which board for which ryzen 5? gaming

[panisch]

greetings,

im looking to make a new build (partially) for gaming 1080p. currently struggling with performance for path of exile and modded xcom 2. path of exile is the main reason i want to upgrade and for which i seek to optimise.

currently im on an amd fx-4100 and 8gb ram.

i want to keep using the following hardware:

GTX 960 2GB gigabyte windforce
Asus Xonar DGX PCIe (audio)
Samsung SSD 840 120GB
WD HDD 500GB

so what i need are:
PSU
Motherboard
CPU (Cooler?)
RAM

i read that the ryzen is good for path of exile and since im also on a budget i think i prefer it over the i5. r7/i7 is out of the question for me - i dont need that. (im not fixated on the r5 if you guys tell me to rather go with the i5, i just seek gaming performance, not a big fps player tho, more strategy and heavily modded games)

so what do i need help with now:

which board should i get?
/edit: looking around, the Asus Prime B350-Plus seems to do what i want for a good price - thoughts?
i always use headphones and got my soundcard, so it doesnt need good onboard sound. it doesnt need SLI/crossfire. if anything ill buy a new gpu but not another gtx 960.
do i need to check chipsets for OC / non-OC? im thinking either 1500x or 1600x (which one do you recommend?) - would it be the same board for either CPU or would i pick differently?

id love to hear the reasoning for recommended motherboard picks if possible!

as ive read the ryzen 5 stock cooler is good enough if you dont oc (correct?) and i plan to run on stock clock for the first while anyway and then buy a cooler later on when i OC.

2x8GB RAM - which brand which clock? (ive read ryzen had issues with high clock ram, but that might be outdated already)

recommended PSU?

so yea i picked up a few things here and there about ryzen but im not sure how valid all that still is. hope you guys can help me out here. main issue im having is finding the right board since that always confuses me.

is it correct that ill have to switch to win10? ive read that win7 is unsupported for ryzen and a p in the a to make work.

any helpful information about bottlenecks or whatever comes to mind is appreciated!

 

[elbert]

The ASUS B350-plus has very low user ratings. The ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 or ASRock b350 pro4 are among the highest rated. Here is a $50 off deal on ASRock but it requires a cooler. I highly suggest one of the 6 core Ryzen 5's.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3516822

This pro4 costs the same but with the 1600 it does come with a cooler.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($217.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $306.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-22 13:38 EDT-0400

 

[Insomniac Jack]

The ASUS B350 Plus should be a good board for your needs. No need to worry about chipsets and overclocking as Ryzen is completely unlocked. You can overclock on any chipset. If you plan to overclock buy the non X version of the chip you want it'll save you money and should overclock to at or near it's X variant. Also all Ryzen CPU's are on the AM4 platform so any CPU that you choose will work with any AM4 board. It's pretty tough to recommend a ryzen motherboard considering they've only been out for 3 months but you should have good results from the normal brands and ASUS has a pretty good rep.

On to your RAM question. Ryzen is a brand new platform so it has some growing pains. It does have issues hitting speeds of 3000MHz and higher but that should be ironed out in the near future. You can A. buy the RAM you want and run it at a lower speed until the BIOS catches up or B. Buy a Ryzen compatible kit for a bit more money and it'll run at it's rated speed.

PSU- I'd recommend the EVGA G2 or G3 I'd recommend a wattage but I'd need a final parts list for that.

your GPU- The 960 is a decent card but you're going to have a lot of issues with it on newer games due to the fact that it only has 2GB of VRAM You may need to upgrade you're card to something with at least 4GB of VRAM but I'd recommend something with 6GB so it'll last a bit longer.

 

[Insomniac Jack]

I forgot to mention CPU coolers. You will need to buy one if you decide to go with an X variant chip or if you plan to overclock a non X variant. If you aren't overclocking and get a 1500 or 1600 they come with a CPU cooler that will run fine without overclocking.

 

[scout_03]

see these for boards the gaming have good reviews https://www.msi.com/comparison/motherboard for ram you see a loot of this http://www.corsair.com/en-us/memory/vengeance-lpx-series the 2x8 setfor the cpu 1500 x comes with a cooler but not the 1600x , a good 600 watts psu and yes you should go to win 10 since here is no support for ryzen on 7 from microsoft and amd .

 

[g-unit1111]

The ASUS B350-plus has very low user ratings. The ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 or ASRock b350 pro4 are among the highest rated. Here is a $50 off deal on ASRock but it requires a cooler. I highly suggest one of the 6 core Ryzen 5's.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3516822

Honestly don't pay much attention to the user reviews - they can make you crazy sorting the user reviews from actual reviews. Most of the time most of the user errors are the direct result of not reading the product manuals before installation. The thing I would look for in a board is a few things:

1. Number of SATA ports (most low end boards generally have between 4 - 6, and this is usually a deciding factor)
2. Number of USB connections
3. Onboard GPU connections
4. USB Type C connections and other on board connections like Ethernet speed and Wifi

I would go for an Asus, MSI or Gigabyte board most of the time, regardless of user reviews.

 

[panisch]

thank you everyone for your contributions, im currently trending to this https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/bqnrsJ unsure about a PSU. and how relevant is the speed and cas for ram here? i mean im not going for 14 cas cause it's too expensive for me, but what about lower speed to save 20 bucks? any point in that at all?

i want the psu to be good enough for a newer GPU at a later point aswell.

@elbert also thank you for the notice about the board, i also did notice a few unhappy customer reviews but overall i think ill try this board out (after again looking at a few other B350 boards).

about my GPU - yea i know it's not the newest anymore, i upgraded it in 2015. itll be "good enough" for a little while longer tho.

 

[g-unit1111]

thank you everyone for your contributions, im currently trending to this https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/bqnrsJ unsure about a PSU. and how relevant is the speed and cas for ram here? i mean im not going for 14 cas cause it's too expensive for me, but what about lower speed to save 20 bucks? any point in that at all?

@elbert also thank you for the notice about the board, i also did notice a few unhappy customer reviews but overall i think ill try this board out (after again looking at a few other B350 boards).

about my GPU - yea i know it's not the newest anymore, i upgraded it in 2015. itll be "good enough" for a little while longer tho.

I don't know how much emphasis I have to put on this, but store reviews are not to be taken too seriously. Don't pay too much attention to them and you'll be fine.

 

[elbert]

Users not reading the manual should be on average for each. It falls in the category as ease of use as to which motherboards work best for that group. The main complaint about the ASUS prime plus was bios update bricking. Also many posts/thread on the issue at overclock, anandtech, reddit, and few youtube video's.

 

[g-unit1111]

Users not reading the manual should be on average for each. It falls in the category as ease of use as to which motherboards work best for that group. The main complaint about the ASUS prime plus was bios update bricking. Also many posts/thread on the issue at overclock, anandtech, reddit, and few youtube video's.

Well based on the search I did on this subject, that proves my point. The people complaining about the bricked BIOS did not update their BIOS the proper way - which is with a flash drive through the BIOS. If you use the software BIOS update, it will not end well for you.