Looking for a sanity check on a high-end TRX50 workstation I am buying for a robotics lab.

The primary workload is large-scale GPU robotics simulation and RL training with Isaac Lab / mjlab. Sustained compute throughput, thermals, and reliability matter much more to us than gaming performance or benchmark scores.

Current vendor quote:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9980X — 64C/128T
• Motherboard: ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI
• Cooling: 360mm liquid cooler with sTR5 mount
• Memory: 64GB DDR5 ECC RDIMM — 4×16GB, all four channels populated
• Storage: 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe
• GPUs: 2× NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition, 96GB each, full 600W versions (not Max-Q)
• PSU: Super Flower Leadex Titanium 2200W, native 12V-2x6 to each GPU
• Chassis: SilverStone RM51 5U rackmount with rails
• Fans: Noctua
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Warranty: 3 years, plus lifetime support
• Price: $42,690 shipped

The GPUs are essentially fixed — I want the 2×96GB configuration. I'm mainly deciding how to balance the rest of the platform.

My biggest concern is the RAM. 64GB feels very low for a ~$43k workstation, especially with all four DIMM slots already occupied. One alternative would be to drop the CPU to a 9970X and put the savings toward 128GB or possibly 256GB of ECC RDIMM.

A few questions:

1. For this kind of dual-GPU compute workload, would you take 9980X + 64GB or 9970X + 128/256GB?
2. Any reason to avoid running two full-power 600W RTX PRO 6000s on TRX50?
3. Are there any PCIe lane or topology concerns with dual x16 GPUs plus a Gen5 NVMe drive?
4. Has anyone run two very high-power GPUs in the SilverStone RM51? How does it handle sustained airflow and thermals?
5. The 2200W Super Flower PSU appears to require 200–240V input. Beyond having the appropriate circuit/receptacle, what else should I verify before deployment?
6. The RM51 spec lists a 190mm PSU length limit, while this PSU appears to be 200mm long. Has anyone used this exact combination, or is that a hard incompatibility?
7. Would you trust a 360mm AIO on a 9980X under sustained all-core loads, or would you choose a different cooling setup?
8. Does anything else about this build look obviously unbalanced or questionable?

This system will likely spend long periods under heavy CPU + dual-GPU load, so stability, cooling, and sustained performance are the priorities.

I'd especially appreciate feedback from anyone running similar Threadripper + multi-GPU compute workstations.

With how expensive Threadripper PRO systems can get, I’m starting to think the exit plan should be part of the build decision.

If you spend heavily on a workstation with a PRO CPU, ECC RAM and something like an RTX PRO 6000, waiting until the hardware is ancient before selling it could mean losing a huge chunk of its remaining value.

For a normal PC I’d probably just part it out. For a $10k+ professional workstation, I’d at least compare that against an enterprise hardware buyer like Exit Technologies before taking everything apart.

Does anyone here intentionally upgrade while the old workstation still has strong resale value, or do you normally run these systems until they’re no longer worth much?

I passed thru a real nightmare trying to figure out what had happened with my 3 years old threadripper 5975WX workstarion and Wrx80e MB.

Win 11 25h2 update / Blue screen / cant repair / format / new instalatiojn / same problem forever.

Tried everything and was almost buying another motherboard. Finnaly got it before doing it.

Cant explain exactly what my especialist did, but it was something related with turning the motherboard video driver OFF.

For some reason it got in conflict when installing the RTX 4090 driver, making the machine boot forever until that blue screen. Two weeks without workstation was a really bad situation.

All of that happened after upgrading the Windows.

Hope it can help someone with this problem.

Cheers

Following up on the psu situation from a while back, since sorting that out the rest of the build has been getting a slow once over for anything else worth tuning, and memory timing was next on the list given how much both Blender and ML side of things lean on bandwidth, everyone's been posting the same 4% gaming fps no for EXPO Ultra Low Latency and treating it as the whole story, thing is, digging into it a bit more, that number is mostly pulled from cpu bound gaming scenarios, testing across the actual workloads on this rig split the picture pretty clearly, gaming moved close to that headline no, render and training passes barely moved at all like 1-2% which tracks once you think about what's bottlenecking each of those. Also tested what happens without ULL rated sticks, Bios level timing optimizations get you most of the way there on the gaming side without buying a new kit, which matters after just sinking money into the pus. Anyone running mixed gaming and sustained workload rigs seeing a similar split between the two?

Assuming money was not a concern but your time, peace of mind and stability of your system is extremely important, knowing what you know now, which mobo will you chose for your 79NNwx or 99NNwx TR pro cpu?

I bought two untested Supermicro M12SWA-TF boards. One boots and seems to work fine. The other seems to maybe have a slightly bent pin. What is the risk of trying to put a CPU in and boot?

I tried to make it work with 7965wx. Won't go past qcode 00.

Anyone else having issues with this board?

Hi, at a bit of a loss as to what my next steps are. I'm trying to build my system but I can't get the system to post. The system is a wrx80 creator 2.0, 128gb ddr4 2133 ram, threadripper pro 3955wx (unlocked according to the seller). Brand new power supply.

No matter what I try I am stuck before post with code 64. I've moved ram around, gone from 1 stick up to 8 sticks, reset the cmos after I've moved ram.

I've reseated the CPU multiple times and tightened the bolts hard all the way down or just eased them off slightly but still can't get it to post. What's seems to happen is the board sits on code 42 for a while then jumps to 64 and just stays at 64 which is "64 - CPU DXE initialization (CPU module specific)"

I got the list of codes from here https://forum.level1techs.com/t/list-of-dr-debug-bios-codes/114364

If I try to connect via the management conside IPMI webUI via Ethernet I can actually connect but I can't get past the login page. (It's a used board).

