No cheap Ryzens?

[HangTime]

Was contemplating upgrading an old PC to a cheap (as in A320 cheap) setup, but they don't actually seem to have any budget parts? I mean even the ancient and slow Ryzen 3 1300 is £90. It feels like you have to spend a lot so I'd be better off getting a 5000 series for main rig and then relegate old CPU or something.

Is this just the way things are these days and you have to scour the second hand market to get something for cheap atm?

 

[jigger]

There is a shortage because of people WFH.

 

[4K8KW10]

Ryzen 5000 series has never been meant to be cheap. There are so many facts supporting this claim.
Do you remember the pre-launch speculations when everyone expected Ryzen 7 to be 12-core, Ryzen 5 to be 8-core, etc...

Nothing materialised, actually the worst happened - AMD increased the pricing and made the Ryzen 7 5800X a terrible underperforming 8-core with heavy factory overclock up to 105 watts.
Which increased the maintenance requirements over the users further.

 

[Armageus]

B grade 3600 is the best option ATM

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x **B Grade** AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - MPK= £139.99

Total: £148.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)​

​

 

[Cyber-Mav]

What do you get with a B grade cpu? Bent pins?

 

[Minstadave]

Was contemplating upgrading an old PC to a cheap (as in A320 cheap) setup, but they don't actually seem to have any budget parts? I mean even the ancient and slow Ryzen 3 1300 is £90. It feels like you have to spend a lot so I'd be better off getting a 5000 series for main rig and then relegate old CPU or something.

Is this just the way things are these days and you have to scour the second hand market to get something for cheap atm?

You're probably aware but just in case. The only Ryzen CPUs with an integrated GPU are the APUs (have a G after the numerous like 3400G).

So if building an A320 system you'll need a GPU unless you pick up an APU.

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

What do you get with a B grade cpu? Bent pins?

A returned and cheked item, likely no different from new other than shor warranty.

 

[Armageus]

What do you get with a B grade cpu? Bent pins?

Having ordered one of these 3600 - A bare CPU in an antistatic bag, in a small padded box

A returned and cheked item, likely no different from new other than shor warranty.

Given the quantity of these 3600 available (10+) then it's unlikely to be returns, more like build stock or sourced through a different channel. The one I ordered looked brand new, not a mark on the heat spreader, so probably not even been installed

 

[Cyber-Mav]

so deffo no bent pins?

 

[Armageus]

so deffo no bent pins?

No, mine was perfect

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Thats good to know. Looks like B grade cpu is a viable option

 

[HangTime]

Ryzen 5000 series has never been meant to be cheap. There are so many facts supporting this claim.
Do you remember the pre-launch speculations when everyone expected Ryzen 7 to be 12-core, Ryzen 5 to be 8-core, etc...

Nothing materialised, actually the worst happened - AMD increased the pricing and made the Ryzen 7 5800X a terrible underperforming 8-core with heavy factory overclock up to 105 watts.
Which increased the maintenance requirements over the users further.

That's fine but I'm talking Ryzens in general, I doubt most A320 boards have a BIOS update to support 5000 series / VRMS too weak etc anyway. I want a cheap Ryzen of any generation.

Basically the issue I'm facing is, AM4 boards are really cheap, but the CPUs aren't. There's loads of them all bunched up in the £1xx bracket, which made me thing there's not much point getting anything except a 3600 or whatever, but then I thought if I'm going to spend that much, I may as well spend a bit more on a 5000 series to replace my 2700x and then put the 2700x in the cheap system.

You're probably aware but just in case. The only Ryzen CPUs with an integrated GPU are the APUs (have a G after the numerous like 3400G).

So if building an A320 system you'll need a GPU unless you pick up an APU.

Yeah I've got a GPU, although if the price is right I'd probably get an APU to reduce power/heat etc.

 

[Armageus]

Basically the issue I'm facing is, AM4 boards are really cheap, but the CPUs aren't.

It's purely down to fab capacity/demand. Due to good yields almost every Ryzen chip is being sold as a mid range part - there aren't anywhere near as many "defective" parts available to be down-binned as low end parts, and due to demand there won't be any "good" parts intentionally disabled and sold as low end parts

 

[HangTime]

Having ordered one of these 3600 - A bare CPU in an antistatic bag, in a small padded box

So no cooler then, that's a bummer.
Looking at Ryzen prices, they really haven't shifted at all, I paid £141.70 for my 2700X over 18 months ago.
Starting to get tempted by going the intel route (10600 or whatever) if I can find a cheap board. This 'cheap' upgrade seems to be ending up as a midrange upgrade, so I'll probably bin the idea.

 

[jigger]

So no cooler then, that's a bummer.
Looking at Ryzen prices, they really haven't shifted at all, I paid £141.70 for my 2700X over 18 months ago.
Starting to get tempted by going the intel route (10600 or whatever) if I can find a cheap board. This 'cheap' upgrade seems to be ending up as a midrange upgrade, so I'll probably bin the idea.

All the lower end Ryzen parts are heading to OEM machines to fill the demand for office machines. Any spare retail stock has a master race tax.

The best deal I’ve seen are on 1600 AF, 3300X and 9400.

 

[HangTime]

1600AF were like £90 when launched which was OK but don't seem to have dropped in price and availability pretty limited now. This is kind of what I'm getting at, I knew you could get a 1600AF for under a ton like 18 months ago but now when I go to look thinking OK maybe I'll find a 2600 at that price or something, but anything semi-decent is priced into treble figures.

What's interesting is that unlike the GPU market, mid-high end CPUs are still in stock at normal prices, so it's just the bottom end of the market that seems to have concertinaed, as you say maybe it's all swallowed up by OEMs but the interesting part is it hasn't really driven up the rest of the market that much. Which is why there is this chaotic £1xx market with all these different chips in, it makes you wonder who is actually buying the weaker cpus when superior ones barely cost any more money. I've seen 3700X under £200, these weaker chips aren't making a lot of sense by comparison.

 

[jigger]

1600AF were like £90 when launched which was OK but don't seem to have dropped in price and availability pretty limited now. This is kind of what I'm getting at, I knew you could get a 1600AF for under a ton like 18 months ago but now when I go to look thinking OK maybe I'll find a 2600 at that price or something, but anything semi-decent is priced into treble figures.

What's interesting is that unlike the GPU market, mid-high end CPUs are still in stock at normal prices, so it's just the bottom end of the market that seems to have concertinaed, as you say maybe it's all swallowed up by OEMs but the interesting part is it hasn't really driven up the rest of the market that much. Which is why there is this chaotic £1xx market with all these different chips in, it makes you wonder who is actually buying the weaker cpus when superior ones barely cost any more money.

You can still buy a 1600AF for around that price.

 

[4K8KW10]

A 6-core Ryzen 5 1600AF for £90 is all right.

For less you can find an Intel Core i3-10105F but with 35% lower overall performance and still 4 cores.

 

[Armageus]

A 6-core Ryzen 5 1600AF for £90 is all right.

For less you can find an Intel Core i3-10105F but with 35% lower overall performance and still 4 cores.

10105F has significantly better single threaded performance compared to 1600AF though, depending on what it's to be used for.

 

[Vanilla]

B grade 3600 is the best option ATM

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x **B Grade** AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - MPK= £139.99

Total: £148.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)
​

I bought this! No bent pins or anything (that wouldn't even be classed as B stock that would be damaged)

Almost tripled my CPU performance