Split Between Red or Blue...

[CallMeDan_Thanks]

Hello all!

I know this has been presented a million times and I'm sure thousands of people have asked, but I'm just not knowledgeable enough yet to make a decision, and hours of online research has left me with Ryzen is good, Intel is good, both are good for what I want to do, maybe look at both. This of course has not helped me in ANY way whatsoever. I trust this community, and if possible, would like some input on what I should do. I will explain below:

-Computer's main purpose is to game, record/stream, video production (rare), and basic use

-Minor understanding of overclocking, I did overclock my current CPU manually to 4.3Ghz (I think, I'm not home at the time of posting this)
-Currently running two 1080p monitors. One at 144hz and another at 60hz. Upgrading main monitor to 1440p will most likely be happening next year.

-Periodically run ARK, Minecraft, etc. servers for a group of up to 5-10 people at one time.

-Need something to take advantage of my current build after replacing MOBO, CPU, and RAM. 

 

AMD is new territory for me, and I'm not asking for a tutor, but I'm not sure how hard maintenance and updates are on the CPU, and it's the first time myself, or my group of friends for that matter, would be working with one. I would love to support AMD, but it's also a comfort vs unexplored balance with money on the line. Current split decision is an i7-7700K or a Ryzen 1700X. Will most likely be using DDR4-2400 RAM and will be purchasing a new MOBO as well (obviously). Looking to stay under $600, preferably $550. I have a Microcenter I'll be picking everything up at. 

 

Here is a link to my CURRENT build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LQKwbj

 

I really appreciate all of your opinions and help, and I will be making a decision this Friday! 

 

Thanks, Dan

[Colexd]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($289.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B350M-A/CSM Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($71.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $501.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-21 11:36 EDT-0400

[Damascus]

I would say ryzen 7 as pretty much everything you want to do revolves around high core count.

[Coaxialgamer]

Microcenter currently has the 1800x going for 349$ , so get that . you can also get the 1700x for 329$.

combine that with a motherboard cpu combo discount .

 

Look at this

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx

That 1700x + Prime x370 combo is 400$ and still leaves you with 200$ to spend on a cooler( not included ) and RAM ( get fast  ram , preferably around 3000mhz , ryzen REALLY benefits from it)

[CallMeDan_Thanks]

12 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

Microcenter currently has the 1800x going for 349$ , so get that . you can also get the 1700x for 329$.

combine that with a motherboard cpu combo discount .

 

Look at this

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx

That 1700x + Prime x370 combo is 400$ and still leaves you with 200$ to spend on a cooler( not included ) and RAM ( get fast  ram , preferably around 3000mhz , ryzen REALLY benefits from it)

Yeah the 1700x & Prime combo is what I was kind of leaning towards, or the 1700X & Fatal1ty MOBO due to it being X370. It doesn't look like on the specs it supports 3000mhz though? Maybe that

s a knowledge gap on my end though. 

19 minutes ago, Colexd said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($289.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B350M-A/CSM Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($71.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $501.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-21 11:36 EDT-0400

Yeah I was looking at this set up as well... I haven't heard wonderful things on the PRIME though. Seems like they're very mixed. That's a great price point though! 

[Coaxialgamer]

7 minutes ago, CallMeDan_Thanks said:

Yeah the 1700x & Prime combo is what I was kind of leaning towards, or the 1700X & Fatal1ty MOBO due to it being X370. It doesn't look like on the specs it supports 3000mhz though? Maybe that

s a knowledge gap on my end though. 

 

Don't know about the asrock board , because it's not part of the bundles . But if you can get the 1700x and that board for the same price , it's also a great choice .

 

about the RAM : officially , ryzen only supports ddr4 2400 . However , since the recent bios updates it pretty much works out of the box . My 2*4GB ddr4 2800 kit with samsung memory got to 3200mhz with minor tweaking , and i recently got myself another 2*4GB kit of ddr4 3000 memory from micron ( micron ram was not working well when ryzen  launched ) and it worked fine at 3200 mhz . I didn't even have to change settings . IMO don't bother getting "ryzen ready" RAM , as it's expensive and pretty much redundant now that basically all RAM can reach it's rated speeds or more.

[CallMeDan_Thanks]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

Don't know about the asrock board , because it's not part of the bundles . But if you can get the 1700x and that board for the same price , it's also a great choice .

 

about the RAM : officially , ryzen only supports ddr4 2400 . However , since the recent bios updates it pretty much works out of the box . My 2*4GB ddr4 2800 kit with samsung memory got to 3200mhz with minor tweaking , and i recently got myself another 2*4GB kit of ddr4 3000 memory from micron ( micron ram was not working well with ryzen at launch ) and it worked fine at 3200 mhz . I didn't even have to change settings . IMO don't bother getting "ryzen ready" RAM , as it's expensive and pretty much redundant now that basically all RAM can reach it's rated speeds or more.

