NVME RAID is Here for AMD X399 Threadripper

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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While AMD missed its originally promised date of September 25th, it has followed through on its promise of NVME RAID support on new X399 motherboard that support Ryzen Threadripper. AMD has posted full instructions for usage on its community pages. This all sounds like a very good use of all those Threadripper PCIe lanes assuredly. And most importantly, this is all supported with no extra charges....FREE! Thanks cageymaru.

I would highly suggest making sure your UEFI is updated to the latest available and I would make sure to check the UEFI notes on whether or not it is supported. And of course, back up that data before you "go for it."



Just enjoy! No hardware activation keys, license fees, or arbitrary SSD restrictions apply. It’s that simple.

Q: Do I need to buy some sort of activation hardware or license to enable NVMe RAID on the AMD Threadripper platform?
A: No. You only need to follow the steps 1-5 outlined in this blog.
 
So

TR Processor: $1000
ROG Motherboard: $550
Memory: $160
NVM Storage: $300
TR plate cooler: $100
Reservoir/Pump: $170
Radiator: $135
Power Supply: $150
Decent Video: $200 (This isn't a machine for gaming, but if you do large scale video editing, the extra ram will help)

So about $2800 give or take for a top of the line workstation.

If your employee only cost you $25/hour or $50K/year, and if they can save just 6% time on their work with a faster system, then this will pay for itself. The ROI is even better for higher paid employees.
 
Wonder how a 4 drive raid affects level load times?

I am thinking this is a great case for fast as possible ddr4.
 
what exactly does this mean:
"... arrays containing up to six NVMe SSDs can be supported without adapters" ??

What is an adaptor??
How many devices can I have with an adaptor ??
Can I have up to six devices per adaptor ??
Can I have one adaptor per pcie slot ??

I am assuming an adaptor would be like the Asus Hyper Quad m.2 card or is it a card which as PLX Pcie switch chip...

This will definitely pull me off the fence and straight into threadripper land as I am a die hard Intel user!!!
 
The big question is, beyond benchmarks, is there any noticeable difference in day to day system performance? Once you're talking single drive NVME, I'm not even sure windows boot time would be noticeably improved by dramatically increasing disk performance, let alone level load time or other game based metrics. With an unlimited budget, go for it, but for people on a budget if you don't already have a top end Vid card, you're probably better putting money there than on NVME raid.
 
Quote "
Q: Do I need to buy some sort of activation hardware or license to enable NVMe RAID on the AMD Threadripper platform?

A: No. You only need to follow the steps 1-5 outlined in this blog."

As is should be AMD !!!
 
Endgame said:
The big question is, beyond benchmarks, is there any noticeable difference in day to day system performance? Once you're talking single drive NVME, I'm not even sure windows boot time would be noticeably improved by dramatically increasing disk performance, let alone level load time or other game based metrics. With an unlimited budget, go for it, but for people on a budget if you don't already have a top end Vid card, you're probably better putting money there than on NVME raid.
Click to expand...

When processing B Trees on databases, the more throughput the better. You have to pass a lot of nodes if your query isn't based on a B-Tree's keyfield data. (provided the query is dynamic and not static) That's where queue depth becomes critical as you can start queuing a lot of task on complex queries.

Complex compiles are also throughput limited. I'm going to see what our compile times do as soon as I update our TR build machine.
 
Endgame said:
The big question is, beyond benchmarks, is there any noticeable difference in day to day system performance? Once you're talking single drive NVME, I'm not even sure windows boot time would be noticeably improved by dramatically increasing disk performance, let alone level load time or other game based metrics. With an unlimited budget, go for it, but for people on a budget if you don't already have a top end Vid card, you're probably better putting money there than on NVME raid.
Click to expand...

This kind of solution isn't for games or surfing the internet.
 
Damn now I need one to raid like 6 sun f40 drives. That and a new phi workstation...
 
DigitalGriffin said:
So

TR Processor: $1000
ROG Motherboard: $550
Memory: $160
NVM Storage: $300
TR plate cooler: $100
Reservoir/Pump: $170
Radiator: $135
Power Supply: $150
Decent Video: $200 (This isn't a machine for gaming, but if you do large scale video editing, the extra ram will help)

So about $2800 give or take for a top of the line workstation.

