Adding and expansion of Memory - TR 1920x , ASrock Taichi mobo

[venurah]

Hi,

I am about to build a system using TR 1920X and Taichi mobo from ASrock. I want to go for 128 gb DDR4 RAM @~3600 MHz eventually but I cant afford 128GB kit at this point. I went through the compatibility list given under the mobo. It only list full slot compatibility for 128gb kits.
I am planing to start with 2 X 16GB sticks.
Can someone tell me what RAM i should go where I will be able to update system to 128 GB in the future?
(this system intended for bioinformatics work)

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is NO memory you can install a partial quantity of now and then add more later with any guarantee they will work together, especially on this platform that is particularly fickle about memory configurations.

It is ALWAYS recommended that you buy ALL of the memory you think you are ever going to need on any platform, once, at the beginning, if you want even a remote assurance that the memory is all going to play nice together or with the board and CPU, and with all of the Zen based platforms this is increased twofold not just when adding memory to that which is already installed, but when installing memory period as Zen is extremely choosy about what it likes and does not like. You don't need to stick to the QVL list, although that won't hurt, and even the user verified list does not cover all modules that will work on Zen/Ryzen/Threadripper due to the improvements that have come about through BIOS updates but it's still a good idea to try and stick to them.

AND, for your platform, not only is adding the amount of memory you intend to add ridiculously expensive, it's probably going to get even more so because I'm going to recommend that if you wish to add four modules or more you might want to seriously consider sticking with those modules that are very high end and incorporate Samsung B-die ICs (Memory chips). They're likely not the only ones that will work, but the probability of them ALL working together remains a lot higher if you do than if you don't.

I would personally recommend that you stick with either G.Skill Trident Z or Ripjaws or Corsair Dominator platinum modules with a CAS latency of no higher than 14 if you can. CAS 16 modules will be less expensive but will also be lower quality and less likely to play nice with that many modules installed. Even more so if you plan to add memory a little at a time, piecemeal so to speak.

 

[venurah]

There is NO memory you can install a partial quantity of now and then add more later with any guarantee they will work together, especially on this platform that is particularly fickle about memory configurations.

It is ALWAYS recommended that you buy ALL of the memory you think you are ever going to need on any platform, once, at the beginning, if you want even a remote assurance that the memory is all going to play nice together or with the board and CPU, and with all of the Zen based platforms this is increased twofold not just when adding memory to that which is already installed, but when installing memory period as Zen is extremely choosy about what it likes and does not like. You don't need to stick to the QVL list, although that won't hurt, and even the user verified list does not cover all modules that will work on Zen/Ryzen/Threadripper due to the improvements that have come about through BIOS updates but it's still a good idea to try and stick to them.

AND, for your platform, not only is adding the amount of memory you intend to add ridiculously expensive, it's probably going to get even more so because I'm going to recommend that if you wish to add four modules or more you might want to seriously consider sticking with those modules that are very high end and incorporate Samsung B-die ICs (Memory chips). They're likely not the only ones that will work, but the probability of them ALL working together remains a lot higher if you do than if you don't.

I would personally recommend that you stick with either G.Skill Trident Z or Ripjaws or Corsair Dominator platinum modules with a CAS latency of no higher than 14 if you can. CAS 16 modules will be less expensive but will also be lower quality and less likely to play nice with that many modules installed. Even more so if you plan to add memory a little at a time, piecemeal so to speak.

Thank you for the detailed reply. I was also thinking about G.Skill Trident Z or Ripjaws .
Initially I was thinking about either 1900X or Ryzen 7 2700X and went with former because of 128 GB memory compared to 64GB. Just wondering worth taking a risk going for TR and try trial and error in future to see the possibility of going for 128 GB or stick to 2700X.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What are you going to be doing that you need 128GB of memory?

 

[venurah]

Mostly assembling genomes. Individual file size can vary from 20-40 GB (sometimes even more). At a given instance either single file or 2 files will be loaded to RAM. More the RAM better the pipeline.
( I am building this since It is impossible to go for cloud system like AWS or Azure)

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, that is a good reason to need that much memory. Thanks for that insight.

I think TR might be the much better option for what your usage is going to be. I've never worked with that kind of scientific software but I'd assume it likely is able to make good use of the additional cores and threads. Maybe you have better insight into that based on what the primary software used will be. I'd guess it might be a proprietary software? Maybe you can investigate with the software development team on that?

 

[venurah]

Yes, that is a good reason to need that much memory. Thanks for that insight.

I think TR might be the much better option for what your usage is going to be. I've never worked with that kind of scientific software but I'd assume it likely is able to make good use of the additional cores and threads. Maybe you have better insight into that based on what the primary software used will be. I'd guess it might be a proprietary software? Maybe you can investigate with the software development team on that?

Mostly opensource software running on linux platform.
My pipeline is similar to description given here
If you look at Table 1 it gives some idea. The files i will be working will be bigger than that.

I am still trying understand A,B, Cs when it comes to configurations since I am a more biologist that a computer expert . Also, my University and funding bodies are not believe in investing on HPC.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I understand. Well, whichever you decide to go with, I think both platforms will offer you very good performance really. If there is no concensus on whether the higher core count will be helpful, I'd just stick with Ryzen.

 

[venurah]

I understand. Well, whichever you decide to go with, I think both platforms will offer you very good performance really. If there is no concensus on whether the higher core count will be helpful, I'd just stick with Ryzen.

Thank you! I agree with you. Have a nice day!

 

[Darkbreeze]

You as well. Good luck to you and if you have questions later, feel free to ask. Take care.