Finally replacing an i5 2500k system! Spec me AM5..

Spuddy

Spuddy

Spuddy

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As per the title, looking to build a new system after my i5 2500k system finally gave up the ghost. As you can tell, I value longevity.

Therefore I'm wanting to build an AM5 system, primary usage is gaming (currently at 2560x1080, but will probably move to 3440x1440 shortly - also potential to connect it to the 4k tv at some point for sofa gaming), and will have some light productivity work - so I'm thinking 7700x/non-x. Although the 7900 can be picked up around the same price as the 7700x in some places - would this be a better option?

I need the other following components speccing:
• motherboard - B650 or X670? The price difference between even B650 boards is crazy, what makes the expensive ones so much better?
• m2 ssd >=2tb (already have 2x sata ssds to connect to the mobo aswell)
• 32GB DDR5 ram
• AIO cpu cooler

I already have a case (NZXT H440) that I'm probably going to keep, and a newish EVGA 750W psu, and GPU which will be upgraded once AMD release the lower end new cards.

I guess for budget, somewhere under £1200 would be ideal. Happy to listen to suggestions for increase if its genuinely worth it. I'm not interested in chasing 1% differences as I'm only a casual gamer.

Thanks!
 
I've go on the low end build 7600 just to show what you can get but things can be swapped out.

The new 7000x3d cpu should be released in February so mite be worth waiting.


My basket at OcUK:
Total: £810.41 (includes delivery: £10.50)​
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Spuddy said:
• motherboard - B650 or X670? The price difference between even B650 boards is crazy, what makes the expensive ones so much better?
Click to expand...


Normally when you buy a mobo with a certain chipset you know what you will actually get with that mobo. B650 and X670/E are very varied. Some differences can be PCIE x16 slot can either be 4.0 or 5.0 and then the M.2 slots can also vary in generation as well. You actually have to check what you will be getting with the mobo and not take anything for granted, yes it is annoying.

That is the main reason there is such a large gap in price. PCIe 5.0 is just not needed at the moment so whilst they are technically better they will not currently perform any differently to the Asrock suggested above that is just pcie 4.0 for x16 slot and M.2 slots.
 
mickyflinn said:
I've go on the low end build 7600 just to show what you can get but things can be swapped out.

The new 7000x3d cpu should be released in February so mite be worth waiting.


My basket at OcUK:
Total: £810.41 (includes delivery: £10.50)​
​
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I think maybe the x3d will be out of my budget unfortunately. Plus I need this machine sooner rather than later so would prefer not to wait for new chips.

If you was to stretch the budget to the full 1200, what bits would you change to be higher end - for example is there a better mobo I could get? Like I've seen the B650 MSI Tomahawk and the Asus Strix for ~£300; would they offer better functionality etc?

Haz123 said:
Normally when you buy a mobo with a certain chipset you know what you will actually get with that mobo. B650 and X670/E are very varied. Some differences can be PCIE x16 slot can either be 4.0 or 5.0 and then the M.2 slots can also vary in generation as well. You actually have to check what you will be getting with the mobo and not take anything for granted, yes it is annoying.

That is the main reason there is such a large gap in price. PCIe 5.0 is just not needed at the moment so whilst they are technically better they will not currently perform any differently to the Asrock suggested above that is just pcie 4.0 for x16 slot and M.2 slots.
Click to expand...

Ahh thank you for this information, is there a recommended value for money model at the moment on this platform that seems to be the go-to? I'm very much out of the loop with it all. I'm kinda digging the idea of MSI mobo, purely because my current one lasted 10 years. But don't know who has the best rep for longevity, build quality and warranty these days
 
 
i wanted a "one and done" motherboard

that one is best bang for buck

i needed USB 3 ports
has PCIe-5
does 2x M.2 drives at least

if you look at how they share (pci-e and m2) its better than most

better audio codec

the next one up id buy was the £900 board, but i wasn't prepared to go that high

cooler wise, i bought the best air cooler, Noctua D15
 
Spuddy said:
If you was to stretch the budget to the full 1200, what bits would you change to be higher end - for example is there a better mobo I could get? Like I've seen the B650 MSI Tomahawk and the Asus Strix for ~£300; would they offer better functionality etc?
Click to expand...

What is your side productivity work exactly? The 7900 is looking like a very good choice (review) if your work needs such a powerful CPU, but for gaming it is overkill and you'd likely be better off with the X3D (when it launches) as mickyflinn suggested (or the 7700 non-X if you want to buy now).

