51-70k New Gaming Rig

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cybermantas

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Guys, will be upgrading my 5-yr old i5-2500k rig to Ryzen R5 rig in the coming two weeks. Problem is much simpler since CPU is almost finalised. So only need to figure out the motherboard and RAM, and PSU and Cabinet.

Cabient is the trickiest because its a bit difficult to figure out options and pricing for this category in India, so I would need suggestions not just on the product but also place to buy and expected price. Ditto for other items as well actually.

Individual budget expectation in my head (most VFM is the only criteria, price vs performance curve, budget isnt really a constraint)

CPU -> 15-20k
Motherboard -> 10-15k (because this is what I have historically seen to be the ratio vis-a-vis CPU, anything less/more should be justifiable)
RAM -> Whatever makes most sense.10-15k.
PSU -> I used to think 5-7k should be fine, but if there are much better options, can stretch
Cabinet -> Same as PSU. 5-7k, but as I said, this is where I am falling short of forming a view.

Now to the customary template.
  1. What is your budget?
    • 50-70k
  2. What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
    • Doesn't matter since I will be mostly getting everything new and keeping the current one (5 yrs old) on the side until I figure a use for it. Sale price doesn't seem good enough, but here are the details all the same
    • CPU - Intel i52500k
    • Motherboard - Asus P8Z77-M Pro
    • GPU - GTX 1070 (this will obviously carry on to the new build)
    • RAM - GSkill DDR3 8 Gb
    • Monitor - Crossover 1440p 27" (Korean) - This will also carry on to the new build
    • PSU - Seasonic S12 650
    • Cabinet - Corsair 400R
    • Mouse and Keyboard - Logitech and TVS Gold
  3. Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
    • Monitor - Crossover 1440p 27"
    • GPU - MSI GTX 1070G
    • I also have SSDs and HDD from the old rig which I will be carrying over (SSD is brand new and unused)
  4. Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.
    • This will be a Ryzen build, AMD first time in 15 years, so...
    • CPU - AMD Ryzen R5 1600
    • Motherboard - any compatible motherboard. Be good to get a few options and your rationale for suggesting them
    • PSU - Best Power Supply Units (550 or 650 should be enough. Ideally Gold rating because I do tend to leave on the computer for extended hours even if I am not around. Was hoping for modular too, but then the pricing becomes too expensive)
    • RAM - Been reading about RAM issues but my understanding is it will get resolved. So prefer 3000/3200 Mhz unless you guys feel otherwise. 8x2 Gb. No bling necessary. Brand/Component/place to buy and best price please.
    • Cabinet - Another difficult choice where I dont know where to look for options. I got Corsair 400R 5 years back for 5k and now it costs 7k+. Corsair 100R is at 4.5k and that sounds like a downgrade. So what are good cabinet options with requirements being good air flow and minimal dust build (Corsair 400R had big open vents which I never figured how to fix and there was always a lot of dust build-up in the system) and slots for at least 4 HDD. I am comfortable with mid-towers, dont think space/size should be much of an issue
  5. Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component
    • Will want to get new speakers (2.1) now or later, can wait for good products. I came across Thonet & Vander on Overclockerszone.com ... any views?
  6. Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
    • Mumbai
    • Open to online purchase
  7. Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
    • Sure, but doubt anything would be relevant for me
  8. What is your intended use for this PC/hardware
    • Gaming primarily 90%
    • Watching HD movies
  9. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
    • None
  10. If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
    • Dota2, Divinity Original Sin2, almost everything under the sun at some point or the other
  11. What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
    1. Gaming - 2560x1440 for now
  12. Are you looking to overclock?
    • I havent done this ever despite always having had the option to, go figure
  13. Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
    • Windows 10 ?
Reminder. While responding, do please suggest best place to buy (Prime ABGB in Mumbai, MDComputers, ITDEPOT, Amazon... where else?)
 
For the motherboard, I recommend anything from Asus or Msi's offerings. It just depends on your budget and any specific features you want. The B350 overclocks decently but the difference between a good B350 to an entry X370 shouldn't be too bad.

I would suggest the MSI B350 Gaming Plus.

RAM: any Corsair or Gskill kit you prefer.. way too big a range to select from. Comes down to individual preferences. Performance difference above 3000Mhz are not that great a deal anymore for most mainstream or intense Gaming these days. In not talking extreme wc stuff so yeah, don't really get into the hype for RAM.

Case: again, heavily subjective aspect. Tempered glass is all the rage but given our weather n environment, goes luck with dust and cleaning chores to keep it looking that sweet.

