visper wrote:Sorry, I'm still not clear on whether RAM of higher capacity (i.e. 64GB total) will ever be capable of higher frequencies. Perhaps the answer doesn't even exist yet.
I'm sorry i havent been clear enough, the answer is its impossible to know, todays CPUs have the memory controller integrated on the CPU, so it might or not support the speeds you want to achieve, even if the memory can reach it. Now with more modules its suppose to put more load into the the controller, so this is the reason in some scenarios 2 slots they reach 2666 and 4 slots 2400, but again this is not a set to stone or a law, you might or not able to do it, it depends on your your luck and if the memory controller supports it. Now i do know also that higher capacity modules put more strain into the memory controller, and also less certain that you will reach higher, again its a luck thing here, its not like if you buy higher you wont be able to, its less likely but you could be lucky and be fine, just dont set your mind that you will, this is overclocking, not all reach the same speeds, the only thing you do know its garantee is that it should run with 4 slots on 2133, higher than that will depend, but AMD do benefit and need higher memory to be competitive, intel not so much.
visper wrote:What kind of fan issues? And with which fans? That could be a big deal.
It is big deal for me, but again this is an issue that i seen on two persons (me and another forum member here), but there are tons of people that have had a fine experience, my guess is that its directly related to my motherboard. Now what kind of issues
1) The Qtunning didnt consistently read the min rpms correctly, for example for a noctua NF-P14R, one time it see 300rpms the next test 500rpms, next test 400rpms the next test 700rpms, and so on, never was consistent as it was with FanXpert. Not a big deal when you are trying to do 1 fan, but if you have 3 or more fans becomes a lot of combinations.
2) When the rpms where not read correctly, the graph doesnt allow you to go below what the bios stablished as the minimum, so thats why its important for it to recognized it right.
3) With a noctua and thermalright, when placing the graphs manually with in the limits that the bios said, and saving the preset, i had resets, like i did something that bios didnt understand and i get a reboot.
Now dont let my comments above worry too much, i seen users have a great experience, my mobo H170 Pro Gaming is now 2 gens old, asus tends to fix things and then forget it, i think my mobo reach that point and mine will never be fixed, but i do think they have learned a lot form that gen, i bet Z270 and X370 mobos are much better. I can tell u that Asus does read on ROG forums, and changes done to my mobo came from a lot of suggestions of users, the only thing is they didnt reach a good polish bios fan control. Again this is more a warning, not to deteur you from asus.
visper wrote:Asus has been irritating me too for the last while, so it's not that I'm insisting on any particular brand. The Asus Prime X370 Pro seems to have a lot of linux users reporting no issues, which is particularly appealing. I haven't fully evaluated reviews myself yet. Also I have a hard time finding reviews of the MSI X370 Gaming Plus, particularly from a linux perspective, and that makes me a bit nervous. In general I like MSI as a brand. Asrock also seems to have positive sentiment. I'm really not decided on the motherboard yet, and thus the RAM decision is also in limbo.
Go with the mobo that has better support for linux and works well, fans is one small thing and you can get other lower rpms fans and even undervolt manually and even go with a fan controller, there are workarounds for fans and control, but to be unstable or even not recognize certain things on your mobo would be much worst. If you dont see MSI to have good experiences with linux, then dont go for it, if you feel Asus or AsRock do a better job, chose according on which you think would end up better overall linux experience.
As a final suggestion, reserach on your linux ambients (forums/redit/etc), how does
ASRock X370 Taichi behave on linux, its one of the few mobos that have gotten very good reviews, and specially the following
TechPowerUp ASRock X370 Taichi (AMD AM4) Review, gave it a perfect 10, might be worth checking, specially also comes with WIFI =)