[SOLVED] Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 7 3700X

[Aleks Skuber]

Hello, everyone! I am in a bit of a pickle right now in choosing the correct CPU for me.

As the title of the question suggests, I am currently choosing between the Ryzen 5 3600 and the Ryzen 7 3700X and I though the awesome community here could help me out.

See, I live in Slovenia (Europe, Balkan part), and the prices here are pretty bad (At least in my opinion), and I could save myself about 150 EUR by going for the Ryzen 5 3600 instead of Ryzen 7 3700X. Now I am not on that low of a budget, but I will also be upgrading to 4th Gen Ryzen when it comes out.

Prices of both CPUs in our local electronics store:
Ryzen 5 3600: 215 EUR
Ryzen 7 3700X: 360 EUR

Now before you ask what I want to do with my computer, I will answer right away. I will mainly be doing gaming, but I also want to create either a gaming or a tech review YouTube channel (Similar to LinusTechTips (Still not exactly sure if I will make a gaming or tech review YouTube channel yet though)), so that means tons of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro usage.
Now, before you make fun of me for not getting a "real" job by making a YouTube channel, I just have to tell you that pay in pretty much any job here is really bad and I could earn myself way more money by creating a YouTube channel (Maybe even not a very successful one but still one that would make a better buck than most jobs here), so please, do not blame me for this.

Now obviously the YouTube career would definitely make everyone consider the 3700X, but as I said, I will probably upgrade to 4th Gen when it comes out, I just need a PC that will work.

So let me just tell you what kind of a build I want to create over here (The reason why I am getting these specific components is because they can be easily purchased in our local electronics store/s (CPU cooler is the exception but can be bought on Amazon.de)):

1. CPU Cooler: ASUS ROG RYUJIN 360

2. Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX X570-E GAMING (Going with the E variant because of integrated Wi-Fi (I have a Wi-Fi adapter that I can sell for like 50 EUR (It is also not that good so yeah I will just sell it))),

3. Graphics Card: ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER OC Edition (Triple fans variant)

4. Memory: G. Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3200 32 GB (2x16 so Dual-Channel (Also please tell me if I should get faster memory for an AMD CPU. I have never used an AMD CPU and I know Intel CPUs respect 3200 MHz memory but I do not know about AMD CPUs))

5. Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB + Western Digital Black 4 TB

6. Power Supply: ASUS ROG THOR 850W 80+ Platinum

So going through these components you can tell I am willing to spend quite a lot of money (I mean Asus components are pretty premium to most people), but I also don't feel like wasting more on an Intel CPU with a higher TDP for a little bit more performance (I want to save some money on my electricity bill and also help the environment with a lower TDP of just 65W on either of these AMD CPUs).

Hopefully you guys can help me here with this kind of a setup (Especially since you know which graphics card I will get meaning you can kind of calculate the bottleneck on each of these CPUs paired with this GPU).

(Sorry if some of this does not make sense or is just unneccesary, it is 10 PM while writing this).

Thank you very much for any support! I really appreciate it!

P.S.: An off-topic question: Is the Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste still good or should I get the Thermal Grizzly one? I think both are pretty good but I want to get a couple of thoughts on both of them from you guys here.

 

[Makaveli]

If you are planning to go 4th Gen Ryzen which will be out later this year, I think the Ryzen 5 3600 is the better choice. The money saved you can put toward the next cpu. If the wait for 4th gen was a year+ then I would have gone 3700x.

 

[Aleks Skuber]

If you are planning to go 4th Gen Ryzen which will be out later this year, I think the Ryzen 5 3600 is the better choice. The money saved you can put toward the next cpu. If the wait for 4th gen was a year+ then I would have gone 3700x.

Yeah, I am planning to upgrade to 4th Gen pretty much ASAP after it comes to our local electronics store.

Thank you for the reply!

 

[RodroX]

I honestly don't know where to start, and this is probably a first for me.

So lets see if I understand all you have wrote. You have some budget, but then you also want to launch a new youtube tech/gaming channel, so my question will be besides a good PC for photoshop and premiere, do you have a good camera, mic, mixer, etc.?

If you have to buy all those things I would really try to pick components that are good, but not soo "flashy", unless you wana show off your PC in the background of the scene or something.

Anyways, if I have to build using Asus stuff will be like this:

CPU Ryzen 3700X, why? well because is not a good idea to buy a CPU that just launched to the market right away, unless you wana be the first test subject. (Its better to wait till BIOS and Chipset drivers mature first).

Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.Black, one of the best, if not the best air tower cooler out there. Don't get me wrong AIO liquid cooler are nice, but ifyou give me the choice I'll pick a Noctua solution every time (atleast for now). Just need to make sure it fits inside the case and its compatible with the mobo (something that Noctua informs on its website)!.