PSU: anything around 650/750 should be good. Have a RM650X from Corsair. Pretty sweet no hassle stuff. Remember efficiency is equally important as total output. You don't need to go way high if your total computed power has about 20% upside still spare on the PSU Max capacity. There are various tools and sites that can get you an idea on your builds estimated power draw.

You've already covered most options in where to buy. If you're in Mumbai, I recommend going to lamington road and looking physically beyond Prime ABGB. Of late i've not had great experiences with Prime. They tend to be higher priced and don't really make an effort in sourcing specific parts if you need. More like take it or leave it. You can try to check for some stuff from PC Guide as well. Ask for Rohit.

Lastly I've got a Corsair Kit & my NZXT Phantom case for sale too in case in interests you.

Cheers
 
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Do invest in a good CPU cooler and for Pete sake overclock. Ryzen has a pretty simple software to help you achieve stable overclocks and get the best value for your money. For a 370 motherboard, select the one that offers the most M.2 slots along with the best feature list. Modular PSUs are good but you pay that price for neatness and if that is valuable to you, go for it. Else, be smart and manage those cables with the help of a good case and cable ties. Choose a cabinet that can handle a cooler and also manage good airflow. Do not forget that you live in a developing country and dust is what we breathe.

You will have to contact and bargain with retailers for getting the best price. All the best buddy. Also, when you do upgrade, ping me if you wish to sell your existing rig.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. But that's stuff I sort of already know (as mentioned in my post). Sorry!

What I needed help is with concrete options and product name including availability and pricing. Have done research myself and most things recommended end up showing out of stock or too pricy in India, so need inputs from what you guys have seen to be more relevant.

MSI B350 Gaming Plus - price? Any ideas if it is in stock ?

RAM and PSU is where I have seen biggest "out of stock" or "expensive pricing" issues. Whats the best recommendation here? Also for RAM (3000/3200 Mhz), CL14 vs CL16 - whats making sense on price-performance curve?

Not want to be ungrateful, just pointing the next guys in the right direction.

@mach9, will message you separately on the RAM and cabinet options. And @pratzgh1 for when I decide to dispose my old build.
 
Not really. A 3000Mhz/C15 is good enough. In today's world performance is more a combined function of various contributions from the chipset/cpu/gfx/ssd that differences between C15/C16 latencies or higher frequencies than 3000Mhz (some would say 2666 as well) are barely tangible.

More RAM (8GB to 32/64GB) however will probably give you bigger real world jumps in performance. I just upped mine to 32 gigs of DDR4 3000Mhz from 16GB 2666 & 16GB 3000 the difference was noticeable for sure. Not that it was bad earlier.

at the end depends on your use and applications as only games or applications that are specifically limited by RAM will give you big jumps.

In short you'll find the difference in performance is much lesser an issue than the difference in price to justify going for higher priced kits.

Edit: last saw MD computers had a good range of boards available. But I'm sure if you go to LR and check locally there will be quite a few vendors who have boards available. Online sites are hardly updated these days. Prime in fact has a rather stupid "Email for Price" on maybe 90% of their products.. which makes me think they're doing it intentionally.
 
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mach9 said:
Not really. A 3000Mhz/C15 is good enough. In today's world performance is more a combined function of various contributions from the chipset/cpu/gfx/ssd that differences between C15/C16 latencies or higher frequencies than 3000Mhz (some would say 2666 as well) are barely tangible.

More RAM (8GB to 32/64GB) however will probably give you bigger real world jumps in performance. I just upped mine to 32 gigs of DDR4 3000Mhz from 16GB 2666 & the difference was noticeable for sure. Not that it was bad earlier.

at the end depends on your use and applications as only games or applications that are specifically limited by RAM will give you big jumps.

In short you'll find the difference in performance is much lesser an issue than the difference in price to justify going for higher priced kits.

Edit: last saw MD computers had a good range of boards available. But I'm sure if you go to LR and check locally there will be quite a few vendors who have boards available. Online sites are hardly updated these days. Prime in fact has a rather stupid "Email for Price" on maybe 90% of their products.. which makes me think they're doing it intentionally.
Click to expand...

Exactly, Prime has no prices on display. And getting price quotes from them over the phone is a pain, if you want to know market options (like 5 or 7 prices) rather than 1 specific component. And going to LR in the hopes to find something (which you will in all likelihood, but why take a chance) isn't the best planning. Don't want to be caught in a situation where you get 4 of the 5 things you wanted and now have to ship something from Amazon/MDComputers/ITDepot.

