Zen 2 / Ryzen 3000

Games & Technology
1

Anyone planning to upgrade their system :desktop_computer: in the coming months now that Zen 2 / Ryzen 3000 are available? It’s been a full 9 years since I’ve upgraded my architecture and it’s definitely feeling slow at this point for certain tasks.

I’ve been debating between the 3600 and 3700x.
The 3600 seems to be great for gaming and price / performance is tip top, but I might need the 3700x since I dabble with streaming and video editing on the side some.

x570 looks a bit too pricey, and it’s not like PCIE4 is required at this point.
I’ll probably buy a refresh of one of the b450 motherboards or wait until b550 comes out. Definitely waiting for the immediate time being, as BIOS issues still are around.

I’m liking the AMD offerings for video cards as well, have been eyeing the 5700 and 5700xt, but definitely waiting on reference cards to become available. I might even stick with my current monitor and graphics card even with the new machine for up to a year, to save on up front expenditure, we’ll see.

This will also be my first foray into m.2 nvme storage. Sadly I’m stuck with mostly SATA 2 transfer rates, so even upgrading the motherboard would see a large reduction load times.

Not that Diablo 3 requires this, but it would be nice to run d3 on higher settings again, and also be ready for D4 in the coming years.

Anyways, I’m excited. :smile: New builds always are exciting.

I might share my potential build at some point, I’ll see if I can configure that and get some more advice later on as things develop.

2

If you are able or willing to go years and years without a major upgrade then the 3700X would be the better choice; it’s future proof.

3

After a lot of research, I’ve made a decision. I thought I’d share my choices and try and explain them a bit, in case anyone is doing the same.

I was going back and forth between the 3600 + aftermarket Cooler and 3700x + Stock cooler, but after watching and waiting and analyzing, I came to the conclusion that I really don’t need the extra power that Zen 2 offers right now.

On top of this, I’ve been very put off by all of the reported issues and instability with zen 2 / ryzen 3000 systems, especially with the more affordable b450 motherboards. I had forgotten that new tech is often very unstable and unoptimized out of the gate.

Overall I’m still excited for the launch and the improvements it offers, but what is the use if you can’t safely access and harness those improvements yet?

As for the x570 boards, these seem to have better compatibility after release, but are expensive as sin, and: the chipset fan. So disappointing. It’s almost guaranteed that these boards will have fan noise / part issues 2 years from now.

I am glad I waited.

I have decided to buy the “refreshed” series of processors (zen+) for this reason. Zen+ / 2000 series ryzen cpu’s and b450 boards are currently on sale, more compatible, and it just makes more sense to go really cheap now, then acquire what I really want 2-4 years later, once b550 motherboards and the zen 3 / 4000 series have been released, are more optimized, and perhaps also on sale.

I know this puts me behind in terms of cutting edge and / or raw performance numbers, but given my preference for cost savings, efficiency, and longevity, this just makes more sense.

The build below is mostly purchased, and the intent is to replace the motherboard and CPU in about 2-4 years’ time, as mentioned. This will also allow me time to save up for a better graphics card and monitor (better options will hopefully also be available then too).

And that’s a good point too - while AMD’s current graphics card offerings are nice, it will be awhile before aftermarket based models can all be released and properly reviewed, plus future improvements (drivers or otherwise) could come out over time that I’ll be able to take advantage of by waiting a bit more. My current 1060 should be capable in the meantime. I have an old Radeon HD 5850 I can place in my current machine, to keep it running.

Note also that I’ve put a lot of the money saved into a better aftermarket cooler, fans, case, and more NVMe storage. I feel this will fit even better with a b550 motherboard, 4000 series ryzen CPU, and graphics card once they are available. I also would prefer to be more thermal and noise conscious with this build.

I’m also intending to try out an IC Diamond 40x40mm Graphite Thermal Pad instead of thermal paste this go-around. I don’t like to change my paste often and I think the performance of this thermal pad is competitive with some of the pastes I have purchased in the past (mx-4, NH-T1, etc).

The thermal pad is also for peace of mind. I always wondered every time I put down paste if it had spread properly, or if i’d put too much down. With this, no worries, and it’s actually less cost than paste, because you don’t have to repurchase it every few years.

I own a Noctua cooler that I could have used in the new build, but an adapter kit would cost $10, and a good fan is $30. With the be quiet cooler already coming with a ~$20 fan on it, I figure it’s not that much extra to purchase the new be quiet, which is a 6 heat pipe (increase from 4 on the noctua), and at least I’ll have the same fan as are on the case. Also, I prefer to have my old rig available should I forget to transfer over any data. And well, the new rig is mostly grey and black, and my case does have a window, so… Aesthetics. No RGB though because I dislike unnecessary and distracting lighting while gaming.

Why mATX? most of the mid-range b450 boards actually disable a LOT of functions that they offer when you populate the board (be it the 2nd m.2 slot, 3rd pcie slot, and so on). They end up disabling up to two SATA ports, or that extra PCIE lane, or that second m.2 slot depending on what you put in it. The micro ATX board is smaller, but doesn’t disable near as many things when populating. It simply offers less of those extraneous options at a lower price point.

