could have prepared me for the challenges and the excitement of overclocking AMD ’ s 1950X CPU . What is equally true , though , is just how much work the ROG team put into the board to make it not only general use ready , but have it perform in this environment .
Before I go into more detail , in the interests of transparency and in my opinion ( this entire publication is opinion if you ’ ve not noticed ), there are some challenges that AMD partners deal with which are not obvious to the general public . These challenges are mostly due to the nature of the Zen based CPUs , and of course that extends to just how radically different they are from their previous offerings . There ’ s a steep learning curve - dare I say not only for the partners , but AMD as well . As we saw with the release of the AM4 Ryzen ’ s earlier this year , the platform today looks different to how it was initially presented . Through software updates , BIOS updates and the much spoken about ( and sometimes misunderstood ) AGESA updates , the present day
Ryzen based system is in much better shape than it was all those months back .
AMD has obviously poured a lot of that into the ThreadRipper platform , and since it has its roots in the server space , perhaps is further along than it would have otherwise been . That said , things are not perfect and the partners do a lot to mitigate some of the most immediate challenges for the platform .
The Zenith Extreme goes one further and actually makes the platform LN2 ready out the box . Once again , it is not an easy system to overclock at the edge and it certainly won ’ t remind you of the rather blissful overclocking of the Maximus IX APEX . No , that I suspect is quite a few generations ’ away ( it took nine iterations of the platforms and the Maximus range to get there ). That being said , working with the Zenith Extreme somehow reminds one of working with the old school DFI LanParty NF4 or , prior to that , the Abit boards in towards their twilight years . Vendors that had gone the extra mile to bring out the very best out of a platform that wasn ’ t the easiest to tune .
That being so , while I may have fond memories of that time , the reality is that LN2 overclocking ( or dry ice at the time ) on ThreadRipper is still more refined and easier to get to grips with than those older AthlonXP and later Athlon64 / FX boards . Nostalgia has a brilliant way of dulling the pain .
Since this is purely about the extreme overclocking results as generated on the Zenith Extreme , you are likely to get an incomplete picture of what the actual board offers out the box and what the platform means as a whole . You ’ ll have to rely on the more reputable review sites out there for that . Here at the TheOverclocker , our sole interest in AMD ’ s platform was and will always remain what it can do under LN2 . A day may come where we have a full “ air ” review of the board , but that isn ’ t right now . So in terms of compatibility with various devices , connectivity , and how relevant it is for “ mega tasking ”
Issue 42 | 2017 The OverClocker 15