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I have some questions about a new PC build


JustinB

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Finally time to create a new computer for my job, and I am going to go AMD this time, but I am far from a computer genius so I have some questions as it has been about 9 years since I last built a computer, and last time it wasn't made specifically for Photoshop.

This computer will be used for internet browsing with literally several dozen tabs open in 2 different browsers, lots of photo advertisement creation in PS (actual photo editing not so much but some), some video editing/creation, and YouTube/Pandora/radio streaming in the background, but I have such a massive amount on my plate every single day that I need it to be really fast. I don't see myself using this for any gaming.

1. Ryzen CPU seems to be the way to go. But what about cores and speeds? Should I stick with an 8-core and slightly higher core speed, or would I benefit more from the 12-core with slightly slower core speed?

-1b. Just how much of a difference would I even see? Is the extra 4 cores, 8 threads, 2mb L2 cache, and 32mb L3 cache worth the additional $150 (Ryzen 7 3800x vs Ryzen 9 3900x) for what I will be using it for?

2. I will be going with 32gigs of G.Skill RAM. If I remember correctly, it is better to go with 4 x 8gig vs 2 x 16gig right? On the other hand, 2 x 16gig means I would have room to expand to 64gigs (given the motherboards capabilities of course)

-2b. How much should I focus on higher RAM speeds? I see both CPUs mentioned say 3200 but I also read somewhere that it (at least Ryzen 9) can be clocked for speeds of 5000. TBH, I only use programs available to me to OC anything, I don't do it manually.

3. Considering the Samsung 970 Pro PCIe SSD as I have read quite a lot of great things about it. Thoughts? Recommendations?


Motherboard, GPU, and PSU I don't think I will need any help with, but by all means please feel free to share ideas, suggestions and recommendations.
 

JustinB

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Since there doesn't appear to be a way to edit my original post.:

To keep this short, the 12 core seems to be a waste of money for my needs. So now the question is, would the additional 0.2GHz increase from the Ryzen 7 2700x to the 3800x be anywhere near worth the additional $180? I wanted to kind of go all out so my computer will last more than a decade of great performance (like my first build) but not if the performance difference will be so minimal it won't even be something I could notice.
 

JJLAPIN

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Here is a thread from a couple of months ago.
 

admin

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Do you have a budget to work with? That would help a lot to recommend parts.

Should I stick with an 8-core and slightly higher core speed, or would I benefit more from the 12-core with slightly slower core speed?

If you are doing video editing and/or heavy multitasking the additional cores are much better than slightly higher clock speed.

Just how much of a difference would I even see? Is the extra 4 cores, 8 threads, 2mb L2 cache, and 32mb L3 cache worth the additional $150 (Ryzen 7 3800x vs Ryzen 9 3900x) for what I will be using it for?

General consensus is that the 3800x is the least value for the money in the Ryzen 3000 lineup and should be ignored. Either save even more and go with 3700x or R5 3600, or step up to the 3900x for the additional cores.

You may also consider waiting for the 3950x if it's in your budget, should be coming out soon.

2. I will be going with 32gigs of G.Skill RAM. If I remember correctly, it is better to go with 4 x 8gig vs 2 x 16gig right? On the other hand, 2 x 16gig means I would have room to expand to 64gigs (given the motherboards capabilities of course)
I would go with 16GB sticks for future expansion as you have noted.

-2b. How much should I focus on higher RAM speeds? I see both CPUs mentioned say 3200 but I also read somewhere that it (at least Ryzen 9) can be clocked for speeds of 5000. TBH, I only use programs available to me to OC anything, I don't do it manually.
For Ryzen memory speed IS important. 3600mhz seems to be the sweet spot for value/performance as above that there are diminishing returns. Be sure to get memory that is on the QVL for your motherboard. X570 boards are notoriously picky about memory stability.

3. Considering the Samsung 970 Pro PCIe SSD as I have read quite a lot of great things about it. Thoughts? Recommendations?
It's an excellent drive and there's nothing at all wrong with it, however it's not the best value. If you are going with an x570 motherboard you can get a PCIe Gen4 M.2 drive for about the same price or maybe even less - something like Adata XPG Gammix S50 similar.
 