If your employee only cost you $25/hour or $50K/year, and if they can save just 6% time on their work with a faster system, then this will pay for itself. The ROI is even better for higher paid employees.
Click to expand...

Most companies have 150-250% overhead so that $25 ends up being $62.50 to $87.50 for justification purposes. This is why it pisses me off and is a red flag when engineers are using PCs from 7 years ago...

NVME raid. I like it.
 
Endgame said:
The big question is, beyond benchmarks, is there any noticeable difference in day to day system performance? Once you're talking single drive NVME, I'm not even sure windows boot time would be noticeably improved by dramatically increasing disk performance, let alone level load time or other game based metrics. With an unlimited budget, go for it, but for people on a budget if you don't already have a top end Vid card, you're probably better putting money there than on NVME raid.
Click to expand...
"...on a budget"...hmmm
If you are running threadripper you are most likely running the top of the line 1950x.
What kind of budget do you need to run this properly ?!?
This is NOT a game machine...it is a WORKSTATION chip masquerading as a game machine!!!
There are so many professional people around the globe who are NOT gamers that will make oodles of money running a threadripper machine.
Running multiple NVME m.2 devices in raid 10 will be incredible for databases like MySQL.
Once you think beyond games, it strictly then becomes: how soon can I make X$ if I pay Y$ to get it!!
 
Hmm... This is looking very good for an AMD upgrade next year with full PCI Express bandwidth for 2x NVME in RAID 1, 2x GPU, and 1x 10G ethernet or Infiniband NIC.
 
Now NVMe RAID is made bootable this changes a lot for people, such as myself, who are planning to build a new rig. As said in the beginning of this post it would be a shame not to make use of all those Threadripper PCIe lanes after spending so much money.

Since most X399 MOBO's support 3x M.2 (Pcie3.0x4) (Except for the Asus Prime X399-A and the Asus ROG Strix X399-E GAMING -- 2x M.2 (S600/Pcie3.0x4)) it would be sensible to use more M.2 slots instead of one with a bigger capacity.

So where my initial thought was to put in 1x 1GB M.2 SSD it now seems to be wiser to put in 3x M.2 SSD's in RAID 0 on my planned Asus ROG Zenith Extreme although it makes it more expensive because 3x Samsung 950 Pro 256GB (768GB), for example, is more expensive than 1x Samsung 960 Pro 1TB.(1000GB)

So 3x Samsung 960 Pro 512GB (1536GB) puts you more on the sweet spot price/GB wise although the total cost go up quite a bit since it almost cost as much as 2x Samsung 960 Pro 1TB (2000GB).

Mmm ...
 
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DigitalGriffin said:
So

TR Processor: $1000
ROG Motherboard: $550
Memory: $160
NVM Storage: $300
TR plate cooler: $100
Reservoir/Pump: $170
Radiator: $135
Power Supply: $150
Decent Video: $200 (This isn't a machine for gaming, but if you do large scale video editing, the extra ram will help)

So about $2800 give or take for a top of the line workstation.

If your employee only cost you $25/hour or $50K/year, and if they can save just 6% time on their work with a faster system, then this will pay for itself. The ROI is even better for higher paid employees.
Click to expand...

I don't know about US but in Norway with an 50K/year pay or like me 60K which isn't abnormal here - equates to 35 bucks n hour.
Sounds nice and all that but we do have taxes and but onto the point: some very important things!
Insurance, company benefits and pension.

All equations I've seen in my company works around the 120 usd an hour number globally because of the added costs required by law and the benefits the company gives.

Do the math again and well, talk about ROI!
A Quadro, xeon is reasonably priced but if we can have TR or such for cheaper yes please!
 
Gigus Fire said:
is there a point to this other than high numbers/benchmarks?
Click to expand...

Yes there is because it makes your computer feel much faster. I think this is the moment, at least for me it is, to get rid of SATA HDs all together although SATA SSDs are still useful for the time being.

Remember that in the past RAID 0 was the only way to overcome computer's bottleneck namely the slow HDs. Then we got SATA SSDs and now with NVMe SSDs it's time to push to the new limit after years of struggling with those slow HDs.
 
