My New Ryzen 2K Build

Lumpus

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Messages
432
Replacing an old PC that's about 8 years old!
Combination Work/Gaming PC with lots of multi-thread multitasking.

Time to give Team Red a try - competition is good and I think Zen+ on a X470 board is about as future-proof as things go right now. I thought about the ASRock Tachi MB, but IMHO ASUS has the better BIOS and configuration software. All the X470 boards seem 'good' so I probably can't go wrong even if I downgrade to 2600X/ASUS Pro combo (which might be slightly better price vs performance atm. I'm vaguely tempted to up the memory to -3400 or even -3600, but again -3200 might be the sweet spot for price/performance. There were rumors of some new G-Skill Sniper memory optimized for Ryzen/X470 coming out, but I can't find it... would buy/if available.

Price isn't really an object - eBay's been good to me this spring and PayPal is all allocated this summer for upgrades... buying it a piece at a time as NewEgg puts them on sale or waiting for a good Combo buy.

Does anyone other than NewEgg accept PayPal? Amazon/Fry's/MicroCenter don't :(


Old PC -

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz - Socket 1155 LGA (Sandy Bridge)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Z68 PCI-Express
Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express
Memory: 2x4gb DDR3 Corsair PC3-10700H (667mhz @ (9-9-9)
Graphics: nVidea GeForce GTX 960 2GB
SSD Boot: OCZ-AGILITY3 ATA Device 111.79 GB
SATA Data: WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 ATA Device 1.82 TB
SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold SLI Ready CrossFire Ready

For 1080p (1920x1080) gaming... it actually wasn't too bad. I could play Fallout 4 in high settings alright, but Banished and Stellaris would quickly choke and slow to a crawl. Frostpunk and Witcher 3 I could run in Medium. Dying Light... nope :( As-Is, this would still be a decent work/study PC for some teen.

Prefered Build -
[PCPartPicker part list](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BJ8Fgw) / [Price breakdown by merchant](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BJ8Fgw/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bddxFT/amd-ryzen-7-2700x-37ghz-8-core-processor-yd270xbgafbox) | $319.99 @ Newegg
**Motherboard** | [Asus - ROG STRIX X470-F Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jX...aming-atx-am4-motherboard-strix-x470-f-gaming) | $202.94 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/gT...b-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c14d-16gtzr) | $251.98 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Samsung - 860 Evo 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/M9rmP6/samsung-860-evo-500gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-mz-n6e500bw) | $133.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Samsung - 860 Evo 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wd97YJ/samsung-860-evo-1tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-mz-n6e1t0bw) | $269.98 @ Newegg
| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
| **Total** | **$1178.88**
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2018-05-21 10:24 EDT-0400 |

Will downgrade to 2600X with the ASUS X470 Prime MB if there is another price drop or Combo sale (but 2700X price remains unchanged). So far, NewEgg hasn't posted a decent Combo sale with ASUS X470 boards.

New M.2 drive will become Boot. Old SSD boot will become Swap File/Photoshop Work/Temp Downloads Disk
New SSD will become Steam Games Drive. I'd go 2GB there, if they were affordable.
Samsung M.2/SSD's listed because Partpicker didn't show any WD or Crucial offerings. If I have to pinch pennies later, it will be here. Hoping to wait for sales :/


Keeping (for now) -

Corsair Air 540 Case (best case I've ever owned)
Graphics: nVidea GeForce GTX 960 2GB (replace later at Black Friday - leaning towards an RX 580)
SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold SLI Ready CrossFire Ready (dithering... might replace it now anyway since it is @ 8 years old - probably with this:
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 750W Smart Zero Fan SLI/CrossFire Ready https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153309 (or maybe the 650W)

Replacing (later) Data WD HDD's into a 3 Hitachi 3GB Raid5 array. Hitachi seems to have the lowest failure rate of HDD's, according to the stats I've read. I already use one of these 3GB's as my external BU drive.


Feel free to offer advice or suggestions....
 
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I'd replace the GPU first, overclock the 2600k and the ram if you can, see how it runs with what you use it for, and then decide.
 
I'd replace the GPU first, overclock the 2600k and the ram if you can, see how it runs with what you use it for, and then decide.

It's already OC'ed as much as it could go... with the lowest timing memory I could find. It didn't OC well and was very prone to freezing up and overheating with anymore more than minimal tweaking. Probably needed water cooling, but I wasn't willing to try - at near-stock settings it was stable. I'm not an OC guru and this is an old proc on an old board. Also the system didn't recognize it when I added a second pair of identical DDR3's a few years ago, even after several BIOS flashes, so boosting memory to 16G wasn't an option. I never did figure out why it wouldn't work :?

