Gaming Build

Hellrazer

Hi all,
Looking for a small bit of help.
Upgrading from an old Phenom 2x6 and looking for a "cheap" ish Ryzen build to get me going on am4.

Im new to the Ryzen stuff so I need a couple of pointers.

I have the following parts that I can use going forward

Decent ATX case
650W power supply 80+ rated
8gb DDr4 2400mhz
I also have 3 ssd drives - 128gb x2 and a 240. Have a 1tb Seagate for bigger storage.
So basically I only really need a recommendation on Cpu / Motherboard

So questions are
1. Anyone recommend a good mother board thats a bit future proof.Budget board if possible.
2. Ryzen 3,5,7 whats a good budget cpu - I really don't understand the Ryzen line up.
3.GPU-im probably going to go rx580 8gb - Would that be a decent pairing for a ryzen?

Not interested in 4k gaming..Im happy enough with decent frame rates at 1080p - monitor is only 1080p.

Thanks

Homelander

Ryzen 3600 is the best all-rounder, Ryzen 1600AF best value for money. Both six core CPUs, but the Ryzen 3600 is newer and is decently faster. But fairly affordable though, about £150 and £110 respectively.

Motherboard wise, basics no-frills £40 A320M is fine if you don't really need anything from your motherboard, though it likely will not support the Ryzen 4 series processors. Not a big consideration in my opinion but you might feel different.

Ryzen likes fast ram so you are best off getting 16GB of 3200Mhz in 2x8GB sticks.

RX580 8GB is an OK card, as long as you don't overpay for it. It's been replaced by the 5500XT 8GB really. Really depends on your budget.

I'd probably stretch for GTX1660 Super at £220 if you want to get some decent longevity out of it as that is a good chunk faster than the RX580/5500XT class cards.

K.O.Kiki

Homelander wrote: »

Motherboard wise, basics no-frills £40 A320M is fine if you don't really need anything from your motherboard, though it likely will not support the Ryzen 4 series processors. Not a big consideration in my opinion but you might feel different.

Bad advice IMHO
https://skinflint.co.uk/?cmp=2066489&cmp=2014944
Those cheap boards have worse audio & VRM, fewer M.2/RAM/PCIe slots, not even RGB headers!

For the sake of less than €30 I wouldn't cheap out too much on mobo.

Homelander

Honestly they are fine. Obviously I wouldn't put a 3900X into an A320M but for 1600AF/3600 or 3700X processors they are 100% perfect in standard builds.

Obviously yes they have less lanes and expansion slots but again for 90% of builds people never need the extra features. There is a reason OEM PC's tend to always have A320M/H310M type motherboards in the majority of their PCs. Cheap, cheerful, and just work without any frills.

The only real drawback for me with A320M even from a mainstream POV is the 2 RAM banks admittedly. So if you decided you wanted >16GB in five years time, you have to replace the whole set.

BloodBath

In 5 years time we're gonna possibly be on PCIe6 and deep into DDR5. Unless you have reason to need more cores/ram/mass storage for productivity down the line then the cheap boards are fine imo for most people. Will you really notice the difference in audio without good headphones anyway?

16GB of DDR4 is going to be enough for gaming for a good few years too.

It's not like selling these parts on is hard anyway.

It's hard to take the enthusiast hat off sometimes but most people don't need all the features of higher end boards.

weisses

BloodBath wrote: »

In 5 years time we're gonna possibly be on PCIe6 and deep into DDR5. Unless you have reason to need more cores/ram/mass storage for productivity down the line then the cheap boards are fine imo for most people. Will you really notice the difference in audio without good headphones anyway?

16GB of DDR4 is going to be enough for gaming for a good few years too.

It's not like selling these parts on is hard anyway.

It's hard to take the enthusiast hat off sometimes but most people don't need all the features of higher end boards.

I get what you are saying but investing in a more future proof board saved me from needing to buy a new motherboard and cpu ....nothing wrong with thinking ahead without breaking the bank

Hellrazer

I couldnt really have gotten much more future proof than my old Phenom - over 8 years and it was still fairly capable.

It was starting to show its age even with a half decent gpu.


Ive been looking at motherboards and how would a Asrock b450 hdv sound?
Im considering the Ryzen 1600af or hows a Ryzen 2600?
Both seem similarily priced.

Probably also should have said instead of the rx580 - Im still using my r9 390x which is still not a bad card.How would that pair with the Ryzen 5 ?

K.O.Kiki

The 390x can be quite close to RX 580 in performance, just sucks a lot more power.
You'll want a GTX 1660 Super/RX 5600XT at minimum to see noticeable improvement.

I'm assuming you're just looking at cheapest motherboard, e.g. ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 (£57).

Spend the extra couple of quid for something better, e.g. ASRock B450M Pro4-F (£65)
Spec comparison

Hellrazer

Whats a Ryzen 3 1300x like - they seem fairly cheap as chips on the used market?

