new PC

[zed]

my NUC is starting to make too much sound with the fan running highspeed all the time (*), I need to clean it out, I took it apart and removed ssd, memory etc but everythings pretty wedged in there, I will have to unscrew more stuff & unplug cables with very little room to maneuvor. i.e. there is a chance I might damage something, so with all shops being shut ATM I dont want to run the risk of being without a PC for days so are looking at getting a new one

Is this a good deal?
https://www.pccomponentes.com/pccom-bronze-amd-ryzen-5-3600-8gb-1tb-240ssd-gtx1650
ryzen 5 3600? I see theres no onboard gfx or would I be better with 3400g and more memory i.e. 16gb total and use that onboard gfx and save 150 euros?

(*)about 3 months ago, I downclocked it to 90% speed and a month ago dropped it further to 85%.
Still the fans spin up much too much now

ta zed

 

[Davros]

Is this a good deal?

It looks ok but theres no real details (make and model of mboard, ram speed, ect)

would I be better with 3400g and more memory

I'd say no unless you run something that really only cares about ram quantity)

just very quickly put this together from overclockers
(win10 not included)
1650 palit = £140
3600 =£200
mboard = £60(matx) £80(atx)
ram £40 3200mhz (2x4gb)
psu £34(kolink) £46(corsair)
case £25

total £499 (min)
edit: forgot storage
Seagate 1TB BarraCuda 7200rpm £37
Kingston A400 240GB SATA £36 (wd green £40 m2 sata) (Toshiba Kioxia m2 nvme £44)

total £572 (ish)

 

[Malo]

You're going from a NUC to a full desktop? I guess you really didn't care about the size

 

[zed]

Ok thanks, So it seems atm ryzen 5 3600 offers the most bang for the buck. I just noticed that model ain’t in stock, I’ll have to look elsewhere. It will be my first amd since a k6 350 from 20 years ago.
I do prefer a smaller size, apart from a Mac mini I used to have the Nuc was only my second small Pc. I wouldn’t recommend them though, they run too hot, Intel graphic drivers suck as well.

 

[Davros]

Actually the 1600af offers the best bang for buck

 

[zed]

oh yes you're correct
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html
Its not as powerful though, I'll investigate a bit more

 

[Malo]

If it's within your budget you should definitely go for the Zen 2 version.

 

[homerdog]

Yes the R5 3600 is incredible value and a pretty big step up from the old 1600. It is only $175 (!) on newegg right now and it comes with an adequate cooler.
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-5-3600/p/N82E16819113569?&quicklink=true

If it's for gaming the GTX1650 Super is a lot better than the regular GTX1650 for like $20 more. If you're going for prebuilt then your options are limited but it's something to keep in mind.

Also you'll probably want 16GB but it's easy and cheap enough to throw in another 8GB into a prebuilt so I wouldn't make a purchase based on that.

 

[Cyan]

Yes the R5 3600 is incredible value and a pretty big step up from the old 1600. It is only $175 (!) on newegg right now and it comes with an adequate cooler.
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-5-3600/p/N82E16819113569?&quicklink=true

If it's for gaming the GTX1650 Super is a lot better than the regular GTX1650 for like $20 more. If you're going for prebuilt then your options are limited but it's something to keep in mind.

Also you'll probably want 16GB but it's easy and cheap enough to throw in another 8GB into a prebuilt so I wouldn't make a purchase based on that.

well, the new 1600AF is very good at what it does, and based on the 2600, very efficient too -less nm btw-.

As for RAM, 16GB is ok -so is 8GB but not as future proof-. For the Ryzen, I'd go with 3200MHz RAM or above. The Ryzen love those. Also, never consider Intel, I think they are retiring from the desktop CPU market -or laptops too-, 'cos they are light years behind AMD in every possible way now -security holes everywhere, lots of power consumption, less efficient than the Ryzen and not performing well, expensive without justification, and they cant bring their processor to less than a certain amount of nm.

Years ago, I never thought I'd ever say this.

 

[Malo]

I'm not sure how 8Gb RAM in a gaming PC is in the conversation in 2020. Unless building on a minimal budget for a Fortnite PC or something?

 

[Davros]

While building a new pc I would certainly go for at least 16gb for future proofing but 8gb right now is perfectly fine and you can always add to it later

 

[homerdog]

I'm not sure how 8Gb RAM in a gaming PC is in the conversation in 2020. Unless building on a minimal budget for a Fortnite PC or something?

Definitely want 16GB imo, I was just saying it's fine if the PC comes with only 1 8GB stick since it's super cheap and easy to add another. If all the other specs and price is right.

 

[Malo]

Definitely want 16GB imo, I was just saying it's fine if the PC comes with only 1 8GB stick since it's super cheap and easy to add another. If all the other specs and price is right.

The problem with that is that you're initially slowing your system down not having dual-channel memory, you're buying a RAM stick not paired and tested by the manufacturer for non-JEDEC speeds in dual-channel and gambling that if you don't buy another one in a couple of years that the same model will be available.

