Question Upgrading from a Ryzen 5 1600 on an Asrock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 ?

[migf1]

Hey all,

I've already posted on Asrock subreddit , but I was hoping for more concrete advise for my specific situation and specific mobo (especially from people who've already done it, but anyone else too of course). You can check out the above link if you are interested, but I'll recap here too (I apologize in advance for the very long post, I just want to make sure I give you guys as much info as I can, to help you with any advice you may have for me).

Current Rig
---------------
HWiNFO Summary:

https://imgur.com/a/rY4UHe5

View: https://imgur.com/a/rY4UHe5


Case: Aerocool Aero-500 Window
MoBo: Asrock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 (BIOS: 2.40)
CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 (stock fan, stock speed)
GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 1050 Ti D5 4Gb/DDR5 PCIe 3.0 (stoc fan, stock speed)
RAM: 32Gb (4 x GSkill AEGIS 8Gb DDR4) not listed in Memory QVL and it runs at 1000Mhz instead of default 2133MHz)
SSD: WD Blue SN570 1Tb NVMe (PCIe 3.0 x4)
PSU: EVGA 650W BQ 80+ Bronze
Monitor: 1080@60Hz

I'm not a gamer, please let me repeat that: I'm not a gamer (LOL). I'm also clueless when it comes to OC, since I've never OCed anything and frankly I don't intend to.

In general, I keep my rigs as long as possible (usually 10 years more or less) with some upgrades on the way. This rig for example, I have only upgraded the disk to an SSD and increased its RAM to 32Gb since its initial purchase. It serves me well for like 7+ years now, and to be honest I'm not in a big rush or anything, I'm just exploring my options for a CPU upgrade, because Win11 does not support Zen and because relatively recently I discovered that all Zen3 Ryzen 5xxx CPUs became available to B350 based MoBos by updating the BIOS.

Since I'm gonna upgrade the CPU sooner or later, I'm also exploring my options for upgrading the GPU and probably the RAM too (more on the latter later). I'd really like to keep my current box/mobo/psu combo, and I'm pretty sure I'll stick with AM4 for as long as I can, spending the minimum amount of money for my near future needs,. For the same reason, I'm not gonna upgrade everything at 1 go, I want to get done with the CPU first, then at a later point upgrade the GPU too, hoping to extend the life of this rig for 2-3 more years or so.

Regarding my needs, as I mentioned I'm barely gaming, and when I do is mostly older city building games, the sims 4, etc. Not interested in anything more than 1080p@60Hz (even 720p or less if I can't help it), not obsessed about FPS either (I'm perfectly happy with 40-60fps). What I care about is multitasking, 3d rendering, Video editing/rendering, Substance Painter baking, Blender/Marvelous Designer cloth simulations, Photoshop, etc.

After spending a few days trying to educate myself about the current landscape, I think an R7 5700X with an RTX 4060Ti/8Gb sounds good for my situation, without needing to change my Case/MobO/PSU, but I have no clue if I'm right (please feel free to advice otherwise, but please remember I'm way more interested in productivity, especially 3D content and video editing, NOT gaming). Even if I am right about that combo, I still have questions and doubts:

1. Should I go for R5-5600X instead to save some bucks since it also comes with a cooler? Is it a more suitable CPU for my case?

2. I read EVERYWHERE that B350 mobo's VRMs and other components are too weak for anything above 5600X (I think) to run reliable without extra cooling, cause these CPUs run very hot, even the TDP65W R7-5700X. Is that actually true? I can't find reports for my particular mobo (I'd really love to hear from people who have done it on this mobo), but I've found many reports for other B350 mobos, even B450 ones. What kind of cooler I would need for an R7-5700X and how much will I need to pay for it? Right now I have just the stock cooler of the R5-1600 and 1 more fan attached to the back of the midi-tower.

