Needed Upgrade build

[pathless_persona]

Budget (including currency): 1,300-1,600 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft, Civ6,and other single player rpg games with playing online FPS once in a while. For work flow I do some blender work as a hobby, light code compiling and will be getting into some CAD once I hit the books

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Here is a part list that I have so far: https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder-amd.aspx?load=2da20795-3041-4e48-b8e0-406cb562bd7c

I will be upgrading from an AM3 system.

I know that I don't have a cpu cooler, psu, and storage listed I am going to re use those parts if possible. My PSU is an EVGA 750 80+ Gold Modular, a hyper 212 evo for cpu cooler, and a 250gb samsung ssd along with a 2tb HD. The PSU i purchased about 2 years ago as well as the cpu cooler. If I can't reuse my cooler or psu that is fine. I will mostly be buying my parts from MicroCenter since it is close by, but if I find a deal on Newegg or amazon I will order from there. 

The only peripherals that really need and upgrade is my 1080p monitor to a 1440p and my Audio Technica M50X.

My question is where do I skip out so I can get the most performance. 

Thank you.

[RONOTHAN##]

It's an OK build, thought there are some things I'd like to point out

1. X570 boards under the ~$250 price point generally don't make any sense. I'll include a copy pasted rant in a spoiler at the end if you want to see it, but just know that you're better off saving your money and either getting a similar quality and feature set from a B550 board or getting a high end B550 board like the B550 Taichi for the same price 
2. The 12400 is probably the better CPU for this anyway. It's within 1-2% in most workloads, $40 cheaper, and on a newer socket. It should save you a few dollars. You'll have to change the board out for a B660/H670 board in order to use it (so that X570 rant is kinda pointless), which tend to be a little pricier, but the 12400 is still likely cheaper overall, plus it has an iGPU which is really good for troubleshooting. 
3. The other components are IIRC cheaper at Newegg and Amazon. Micro Center does price match though, so you can still likely pick everything up at the same place. 

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder-amd.aspx?load=ca4a9fcd-1411-40a1-85e8-9e349796823e

 

As for your cooler, you should just have to email Cooler Master for them to send you a new mounting bracket to use with either one. It should be more than enough to cool either the 12400 or 5600X. 

 

As for the rant:

Spoiler

There are only 3 reasons to go X570 over B550

1. You need IOMMU support
2. You need multiple Gen 4 SSDs (though this is done on a couple B550 boards, whether their implementation is good is another story though)
3. You need a lot of IO, though this is dependent on whether or not the motherboard manufacturer actually takes advantage of that. 

For basically everything else, B550 is just fine. Unless you're spending $250-300+ on a motherboard (which you really don't need to do), X570 has basically no advantage over the competing B550 board, and most of the time the B550 boards are actually better below that $250 figure. The B550 Taichi, for instance, is basically every feature you could ever want from a motherboard, POST code, x8/x8 support, very strong VRM, 2.5GB LAN, WiFi 6, a ton of other stuff, and you can get it for $200. The competing X570 board for price is the TUF Gaming X570-Plus, which does not have a POST code, does not have x8/x8 support, have an adequate VRM solution (fine for a 5950X, but not overkill), 1Gb LAN, WiFi 5, and is down a USB port. The only advantage that board has is the second M.2 runs at Gen 4 instead of Gen 3. X570 just doesn't make sense in comparison.

 

Your goal when picking a motherboard is to get the cheapest thing that has all the features you realistically will need with an adequate VRM solution and without any known issues that will prevent the board from being usable. For 98% of people, B550 boards are that option.

 

[Queen Chrysalis]

4 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It's an OK build, thought there are some things I'd like to point out

1. X570 boards under the ~$250 price point generally don't make any sense. I'll include a copy pasted rant in a spoiler at the end if you want to see it, but just know that you're better off saving your money and either getting a similar quality and feature set from a B550 board or getting a high end B550 board like the B550 Taichi for the same price 
2. The 12400 is probably the better CPU for this anyway. It's within 1-2% in most workloads, $40 cheaper, and on a newer socket. It should save you a few dollars. You'll have to change the board out for a B660/H670 board in order to use it (so that X570 rant is kinda pointless), which tend to be a little pricier, but the 12400 is still likely cheaper overall, plus it has an iGPU which is really good for troubleshooting. 
3. The other components are IIRC cheaper at Newegg and Amazon. Micro Center does price match though, so you can still likely pick everything up at the same place. 

