Advice on new build

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Weaksauce
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May 20, 2005
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Going to build a new system sometime this year and would like some advice. My present set-up uses an Intel i5 processor which i would say is at least five years old, this in conjunction with a samsung ssd and 8gig of ram sitting on a Asus mobo it has been a quick and efficient system but getting a bit long in the tooth now. The disk that came with the asus board has not been willing to run i think since win8, saying it is not compatible with the o/s. I have tried to update the disk content but it wasnt very successful and irritating little niggles have appeared which i can only see getting worse when i have to eventually switch to win10. That combined with the feeling i am mising out on new features that a new board could offer has prompted the new build. I prefer Asus boards as i have never had a failure with them to date and they have all had the option to start the pc by pressing the space key, this is a feature i dont want to be without.

I have picked a Asus board:
ASUS Prime X570-Pro Ryzen 3 AM4 with PCIe Gen4, Dual M.2, HDMI

and a amd chip

AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600, AM4, Zen 2, 6 Core, 12 Thread, 3.6GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo, 32MB L3, PCIe 4.0, 65W, CPU

I not bought any computer parts for a long time and this my be a stupid question (as may be a few others) but is this a 64bit processor.

Are the ryzen and asus board above a good combination.

I am way out of touch with pc memory but have looked at;

G.Skill DIMM 16 GB DDR4-3600 Kit Memory - Black White F4-3600C18D-16GTZN
Corsair VENGEANCE® LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3600MHz C18 Memory Kit - Black
VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 PC4-29200C18 3600MHZ DUAL CHANNEL KIT
Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Kit(had problems with Corsair in the past)
Patriot VIPER STEEL 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHZ DUAL CHANNEL KIT (PVS416G360C7K)

Some of the corsair above could be the same units with slightly different titles.

Which of these would be the best memory for the asus and amd i have selected or any you could suggest. 16GB may be more than i need but it seems to be the starting point now. I think my present pc is using Mushkin ram are they still around if so are they any good

The pc will be used for internet and email and watching the odd short video or stream. Dont do any gaming or video editing. Not really bothered about overclocking but may have a little dabble if its easy and no risk.

This new build will use an M.2 ssd

Any advice gratefully welcome
 
That board is a good quality board that will be a good fit for that CPU as long as the board meets your requirements feature wise. You likely could go with any of those memory kits as memory compatibility on x570 / zen 2 is much better but it doesn't hurt to check the QVL list for your motherboard and pick one that has been tested / confirmed.
 
That board is a good quality board that will be a good fit for that CPU as long as the board meets your requirements feature wise. You likely could go with any of those memory kits as memory compatibility on x570 / zen 2 is much better but it doesn't hurt to check the QVL list for your motherboard and pick one that has been tested / confirmed.

Cheers for the reply, good to know its a decent pick. Just need to do the qvl list now pick an M.2 ssd and i am done. Only one question the psu i have is a decent make but cant remember its name, its 450 to 600 watt will that be sufficient for this new build.
 
which is it though? if its 600 it should be fine, 450 might be fine with a really low end gpu. what gpu are you using?

Hi, thanks for your reply, the power supply is a Corsair CX500M (500watt). In my first post i said i would be using M.2 ssd, Slight correction to this it will be, Samsung 970 EVO V-NAND M.2 250GB or 500GB NVME SSD. Hoping its fully compatible with this board.
 
Hi, thanks for your reply, the power supply is a Corsair CX500M (500watt). In my first post i said i would be using M.2 ssd, Slight correction to this it will be, Samsung 970 EVO V-NAND M.2 250GB or 500GB NVME SSD. Hoping its fully compatible with this board.
ok but i wasnt asking about the drive, i was asking what video card you are using. the 3600 cpu does not have integrated graphics.
 
ok but i wasnt asking about the drive, i was asking what video card you are using. the 3600 cpu does not have integrated graphics.

Just added the ssd info to update what i had said previously but forgot to give graphics info. Glad you brought it up or i would have been looking at a blank screen on first start-up and scratching my head asking what has gone wrong and getting the technical hammer out for some adjusting. I am not using a separate graphic card at the moment just relying on the intel i5. Bit of a rethink required.
 
Just added the ssd info to update what i had said previously but forgot to give graphics info. Glad you brought it up or i would have been looking at a blank screen on first start-up and scratching my head asking what has gone wrong and getting the technical hammer out for some adjusting. I am not using a separate graphic card at the moment just relying on the intel i5. Bit of a rethink required.
well, youre gonna need a gpu with a 3600 or drop down a bit to a 3400g apu that has built in graphics.
 
well, youre gonna need a gpu with a 3600 or drop down a bit to a 3400g apu that has built in graphics.

I have had a look at some benchmark tests for these two chips 3600/3400 g and the 3600 edges ahead. Who though
thought it was a good plan to omit the graphics. I have decided to go with the 3600 and use an asus passive graphics card. I have a 1GB knocking around somewhere, will have a search tomorrow, if i cant find it i have seen a cheap deal on a 2GB asus passive graphics card so i will go with that.
 