3. If I'm to spend extra for cooling the R7-5700X, should I bite the bullet and go for a TDP105W R7-5800X instead? My midi-tower says it can host AIO-240mm water coolers, but should I really go that route? (most horror stories I've read so far about crazy temps refer to 5800x or x3d on B350 mobos, even with good water coolers). In my country an R7-5800X costs right now around 200 euros, while an R7-5700X around 20-30 euros less. But if I'm to believe what I read about the R7-5800X, specifically for B350 mobos, I will probably need to pay 100+ euros more for water-cooling (plus its installation cost since I have no idea or confidence to do that by myslef). Is it worth it, given my mobo? If it is, will the system run reliable in the long term?

4. Regarding the 4060Ti/8Gb, I already figured everybody hates it, or so it seems. But as I said already, i'm not really inetrested in gaming, and it really looks to me like a good GPU for 3d productivity, with reasonable power consumption and modern feature set. I'm still not fond of its current price (around 400 euros here right now) so most likely I'll search for a clearance sale, or wait a few months till its price drops, even if I have to wait until Black Friday. My question is if it will pair well with a 5700X (or a 5800X) for my needs, on my mobo. If you think otherwise, please feel free to suggest more suitable GPUs, but please not AMD.

5. My RAM is a big pain in my butt right now, becasue I cannot make it tun faster than 1000, despite its specs defining 2133 as default speed, and 3000/2993 as OCed speed. Granted I have not a clue when it comes to OCing, but every time I try to enable XMP in the BIOS my rig doesn't even post, it keeps rebooting before even giving me the chance to enter the BIOS and disable XMP. The GSkill website states that OC'ed 3000 is not available for Ryzen CPUs, but I never expected their speed o drop down to 934.0 with XMP disabled. From what I have gathered, this will get probably solved after I update my BIOS, since its current version is pretty much ancient (I've never updated it). If not, I guess I'll go get a Memory QVL compliant DDR4 kit, since this one is not listed there, unless someone advice otherwise and help me make these God damn DIMMS work at least at 2133 LOL

Once again, I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible. I'm really looking forward to hear your suggestions/advice.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

https://www.asrock.com/mb/amd/Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4/index.asp#BIOS

Bios V 2.4 is old.

Update to v7.4 first and then to v 10.08

This should sort out the memory compatibility and should let you run at 3200mhz hopefully.

If that does not work, you can look into getting new a ram kit.

Upgrading from the stock cooler is a good idea.

The SSD will run in pcie 3.0 mode. But that should not be an issue.
Having 2 SSDs is ideal for read/write intensive tasks.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor ($171.89 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($32.90 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP44 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($123.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus DUAL Advanced GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB Video Card ($449.99 @ ASUS)
Total: $778.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-15 13:59 EDT-0400

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Your B350 board is old. CPU upgrade may be problematic, and not only for reasons you cited.

Moreover, it lacks connectivity. Second M.2 slot only supports M.2 SATA, not NVMe.

4060 and 4060Ti have x8 PCIe 4.0 interface. Your B350 has PCIe 3.0, which means GPU will run at x8 3.0, and bandwidth is halved. Perf isn't halved, but is significantly lower.

IOW, you need new MB.

Since it's now a MB/CPU upgrade, Intel CPUs are substantially better for productivity than Ryzen, especially Ryzen 5K. Do your research.

4060Ti is poor value. You can read THW's own review, or expand and read others as well. 4060 isn't great either. Most GPU reviews are focused on gaming, so peruse reviews while ignoring gaming benchmarks. Some AMD RX cards may offer better value.

DDR4 RAM is cheap. You should budget upgrade. RAM speed matters.

Speaking of budget, none is mentioned in all the verbiage.

The pcie bandwidth of 3.0 x 8 is more than enough for 4060ti.

If you remember, GamerNexus posted a video about 4090 performance on pcie 3.0 vs 4.0 on X16 slot.
The performance loss was 2 to 3%. The 4090 has a bandwidth of about 1008 GB/s compared to 4060Ti's 288 GB/s

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB Specs

NVIDIA AD106, 2535 MHz, 4352 Cores, 136 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR6, 2250 MHz, 128 bit

www.techpowerup.com

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-4090.c3889

The only real concern here is the 2nd M.2 operating in sata 6gbps mode. Thats still 768 MB/s bandwidth which is more than the random read/write speeds of the SN570. Only the sequential speeds will be capped at 768 MB/s

Intel CPU would mean new mobo and the only high core count CPU that is kinda cheap is the 12700k at $238. The 5900X at $278 would still give higher multicore performance when it matters.

