The monitor, keyboard, SSD’s, etc, I will salvage from my current pc. My budget does not go beyond 750€.
Which setup looks better for you guys? My biggest concerns are with the CPU (Ryzen 5 3600 or i5 10400F?) and GPU (RX590 or GTX1660S?)
Feel free to advide something else, as long as the total stays within the budget.
these are not compatible. b460 motherboards are ONLY for intel processors. you need to buy a b450 or b550 motherboard with a 3600x (yes, confusingly similar names i know).
also you haven’t written the speed of the memory you’re looking at, but keep in mind that b460 (intel) does not support memory speeds above 2666mhz. if there is a z490 model at similar pricing then that will support higher memory speeds. memory speed matters quite a bit, so it would be nice to run 3200mhz or something along those lines.
b450 and b550 (amd) both support higher memory speeds.
you do not need to combine an amd cpu with an amd gpu if you were thinking that, you can mix and match nvidia, intel and amd however you like.
the 3600 non-x should be ever so slightly slower than the 10400F. 3600X should be about equal to 10400F. 3600 non-x is usually best value out of all of those, but that depends on the pricing when you buy ofc.
1660S is a decent bit faster than the 590. with the prices you’re quoting, definitely get the 1660S. https://tpucdn.com/review/msi-geforce-gtx-1660-super-gaming-x/images/relative-performance_1920-1080.png
it’s like 2% faster and comes bundled with a better cooler, so it’ll run a bit quieter and/or cooler. it doesn’t really matter much either way.
you’re starting to approach the prices of 32gb kits now with this expensive kit. buy a 16gb 3200 kit, shouldn’t be any more than like €80. again, note that the b460 (intel) motherboard does not support memory speeds over 2666mhz. it doesn’t hurt to have memory rated for faster speeds, but it doesn’t help either. money wasted basically.
get the 10400F 4th setup. it’s cheaper and should be the same for games. if you do any productivity work, the amd cpus will be a decent bit faster for that, so then i’d probably consider them.
this video might be handy. note that’s kind of a best case for the ryzen 3600 since it’s getting 3733mhz, so it’ll run a little bit slower than this at 3200mhz.
if you do get the 10400F, step down to a very cheap 2666mhz ram kit OR buy a 3200 kit with a cheap z490 motherboard. if all the z490 boards are way more expensive, just go with b460 with the 2666mhz ram. if faster than 2666mhz is the same price or cheaper, that’s fine also.
note that the cooler intel bundles with their CPUs is a bit crap if they haven’t updated it. if you’re picky with noise, it might be worth spending some of the money you save on cheaper ram on a decent budget heatsink like a hyper 212 or something. just make sure it fits in your case.
it has to be one or the other, yes. there is a CPU socket on the motherboard where they slot in, and there aren’t any that can accept both.
Do we have a winner? With Black Friday coming, might be able to save a few bucks to throw a decent cooler as well
(btw, what’s the diff between the 3200 vs 4000Mhz RAM’s? apart from the price that is…the MB seems to be able to run it…is it the CPU that doesn’t make use of the 4000mhz ones?)
first of all, sorry for all the mixed signals. in a sense it’s because all of these are really close and honestly i think you’ll be perfectly happy with any of them.
but now you’re at €20 more than you’d pay for the amd 3600x build with the 3200mhz ram, and that’s without replacing intel’s crap stock cooler (amd’s is fairly decent).
the 10400f is equal in games, but a bit slower in productivity workloads. the amd build would also allow you to upgrade to the next generation of ryzen processors, whereas you’ll probably have to replace the motherboard to upgrade the intel cpu to the next generation.
so to me this looks like slightly worse value than the amd route (with 3200mhz ram). maybe the best value option for you would be going the cheap route with the 10400f, and not spoiling it with a fancy motherboard and ram. the second best would probably be the amd route, and third best the 10400f with z490 and fast ram.
you have 3 layers to memory speeds working. first, the memory itself needs to be rated for a certain speed, and going much beyond what it is rated to be able to do is often tricky.
second, each cpu (not just model, but also each individual chip) is slightly different in how fast it’ll like to run ram. third, different motherboard models are capable of different speeds (in practice, not necessarily what they’ve written on the box).
but in reality it’s mostly about value. 3200mhz is the sweet spot for price to performance right now. more speed more better, but also more money.
