Under performing PC (Help)

eira · March 30, 2019

If you're looking to build a new system (which is what I can gather from the recent posts in this thread) then I'd recommend this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	£140.99 @ Aria PC
Motherboard	ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	£73.20 @ Amazon UK
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	£82.79 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Crucial - MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	£44.95 @ Aria PC
Storage	Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	£53.46 @ CCL Computers
Video Card	XFX - Radeon RX 580 8 GB GTS XXX ED Video Card	£180.00 @ Amazon UK
Case	Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	£46.50 @ More Computers
Power Supply	Corsair - RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	£76.80 @ Ebuyer
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£698.69
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-30 09:27 GMT+0000

Results45 · April 1, 2019

On 3/29/2019 at 6:30 AM, trevb0t said:

Another great parts list. I DO recommend the ASRock Pro4 over the Gigabyte Micro ATX board listed here for a number of reasons.

Nice list!!

Thanks.

Why the ASRock B450M Pro4? It's costs almost £14 more than the Gigabyte and MSI equivalents.

Edit: Here's the the UK Edition of my PCPartPicker build:

It's almost a hundred more pounds (and dollars) than expected, but hey, you won't need to replace anything for the next 5 years*!

*upgrading the ram, storage, and GPU in 2-3 years might be a good idea

P.S. does anybody know if it's okay to mix ram as long as the clock speed is the same?

trevb0t · April 2, 2019

9 hours ago, Results45 said:

Why the ASRock B450M Pro4? It's costs almost £14 more than the Gigabyte and MSI equivalents.

On the lower end of the board range, the Pro4 is where the VRMs start getting decent. If you do go lower end, from what I've seen the Gigabyte models have some issues in delivering good results.

Results45 · April 2, 2019

15 hours ago, trevb0t said:

On the lower end of the board range, the Pro4 is where the VRMs start getting decent. If you do go lower end, from what I've seen the Gigabyte models have some issues in delivering good results.

Nice to know. How about MSI B450M boards and mix-and-matching RAM with identical clock speeds?

trevb0t · April 4, 2019

On 4/2/2019 at 3:49 PM, Results45 said:

Nice to know. How about MSI B450M boards

I found this video interesting in my search:

In short: The MSI and ASrock low end boards are at least functional. Asus and Gigabyte were either subpar or flat out didn't perform. I can't speak to the quality of the lowest cost MSI B450M model, but this should be SOME indication. Note that the M means it's a Micro ATX form factor, meaning it may sacrifice some PCIe lanes, RAM slots, and other nice things to make way for a smaller board. They do fit in most ATX cases though, and can save you a few bucks.

I went with the MSI B450 Gaming Plus and have had a fine experience. It's fairly comparable to the PRO4.

Quote

and mix-and-matching RAM with identical clock speeds?

You could try it out. It's generally not recommended (because there could definitely be some incompatibilities.) But that's not to say it COULDN'T work. If, in the end it's only saving you a few bucks, I recommend just eating ramen for a while and saving that extra bit for a matching kit.

There are even instances where some popular RAM brands just flat out don't work with Ryzen. So look at your MOBO compatibility lists through the manufacturer and check the RAM compatibility to be sure.