The other advantage he would be loosing is Intel Quick Sync. comparing the pros and cons, the 5900X is the better choice.

 

[migf1]

Thank you both very much for your input!

@Lucky_SLS:

Thanks for taking the time to put together a detailed list of components, I appreciate it! I take it you agree that a 5700X paired with a 4060Ti/8Gb is a reliable and balanced option, given the limitations of the situation? Not even needing to change tower and psu, right?

...
This should sort out the memory compatibility and should let you run at 3200mhz hopefully.

If that does not work, you can look into getting new a ram kit.

Yes, though I think I misread my RAM's specs, I mixed Mb/s with MT/s. Its default speed is 2133 Mt/s which is much closer to the 931.7Mhz the DIMMS are currently run at. Will probably change them if they stay low even after updating the BIOS.

...
The only real concern here is the 2nd M.2 operating in sata 6gbps mode. Thats still 768 MB/s bandwidth which is more than the random read/write speeds of the SN570. Only the sequential speeds will be capped at 768 MB/s
...

I'm not sure what you are pointing out there, but the SN570 is already running at its advertised speeds, it's on an nvme pci3 port, not sata:

https://imgur.com/a/LnA5RyA

View: https://imgur.com/a/LnA5RyA


@badoma:

I'm sorry but starting almost from scratch is a hard no-go. I'd rather just throw an R5-5600/5600X in there and call it a day. I forgot to mention that even the productivity work I do is on a hobbyist level. I can even live with my current rig.

I'm researching for almost a week now this freaking mess because I can't use Win11 with the R5-1600, which pissed me off so much that initially I was this close to switching to Linux, until I saw that Zen3 5xxx was made available for my mobo.

However, would you mind elaborating a little more on the following?

Your B350 board is old. CPU upgrade may be problematic, and not only for reasons you cited.
...

For example, you had bad experience trying to upgrade the CPU on a board like mine? If so, could you please share? What other risks should be aware of?

 

[migf1]

...
OP is kinda all over the place. OOH, he's counting pennies on choice of CPU. OTOH, he coughing up $450 for wimpy 4060Ti. So, yeah, OK, whatever. Just flapping me gums here.
...

But you suggesting changing mobo on a topic titled as cpu upgrade on a specific mobo you are not over the place, right. Did you even read the initial post before replying? And if you are willing to donate those pennies I'll gladly accept them.

Thanks for your input anyway .

 

[Bob.B]

Hey all,

I've already posted on Asrock subreddit , but I was hoping for more concrete advise for my specific situation and specific mobo (especially from people who've already done it, but anyone else too of course). You can check out the above link if you are interested, but I'll recap here too (I apologize in advance for the very long post, I just want to make sure I give you guys as much info as I can, to help you with any advice you may have for me).

Current Rig
---------------
HWiNFO Summary:

https://imgur.com/a/rY4UHe5

View: https://imgur.com/a/rY4UHe5


Case: Aerocool Aero-500 Window
MoBo: Asrock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 (BIOS: 2.40)
CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 (stock fan, stock speed)
GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 1050 Ti D5 4Gb/DDR5 PCIe 3.0 (stoc fan, stock speed)
RAM: 32Gb (4 x GSkill AEGIS 8Gb DDR4) not listed in Memory QVL and it runs at 1000Mhz instead of default 2133MHz)
SSD: WD Blue SN570 1Tb NVMe (PCIe 3.0 x4)
PSU: EVGA 650W BQ 80+ Bronze
Monitor: 1080@60Hz

I'm not a gamer, please let me repeat that: I'm not a gamer (LOL). I'm also clueless when it comes to OC, since I've never OCed anything and frankly I don't intend to.

