
GPU-equipped Ryzen Pros give AMD what it needs to conquer the corporate desktop - rbanffy
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/05/gpu-equipped-ryzen-pros-give-amd-what-it-needs-to-conquer-the-corporate-desktop/
======
bhouston
We recently started to purchase Ryzen 2700 for our office, and us used to be
all Intel 4790K and Intel 7700K. These AMD CPUs are pretty great price for
what you get and way faster than the similarly priced Intel CPUs for our
needs.

We sort of make fun of the multi-colored CPU coolers that come with the CPU
though. It seems weird to have these in business machines.

(We have also invested in another 16 AMD Threadrippers, they are just amazing
power for the price. It is sort of weird that is less than 6 months, we have
become an AMD shop after being Intel for as long as I can remember.)

~~~
yAnonymous
Agreed, they're great. If only they weren't so unreliable with Linux. First
the segfault bug and then there's still random freezes in idle state:

[https://community.amd.com/thread/225795](https://community.amd.com/thread/225795)

~~~
jcastro
Just how common is this? Three ryzen/linux machines here and they've been rock
solid.

~~~
adamc84
I believe only very early silicon was affected. AMD replaced CPUs for people
on request. If you google you can find the affected datecode visible on the
CPU. I have an early Ryzen from the next date and it doesn't have any issues.

~~~
paulmd
AMD tightened up manufacturing at Week 25 and the incidence rate is
significantly reduced after that point, but there is no date range (or factory
code) on the 1000-series processors that is _guaranteed_ to be unaffected and
I recommend that everyone test their processor just to be sure.

I've seen about a dozen reports of faulty post-week-25 processors crop up in
the AMD Community Forum and on Reddit from different users. Which is of course
a lot better than pre-week-25 where the overwhelming majority of units are
faulty. Of course, most users aren't testing for it in the first place,
especially since the newer processors were widely (and incorrectly) reported
to be "fixed", so it's hard to say.

[https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1635&tstart=0](https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1635&tstart=0)
(user jcoiner, 1726PGT)

[https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1725&tstart=0](https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1725&tstart=0)
(user scorpio810, 2x 1728SUS)

[https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1770&tstart=0](https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1770&tstart=0)
(user ryzlin, 1733PGT)

[https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1785&tstart=0](https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1785&tstart=0)
(user flyinryzen1700, 1737SUS)

[https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1830&tstart=0](https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1830&tstart=0)
(user skimba 1725PGT, user xtronom 1728PGT)

[https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1860&tstart=0](https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1860&tstart=0)
(user jc_yang, 1742SUS)

[https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1875&tstart=0](https://community.amd.com/thread/215773?start=1875&tstart=0)
(user fedor_s 1726SUS, user karabojkov 1741SUS+1737SUS, user spiffy 1748PGS)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/76q7ne/got_a_defective...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/76q7ne/got_a_defective_ryzen_7_1700_on_rma_process/dofye3u/)
(user grosbof 1733SUS)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7ar15o/psa_amazon_is_s...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7ar15o/psa_amazon_is_still_selling_preweek_25_ryzens/dpc5iue/)
(user triplesal, 1733PGS)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7ar15o/psa_amazon_is_s...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7ar15o/psa_amazon_is_still_selling_preweek_25_ryzens/dpcrkv0/)
(user istockporno, 1726PGT)

I am guessing that this was finally squashed for good in the 2000-series
stepping.

Incidentally, there have been reports of the latest patch of Battlefield One
having strange random crashes on Ryzen 1000-series but not 2000-series or
Intel processors, that is reportedly fixed by disabling SMT, and I'm wondering
if that's another manifestation of the segfault bug. It's hard to say, and the
reality is the first-gen silicon will never be 100% trustworthy. Buy
2000-series processors instead, it's worth it for the peace of mind.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" I recommend that everyone test their processor just to be sure."_

How does one do the test?

~~~
paulmd
The classic test needs to be run under Linux but you can use a USB stick.

[https://github.com/suaefar/ryzen-test](https://github.com/suaefar/ryzen-test)

There is also a Windows variant that may be more sensitive than the Linux
variant but fewer people have used it so YMMV.

[https://github.com/corngood/kill-ryzen-win](https://github.com/corngood/kill-
ryzen-win)

------
bitL
Tangentially related: Does anyone know if there is a NUC-style Ryzen
2700U-based machine, preferably with Thunderbolt 3? That would be a dream
machine; one could use it for normal computing, development (4 cores, 32GB
RAM), or even as a SteamBox (NVidia 650Ti-level of graphics performance), with
the optional eGPU if that's not good enough. I couldn't find anything and I
sincerely hope it won't end up as Kaveri, either unavailable or stuffed only
into lowest-level notebooks.

