What is the cheapest available CPU I can slap in a AM4 socket? Building a gaming PC for my brother

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Kato1144

Limp Gawd
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Oct 18, 2007
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Hey guys back in the early days of Ryzen there was a terrible mother board shortage and people were suffering, so when the Gigabyte X370 Gaming 5 I purchased was not showing a shipping date after 3 days i panicked and bought a Gigabyte B350 gaming 3 from another store but then to my surprise the gaming 5 arrived 2 days later and the B350 took much longer so i never ended up using it, in fact i have only opened the box to look at the board its self for a few seconds one day for my own amusement.

So its been almost 2 years and I'm finally going to do something with this board but there is a small problem, my original idea was to just drop a R5 1600 in and OC it to 3.8something but that was when i first got it... now there is a very compelling argument for the R5 2600 or maybe a R5 2600x but the old girl wont recognize the CPU with out a update and I really don't want to dismantle my R7 1700 system just to do a BIOS update so I was wondering what is the cheapest CPU I can snag that will post with that board.

Also while I'm here give me any input on what you might do with this system, all I have ATM is the MOBD and some 16GB of GSkill Ripjaws V 3200MHz ram everything else is up in the air at the moment

What I currently invision:

Gigabyte B350 Gamming 3
R5 2600 or 2600X
16GB Ripjaws 3200MHz
M.2 boot ~250GB
2x 2TB 7200RPM Drives
GTX 1070 possibly... he is going to need to throw down for the GPU the prices for high end GPUs is still up there so we might go with something lesser
650watt PSB 80plus rated
Case (will get local)
Custom cooler of some kind like the hyper 212

Let me know what you guys think and for those of you who have done overclocking on the gaming 3 let me know what kinda limitations you may have had with the board like is there a need to run air flow directly across the VRM or stuff like that.
 
I'm not sure if this is still applicable, but AMD was shipping out free boot kits at one time with A6-9500's.

https://community.amd.com/thread/225778

AMD will provide affected and qualified users a boot kit to perform the BIOS update on their motherboard. This solution is offered through AMD warranty services and is available only for affected and qualified users of this specific boot up issue. This boot kit is free of charge.

To obtain the boot kit, please carefully follow these instructions:

Go to the AMD online warranty claims page:

Fill in your full contact and product details

In the Problem Description field enter “Boot kit Required” (without quotes)

NOTE: The product must be a valid AMD processor with authentic OPN and serial number

Once the claim is received and approved, confirmation details and boot kit instructions will be provided in a follow up email.
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Either try to get one of the boot kits, or don't be lazy and just move the chip over for the BIOS update and then back.

Frankly I'd consider the 2600x slightly better than the 1700 even with the extra cores depending on your OC and use case so if you got the 2600x you might consider keeping it even and give your bro the 1700.

Or skip all that and just buy him a 1700, its $25 cheaper new than a 2600x anyway.
 
Athlon 200GE. My son has one in his PC. Works great for games like Minecraft, Roblox, Lego Worlds. Decent GPU for a dual core with SMT. $49 if you get one on sale.
 
blkt said:
Save your money and buy a new Ryzen in four months.
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I would and your logic is sound but my brother birthday just happened and this is his birthday gift also he has been struggling to play games like anthem on his current system and I doubt he would want to wait for Zen 2.
When Zen 2 when it hits im going to get a new MOBD CPU and faster RAM and pass this system on to my other brother who is using one of my decent i7 junk machines that is stating to have issues with new games too just not as bad.

Spartacus09 said:
Frankly I'd consider the 2600x slightly better than the 1700 even with the extra cores depending on your OC and use case so if you got the 2600x you might consider keeping it even and give your bro the 1700.

Or skip all that and just buy him a 1700, its $25 cheaper new than a 2600x anyway.
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That is a thought, but after reading that I was thinking maybe getting a 2700X for this system and giving him the 1700, the only thing is with the 1700 on the Gaming 3 will there be enough power delivery to get a good overclock on all 8 cores? like I want to hit atleast 3.7GHz if not 3.8ish like i have right now, anything less is going to be losing IPC performance over what he has now despite the cores and I dont want him to have a inferior experience in older games and games that insist on using one core. If that is the case then I might be forced to disable 2 cores for the sake of over clocking and im not sure if that board will do it and give me 3x3 or 4x2 (btw is there a diffrence in using 3x3 vs 4x2 or are they basically the same experience)
 
Kato1144 said:
That is a thought, but after reading that I was thinking maybe getting a 2700X for this system and giving him the 1700, the only thing is with the 1700 on the Gaming 3 will there be enough power delivery to get a good overclock on all 8 cores? like I want to hit atleast 3.7GHz if not 3.8ish like i have right now, anything less is going to be losing IPC performance over what he has now despite the cores and I dont want him to have a inferior experience in older games and games that insist on using one core. If that is the case then I might be forced to disable 2 cores for the sake of over clocking and im not sure if that board will do it and give me 3x3 or 4x2 (btw is there a diffrence in using 3x3 vs 4x2 or are they basically the same experience)
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Sounds like you know what you're talking about and just need to make a decision :) and/or research the power delivery of the gaming 3 board.
 