In general, I keep my rigs as long as possible (usually 10 years more or less) with some upgrades on the way. This rig for example, I have only upgraded the disk to an SSD and increased its RAM to 32Gb since its initial purchase. It serves me well for like 7+ years now, and to be honest I'm not in a big rush or anything, I'm just exploring my options for a CPU upgrade, because Win11 does not support Zen and because relatively recently I discovered that all Zen3 Ryzen 5xxx CPUs became available to B350 based MoBos by updating the BIOS.

Since I'm gonna upgrade the CPU sooner or later, I'm also exploring my options for upgrading the GPU and probably the RAM too (more on the latter later). I'd really like to keep my current box/mobo/psu combo, and I'm pretty sure I'll stick with AM4 for as long as I can, spending the minimum amount of money for my near future needs,. For the same reason, I'm not gonna upgrade everything at 1 go, I want to get done with the CPU first, then at a later point upgrade the GPU too, hoping to extend the life of this rig for 2-3 more years or so.

Regarding my needs, as I mentioned I'm barely gaming, and when I do is mostly older city building games, the sims 4, etc. Not interested in anything more than 1080p@60Hz (even 720p or less if I can't help it), not obsessed about FPS either (I'm perfectly happy with 40-60fps). What I care about is multitasking, 3d rendering, Video editing/rendering, Substance Painter baking, Blender/Marvelous Designer cloth simulations, Photoshop, etc.

After spending a few days trying to educate myself about the current landscape, I think an R7 5700X with an RTX 4060Ti/8Gb sounds good for my situation, without needing to change my Case/MobO/PSU, but I have no clue if I'm right (please feel free to advice otherwise, but please remember I'm way more interested in productivity, especially 3D content and video editing, NOT gaming). Even if I am right about that combo, I still have questions and doubts:

1. Should I go for R5-5600X instead to save some bucks since it also comes with a cooler? Is it a more suitable CPU for my case?

2. I read EVERYWHERE that B350 mobo's VRMs and other components are too weak for anything above 5600X (I think) to run reliable without extra cooling, cause these CPUs run very hot, even the TDP65W R7-5700X. Is that actually true? I can't find reports for my particular mobo (I'd really love to hear from people who have done it on this mobo), but I've found many reports for other B350 mobos, even B450 ones. What kind of cooler I would need for an R7-5700X and how much will I need to pay for it? Right now I have just the stock cooler of the R5-1600 and 1 more fan attached to the back of the midi-tower.

3. If I'm to spend extra for cooling the R7-5700X, should I bite the bullet and go for a TDP105W R7-5800X instead? My midi-tower says it can host AIO-240mm water coolers, but should I really go that route? (most horror stories I've read so far about crazy temps refer to 5800x or x3d on B350 mobos, even with good water coolers). In my country an R7-5800X costs right now around 200 euros, while an R7-5700X around 20-30 euros less. But if I'm to believe what I read about the R7-5800X, specifically for B350 mobos, I will probably need to pay 100+ euros more for water-cooling (plus its installation cost since I have no idea or confidence to do that by myslef). Is it worth it, given my mobo? If it is, will the system run reliable in the long term?

4. Regarding the 4060Ti/8Gb, I already figured everybody hates it, or so it seems. But as I said already, i'm not really inetrested in gaming, and it really looks to me like a good GPU for 3d productivity, with reasonable power consumption and modern feature set. I'm still not fond of its current price (around 400 euros here right now) so most likely I'll search for a clearance sale, or wait a few months till its price drops, even if I have to wait until Black Friday. My question is if it will pair well with a 5700X (or a 5800X) for my needs, on my mobo. If you think otherwise, please feel free to suggest more suitable GPUs, but please not AMD.