Motherboard: I guess is a nice pick, after all it has dual LAN (which you should use later on, instead of WiFi if you wana upload content to your youtube channel), a nice Audio chip, lots of storage options and usb ports of all kinds.

RAM: 2x16GB for a starter editing station (atleast at the begining) sounds good, and yeah DDR4 3200MHz is the minimum yet pretty balanced rated speed you should choose. DDR4 3600MHz is probably the other best nice option. Higher than that and you enter the diminishing returns territory, you will spend a lot, really lot more money, for really small performance gain.

GPU: you didn't explain what kind of resolution and refresh rate you want to achieve but yeah, the RTX 2070 Super is right now one of the best option for a high definition gaming PC/Workstation.

Storage: is nice. I would go with that for starts.
[Im not a youtuber but Im guessing as soon as you start making money from it, you may want to move all your "working" storage to solid stated drives (for data drives, where you store the "raw" material you don't need a super fast SSD, just need a reliable big SSD, so no need to spend a lot of money on speed) and leave the mechanical ones as a vault. And yeah, when you start with the channel you should consider getting an external backup drive.]

Power Supply: is Ok! (I would pick Seasonic, but thats just my personal preference).

Cheers!

 

[drea.drechsler]

I think a couple words of caution about Ryzen 4000. First, it's due out in September, wide availability will be some time after that. So factor that in your plans.

Second, and probably most important, is nobody knows with any certainty if it will work on all current motherboards. It will certainly require BIOS updates for those it does work on, but it may never be supported on all. Like Ryzen 3000 it could easily have a lot of drama at it's release and for a few months after until AMD and motherboard vendors get the bugs ironed out. It's great if you're an 'early adopter' type who loves to deal with the issues of rolling out new technology, but if you're not... Not trying to turn you off to it, I'm sure it will be great actually, but NOBODY KNOWS what's coming, that's what is important to keep in mind.

 

[Tigerhawk30]

Drea said, "...nobody knows with any certainty if it will work on all current motherboards. "

True. That said, early insider reports seem to indicate that the 4000 series will be supported on B450 boards and above. As you said, likely the BIOS will require updates in order to work with them.

As for my own opinion...if money is at a premium, it may be better to do the 3600 for now if you're planning on upgrading to the 4000 series nearly straightaway. No, Adobe won't run quite as well on 6C/12T as it will 8C/16T, but the lower cost should help in both getting the cheaper processor and getting an otherwise head start with saving money for the 4000 series. Though, following Drea's line of thought, I would wait a little while on buying a 4000 series CPU until those bugs are ironed out.

On the other side of the coin, if you're willing to wait a while to upgrade to the 4000 series, the 3700x might be better if you plan to have it for a longer period of time. Yes, it will cost more, but if you're willing to wait at least a few months after the 4000 series launch, the power for 8C/16T you'll have access to in the meantime will obviously work better for you in your aspirations in the meantime.

I guess I'd say it all depends on what your income is, what you're willing to wait for and how well you'll be able to save for that next generation. Personally, I'd advise to get the 3700x, save your money on a CPU cooler (the included Wraith Prism is just fine, mine is keeping up decently with my 2700x, which I believe runs hotter than the 3700x...105w TDP vs 65w TDP, respectively) and hold off on the 4000 series for a while after launch. Hopefully it'll serve you well in the meantime.

Good luck with everything!

 

[Aleks Skuber]

I honestly don't know where to start, and this is probably a first for me.

So lets see if I understand all you have wrote. You have some budget, but then you also want to launch a new youtube tech/gaming channel, so my question will be besides a good PC for photoshop and premiere, do you have a good camera, mic, mixer, etc.?

If you have to buy all those things I would really try to pick components that are good, but not soo "flashy", unless you wana show off your PC in the background of the scene or something.

Anyways, if I have to build using Asus stuff will be like this:

CPU Ryzen 3700X, why? well because is not a good idea to buy a CPU that just launched to the market right away, unless you wana be the first test subject. (Its better to wait till BIOS and Chipset drivers mature first).

Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.Black, one of the best, if not the best air tower cooler out there. Don't get me wrong AIO liquid cooler are nice, but ifyou give me the choice I'll pick a Noctua solution every time (atleast for now). Just need to make sure it fits inside the case and its compatible with the mobo (something that Noctua informs on its website)!.

Motherboard: I guess is a nice pick, after all it has dual LAN (which you should use later on, instead of WiFi if you wana upload content to your youtube channel), a nice Audio chip, lots of storage options and usb ports of all kinds.

