Ryzen advice? Good deals? Stuff to watch out for?

[Lewellyn]

So I'm planning on doing a Ryzen build and giving my older components to my brother. Just starting to look around and I think I'm looking at either the 1600 or 1600X. No idea about mobo or RAM.

 

Around $450-500 budget.

 

Update - These are the pieces I've picked:

 

G.SKILL TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3000

 

ASUS Prime X370-Pro AMD Ryzen AM4

 

AMD 1600 with Wraith Spire Cooler (maybe I should go 1600X with an aftermarket cooler?)

[warlinty]

1600, no point in getting X versions unless you can get them for the same price or cheaper

I use an ASUS Prime B350 Plus having no issues with it an if you're planning to do overclocking it uses an offset mode instead of manual (cpu voltage (1600s is 1.23V) + set amount of voltage you added) like some motherboards MSI B350 Gaming Plus or Tomahawk arte also good motherboards from what I've heard about

Look at something like Corsair Vengence LPX/LED or G. Skill Tridents or Ripjaws

[johndms]

48 minutes ago, ThatGuyWhoTwirlsHisPen said:

So I'm planning on doing a Ryzen build and giving my older components to my brother. Just starting to look around and I think I'm looking at either the 1600 or 1600X. No idea about mobo or RAM.

The 1600 is usually recommended over the 1600X. It comes with a very good cooler capable of handling decent overclocks. Asus boards are good. The Prime B350 Plus already mentioned is a great choice. It's only beaten by the Asus ROG Strix B350-F Gaming. I believe it also uses the offset core voltage for overclocking, which many love to hate. I've not tried it, but in theory it should be better than manual entry.

 

Ram is painful and expensive. Ryzen is TERRIBLE with memory support. These forums are full of people with memory issues. Sadly, it seems the majority of them are using Corsair Vengeance. My recommendation would be to research what others are using with the board you choose. Model numbers are important. G.Skill is an excellent choice. If you can afford it, look into "Samsung B-Die" as it's nearly guaranteed to work with Ryzen boards. Expensive as hell though.

[Hugsy Malone]

12 minutes ago, johndms said:

he 1600 is usually recommended over the 1600X. It comes with a very good cooler capable of handling decent overclocks

I would agree with this, however...
Here in the UK at least, the 1600x is only £20 more expensive than the 1600, which is not bad at all considering that you'll be guaranteed to get that 4ghz. So if you're already planning to get another cooler (water maybe?) then the 1600x is a good buy.

However if you'd be happy with the wraith cooler on the 1600, then that's deffo the better buy.

Gamers nexus have a good guid on mobos:https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3131-the-best-amd-ryzen-motherboards-for-overclocking-x370-b350 

Saying that the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 is the best cheap B350 board and the ASUS X370-Pro is the best cheap x370 board.

[Inversion]

I would say definitely get the Ryzen 5 1600. I myself have bought one although I did get an amazing deal. Either way, save the money on the X and put it into RAM. Make sure you get a B350 mobo cause it makes sense to OC on Ryzen. I'd recommend ASUS since they have great components and I've never had an issue with them. I'm going with them for my Ryzen 5 1600 build too. Get faster RAM if possible. I'd prioritise that over getting the X variant.

[just_dave]

For mobo - Asus Prime X370 Pro.

Very good bang for your buck with good futureproofing potential

[Inversion]

8 hours ago, dave_k said:

For mobo - Asus Prime X370 Pro.

Very good bang for your buck with good futureproofing potential

No point really going for X370 unless you're going for SLI or CrossFire. Might as well save some cash and go for the ASUS Prime B350 Plus

[epsilon84]

10 hours ago, Hugsy Malone said:

I would agree with this, however...
Here in the UK at least, the 1600x is only £20 more expensive than the 1600, which is not bad at all considering that you'll be guaranteed to get that 4ghz. So if you're already planning to get another cooler (water maybe?) then the 1600x is a good buy.