5. My RAM is a big pain in my butt right now, becasue I cannot make it tun faster than 1000, despite its specs defining 2133 as default speed, and 3000/2993 as OCed speed. Granted I have not a clue when it comes to OCing, but every time I try to enable XMP in the BIOS my rig doesn't even post, it keeps rebooting before even giving me the chance to enter the BIOS and disable XMP. The GSkill website states that OC'ed 3000 is not available for Ryzen CPUs, but I never expected their speed o drop down to 934.0 with XMP disabled. From what I have gathered, this will get probably solved after I update my BIOS, since its current version is pretty much ancient (I've never updated it). If not, I guess I'll go get a Memory QVL compliant DDR4 kit, since this one is not listed there, unless someone advice otherwise and help me make these God damn DIMMS work at least at 2133 LOL

Once again, I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible. I'm really looking forward to hear your suggestions/advice.
Thanks in advance.

The 5600x will give a nice bump in perf and with the included cooler minimum fuss.

Later get a 2x16GB @ 3200 kit of ram.

2 bumps up the perf ladder.

 

[NedSmelly]

What I care about is multitasking, 3d rendering, Video editing/rendering, Substance Painter baking, Blender/Marvelous Designer cloth simulations, Photoshop, etc.

After spending a few days trying to educate myself about the current landscape, I think an R7 5700X with an RTX 4060Ti/8Gb sounds good for my situation, without needing to change my Case/MobO/PSU, but I have no clue if I'm right (please feel free to advice otherwise, but please remember I'm way more interested in productivity, especially 3D content and video editing, NOT gaming).

8-core CPU minimum for 3D and video production. 4060 and higher for visual AI (Adobe neural filters), 8GB VRAM for 4K video editing, 20GB VRAM for 8K video editing.

1. Should I go for R5-5600X instead to save some bucks since it also comes with a cooler? Is it a more suitable CPU for my case?

See above

2. I read EVERYWHERE that B350 mobo's VRMs and other components are too weak for anything above 5600X (I think) to run reliable without extra cooling, cause these CPUs run very hot, even the TDP65W R7-5700X. Is that actually true?

Yes, Hardware Unboxed has a VRM comparison on B350/450/550 mobos somewhere in their library. B450 and below get hot. Generally for B350, 65W TDP is ideal; 105W+ will run but not optimally.

4. Regarding the 4060Ti/8Gb, I already figured everybody hates it, or so it seems. But as I said already, i'm not really inetrested in gaming, and it really looks to me like a good GPU for 3d productivity, with reasonable power consumption and modern feature set.

See above. Nvidia/CUDA support is preferred for some production apps (e.g. Blender). See above comment about VRAM requirements with video editing.

5. My RAM is a big pain in my butt right now, becasue I cannot make it tun faster than 1000, despite its specs defining 2133 as default speed, and 3000/2993 as OCed speed. Granted I have not a clue when it comes to OCing

RAM speed is not that important in production. Puget Systems showed maybe 5% performance diff between 2133 and 3600 in this use case. Stability is better over speed with mission critical work. RAM quantity is more important.

I'm wondering if you're reading the RAM info incorrectly... depending on how you're doing it. It may be running at 1066MHz, but operating at 2133MT/s.

Check out the Puget Systems benchmarking blog - lots of great info there.

 

[migf1]

The 5600x will give a nice bump in perf and with the included cooler minimum fuss.

Later get a 2x16GB @ 3200 kit of ram.

2 bumps up the perf ladder.

Thank you! That was exactly my very first thought, but after a little more research I realized that for productivity, 8-cores matter compared to 6. Then I started finding 8-core horror stories regarding 8-cores on B350 mobos.

So many things to consider for just a CPU upgrade, I have no idea how you guys manage to stay up-to-date!

 

[migf1]

8-core CPU minimum for 3D and video production. 4060 and higher for visual AI (Adobe neural filters), 8GB VRAM for 4K video editing, 20GB VRAM for 8K video editing.

See above

Yes, Hardware Unboxed has a VRM comparison on B350/450/550 mobos somewhere in their library. B450 and below get hot. Generally for B350, 65W TDP is ideal; 105W+ will run but not optimally.

See above. Nvidia/CUDA support is preferred for some production apps (e.g. Blender). See above comment about VRAM requirements with video editing.