That is a very solid point you got there! Being able to upgrade in the future without needing to replace MB is a bonus, for sure.
If AMD build is that much close to the Intel one (with the benefit of being better for other jobs, aside from WoW), it’s worth giving it a go then.
AMD build would look like this then:
Motherboard: ATX MSI B450 Tomahawk Max - 115€
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Hexa-Core 3.8GHz c/ Turbo 4.4GHz 36MB - 215€
GPU - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB OC - 240€
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws V 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3200MHz - 76€
Power: Seasonic Core GM 650W Semi Modular 80PLUS Gold - 90€
Solid build there, and as Retier said, allows you to upgrade to the new Ryzen cpu in the future. One tip, if you can budget for it, get an ssd for windows and WoW, the speed is amazing on them things
If you want an easier upgrade path you can look at B550 boards. And in like 2 weeks the new CPUs launch - are you not interested in trying to get 5600X?
3200 is nice with CL 14 (check what the kit has), check if there are 3600 CL 16 or alike in similar low prices. If it’s Samsung B-die it should also OC a bit allowing to push bit more out of Ryzen.
If you are up for used GPU you could get even RTX 2070 in very similar price, although for a new card 1660 Super isn’t bad. You can also check Navi 1 cards as they seems to be on some discount now (and you get free Shadowlands on some right now).
you really think b-die is relevant here? b-die kits are almost always stupid expensive and i’d be surprised if the OP is interested in getting into memory OC. 3200 c14 kits are twice as expensive as 3200 c16 kits from what i’ve seen. this is a novice building a value gaming computer. much better off saving that money or putting it towards something more useful.
i don’t really think that’s worth it in this case. extra ~€70 for the 5600x, and you can expect a bit of a premium for an equivalent b550 board as well, call it €30 or something. €100’s a lot of money, especially in a computer that has a 1660 super.
Not really. There is like over 9000 bins of B-die. Anything from 3200 to 5200 can be a B-die, and only some are like Micron memory. You will pay premium for a > 3600 B-die while anything below right now is super cheap as all those power buyers aim to cap Zen at around 3800-4000 or go ham with Intel over 4000.
whenever i last looked i couldn’t find a single reasonably priced b-die kit on b-die finder.
in any case, a 5600x+b550 with a high-end memory kit and we’re at like €180 more or something. again, in a computer with a 1660 super. maybe you can cut that number down a bit, but it will be more expensive, considerably so. go well above the op’s budget.
It’s hard to get that info explicitly. Some mobo vendors list memory vendor on their memory support lists, plus reviews. I have an old 3200 CL14 B-die while things like 3200 cl18/19/20 and alike are even more ancient no-name memory that will cut performance for very little savings. that Ripjaws is unlikely to have that old junk but still it’s worth checking and sorting by price ascending in a local shop.
Its not that important, honestly.
Your main concerns are just that the components are compatible together, that you have sufficient power delivery and that it stays within budget.
Now team green hasn’t let me down in the last decade so I’d personally always go with the Nvidia graphics solution. If you are content with last generation processors the 3600X is a great choice and I would recommend any Asus TUF motherboard with a B450 or B550 chipset to go along with it.
As of the rest, we don’t know where you plan to order and what hardware is actually in stock and available to you. The last build you posted would work fine, although I personally have bad experiences with MSI’s firmware.
Alternatively, if you don’t mind shopping second hand… a lot of new hardware came out recently and I imagine a quite a few people might be selling off seriously good rigs at very reasonable prices. It might be worth checking ebay or your local equivalents for.
Like I have a system with a 1080Ti and a 5820k in it that I’ll be hoping to sell roughly around your budget for sometime in the near future. There will probably be others too. It’s just important to be able to somewhat estimate the value of the components there. Oh yeah, and avoid buying a rig that’s been used for mining.
Mining, like farming bitcoins and such. It basically puts the machine under maximum stress all the time. You can’t really physically tell, but you can ask a seller what he’s been using it for and ask if any mining has been involved (I’d do it in that order for strategic purposes).
Other than that, the only way to tell would be by the sort of software on the PC.
But anyone with half a brain will wipe all hard drives crystal clean before selling their system.
on some right now).