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JustinB

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Just like last time I see I am choosing the wrong hardware for me so thank you for responding.

Do you have a budget to work with? That would help a lot to recommend parts.

At this moment I only have $880 but I figured I should take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and at least grab what I can, and I would just buy the rest of the parts when I got the chance. I don't have a set budget, I just know I am paying for it up front and my boss will be reimbursing me half the total cost.

Currently only saving around a hundred a month though if I have it to save.

If you are doing video editing and/or heavy multitasking the additional cores are much better than slightly higher clock speed.

I wouldn't really say it's video editing as much as it is just adding banners and text to video clips so nothing major with that specifically, and it's 0 to maybe 2 or 3 videos a month. The multitasking would be the several dozen tabs across two browsers (with a music streaming site open), Photoshop, OneNote, and FastStone Image Viewer.

General consensus is that the 3800x is the least value for the money in the Ryzen 3000 lineup and should be ignored. Either save even more and go with 3700x or R5 3600, or step up to the 3900x for the additional cores.

You may also consider waiting for the 3950x if it's in your budget, should be coming out soon.

Quick look I saw the 3950x has an expected price of almost $800, definitely not in my budget right now lol. Since AMD is good at keeping the same socket types (from what I've seeing) then maybe someday.

Am I right in assuming you're saying the additional $140 from the 2700x to 3700x is definitely worth it in my situation? The only real difference I am seeing is a lower wattage, -0.1GHz base speed,+0.1GHz boosted speed, and double L3 cache for the 3700x, so am I missing something? Perhaps I will have to just splurge and spend $500 on the 3900x

For Ryzen memory speed IS important. 3600mhz seems to be the sweet spot for value/performance as above that there are diminishing returns. Be sure to get memory that is on the QVL for your motherboard. X570 boards are notoriously picky about memory stability.

Thank you for pointing out the importance of this, I will be sure to look carefully for this to avoid problems.

It's an excellent drive and there's nothing at all wrong with it, however it's not the best value. If you are going with an x570 motherboard you can get a PCIe Gen4 M.2 drive for about the same price or maybe even less - something like Adata XPG Gammix S50 similar.

Do you have anything that suggests this is a good quality drive? Amazon and Newegg have only 1 review between them. I was also looking at the Intel 660p series M.2 2280 but have read some reviews saying the speeds aren't nearly as good as advertised
 

admin

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At this moment I only have $880 but I figured I should take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and at least grab what I can, and I would just buy the rest of the parts when I got the chance. I don't have a set budget, I just know I am paying for it up front and my boss will be reimbursing me half the total cost.
Ok that helps. Do you have any parts you will re-use, like power supply, GPU, case etc? Or do we need to include everything in this budget?

Here's something I put together that fits in your budget, minus GPU. This is using a B450 motherboard (to fit in the budget) that can accommodate 3rd gen Ryzen CPU's. I've personally used this CPU/motherboard/memory combination for a build and it's been very reliable.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($129.00)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA G5 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $755.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-13 21:10 EST-0500


It wouldn't be too much more to step up to an X570 board and Gen.4 M.2 SSD, so if budget allows with sales or if you already have a case or PSU that could be an option. Something like this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($168.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA G5 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $870.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-13 21:15 EST-0500


Do you have anything that suggests this is a good quality drive? Amazon and Newegg have only 1 review between them. I was also looking at the Intel 660p series M.2 2280 but have read some reviews saying the speeds aren't nearly as good as advertised
There are currently few reviews because it's brand new. It's actually not even on PCPartPicker.com yet so I couldn't use it in the above build. Adata makes good drives and I've personally used them for a while now without any issues at all. They're as fast or faster than Samsung drives at much better prices. You can look at the reviews of their popular 3rd gen drives like the SX8200 to get an idea.

The 660p is still the value leader for storage capacity. If you need 2TB or more go with that, nothing else can touch it in terms of GB per dollar. It's fast enough for most people. Even though on paper it's something like 6x slower than the above Adata drives, you probably won't notice much difference in real world applications.