RAM speed is not that important in production. Puget Systems showed maybe 5% performance diff between 2133 and 3600 in this use case. Stability is better over speed with mission critical work. RAM quantity is more important.

I'm wondering if you're reading the RAM info incorrectly... depending on how you're doing it. It may be running at 1066MHz, but operating at 2133MT/s.

Check out the Puget Systems benchmarking blog - lots of great info there.

Thank you very much, that was an extremely helpful post for me!

Just to make sure, you agree going for a 5700X (TDP65W) with a good air-cooler, right?

The GPU can wait, I'm not gonna get it right now anyway, and certainly not at these prices, but seems to me you also don't object to a 4060Ti/8Gb, since I won't do any 8K video editing, right?

As for the RAM, you are absolutely spot on once again. I was indeed misreading their specs, mixing MT/s for Mb/s. They are actually running at 932Mhz which translates to 1864 MT/s. They'll probably go at 1066/2133 after I update the BIOS.

 

[NedSmelly]

Thank you very much, that was an extremely helpful post for me!

You’re welcome 😀

Just to make sure, you agree going for a 5700X (TDP65W) with a good air-cooler, right?

I think that’s up to you, an air cooler is probably better than a water cooler if you have hot VRMs as there’s still airflow over them. 5800X and higher will likely work, you just might miss out with some of the boost frequencies (YMMV though).

The GPU can wait, I'm not gonna get it right now anyway, and certainly not at these prices, but seems to me you also don't object on a 4060Ti/8Gb, since I won't do any 8K video editing, right?

Recently there was a user who posted a question about the 4060 and AI filter performance. Turns out someone in Germany had benchmarked 1660/3060/4060 for neural filters and the 4060 made a significant difference (around 75% faster).

Might be worth checking the Puget Blender GPU benchmarks to see if 4060 is adequate for you. blender also eats VRAM, so a 16GB 4060Ti might be better.

 

[Bob.B]

Thank you! That was exactly my very first thought, but after a little more research I realized that for productivity, 8-cores matter compared to 6. Then I started finding 8-core horror stories regarding 8-cores on B350 mobos.

So many things to consider for just a CPU upgrade, I have no idea how you guys manage to stay up-to-date!

That would be a little better but you have to go shop for a cooler.

With the 5600x it's one-stop-shopping.

Your call.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

If you are going cheap, you could even grab the ryzen 5 5500 for under 100 bucks. It would pair nicely with the 4060. I ran one for a bit with a 6700xt.

 

[thestryker]

Buying a 4060 Ti (unless you're getting the 16GB for VRAM) isn't particularly a good decision due to the PCIe 3.0 dropping it down to 3060 Ti or worse performance. Right now I think the best option would be to wait for video card to see what comes next from the 3 manufacturers.

The 5700X is the highest end CPU I would even try in the board you have and it should be fine. A decent air cooler is all you would need either Deepcool or Thermalright depending on availability where you are (should be $20-30 USD for single tower and $30-50 for dual).

 

[Lucky_SLS]

The SSD bottleneck was if you were to use your old sn570 in the second m.2 slot and use the new 2tb ssd in the primary m.2 slot.

Storage is the biggest bottleneck in productivity/video editing task.

 

[migf1]

Thank you all very much for your time and valuable input!

That would be a little better but you have to go shop for a cooler.

With the 5600x it's one-stop-shopping.

Your call.

Although throwing in a R5-5600X for just 140 euros and get done with it is very (very) tempting, I've decided to go for the R7-5700X. GPU and RAM can wait.

What's left for now is to pick the cooling solution, because my tower specs give CPU Clearance 155mm, and I have no idea if that means cpu+cooler height or just cooler height. @Lucky_SLS's suggestion seems to be 157mm high, so I guess it won't fit either way.

What height should I look for?

Also I think I should add at least 1 more case fan regardless, in the front so combined to the one already located in the back (came with the case) I improve the airflow, right?

The SSD bottleneck was if you were to use your old sn570 in the second m.2 slot and use the new 2tb ssd in the primary m.2 slot.

