M.2 drive question

[wtburnette]

I see the 3600 is $100 less than the 3700x. Since they're the same clock speed, but two less cores on the 3600, I would think that the 3600 would be the better choice? No streaming at all, so that's not a consideration.

 

[Tombs]

I see the 3600 is $100 less than the 3700x. Since they're the same clock speed, but two less cores on the 3600, I would think that the 3600 would be the better choice? No streaming at all, so that's not a consideration.

Yep, save the $100 and put it towards faster specc'd memory. It'll make the 3600 outperform the 3700x with slower memory, by a mile.

 

[wtburnette]

Also, any real reason to go with 32GB of RAM over 16GB? Is 2666 RAM good enough, or so I need to go 3200? Like I said before, only light gaming, Office work and surfing the net.

 

[Tombs]

Also, any real reason to go with 32GB of RAM over 16GB? Is 2666 RAM good enough, or so I need to go 3200? Like I said before, only light gaming, Office work and surfing the net.

16gb will be fine for you.

I have a 16gb 3200mhz CL14 kit of gskill flare-x, that's pretty much on the QVL for every ryzen motherboard there is. I'd sell it to you for pretty cheap if you want since I don't have a need for it anymore.

The reason intel generally beats AMD in gaming is latency between the processor and memory. Intel will generally get 30ns, AMD runs in the 60-70ns range. So by speeding up your memory you counter the main hindrance to the AMD platform.

 

[wtburnette]

16gb will be fine for you.

I have a 16gb 3200mhz CL14 kit of gskill flare-x, that's pretty much on the QVL for every ryzen motherboard there is. I'd sell it to you for pretty cheap if you want since I don't have a need for it anymore.

The reason intel generally beats AMD in gaming is latency between the processor and memory. Intel will generally get 30ns, AMD runs in the 60-70ns range. So by speeding up your memory you counter the main hindrance to the AMD platform.

I see you're in Martintucky, so not overly far from me. We might have to make a deal on that spare memory

 

[wtburnette]

Ironically a Newegg daily deal just came in, listing the 3600 for $168.74, when Microcenter has it for $159.99 as long as I buy it in the store.

 

[Rubix]

Ultimately you decide if you need to. You've got some salvageable parts for sure. That 1000W will pretty much push anything, but I'd agree, overkill. If its rated well you could leave it, or sell it and go with a 500W-600W 80+ bronze or better. I mean, it's not eating any hay, so up to you. I used to game, but realized I could have a phd in astral physics and work for NASA in the time I wasted.

If you plan on returning to gaming get that high end Windows/Ryzen build. If not I'd go with a Ryzen 5 3600 / Gigabyte B450M DS3H Mobo / 16GB of DDR-4 3200 RAM and your chosen flavor of Linux. You could take your case/PSU/GPU/SSD and rebuild for about $310+tax/shipping (pcpartpicker.com). If that doesn't last 5 years and be able to do what I've talked about with a virtually imperceptible difference from a hardcore build I would be very suprised. That's like $70 a year in hardware costs.

Not sure I'd try to justify a super-build just for longevity if you don't really need it. Apple will be transitioning to ARM chips this year. ARM will have some growing pains, but will be mainstream in a few years I'm betting. 10 years is a long time in the silicon game.

 

[wtburnette]

No, no super build. Still researching motherboards, but the Ryzen 5 3600 seems to be the right choice for me. Grabbing that extra RAM from Tombs helps out with the cost as well. It'll easily still let me game. If I buy the 1TB M.2 drive, that should be plenty of room and then I might just use the 860 EVO drive I have now for Linux Mint for times when I'm not gaming. I prefer to use Linux anyway and only use Windows when I need to game. I may have to look into getting my Linux ready for gaming and then I won't need Windows at all.

 

[Rubix]

Just remember, if you get into Arch Linux, you have to tell everyone at every possible chance that you use Arch.

 

[wtburnette]

I'll likely stick with Linux Mint. I've used it a lot over the last 6 or 7 years and really like it.

 

[Tombs]

Just remember, if you get into Arch Linux, you have to tell everyone at every possible chance that you use Arch.

I thought a tattoo was required to use Arch.

 

[wtburnette]

 

[wtburnette]

Okay, now I've kind of fallen in love with the idea of a new case, even though the old one is also fantastic:

https://www.microcenter.com/product...b-tempered-glass-eatx-mid-tower-computer-case

I've read a couple reviews and watched a couple YouTube reviews and it seems like a good option. I love the aesthetic of the case. Of course, I could always just add a drive bay expansion for USB 3.0 and keep my current case going. That would be the practical thing to do, but man do I like the look of that Asus case...