GPU's... later. It is pure folly to pay more than MSRP for any GPU that is already over two years old! Waiting for next gen releases in 3Q... assuming mining doesn't drive those crazy as well.
Fixing the things than I can, now... first - since GPU's become obsolete first, it does make sense to buy that part last.
I can wait - the 960 is an adequate (barely) card for 1080p gaming still. A 1080 is really overkill unless prices come down and I decide to move to 1440p or 2k. Not this week.
 
I can't say I've ever heard of someone hitting a wall that low with a Sandy and on a decent board at that. Are you using the stock cooler?

The 960 is your bottleneck by far. Even a 1050ti would help a lot. Scrounge the FS/FT forum for a relative deal. The miners aren't going away.
 
I can't say I've ever heard of someone hitting a wall that low with a Sandy and on a decent board at that. Are you using the stock cooler?

The 960 is your bottleneck by far. Even a 1050ti would help a lot. Scrounge the FS/FT forum for a relative deal. The miners aren't going away.

I just ran CPU Speed Prof and it said I was clocking at 3412 (3.3 base), Not much of an OC, as I remembered. Not the stock cooler, which was a POS. Got the biggest CPU fan I could find at Fry's and used that... still ran hot, I think.
 
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This looks more interesting... the CPUID HMP report on the i5-2500k... looks a little OC'd and running a bit hot. About as I remembered it :/
I5-2500.jpg
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *MSI - X470 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: *Team - Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU650 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: *MSI - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB ARMOR Video Card ($754.98 @ Newegg)
Case: *Corsair - Carbide SPEC-04 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *Corsair - TXM Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: *LG - 27UD60-B 27.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor ($289.00 @ B&H)
Keyboard: *ROCCAT - Ryos MK Glow Wired Gaming Keyboard ($51.67 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Corsair - Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse ($29.68 @ Amazon)
Headphones: Logitech - G430 7.1 Channel Headset ($37.99 @ Amazon)
Speakers: Logitech - Z213 7W 2.1ch Speakers ($24.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1987.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-22 02:47 EDT-0400
 
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That doesn't look like a bad build, I would definitely replace the PSU if it's that old just for piece of mind.

The one suggestion I have is to check what drawbacks there are to using the second M.2 slot before planning to use it. Some run at slower speeds and they all seem to require disabling something to work whether it be SATA ports, a PCIe slot(X4 PCIe 3.0 lanes is full speed but many use 2.0), or disable lanes on the primary PCIe slot. My personal suggestion would be to get a faster 960/970 Evo for the primary drive and a larger 2.5 SSD for a games drive.

Edit: If it's just a matter of cooling that's holding you back I would get a decent cooler and overclock that 2500k higher, however a system like you mentioned would still be an upgrade.
 
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That doesn't look like a bad build, I would definitely replace the PSU if it's that old just for piece of mind.

The one suggestion I have is to check what drawbacks there are to using the second M.2 slot before planning to use it. Some run at slower speeds and they all seem to require disabling something to work whether it be SATA ports, a PCIe slot(X4 PCIe 3.0 lanes is full speed but many use 2.0), or disable lanes on the primary PCIe slot. My personal suggestion would be to get a faster 960/970 Evo for the primary drive and a larger 2.5 SSD for a games drive.

Edit: If it's just a matter of cooling that's holding you back I would get a decent cooler and overclock that 2500k higher, however a system like you mentioned would still be an upgrade.

Thanks. Nope, my OC days are over. When the new build is over I'll list the bare bones of the old system here on FS/FT cheap for someone smarter to tinker with.
Tending to agree with the PSU replacement - easier to do when everything is out of the case for a clean install.
Oh... minor update to new specs - I found G.Skill's announcement of the Sniper X series memory being optimized for X470, but not sure of the correct model #'s yet. The RGB of the TridentX is nice, but faster/tighter timings is more important
 
Thanks. Nope, my OC days are over. When the new build is over I'll list the bare bones of the old system here on FS/FT cheap for someone smarter to tinker with.
Tending to agree with the PSU replacement - easier to do when everything is out of the case for a clean install.

I don't know much about the Asus board you listed, but I can say that the MSI X470 Gaming Plus board that Mockingbird listed above, is an excellent one, and for a lower cost. It's rock solid stable for my 2600X, whether I'm running at stock speeds or with a mild OC (3.9 GHz).

It's probably best to go with a newer power supply, especially if you're using a board that has more than one ATX power connector (the MSI board has both an 8 pin and 4 pin). Cooling fan bearings do tend to wear out in that period of time, and the Corsair that he listed is an excellent one.
 
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