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder-amd.aspx?load=ca4a9fcd-1411-40a1-85e8-9e349796823e

 

As for your cooler, you should just have to email Cooler Master for them to send you a new mounting bracket to use with either one. It should be more than enough to cool either the 12400 or 5600X. 

 

As for the rant:

  Reveal hidden contents

There are only 3 reasons to go X570 over B550

1. You need IOMMU support
2. You need multiple Gen 4 SSDs (though this is done on a couple B550 boards, whether their implementation is good is another story though)
3. You need a lot of IO, though this is dependent on whether or not the motherboard manufacturer actually takes advantage of that. 

For basically everything else, B550 is just fine. Unless you're spending $250-300+ on a motherboard (which you really don't need to do), X570 has basically no advantage over the competing B550 board, and most of the time the B550 boards are actually better below that $250 figure. The B550 Taichi, for instance, is basically every feature you could ever want from a motherboard, POST code, x8/x8 support, very strong VRM, 2.5GB LAN, WiFi 6, a ton of other stuff, and you can get it for $200. The competing X570 board for price is the TUF Gaming X570-Plus, which does not have a POST code, does not have x8/x8 support, have an adequate VRM solution (fine for a 5950X, but not overkill), 1Gb LAN, WiFi 5, and is down a USB port. The only advantage that board has is the second M.2 runs at Gen 4 instead of Gen 3. X570 just doesn't make sense in comparison.

 

Your goal when picking a motherboard is to get the cheapest thing that has all the features you realistically will need with an adequate VRM solution and without any known issues that will prevent the board from being usable. For 98% of people, B550 boards are that option.

 

The generic inland pro SSDs they sell are very good, so you can save a lot there.

 

On the rant, for this reason I usually have no qualms about recommending A520 or H610 boards with good heat sinks to a lot of tighter budgets, as most regular gamers would be totally fine with those as well.  I’d never sacrifice GPU or monitor for any of those features when the user if the user isn’t likely to ever make use of them.

[RONOTHAN##]

4 hours ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

On the rant, for this reason I usually have no qualms about recommending A520 or H610 boards with good heat sinks to a lot of tighter budgets, as most regular gamers would be totally fine with those as well.  I’d never sacrifice GPU or monitor for any of those features when the user if the user isn’t likely to ever make use of them.

I try to avoid going that low on a board, at least with A520, since the ones with good heatsinks usually are the same price as B450 boards with good heatsinks and the B450 boards do tend to be more fully featured. H610 has almost no motherboards with good heatsinks and are inherently pretty IO limited, plus good B660 boards aren't really that much more expensive. On a tight enough budget it can make some sense, especially if they're using a low power CPU where you don't actually need a VRM heatsink and those boards do make sense price wise, though I'd still try and get a better motherboard.

 

It's not really the chipset that makes me not want to recommend them, it's more that there aren't really many good boards made with those chipsets that make sense price wise. 

[pathless_persona]

10 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It's an OK build, thought there are some things I'd like to point out

1. X570 boards under the ~$250 price point generally don't make any sense. I'll include a copy pasted rant in a spoiler at the end if you want to see it, but just know that you're better off saving your money and either getting a similar quality and feature set from a B550 board or getting a high end B550 board like the B550 Taichi for the same price 
2. The 12400 is probably the better CPU for this anyway. It's within 1-2% in most workloads, $40 cheaper, and on a newer socket. It should save you a few dollars. You'll have to change the board out for a B660/H670 board in order to use it (so that X570 rant is kinda pointless), which tend to be a little pricier, but the 12400 is still likely cheaper overall, plus it has an iGPU which is really good for troubleshooting. 
3. The other components are IIRC cheaper at Newegg and Amazon. Micro Center does price match though, so you can still likely pick everything up at the same place. 

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder-amd.aspx?load=ca4a9fcd-1411-40a1-85e8-9e349796823e

 

As for your cooler, you should just have to email Cooler Master for them to send you a new mounting bracket to use with either one. It should be more than enough to cool either the 12400 or 5600X. 

 

As for the rant:

  Reveal hidden contents

There are only 3 reasons to go X570 over B550

1. You need IOMMU support
2. You need multiple Gen 4 SSDs (though this is done on a couple B550 boards, whether their implementation is good is another story though)
3. You need a lot of IO, though this is dependent on whether or not the motherboard manufacturer actually takes advantage of that. 

