[SOLVED] Buying the right components?

[MissPiggy420]

Hey there! I'm upgrading my PC and was wondering if everything would work together. (or any tips in saving money)

Components are clickable (urls)

I'm buying:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Videocard: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse
Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT BLS2K8G4D32AESBK (2x8GB - DDR4 - 3200mt/s)

What i already have: (from old PC)
Case: CM Storm Enforcer
Power supply: SeaSonic S12II 520 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Thanks in advance!

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

You need to buy new PSU that will go with yout GPU because 520W is to low and you need 650-750W. It says 600W but recommended 650W but having 750W will be safe!

• Recommended 650 Watt Power Supply (Minimum 600 Watt Power Supply).
• 1 x 8-pin Power Connector.
• 1 x 6-pin Power Connector.
• PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard.
• Minimum 8GB of system memory. 16GB recommended.

 

[Barty1884]

Really depends what you're looking to achieve.

On the CPU front, for gaming, you'd likely be hard pressed to spot a difference between the 3700X and something like a Ryzen5 3600. Of course, if you'll benefit from 8c/16t, then the 3700X is a great chip.

For a motherboard, a B450 with a BIOS update (like any of the MSI "MAX" boards) would suffice. You're only really giving up PCIE Gen4. If you need the Gen4 speeds for SSDs, then that's different - but those use cases are rare.

Both of those tweaks would save you some money.
On the RAM front, 3000 series Ryzen noted the 'sweet spot' to be 3600MHz, up from 3000-3200MHz of prior Gen chips. Typically, a 3600MHz kit with reasonable CL shouldn't cost much more than a comparable 3200MHz kit.

The S12II is a pretty old platform at this point. It was really good in it's day, but it's day has passed now.
With a new platform cost overall, I'd suggest replacing the PSU at this point too.
A 5700XT can draw some pretty good power numbers under load (>300W in a lot of reviews), and paired with a 3600/3700X, I'd personally want a little more headroom than a 520W allows. A quality 650W unit would be my recommendation here.

 

[MissPiggy420]

Really depends what you're looking to achieve.

On the CPU front, for gaming, you'd likely be hard pressed to spot a difference between the 3700X and something like a Ryzen5 3600. Of course, if you'll benefit from 8c/16t, then the 3700X is a great chip.

For a motherboard, a B450 with a BIOS update (like any of the MSI "MAX" boards) would suffice. You're only really giving up PCIE Gen4. If you need the Gen4 speeds for SSDs, then that's different - but those use cases are rare.

Both of those tweaks would save you some money.
On the RAM front, 3000 series Ryzen noted the 'sweet spot' to be 3600MHz, up from 3000-3200MHz of prior Gen chips. Typically, a 3600MHz kit with reasonable CL shouldn't cost much more than a comparable 3200MHz kit.

The S12II is a pretty old platform at this point. It was really good in it's day, but it's day has passed now.
With a new platform cost overall, I'd suggest replacing the PSU at this point too.
A 5700XT can draw some pretty good power numbers under load (>300W in a lot of reviews), and paired with a 3600/3700X, I'd personally want a little more headroom than a 520W allows. A quality 650W unit would be my recommendation here.

Thanks for your reply! I do have a question.

You said the 'sweet spot' of the 3000 series Ryzen is noted to be 3600MHz, but on AMD's it says under System Memory:

"System Memory Specification: 3200MHz" for both Ryzen 5 and 7.

Where did you find out about 3600MHz being the 'sweet spot' or is it your own experience?

 

[Barty1884]

3200MHz is the "official" spec - much like previous Gens were 2933MHz.
Previous did benefit from faster, typically finding the sweet spot in performance/stability at 3200MHz.

You'll find measurable improvements with 3600MHz @ CL16 or higher over 3200MHz CL15:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3508-ryzen-3000-memory-benchmark-best-ram-fclk-uclock-mclock

There is more to the equation than just speed and CL timings, but, without delving into every configuration (RAM + Motherboard), we can only talk in generalizations.

Considering 3800MHz+ at reasonably tight timings are (generally) very expensive by comparison, 3600MHz/CL16 represents the best 'value', is the general consensus.

A 2x8GB kit of 3200MHz CL15 typically runs >$100
CL16 is much more common/affordable, with a kit (2x8) typically being around $70.

3800MHz+ @ CL16 is north of $200

Whereas 3600MHz CL16 can usually be found for $80-$90


Now, anything with reasonable speeds (3000MHz+, probably CL17) is going to serve you fine. It's a matter of weighing up cost to (potential) gains. For +$10-$20 in a relatively high end build, I'd opt for 3600MHz. On a budget, or if the price difference was more like $35+, I'd just opt for 3000 or 3200.

 

[MissPiggy420]

3200MHz is the "official" spec - much like previous Gens were 2933MHz.
Previous did benefit from faster, typically finding the sweet spot in performance/stability at 3200MHz.

You'll find measurable improvements with 3600MHz @ CL16 or higher over 3200MHz CL15:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3508-ryzen-3000-memory-benchmark-best-ram-fclk-uclock-mclock

There is more to the equation than just speed and CL timings, but, without delving into every configuration (RAM + Motherboard), we can only talk in generalizations.

Considering 3800MHz+ at reasonably tight timings are (generally) very expensive by comparison, 3600MHz/CL16 represents the best 'value', is the general consensus.

A 2x8GB kit of 3200MHz CL15 typically runs >$100
CL16 is much more common/affordable, with a kit (2x8) typically being around $70.

3800MHz+ @ CL16 is north of $200

Whereas 3600MHz CL16 can usually be found for $80-$90


Now, anything with reasonable speeds (3000MHz+, probably CL17) is going to serve you fine. It's a matter of weighing up cost to (potential) gains. For +$10-$20 in a relatively high end build, I'd opt for 3600MHz. On a budget, or if the price difference was more like $35+, I'd just opt for 3000 or 3200.

Thank you!

I decided i'm gonna buy the following components:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Videocard: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX
RAM: Crucial Ballistix DDR4 2x8GB 3600
PSU: Seasonic Focus GX-650 PSU