K.O.Kiki

1300X is okay-ish.
4c/4t so about equivalent to an old Intel i5.
I'd say it's worth maybe €50?

djan

Regarding motherboards, IMO, unless you are going all out no budget, I would go for a solid B450 like the ASRock B450M Pro4-F which I'm using myself and is excellent, got for 55gbp on CCL last week.

The argument that you are future proofing by spending double that makes no sense. If in a few years you want to upgrade, you can just buy a similair price point mobo that will support whatever processor you may require. The talk of PCIe6 features, ten millions M2 slots etc. is mostly irrelevant unless you're going for multiple GPU set ups and really high end.

Don't get fooled by the marketing hype on motherboards. Especially given that Ryzen doesn't over clock well, as long as a processor works with it, there no point spending huge sums for no performance gain if on a budget!

Hellrazer

Is the Ryzen 7 - 1700 any use?
Theres one on adverts beside me for 120.00
Or another alternative is a ryzen 5 2400g for the same kind of money.

Homelander

No. Better off with a 1600AF which is better for games than either and costs the same new.

A 2400G for 120 is terrible value, the R1700 is not bad value, but 1600AF is best balanced for games.

Hellrazer

Decided Im going to order the ASRock B450M Pro4-F
Havent decided on the cpu yet - Im still not sure to spend a few quid more and hope for a couple of years before another upgrade or just go budget and see how it runs @ 1080p

Going to use my 390x for the moment which ok uses a bit more power buts should pair nicely with the r1600AF or 2600 or 2400g.

Homelander

Unless it was €50-60 a 2400G doesn't really make much sense.

The 3300X is £115 new, same amount of cores/threads but significantly faster.

Personally I would just get a 1600AF for £110 and be done with it and not have to worry about the CPU at all for years, more cores/threads will be vital over the next generation as consoles are 8/16 Ryzen based.

A 4/8 CPU like the 3300X will be fine right now but will not cut it at all anywhere near close to the duration of that cycle.

A 1600AF and A320M will cost you £150 and job done for probably 5 years plus.

Hellrazer

Homelander wrote: »

Unless it was €50-60 a 2400G doesn't really make much sense.

The 3300X is £115 new, same amount of cores/threads but significantly faster.

Personally I would just get a 1600AF for £110 and be done with it and not have to worry about the CPU at all for years, more cores/threads will be vital over the next generation as consoles are 8/16 Ryzen based.

A 4/8 CPU like the 3300X will be fine right now but will not cut it at all anywhere near close to the duration of that cycle.

A 1600AF and A320M will cost you £150 and job done for probably 5 years plus.

What a320m would you recommend?

Just thinking about it - I don't need overclocking / all the other bells and whistles - I can always upgrade in the future if I need to.

Looks like Ive gotten cpu sorted - ryzen 1700 @ a really good price.

Can get a nice setup for under 130 if I do it with a320.

How about

Asrock A320M-HDV R4.0

Homelander

Ryzen doesn't really overclock anyway. That motherboard will be fine for a 1700.

Is your current 8GB a single stick? That'll cause big issues in some games, versus having 2x4GB, because it is running in single channel mode.

Your next purchase should be 2 x 8GB 3200Mhz as well, Ryzen performs much better with faster ram.

Hellrazer

It's 2x4 8gb at 2400.
Itll do for a bit I'd say. Probably go 16 anyway once I get up and running.

Hellrazer

Quick update.
Managed to get the r7 1700 for €100.00 which I think is a decent price for 8 cores / 16 threads.
Its only 65w tdp aswell not like my old phenom which meant I didnt need to turn the heating on in winter


Ordered the asrock b450m hdv 4.0 for €61.00.

Have to wait a few days for the board to arrive,

Thats going to be a cheap Ryzen build to get me started.

Hellrazer

All my bits just landed and Im going to put it together tonight and one more question.

I picked up a m.2 nvme 256 gb aswell.

Should I install windows on that or an ordinary ssd?
I was thinking of partioning it into 100gb for windows and then using the rest of it for game installs.
I used the old 128gb ssd in a laptop that was using a 5400 drive.much faster now.
So Im left with 2x 240gb ssd / the m.2 and the 1tb seagate - what way would anyone else set it up?

Any issues with installing windows on a m.2?

Homelander

256GB is nothing these days - Modern Warfare alone is around 200GB as an example, games like Red Dead 2 are also around 150GB.

Use the NVME as your primary OS drive anyway. You can use the dual 240GB drives as further game storage as well but it's a bit messy.

The best storage options these days is either a 1TB M2 + 1TB HDD for secondary storage, or 512GB M2 for OS/common games and 1/2TB for lesser played games/secondary storage.

Hellrazer

All done and finished.Thanks to everyone for the help.
97 FPS average in Warzone @ 1080p - up from low 40s on the old Phenom.

Took your advice on the ssds Homelander - put the OS on the m.2
1tb for lesser played games.
Stuck warzone on one of the 256gb and stuck in a 500gb ssd for other games.


So alls good - really happy with the build and advice.