Am I right in assuming you're saying the additional $140 from the 2700x to 3700x is definitely worth it in my situation? The only real difference I am seeing is a lower wattage, -0.1GHz base speed,+0.1GHz boosted speed, and double L3 cache for the 3700x, so am I missing something? Perhaps I will have to just splurge and spend $500 on the 3900x
2700x is 2nd gen Ryzen and although it's still good, I would go with a 3rd gen chip. The best value for the money is the R5 3600, for your budget that's probably the best bet. If you step up to the 3900X you get a big performance increase in multi-threaded tasks, and it's probably worth it if you can fit it into your budget. I wouldn't consider the 3700x or 3800x as they stretch your budget and don't offer as much of a performance increase as the 3900x would.
 

JustinB

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Ok that helps. Do you have any parts you will re-use, like power supply, GPU, case etc? Or do we need to include everything in this budget?

Here's something I put together that fits in your budget, minus GPU. This is using a B450 motherboard (to fit in the budget) that can accommodate 3rd gen Ryzen CPU's. I've personally used this CPU/motherboard/memory combination for a build and it's been very reliable.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($129.00)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA G5 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $755.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-13 21:10 EST-0500


It wouldn't be too much more to step up to an X570 board and Gen.4 M.2 SSD, so if budget allows with sales or if you already have a case or PSU that could be an option. Something like this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($168.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA G5 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $870.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-13 21:15 EST-0500



There are currently few reviews because it's brand new. It's actually not even on PCPartPicker.com yet so I couldn't use it in the above build. Adata makes good drives and I've personally used them for a while now without any issues at all. They're as fast or faster than Samsung drives at much better prices. You can look at the reviews of their popular 3rd gen drives like the SX8200 to get an idea.

The 660p is still the value leader for storage capacity. If you need 2TB or more go with that, nothing else can touch it in terms of GB per dollar. It's fast enough for most people. Even though on paper it's something like 6x slower than the above Adata drives, you probably won't notice much difference in real world applications.


2700x is 2nd gen Ryzen and although it's still good, I would go with a 3rd gen chip. The best value for the money is the R5 3600, for your budget that's probably the best bet. If you step up to the 3900X you get a big performance increase in multi-threaded tasks, and it's probably worth it if you can fit it into your budget. I wouldn't consider the 3700x or 3800x as they stretch your budget and don't offer as much of a performance increase as the 3900x would.

I apologize if I worded it in a confusing way, I intend to spend a total of $1,500-$2,200 on the computer, the $880 I had was just a starting point and I was intending on using that for just 3 or more components on Black Friday/Cyber Monday so I can end up with an extremely good computer. That number goes higher each payday and is now $955, it will be at least a grand by the end of the month. I kind of feel like a jerk saying that since you spent the time coming up with a list of components for me, which I really appreciate.

I will be starting over brand new as my old computer will become my media computer for my living room, so I will need to buy every part.

Also I apologize for my delay, this is the busy season for us and am currently working around 12-14 hours a day so I can't always get to the forum.
 

admin

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Ok, here's a complete build with 3900x within your total budget.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($499.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($164.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ Corsair)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card ($408.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 650 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($138.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Corsair LL120RGB LED (Three Fans With Lighting Node PRO) 43.25 CFM 120 mm Fans ($89.99 @ Best Buy)
Case Fan: Corsair LL120RGB LED (Three Fans With Lighting Node PRO) 43.25 CFM 120 mm Fans ($89.99 @ Best Buy)
Custom: Phanteks Universal Fan Controller, PH-PWHUB_02 - Low profile design, ($20.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1851.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 09:51 EST-0500
 

JustinB

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Ok, here's a complete build with 3900x within your total budget.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($499.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($164.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ Corsair)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card ($408.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 650 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($138.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Corsair LL120RGB LED (Three Fans With Lighting Node PRO) 43.25 CFM 120 mm Fans ($89.99 @ Best Buy)
Case Fan: Corsair LL120RGB LED (Three Fans With Lighting Node PRO) 43.25 CFM 120 mm Fans ($89.99 @ Best Buy)
Custom: Phanteks Universal Fan Controller, PH-PWHUB_02 - Low profile design, ($20.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1851.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 09:51 EST-0500

Thank you for the help. I will be making my purchase of this a lot sooner than I expected so I am looking over everything now to see. I have additional questions but I will be asking them in the appropriate areas.
 

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