Storage is the biggest bottleneck in productivity/video editing task.

Uh huh, I misread it. Yes it makes sense thanks!

Buying a 4060 Ti (unless you're getting the 16GB for VRAM) isn't particularly a good decision due to the PCIe 3.0 dropping it down to 3060 Ti or worse performance. Right now I think the best option would be to wait for video card to see what comes next from the 3 manufacturers.

The 5700X is the highest end CPU I would even try in the board you have and it should be fine. A decent air cooler is all you would need either Deepcool or Thermalright depending on availability where you are (should be $20-30 USD for single tower and $30-50 for dual).

Waiting for a video card is exactly what I'm gonna do, thank you! Thanks for the cooler suggestions too, do you happen to have a cooler suggestion for a CPU Clearance of 155mm in the tower (what ever that means)? LOL

 

[thestryker]

Waiting for a video card is exactly what I'm gonna do, thank you! Thanks for the cooler suggestions too, do you happen to have a cooler suggestion for a CPU Clearance of 155mm in the tower (what ever that means)? LOL

https://www.thermalright.com/product/assassin-x-120-plus-v2/
https://www.thermalright.com/product/phantom-spirit-120-se/
https://us.deepcool.com/products/Co...le-Tower-CPU-Cooler-1700-AM5/2022/15905.shtml
Looks like only the single tower DeepCool models are short enough, but those would all work.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

^ I would suggest the phantom spirit.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Haven't used the phantom spirit, but I have a peerless assassin. Great cooler. I've heard the other might be better though, which is hard to imagine, but either way, the 5700x is a 65 watt cpu, so those are likely overkill anyway. But for the money...hard to beat.

 

[Bob.B]

Thank you all very much for your time and valuable input!



Although throwing in a R5-5600X for just 140 euros and get done with it is very (very) tempting, I've decided to go for the R7-5700X. GPU and RAM can wait.

What's left for now is to pick the cooling solution, because my tower specs give CPU Clearance 155mm, and I have no idea if that means cpu+cooler height or just cooler height. @Lucky_SLS's suggestion seems to be 157mm high, so I guess it won't fit either way.

What height should I look for?

Also I think I should add at least 1 more case fan regardless, in the front so combined to the one already located in the back (came with the case) I improve the airflow, right?


Uh huh, I misread it. Yes it makes sense thanks!



Waiting for a video card is exactly what I'm gonna do, thank you! Thanks for the cooler suggestions too, do you happen to have a cooler suggestion for a CPU Clearance of 155mm in the tower (what ever that means)? LOL

If you want to play give a test drive to the wraith cooler no height worries with that.

Looks like about 8 bucks over at walmart.

 

[Vic 40]

https://www.asrock.com/mb/amd/Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4/index.asp#BIOS

Bios V 2.4 is old.

Update to v7.4 first and then to v 10.08

This should sort out the memory compatibility and should let you run at 3200mhz hopefully.

First i would update to the latest chipset driver ,then if i look right should he get the "bridge bios" 3.40 first then 5.40 then 7.00 before going higher. Means flash each one before moving on to the next.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Wouldn't the latest bridge bios work?

V 7 and v 3.5 are both bridge bios.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

To be safe I’d do the earlier one first. I used to have the AsRock ab350 pro 4. Similar model to yours and you wanted to flash the earlier version in that case.

 

[Vic 40]

I really would do the full list as i said, each is a bridge bios on it's own and paves the way for the next ones.

 

[migf1]

Sorry for the delayed answer, thank you all very much!

I'll go for 5700X, tower air-cooler and 2x120mm fans in the front of the case.

For the BIOS, I plan to take the safest route, per Asrock instructions: 1) Load BIOS defaults 2) update the All-In-One drivers 3) 2.40 -> 3.40 -> 5.40 -> 7.00 -> 7.40 -> 10.08

 

[Vic 40]

For the chipset drivers to make sure you install the right ones.,

https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/chipsets/am4/b350.html

don't know where my head was, but Adrenalin is related to the gpu's from AMD which you do not use currently.