 

[homerdog]

The problem with that is that you're initially slowing your system down not having dual-channel memory, you're buying a RAM stick not paired and tested by the manufacturer for non-JEDEC speeds in dual-channel and gambling that if you don't buy another one in a couple of years that the same model will be available.

I'm saying go ahead and buy the extra stick at time of purchase. Even if you don't get the XMP specs with both sticks (do cheap PCs even come with XMP RAM?), having dual channel will still result and a large bandwidth increase.

It would be kind of dumb to pass up a good deal because it only has 8GB is what I'm saying.

 

[orangpelupa]

well, the new 1600AF is very good at what it does, and based on the 2600, very efficient too -less nm btw-.

As for RAM, 16GB is ok -so is 8GB but not as future proof-. For the Ryzen, I'd go with 3200MHz RAM or above. The Ryzen love those. Also, never consider Intel, I think they are retiring from the desktop CPU market -or laptops too-, 'cos they are light years behind AMD in every possible way now -security holes everywhere, lots of power consumption, less efficient than the Ryzen and not performing well, expensive without justification, and they cant bring their processor to less than a certain amount of nm.

Years ago, I never thought I'd ever say this.

isnt 1600AF is actually 2600 but downclocked? Probably people can overclock it by changing the multiplier on P0. So it will transform into 2600.

 

[Davros]

you're buying a RAM stick not paired and tested by the manufacturer

Or he's buying 2x 4gb

 

[zed]

Went and brought this, should be here in a couple of days
https://www.neobyte.es/neo-gaming-2723.html
16gb memory, & 4gb graphicscard. So big upgrade from my 8gb with onboard gfx, in the last week with the latest windows update, there seems to a lot less free memory than before.
Also got a USA keyboard, for over the last year, I’ve been using Spanish keyboards but set to international mapping, so though numbers and letters are the same, all the characters don’t correspond with what’s written on the keys.
Eg for ; I have to press ñ or = is - etc.
So i’ll Be glad when that arrives, not so glad about installing all the software though, maybe I just put the old ssd from the nuc in the new pc? It’s better model Samsung 970 or will that cause too many problems?

 

[orangpelupa]

Went and brought this, should be here in a couple of days
https://www.neobyte.es/neo-gaming-2723.html
16gb memory, & 4gb graphicscard. So big upgrade from my 8gb with onboard gfx, in the last week with the latest windows update, there seems to a lot less free memory than before.
Also got a USA keyboard, for over the last year, I’ve been using Spanish keyboards but set to international mapping, so though numbers and letters are the same, all the characters don’t correspond with what’s written on the keys.
Eg for ; I have to press ñ or = is - etc.
So i’ll Be glad when that arrives, not so glad about installing all the software though, maybe I just put the old ssd from the nuc in the new pc? It’s better model Samsung 970 or will that cause too many problems?

windows may fail to boot and it'll try to fix it self and failed and you need to go to safe mode, do nothing (or install new motherboard driver), then reboot to normal windows and it will automatically install the needed drivers from windows update if you hadn't.

or everything will be fine, it will boot to windows just fine but with the wrong resolution, but it will get fixed by itself in just a few minutes. Just make sure its connected to internet and allows drivers to be downloaded from Windows update.

btw, its better to install latest drivers manually, after windows update do its thing. Otherwise you may need to install latest drivers again as windows update installs old drivers, replacing your newer drivers.

 

[Svensk Viking]

I'm saying go ahead and buy the extra stick at time of purchase. Even if you don't get the XMP specs with both sticks (do cheap PCs even come with XMP RAM?), having dual channel will still result and a large bandwidth increase.

It would be kind of dumb to pass up a good deal because it only has 8GB is what I'm saying.

YMMV but I've mixed different RAM since the LGA 775 days, all four slots filled, and the few times I did have compatibility issues, a BIOS update solved them. Dual channel has always been reported as working. My old Pentium 3 build also had 192MB RAM, all sticks being different.
I don't know when this changed but RAM is very flexible nowadays, Intel's Flex mode makes it so dual channel will work even if you have three sticks, or two oddly paired sticks.

New platforms can be more wonky with RAM but I really think people in general are taking it way too serious with all RAM being identical. I've seen people spend way too much for their upgrades because they want 4x4GB identical RAM for their 5+ year old PCs.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The problem with that is that you're initially slowing your system down not having dual-channel memory, you're buying a RAM stick not paired and tested by the manufacturer for non-JEDEC speeds in dual-channel and gambling that if you don't buy another one in a couple of years that the same model will be available.

The Ryzen 3xxx series is much better at handling this situation than the Ryzen 1xxx series (really bad) or Ryzen 2xxx series (not so bad but still not great).

I'm currently running mixed manufacturer and mixed manufacture date (some RAM purchased 3 years later) and mixed capacities (8 GB and 16 GB sticks). You may be limited to the slowest timings common across all the RAM sticks, but it should work fine otherwise. In my case all of the RAM chips were manufactured by Samsung, so I could still overclock them a bit.

Even the 1xxx series could handle this RAM in dual channel mode but wouldn't run them at anything higher than 2133 speed. The sticks are all rated for 3200 speeds.

Regards,
SB