Wormfeeder said:
Cheap price for a 1600 here @Microcenter $79

https://www.microcenter.com/product...-am4-boxed-processor-with-wraith-spire-cooler
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that is a attractive price but I cant see any button to purchase the CPU from there online store, there is a chance I cant see it because I'm located in Canada were Micro center dares not venture (we dont have any micro center stores that i know of) so ya if i could get that right now I would be done and moving on but it does not look like i can, BTW 1600 are still selling between $220~$300 CND on most online stores, you Americans get the deals $79.99 USD is $106.77 CND
 
Kato1144 said:
that is a attractive price but I cant see any button to purchase the CPU from there online store, there is a chance I cant see it because I'm located in Canada were Micro center dares not venture (we dont have any micro center stores that i know of) so ya if i could get that right now I would be done and moving on but it does not look like i can, BTW 1600 are still selling between $220~$300 CND on most online stores, you Americans get the deals $79.99 USD is $106.77 CND
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Microcenter CPUs are in-store only purchases unfortunately, you might be able to find someone near one on the forums to buy it and ship it to you though.
 
Spartacus09 said:
Sounds like you know what you're talking about and just need to make a decision :) and/or research the power delivery of the gaming 3 board.
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I know but that's hard work.... the mountains of mouse clicks.... the minutes of researching the.. the.. READING...... I dont know if i will survive all of that but I will try lol

But ya i need to do some more reseach on the B350 Gaming, if i can turn off cores i think I will just end up getting the 2700X for this machine, give me a IPC boost of a few before i swap out everything again for Zen 2
 
Ok I suffered greatly and did the unspeakable, I downloaded the Gaming 3 manual and found out the UEFI is laid out almost exactly like the Gaming 5 I'm using right now including Downcore a function that allows you to choose the core that are enabled, it looks like 3x3 is my only six core option so wondering if 4x2 would be better then 3x3 is no longer a concern.

So now I;m going to look at 2700x prices online and locally and grab a hyper 212 for cooling.

the last major hurdle will be GPU, my bro wants to commit about $500- $600 to a GPU and that puts us close to 1070 territory and it might be what i get but if you guys have any other suggestions would be appreciated
 
If you don’t need to buy new I would recommend getting a used 1080 TI you can pick that up for about $500.
 
that is a good call i will see what i can track down for a 1080 ti used, but I'm on amazon.ca right now and it look like abunch of 1070 ti's have taken massive price cuts, a MSI 1070 TI 8G for 524.99 new, i was looking last week and they were all $700+

EDIT: Sadly after looking at local markets used 1080 ti's are any were from $700 to $1000, at $1200+ new
 
looking at the MSI 1070 ti Titanium or the MSI 1070 ti Duke, need to do some quik research and then i will make a purchase

after doing some research I grabbed the Titanium, it looked like the duke had a crappy cooling solution and thermal throttled under high load, so ya I purchased all the parts and they will be here next week
 
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Well you gotta specify country bro $500 usd is about $700 cad :p the 1070ti is a solid card though.
 
Spartacus09 said:
Well you gotta specify country bro $500 usd is about $700 cad :p the 1070ti is a solid card though.
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lol sry didnt think of the conversion, still ppl selling 1080 ti used for 900$ CND is still alot, i only saw one for 700$ and it said sold by it so it was not looking to good for the used 1080 ti, the 1070 ti will be pretty dam good
 
I expect by summer video card prices will settle even further, but while you are at it be sure to give your system some clean reliable power.

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Edit: For an air cooler, check out NH-U14S by Noctua. Also check out be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4, NH-D15S or NH-D15. These are all the top performers (I prefer Noctua mounting style).

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The 10 gram container is much less likely to dry out than any syringe after opening, just don't confuse it with your lip balm. They both will come with the plastic applicator. The compound is the best non-conductive and will not scratch up your heatsink or processor.
 
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I think the best bang for the buck is the Ryzen 1600 and motherboard combo from Micro Center. A combo can be had for under $150 out the door and you can always upgrade the processor later to like a R5 2600 or R7 2700 processor. I assume they'll drop in price too when the new AMB processors come out.
​
 
If you're okay with four cores, you could get an A8-9600 for $84 CDN on amazon, or an a12-9800 for $160 CDN if you don't want to OC (though at that price I'd consider a non-apu part).
 
