New AMD Ryzen build list advice needed

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AMD_Gamer

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Getting ready to finish ordering the parts for my new AMD Ryzen build. What do you think about the build? This will be my main gaming/work rig to replace my aging Core i7 920 rig that is starting to show its age. Any advice or different parts I should use? The only thing I am really not sure about is what motherboard and RAM to get. I am wondering if I should go for the X470 Crosshair VII Hero instead of the B450?

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Processor
OS drive: Samsung 960 EVO Series - 250GB PCIe NVMe - M.2
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK Motherboard
16GB Ram (undecided)
Video card: Sapphire Radeon NITRO+ RX 580 8GB

Already purchased;

CORSAIR HYDRO SERIES H100i v2 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Storage Drives: Same SSD/HDD from current system
NZXT S340 Mid Tower Computer Case, Matte Black/Red
Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition Single Fan (TOP)
Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition Single Fan (Rear)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2, 80+ GOLD 750W
 
AMD_Gamer said:
Getting ready to finish ordering the parts for my new AMD Ryzen build. What do you think about the build? This will be my main gaming/work rig to replace my aging Core i7 920 rig that is starting to show its age. Any advice or different parts I should use? The only thing I am really not sure about is what motherboard and RAM to get. I am wondering if I should go for the X470 Crosshair VII Hero instead of the B450?

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Processor
OS drive: Samsung 960 EVO Series - 250GB PCIe NVMe - M.2
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK Motherboard
16GB Ram (undecided)
Video card: Sapphire Radeon NITRO+ RX 580 8GB

Already purchased;

CORSAIR HYDRO SERIES H100i v2 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Storage Drives: Same SSD/HDD from current system
NZXT S340 Mid Tower Computer Case, Matte Black/Red
Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition Single Fan (TOP)
Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition Single Fan (Rear)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2, 80+ GOLD 750W
Click to expand...

Not a fan of the case purchase but a couple things:

If you're going cheap on the mobo, I would recommend the ASRock B450 Fata1ty over the Tomahawk, however for $20 more you can get the MSI Pro Carbon which is superior to both and a lot of X470 boards... MSI pretty much has AM4 locked down though imo, you're better off waiting for another refurbforless deal (new box 2700x) then you're going with an Crosshair VII.
 
The Fatality and Tomahawk will both be able to get the most of the R5, but yeah the Carbon is pretty sweet.

Looks like a kick ass build.
 
Nightfire said:
The Fatality and Tomahawk will both be able to get the most of the R5, but yeah the Carbon is pretty sweet.

Looks like a kick ass build.
Click to expand...

To me, the Tomahawk doesn't make sense when you have the Pro Carbon which gets: WIFI, Intel NIC, better audio codec, better audio chip, overkill VRM heatsinks, NVME heatsink etc for just $20 more, the Fata1ty is just as capable as the Tomahawk has better audio and is $10 cheaper so...
 
If you aren't too concerned about overclocking, I would say b450 if it has the features you want. X470 if you need the extra lanes. Some of the higher end X470 boards are better suited for OCing if you plan to do that heavily. With a 6 core, a beefier VRM may not be necessary
 
Neapolitan6th said:
If you aren't too concerned about overclocking, I would say b450 if it has the features you want. X470 if you need the extra lanes. Some of the higher end X470 boards are better suited for OCing if you plan to do that heavily. With a 6 core, a beefier VRM may not be necessary
Click to expand...

The 3 B450's I listed can handle a 2700X up to 4.3ghz...

 
Sodapopjones said:
The 3 B450's I listed can handle a 2700X up to 4.3ghz...

Click to expand...

Good, good. Then you'll be fine. Be mindful of which boards offer bclk overclcoking as well if that matters to you. It is not a standard feature on b450 and some X470 boards. Some have found ways to get an extra 50-100mhz OC via blck adjustments. Also, make sure your board offers LLC control if you choose to OC. Some set voltages can be rather inconsistant without it. (Again would only be a problem of you are going for that last 100-150mhz OC)

I only mention VRMs as there are generally big differences between b450 and higher end X470 designs. These aren't differences most would probably notice though so it is a bit moot. (Though some X470 VRMs are equal to b450 designs, the inverse isn't always true)

Nearly all b450 boards have either a 3 phase VRM, doubled 3 phase, 4 phase, or if you are lucky doubled 4 phase at best. To my knowledge the Asus ITX and MSI ITX boards offer the only b450 6 phase VRMs.

Those VRMs shouldn't be a problem for a 2600X, and the better ones shouldn't be bad for a 2700X.

My point here being I can't say if those VRMs would be enough for you if you ever consider upgrading to a higher core count higher clocked Ryzen 3000 (Zen 2) series chip in the future. That's when you may see a perfectly fine b450 design be overtaxed.

None of that matters if you don't plan to keep the motherboard and drop in a future CPU at some point. It probably doesn't pay to overspend on a overdesigned VRM, but it is something consider depending on how long you plan on staying on AM4.

