Spec me CPU/Mobo/RAM £300

R4z0r · 30 Oct 2019 at 14:58

Hey all, I've been out of the game for a long time but now need to put together a low-mid range PC for some occasional gaming.

I already have a Radeon RX580, PSU, Samsung 970 Evo 500GB NVME M.2 and case so I simply need the cpu/ram/mobo. What would you recommend? Generally I prefer Intel but happy with AMD if it makes more sense.

Budget for those 3 is 300

Gray2233 · 30 Oct 2019 at 15:11

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99
1 x MSI B450M Mortar MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 mATX Motherboard= £92.99
1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30= £62.99

Total: £335.97 (includes shipping: £0.00)

You might be able to get them cheaper if you shop around, you wont beat that combo for your budget though.

snips86x · 30 Oct 2019 at 15:11

Can you stretch a little?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Team Group Dark T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDGED48= £44.99
1 x MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £99.95
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99

Total: £335.43 (includes shipping: £10.50)

R4z0r · 30 Oct 2019 at 17:09

Thanks both, this looks great!

G4BR13L · 30 Oct 2019 at 18:24

Both of the 2 configurations are great.Just be careful to take a MSI motherboard,because it has a bios flash button that lets you flash the bios without cpu on.If you don't get a msi you will be stuck with the components or forced to take a 2xxx series amd processor or earlier.

R4z0r · 31 Oct 2019 at 11:49

Is it worth saving a bit and going for the Ryzen 2600? I see it's 139.99 at OCUK right now? Any benefit with the 3600, aside from higher clock speed per core?

Gray2233 · 31 Oct 2019 at 12:54

If you want to save a bit you could shop around, you can find 2600's for around the £100 mark.

The 3600 is more efficient and has better IPC as well as other improvements, it's all round superior and would be even if you clocked both chips to the same speed.

Benchmark and a review link for you:

https://www.techspot.com/review/1871-amd-ryzen-3600/

snips86x · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:01

Gray2233 said:
If you want to save a bit you could shop around, you can find 2600's for around the £100 mark.

The 3600 is more efficient and has better IPC as well as other improvements, it's all round superior and would be even if you clocked both chips to the same speed.

Benchmark and a review link for you:

https://www.techspot.com/review/1871-amd-ryzen-3600/

Wish they would include previous gen into these as well, like the 47xx series.

Gray2233 · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:08

snips86x said:
Wish they would include previous gen into these as well, like the 47xx series.

https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2421?vs=2362

Should give you some idea.

snips86x · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:16

Gray2233 said:
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2421?vs=2362

Should give you some idea.

Yeah i Know, but I've not looked so that's my fault. I use them frequently

snips86x · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:25

Sorry to hijack the thread, was just curious...having compared the following:

4770k vs 3900x
4770k vs 9900k
3900x vs 9900k

It would seem that my CPU is definitely showing its age in those benchmarks. However, comparing both top end CPUs, the 3900x really does pull ahead of Intel making it look rather aged. If my upgrade actually materializes in the new, I think its going to be Ryzen for sure.

Gray2233 · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:33

You really can't beat Zen 2 at the moment for the price point.

I was looking at the new 9900KS earlier, and sure it'll perform very well, but for the price of that one bit of Intel hardware you could buy a 3700X + Gigabyte X570 Elite + 16GB of 3600mhz RAM.

Sort of nuts really.

Even the more mainstream stuff like the 9700K, that's £50 more than the 3700X and it has 8 fewer threads while being on a dead platform.

Then there's all the security issues that keep popping up for Intel.

I wouldn't touch Intel with a ten foot pole right now and I've been running their CPU's exclusively since the Core 2 Duo launched.

snips86x · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:39

Gray2233 said:
You really can't beat Zen 2 at the moment for the price point.

I was looking at the new 9900KS earlier, and sure it'll perform very well, but for the price of that one bit of Intel hardware you could buy a 3700X + Gigabyte X570 Elite + 16GB of 3600mhz RAM.

Sort of nuts really.

Even the more mainstream stuff like the 9700K, that's £50 more than the 3700X and it has 8 fewer threads while being on a dead platform.

Then there's all the security issues that keep popping up for Intel.

I wouldn't touch Intel with a ten foot pole right now and I've been running their CPU's exclusively since the Core 2 Duo launched.

Yeah I can totally appreciate that. My 4790k is still going strong and holding up very well but given the above, and benchmarks, it seems like a wasted investment sticking with Intel.

Gray2233 · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:42

snips86x said:
Yeah I can totally appreciate that. My 4790k is still going strong and holding up very well but given the above, and benchmarks, it seems like a wasted investment sticking with Intel.

Similar boat to your own.

I've a 3770K and it's still pulling its weight in honesty, starting to get a little long in the tooth with certain games so I've been eyeballing a 3600/mobo/ram. Half tempted to just wait until the 4000 chips are out though, I'd been hoping we'd see B550's before Christmas but it looks like they've been delayed. I might just put the money down on a new TV instead, upgrade the rig next year.

snips86x · 31 Oct 2019 at 13:50

Gray2233 said:
Similar boat to your own.

I've a 3770K and it's still pulling its weight in honesty, starting to get a little long in the tooth with certain games so I've been eyeballing a 3600/mobo/ram. Half tempted to just wait until the 4000 chips are out though, I'd been hoping we'd see B550's before Christmas but it looks like they've been delayed. I might just put the money down on a new TV instead, upgrade the rig next year.

Have you overclocked it? Mine is running at 4.7ghz and has been for 4 years now. Still solid and I can wait based on that.

Gray2233 · 31 Oct 2019 at 14:01

snips86x said:
Have you overclocked it? Mine is running at 4.7ghz and has been for 4 years now. Still solid and I can wait based on that.

Yeah, it's been sat at 4.4ghz since I bought it.

I think I'll just wait until the 4600/4700 chips come out next year, the more I think about a new TV the more I want one. lol

snips86x · 31 Oct 2019 at 14:04

Gray2233 said:
Yeah, it's been sat at 4.4ghz since I bought it.

I think I'll just wait until the 4600/4700 chips come out next year, the more I think about a new TV the more I want one. lol

haha

Yeah, I'm going to wait as well. Would we well worth it given the improvements Ryzen has made over previous gen CPUs (Bulldozer)

snips86x · 31 Oct 2019 at 14:08

Also, with references like this:

The next generation of AMD processors could enjoy even more capable multithreaded performance with an improvement to simultaneous multithreading, called SM4. It would effectively give Zen 3-powered CPUs the ability to run four threads per core, double that of existing Zen and Zen 2 CPUs.

...it would be silly to invest if the difference is really that great.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amd-zen-3-sm4-four-threads-per-core/

Gray2233 · 31 Oct 2019 at 14:23

That's very impressive stuff, and absolutely worth waiting for.

I tend to keep my hardware for fairly long periods of time, if the next iteration of Zen launches with SM4 I'll happily wait for it.