CPU Upgrade from FX 8350

[Bayfish]

So I'm looking to upgrade my FX 8350 pretty soon, as in some of my games it is bottlenecking my GPU. I would ideally like 8 physical cores as I am moving on to university to study computer science and hosting a few VMs at the same time is quite tasking on the CPU (well currently anyway). I would also like to be able to play games on this CPU. I would go for the 2700 but it is a bit out of my price range currently, including the 16GB of RAM I'd need. My budget would be around £300-400 maximum.

 

I have looked  at the 1700 but I am unsure if it would still be a good option future wise. Xeon also crossed my mind but I've never really looked at Xeons in depth.

Thanks guys.

[Quadriplegic]

Well, you could try looking at 1700, as it still is 8 core CPU

[Bayfish]

Just now, Quadriplegic said:

Well, you could try looking at 1700, as it still is 8 cores

Yea I did think about that and maybe overclocking it? But I've been told to go for second gen but it's a little expensive so I'm unsure if the 1700 will still suffice good enough for the future

[LtStaffel]

8 threads or 8 cores?

[Bayfish]

1 minute ago, LtStaffel said:

8 threads or 8 cores?

8 physical cores

[BrinkGG]

7 minutes ago, Baifish said:

So I'm looking to upgrade my FX 8350 pretty soon, as in some of my games it is bottlenecking my GPU. I would ideally like 8 cores as I am moving on to university to study computer science and hosting a few VMs at the same time is quite tasking on the CPU (well currently anyway). I would also like to be able to play games on this CPU. I would go for the 2700 but it is a bit out of my price range currently, including the 16GB of RAM I'd need. My budget would be around £300-400 maximum.

 

Thanks guys.

Here ya go. 

Permalink: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6WxKnH

[Sakkura]

Maybe wait a bit for Intel to launch their 9th gen chips, AMD might respond with price cuts.

[Quadriplegic]

4 minutes ago, Brink2Three said:

Here ya go. 

Permalink: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6WxKnH

But why?
Something like this would be better, as he could OC the RAM:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/zm4zQV

[BrinkGG]

2 minutes ago, Quadriplegic said:

But why?
Something like this would be better, as he could OC the RAM:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/n9qQYr

1700X is already overclocked, just trying to make his life easier with better stability since he'll be using this for school. Don't want to be troubleshooting an overclock when you've got an assignment due the next day. 

[Quadriplegic]

Just now, Brink2Three said:

1700X is already overclocked, just trying to make his life easier with better stability since he'll be using this for school. Don't want to be troubleshooting an overclock when you've got an assignment due the next day. 

So you would rather have him burn his motherboard? 
There's not that much of performance difference between 1700 and 1700X. And I was talking about memory overclock, not the CPU. 1700X won't overclock your RAM by itself

[Bayfish]

19 minutes ago, Brink2Three said:

Here ya go. 

Permalink: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6WxKnH

Thank you. I don't need a cooler so this comes out within my price bracket. Would the 1700x still be okay for a good few years I'm guessing?

[Spotty]

16 minutes ago, Brink2Three said:

Here ya go. 

Permalink: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6WxKnH

That motherboard is awful. I wouldn't even run a Ryzen 3 1200 in it - let alone a 1700x/2700.

 

15 minutes ago, Quadriplegic said:

Something like this would be better, as he could OC the RAM:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/zm4zQV

This is infinitely better. Decent memory & a decent enough motherboard. Ryzen 1700 comes with a stock cooler so no need for a Hyper 212.

 

2 minutes ago, Baifish said:

Thank you. I don't need a cooler so this comes out within my price bracket. Would the 1700x still be okay for a good few years I'm guessing?

Should be fine, and if not then you already have the AM4 motherboard with DDR4 memory which AMD is supposedly sticking to for quite some time, so a CPU upgrade will be much easier and cheaper with maybe just a BIOS update required on the motherboard.

[BrinkGG]

30 minutes ago, Spotty said:

That motherboard is awful. I wouldn't even run a Ryzen 3 1200 in it - let alone a 1700x/2700.

 

This is infinitely better. Decent memory & a decent enough motherboard. Ryzen 1700 comes with a stock cooler so no need for a Hyper 212.

OP said he already has a CPU cooler, I'm guessing from the FX 8350 build he has. So he doesn't need the 212 at all. 

Didn't realize that motherboard was so terrible, Sure it's a locked chipset but I picked it with the higher clock of the 1700x in mind and the reviews on PCP looked fine. Not really sure why but I'll trust @Quadriplegic and @Spotty 's judgement here. 

 

With that in mind, most B350 boards should work fine, so either the 1700 or 1700x would be a good choice here.

 

Edit: Trash CPU power delivery. I see it now. 

Good call. 