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DigitalGriffin said:
So

TR Processor: $1000
ROG Motherboard: $550
Memory: $160
NVM Storage: $300
TR plate cooler: $100
Reservoir/Pump: $170
Radiator: $135
Power Supply: $150
Decent Video: $200 (This isn't a machine for gaming, but if you do large scale video editing, the extra ram will help)

So about $2800 give or take for a top of the line workstation.

If your employee only cost you $25/hour or $50K/year, and if they can save just 6% time on their work with a faster system, then this will pay for itself. The ROI is even better for higher paid employees.
Click to expand...

And still way cheaper than a Mac Pro and way faster!


Now, can some company have the pleassure of releasing a TR MATX mobo for yours truly?:)
 
Youri Carma said:
Yes there is because it makes your computer feel much faster. I think this is the moment, at least for me it is, to get rid of SATA HDs all together although SATA SSDs are still useful for the time being.
Click to expand...


It doesn't really. I've gone from 550MBps SATA SSD to 3500MBps NVME and day to day...its the same. Hardly any difference. It really only kicks in if dealing with HUGE amounts of data, video and databases. Otherwise Firefox and Office opens just the same. I run a X99 setup so Boot times are not much different either.

There is a point of diminishing returns in terms of day to day computing once you have moved over to SATA SSD.

Hence why I take such developments as these with a pinch of salt. Good luck to the dozen or so of you on this forum that can actually make some real use of this feature. The rest need not apply unless benchmarking is your hobby.
 
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daglesj said:
It doesn't really. I've gone from 550MBps SATA SSD to 3500MBps NVME and day to day...its the same. Hardly any difference. It really only kicks in if dealing with HUGE amounts of data, video and databases. Otherwise Firefox and Office opens just the same. I run a X99 setup so Boot times are not much different either.

There is a point of diminishing returns in terms of day to day computing once you have moved over to SATA SSD.

Hence why I take such developments as these with a pinch of salt. Good luck to the dozen or so of you on this forum that can actually make some real use of this feature. The rest need not apply unless benchmarking is your hobby.
Click to expand...

Hey, some of us just like to spend money!
 
daglesj said:
It doesn't really. I've gone from 550MBps SATA SSD to 3500MBps NVME and day to day...its the same. Hardly any difference. It really only kicks in if dealing with HUGE amounts of data, video and databases. Otherwise Firefox and Office opens just the same. I run a X99 setup so Boot times are not much different either.

There is a point of diminishing returns in terms of day to day computing once you have moved over to SATA SSD.

Hence why I take such developments as these with a pinch of salt. Good luck to the dozen or so of you on this forum that can actually make some real use of this feature. The rest need not apply unless benchmarking is your hobby.
Click to expand...

I really do not understand why people feel the need to talk for others when they have no idea what other people do with their computer!!
Stop assuming that just because you do one thing that most other people do one thing as well...Not true!!!
I do options trading and no matter how fast the pc, raid drive, gpu, etc...it is not fast enough FOR ME!
Until I can do real time simulations of how much money I can win or lose then all I care about is how much will it cost me to get x amount of performance and can I afford it.
I am so glad that Intel and AMD are in a core war now as more and more people can get a PC that they can afford relative to the performance they want out of it.
I remember when a company called IBM dominated computer hardware and the prices were crazy thru the roof until Intel finally conquered them.
No way will I ever say there is no point in having xyz because you will never need it...which seems to the attitude of a lot of people on these forums...
 
lemans24 said:
I really do not understand why people feel the need to talk for others when they have no idea what other people do with their computer!!
Stop assuming that just because you do one thing that most other people do one thing as well...Not true!!!
I do options trading and no matter how fast the pc, raid drive, gpu, etc...it is not fast enough FOR ME!
Until I can do real time simulations of how much money I can win or lose then all I care about is how much will it cost me to get x amount of performance and can I afford it.
I am so glad that Intel and AMD are in a core war now as more and more people can get a PC that they can afford relative to the performance they want out of it.
I remember when a company called IBM dominated computer hardware and the prices were crazy thru the roof until Intel finally conquered them.
No way will I ever say there is no point in having xyz because you will never need it...which seems to the attitude of a lot of people on these forums...
Click to expand...


