New AMD build for gaming (without GPU)

Astravagrant

Astravagrant

Astravagrant

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31 Jul 2014
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133
Hi there, I'm speccing up a PC for a friend and they have an existing 1080ti GPU which they want to keep, but otherwise they have a budget of £1500. They're upgrading from an Intel 2600, which is obviously the bottleneck. He also has existing drives to move over, so only NVME boot is needed.

So here's where I'm at, any problems with this build or any room for obvious improvement? I've tried to make it fast, quiet and with room for a new GPU in a few years.

Note: I always overspec the PSU since I prefer they run quiet and leave headroom for possible future upgrades.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,393.94 (includes shipping: £13.20)​
​
 
Samsung drives are all more or less grossly brand overpriced.
Seagate is at the moment best priced full PCIe v3 speed drive and £50 cheaper:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seag...state-drive-rv.1-zp1000cm3a001-hd-3c0-se.html

3800XT is as senseless product as 3800X.
Its performance difference to £70 cheaper 3700X is completely marginal for the price difference.
12 core 3900X is the only real step up from 3700X.
And anyway Zen3 architecture Ryzens coming to sale in 5th of next month beat last year's Zen2s.

Very expensive motherboard doesn't maek CPU any faster or longer good lasting.
And while Asus fixed CPU VRMs from literal scams in B450, weak point of X570, active fan including chipset cooler is straight from anus of marketroids:
Actual heatsink under marketing excrements is small.
And relies on constant airflow from constantly running fan, which is restricted by marketing excrements.
With whole garbage positioned into worst place directly under graphics card to be bathed and suffocated in its heat.​
So add high heat output graphics card there and chipset will be running fast hot in gaming sessions.
And should be easy to deduct what happens if/when chipset fan fails.
That's Asus "quality" for you.

While Gigabyte and MSI have properly designed coolers with proper size heatsink farther from heat of graphics card and designed for mostly passive cooling. (unless having bad case cooling)
Besides saving £80 more...
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...-am4-ddr4-x570-atx-motherboard-mb-351-ms.html

As alternative B550 boards giving that PCIe v4 for future graphics cards would be another £50 less.
(and all with passive chipset cooler)


That 3600MHz 16-16-16 memory is highly binned Samsung B-die and certainly the fastest, but performance difference is marginal for the price difference.
Anyway until reviews arrive it's uncertain what kind memory Zen3 likes the most.
Though B-die is also good for memory overclocking.

And that cooler is plain fashion pee!
Such pipsqueek radiator just doesn't have much surface area for dissipating heat into air.
Arctic Freezer 34 available for fair £20 is probably at same level in continuous cooling per noise.
And £43 Alpenfohn Brocken 3 certainly crushes it.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpenfohn-brocken-3-cpu-cooler-140mm-hs-05a-al.html
Besides only thing which fan fail in heatpipe coolers is cheap and easy to replace fan, whose failure doesn't kill all cooling.
 
Cheers, Esat. Good info!

there's no chance I'm recommending MSI again, I had two fail in a two years. OC kindly upgraded me to an Asus after the second one went, but it was a MASSIVE pain the arse to diagnose and I wasted weeks on those problems. Not to mention losing so many CSGO games because I got kicked for DCing.

I suspected as much on the 3900X, which is one reason I raised this question. I'll recommend that my mate waits for the Zen3 launch (someone else said this, too. I didn't realise it was so soon!).

Good call on the seagate.

Pretty sure that cooler was one OC recommened when I tried to buy a corsair once. :/
 
You are overspending on a few things.

A B550 board saves £100 and will do the same thing. The B550-F still has wifi 6. Looks like you get a free 240GB SATA SSD with it as well.

No need for a Titanium rated psu. A Gold rated is more than good and it saves £80ish. It is still a quiet psu.

The WD Blue SN550 is fine for a gaming pc. The Seagate as mentioned is also good but you won't really notice any difference between them in real world usage.

The Team Group Vulcan is better value if gaming is the main priority.

Cheaper air cooler. They (Scythe) make some good coolers.

As for the cpu I would wait for the Ryzen 5000 series on the 5th Nov.



My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £640.20 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​
 
Astravagrant said:
there's no chance I'm recommending MSI again, I had two fail in a two years.
Click to expand...
Asus sucks as hard.
B450 boards had literally overheating scams as VRMs and unable to feed stock 105W CPUs under full continuous load.
Also Radeon 5700 XT Asus cards had things like burning up memories because of no cooling for them in TUF, while Strix had dysfunctional cooler mounting.
Again while Asus X570 boards have proper VRMs, chipset cooler design is from anus of marketroids and break up timer as in chipset cooks up when fan fails.
Some people have completely avoided X570 boards because of having crappy chipset coolers in the past.
Even myself had to switch failing chipset fans to Asus board for AMD Athlon about 15 years ago.
(second fan gotten from support of Asus didn't last even year, at which point I got passive Zalman chipset heatsink)

In words of Buildzoid: All makers suck.
 
cheers, lee, good tips! I've been using water cooling for a while now (on two PCs) and they are really easy to keep clean. If it's just a bit extra, I think it's worth it (the less maintenance required, the better).

Seems you both agree that X570 isn't worth it. Good to know!

I've been using Asus ROG Strix boards (Intel) and never had any issues with them, but I'll bear that in mind. I think I had a crash over summer...
 
Astravagrant said:
Seems you both agree that X570 isn't worth it. Good to know!
Click to expand...
Just like X570 also B550 gives PCIe v4 for graphics card offering plenty of bandwidth for any new GPUs of coming years.
Also avoiding any chipset cooler fan worries.
Though that's really issue only in Asus boards with their bad design.
 
Astravagrant said:
cheers, lee, good tips! I've been using water cooling for a while now (on two PCs) and they are really easy to keep clean. If it's just a bit extra, I think it's worth it (the less maintenance required, the better).

Seems you both agree that X570 isn't worth it. Good to know!

I've been using Asus ROG Strix boards (Intel) and never had any issues with them, but I'll bear that in mind. I think I had a crash over summer...
Click to expand...

Just something to note (I have only just found out about it) is that apparently there are issues with the Intel 2.5G LAN and the B550-F uses that controller. So it might be better going with a Gigabyte board if you don't like MSI, or want something cheaper than the one you selected.

If you want a budget Gigabyte option then the B550 Aorus Elite is good.

Thread regarding the issue:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/foru...-speeds-intel-i225-v-2-5gb-ethernet.18898029/
 
if you dont mind older Ryzen, Aorus B550 are being sold with free 500GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 M.2's ! ocuk should be doing similar deal soon!

@lee32uk also aorus offer bigger and faster SSD

pushing Intel - but wait till Zen3 lands !!!


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £935.14 (includes shipping: £13.20)


£428 for 5800X

longer warranty on the PSU ^^^ better flowing case, silence is goood but lack of airflow will make everything run hotter and fans faster!​
 
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