I would also disagree on the RAM. Especially given the price difference. At least definitely on the Mhz. 3000/3200 Mhz could have statistically different performance, for not much difference in pricing. Or vs the 2400/2666. Because all prices are currently out of whack and depend solely on availability. And most review articles mention the jump in performance as memory speed improves. In fact, I would propose that the performance boost you noticed was not because of RAM size but RAM speed.

CAS 14 and CAS 16 have too much difference in pricing to be relevant for this discussion, I agree.

Boards, you guys are right, are in good supply. I should be able to figure this one out. MSI B350 looks the way to go.
 
cybermantas said:
I would also disagree on the RAM. Especially given the price difference. At least definitely on the Mhz. 3000/3200 Mhz could have statistically different performance, for not much difference in pricing. Or vs the 2400/2666. Because all prices are currently out of whack and depend solely on availability. And most review articles mention the jump in performance as memory speed improves. In fact, I would propose that the performance boost you noticed was not because of RAM size but RAM speed.
Click to expand...

You sound like a guy who has all the knowledge he needs, yet is looking for reassurance?


I didn't upgrade for 16GB 2666 to 32GB 3000 directly.. I went from 16GB 3000 to 32GB 3000. ( Left out the 16 gb 3000 upgrade in my earlier reply, corrected)

Statistically speaking obviously you will have differences with every higher spec'd upgrade you do. Notice I stressed on real world or tangible benefits/experiences.

If frankly specs are what drive you the most then there's hardly an issue. Freeze your budget and buy the best spec parts you can afford mate.
 
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mach9 said:
You sound like a guy who has all the knowledge he needs, yet is looking for reassurance?


I didn't upgrade for 16GB 2666 to 32GB 3000 directly.. I went from 16GB 3000 to 32GB 3000. ( Left out the 16 gb 3000 upgrade in my earlier reply, corrected)

Statistically speaking obviously you will have differences with every higher spec'd upgrade you do. Notice I stressed on real world or tangible benefits/experiences.

If frankly specs are what drive you the most then there's hardly an issue. Freeze your budget and buy the best spec parts you can afford mate.
Click to expand...

Sigh... Didn't want to be THAT guy. Not trying to come off as arrogant. Or Know-it-all. But anyway...

At work, so cant view the video currently... But I would like to contribute a few links as well on the point of RAM speed. Its not about specs, to reiterate... its about performance-price ratio. If 500 rs additional gets noticeable improvement, then the answer is a yes. Obviously there is a point beyond which there is diminishing return, so this exercise is all about figuring that point out. For e.g., while on RAM topic, I have seen 2400 Mhz at 10k and 3000/3200 Mhz in 12-14k range. It seems to me that 3000/3200 is worth it, what I need help is figuring out whats the right price for the 3000/3200 Mhz RAM (since I mentioned that prices are very very volatile right now due to availability). 3000Mhz is the sweet spot and not 2400 Mhz from my reading and that's the reason I am happy to discuss and debate this point with other people on this forum.

We could get into a similar discussion on other products as and when I get opinions on them...

P.S. - And yes, reassurance is always always helpful!
 
Narrowed motherboard preferences to:

1. MSI B350 Gaming Pro Carbon
2. Asus B350-F ROG STRIX

But can't find the first two in India. Any places you know of who may have it.

If not the above, then will probably get the Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3. Choosing these for the following reasons:

1. Audio Codex ALC1220
2. More SATA slots (I need 4-5), most have only upto 4

Still looking for PSU and Cabinet options.
 
While my advise might seem contrary to what you might be thinking of, I would offer the following suggestions.

1. Don't keep the previous machine active unless you CLEARLY know what to do with it, and re-use as many parts as possible. Speaking from personal experience here.

That should allow you to reuse the Case and possibly the PSU too.(I think that the good 650 you already have should be able to run the Ryzen Rig stably. Or are there some incompatible power connectors that have emerged since the 2500K days?)

If you absolutely have to run the old machine as a server get a basic cabinet as the H77 will allow the IGP of the 2500K to run. Underclock it to manage temps.

2. There was some talk of Ryzen performance being sensitive to RAM speed and timings, will look it up when back home and link articles. Run 3200 if the board can support it.

3. I may pick up that 2x4GB kit of DDR3 from you... Am looking to extend the life of my 2500K rig.

PS. Long time no see Recca Chan!
 
