1 - £1,038.97
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and MSI X870E MPG Carbon WiFi motherboard
(what I initially bought and having issues with and needing to return as dubious about whether faulty or not at the very least)

Option 2 - £752.88
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and ASUS ROG X670E Crossfire Hero motherboard
(have these at my home now as planned replacement as bought due to finding good deals on both, but could easily be returned if necessary)

Option 3 - £909.12
Intel Core i9 14900K and ASUS ROG Z790 Maximus Hero motherboard

Option 4 - £1,044.96
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and MSI Z890 MPG Carbon WiFi motherboard

 

Last edited: Oct 23, 2024

Well the damage has been done and ASUS refused any warranty claims from its customers.
Check GamersNexus channel on Youtube regarding ASUS.
Also other big YT channels warned about ASUS and do not even want their sponsorships for their channels anymore.
Imagine you have not much money and finally saved cash to buy the PC Build you want with a 7950x CPU and a mobo manufacture ruins it but refuses to accept any claims.
Not my case but i learned from this situation.
Good to see your MSI issues early stage because i was holding back till Black Friday and would buy a 9950X and a x870e MSI Carbon or x870 MSI Tomahawk but now i might change my view into Gigabyte x870e mobo.

 

I'd say get a decent Gigabyte X870e mobo right now and try it with the 9950X.
Gigabyte is, as far as i know, the only one that can handle 4 x DDR5 RAM with 7950x.

 

Running 192gb ram on 6000mhz (tuned!)

 

I feel a little burnt by Gigabyte though, as I had similar USB disconnect issues with my previous 5950X and X570 Aorus Master setup

That's what making me contemplate ridding myself of AMD as what seems to be the responsible common denominator here

 

I vote for the " Option 2 - Green !

I trust the company Asus the most, I have only used Asus motherboards for years without any problems, maybe a BIOS update. I think, but of course I could be wrong, that Asus is more advanced than other companies.Asus has by far the best software and bios usability.

 

Well being and IT pro for over 40 years and using AMD and Intel. I can say IMHO that AMD is good for certain applications Like VM servers
( Enterprise level ) a home pc that is used for internet and a HPTC. Now for me and my DAW I have always used Intel and never had any issues.
Right now I ave a 10700K everything is working. Now i am not saying others have not had good experiences with a DAW and AMD, but for me Intel has proven it's self over and over.

 

So why the AMD option over the Intel i9 14900K, even if slightly more expensive? Or is that the reason?

 

The longer I think, the more I'm contemplating jumping ship to Intel I think....ubtil someone else sways me back towards AMD

Who says I'm indecisive?

 

I must admit Arctic's v3 has a somewhat noisier pump than V2. To their defense, open bench cases and tests at 10cm don't do it justice, when it's in a proper closed case you will probably not notice it. I found out soon enough with the first one that i got, this only occurs after it passes 2500rpm so with a nice curve set from BIOS finding the limit at around 2450 rpm, it's all fine. Admittedly it is a choir finding the correct curve with it, but it's so dirt cheap that imho it is worth it. Anyone can go for v2 anyway, it's still fully compatible with AMD and Intel past and present sockets. Dunno about the upcoming new Intel LGA1851 though, as the socket is compatible with socket 1700 coolers but the contact frames are not because the new Ultra cpus have a different IHS.

Because you don't want an oven in your pc mate. I only ever installed one of these and remember we just were talking about the Corsair 420 Elite cooler? It needs a cooler of that grade to just behave properly. Noctuas and all air coolers plus cheaper AIOs with 200-230w maximum cooling capacity are out of the question. This thing reaches 280-300W at full boost.
And of course we shouldn't mention the total fiasco with both 13th and 14th gen. Good thing my client's 14900K is fine, but he doesn't game or OC and we had set the mobo to the modest limits from the beginning. Once i had the cpu installed, i immediately realized this thing sucks so much power that nothing can really cool it properly. It is a resource hog tbh. At full load it draws the same power as a Nvidia RTX 4080 lol. Only thing you can do is limit its ability to draw more and more power, so to speak.
Cheers mates