I have had a look at some benchmark tests for these two chips 3600/3400 g and the 3600 edges ahead. Who though
thought it was a good plan to omit the graphics. I have decided to go with the 3600 and use an asus passive graphics card. I have a 1GB knocking around somewhere, will have a search tomorrow, if i cant find it i have seen a cheap deal on a 2GB asus passive graphics card so i will go with that.
amd does things different, part of how they keep costs down among other reasons. with them you have to get an "APU" to get integrated graphics otherwise they are just a cpu.
 
amd does things different, part of how they keep costs down among other reasons. with them you have to get an "APU" to get integrated graphics otherwise they are just a cpu.

Its been quite awhile since i have used amd, athlon was my last chip. As i now recall they done things differently then, probably what attracted me to them. Thanks once again for your help
 
I have that board and used that CPU in it. It works great. I haven't had any issues at all.

Without diving into every RAM combination you have listed, it looks like most of them are Hynix based. I have a set of G.Skill Hynix CJR based memory that actually tightens from 3600Mhz, Cas 19 (XMP setting) to Cas 16. Generally speaking, Ryzen 3000 series CPUs aren't as memory sensitive as the older generations. Any of them should work fine. If anything that Patriot Viper with the odd numbered CAS might need to be loosened to 18 or tightened to 16, but it still should work.

Personally, I think the 3000 series non-APU is worth the extra expense of a video card as you get the newer Zen2 core vs. the older Zen+ core in the 3000 APUs. There are plenty of good deals on last gen used cards here in the forums which should work fine for you. I really don't see any reason to pay $40-50 on a 2GB passive card when you can get something like a used RX 570 4GB or a 1060 3GB card for maybe $70-80. I know you're not doing a lot, but might be a little bit more future proof depending on how long you keep your computer.

Honestly, I'd just reuse your old PSU unless you are having issues with it. It's not like the parts you spec'd out are high power draw components, especially absent a high end video card.

You will be fine with the 970 Evo m.2 card even if it's not on the QVL. In fact, I've never even looked at the QVL for this board and its taken everything I've thrown at it.
 
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I have that board and used that CPU in it. It works great. I haven't had any issues at all.

Without diving into every RAM combination you have listed, it looks like most of them are Hynix based. I have a set of G.Skill Hynix CJR based memory that actually tightens from 3600Mhz, Cas 19 (XMP setting) to Cas 16. Generally speaking, Ryzen 3000 series CPUs aren't as memory sensitive as the older generations. Any of them should work fine. If anything that Patriot Viper with the odd numbered CAS might need to be loosened to 18 or tightened to 16, but it still should work.

Personally, I think the 3000 series non-APU is worth the extra expense of a video card as you get the newer Zen2 core vs. the older Zen+ core in the 3000 APUs. There are plenty of good deals on last gen used cards here in the forums which should work fine for you. I really don't see any reason to pay $40-50 on a 2GB passive card when you can get something like a used RX 570 4GB or a 1060 3GB card for maybe $70-80. I know you're not doing a lot, but might be a little bit more future proof depending on how long you keep your computer.

Honestly, I'd just reuse your old PSU unless you are having issues with it. It's not like the parts you spec'd out are high power draw components, especially absent a high end video card.

You will be fine with the 970 Evo m.2 card even if it's not on the QVL. In fact, I've never even looked at the QVL for this board and its taken everything I've thrown at it.


Hi, kirbyrj

Thats great info that you have the same board and cpu and are pleased with it, hope i am. Does this asus board still do start pc from space key. To late for the graphics card purchased one yesterday, I only have the memory and M.2 ssd to get now. I was leaning towards the Patriot Viper for the memory as i have seen a good price on it. I would like gskill but cant seem to find a good price for it (less than £100) i may drop to 8GB from 16GB to lower the price i also dont need or want RGB, i am using 8gb now and never had any problems.
I am not going with any Corsair memory as i have had trouble with there products before and i am seeing some bad little snippets here and there on the web. I only use a corsair power supply at the moment as it was the only one i could get on a weekend my hiper decided to stop working. The memory is becoming a bit of a sticking point and is slowing the build down.

I am going as you suggest to use my old psu and see how it goes for now.
 
I don't know about the space bar start. I have my desktop actually on my desktop, so I just hit the power button as needed. Never tried to power on any other way.

I would get 2x8GB of the Patriot vs. only 8GB of G.Skill or whatever else you're looking to get. You just have to keep in mind that you might need to adjust the timings away from XMP settings slightly. It will probably boot fine at 2133Mhz and then you adjust as needed. I'd probably load the XMP settings and then adjust the Cas to 18 and see what happens.
 
I don't know about the space bar start. I have my desktop actually on my desktop, so I just hit the power button as needed. Never tried to power on any other way.

I would get 2x8GB of the Patriot vs. only 8GB of G.Skill or whatever else you're looking to get. You just have to keep in mind that you might need to adjust the timings away from XMP settings slightly. It will probably boot fine at 2133Mhz and then you adjust as needed. I'd probably load the XMP settings and then adjust the Cas to 18 and see what happens.

Hi, went for the 16GB Patriot, got a great deal on Samsung 250GB ssd on ebay sold as brand new (we will see). So that completes the buying just waiting for items to arrive now, then finding time to do the build. Hopefully the O/S install goes without a hitch and i will take it from there to adjust/tweak things.
 
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