AMD Ryzen 9 7900 Twelve Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £428.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £242.99
Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) - £188.98
WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) - £159.95
Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm - £119.99

Grand Total: £1,151.40

If your productivity work has a big need for RAM I'd drop that memory and buy this:
Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black - £248.99
 
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Spuddy said:
Although the 7900 can be picked up around the same price as the 7700x in some places
Click to expand...
Really? sounds a bit odd that. At £350 the 7700X would be my pick long term, more cores for productivity and future games using more than 6 cores, bound to happen.
As for 7000 X3D's only 3 weeks or so away, probably great and expensive at the same time, particularly as 7700X was 420 quid when it came out.
 
ShiWarrior said:
i wanted a "one and done" motherboard

that one is best bang for buck

i needed USB 3 ports
has PCIe-5
does 2x M.2 drives at least

if you look at how they share (pci-e and m2) its better than most

better audio codec

the next one up id buy was the £900 board, but i wasn't prepared to go that high

cooler wise, i bought the best air cooler, Noctua D15
Click to expand...

Do all the recent mobos not have USB 3, would have thought it would have been standard by now? I know I just missed put on it with my 2500k system way back when. What is pcie 5 used for, or is it not utilised yet?

Tetras said:
What is your side productivity work exactly? The 7900 is looking like a very good choice (review) if your work needs such a powerful CPU, but for gaming it is overkill and you'd likely be better off with the X3D (when it launches) as mickyflinn suggested (or the 7700 non-X if you want to buy now).

AMD Ryzen 9 7900 Twelve Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £428.99
Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £242.99
Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF560C36BBEK2-32) - £188.98
WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) - £159.95
Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm - £119.99

Grand Total: £1,151.40

If your productivity work has a big need for RAM I'd drop that memory and buy this:
Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black - £248.99
Click to expand...

The productivity work is just Unity and a little photoshop every now and then, nothing more than hobby stuff. So maybe the 8 core will be the best bang for buck? Do we have expected prices on the x3d at all yet? I could potentially wait if its going to fall within budget and actually have availability at launch. I just want a mobo that's not going to hinder me and compromise on features like throttling/sharing pcie lanes (?) I've seen online, although not exactly sure what it means except reduced speeds to certain components.

turbot1984 said:
Really? sounds a bit odd that. At £350 the 7700X would be my pick long term, more cores for productivity and future games using more than 6 cores, bound to happen.
As for 7000 X3D's only 3 weeks or so away, probably great and expensive at the same time, particularly as 7700X was 420 quid when it came out.
Click to expand...

To be honest I didn't realise the 7700x had dropped to that now, I looked last week and there was only ~£30 difference in it (using a competitor mind you). Agree the x3d will be great and expensive, just depends how expensive and how many available, I'd hate to still be waiting for a pc in another >4 weeks for example.
 
Spuddy said:
The productivity work is just Unity and a little photoshop every now and then, nothing more than hobby stuff. So maybe the 8 core will be the best bang for buck? Do we have expected prices on the x3d at all yet? I could potentially wait if its going to fall within budget and actually have availability at launch. I just want a mobo that's not going to hinder me and compromise on features like throttling/sharing pcie lanes (?) I've seen online, although not exactly sure what it means except reduced speeds to certain components.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the 8 core is a better buy for gaming, if your productivity needs are very light (an early review of the non-X). I haven't seen any information on this, but from the AM4 X3D, I'd expect the X3D models to be priced one tier up (e.g. a 7700X3D would be the price of a 7900X.

Last I heard, Valentine's Day (link), not sure if there's been an official announcement since then. Make sure your board has BIOS flashback (without a CPU) if you get one.

From what I've seen B650 boards are pretty good with the shared lane thing, you can get 2 M.2 no problem, the 3rd might share lanes, but usually not any you'll care about (disable a secondary PCI-E slot).
 
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Spuddy said:
The price difference between even B650 boards is crazy, what makes the expensive ones so much better?
Click to expand...
usually power design for overclocking ... expensive ones like MSI Carbon are 18+2+1 ... wouldn't bother unless you are a big OC'er.
*edit, cheaper ones like Gig Gaming X are 8+2+1
 
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Tetras said:
Yeah, the 8 core is a better buy for gaming, if your productivity needs are very light (an early review of the non-X). I haven't seen any information on this, but from the AM4 X3D, I'd expect the X3D models to be priced one tier up (e.g. a 7700X3D would be the price of a 7900X.

