Michael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺Jul 10

ARGH! Remember how my new PC was unstable because of a faulty CPU? https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2025-03-19-intel-core-ultra-9-285k-on-asus-z890-not-stable/

That same machine (with new CPU) died again today 😠

Didn’t come back from suspend-to-RAM, and now it doesn’t even turn on at all :(

I didn’t want to do more hours of troubleshooting on this cursed machine…

Intel 9 285K on ASUS Z890: not stable!

Update (2025-05-15): Turns out the CPU was faulty! See My 2025 high-end Linux PC for a new article on this build, now with a working CPU. In January I ordered the components for a new PC and expected that I would publish a successor to my 2022 high-end Linux PC 🐧 article. Instead, I am now sitting on a PC which regularly encounters crashes of the worst-to-debug kind, so I am publishing this article as a warning for others in case you wanted to buy the same hardware.

Michael Stapelberg
Show threadMichael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺Jul 10

Could it be related to maxing out the machine for hours yesterday? https://mas.to/@zekjur/114824187223410306

Maybe.

Should a PC ever die because you use it too much? Absolutely not.

Michael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺 (@zekjur@mas.to)

When I couldn’t get CUDA to work immediately this morning to speed up my OCR job (≈17 000 scanned documents), I hedged my bets and started it on the CPU of this machine (not the GPU): https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2025-05-15-my-2025-high-end-linux-pc/ Turns out that finished while I was at work (in ≈4 hours, consuming roughly 300W constantly, so 1.2kWh in total), so now I don’t have to figure out how to get CUDA to work to make this task any faster :P

mas.to
Show threadIn #Flancia we'll meetJul 10
@zekjur argh, with the hours spent on this! That sucks. Maybe time to try AMD despite the worse standby performance?
Show threadMichael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺Jul 10
@flancian Would love to, but I just can’t justify adding 30W of permanent extra heat output to my setup :(
Show threadMichael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺Jul 10
@flancian Maybe that’ll change with Zen 6, though? https://www.notebookcheck.net/Low-power-Zen-6-CPU-cores-reportedly-beat-Intel-E-cores-in-power-consumption-while-bringing-75-IPC-of-Zen-5.994826.0.html
Low-power Zen 6 CPU cores reportedly beat Intel E-cores in power consumption while bringing 75% IPC of Zen 5

AMD is expected to outfit the desktop Zen 6 CPUs with both full-sized Zen 6 cores on the Zen 6 CCDs and low-power Zen 5 LP cores on the I/O die. According to Moore's Law Is Dead, the Zen 5 LP cores boast good performance and super low power consumption.

Notebookcheck
Show threadAlan NorbauerJul 12
@zekjur @flancian What are your requirements? AMD has parts that *might* meet your criteria much better, but they usually have tradeoffs, such as having way less expandability. For example the new AI mini PCs, or the laptop CPUs that you can now buy on desktop motherboards: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/6296vs6403vs5799/Intel-Ultra-9-285K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-AI-Max+-395-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-7945HX3D
Intel Ultra 9 285K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D vs i9-12900 vs Ryzen 9 9950X vs Ryzen 9 9955HX [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Comparing Intel Ultra 9 285K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D vs i9-12900 vs Ryzen 9 9950X vs Ryzen 9 9955HX

Show threadMichael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺Jul 12

@alannorbauer @flancian This is my view: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/6296vs5799vs4729vs6211vs6664/Intel-Ultra-9-285K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-7945HX3D-vs-Intel-i9-12900-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-9950X-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-9955HX

I’m used to the 285K performance by now. I would accept the 9950X performance-wise, but it idles at +30W compared to the 285K, which is a deal breaker (see https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2025-05-15-my-2025-high-end-linux-pc/#cpu-and-gpu-idle-power-vs-peak-performance for details, see https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/comments/1k2abz7/comment/mnt7sg0/ for an Intel Engineer’s take on why).

(1/2)

Intel Ultra 9 285K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D vs i9-12900 vs Ryzen 9 9950X vs Ryzen 9 9955HX [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Comparing Intel Ultra 9 285K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D vs i9-12900 vs Ryzen 9 9950X vs Ryzen 9 9955HX

Show threadMichael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺

@alannorbauer @flancian
Going for a mobile CPU sounds promising to lower idle power usage, but https://www.servethehome.com/minisforum-ms-a2-review-an-almost-perfect-amd-ryzen-intel-10gbe-homelab-system/4/ writes about the 9955HX:

At idle, this is not a mini PC that is closer to 6-10W. Instead, it is 25W and can go up quite a bit from there as we had a configuration idling at 45W and that did not feel like an upper limit.

…so I don’t think AMD meets my criteria, unfortunately. (2/2)

Minisforum MS-A2 Review An Almost Perfect Homelab System

In our Minisforum MS-A2 review, we take a look at the 10GbE, AMD Ryzen system with 16 cores that will be a hit with the homelab community

ServeTheHome
Jul 12 at 6:22amWeb
Show threadAlan NorbauerJul 12
@zekjur @flancian Interesting. What does your whole system idle at, if you don’t mind my asking?
Show threadMichael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺Jul 12

@alannorbauer @flancian About 50W without monitor turned on, about 60W with (8K) monitor turned on.

This is almost identical with the 285K (before 07/11) and 12900K (now, again, as the other machine broke)

Adding another 30W would be almost doubling the idle power draw :-/

Show threadAlan NorbauerJul 12
@zekjur @flancian Oh, 50 watts isn’t THAT low. These mobile systems have much lower whole-system power consumption than desktop equivalents (again, with MANY tradeoffs). Here’s a person reporting a whole system idle of 30w for a minisforum-based 7945hx desktop build: https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/1alk4pd/comment/ktpnbkv/. Apologies if I’m missing context and this is all irrelevant: your choices sound very well researched!
Show threadMichael Stapelberg 🐧🐹😺Jul 12

@alannorbauer @flancian The 8700G is another one of those very low power AMD CPUs; I blogged about it at https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2024-07-02-ryzen-7-mini-pc-low-power-proxmox-hypervisor/

But the 9xxx series has 2 CCDs instead of one, and that seems to imply the higher idle power.

With all that said, maybe going AMD still is the better option overall…

Ryzen 7 Mini-PC makes a power-efficient VM host

When I saw the first reviews of the ASRock DeskMini X600 barebone, I was immediately interested in building a home-lab hypervisor (VM host) with it. Apparently, the DeskMini X600 uses less than 10W of power but supports latest-generation AMD CPUs like the Ryzen 7 8700G!

Michael Stapelberg
Show threadAlan NorbauerJul 12
@zekjur @flancian Yeah, but the latest ones are unfortunately very hard to source unless you’re an OEM nowadays for some reason. AMD really does have an extremely confusing product lineup outside the most standard chips. Which I guess is both good and bad. I just bought an EPYC 4545p which is a super weird chip that shouldn’t exist.