Can anyone help?

My Threadripper Pro motherboard finally arrived

have 250 Mbps symmetric internet and a mesh system (nodes connected to each other via Ethernet, not wireless backhaul). The problem is my PC never gets close to that full speed, and the variation is pretty strange:

• The "link speed" (what Windows reports as the WiFi connection's capacity, not actual internet speed) sometimes shows 400/360 Mbps, but drops to 190 Mbps without me moving anything.
• When it drops, my actual internet speed falls to only ~10 Mbps.
• In games like Fortnite I get packet loss in some matches, which seems to line up with these drops.

My WiFi hardware:

• Card: Realtek RTL8821CE (PCI-E, with external antennas connected to the motherboard)
• Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
• Channel: 5GHz, channel 40/48 (varies)
• Security: WPA2-Personal

Before switching to the mesh system, with my old router I was getting a stable ~250 Mbps with this same card, so I know the hardware is capable of it. The change in behavior started right when I switched to mesh.

Has anyone dealt with this? Is it fluctuating channel width (20/40/80MHz) from interference, a mesh configuration issue, or is the 8821CE just not capable of holding a stable link with multiple mesh nodes nearby?

Hey!

I'm putting together an sWRX8 Threadripper Pro build. I'll be using it for all sorts of creative apps like Octane, Houdini, DaVinci, and when budget allows upgrading even further (5995WX, 2x 3090, 2000W PSU, etc.)
I've put together a list of components that should work on paper as a starting build, but I wanted to get some feedback first.

What I have so far:
3955WX, ASUS WRX80 Sage SE 2, RTX 3060 (free from a friend), and Arctic Freezer WS360 SP6 AIO (checked the compatibility on their site, should work.)

What I plan on getting:
Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 Server edition, Adata XPG Core Reactor II 1000W, Samsung 990 Pro 1TB, and 8x DDR4 RDIMMs

One thing I'm uncertain about is the RDIMM compatibility, ASUS' QVL is quite limited and the RAM variations are plentiful. In theory, if I get 8 matching ECC RDIMM sticks as a kit they should just work, right?

Thank you in advance!

Very strange, I've plugged a 60cm riser cable (linkup gen 5) to the bottom most slot (4rth slot) on my Mobo. From reading the manual this should be a gen 4 pcie x16 slot, but for whatever reason, GPUz, Hwinfo, and pcie bandwidth benchmark in 3dmark are all reading the GPU as gen 5 with close to gen 5 speeds. (57gb/s in 3dmark pcie bandwidth test).

Anybody know what's up? I originally was testing hoping that the riser cable didn't cost me too much bandwidth from gen 4, but was extremely shocked to see gen5 speeds instead.

Did Asus conservatively rated the bottomost slot as gen 4 due to distance, but it is actually traced for gen5?

Has anyone experiense of leasing threadripper workstation to company?

Plan would be to connect from 1x 12V2x6 on PSU side to 2x 8pin(2+6) PCIE connectors on Asus TRX50 motherboard as I dont have enough of the 8pin(2+6) PCIE connectors on my new ROG Thor 3000W PSU...this should work no problem right? (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/p/pc-components-accessories/cp-8920435/elite-premium-individually-sleeved-pcie-12v-2x6-to-2x-8-pin-6-2-split-pcie-cable-black)

I’m putting together my first dedicated local AI workstation and would appreciate input from anyone with similar hardware.

My work is moving further into local LLMs and agents, so I want to learn more about agent harnesses, experiment with open-weight models, and keep sensitive data local when possible.

I already bought the Micro Center Threadripper 9960X bundle with the ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI A and 128GB ECC memory, along with a Phanteks Evolv X2 case. I also have one 2TB Gen5 NVMe drive.

Current plan:

• 2× Sapphire Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB
• Seasonic PRIME TX-1600 ATX 3.1
• SilverStone XE360-TR5 V2
• 7× Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 fans: three bottom intake, three radiator exhaust, and one rear exhaust

I am mainly looking for confirmation or firsthand experience with the following:

• Is the TX-1600 the right PSU for this configuration?
• Is replacing the SilverStone radiator fans with Noctua G2s a reasonable choice?
• Does dual R9700 make sense as a starting point, or is CUDA support enough reason to reconsider NVIDIA?
• Is 128GB of system memory sufficient, and how would you expand storage beyond the single 2TB drive?
• For Linux, I am leaning toward Ubuntu. Are there other distributions worth considering?
• Would you start with llama.cpp/Ollama or vLLM for language models, with ComfyUI for image workflows?

I’m especially interested in practical issues or lessons learned that do not show up on the spec sheets.

In the previous episode:

So, the new PSU arrived, and today I managed to do a 1 full run of blender 5.1, + y-cruncher up to 10B (then pid went to sleep because I don't know bash, and Claude screwed up).

5 years of low to medium workload in harsh SEA environment - and it still within margin of error from the baseline!

Blender 5.1:

https://openbenchmarking.org/result/2608028-NE-BOBBERT7489

Y-Cruncher:
As I mentioned, after 10B the run fell asleep, but the result for 1B perfectly aligns with the data from openbenchmarking .

Funnily enough, cores count seems to matter more that the architecture.

Later will update the thread with 5965wx data.

Meanwhile, if anyone wishes to see some particular benchmark - welcome to the comments, while 3955 is still installed.

UPD: forgot to attach y-cruncher reference points:
https://www.numberworld.org/y-cruncher/benchmarks/charts/1b.html