Ryzen SFF Build Advice

derhpasaur · April 30, 2020

Before I begin, I most likely will not be purchasing anything now and will wait until the end of the pandemic at the very least, and can wait for sales/new releases nearing the end of the year. Just wanted to get some insight into my part choice, pricing and any new developments.

I plan on upgrading mostly for acoustic and quality-of-life improvements. My current ex-laptop-now-desktop GT72 probably will last me a year or two more before I have to get rid of it, but the screen is shot, it has developed some really weird issues with not powering off properly, alongside the amount of noise the fans make.

All prices will be stated as SGD unless explicitly stated otherwise.

I'm going for a SFF build with a budget of around $1400 (993 USD), not accounting for tax + shipping. I'll be migrating over all my peripherals, and doesn't need to include a Windows licence, so PC only. I will be using a 1080P 144Hz monitor. Only limitation is that case needs to fit within (W)250mm x (H)320mm. Depth should not pose as a limitation (+600mm available)
I stay in Singapore, and prices are following what I currently could find on local Amazon/Newegg or listed prices on Carousell, excluding tax and shipping.
I work with Photoshop, and occasionally do some light video editing as a hobby. I plan to game but my most intensive title is probably Forza Horizon 3 so it doesn't really matter. As long as csgo runs at >144FPS at medium+ it's good enough.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($247.00)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 120 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($103.99)
Motherboard: MSI B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($172.31)
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($196.99)
Storage: HP EX950 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($114.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($72.99)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB Mini Video Card ($300.00)
Case: Silverstone SG13 Mini ITX Tower Case ($76.18)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS SGX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply ($142.99)
Total: $1427.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-30 11:54 EDT-0400

Should total around 1012.50 USD.

Notes, Comments and buying choices:

CPU:
I chose a R5 3600 as it was much cheaper than a 2700X. I chose it over the 2600/2600X as it seems to outperform my current i7-4980HQ by a larger margin, which was the reason why I was looking to upgrade anyways. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)
With the 4000 series around the corner, I'll consider either going for one of those chips, or a discounted 3600.
Cooler:
Might be better options out there, be it air or water. I kind of just sorted by price on Newegg and hoped for the best.
Mobo:
I was also considering the ASUS Strix B450-I (192.99) or the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming (314.52!!). They were the only ones available for a semi-reasonable price. The X570 board is really only there if I decide not to try my luck with 3000 series compatibility. Only necessity is onboard WiFi.
Memory:
Went for 32GB since I regularly see Photoshop chew through 10+ GB with heavy files, and regularly near or exceed 16GB with my use. Skimped a little with the 3200 speed, but I don't expect it to make too much of a difference.
Storage:
Not much to say, but any cheaper/better performing reccomendations are always appreciated.
GPU:
Decided to get a 1070ti used, as they seem to perform similarly to a RTX 2060 and cost ~$300 less. They seem to go around the ballpark of 280-350 dollars here. Chose the Nvidia card for RTX voice and NVENC encoding.
For comparison, an RX580 goes for around 150, a 980ti for 200 and a 1080 for 400. I can check prices for other cards as well.
Case:
SG13 seemed like a good enough option. Amazon only had the pink one with reasonable shipping costs, but I frankly don't care. The Node 304 also seemed like a good option, but is $40 more.
PSU:
Sorted by price, went through the PSU tier list and chose whatever seeemed good enough. The EVGA 450 GM ($113) also seemed alright, but wattage was getting a bit too close for my tastes. PCPartPicker says the SGX-500 isn't compatible for some reason, but from what I can find it should be.

Any reccomendations, better options, deals and new releases to look out for are appreciated, and feel free to critique my decision making!

Fasauceome · April 30, 2020

9 minutes ago, derhpasaur said:

SG13 seemed like a good enough option. Amazon only had the pink one

Lucky you.

Also, if it's the V2, can you post a build log with the insides? Been dying to see what they changed in the revision.

10 minutes ago, derhpasaur said:

PCPartPicker says the SGX-500 isn't compatible for some reason, but from what I can find it should be.

I don't recall if that specific PSU comes with an adapter bracket, but that could be the reason why. If you don't see any confirmation one way or the other from the product page, you should contact seasonic.

derhpasaur · May 1, 2020

10 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

I don't recall if that specific PSU comes with an adapter bracket, but that could be the reason why.

Hm, weird. On Seasonic's product page: "The FOCUS SGX is shipped with an SFX to ATX adapter bracket in the box" The Tom's Hardware review also shows the adapter included, so something probably just got listed wrongly. I doubt it would be incompatible, considering the 450/650W variants are stated to be compatible on PPP.

10 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

Also, if it's the V2, can you post a build log with the insides? Been dying to see what they changed in the revision.

All signs point to it being the V1, though the Amazon listing states it as "USA - NEWEST VERSION". Not really sure what's going on there, but I will assume it's not the V2. The V2 is currently unavailable for me, but they should be by the time I do decide to buy the parts.