Question Which CPU is good for budget gaming/streaming build?

[Sayan_Deep]

I have a budget of around $645 to build a new pc. I'm looking for a build for 1080p 60fps gaming+ 1080p 30-60fps streaming or recording. I don't need anything to high. Not targetting to play competitive games much so higher fps is not mandatory. But I'm struggling to fit into my budget. Pc parts are really expensive here in India.
I'm leaning towards an AMD cpu. I'm going to get a gtx 1660 super which is about 280$ here, a single stick 16gb 2666mhz ram- 70$, targetting to dual channel 32gb in future, a 450-500w smps worth 40$.
For a ryzen I'm getting the asus b450m-k motherboard for around 85$.
But CPU is where I'm stuck. after all those I'm left with about 170$. I was thinking of getting the r5 3600 but it's about 230$. So now I have to go with a r5 2600. I heard that it's decent enough for streaming. But recently the r5 3500 came out, which has about the same spec as r5 3600 except the 3600 has turbo boost clock of 4.2 ghz with 35 mb cache where 3500 has 4.1 ghz with 16mb cache and it doesn't come with a graphics processor. It's also priced at 168$ here compared to the r5 2600 at 182$
So what I'm asking is that which cpu should I go with? 2600 or 3500?
What also concerning me is that should I opt for a gtx 1660 and chip in for the 3600 for better performance? I'm really inclined to since it comes with gddr5 memory compared to the gddr6 memory of the super or ti version.

Really appreciate your advices...

 

[Lutfij]

If you want to do gaming and streaming simultaneously on your build, you're looking at something higher than an R5 2600, more like a Ryzen 7 2700/2700x or better a Ryzen 3700x. As for your Ryzen 3500, that is only available to OEM's not for the consumer end. Better look at a 2x8GB DDR4-3200MHz kit if you want the best from your AMD platform.

If I had to be blunt, for what you want to accomplish you're better off spending properly once and then get your feet planted as you stream.

You've mentioned budget but your goal for that frame rate, is ambitious at the very least.

 

[Sayan_Deep]

If you want to do gaming and streaming simultaneously on your build, you're looking at something higher than an R5 2600, more like a Ryzen 7 2700/2700x or better a Ryzen 3700x. As for your Ryzen 3500, that is only available to OEM's not for the consumer end. Better look at a 2x8GB DDR4-3200MHz kit if you want the best from your AMD platform.

If I had to be blunt, for what you want to accomplish you're better off spending properly once and then get your feet planted as you stream.

You've mentioned budget but your goal for that frame rate, is ambitious at the very least.

Thank you for the advice. See here's the thing... I'm not planning to be a full time streamer right now. I'm gonna play with friends who streams and probably do some occasional obs recording. Won't probably start streaming for atleast 9-10 months. I'm just trying to get a decent enough performance for now and upgrade later. I'm not even targetting ultra high settings. If I have to tweak the settings a little lower to get better performance that I would. That is why I'm getting a 16gb ram so that i can dual channel it later.
2700 is way out of my budget right now. I'm currently without a pc so can't wait for that long to save up.
3500 was a OEM only but it's available here for consumers. But since I can't find much info about it online so I can't compare between 2600 and 3500. But 3500 doesn't run with a dedicated gpu. Will that be a problem for obs?

 

[RodroX]

Lutfij, adding to what Lutfij wrote already, keep in mind that the Ryzen 5 3500 does not have SMT enable (this is the similar as Intels Hyperthreading) so is only a 6 cores / 6 threads CPU.

You should pick something like what Lutfij wrote, Ryzen 5 2600 (6 cores/12 threads) or the Ryzen 7 2700/2700x (8 cores/16threads), unless of course you can go up to the highr ipc cpu, the Ryzen 5 3600.

And yes, aim to 2x8GB DDR4 3200 memory kit. 16GG of RAM in dual channel is, for now and the next years, way more important than 32 GB of RAM (unless you have 50 chrome tabs open while gaming and streaming)

Cheers

 

[RodroX]

Thank you for the advice. See here's the thing... I'm not planning to be a full time streamer right now. I'm gonna play with friends who streams and probably do some occasional obs recording. Won't probably start streaming for atleast 9-10 months. I'm just trying to get a decent enough performance for now and upgrade later. I'm not even targetting ultra high settings. If I have to tweak the settings a little lower to get better performance that I would. That is why I'm getting a 16gb ram so that i can dual channel it later.
2700 is way out of my budget right now. I'm currently without a pc so can't wait for that long to save up.
3500 was a OEM only but it's available here for consumers. But since I can't find much info about it online so I can't compare between 2600 and 3500. But 3500 doesn't run with a dedicated gpu. Will that be a problem for obs?

