PC build 3500x

[Sly Dawg.7965]

Hi All,

I'm currently looking at buying a new computer primarily to play GW2 (i don't have time for other games). what are your thoughts about the 3500x CPU? I've seen a couple of deals from techfast that aren't too bad but such as this black Friday one - R5-3500X / GTX 1660 $607 + $29 Deliveryhttps://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/498103?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_amThe 3500x has pretty decent single thread performance (currently No 7 on https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html) but I'm unsure if it has any issues. It seems this processor is a bit hard to get also, looking on http://staticice.com.au/ - if you can recommend some PC suppliers (I'm based in Australia) that would be great.

If i went down this route, what sort of motherboard would be suitable? I'll probably overclock it so might get a water cooler. I'll probably get 16GB RAM,but I'm unsure if clock speed more than 2400 is going to give that much better performance in GW2 though.

I have a 4gb GTX 970 in my current rig i was going to use. looking at my system resources when playing on my current rig, the bottleneck is my G3258, it's at 100%.

budget $1000AUD. I have a few spare 128GB m.2 drives i can use. I have no issues installing Windows myself.

[wanya.1697]

the gpu is probably overkill for gw2 if you are only playing in 1080pfor it's price the cpu will deliver a crazy amount of an upgrade to your previous oneas for overclocking in my opinion it does not make sense with these cpu's as there is only little headroom for it (about 200 mhz more maybe)there are so many AM4 motherboards out there it's stupid hard to say which to go forI think a cheap b450 or x470 are enough no need for the new x570 chipsetjust make sure it already has a bios that does support the new cpu or has an bios flash option without cpufor RAM 2x8gb upto 3600mhz should work it's kinda dependend on motherboard/bios-version/ram with 3000or3200 you should be good

[Infusion.7149]

It isn't worth upgrading your GPU unless you also are running more than 1440p if this is the only game you play; if you do upgrade you'd need a GTX 1660 super at a minimum for a worthwhile jump. The additional expense of watercooling is also not worth it for a low power chip, especially when you could get a reliable <$50 USD air cooler such as from Scythe or Noctua. In Australia it seems be Quiet is much more affordable as well.

For a Ryzen 3rd gen chip, 3600C16 is the price to performance memory choice per AMD. Any higher and you have to fiddle with FCLK unless your chip is a high bin with ability to do 1900 FCLK. I definitely wouldn't go lower than 2933 MT/s.

If GW2 is the game you mainly play I'd get a Ryzen 5 3600(x) and keep the GTX 970 as the extra threads will help with background processes. The GTX 1660 was obsolete when it came out and will continue to be dropping in value due to GTX 1660 Super with GDDR6 and the AMD competitor RX 5600 series rumored.

For a hexcore you shouldn't need more than a decent B450 board with BIOS flash such as MSI B450 Tomahawk Max or any X570 board.

[tatte.5389]

While $607AUD (373€) sounds fair for a full system, that bottom-end motherboard and CPU without SMT is going to let you down in the long run (rest of the system probably isn't very good quality either). That site also has only one sample for the CPU, so the rank isn't particularly credible at the moment.

Here's a suggestion for motherboard/CPU/RAM ($561). Motherboard I picked can be flashed without compatible (older) CPU (which is a concern, as PCPP is noticeably declaring). I'd just reuse everything else from your old system. If you want to spend the rest of the budget, PCPP is a great tool that helps you find the best deals. Be careful with motherboards (each need to be researched individually, don't assume anything). A good PSU is always a good investment. RAM speed matters with Ryzen.

I wouldn't invest in overclocking, at least before upgrading the GPU. Topping the 4.2 GHz boost is going to be bothersome and might not even happen, especially by any meaningful amount. 1660 is also not particularly stunning bump from 970, same goes for the 580 techfast has in many of their builds around your budget. I'd go at least for 1660-Ti or 2060, and recommend against upgrading it (with that budget) at all if you build your own system.

Talking about GW2s performance is not straightforward: nothing runs it perfectly, yet almost anything still runs it. I have R5 3600 myself (and the same RAM I suggested), but being a console peasant at heart, I can't really give meaningful comments about the performance/experience. The CPU is however certainly good value.

[wanya.1697]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d9_E3h8bLp-TXr-0zTJFqqVxdCR9daIVNyMatydkpFA/edit#gid=611478281https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/x570-x470-x370-b450-b350-a320-motherboards-am4-socket-for-amd-ryzen-cpus-sortable-comparison-tables.3110172/

[Sly Dawg.7965]

@"tatte.5389" said:That site also has only one sample for the CPU, so the rank isn't particularly credible at the moment.good point i missed the 1 sample.Here's a suggestion for motherboard/CPU/RAM ($561). Motherboard I picked can be flashed without compatible (older) CPU (which is a concern, as PCPP is noticeably declaring). I'd just reuse everything else from your old system. If you want to spend the rest of the budget, PCPP is a great tool that helps you find the best deals. Be careful with motherboards (each need to be researched individually, don't assume anything). A good PSU is always a good investment. RAM speed matters with Ryzen.this sounds good and I'll look into this option. I might bump it up to a 3600x, an extra $60 for future proofing.I wouldn't invest in overclocking, at least before upgrading the GPU. Topping the 4.2 GHz boost is going to be bothersome and might not even happen, especially by any meaningful amount. 1660 is also not particularly stunning bump from 970, same goes for the 580 techfast has in many of their builds around your budget. I'd go at least for 1660-Ti or 2060, and recommend against upgrading it (with that budget) at all if you build your own system.I'll keep the GTX 970 and see how it runs and upgrade if needed - cheers.

[Sly Dawg.7965]

Thanks for all the helpful feedback/ideas everyone.