For basically everything else, B550 is just fine. Unless you're spending $250-300+ on a motherboard (which you really don't need to do), X570 has basically no advantage over the competing B550 board, and most of the time the B550 boards are actually better below that $250 figure. The B550 Taichi, for instance, is basically every feature you could ever want from a motherboard, POST code, x8/x8 support, very strong VRM, 2.5GB LAN, WiFi 6, a ton of other stuff, and you can get it for $200. The competing X570 board for price is the TUF Gaming X570-Plus, which does not have a POST code, does not have x8/x8 support, have an adequate VRM solution (fine for a 5950X, but not overkill), 1Gb LAN, WiFi 5, and is down a USB port. The only advantage that board has is the second M.2 runs at Gen 4 instead of Gen 3. X570 just doesn't make sense in comparison.

 

Your goal when picking a motherboard is to get the cheapest thing that has all the features you realistically will need with an adequate VRM solution and without any known issues that will prevent the board from being usable. For 98% of people, B550 boards are that option.

 

Okay thanks. So I will have to do some bios flashback thing if I get a B550. As for the GPU this smart access memory thing is okay since I did watch the video where is only a small percent improvement. So I was wondering if maybe spending more on something like a 3070 or something. Because after this I don't plan to upgrade the system for like 5 or 6 years I am willing to spend some extra money. Also for case fans I want solid ones but i don't really care for RGB so I was thinking noctua or be quite fans. Maybe you guys can point me out to some other fans that will do just as good of a job for less. If not that is fine.

[RONOTHAN##]

44 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

So I will have to do some bios flashback thing if I get a B550.

No, the only way you'd have to do BIOS flashback if you get a B550 and a 5600X is if somehow the board you buy from Micro Center was sitting on a shelf for over a year and a half, the odds of which are basically zero. It's still a nice feature to have, don't get me wrong, it has saved me more than once, but it's not necessary for a first boot like it was when Ryzen 5000 series just came out. 

 

47 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

So I was wondering if maybe spending more on something like a 3070 or something.

Depends how much more the 3070 is. It is faster than the 6700XT, but it's not a ton faster than the 6700XT. It's somewhere around 10% faster depending on the game. If the price difference is ~$100, then sure, go for it, but I wouldn't recommend spending much more for it. 

 

50 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

Because after this I don't plan to upgrade the system for like 5 or 6 years I am willing to spend some extra money.

I do want to point out that you usually get more performance for less overall if you upgrade every 3-4 years instead, then flip your current cart on eBay, instead of buying on high end card and running it for a long time. 

 

52 minutes ago, pathless_persona said:

Also for case fans I want solid ones but i don't really care for RGB so I was thinking noctua or be quite fans. Maybe you guys can point me out to some other fans that will do just as good of a job for less.

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-P12-Pacco-Silenziosa-Ottimizzata/dp/B07HC7P3HJ/ref=asc_df_B07HC7P3HJ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=380200604373&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3738992849668866291&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052110&hvtargid=pla-614199889563&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=82910274452&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=380200604373&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3738992849668866291&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052110&hvtargid=pla-614199889563

These aren't as good as higher end Noctua fans, but they're almost as good, and you can't really beat the value of them. 

[pathless_persona]

6 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, the only way you'd have to do BIOS flashback if you get a B550 and a 5600X is if somehow the board you buy from Micro Center was sitting on a shelf for over a year and a half, the odds of which are basically zero. It's still a nice feature to have, don't get me wrong, it has saved me more than once, but it's not necessary for a first boot like it was when Ryzen 5000 series just came out. 

 

Depends how much more the 3070 is. It is faster than the 6700XT, but it's not a ton faster than the 6700XT. It's somewhere around 10% faster depending on the game. If the price difference is ~$100, then sure, go for it, but I wouldn't recommend spending much more for it. 

 

I do want to point out that you usually get more performance for less overall if you upgrade every 3-4 years instead, then flip your current cart on eBay, instead of buying on high end card and running it for a long time. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-P12-Pacco-Silenziosa-Ottimizzata/dp/B07HC7P3HJ/ref=asc_df_B07HC7P3HJ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=380200604373&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3738992849668866291&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052110&hvtargid=pla-614199889563&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=82910274452&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=380200604373&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3738992849668866291&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052110&hvtargid=pla-614199889563

These aren't as good as higher end Noctua fans, but they're almost as good, and you can't really beat the value of them. 

Love it thanks i will take all of this into consideration. I will also take a look at the 12400 to see the options. And I will make multiple to list and what not and get back to this post.