Well then youre doing some parts of your build a little wrong. If you wana build up now and upgrade later your motherboard choice is kinda horrible (don't take it personal).

If I were to get a decent motheboard (with a decent VRM) to have room to add more powerfull componets later on I would aim towards something like:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zym323/asrock-b450m-pro4-f-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-pro4-f

ASRock B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard

pcpartpicker.com

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BH...-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-plus-max

Asus PRIME X570-P ATX AM4 Motherboard

pcpartpicker.com

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wh...plus-atx-am4-motherboard-tuf-gaming-x570-plus

Keep in mind that both Motherboard and PSU are the base, structure and heart of any PC build, a weak choice in any of this two may and probably will cause your system to be unstable at the very least.

But yeah, I know when budget is tight it gets hard to choose.

 

[Karadjgne]

Something like this would be a good start, fill in case, cooling and any extra storage etc as needed.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (₹21000.00 @ Amazon India)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard (₹9677.00 @ Amazon India)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (₹7678.00 @ Amazon India)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (₹10839.00 @ Amazon India)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB DUAL OC Video Card (₹24000.00 @ Amazon India)
Power Supply: Antec Earthwatts Gold Pro 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (₹6849.00 @ Amazon India)
Total: ₹80043.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-06 19:03 IST+0530

 

[Sayan_Deep]

Something like this would be a good start, fill in case, cooling and any extra storage etc as needed.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (₹21000.00 @ Amazon India)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard (₹9677.00 @ Amazon India)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (₹7678.00 @ Amazon India)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (₹10839.00 @ Amazon India)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB DUAL OC Video Card (₹24000.00 @ Amazon India)
Power Supply: Antec Earthwatts Gold Pro 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (₹6849.00 @ Amazon India)
Total: ₹80043.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-06 19:03 IST+0530

This would be an ideal build for my needs but the budget is almost doubled!!😩 I wish I could get those.
But thank you anyway. This will come handy when I upgrade.

 

[Sayan_Deep]

Well then youre doing some parts of your build a little wrong. If you wana build up now and upgrade later your motherboard choice is kinda horrible (don't take it personal).

If I were to get a decent motheboard (with a decent VRM) to have room to add more powerfull componets later on I would aim towards something like:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zym323/asrock-b450m-pro4-f-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-pro4-f

ASRock B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard

pcpartpicker.com

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BH...-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-plus-max

Asus PRIME X570-P ATX AM4 Motherboard

pcpartpicker.com

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wh...plus-atx-am4-motherboard-tuf-gaming-x570-plus

Keep in mind that both Motherboard and PSU are the base, structure and heart of any PC build, a weak choice in any of this two may and probably will cause your system to be unstable at the very least.

But yeah, I know when budget is tight it gets hard to choose.

Yes, the only problem right now is budget. I wanted to save up for a bit more and get better parts but my old desktop died and I'm without a pc now. I need a pc soon so can't wait for saving up. At this budget this is probably the best I can do. I can't even get storage devices in this. I'm gonna have to work with my old hdd and ssd 😣

 

[akaikisaki]

The initial list which you mentioned is good.

This is the information which I was able to gather from the Web and specially Tom's hardware:

In case of an AMD CPU, people have given these two boards a very good rating:

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max - INR 10,500
MSI B450 Carbon PRO - INR 13,000

People will usually recommend going for atleast the X470 motherboards, which are expensive. But in the B450 range, these are the two which are highly recommended. Because, there are Heatsinks and something called the VRM temperatures and all, which matters a lot to maintain the temperature and also helps in proper Overclocking. These two boards are like the borderline between the cheap B450s and the better X470s.

You can check for yourself regarding the VRMs and everything related to Overclocking CPUs and RAMs. You might not be interested in the Overclocking stuff, but in future, if you intend to, then you should have a proper motherboard to handle the stable overclocking. But in any case, DO NOT BUY the Asus Prime B450M-K.

These were the Motherboards which I shortlisted:

Gigabyte B450M DS3H - because it was the cheapest
Asus B450M - K/ Asus B450M - A - because it was recommended by many Indian reviewers
Gigabyte B450M - Gaming - simply because I liked the color
Gigabyte B450 Aorus M - no particular reason.

It was then I came across many Youtubers who had extensively tested the Motherboards for the VRMs and all, and then all these motherboards simply vanished from my list and I was able to finalize the Tomahawk Max (Carbon too if the price is reduced).

