Recommended Ryzen 3600 Motherboard, Memory and SSD

[Ian]

I think I'm going to pull the trigger on a Ryzen 3600, but I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for good value hardware to pair with it?

I'm looking at getting the MSI B450 Tomahawk motherboard, as it's a good price and compatible with this CPU (after a BIOS update). I'm also unsure on which good value RAM to get (16 or 32GB) or which NVMe to go for. I've got some options in my Amazon basket, but I understand that that Ryzen really likes low latency memory, so I'm sure there is an optimal purchase.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ian]

Here's what I've got in my basket at the moment:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0143UM4TC/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FQ9ZJD9/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HR83J4S/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07STGGQ18/

 

[muckshifter]

Ryzen 'likes' memory, go 32GB

Strongly suggest getting an X570 motherboard, not all X370 and B350 motherboards will be "upgraded" to take advantage of the new chip, at least get a proven X370. AMD recommend the Asus ROG Strix X570 (hero?)


can't fault your other choices

 

[Ian]

Cheers @muckshifter . The MSI B450 Tomahawk works with the 3000 series (after a BIOS upgrade), and it's so much cheaper than an X570 - so I'm still tempted to go for this cheaper motherboard. I can spend that extra £ on additional RAM in time if the 16GB doesn't cut it. I'd definitely like 32GB, but I'm already over budget .

 

[V_R]

Man reading this makes me realise how out of touch with hardware I am! Time to do some reading.

 

[Abarbarian]

Cheers @muckshifter . The MSI B450 Tomahawk works with the 3000 series (after a BIOS upgrade), and it's so much cheaper than an X570 - so I'm still tempted to go for this cheaper motherboard. I can spend that extra £ on additional RAM in time if the 16GB doesn't cut it. I'd definitely like 32GB, but I'm already over budget .

With four memory slots on mobos you could always buy 2x8GB and add 2x8GB later on. Looks like the X570 mobos have some neat upgrades that only work with the new cpu's.
Of course if you wait a few weeks/months prices will drop as more mobos are brought out.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14161/the-amd-x570-motherboard-overview

 

[Ian]

With four memory slots on mobos you could always buy 2x8GB and add 2x8GB later on. Looks like the X570 mobos have some neat upgrades that only work with the new cpu's.

Yeah that's what I think I'm going to do . I'll see how the 16GB goes down for now, then add more at a later date.

I've placed the order now .

 

[muckshifter]

16GB will be fine, was just suggesting 32 if you had the budget ...

 

[Ian]

I'm now typing this from my new Ryzen system

It's not running quite right yet, as the motherboard I bought has been very problematic - it takes around 3-5 boot attempts to even start up. It looks like this is a known issue with this CPU and there's a BIOS update coming in the next week or so.

I've not pushed the system too hard yet, but I'll be using it a lot more once the new BIOS update has been released.

 

[V_R]

Good times! Once the kinks are ironed out it should be all good.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Interesting, as you probably know I've been contemplating a similar system but all the combos I put together featured an X570 chipset.

I've been pleased with my last couple of MSI boards but the cheapest MSI X570 board is around £170, more than twice the price of the B450 boards.

Still, I think I'd rather go for the X570 all in all. I'm waiting to be be paid for some work I done last week before my purchase which will pay for most of it but that cash won't arrive and clear for 4/5 weeks so I'm hoping prices may stabilise by then.

And Ian, apart from the motherboard issues, are you happy with the rest of your hardware choices? I'd selected 3000Mhz RAM and I notice you're using 3200Mhz RAM.

 

[Ian]

I don't think I'd make the most of the features on the X570 and I could do with not spending too much at the moment, so I'm happy with the B450 as a compromise overall (the X570 would definitely be better in an ideal world though). You'll certainly have a great system .

Interesting, the difference in performance vs my 3570k isn't as pronounced as I would have expected. I've not done any heavy multitasking yet though, so it isn't really fair to compare at the moment.

And Ian, apart from the motherboard issues, are you happy with the rest of your hardware choices? I'd selected 3000Mhz RAM and I notice you're using 3200Mhz RAM.

Yep, I'm happy with the NVMe and RAM - again these were selected with cost in mind, although I did pay a little more for 3200Mhz RAM as Ryzen can really take advantage of faster memory timings (ideally, I'd have gone higher still, but prices get silly above 3200Mhz). I'm still using my NVIDIA 960 GTX, which is fine for now - but I may aim to upgrade that next year all being well.

What hardware are you keeping an eye on at the moment?

 

[floppybootstomp]

My future system tentatively pencilled in:

MSI X570 A Pro Motherboard - £170
2 x 8Gb Corsair 3200Mhz RAM - £79 (same as yours)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor 6 core 3.6Ghz - £176
Intel NVME M.2 SSD 256Gb - £56

Total: £481.

I'm hoping the Noctua cooler currently fitted to the 1st Gen Intel i7 will fit the Ryzen CPU, I still have all the AMD fittings that came with it. If not add another fifty quid for a cooler I suppose. Or I may consider buying a CPU with stock AMD cooler.

I'll be keeping the case; Pioneer B-DR; Corsair 600W PSU; 3 x 2Tb mechanical HDDs; Nvidia GTX1050 2Gb and Asus Xonar sound card.

 

[muckshifter]

My motherboard is AMD 3000 ready, I can use all I already have. just boasting saying.

 

[floppybootstomp]

This AMD build I’m contemplating, I honestly have to admit I have my doubts. Why? Several reasons but the strongest ones being that the last two AMD builds I did for myself have been flaky. Hard to pinpoint what was up with them but you get a feel for a machine and my last three Intel builds have been great whereas my last two AMD builds have been less than stellar.

I put together a very humble i3 build just for my oscilloscope and music play back and it’s like greased lightning. The 1st Gen i7 build my proposed AMD build will replace still performs respectably after eight years of use.

I note Ians comments about being disappointed with the Ryzen system and I do wonder. Will my Ryzen build seriously give me £500 worth of improvement over my existing 8 year old Intel system? I have my doubts.

I could go for an Intel i5 in a mid-priced MSI motherboard and I know it would be an improvement.

I don’t actually know whether a Ryzen based system would be an improvement.

Decisions, decisions…..

 

[muckshifter]

Wait, save your money, see what 2-3-6 months of 'fixes' come out.

My next 'upgrade' will be an AMD2700. (may go X)

 

[Abarbarian]

Here are a couple of test reviews that may help.

Ryzen 5 3600 vs. Core i5-9600K

Intel Core i5-9600K Review: A Mid-Range Gamer's CPU

The last review is comparing the Intel with the older Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 7 2700.

i was curious about the AM 4 set ups and it seems after reading that I can get a cpu and mobo bundle that would rival my Skylake set up for around £250 which is less than the cost of the Skylake cpu.

https://www.awd-it.co.uk/components/cpu-memory-motherboard-bundles/amd-ryzen-3rd-gen.-bundles.html

 

[MvSlainXVII]

Ryzen 'likes' memory, go 32GB

Strongly suggest getting an X570 motherboard, not all X370 and B350 motherboards will be "upgraded" to take advantage of the new chip, at least get a proven X370. AMD recommend the Asus ROG Strix X570 (hero?)


can't fault your other choices

The better option is to go B450 and 32 gb is an overkill. The best Ram will be 16 (2x8) stick CL16 3600Mhz
and get a better motherboard. Arous suck in AMD sector as they dont have the strong build as their Intel counter part.
Ryzen 3rd is dependent on the infinity fabric even and 2144MHz cl15 (even more tighter timing) rated ram can work as a 3600mhz cl 16 ram. The Size of the RAM doesnt affect the Ryzen System.