3 ms·

We Exploded the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Melted the Motherboard

57 points by Night_Thastus 4y ago

sposeray 4y ago
[dead]
hnarayanan 4y ago
After 20 years, I had finally decided to build a PC myself (for my kids, really) and this was a star component in the shopping list.[1] Now I will wait until these more serious bugs on the platform are ironed out. It doesn’t seem right to spend hundreds on supposedly higher end motherboards when it’s clear they lack basic protections. (And don’t seem to have been through QA for basic things?) [1] https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/hnarayanan/saved/#view=VWWBvK https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/hnarayanan/saved/#view=VWWB...
- unnouinceput 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - xmodem 4y ago
    I'm not sure we watched the same video. In the video I watched, the host explained how it was possible for this to happen entirely with default settings.
  - Night_Thastus 4y ago
    You clearly did not watch the video. First, one of the boards failed with stock settings. Second, EXPO is not really overclocking in the traditional sense. It's basically the AMD equivalent of enabling an XMP profile. It's not even supposed to modify the SOC voltage that caused the failure. And if you watched the video, you'd know that not only did the ASUS board set the SOC voltage way beyond spec, but it had a complete lack of protection for the CPU in event of a failure. * Failure of over-temperature protections * Failure of over-current protections * A motherboard shoving current into a CPU which clearly is dead (or at the least not booted) because it has not sent a "power good" signal. * The motherboard setting voltages for vSOC that are way beyond AMD's recommended specs * The motherboard setting the voltage for vSOC well beyond what it shows in the BIOS (ie, you think you're getting 1.3V, actually getting 1.4V+) This is not "doofus overclocks CPU, kills it". This is "motherboard manufacturer completely inept at basic job, kills parts". And it's not just ASUS, though ASUS is the primary offender here.
- xmodem 4y ago
  Unfortunately there is always a risk of ending up with defective components. In same ways this is a better outcome than getting a random defective chip, because the manufacturer/vendor cannot make the claim of user error as easily.
- Night_Thastus 4y ago
  For what it's worth, these kind of manufacturer errors are very rare these days. Most PCs people build just work right away. And everyone involved is almost certain to get their full money back.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- toast0 4y ago
  You could probably go with an AM4 board and a 5800x3d instead. Pretty close performance, a lot lower price, not many complaints about lack of magic smoke retention. Sure, you lose out on future proofing, with no pci-e 5 and no ddr-5, but eh. Might be better to get into something at the end of the platform, rather than the beginning of a platform. Or you can stay on the wait and see train and maybe next year's systems will be a better choice. AM4 had issues for the first round or two, and Zen3 was pretty nice; it's a pattern that repeats (which is probably why AMD keeps sockets longer, Intel shows this sometimes too, but it's not so pronounced)
unnouinceput 4y ago
[flagged]
- gumballindie 4y ago
  I mean people around here are blown away by apple products so i’d say knowledge about hardware is scarce.
  - senttoschool 4y ago
    Apple hardware is top notch. Why can't the HN crowd be blown away by Apple products? Nothing comes close to Apple Silicon for laptops.
    - gumballindie 4y ago
      My average gaming laptop comes with a cpu ranked identically with an m1 pro (my cpu is older than the m1), has 64 gb of ram and a dedicated gpu with 6 gb vram. Runs any os except macos, i can easily upgrade my ram, wifi and hdd, has a 140 hz refresh rate and loads of connectivity options, replaceable battery and a working keyboard with a numpad. Bought it for fun as it was dirt cheap by comparison. I am not convinced apple is top notch.
      - senttoschool 4y ago
        >i’d say knowledge about hardware is scarce. It's ironic you said that and then claim that your old CPU is "ranked identically" with an M1 Pro.
        gumballindie 4y ago
        I mean benchmarks place it right next to an m1, but what you are saying is that marketing trumps real numbers? Also by old i mean 3 years or so. Do you really believe that apple silicon is the absolute best thing out there?

