Mailing List Archive

new machine : on-going frustration
Back in April 2022, I asked for advice here re parts for a new machine (ANB6)
& got some very helpful info (thanks to everyone).
Since then, it hasn't worked out very well
& I'm still relying on my 7-year-old machine (ANB5).

I want an AMD CPU, based on past experience ;
I prefer a Gigabyte mobo ditto, but will consider other makes.
I would like to have PCIe 4.0 , which is much faster than 3.0 ,
to improve Gentoo compile times ; I don't do gaming.
I would like to avoid a separate graphics card,
which are expensive & seem today to be designed for gaming enthusiasts.
I want to buy from a physical store, not delivered by an on-line order,
in case there's a defect, so that I can easily take it back to the store.

Looking at the offerings from Canada Computers, my most convenient store,
which I have used for all 5 of my previous home-built machines,
my impression is that if you get PCIe 4.0 ,
you don't get CPU graphics, but have to buy a separate graphics card ;
if you have built-in graphics in the CPU, you get only PCIe 3.0.

I might be willing to get an Intel CPU,
but in their specifications there's no mention of PCIe (3 or 4) :
is this an accident or are PCIe's confined to AMD ?
Intel seems to be a quite different world from AMD today.

Does anyone have any useful advice or suggestions ?

--
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca
Re: new machine : on-going frustration [ In reply to ]
On Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 1:13 PM Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net> wrote:
>
> Back in April 2022, I asked for advice here re parts for a new machine
(ANB6)
> & got some very helpful info (thanks to everyone).
> Since then, it hasn't worked out very well
> & I'm still relying on my 7-year-old machine (ANB5).
>
> I want an AMD CPU, based on past experience ;
> I prefer a Gigabyte mobo ditto, but will consider other makes.
> I would like to have PCIe 4.0 , which is much faster than 3.0 ,
> to improve Gentoo compile times ; I don't do gaming.
> I would like to avoid a separate graphics card,
> which are expensive & seem today to be designed for gaming enthusiasts.
> I want to buy from a physical store, not delivered by an on-line order,
> in case there's a defect, so that I can easily take it back to the store.
>
> Looking at the offerings from Canada Computers, my most convenient store,
> which I have used for all 5 of my previous home-built machines,
> my impression is that if you get PCIe 4.0 ,
> you don't get CPU graphics, but have to buy a separate graphics card ;
> if you have built-in graphics in the CPU, you get only PCIe 3.0.
>
> I might be willing to get an Intel CPU,
> but in their specifications there's no mention of PCIe (3 or 4) :
> is this an accident or are PCIe's confined to AMD ?
> Intel seems to be a quite different world from AMD today.
>
> Does anyone have any useful advice or suggestions ?
>
> --
> ========================,,============================================
> SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
> ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
> TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca
>

Look for an AMD X570 chipset MB. I think you can find what you're looking
for.

HTH,
Mark
Re: new machine : on-going frustration [ In reply to ]
On Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 1:45 PM Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 1:13 PM Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net> wrote:
> >
<SNIP>
>
> Look for an AMD X570 chipset MB. I think you can find what you're looking
for.
>
> HTH,
> Mark

>
BTW - I don't think PCIe 4.0 would, in this sort of machine, have much to
do with compile times. This level of machine has an NVMe flash drive
for the system disk. My machine has 2 1TB NVMe SSDs and no
mechanical drives.
Re: new machine : on-going frustration [ In reply to ]
Am Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 04:13:19PM -0400 schrieb Philip Webb:

> Since then, it hasn't worked out very well
> & I'm still relying on my 7-year-old machine (ANB5).

What hasn’t worked out specifically?

> I would like to have PCIe 4.0 , which is much faster than 3.0 ,
> to improve Gentoo compile times ; I don't do gaming.

As Mark already mentioned – PCIe speed has no impact on compile times. It’s
only used for communication between CPU and {GPU, NVMe, Chipset}, or between
GPU and RAM.

> I want to buy from a physical store, not delivered by an on-line order,
> in case there's a defect, so that I can easily take it back to the store.

So you built the Ryzen system we talked about, and now want to start over?

> my impression is that if you get PCIe 4.0 , you don't get CPU graphics,
> but have to buy a separate graphics card ;
> if you have built-in graphics in the CPU, you get only PCIe 3.0.

That’s the way with AM3-socket APUs. It won’t be with AM4, but those are
probably still a year away (at least half a year).

Also, the new AM4 CPUs all have a basic iGPU inside, much like most Intels
have had until now. They won’t be much to write home about, but will be
sufficient for office and desktop.

> I might be willing to get an Intel CPU,
> but in their specifications there's no mention of PCIe (3 or 4) :
> is this an accident or are PCIe's confined to AMD ?

When I need such information, I like to go to Wikipedia. It has everything
under one roof, often in very similar formats for both vendors. Here’s a
description of Intel’s recent generation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder_Lake
And as you can see, those have 16×PCIe 5 for the graphics slot and another
4×4.0, probably for NVMe. The chipset is connected via Intel’s proprietary
DMI and connects to more mass storage, USB etc.

> Does anyone have any useful advice or suggestions ?

Well, we suggested stuff and advised on things. Please elaborate what hasn’t
worked out for you and why.

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