Component Advice - New Gaming/Work/Multimedia PC

kronos13 · 7 Oct 2021 at 17:17

I have finally come the realization that my AMD FX 8350 and 9 year old Asus motherboard is not cutting it anymore. I find my RX5700 is also being very much held back by CPU..
I'm looking to upgrade and seeing as components now seems to be coming back into stock it seems a good time..

I do mostly gaming (2K gaming screen, no streaming), with some multi media work, video encoding, and day to day work.

I've made up the below basket and would appreciate any advise/contributions you could offer.

Thank you

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £269.99
1 x Scythe SCFM-2000 FUMA 2 Dual Fan CPU Cooler - 2x120 mm= £49.99
1 x Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-32000C19 4000MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G400C9K)= £89.99
1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)= £5.99
1 x Corsair 5000D Tempered Glass Mid-Tower - Black CC-9011208-WW= £154.99
1 x MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard= £179.99

Total: £764.14 (includes shipping: £13.20)

EsaT · 7 Oct 2021 at 20:17

Intel optimized convex base of Scythe's can cause less than optimal cooling with convex heatspreader of Ryzen.
(good contanct only in small area)
Flat base Alpenfohn Brocken 3 would be surer choise. (unless you're ready grind/lap base of Scythe flat)
Alpenfohn Brocken 3 CPU Cooler - 140mm= £42.95

Also sub £30 coolers would do fine with just six core Ryzen.
Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99

And forget that silver overhype gunk.
It hasn't been any top poste in over decade and it even has some risk of electrical conductivity.
Unlike bundled TIMs, which are basically equal.

And forget 4000MHz memories, which would need manual tweaking to get anywhere near advertised speed.
3600MHz is the sweet spot with Crucial being one of the best.
Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £79.99
And cheapest kit is £60.
Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G360C8K)= £59.99

Also for just six core CPU B550 board would be more sensive, unless you're planning on upgrading to high core count CPU in future.

Case is also really expensive for lack of flexibility/upgradability.
While Obsidian 750D could be easily upgraded with extra/new ports etc thanks to 5.25" bays.

tamzzy · 7 Oct 2021 at 20:27

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £389.99
1 x Patriot Viper Steel 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS432G320C6K)= £119.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo Black/White CPU Cooler - 2 x 120mm= £34.99
1 x MSI MAG B550M Mortar (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £109.99
1 x Addon WiFi 6 11AX Bluetooth 5 MU-MIMO Dual Band PCI-E Adapter XWP3000R= £31.99
1 x Lian-Li Lancool 205M Micro-ATX Case - Black Window= £48.95

Total: £747.60 (includes shipping: £11.70)

cheaper and better :cry:

kronos13 · 7 Oct 2021 at 22:36

Thank you for the feedback guys.

I've realised the case would not work as I would ideally need 4x3.5 drives bays, as well as 2-3x2.5 drive bays.
So possibly looking at the Corsair Carbide Series 100R case instead, but cannot find on overclockers

I've changed the cooler and also the memory as well and kept the motherboard, I would prefer to keep wifi/bluetooth components integrated if possible.
Basket now looks like this.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £79.99
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £269.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo Black/White CPU Cooler - 2 x 120mm= £34.99
1 x MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard= £179.99

Total: £575.46 (includes shipping: £10.50)

kronos13 · 7 Oct 2021 at 22:40

I would also need a mid tower size, full tower wont fit under the desk, space issues unfortunately..

jigger · 7 Oct 2021 at 23:27

I’d probably go with this board over the MSI.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ocket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-59x-gi.html

tamzzy · 8 Oct 2021 at 11:12

Depending on your work requirements...would a 8 core CPU and 32gb ram not be a better choice?
I know any current CPU is an upgrade compared to a FX bulldozer...but...

EsaT · 8 Oct 2021 at 21:10

kronos13 said:
I've realised the case would not work as I would ideally need 4x3.5 drives bays

That's though requirement.
Cases with any 5.25" bays are very few and cases with more are rare.

Even three 5.25" bays is hard to find.
Most cases are either old and very low end case already when new, or then big full towers weighting lot.
(Corsair 750D is one of the more reaonable weight ones)

VigiFlyer · 8 Oct 2021 at 21:24

Do the AMD cpus not come with their own cooler?

Haz123 · 8 Oct 2021 at 23:36

Some AMD cpus come with a cooler whilst others do not. Just check whats in the box before ordering. Taking 5600x as an example, it does come with a cooler but it is quite load and you can get a much better cooler for £30 that will be much quieter and give lower temps.

My 5900x did not come with a cooler iirc, I opened box and got the chip out and forgot about the box but it was very light so certianly no cooler in it. It can use over 120w in prime 95, so at times it does need serious cooling and the AMD reference coolers would not be upto the task.

EsaT · 9 Oct 2021 at 08:42

VigiFlyer said:
Do the AMD cpus not come with their own cooler?

As rule bundled HSFs are simply garbage, unless you're playing nothing more heavier than MS Word.
AMD's top cooler Wraith Prism would be actually quite decent...
For the lower CPUs instead of upper models its been bundled with.

kronos13 · 9 Oct 2021 at 20:29

tamzzy said:
Depending on your work requirements...would a 8 core CPU and 32gb ram not be a better choice?
I know any current CPU is an upgrade compared to a FX bulldozer...but...

Yes true, but as it stands the 6 core should really be able to handle my workload with ease, and as you say the upgrade from an FX would be significant.. I might look into 8 core again once the next Zen is release, maybe a couple of years time.

kronos13 · 9 Oct 2021 at 20:34

EsaT said:
That's though requirement.
Cases with any 5.25" bays are very few and cases with more are rare.

Even three 5.25" bays is hard to find.
Most cases are either old and very low end case already when new, or then big full towers weighting lot.
(Corsair 750D is one of the more reaonable weight ones)

Thank you, I'm looking at the Corsair Carbide Series 100R, it should have the drive slots I need. I will be taking most of the drives from my current machine to the new one..

tamzzy · 9 Oct 2021 at 21:44

kronos13 said:
I might look into 8 core again once the next Zen is release, maybe a couple of years time.

next zen would be on the AM5/DDR5 platform, so will need a whole new set of components...unless you meant doing a drop-in replacement with a second-hand 5800/5900/5950

kronos13 · 11 Oct 2021 at 09:22

tamzzy said:
next zen would be on the AM5/DDR5 platform, so will need a whole new set of components...unless you meant doing a drop-in replacement with a second-hand 5800/5900/5950

Ok thank you, I didn't realise that was on the next release. In that case it would probably be an 5800 or up.. Saying that, the next release Q4 of 2022 right? So not long left really.

mickyflinn · 11 Oct 2021 at 09:27

kronos13 said:
Ok thank you, I didn't realise that was on the next release. In that case it would probably be an 5800 or up.. Saying that, the next release Q4 of 2022 right? So not long left really.

4 weeks until intel Alderlake cpu are released i would wait.