You totally misunderstood what I said but that's fine.
 
dergreg said:
Hey, some of us just like to spend money!
Click to expand...

And there is no harm in that as long as you understand the risks that in the end it may not deliver quite what you hoped for.

We've all been there. :)
 
daglesj said:
And there is no harm in that as long as you understand the risks that in the end it may not deliver quite what you hoped for.

We've all been there. :)
Click to expand...

I'm definitely not dumping the cash on an NVME RAID any time soon. But damn do I want one just for the "Look what I did" factor.
 
I've been Team Intel since my Tyan based dual AthlonXP rig literally caught fire so many years ago. But this looks 100% dope-ass awesome.

This'll be really popular with the various cloud services folks (Azure, S3, etc) where customers need piles of fast local storage.

Yeah, this looks bonkers. And it's a direct big ole middle finger to Intel and their proprietary bullshit. Which is fantastic.
 
RAID

Redundant
Array of
Inexpensive
Disks

It's not redundant if you use "RAID0", as there is no redundancy or fault tolerance. But, it's just a semantic argument really.

That being said, I'm digging all this AMD love.
 
BloodyIron said:
RAID

Redundant
Array of
Inexpensive
Disks

It's not redundant if you use "RAID0", as there is no redundancy or fault tolerance. But, it's just a semantic argument really.

That being said, I'm digging all this AMD love.
Click to expand...

Like those nifty 'Zipper' brand shoes, I do not believe the original definition holds.

Weird how the English language does things like that.

Just like how virus, sadly, no longer means a self replicating computer program.
 
ianken said:
This'll be really popular with the various cloud services folks (Azure, S3, etc) where customers need piles of fast local storage.
Click to expand...
Eh, no. This isnt Enterprise grade, it's not even in the ballpark for hardware that cloud providers deploy. Enterprise grade NVME is a whole 'nuther ballgame and price tier.

But it's nice for 4K video editing and post production, hosting a bunch of VMs or testing databases that require high IOPS.
 
Last edited:
Elf_Boy said:
Like those nifty 'Zipper' brand shoes, I do not believe the original definition holds.

Weird how the English language does things like that.

Just like how virus, sadly, no longer means a self replicating computer program.
Click to expand...

I got to thinking some more, bad habit of mine, and looked up redundant to be sure:

re·dun·dant
rəˈdəndənt/
adjective
  1. not or no longer needed or useful; superfluous.
    "this redundant brewery has been converted into a library"
    synonyms: unnecessary, not required, inessential, unessential, needless, unneeded, uncalled for;More

    • (of words or data) able to be omitted without loss of meaning or function.
      "our peculiar affection for redundant phrases"
    • ENGINEERING
      (of a component) not strictly necessary to functioning but included in case of failure in another component.

Using the non-engineering definition redundant does apply to a raid zero. You could have one big drive, you dont *have* to use two.
 
lemans24 said:
"...on a budget"...hmmm
If you are running threadripper you are most likely running the top of the line 1950x.
What kind of budget do you need to run this properly ?!?
This is NOT a game machine...it is a WORKSTATION chip masquerading as a game machine!!!
There are so many professional people around the globe who are NOT gamers that will make oodles of money running a threadripper machine.
Running multiple NVME m.2 devices in raid 10 will be incredible for databases like MySQL.
Once you think beyond games, it strictly then becomes: how soon can I make X$ if I pay Y$ to get it!!
Click to expand...
It doesn't quite fit for me.

I have a home rig, where I play games and putz around with stuff where RAID NVME won't make a difference. I just don't do anything in my own time where I would see a benefit from the faster storage, but I probably wouldn't see any real benefit from the extra threads either, so TR isn't really aimed at me at home.

At work I have a shitty laptop I use for VPN and then connect to a dual processor E5-2658 v2 server for everything compile and processing wise I really need to do. Its older hardware running PCIE SSD cards, but I've been using it for 2.5 years already too - so TR isn't really aimed at me at work.

Glad it has a use case for others though!
 
I could see you building something like this and putting unraid or similar on it pushing multiple os's...
 
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