~~~
post_break
Not Ryzen but this would do.
[https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1685610...](https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102201)

~~~
onli
You got downvoted, but you are actually quite right. The Hades Canon is not
your normal Intel NUC, this packs exactly the gpu power parent is looking for
- and the processor is strong as well.

~~~
bitL
It's 100W, very noisy and much larger than a NUC with typically 15W design.
ZOTAC Magnus 1070 seems way better in every aspect comparing to this if you
wanted to go more expensive route.

~~~
onli
Why? [https://www.anandtech.com/show/10921/zotac-zbox-magnus-
en108...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/10921/zotac-zbox-magnus-en1080-sff-
pc-review-a-premium-gaming-powerhouse/8) is the 1080 version, but if I
understand that correctly these builds use pretty much a normal gpu. They will
eat a lot more power and be louder.

But right, OP was asking only for a 15W cpu and the gpu level of a 650 Ti,
which is weaker than this.

~~~
bitL
Magnus EN1070K is a leaner build, like they did with the original Steam Box
NEN (basically the Magnus EN970 on the charts you linked):

[https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mini_pcs/magnus-
en1070k-win...](https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mini_pcs/magnus-
en1070k-windows-10)

It's smaller than Mac Mini, yet you can do serious gaming, Deep Learning and
cryptomining with it; that's not possible with Hades Canyon. It's quiet as
well. Power consumption should be quite a bit lower than 1080 version as well.

------
anshargal
I would appreciate Intel NUC-style box with GPU equipped Ryzen Pro. I know
about NUCs with Intel CPU and Vega M GPU but they seem to be too expensive.

~~~
bhouston
This would be amazing. If it could handle >= 32GB of RAM and 2 SSDs and run
two 4K monitors at once, this would be so amazing and replace most of our
desktops.

~~~
rwmj
And ECC too.

By breaking Intel's hold on the NUC form factor, it should bring prices down
as well.

~~~
johnp_
All Raven Ridge processors have ECC support[1], but it additionally requires
motherboard support. Would be great if some laptop manufacturer would undercut
prices of current ECC laptops by >1k$ by pairing Raven Ridge with ECC or we
get at least a µATX or ITX board.

[1] [https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/amd-ama-starts-
at-12pm-...](https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/amd-ama-starts-at-12pm-est-
on-wednesday-may-9.2545291/page-3#post-39418197)

edit: As AMD is already throttling DRAM speed dynamically for Ryzen Mobile to
conserve power, it would be an interesting experiment to see if they could
throttle ECC DRAM even lower, so that it consumes less power than normal DRAM.

------
Already__Taken
I wonder if these will be capable of working with ECC memory. I can't see
OEM's pushing that as it's not supported by AMD but it could be a niche for
custom builds.

~~~
johnp_
It is supported by AMD, the OEMs just have to support it on the motherboard
site too: [https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/amd-ama-starts-
at-12pm-...](https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/amd-ama-starts-at-12pm-est-
on-wednesday-may-9.2545291/page-3#post-39418197)

------
Already__Taken
I've had ~300 A8 7600(ish) APU desktops now and been very pleased. Mostly
we've built them ourselves because nothing got into that price/performance
bracket and no supplier would sell AMD. Great fit for the education market
that's mostly office with some CAD.

------
shmerl
I'm waiting for more Dell laptops with Ryzen APUs.

------
joncrane
Just how big is the corporate desktop market? I haven't seen desktop computers
at work in at least 7 years.

~~~
stingraycharles
Still very big, I would say. You are correct about startups, but just go to
any enterprise and you will find desktops everywhere. Enterprises generally
don’t like the idea of company laptops with sensitive information being
stolen, and - from what I can see - thin clients + datacenters is very popular
there.

~~~
joncrane
OK. For the record, I worked at a government agency, at a GSE (both as a
contractor, my company and the client both provided laptops only), and at a
Fortune 100 company in the timeframe I quoted.

The sensitive information leakage thing is protected via full disk encryption
in all those cases.

~~~
bostik
Same for us, and we're just 100 heads.

At least once a year I have to explain to the auditors that no, we do not
clamp our desktop boxes down. Every system is set up with full-disk
encryption.

Auditor: "What happens if someone steals one of those boxes?"

Me: "We lose perhaps 1k worth of kit. An annoyance. Someone has to spend time
reinstalling their setup. But the data on the disk is illegible garbage.
Useless."

Auditor: "Have you documented that as an accepted risk?"