 

[Hop]

Building gaming PC's is one reason I got into IT.
Working in IT is one reason I got out of building gaming PCs and buying an XBox.



/subscribing

 

[Rubix]

Building gaming PC's is one reason I got into IT.

I'm curious what you feel the future of IT is. I felt things were getting more "automated" so I opted for a more web/software dev oriented focus.

 

[wtburnette]

Building gaming PC's is one reason I got into IT.
Working in IT is one reason I got out of building gaming PCs and buying an XBox.



/subscribing

Building PC's was why I got into IT as well. I enjoyed it for a long, long time, but after ~20 years I got tired of doing my own builds. Thankfully my last build lasted this long with only minor updates. I was very thankful to move to Information Security back in 2012. Support is a great place to start, but management views support in an unacceptable way in my opinion. InfoSec is much more my speed and thankfully it pays much better as well

 

[IndyBeerman]

I know one thing guys, I'm glad I don't have to deal with the beasts that you have for cpu cooling. When I built my system years back I went with a Enermax liquid cooling system. Mounted on the top of my case and vents all the heat right out. I have 3/120mm fans that pull cool air in, and two 80mm fans puling air out of the case through the radiator. Even with the heaviest use on my AMD FX-8350 6 core chip, the fans can barely be heard.

 

[wtburnette]

I'm too accident prone to ever want to try liquid cooling. One of the guys I used to work with always used to razz me about this, but one day he called in sick. The next day when he returned he was telling me that something failed on his setup having to do with the water cooling and he had to replace some components. Not sure what or how much damage there was, but if something bad could happen, it would happen to me...

Personally I think the huge cooler in mine looks bad a$$. I am looking forward to the smaller cooler on the AMD CPU though. My son has the same one in his system and it's a nifty little cooler.

 

[IndyBeerman]

I'm too accident prone to ever want to try liquid cooling. One of the guys I used to work with always used to razz me about this, but one day he called in sick. The next day when he returned he was telling me that something failed on his setup having to do with the water cooling and he had to replace some components. Not sure what or how much damage there was, but if something bad could happen, it would happen to me...

Personally I think the huge cooler in mine looks bad a$$. I am looking forward to the smaller cooler on the AMD CPU though. My son has the same one in his system and it's a nifty little cooler.

I made a mistake, I have 3 80mm fans on the radiator.

The thing with liquid cooling is you don't go cheap. I think when I built my system the Enermax was about the most expensive chip cooler out there, and if you do it yourself you HAVE to make sure ALL connections are connected
correct and tight. When the liquid coolers first came out there used to be a problem of condensation building up on the CPU after shutdown. One of the great things about me going liquid instead of even using the factory heat sink that came in the boxed set, is that is does not interfere with anything on my motherboard. It does come close to one bank of memory, but it is still easily accessible so that way if I have to change anything there will be no problem..

If I remember tomorrow I'll take a pic of the inside of my case, nothing flashy, the only color inside the case is bright read SATA cables. I was never one that needed led's or lighted fans. The is no line forming to walk by my Tower so O don't need to showcase it. My lone excpetion was getting a glass case door so I can look inside if I need to evaluate things.

 

[Tombs]

I'm too accident prone to ever want to try liquid cooling. One of the guys I used to work with always used to razz me about this, but one day he called in sick. The next day when he returned he was telling me that something failed on his setup having to do with the water cooling and he had to replace some components. Not sure what or how much damage there was, but if something bad could happen, it would happen to me...

Personally I think the huge cooler in mine looks bad a$$. I am looking forward to the smaller cooler on the AMD CPU though. My son has the same one in his system and it's a nifty little cooler.

You won't need crazy cooling for a 3600.

Even my 12 core 3900x is staying chilly on a 120mm tower cooler, running 24 hour folding@home work tasks that pretty well keeps it maxed out.

The stock cooler that comes with it will more than get the job done.

As far as water cooling, with closed loop liquid coolers they're pretty painless these days. Corsair or NZXT put out good units that are reliable. NZXT's software is a headache though. The failure rates are extremely low, and generally even if they do leak, PC components aren't quite as fragile as people think. It'll crash the system, but only in very rare instances is that enough to destroy a component.

Now if you had an open loop spray directly into your power supply... That might be a pretty bad day.

[video=youtube;iJUl_IqDbNA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJUl_IqDbNA[/video]