RAM: 2x16GB for a starter editing station (atleast at the begining) sounds good, and yeah DDR4 3200MHz is the minimum yet pretty balanced rated speed you should choose. DDR4 3600MHz is probably the other best nice option. Higher than that and you enter the diminishing returns territory, you will spend a lot, really lot more money, for really small performance gain.

GPU: you didn't explain what kind of resolution and refresh rate you want to achieve but yeah, the RTX 2070 Super is right now one of the best option for a high definition gaming PC/Workstation.

Storage: is nice. I would go with that for starts.
[Im not a youtuber but Im guessing as soon as you start making money from it, you may want to move all your "working" storage to solid stated drives (for data drives, where you store the "raw" material you don't need a super fast SSD, just need a reliable big SSD, so no need to spend a lot of money on speed) and leave the mechanical ones as a vault. And yeah, when you start with the channel you should consider getting an external backup drive.]

Power Supply: is Ok! (I would pick Seasonic, but thats just my personal preference).

Cheers!

See, the reason why I am choosing between the two CPUs is because by the time that these new 4th Gen chips come to our local electronics store most of those bugs are probably going to be fixed by then.

Also do not worry about my budget, I am willing to work overtime to earn more for more premium components (ROG components), a good camera, microphone and other studio instruments, I just do not want to spend extra on a CPU that I am going to replace a few months after I buy it. And if I am going with mostly ROG stuff I might as well use it everywhere I can (Memory and storage are exceptions since Asus does not make those yet).

Also thanks for the tip on the memory, I will first buy some 3200 MHz memory and then upgrade to 3600 MHz.

Thank you for the reply!

P.S.: Resolution for my monitor/s (I am still thinking if I should get two of the same monitors or not) is going to be 1080p at 144 Hz with G-Sync (Only one monitor will probably have G-Sync, other one will not (Depends on which monitors I will get)).

 

[Aleks Skuber]

I think a couple words of caution about Ryzen 4000. First, it's due out in September, wide availability will be some time after that. So factor that in your plans.

Second, and probably most important, is nobody knows with any certainty if it will work on all current motherboards. It will certainly require BIOS updates for those it does work on, but it may never be supported on all. Like Ryzen 3000 it could easily have a lot of drama at it's release and for a few months after until AMD and motherboard vendors get the bugs ironed out. It's great if you're an 'early adopter' type who loves to deal with the issues of rolling out new technology, but if you're not... Not trying to turn you off to it, I'm sure it will be great actually, but NOBODY KNOWS what's coming, that's what is important to keep in mind.

I am definitely getting the X570 motherboard, which is definitely going to work with 4th Gen Ryzen, just some features might not be present which I probably will not even need/use. Also do not worry about me being a test subject on the 4th Gen Ryzen, by the time these components get to our local electronics stores most of the bugs will probably already be fixed by then.

Thank you for the reply!

 

[Aleks Skuber]

Drea said, "...nobody knows with any certainty if it will work on all current motherboards. "

True. That said, early insider reports seem to indicate that the 4000 series will be supported on B450 boards and above. As you said, likely the BIOS will require updates in order to work with them.

As for my own opinion...if money is at a premium, it may be better to do the 3600 for now if you're planning on upgrading to the 4000 series nearly straightaway. No, Adobe won't run quite as well on 6C/12T as it will 8C/16T, but the lower cost should help in both getting the cheaper processor and getting an otherwise head start with saving money for the 4000 series. Though, following Drea's line of thought, I would wait a little while on buying a 4000 series CPU until those bugs are ironed out.

On the other side of the coin, if you're willing to wait a while to upgrade to the 4000 series, the 3700x might be better if you plan to have it for a longer period of time. Yes, it will cost more, but if you're willing to wait at least a few months after the 4000 series launch, the power for 8C/16T you'll have access to in the meantime will obviously work better for you in your aspirations in the meantime.

I guess I'd say it all depends on what your income is, what you're willing to wait for and how well you'll be able to save for that next generation. Personally, I'd advise to get the 3700x, save your money on a CPU cooler (the included Wraith Prism is just fine, mine is keeping up decently with my 2700x, which I believe runs hotter than the 3700x...105w TDP vs 65w TDP, respectively) and hold off on the 4000 series for a while after launch. Hopefully it'll serve you well in the meantime.

Good luck with everything!

This is definitely some information to look into and follow, but do not worry, by the time these components get to our local electronics stores these bugs will most likely already be fixed by then. And yes, money definitely will not be a problem here as I am willing to work overtime for more premium components, I am just not willing to spend more on a CPU that I will replace after a couple months.

Thank you for the reply!