I can't speak on thermals, but this is what I am referencing for the VRM configs.
 
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At this point, the VRM claims are mostly marketing gimmicks by manufacturers. You really need to look at the reviews and, better yet, deeper analysis by those like buildzoid. Having a crap load of "phases" means little if you have crap mosfets, vrm heatsinks, or a useless bios.
 
Neapolitan6th said:
My point here being I can't say if those VRMs would be enough for you if you ever consider upgrading to a higher core count higher clocked Ryzen 3000 (Zen 2) series chip in the future. That's when you may see a perfectly fine b450 design be overtaxed.
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I think that this is worth repeating and IMO the biggest potential reason for wanting a board with overkill VRMs and another less likely one is if they do eventually release PBO for Ryzen+. Other than that it just comes down to what features you want and how good the audio or NIC is.

For memory I would suggest sticking to something with Samsung B-die ICs. I'm pretty sure the G Skill Flare X 3200C14 kit is still the go to but there are also higher binned B-die kits if you want the most memory overclocking headroom.
 
RAM just grab 3200C14 any kit 16GB and you're done. As Eberrnaut mentioned the Flare X is great for this.

Stick with B450 TBH. X470 doesn't really offer much more. Grab the B450 board based on your requirements. If you don't need wifi/BT etc then pocket the 20. If you do grab the slightly more expensive board.

I was looking at the 2600X too to replace my i5 4690k, at the moment I can't justify a new machine, but if I did, I wouldn't bother with manual overclocking. The 2600x will do its own thing well enough at stock, boosting some cores to 4.3ghz in gaming, and benchmarks show it's almost basically not worth the hassle of OC'ing unless you plan to use it for rendering workloads a lot. If you majority game, let it run stock and just keep fan speeds on the h100 low. XFR2 will do its thing and you'll just have a simple, stable system.
 
Thanks for all the info everyone. I am now looking at the MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon. It is a nice looking board with great features. What do you guys think about the X470 Pro Carbon?
 
Ebernanut said:
I think that this is worth repeating and IMO the biggest potential reason for wanting a board with overkill VRMs and another less likely one is if they do eventually release PBO for Ryzen+. Other than that it just comes down to what features you want and how good the audio or NIC is.

For memory I would suggest sticking to something with Samsung B-die ICs. I'm pretty sure the G Skill Flare X 3200C14 kit is still the go to but there are also higher binned B-die kits if you want the most memory overclocking headroom.
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What if you have memory already but it's hynix RAM?
 
pavel said:
What if you have memory already but it's hynix RAM?
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In that case I would probably use it with the plan being to replace it when memory prices become reasonable again, that's just how I would handle it though.

It will work just fine but it will be limited to speeds that will slightly hurt performance due to the way that IF works and it will likely take more work to get it stable at the speeds possible.
 
Ebernanut said:
In that case I would probably use it with the plan being to replace it when memory prices become reasonable again, that's just how I would handle it though.

It will work just fine but it will be limited to speeds that will slightly hurt performance due to the way that IF works and it will likely take more work to get it stable at the speeds possible.
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Are you familiar with the Team Group memory @ CL14, apparently, it's Samsung b-die. On newegg, it even states as much. I mention that particular one since it appears to be the cheapest - at least, in Canada. It's currently $280 CAD. The only idea I could think of other than waiting would be to buy it at some point in the near future and list my current memory (still in the box; unused) on ebay (might get the most for it there?) or on a tech/computer classifieds site? What do you think? Is it certain that memory prices will become reasonable any time soon? I think some prices fell but Samsung b-die memory didn't come down much, eh?
 
PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/28pfFt
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/28pfFt/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *MSI - B450-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard ($88.26 @ Amazon)
Memory: *Team - Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($137.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: *Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB D5X Video Card ($429.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $976.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-25 12:04 EDT-0400
 
pavel said:
Are you familiar with the Team Group memory @ CL14, apparently, it's Samsung b-die. On newegg, it even states as much. I mention that particular one since it appears to be the cheapest - at least, in Canada. It's currently $280 CAD. The only idea I could think of other than waiting would be to buy it at some point in the near future and list my current memory (still in the box; unused) on ebay (might get the most for it there?) or on a tech/computer classifieds site? What do you think? Is it certain that memory prices will become reasonable any time soon? I think some prices fell but Samsung b-die memory didn't come down much, eh?
Click to expand...

I'm not as familiar with Team Group but I do know that they have some kits that exclusively use B-die and the few people I've seen using their kits haven't had any issues.

No guarantees that prices will drop but they've been unreasonably high for some time and it seems like they're starting to come down.

You could use what you have, it wouldn't be that big of a performance hit. It would just bug me to bottleneck(however slight) my PC by using memory that's a little cheaper but still expensive, already having the memory does change the equation some though.
 
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Thanks for the info everyone. I went with the G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB. A little more expensive than other options but it sounds like it will work well.
 
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