A Powerhouse

I’m shopping new processor and motherboard, and I’m looking at this. But check out the first question and answers about it.

[Monday-morning update]

After a little research, I’ve decided to purchase the 3600, not the 3600X. It’s fifty bucks less, and as far as I can tell, almost no performance difference. Worst case is I might have to spend a little more for a better cooler.

16 thoughts on “A Powerhouse”

  1. That first one is hilarious, as are many of the answers. This one, “…and at the same time I work editing in Adobe Premier” is probably the most obscure joke of the whole bunch! (It’s from one of Will Ferrell’s lines in the movie The Other Guys.)

  2. So you’re looking at the “AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Wraith Spire Cooler”, which runs at 4.4 GHz, consumes 95 Watts, and weighs 1.12 lbs.

    The “AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core, 24-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Wraith Prism LED Cooler” runs at 4.6 GHz, consumes 105 Watts, but only weighs 1.6 ounces.

    Twice as many cores, twice as many threads, but only 9% as much weight. But there’s more to it than that. The Wraith Prism Cooler itself weighs 1.276 lbs, so the processor must weigh -1.176 lbs, which means its bits have negative mass, and negative mass means raw speed.

    I should totally work at Best Buy

    1. Yeah get the Wraith Prism LED Cooler and a clear plexiglass cover panel. I’ve seen it myself. Way cool. Face it, unless you are Bitcoin mining, the rest is just boilerplate. 😉

    2. I should totally work at Best Buy

      Well almost, you forgot to up sell the positive mass 2 year buyer protection plan. It protects you in case the processor mass goes positive again after 1 year. Although you have to pay shipping of the broken processor we will ship the new one back to you free because of the restored negative bit mass…

  3. I think if you pre-heat the Ryzen, it should run Notepad with appropriate lag. The good news is Notepad is less than 256K, so 1MB of system RAM should be all you’ll need.

      1. The first 640K is for the OS, and lets face it, even Linux is a memory hog there. At least it is not like Windows 10, which may need liquid cooled memory that can support up to 32GB. I would suggest another processor then, but it is easier to just start with a better OS.

  4. My longer comment got eaten by the system.

    You can get by with a much slower processor if you have an SSD and enough RAM. I got a cheap box from Newegg that I upgraded that way.

    1. That depends on whether you’re actually doing anything CPU-intensive. If you are, you’re going to need a fast CPU, if you’re not… well, one of our PCs is an Athlon64x2 with an SSD.

    2. If you really don’t have enough RAM, no processor will save you, SSD or no. OTOH the benefits of excess RAM are pretty limited.

      1. I had looked into a System-on-a-Stick for Windows 10, and at that time, those seemed to come with 2Gig (not 2Meg, 2Gig) of RAM. They also come with a de-rated SSD, something more like a camera memory chip than a proper, fast SSD? The reviews I read suggested that for Windows 10, that just doesn’t do the job. Maybe those computers are intended for Audio Visual use, only, where you bring your S-o-S to a conference room and plug in to the AV feed to give your Powerpoint instead of lugging a laptop?

        What I got was a “refurbished” Acer, but what was shipped appeared to be brand new — it never appeared to have been “furbished” in the first place for it to be refurbished. It came with 4 Gig, that appeared to work just fine, but I maxed it out by adding another 4 Gig as “insurance” against obsolescence from future memory-hog software and then not being able to buy the RAM for an old system. But doesn’t Windows use extra RAM for disk cache, what used to be called RAM drive, so the more RAM, the merrier?

        What I saw as the bargain/deal/arrangement with getting such a box instead of starting with the processor is that it comes with a motherboard and processor along with a Windows license. My understanding is that Windows is licensed to that processor’s internal serial number/checksum/code, so you no longer have to have a document, a CD disk or a “Dell service label” telling you that you have a Windows license. You can do a clean reinstall at will by just downloading Windows from the Web, but your license is tied to that processor, which is the thing you cannot upgrade in this arrangement.

        But you can upgrade the disk drives and RAM to your heart’s content, although some motherboards may be limited in this department. Mine maxed out at 8 Gig, it has only two SATA channels for fast disk drives. It has a “chip slot” that looks like it could the newer, faster SSD, but after enormous time researching this, it is only for a motherboard-specific wireless network chip.

  5. I looked over the Passmark ratings, and the CPU you picked is certainly a great choice. Now I want one, but then I’d need a motherboard, a case, a power supply, etc.

    Two days ago I replaced the fan in my HP Pavilion laptop because the old fan sounded like a leaf blower with a bad bearing and an out-of-balance rotor. If it revved up in the middle of the night (thanks Windows update!) it would wake me up. Despite having to wait almost a month for Amazon to get me the part, it only took about 15 minutes to change fans, and now I’m enjoying the silence.

    Anyway, Starhopper is set for a 5:00 PM Eastern launch time (4:00 PM in Boca Chica) and Everyday Astronaut has a live cam 1.5 miles away. I figure it to be the most significant space event since the last Starhopper launch and prior to the next Starhopper launch.

    The local residents have been told to stay out of their houses in case a pressure wave blows out their windows, so I think they should all aim their webcams at the rooms facing the launch and live stream the potential excitement.

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