Discussion General ramblings about purchasing decisions (and AMD stock coolers vs AIO)

[AlexTSG]

With both my girlfriend and I working from home, I really need to get us each a reasonable PC. I need to create videos using Adobe Premiere Pro and Camtasia, and she works with InDesign. We would both like to be able to do some casual gaming.

However, with new CPUs and GPUs being launched before the end of the year it seems like a terrible time to drop a lot of money on those components, so I've been looking into building something that will get the job done, rather than building my dream PC.

I have an NCASE M1 v6 and a Corsair SF600 Platinum which have both been sitting unopened for over 6 months, and an old Radeon RX480 and M.2 NVMe SSD. I need a motherboard, CPU, and memory. I've pretty much decided on the MSI MPG B550I motherboard and 32GB of HyperX Fury 3733MHz RAM, so the last few days have been spent investigating a CPU and cooler.

It's been between the Ryzen 3600, and 3700X, and with the 3600 available at $160 I was leaning towards that, until I started looking at CPU coolers.

The Ryzen 5 3600 comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler, but the 3700X has the Wraith Prism instead, and I've been surprised at just how good that cooler happens to be. If I add $40 to the Ryzen 3600 to get a reasonable air cooler, I'm now within $70 of the 3700X (if I use the stock Prism cooler). While I'm hoping to upgrade to an AIO and a new 4000 Series Ryzen next year, this looks like a good option for now.

Here's an article comparing the AMD Wraith Prism to a 360mm AIO. I think if the 3600 came with the Prism cooler I'd be ordering one right now.

Ryzen 9 3900X: Wraith Prism RGB Stock Cooler vs. 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler

When we reviewed 3rd-gen Ryzen we deliberately used the included box coolers for the majority of the testing, it's included in the price after all. Following up...

www.techspot.com

Has anyone here had any long term experience (6 months+) using the AMD Wraith Prism?

 

[Thehack]

A reasonable air cooler should only be $25, which will fair much better than the wraith prism.

The Arctic Freezer 13 for example. Depending on your market, there are other 92mm fan tower cooler.

 

[AlexTSG]

Thanks, I'll take a look at the Arctic options, I've had very good experiences with their fans in the past.

Local supply of most computer components is pretty bad at the moment, and overpriced where suppliers do have stock (The Ryzen 3700X is "on special" for $430), so I'll be getting almost everything from Amazon (USA), as they are still shipping most of what I need.

Given that I ultimately want to upgrade to an 8 core or higher Ryzen 4000 series CPU in the next 12-18 months, I don't want to spend more than is absolutely necessary now. I'd be considering the 3300X too, but that seems to be MIA.

 

[Thehack]

Thanks, I'll take a look at the Arctic options, I've had very good experiences with their fans in the past.

Local supply of most computer components is pretty bad at the moment, and overpriced where suppliers do have stock (The Ryzen 3700X is "on special" for $430), so I'll be getting almost everything from Amazon (USA), as they are still shipping most of what I need.

Given that I ultimately want to upgrade to an 8 core or higher Ryzen 4000 series CPU in the next 12-18 months, I don't want to spend more than is absolutely necessary now. I'd be considering the 3300X too, but that seems to be MIA.

Since you're in USA, consider using hardwareswap on reddit and use PayPal for protection.

Grab a used cpu instead. And a good quality cooler for your future cpu. There is no reason to wait. It will likely be a paper launch and won't hit wide availability until early 2021.

 

[ignsvn]

With both my girlfriend and I working from home, I really need to get us each a reasonable PC. I need to create videos using Adobe Premiere Pro and Camtasia, and she works with InDesign. We would both like to be able to do some casual gaming.

However, with new CPUs and GPUs being launched before the end of the year it seems like a terrible time to drop a lot of money on those components, so I've been looking into building something that will get the job done, rather than building my dream PC.

I have an NCASE M1 v6 and a Corsair SF600 Platinum which have both been sitting unopened for over 6 months, and an old Radeon RX480 and M.2 NVMe SSD. I need a motherboard, CPU, and memory. I've pretty much decided on the MSI MPG B550I motherboard and 32GB of HyperX Fury 3733MHz RAM, so the last few days have been spent investigating a CPU and cooler.

It's been between the Ryzen 3600, and 3700X, and with the 3600 available at $160 I was leaning towards that, until I started looking at CPU coolers.

The Ryzen 5 3600 comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler, but the 3700X has the Wraith Prism instead, and I've been surprised at just how good that cooler happens to be. If I add $40 to the Ryzen 3600 to get a reasonable air cooler, I'm now within $70 of the 3700X (if I use the stock Prism cooler). While I'm hoping to upgrade to an AIO and a new 4000 Series Ryzen next year, this looks like a good option for now.

Here's an article comparing the AMD Wraith Prism to a 360mm AIO. I think if the 3600 came with the Prism cooler I'd be ordering one right now.

Ryzen 9 3900X: Wraith Prism RGB Stock Cooler vs. 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler

When we reviewed 3rd-gen Ryzen we deliberately used the included box coolers for the majority of the testing, it's included in the price after all. Following up...

www.techspot.com

Has anyone here had any long term experience (6 months+) using the AMD Wraith Prism?

just a reminder, IIRC one of the MSI B550 ITX boards has some components right under the CPU area & non-standard CPU support bracket.. that may or may not be a concern to you.

 

[AlexTSG]

just a reminder, IIRC one of the MSI B550 ITX boards has some components right under the CPU area & non-standard CPU support bracket.. that may or may not be a concern to you.

Yup, been following and posting in that thread. I'm double checking all the CPU coolers for mounting issues.

Unfortunately, the Arctic Freezer 13, while it mounts on the stock AMD mounting hardware, won't clear my RAM modules.

I do have another plan. A while back I bought a Noctua NH-L9x65 to replace the stock cooler on my home server (Intel i3-4160), but I see it came with AM4 mounting hardware in the box. It also can take a thicker 25mm fan, and it mounts on the standard AMD backplate.

So, I'll just pick up a Noctua NF-A9 PWM 25mm fan and the Ryzen 5 3600. I think the Noctua cooler will do better than the AMD Wraith Stealth, and when I do get a 240mm AIO in the future, my home server can get the NH-L9x65.

I think @Thehack is right about Ryzen 4000 being a paper launch this year anyway, and this way I get to see if there are any showstopper problems with them, or BIOS issues that need sorting out before I buy one. I can also wait until they've been on the market for a few months and start dropping in price a bit.

At the moment it's going to cost me under $600 to get everything up and running with the MSI B550I, a Ryzen 3600 and 32GB of RAM, and I don't think that's bad at all.

 

[AlexTSG]

Order placed! My NCASE M1 v6 won't have to stand empty for too much longer.

I went with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 which is on sale for $155

The RAM was a tougher decision: I chose to get 32GB of HyperX Fury 3733MHz (Non RGB). It uses SK Hynix DJR while the RGB version uses Micron J.
I'll probably run the RAM at 3600MHz and see if I can tighten up the timings a bit.
I was also looking at some G.Skill options, but I also like that the Non RGB HyperX is only 34mm in height, and it may end up in another smaller case in the future, where a lower profile module could make a difference.

I also picked up 2 of the Arctic P12 PWM PST CO fans. The Non CO versions were impressive in a recent Optimum Tech video, and I'm hoping the improved bearings in these are as good or better. Didn't even know about the PST option, which allows you to daisy chain the fans from one another, but it looks like it should make for neater cabling than a fan splitter and extension would.

I'm awaiting pricing from a supplier sometime tomorrow on the MSI MPG B550I.