Kato1144 said:
lol sry didnt think of the conversion, still ppl selling 1080 ti used for 900$ CND is still alot, i only saw one for 700$ and it said sold by it so it was not looking to good for the used 1080 ti, the 1070 ti will be pretty dam good
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I have a Golden clocking V56 and a 64 with EK blocks on them for sale in the FS/FT forum CHEAP. I am willing to ship to Canada with a "Happy Birthday!" package for your brother ;).
 
tangoseal said:
Athlon 200GE. My son has one in his PC. Works great for games like Minecraft, Roblox, Lego Worlds. Decent GPU for a dual core with SMT. $49 if you get one on sale.
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I have one of these on a music server and it's a great processor (at least for what I'm using it for). However, I had to upgrade to a B450 motherboard to get it to boot. I had an old B350 board I originally planned on using. B350 boards say they can run the newer Ryzen platform.....but only if the BIOS is updated, and how to update the BIOS if it can't boot? If you have access to a spare Ryzen first gen, great.

I got it from Microcenter. I then got the Ryzen 5 1700 on sale and put it in the B350 motherboard I had. Now that is an excellent CPU for the price (if you can get in store at Microcenter).
 
tangoseal said:
Athlon 200GE. My son has one in his PC. Works great for games like Minecraft, Roblox, Lego Worlds. Decent GPU for a dual core with SMT. $49 if you get one on sale.
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There are plenty of games who won't work on systems with less than 4 real cores, as of today, even there is a limit to 4 threads in other games. So Ryzen 1200 is the lowest one should get, but then it would be safer to get a 4 cores / 8 threads, Ryzen 1400 and the price of that is quite the same as a Ryzen 1600X (6 c/12t) but then the Ryzen 1700 (8c/16t) is so close and then Ryzen 1700x clocks more than 10% higher for a little more money. I recommend you buy a Ryzen 1700x with a good cooler, an Asus B350m motherboard, 2x8GB sticks of 2800Mhz good RAM (Crucial Ballistix for instance) and an RX 570 8GB graphics card and a cheap SSD of good quality (Sata is easier to install and fast enough - Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860Evo like 1GB is quite enough for gaming). Windows 10. Don't overclock and this computer will last 10 years of good service.
If you don't want to look for a cooler, just get the Ryzen 2600 (has it's own ok cooler) and needs only 65W, and don't overclock it. Get the cheapest PSU 450W or higher from a good brand (like FSP, Enermax, Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, Silverstone, Bequiet). the case should have the motherboard sitting in a vertical position and the PSU on top of it, to avoid dust on the circuits, and put all the fans to blow inside with a filter on the outside of each fan to filter the dust.
 
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Jandor said:
There are plenty of games who won't work on systems with less than 4 real cores, as of today, even there is a limit to 4 threads in other games. So Ryzen 1200 is the lowest one should get, but then it would be safer to get a 4 cores / 8 threads, Ryzen 1400 and the price of that is quite the same as a Ryzen 1600X (6 c/12t) but then the Ryzen 1700 (8c/16t) is so close and then Ryzen 1700x clocks more than 10% higher for a little more money. I recommend you buy a Ryzen 1700x with a good cooler, an Asus B350m motherboard, 2x8GB sticks of 2800Mhz good RAM (Crucial Ballistix for instance) and an RX 570 8GB graphics card and a cheap SSD of good quality (Sata is easier to install and fast enough - Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860Evo like 1GB is quite enough for gaming). Windows 10. Don't overclock and this computer will last 10 years of good service.
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OP asked for the cheapest. And that's about the cheapest. 200ge.
 
tangoseal said:
OP asked for the cheapest. And that's about the cheapest. 200ge.
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Yes but he mentioned gaming and I'd rather chose something that plays all the games of today (let's say at Full HD) than something that will play some type of games that do not need any today computer specs (would work even on very old computer) and AM4 is a today socket.
A better answer for that cheap would be : why don't you get an old computer for free ?

So the lowest and cheapest good for any gaming in today standards is a 6c/12t CPU. And you need better than an APU to be able to play many games and RX 570 can be found today at quite the same price as lower GPU that would be the lowest limit you should go (like the GTX 1050 4GB) and it can be found in 8GB version for a very little bit more, so this would make a good graphics card for bigger games in a couple of years.

Also 8GB of RAM is not enough for quite some games now.
 
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Jandor said:
Yes but he mentioned gaming and I'd rather chose something that plays all the games of today (let's say at Full HD) than something that will play some type of games that do not need any today computer specs (would work even on very old computer) and AM4 is a today socket.
A better answer for that cheap would be : why don't you get an old computer for free ?

So the lowest and cheapest good for any gaming in today standards is a 6c/12t CPU. And you need better than an APU to be able to play many games and RX 570 can be found today at quite the same price as lower GPU that would be the lowest limit you should go (like the GTX 1050 4GB) and it can be found in 8GB version for a very little bit more, so this would make a good graphics card for bigger games in a couple of years.

Also 8GB of RAM is not enough for quite some games now.
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Good looking out
I'd even recommend a 2200g. It has 4 real cores and a decent igp. But you can a used 1050ti for cheap and it will 1080p play pretty damn well

Ram is getting very cheap now. You can get 16gb for about a hundred. Or less.
 
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