However if you'd be happy with the wraith cooler on the 1600, then that's deffo the better buy.

Gamers nexus have a good guid on mobos:https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3131-the-best-amd-ryzen-motherboards-for-overclocking-x370-b350 

Saying that the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 is the best cheap B350 board and the ASUS X370-Pro is the best cheap x370 board.

Just a small clarification here - you are not guaranteed 4GHz on a 1600X, overclocking is a lottery. Many are indeed capable of hitting 4GHz, but I've seen enough Ryzen CPUs topping out at around 3.9GHz to know that 4GHz is not a 'done deal'. 

 

Personally I do agree the 1600 is generally the better deal. The included HSF is generally good enough for moderate overclocks, up to around the 3.8GHz level.

[trevrez]

Something to look out for I guess... I've been told by others and have read on here that the VRM's on AM4 Gigabyte boards are not great.   

 

I'm currently running a gigabyte ab350-gaming board and no issues or complaints but with the knowledge I have now I would have leaned towards an Asus or Asrock board.

[Salacious B Crum]

I would wait and see what Q1 2018 is going to offer pre order is set for mid January some of the leaks true or not would make me wait ZEN+ or ZEN2 or whatever it's going to be called sounds intriguing I plan on pulling my 1600X for the next generation chip

[xg32]

getting the 1600 and using the stock heatsink is almost the entire point of using ryzen over intel. You are not getting more performance, focus on saving money, also zen+ coming in 2 months.

[just_dave]

13 hours ago, Inversion said:

No point really going for X370 unless you're going for SLI or CrossFire. Might as well save some cash and go for the ASUS Prime B350 Plus

The VRMs are 3 dimensions better. Saying that phrase with SLI/CF is really stupid, basically anyone going with an 8 core or planning to seriously overclock 1600/1600X should get good VRM to not blow up soon. Cheapest good VRM is the Prime X370 Pro.

[Lewellyn]

My budget is around $450 btw.

I wonder if prices will be better before or after Christmas.

[Lewellyn]

Update.

[Lewellyn]

Is 200 Mhz on RAM worth paying an additional 30 or 40 dollars?

[Nah Xirok]

3 hours ago, ThatGuyWhoTwirlsHisPen said:

Is 200 Mhz on RAM worth paying an additional 30 or 40 dollars?

Depends on what the 200 mhz brings you up to.  If you're going over 3200Mhz, then probably not.  3000-3200Mhz on Ryzen seems to be the sweet spot.  If you are deciding between 2800 and 3000 (or lower frequencies) then it can make a notable difference on applications and games that either use more than 4 cores or are sensitive to ram frequency.

I should mention also to remember to pay attention to latency.  For example, if you're choosing between 2800Mhz CL15 and 3000 CL16, the difference isn't going be worth it.

[johnukguy]

You can pick up a Ryzen 5 1600 plus a B350 mobo for just over $200 total, if you live near a Microcenter or a Staples. Wait a few weeks though as the new Ryzen CPU's are about to be revealed and the chances are that prices will come down a little more for Ryzen's existing CPU range. As for RAM,  Crucial's Ballistix Sport LT RAM, such as the 2666 MHz sticks, can overclock to 3000 or above and usually work very well with Ryzen. This RAM also goes on 'sale' occasionally on Amazon and can be bought for about $160 for 16 GB. At least at the moment, as RAM prices are about to rise again.

[johnukguy]

3 hours ago, ThatGuyWhoTwirlsHisPen said:

Is 200 Mhz on RAM worth paying an additional 30 or 40 dollars?

No, especially as a lot of RAM can be overclocked anyway.

[Stefan Payne]

3 hours ago, ThatGuyWhoTwirlsHisPen said:

Is 200 Mhz on RAM worth paying an additional 30 or 40 dollars?

If you can, depends on the game.

 

The Problem with Ryzen is that the CCX to CCX communication runs at memory clocks. So with higher memory clocks you have higher transferrates between the CCX (4 Core 'Modules')...