[SOLVED] Recommendation on parts

[Does it work]

Looking to make a good future proofed machine for both 1440p gaming pc and load intensive computing tasks on a $1700AUD budget

I have parts I currently own (still in box) and parts I plan to buy (the 1800)

Parts to potentially purchase
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with Wraith Stealth (315)
ASUS Prime X570-P CSM Motherboard (289)
ADATA XPG Spectrix D41 RGB 3200MHz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 Red (149)
XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT RAW II 8GB (699)
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 NVMe SSD 256GB (99)

$1551 total (incl. GST) not incl. shipping

Parts owned
1TB western digital caviar blue HDD
500 GB Crucial MX500 SSD
Corsair VS450
Raidmax RX-1000AE

What improvements can be made to this machine? Currently it is planned to support PCIe 4, but it this relevant (x570 chipset Ryzen 3000 5700 xt)

 

[PC Tailor]

load intensive computing tasks

If they are tasks that would be better with more cores, you might want to opt for the 2700X over the 3600 as you get similar performance but more cores for about the same price.

Also I would upgrade the PSU, the VS are the lowest Corsair line there is and aren't really made for these kind of heavier load systems, I've witnessed countless problems with the VS series, and I would avoid all Raidmax PSUs like the plague IMO.

PCIe Gen 4 isn't really relevant much as of current, but it depends on what you want to do and your upgrade habits, if you want the MB to last a few years, it may be worth it, as we don't overly know where development will go in the next few years.

 

[Does it work]

If they are tasks that would be better with more cores, you might want to opt for the 2700X over the 3600 as you get similar performance but more cores for about the same price.

Also I would upgrade the PSU, the VS are the lowest Corsair line there is and aren't really made for these kind of heavier load systems, I've witnessed countless problems with the VS series, and I would avoid all Raidmax PSUs like the plague IMO.

PCIe Gen 4 isn't really relevant much as of current, but it depends on what you want to do and your upgrade habits, if you want the MB to last a few years, it may be worth it, as we don't overly know where development will go in the next few years.

Modelling, digital rendering, animating, digital encoding and simply loading Visual studios are examples.

I did consider the 2700x, however, the 3600 seems to have better single-core processing and multi-threading (2700x does beat it with multi-core by a large portion though), but at 33% higher price it detracts from the appeal and it has no PCIe4 support, which may mean nothing at this point and im jumping the gun.

What power supply would you recommend? I only mentioned those PSU as I have them on hand (and yes, the raidmax is in a tackle box, free fishing gear?) because got them free, havent witnessed the atrocities of raidmax firsthand yet other than the fact its a Chinese brand, which seems to be all anyone ever wants to tell me.

 

[PC Tailor]

but at 33% higher price it detracts from the appeal

Ah well there you go, in most locations it's not necessarily true anymore, I see it around the same price most of the time, if it's that much of a hike, I completely understand the choice for the 3600.

Well the 5700XT can run typically on a good quality 550W. Obviously AMD recommend 600W, and in your case for maybe future headroom a 650 probably would be more appropriate.

Obviously I will only be using pcpartpicker to identify potential candidates for the best price, so not sure how prices will be in reality for you for the PSUs i'd typically recommend, but i have spotted these:

Power Supply: Antec Earthwatts Gold Pro 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($129.00 @ JW Computers)
Total: $129.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-08-29 23:32 AEST+1000

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($129.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $129.00

Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($144.00 @ Skycomp Technology)
Total: $144.00

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $149.00

and most budget friendly (not as good as the ones above, but still decent quality for usually a great price):
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($95.00 @ Austin Computers)
Total: $95.00

 

[Does it work]

Never did get an explanation why everyone is afraid of raidmax, as far as I'm aware they just have subpar welding at times

 

[PC Tailor]

Never did get an explanation why everyone is afraid of raidmax, as far as I'm aware they just have subpar welding at times

Lots of reasons, sub par welding being the least of the worries.

• Poor protection features
• Poor results in any load tests - complete mess in transients also
• Poor efficiency
• Less and poor quality caps
• No DC-DC
• Awful ripple suppression
• Constantly falling out of ATX spec.

Everything they do is cheap, and unfortunately means most of their PSUs are better doorstops than PSUs. Unless destroying the rest of the system is what people want!

Obviously some units are better than others, but generally I personally haven't seen a good raidmax PSU yet.

