Low-Profile platform upgrade.

[Okjoek]

Case + PSU

• Fractal Design Node 202 
• 450W Integra SFX PSU (included)

Graphics

• Sapphire Nitro RX460 (already own)

Motherboard

• mITX 
• AM4 Socket for AMD Ryzen
• A320 or B350 Chipset. 

CPU

• Still deciding what would be a good replacement for my i5 3450 that would go well with the RX 460. Probably something featuring the Wraith-Stealth like the Ryzen 5 1400 so I can see if the cooler would fit.

 

CPU Cooler

• As mentioned above, possibly the Wraith-Stealth. The Node 202 advertises 56mm cooler clearance, but if I'm lucky the engineers were smart and went for loose tolerances in the specs. If I got it and found that I had 66mm of actual clearance I would get the Noctua NH-L12 for an upwards blowing config. Otherwise I think I would want to stick with omni-directional coolers (like the stock one) because the Node 202 has no real directional case flow for parallel fin arrays to make use of.
• Does Scythe Kozuti work with Ryzen perhaps?
• One of those Zalman omni-directional coolers?

RAM

• Two 8GB sticks of DDR4 memory. Ryzen supposedly likes fast RAM, but IDK how fast is practical for such a mainstream build. I'm thinking AT-LEAST 2400 MHz. 
• Question: What memory brands are best for Ryzen?

 

 

 

[Billy_Mays]

How long can you wait for your build and never ever go with A320 unless you don't like overclocking at all

[Jurrunio]

actually i5 3450 itself is good. The 460 is not powerful at all. In a lot of cases, it is actually the 460 slowing the 3450 down. For example, my 470, which has twice the performance of the 460, still bottlenecked my 4460, which is similar to the 3450 in speed, in some games such as Watch Dog 2 and the Witcher 3

[Okjoek]

1 hour ago, Billy_Mays said:

How long can you wait for your build and never ever go with A320 unless you don't like overclocking at all

That was more of a concern of availability on my part. I just thought I shouldn't expect or take for granted overclocking ability on a small form factor platform which is one of the key goals of the build to get away from ATX/mATX towers. I've never overclocked either too. I've always felt it was a waste of time and electricity. As far as "when" possibly around my Birthday in November or Christmas as the end of the year. My system doesn't struggle so I'm not in a hurry.

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

actually i5 3450 itself is good. The 460 is not powerful at all. In a lot of cases, it is actually the 460 slowing the 3450 down. For example, my 470, which has twice the performance of the 460, still bottlenecked my 4460, which is similar to the 3450 in speed, in some games such as Watch Dog 2 and the Witcher 3

My i5 3450 has treated me very well since 2012. I'm amazed to have had a CPU for so long and have it not feel obsolete. That said though, I'm looking for a general platform upgrade and not only a CPU upgrade.

• I can't take advantage of newer technologies such as M.2 NVMe SSDs
• I'm having a hard time sourcing ITX motherboards for Ivy Bridge. (same for Ryzen, but that's just because it's new)
• Stuck with DDR3 (my particular RAM isn't even good, there's several speeds and I think 2 brands that make up my 12GB and I'm not getting more memory for this old platform)

 

As far as my GPU goes I don't plan on replacing it anytime soon, IDK when Navi is supposed to come, but maybe then. I like my RX460 because I can play most games on maximum and I could get away with most high-end games if I were willing to lower my settings. As it is Planetside 2 is the only game I regularly play that I can't really enjoy on maximum settings. My RX 460 is also a lot nicer for our electricity bill.

 

An R5 1400 would be a suitable upgrade over my i5 because it has more threads, more cache, higher base/boost clockspeeds and even a lower TDP. IDK how power consumption compares though.

 

 

 

[Jurrunio]

5 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

I can't take advantage of newer technologies such as M.2 NVMe SSDs

 

I'm having a hard time sourcing ITX motherboards for Ivy Bridge. (same for Ryzen, but that's just because it's new)

 

Stuck with DDR3 (my particular RAM isn't even good, there's several speeds and I think 2 brands that make up my 12GB and I'm not getting more memory for this old platform)

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=33&f=8

 

Only 2 mini ITX boards for Ryzen atm. X370 one is expensive and pointless, while B350 isn't sold yet. If you are in a hurry, skylake/kaby lake i5s are the way to go, though not that cheap either.

[Okjoek]

18 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=33&f=8

 

Only 2 mini ITX boards for Ryzen atm. X370 one is expensive and pointless, while B350 isn't sold yet. If you are in a hurry, skylake/kaby lake i5s are the way to go, though not that cheap either.

I'm just going to wait for more AM4 motherboards because I wanted to get an AMD CPU to go with my AMD GPU.

[honor]

What is your Budget @Okjoek?

[honor]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($195.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Biostar - X370GTN Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($126.59 @ OutletPC)
Total: $437.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-18 16:59 EDT-0400

 

EDIT: Didn't know your budget, so I just went ahead and pieced something together. AND I just realized that you already have the case and everthing, which makes things way easier.