Ryzen 1600x with AIO or 1700 with stock cooler?

[McBoxx]

Hello,
Currently I'm in the process of planning a PC build, and I'm looking at getting a mid range Ryzen chip from AMD. For the most part I've settled on either a Ryzen 5 1600x with the coolermaster masterliquid 240 AIO, or a Ryzen 7 1700 with stock cooler. The 1700 with stock is currently about £20 less than the 1600x with AIO, but I was wondering which would be better.
I don't plan on streaming or doing extremely multi-threaded intense tasks, mostly gaming, and less intensive tasks.
I do plan on overclocking, so what would give me the better performance / price to performance ratio?
Thanks
Also the motherboard is the MSI B350 PC Mate.

 

[BigBoomBoom]

Personally I would get the Ryzen 7 1700. The difference in overclocking right now for Ryzen 7 between Wraith cooler included and higher end cooler is not much. Wraith could take you to 3.7-3.8Ghz on Ryzen 7 1700 while the AIO may not take you to 4.1Ghz on Ryzen 5 1600X at all. If you get the Ryzen 7, you can always get a better cooler later if you ever want that extra 300Mhz, while you still get the benefit of extra cores early.

 

[marko55]

For purely gaming the 1600X is a good fit and you can OC it to 4.0 manually to ensure you're getting the most out of it. Honestly though you don't need much of a cooler as the voltage required to do so is under 1.4v and the chip just doesn't run that hot. I did this on a 1600X with a measly Corsair H60.

The 1700 may reach 3.9 if you're lucky, but 3.8 is very likely. Voltage required to hit 3.8 should also be very low and won't require an awesome cooler. I've also built a 1700X build with an H60. That 1700X would NOT stay stable at 4.0. I had voltage up as high as 1.45 with no luck, and after 1.43 the temps started rocketing up. Funny thing is that chip sits at 3950 today at 1.375 rock solid, and temps even under prime 95 never get in to the 70s.

Do NOT count on reaching 4.1 on any Ryzen CPU. Its rare, even on an X model. Oddly enough my 1600X just would not go any higher than 4.0 on a manual OC. It was crazy. Could not get it stable even just over 4.0 even cranking voltage to 1.45 (ASRock X370 pro gaming board for reference).

So basically you could just grab a 1700 w/the stock cooler and be fine even with a manual OC. That said, if gaming is your primary focus I'd actually recommend the 1600X and get the core as high as yours will go (it'll certainly at least go to 4.0). Any quality (air or AIO) cooler will be fine.

 

[geofelt]

How many threads do you need for your games?
Usually 2-3 is sufficient, making the 1600X and a modest cooler sufficient.
For games fast single thread performance is most important but do not count on overclocking ryzen to 4.0.

For gaming, I would pick a I5-7600K or a I7-7700K and be looking at an oc in the 5.0 range on air.
As of 1/13/17
What percent of samples can get an overclock
at a vcore around 1.4v.
I5-7600K
5.1 28%
5.0 52%
4.9 72%

I7-7700K
4.9 74%
5.0 56%
5.1 26%
5.2 5%