It looks like the ASRock board and the Asus board are only about $10 difference and the ASRock board has better sinks and audio with about the same reviews, so I guess we'll see. So, I've never OC'd memory before, but are you essentially saying I can pick up a kit of 2*8GB 3000mhz and it will still be compatible even though the board is listed to only support up to 2666mhz? I apologize if I'm being super thick.

[Coaxialgamer]

10 minutes ago, CallMeDan_Thanks said:

It looks like the ASRock board and the Asus board are only about $10 difference and the ASRock board has better sinks and audio with about the same reviews, so I guess we'll see. So, I've never OC'd memory before, but are you essentially saying I can pick up a kit of 2*8GB 3000mhz and it will still be compatible even though the board is listed to only support up to 2666mhz? I apologize if I'm being super thick.

what fatal1ty board are you looking at specifically ? Both the pro and the k4 support speeds over 3000mhz with OC 

 

But essentially yes . Manufacturers set a baseline speed that every board can run , but there's always extra room . My b350 board is not especially high end ( it only has 1 memory VRM ) and i still reached 3200mhz on 2 kits that were rated for a lower speed .

And if you increase latency , most kits should be able to reach that speed regardless .

Honestly , faster ram is really worth it on ryzen as you can get tangible performance increases just by getting faster memory .

 

Edit : the prime x370 supports 3200mhz , for example.

[KenjiUmino]

51 minutes ago, CallMeDan_Thanks said:

-Computer's main purpose is to game, record/stream, video production (rare), and basic use

-Minor understanding of overclocking, I did overclock my current CPU manually to 4.3Ghz (I think, I'm not home at the time of posting this)
-Currently running two 1080p monitors. One at 144hz and another at 60hz. Upgrading main monitor to 1440p will most likely be happening next year.

-Periodically run ARK, Minecraft, etc. servers for a group of up to 5-10 people at one time.

-Need something to take advantage of my current build after replacing MOBO, CPU, and RAM. 

i assume you want to use your GTX 1070 in your new build, right?

 

you could drop a 1050 ti into your current system and turn it into a spare gaming pc for guests or a dedicated streaming pc or minecraft/ark/whatever server. if you do the latter you can save money on the new build because your new PC would be fine with a 4c/8t CPU. 

[CallMeDan_Thanks]

9 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

what fatal1ty board are you looking at specifically ? Both the pro and the k4 support speeds over 3000mhz with OC 

 

But essentially yes . Manufacturers set a baseline speed that every board can run , but there's always extra room . My b350 board is not especially high end ( it only has 1 memory VRM ) and i still reached 3200mhz on 2 kits that were rated for a lower speed .

And if you increase latency , most kits should be able to reach that speed regardless .

Honestly , faster ram is really worth it on ryzen as you can get tangible performance increases just by getting faster memory .

 

Edit : the prime x370 supports 3200mhz , for example.

It would be the K4, given the PRO is a little out of the price range. I must have glossed over that when looking though. From what these replies have said, and just research in general it seems like I should honestly go with the Asus PRIME X370. It just looks like more people have purchased it and can speak on it's behalf more confidently. As for the RAM, it sounds like this HyperX Fury @ 2666ghz CL16 should work okay for what I'm doing, even if I don't OC it. Or this Crucial Tactical 3000ghz. Microcenter doesn't exactly have great deals on 3000mhz RAM.

 

16 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

i assume you want to use your GTX 1070 in your new build, right?

 

you could drop a 1050 ti into your current system and turn it into a spare gaming pc for guests or a dedicated streaming pc or minecraft/ark/whatever server. if you do the latter you can save money on the new build because your new PC would be fine with a 4c/8t CPU. 

This is correct. I was going to use the older parts in a media center/dedicated server PC, but my brother is building his own desktop and just needed some entry levels stuff so I'm giving him my old CPU, MOBO, RAM. This would have been nice though...

[KenjiUmino]

1 minute ago, CallMeDan_Thanks said:

This is correct. I was going to use the older parts in a media center/dedicated server PC, but my brother is building his own desktop and just needed some entry levels stuff so I'm giving him my old CPU, MOBO, RAM. This would have been nice though...

ok ... so a dedicated streaming pc / server is out ... then i guess the more cores the better.

 

for the media center, i think a small barebone or a nuc should be enough if you don't plan to game on it

[CallMeDan_Thanks]

6 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

ok ... so a dedicated streaming pc / server is out ... then i guess the more cores the better.

 

for the media center, i think a small barebone or a nuc should be enough if you don't plan to game on it

Yeah true. I did look into a NUC or just purchasing a bunch of relatively cheap parts and then getting a compact case. Future project or tax refund purchase I suppose!