As for the CPU, yes the Ryzen 3500 is available for us from INR 11,540, it has 6 cores and 6 threads. Since I'll just be gaming and nothing else, this one would be fine for me. Or the 1600 too.

However, in your case, if you are planning on multitasking like streaming and stuff, then everyone and every forum that I've come across has said the same thing, GO WITH THE HIGHER CORE HIGHER THREADED CPUs. In this case, the 2600 is better because it has 6 Cores and 12 Threads whereas the 3500 has 6 Cores and 6 Threads.

I know how hard it is for us in India, because everything is expensive.

 

[akaikisaki]

Also, if in case you still decide to go with the Ryzen 3500, after you receive the product, do call up the AMD customer care and tell them the Serial Number so that you can verify whether the warranty will be provided by them or not, whether 3 year warranty is available or not. This is what the AMD representative told me and for giving me this information, he had to put me on hold and ask his senior about the warranty for the 3500 because there was no information available with them. The whole part with this being an OEM only but still available and not even mentioned in the AMD website was making me think again and again. And when you look at the images in the Amazon India website, the very first image of the 3500 is a person with his hand behind the processor.

 

[Karadjgne]

Believe it or not, the PCPartPicker list above is on the cheaper side. Everything there is at least decent, some very good, but is definitely not the cheapest. But is close to cheapest. You could get away with dropping the 2700x in favor of a 2600/X, but the savings are minimal. The motherboard is one of the better B450 models at below the cost of many worse.

The biggest issue you'll have right now is exchange rate. It's not going to work. What's available in the States is going to be different from India, different import duties, different taxes, different sales so whereas that Asus Dual was the cheapest 1660ti, for you it might be far more expensive than the MSI version

 

[RodroX]

Best motheboards for AM4 socket 2019 ->

View: https://youtu.be/JGY2mqTn2rc?t=1322


VRM info -> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...IVNyMatydkpFA/htmlview?sle=true#gid=639584818

Cheers

 

[Sayan_Deep]

Also, if in case you still decide to go with the Ryzen 3500, after you receive the product, do call up the AMD customer care and tell them the Serial Number so that you can verify whether the warranty will be provided by them or not, whether 3 year warranty is available or not. This is what the AMD representative told me and for giving me this information, he had to put me on hold and ask his senior about the warranty for the 3500 because there was no information available with them. The whole part with this being an OEM only but still available and not even mentioned in the AMD website was making me think again and again. And when you look at the images in the Amazon India website, the very first image of the 3500 is a person with his hand behind the processor.

Honestly I don't think motherboard is going to be a problem right now. Since I'll only be doing light gaming at first. Maybe when I decide to stream I'll get a better one.
My issue is with the cpu. Like you said, I've also done some searching and all I gathered that 6c/12t is better than 6c/6t for multitasking. But I've seen the benchmarks and 3500 performs much better than 2600 at gaming, almost the same as 3600 and I'd love the extra fps. But there's no review about it's multitasking abilities. Also there's the issue about the warranty.
At this point I think I would just get a GTX 1660 instead of the super varient and use the left over to get r5 3600. That would clear up the issue with cpu.

 

[akaikisaki]

But I've seen the benchmarks and 3500 performs much better than 2600 at gaming, almost the same as 3600 and I'd love the extra fps.

That's the reason why I'm inclined towards 3500. But in my case, it's just for gaming. In your case, you will doing simultaneous tasks as well. For me, based on my budget, I'll choose either the 1600 (INR 9200) or 3500 (INR 11,500). I'm waiting for the Christmas sale or New year sale to see whether there'll be a drop in the price of 2600.

But there's no review about it's multitasking abilities. Also there's the issue about the warranty.
At this point I think I would just get a GTX 1660 instead of the super varient and use the left over to get r5 3600. That would clear up the issue with cpu.

Yes, too much to consider in case of the 3500. Most of the trusted and reputed reviewers are outside India and since the 3500 is not available for them, they were not able to give in depth details about it. Almost 90% of the Youtube videos for 3500 are from Indian reviewers, who have just given us the comparison between different CPUs to show the FPS difference, but no in depth details about other tasks, what is their thoughts regarding the 6 threads for Future proofing, etc.

GTX 1660 default is what I too have in my mind. I'm just waiting for the new AMD GPUs which will come in January, in some CES 2020. They'll be available at a better price and I've read that they are being launched to compete against the 1660s and the 1650s.

I think you should not go with the 3500. For me, it's good. Amazon does gives us 10 days' replacement warranty so in case there is any issue with the warranty, I'll simply apply for a refund.

For you, 3600 would be better. It is highly recommended by many and no doubts regarding the warranty/ genuineness like the 3500.