 

[Does it work]

Used to have a system that came with a raidmax and never had any issues with it, everything worked (and still does to my knowledge) fine, perhaps just lucky unit. Got most of it free so can't complain, but never experienced any problem with its power.

But anyway, if you had to choose between raidmax or the corsair vs, just for a low end system that wont be doing much other than playing roblox or watching youtube (for a child) which would you pick, not about to go buy a new psu and all the works, ill just use parts I have on hand, so thats 1 of the 2 psus i have in their boxes.

The vs is probably fine isnt it? its an entry level psu for an entry-level computer (likely to put the 1050ti card in the kids comp), have a gtx670 and rx470 lying around also though. The 670 is likely to be too hungry and the 470 is a waste for things the comp will be used for (plus 1050 is by far most power-efficient, pretty sure its the pcie powered one which takes even less power, only 75 as is maximum draw through pcie). Again, I just like validation its bad i know 😒

 

[Does it work]

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($129.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $129.00

Also looking around, pretty much every single store has psus you listed sold out and dont expcect resupply till end of next month/start of August, and those who do have it in stock have a 60-80$ price hike. Anything else? Or would it be easiest to leave it till restocked? Or the dreaded possibility you probably wouldn't recommend, rip the computer that has a raidmax that I know didnt fuck the computer in the 3 years it was in use for (it offers roughly 800w), and temporarily use that until they back in stock.

 

[PC Tailor]

Used to have a system that came with a raidmax and never had any issues with it, everything worked (and still does to my knowledge) fine, perhaps just lucky unit. Got most of it free so can't complain, but never experienced any problem with its power.

But anyway, if you had to choose between raidmax or the corsair vs, just for a low end system that wont be doing much other than playing roblox or watching youtube (for a child) which would you pick, not about to go buy a new psu and all the works, ill just use parts I have on hand, so thats 1 of the 2 psus i have in their boxes.

The vs is probably fine isnt it? its an entry level psu for an entry-level computer

Don't get me wrong, obviously not every power supply blows up, but certain ones are much more prone to it than others, and Raidmax it notorious for it's poor quality. If you haven't had a problem now, there's every possibility you might not, but I would say the probabilities are stacked against you! I've witnessed many a raidmax destroy components.

If I HAD to chose, I'd choose the VS any day. But as you say, it really is entry level, and I also have had numerous VS series cause issues, not blow up (because Corsair do uphold a standard and legal obligation) but I've seen quite a lot fail and cause other issues, and has taken out other components too. I certainly wouldn't pair it with an RX5700 but temporarily I'd suspect it is fine.

Shame is a good quality PSU always pays off, I paid the equivalent of about 160 Canadian dollars and have a 10 year warranty and that's outstanding value when you think thats only 16 a year. Not sure whats available by you, the CX is usually the best budget option, but you could consider things like:

• Seasonic M12II
• Silverstone Strider
• EVGA G3, BQ
• Cooler Master MWE bronze (specifically bronze rated, not anything less as they're awful)

etc.

 

[Does it work]

I did manage to find a Cooler Master MasterWatt (Lite) 600W chocked up with other electronics, how would that fare against the others?


Why do I have so many subpar psu's on hand...

 

[PC Tailor]

I did manage to find a Cooler Master MasterWatt (Lite) 600W chocked up with other electronics, how would that fare against the others?


Why do I have so many subpar psu's on hand...

It's overall worse than the ones I've stated above.
The MasterWatt Lite are a cheaper series of PSUs, don't have great protections (especially undervolt), poor caps, and even some ripple suppression fell out of spec. Again, it will probably do for a bit, but it's not something I'd keep in a system for too long I'd potentially choose the VS over it.

Again to iterate, for lower end system the VS will probably be fine if it's one of the newer ones, as the older ones were worse. But it's just not a PSU for higher load systems or to last a long time.

 

[Does it work]

yeah, was just asking, gotta find something until can get better one. Ill put the vs in the 1050 system though and just wait till pc case gear gets seasonic back in stock.

Edit: Or I can be impatient, they just got int some of the 550w and 750w seasonic variants in (not the sweet spot 650 but you know), I know amd says min should be 600min and recommends 700, but as far as I can tell, using the power draw of the red-devil variant (3 fan aib variant) the draw is roughly 450 for the system (unless i miscalculated), so would the 550 be fine, or best go 750 and have load of headroom, or as wait just wait?