Last I heard, Valentine's Day (link), not sure if there's been an official announcement since then. Make sure your board has BIOS flashback (without a CPU) if you get one.

From what I've seen B650 boards are pretty good with the shared lane thing, you can get 2 M.2 no problem, the 3rd might share lanes, but usually not any you'll care about (disable a secondary PCI-E slot).
Click to expand...

Okay yeah 7700x it is then, or the non-x version. Good to know re M2 etc but what about mobo brand then - is there one that stands out for build quality etc?

turbot1984 said:
I reckon 7800X3D north of £475, unless AMD want to really want to tonk Raptor Lake, but why would they?, it will sell like hot cakes. Might even be nudging 500 quid given daft current latest gen prices.
Click to expand...

turbot1984 said:
usually power design for overclocking ... expensive ones like MSI Carbon are 18+2+1 ... wouldn't bother unless you are a big OC'er.
*edit, cheaper ones like Gig Gaming X are 8+2+1
Click to expand...

Definitely not an overclocker, just want a good all round board?. And at those prices I definitely won't be getting a x3d chip, I'm gonna go for the 7700/x
 
Spuddy said:
is there one that stands out for build quality etc?
Click to expand...

Don't know yet, I'm hoping buildzoid will do one of his big rambles on B650 soon, but watching this confirmed what many have said already, that they're generally over-engineered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAFqGdqRNQ8

The one I usually use in my specs is the TUF B650-PLUS, which is one of the cheaper full-size boards, but it has 3 M.2 slots, a decent PCI-E config (I like the small slot at the bottom for a sound card) and appears to be fairly meaty VRM/heatsinks.
 
i cant link , becuase of compeitor inside the website

but

google
asus tuf gaming vs rog strix X670

you will find the difference
 
You may want to give this video a watch, it is just the first part in a series that will cover almost all Am5 mobos.

www.youtube.com

Cheapest AMD X670 Boards Tested, VRM Thermals: Some AM5 Boards 10% Slower For Gaming

Mwave - https://www.mwave.com.au/catalog/rtxsupercustompcsPLE - https://www.ple.com.au/AORUS/GameUpRTXOnSupport us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hardwa...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

If you do not want to watch then the bottom line is the Gigabyte is the best from those 4 due to the memory timings being the most optimal. Asus, msi and Asrock will most likely release updated bios to fix their shortcomings but with the more budget boards that can take a while. Without seeing the rest of the HUB videos on these mobos we cannot see if there is a clear difference between the manufacturers in quality of hardware or software.
 
ShiWarrior said:
i wanted a "one and done" motherboard

that one is best bang for buck

i needed USB 3 ports
has PCIe-5
does 2x M.2 drives at least

if you look at how they share (pci-e and m2) its better than most

better audio codec

the next one up id buy was the £900 board, but i wasn't prepared to go that high

cooler wise, i bought the best air cooler, Noctua D15
Click to expand...
what about the Asus B650E E gaming. I'd say that better bang for buck. Has pcie 5 gpu slot, another pcie 5 slot and dual pcie5 m.2 nvme slot also. you loose out on a couple of connections on the back. you get a digital error code display on mobo which the f gaming doesn't have..and vrm's are more than powerful enough
My basket at OcUK:

Total: £364.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

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Compare ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-E GAMING WIFI vs ASUS X670E-F GAMING WIFI vs ASUS X670E-PLUS WIFI

Compare ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-E GAMING WIFI vs ASUS X670E-F GAMING WIFI vs ASUS X670E-PLUS WIFI
www.bhphotovideo.com

mine has a thunderbolt header lol


mainly :

USB
1 x USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2)
1 x USB-C (USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2)
6 x USB-A (USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2)
4 x USB-A (USB 2.0)

vs


1 x USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2)
2 x USB-C (USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2)
7 x USB-A (USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2)
2 x USB-A (USB 2.0)


and

M.2
1 x M Key 2242, 2260, 2280 (PCIe 5.0 x4)
2 x M Key 2242, 2260, 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4)
1 x M Key 2242, 2260, 2280, 22110 (PCIe 5.0 x4)


Vs


2 x M Key 2242, 2260, 2280 (PCIe 5.0 x4)
1 x M Key 2242, 2260, 2280, 22110 (PCIe 5.0 x4)
1 x M Key 2242, 2260, 2280 (PCIe 4.0 x4)
 
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