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, Brink2Three said:

Didn't realize that motherboard was so terrible, Sure it's a locked chipset but I picked it with the higher clock of the 1700x in mind and the reviews on PCP looked fine. Not really sure why but I'll trust @Quadriplegic and @Spotty 's judgement here. 

IMO it's about on par with the motherboards that you get in crappy Dell/HP OEM machines - The absolute most basic thing to save a few bucks.
As you've already mentioned, the A320 chipset is locked so no overclocking, but the chipset also supports less USB and SATA ports as well as less PCIe lanes (I think?). There's absolutely no VRM heatsinks/cooling on that particular motherboard either, so is really only suitable for low power draw CPUs (if any). There's also only 2 DIMM slots on the board, so if in the future someone wants to ugprade memory, they'd need to either replace the RAM kit they already have, or buy a new motherboard to support more DIMMs.

I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to motherboards, and even less so when it comes to AMD motherboards (so I may be wrong about a few of the things I mentioned above). But going with the cheapest possible motherboard isn't a good bet.

One of the biggest draw cards to the AM4 platform is AMDs commitment to AM4 over the next few years. This means getting a decent quality motherboard now is more important as you will be able to carry it over when/if you upgrade to a new CPU in the future with possibly just a BIOS upgrade required.
Spending an extra $15-$20 on a motherboard now might end up saving you a lot more in the long run if it means you don't need to buy a new board if you want to replace the CPU or even if you want a RAM upgrade.

[BrinkGG]

6 minutes ago, Spotty said:

IMO it's about on par with the motherboards that you get in crappy Dell/HP OEM machines - The absolute most basic thing to save a few bucks.
As you've already mentioned, the A320 chipset is locked so no overclocking, but the chipset also supports less USB and SATA ports as well as less PCIe lanes (I think?). There's absolutely no VRM heatsinks/cooling on that particular motherboard either, so is really only suitable for low power draw CPUs (if any). There's also only 2 DIMM slots on the board, so if in the future someone wants to ugprade memory, they'd need to either replace the RAM kit they already have, or buy a new motherboard to support more DIMMs.

I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to motherboards, and even less so when it comes to AMD motherboards (so I may be wrong about a few of the things I mentioned above). But going with the cheapest possible motherboard isn't a good bet.

One of the biggest draw cards to the AM4 platform is AMDs commitment to AM4 over the next few years. This means getting a decent quality motherboard now is more important as you will be able to carry it over when/if you upgrade to a new CPU in the future with possibly just a BIOS upgrade required.
Spending an extra $15-$20 on a motherboard now might end up saving you a lot more in the long run if it means you don't need to buy a new board if you want to replace the CPU or even if you want a RAM upgrade.

Noted. Thanks for the info.

And yes, less PCIE lanes as well. A lovely chart on a GN article confirms that. 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2763-amd-chipset-comparison-x370-b350-a320

 

 

[-rascal-]

4 hours ago, Baifish said:

Thank you. I don't need a cooler so this comes out within my price bracket. Would the 1700x still be okay for a good few years I'm guessing?

 

What CPU cooler do you have?

Are you going to re-use your current CPU cooler??

IF SO, make sure you have the proper mounting bracket / tools for socket AM4 -- it is different from AM3/AM3+.

 

 The price difference between the R7-1700(X) and R7-2700(X) is indeed quite significant.

Second-generation Ryzen has a few minor tweaks and improvements, but it isn't ALL that much different from first-generation.

Like the others, I would also recommend  a B350 or B450 board over A320, if possible.

[Bayfish]

17 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

 

What CPU cooler do you have?

Are you going to re-use your current CPU cooler??

IF SO, make sure you have the proper mounting bracket / tools for socket AM4 -- it is different from AM3/AM3+.

 

 The price difference between the R7-1700(X) and R7-2700(X) is indeed quite significant.

Second-generation Ryzen has a few minor tweaks and improvements, but it isn't ALL that much different from first-generation.

Like the others, I would also recommend  a B350 or B450 board over A320, if possible.

I have a Hyper 212 Turbo, and don't worry it does have AM4 I made sure of it as I know they're different. I was also planning a B350/B450 if possible too, would this allow for any overclocking at all?

[Spotty]

5 minutes ago, Baifish said:

I have a Hyper 212 Turbo, and don't worry it does have AM4 I made sure of it as I know they're different. I was also planning a B350/B450 if possible too, would this allow for any overclocking at all?

The b350/b450 motherboards do allow overclocking. The hyper 212 cooler you have should be able to provide adequate cooling for some light overclocking before thermals become a concern.

[Bayfish]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

The b350/b450 motherboards do allow overclocking. The hyper 212 cooler you have should be able to provide adequate cooling for some light overclocking before thermals become a concern.

Alright cheers. Thank you for your help