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Budget -63K

CPU - AMD Ryzen R7 1700 -25000,
Motherboard - Asus Prime X370-Pro -13000,
PSU - Seasonic M12II 620w -8000,
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB(8GBx2) 3200Mhz DDR4 -12000,
Cabinet - Cooler Master Masterbox Lite 5 -5000.
TOTAL -63,000.
 
Psycho_McCrazy said:
While my advise might seem contrary to what you might be thinking of, I would offer the following suggestions.

1. Don't keep the previous machine active unless you CLEARLY know what to do with it, and re-use as many parts as possible. Speaking from personal experience here.

That should allow you to reuse the Case and possibly the PSU too.(I think that the good 650 you already have should be able to run the Ryzen Rig stably. Or are there some incompatible power connectors that have emerged since the 2500K days?)

If you absolutely have to run the old machine as a server get a basic cabinet as the H77 will allow the IGP of the 2500K to run. Underclock it to manage temps.

2. There was some talk of Ryzen performance being sensitive to RAM speed and timings, will look it up when back home and link articles. Run 3200 if the board can support it.

3. I may pick up that 2x4GB kit of DDR3 from you... Am looking to extend the life of my 2500K rig.

PS. Long time no see Recca Chan!
Click to expand...

Selling the previous machine is not going to get me much, hence not thinking about it. That option is always open though. Don't wanna reuse the case. 5 yrs with this case is enough, and I don't like it much anymore because of dust/heating issues which may or may not be the case's fault. So a change is due there anyway. PSU is the only component that could have been reliably reused then, which I decided to skip. And yes, the IGP (its a Z77 mobo) will be used to provide display output - I will be reusing the GTX1070 (that was the idea anyway)

Regarding RAM, unfortunately dont have any clear idea - have already purchased a set and will see what comes of it... was too cumbersome (and expensive) to get the right RAMs
So, as you would have figured, the 2x4 GB kit is not available, but I do have a 1x4 GB kit that you could take (which I dont think helps u). Or, check back in a month's time (when I have a stable setup) and I may decide to reuse the old 1x4 GB in the old system and have th 2x4 GB free.

Super awesome to see you here. I got a mail notification and I saw Psycho_McCrazy ... and I was like holy **** ! What are you upto!
 
bssunilreddy said:
Budget -63K

CPU - AMD Ryzen R7 1700 -25000,
Motherboard - Asus Prime X370-Pro -13000,
PSU - Seasonic M12II 620w -8000,
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB(8GBx2) 3200Mhz DDR4 -12000,
Cabinet - Cooler Master Masterbox Lite 5 -5000.
TOTAL -63,000.
Click to expand...

I have finalised the build and ordered most components. Here we go:

CPU - AMD Ryzen R5 1600 - 16.0k
Motherboard - Asus B350-F ROG STRIX GAMING - 10.2k (found it after speaking with 4-5 vendors)
PSU - Corsair RM650x - 10k (Yet to be ordered, pricing on PSUs has just gone up like crazy)
RAM - GSkill Trident Z 2x8 GB 3200 Mhz - 9.5k (US shipped) (dont have the model number handy) - this is a bit of a gamble, not sure at what frequency will it run
Cabinet - Thermaltake View 31 RGB - 10k (Ordered, but currently out of stock)

Thanks for the help guys. Will keep you posted on further developments.
 
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One thing that you can do with the old machine is to keep it
cybermantas said:
Selling the previous machine is not going to get me much, hence not thinking about it. That option is always open though. Don't wanna reuse the case. 5 yrs with this case is enough, and I don't like it much anymore because of dust/heating issues which may or may not be the case's fault. So a change is due there anyway. PSU is the only component that could have been reliably reused then, which I decided to skip. And yes, the IGP (its a Z77 mobo) will be used to provide display output - I will be reusing the GTX1070 (that was the idea anyway)

Regarding RAM, unfortunately dont have any clear idea - have already purchased a set and will see what comes of it... was too cumbersome (and expensive) to get the right RAMs
So, as you would have figured, the 2x4 GB kit is not available, but I do have a 1x4 GB kit that you could take (which I dont think helps u). Or, check back in a month's time (when I have a stable setup) and I may decide to reuse the old 1x4 GB in the old system and have th 2x4 GB free.

Super awesome to see you here. I got a mail notification and I saw Psycho_McCrazy ... and I was like holy **** ! What are you upto!
Click to expand...
In this case, making it a NAS file server and a media server that the mobile devices etc. can stream from will be a suitable option.

The build seems good and given how long our sandy bridge machines have lasted, will serve you well. And given AMDs platform longevities, can be a good platform for future proccy upgrade too.

PS. You got PM
 
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