Build Suggestions

[WilliamVixoe]

 

Hi,

 

The post will be live in the very near term

[mariushm]

x470 boards were not really good when it comes to VRM, the dc-dc converter which powers the processor.

On most of them, the heatsinks on those chips are undersized and when using higher power processors like that 3700x, the VRM can overheat and cause the cpu to throttle (reduce its frequencies) in order to lower its power consumption and give the VRM time to cool down.

You can see a list of motherboards and how well they do in the VRM department: Google Docs document

 

You want at least two green checkmarks in the center columns - yes, while in theory a single green checkmark is enough for 3700x, it would make sense to get something that can handle a 3900x or even a more powerful processor.

 

Really, the only reason you would go for x470 is if you want SLI or Crossfire with two video cards, because x470 chipset allows you to split the x16 from cpu into 2  x8 slots. Other than that, most x470 boards are not as good as the most recently released B450 boards

 

I also want to point out that on B450 chipset, MSI boards are pretty much the best performance/quality, with better heatsinks and all that, and a few cheap models support BIOS Flashback which can be useful if you happen to buy a model that still has a pre-Ryzen 3rd gen bios.

 

A relatively CLEAN motherboard, black and gray, is MSI B450-A Pro : https://www.amazon.com/MSI-ProSeries-Crossfire-Motherboard-PRO/dp/B07F85YW8R/

 

I personally would recommend Gigabyte x570 Aorus Elite to you, but it's 200$ ... right now it's on sale at Amazon for 170$ +shipping : https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-X570-AORUS-PCIe4-0-Motherboard/dp/B07SVRZGMX/

 

Excellent motherboard, all features you would want (except wireless on board), great VRM (can easily handle even 16core cpus), and it's all dark and plain one color, with some orange tint on the VRM heatsinks and  just a few red capacitors on the bottom corner.

 

 

 

As for the power supply, I'd encourage you to also look into 550w ...650w range. You don't need 700 watts.

A GTX 2060 consumes around 180 watts and that Ryzen 3700x doesn't consume more than 150w ... so you're looking at maximum 350-400 watts or so of power consumption, making a 650w psu more than enough.

Even if you later upgrade to a 3900 or something higher, it would still be enough.

 

I'd recommend a gold efficiency psu, something like Corsair RMx 650w : https://dk.pcpartpicker.com/product/2HbwrH/corsair-rmx-2018-650w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020178-na