Ryzen Upgrade For £600 (ish).

hlxbravo · 14 Feb 2020 at 07:51

Hi good folk of Overclockers, I am looking for some upgrade info. I am currently running a a 10yr old or so, 2500k, with an Alpenfohn cooler, on a Z68 board, PSU is a 1200w Superflower (left over from my old mining rig).

Having purchased a 5700XT Red Devil recently, I am now in the position to purchase my upgrades.
All I am looking for is CPU/Mobo/RAM and maybe a cooler, depending on total cost of the main three components.

PC is mainly gaming and at the moment my main goto is Modern Warfare, I game at 1920x1080 until funds allow for a monitor upgrade.

Definitely looking at Ryzen and I was leaning towards the 3700x, as opposed to the 2700x, although thats currently on at what seems a great price. The main difference between the two, as far as I can see, is the L3 cache, 20mb vs 32mb, is this something that should sway my decision? or should I pocket the extra £100 and go for the 2700x??

As for motherboard, it seems to be a bit of a minefield, the b450 seems to be quite popular here but which variant? Again, I see the Pro Carbon is popular, although the ROG STRIX B450-E is on at £130 at present, with the X470-F on at £150. I do like a few extras, maybe a bit of overclocking potential here and there.

RAM I am completely in the dark about, suffice to say, I would like 16gb.

As for budget, I am in the £500 area, pushing upto £600 as top end (excluding cooler).

So suggestions please and thanks for your time.

Danny75 · 14 Feb 2020 at 10:19

The 3700X is considerably faster if you look at reviews. So makes sense to get it if budget allows. Would even take a 3600 over a 2700X for gaming.

Motherboard won't have a great impact on overclocking which is limited on Ryzen so look at other features to make your decision. Like how many M.2 slots you want, whether the board is Ryzen 3000 ready or not or has BIOS Flashback to allow update without a CPU installed, etc. The Pro Carbon has you covered in that sense.

RAM aim for 3600MHz if budget allows. e.g.:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G360C7K)= £89.99

Total: £98.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)

hlxbravo · 14 Feb 2020 at 11:07

Thanks for that Danny, any advice for a cooler? was thinking of going down the AIO route for a change, the Corsair H45 seems like a decent starting point, a little off putting that it doesn't come supplied with the brackets and I would need to contact manufacturer to sort that out.

Joxeon · 14 Feb 2020 at 11:52

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £98.99
1 x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £265.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Gray Micron E-Die 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 UDIMM= £82.99

Total: £458.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)

Msi B450 boards are generally the best with the tomahawk being an excellent option for a gaming system, need wifi then theres the pro carbon.

Slightly cheaper ram but micron e die overclocks extremely well on ryzen so this stuff would likely do up to 3800/16 if you dont mind configuring it yourself.

You could go for the cheaper r5 3600 CPU as it's still very good for gaming and then drop in a 4700x or 4900x down the road.

For a well performing but cheap aio then I suggest you take a look at the arctic freezer ii series, they havnt been out long but have been getting some good reviews, although ocuk has trouble keeping them in stock which isn't surprising considering the price/performance. Would double check that it will fit in your case though as the rad is quite thick at around 38mm. Comes in sizes from 120mm single fan to 360mm treble fan so plenty of options. No rgb bling though if that something you like.
My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 240mm= £59.99

Total: £68.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)

BongoHunter · 14 Feb 2020 at 13:26

The stock cooler that comes with Ryzen is pretty good if you don't want to sort the cooling straight away - if going air cooling, the Noctua AM4 coolers are excellent (better than cheaper AIO)