This partcular mATX board does appear to come with 6 fan headers, and even if it only came with 5, most of them allow enough that you could use a fan splitter cable if needed.

The biggest downside is the quality of the VRM apparently, but I do not intend to overclock the CPU.

Why ATX case if mATX? / 650w on PSU? For the ability to upgrade later on, these won’t limit my options as much.

Notes:

  • I couldn’t mark $30 off as a line item, but that’s what i’ll get from Microcenter. The OS is marked to $110 for this reason.
  • Peripherals are already owned.
  • Extra storage drives are mostly 500GB SSDs that I’ve purchased over the years. These are SATA3 2.5" SSDs, so they will fit nicely as extra storage space.
  • Since a few months ago, while waiting, the price of the RAM went down $15 (a lot of ram going on firesales recently), but the price of the Case and Storage increased $10 a piece.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Pjc3V6

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor $120.00
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S Purchased For $62.00
Motherboard ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $70.00
Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB 2 x 8 GB DDR4-3200 Memory Purchased For $73.00
Storage Corsair MP510 1.92 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive Purchased For $266.00
Video Card MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB GAMING X Video Card Purchased For $0.00
Case Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case Purchased For $107.00
Power Supply be quiet! Straight Power 11 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply Purchased For $120.00
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit $110.00
Case Fan be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan Purchased For $20.50
Case Fan be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan Purchased For $20.50
Case Fan be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan Purchased For $20.50
Case Fan be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan Purchased For $20.50
Case Fan be quiet! SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120 mm Fan Purchased For $22.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $1032.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-24 17:56 EDT-0400

Overall I am happy that I was able to reduce up front cost while still getting some perks, and having an upgrade path in place for this build.

Hopefully this has helped. Feel free to critique. What might you have done or recommend I do different, and why?

4

The choices you made are understandable, Zen+ is still capable and now dirt cheap making them great value.

For me, I’m waiting out for B550 boards but that’s months away. Still intent on a full AMD system (R5 3600 + RX 5700) for the first time ever because screw Intel and Nvidia with their expensive crap.

5

I agree, it’s an exciting time. Thank you for the quick sanity check. It feels like I am often making these decisions in a vacuum, relying on reviews that may or may not be accurate.

I feel like I’ve heard a lot about Intel this past decade. The first half they were actually pushing the tech forward, I kind of feel like they’ve stagnated these last few years though, but for some weird reason were still getting all the press.

And their price to performance seems pretty abysmal nowadays. AMD just offers so much with the cheaper offerings, better efficiency, and more upgrade-able sockets. I’m glad the ball is back in AMD’s court for awhile.

Not that I regret my original purchase. The first and second gen intel i7 series were pretty darn good improvements for their time.

The 3600 with the rx 5700 sounds like a great pairing, assuming no issues.

I suppose if you waited long enough to get a new b550, the issues with zen 2 and drivers might be resolved by then. It sounds like the b550 boards won’t have a chipset fan either, so that’s going to be great.

6

First half is partly due to AMD derping it up hard with the Bulldozer chips, leaving effectively no competition for Intel thus it was year after year of slight improvements on quad cores. If not for Ryzen, we’d still be on that cycle.

Intel’s problems were partly their own making. On top of complacency due to no competition, they were too ambitious with 10nm (which was due in 2015). There are other things like manufacturing capacity leading to more expensive chips and security issues like Spectre and Meltdown.

When AMD finally got their act together, it was bit of a rude wake up call for Intel, forcing them to scramble in order to compete.

7

As a quick update to the build: I’ve mostly completed it at this point. The biggest issue I had was with the cooler. The mounting pressure on the be quiet! dark rock 4 was just terrible!

Even at fully tightened, was not able to get enough pressure, and the cooler was still sliding on top of the CPU.

I do not recommend this brand of cooler anymore, due to this design defect.

Both the stock AMD cooler and the Noctua NH-U12s I purchased to replace it were able to be perfectly tightened, in that touching the cooler moved the motherboard, and not the heatsink.

I’m excited nonetheless. If this is all that goes wrong, and it’s just a ~$15 mistake, I’ll be happy.

I got sucked into all of the glowing reviews for the be quiet cooler. I’m surprised so many youtubers gave high praise for the over-engineered POS that I had to deal with.

Note as of now, I am very happy with the other be quiet products. The power supply works well so far, and the fans are quiet, but still appear to push just enough to cool the system.

Will update soon with pictures!

EDIT (8/10/2019): This forum won’t let me create a new reply to my own post! So dumb… Editing here instead.

Hi Everyone! as promised, here are the pictures and build log.

Full Build Log Images and Notes:

  • https://imgur.com/a/l20XH36

I am loving the new build!

This was one of the smoothest PC builds I’ve ever completed. The difficulty with the Dark Rock 4 is what kept it from being perfect, but even then, it was only a few days’ wait for the replacement Noctua NH-U12S to arrive.

I am glad the build went as planned, keeping costs down, and resulting in a very quiet, very efficient, and fairly powerful PC.