57 points by Night_Thastus 4y ago

[dead]

After 20 years, I had finally decided to build a PC myself (for my kids, really) and this was a star component in the shopping list.[1] Now I will wait until these more serious bugs on the platform are ironed out. It doesn’t seem right to spend hundreds on supposedly higher end motherboards when it’s clear they lack basic protections. (And don’t seem to have been through QA for basic things?) [1] https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/hnarayanan/saved/#view=VWWBvK https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/hnarayanan/saved/#view=VWWB...

unnouinceput 4y ago
[flagged]
- xmodem 4y ago
  I'm not sure we watched the same video. In the video I watched, the host explained how it was possible for this to happen entirely with default settings.
- Night_Thastus 4y ago
  You clearly did not watch the video. First, one of the boards failed with stock settings. Second, EXPO is not really overclocking in the traditional sense. It's basically the AMD equivalent of enabling an XMP profile. It's not even supposed to modify the SOC voltage that caused the failure. And if you watched the video, you'd know that not only did the ASUS board set the SOC voltage way beyond spec, but it had a complete lack of protection for the CPU in event of a failure. * Failure of over-temperature protections * Failure of over-current protections * A motherboard shoving current into a CPU which clearly is dead (or at the least not booted) because it has not sent a "power good" signal. * The motherboard setting voltages for vSOC that are way beyond AMD's recommended specs * The motherboard setting the voltage for vSOC well beyond what it shows in the BIOS (ie, you think you're getting 1.3V, actually getting 1.4V+) This is not "doofus overclocks CPU, kills it". This is "motherboard manufacturer completely inept at basic job, kills parts". And it's not just ASUS, though ASUS is the primary offender here.
xmodem 4y ago
Unfortunately there is always a risk of ending up with defective components. In same ways this is a better outcome than getting a random defective chip, because the manufacturer/vendor cannot make the claim of user error as easily.
Night_Thastus 4y ago
For what it's worth, these kind of manufacturer errors are very rare these days. Most PCs people build just work right away. And everyone involved is almost certain to get their full money back.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
toast0 4y ago
You could probably go with an AM4 board and a 5800x3d instead. Pretty close performance, a lot lower price, not many complaints about lack of magic smoke retention. Sure, you lose out on future proofing, with no pci-e 5 and no ddr-5, but eh. Might be better to get into something at the end of the platform, rather than the beginning of a platform. Or you can stay on the wait and see train and maybe next year's systems will be a better choice. AM4 had issues for the first round or two, and Zen3 was pretty nice; it's a pattern that repeats (which is probably why AMD keeps sockets longer, Intel shows this sometimes too, but it's not so pronounced)

unnouinceput 4y ago

[flagged]

gumballindie 4y ago
I mean people around here are blown away by apple products so i’d say knowledge about hardware is scarce.
- senttoschool 4y ago
  Apple hardware is top notch. Why can't the HN crowd be blown away by Apple products? Nothing comes close to Apple Silicon for laptops.
  - gumballindie 4y ago
    My average gaming laptop comes with a cpu ranked identically with an m1 pro (my cpu is older than the m1), has 64 gb of ram and a dedicated gpu with 6 gb vram. Runs any os except macos, i can easily upgrade my ram, wifi and hdd, has a 140 hz refresh rate and loads of connectivity options, replaceable battery and a working keyboard with a numpad. Bought it for fun as it was dirt cheap by comparison. I am not convinced apple is top notch.
    - senttoschool 4y ago
      >i’d say knowledge about hardware is scarce. It's ironic you said that and then claim that your old CPU is "ranked identically" with an M1 Pro.
      - gumballindie 4y ago
        I mean benchmarks place it right next to an m1, but what you are saying is that marketing trumps real numbers? Also by old i mean 3 years or so. Do you really believe that apple silicon is the absolute best thing out there?