Would my parts work?

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

I am upgrading my PC and getting these items:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-X370-GAMING-PLUS-Motherboard-x/dp/B072DWLJVR/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501768809&sr=1-4&keywords=msi+motherboard+am4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Ryzen-1700-16-Core-3-7-GHz/dp/B06WP5YCX6/ref=pd_bxgy_147_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5W6ZG21B9ETB6Y3TD59Q

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B013GZ5PD2/ref=twister_B072MN4L8H?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

And I have a MSI 970 graphics card and I'm not sure whether that will fit into the new motherboard I am going to get.

GPU : 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (MSI)

Also, does the RAM im going to get going to fit into the motherboard too following with the Ryzen 1700.

- A computer noob

Thanks!

feelinfroggy777 · Aug 3, 2017

Yes, all of the parts will all work. Remember you will need a storage drive, case and PSU. I would definitely recommend getting a SSD to run your OS and get a quality PSU from EVGA, Seasonic, or Corsair.

Go to pcpartpicker.com to help you build the rig. It will help you with compatibility.

Shektron · Aug 3, 2017

Yes, that looks like a very compatible system to me. Any DDR4 RAM will work fine with Ryzen, but high-speed RAM is usually recommended with Ryzen, which you have already picked out(anything above 2666 MHz is usually considered high speed, though RAM speeds can go much higher than that).

That's a good board as well, but I would recommend instead going for a B350 board because X370 is usually for enthusiast overclocking, high-end features like multiple M.2 slots, and, most importantly, SLI and Crossfire support. If you won't be running multiple GPUs in your system at any point of time(highly recommend avoiding multi-GPU setups), then a B350 board is enough, unless there's some specific X370 feature that you need, like good enthusiast overclocking features or such.

If you're an average consumer, a cheaper B350 board will still allow you to overclock pretty well, and will still have almost all the mainstream features most people would need. So consider B350 as a viable(and cheaper) alternative, unless, like I said, you need some feature exclusive to X370.

And any motherboard with a PCI-E slot will support your GPU, and almost every motherboard available to consumers today has at least one PCI-E slot, so you're good. The board you've currently selected has 3 PCI-E slots, out of which 2 can be used for modern GPUs simultaneously. The third one can also be used, but it's usually not recommended due to some technical reasons I will skip for now. If you do want to know about it, you can ask, I'll explain it - right now it seems like an unnecessary addition.

That's a great CPU, make sure you overclock it, and it will offer great performance.

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

feelinfroggy777 :

Hello,

I have recently brought a EVGA gold 700 watt PSU which I hope is good enough, I also have a SSD C drive with 1 TB and have already brought WIN 7.

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

Shektron :

Hello,
I am massively thankful for your in depth reply!
I have been trying to find a motherboard and I am worried which one may not allow my 970 MSI GPU or not allow any other certain parts. I do not want to do anything special but to simply play games without any issues. Here are the motherboards I considered, what do you think?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-B350M-GAMING-PRO-Motherboard/dp/B06WXX7FR2/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501770358&sr=1-2&keywords=msi+motherboard+am4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-B350-TOMAHAWK-Socket-Motherboard/dp/B06WWPDJ95/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501770358&sr=1-3&keywords=msi+motherboard+am4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-B350M-MORTAR-Socket-Motherboard/dp/B06WWPL4FY/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501770358&sr=1-6&keywords=msi+motherboard+am4

Shektron · Aug 3, 2017

Mohan_27 :

The only thing wrong here is Windows 7. For games it is really highly recommended to get Windows 10 - it's got its own issues, yes, but for new and upcoming games as well as full Ryzen support, Windows 10 is the way to go. In fact, Ryzen doesn't even officially support Windows 7(you can mod the installation to force it to work, but Windows 10 is really the best bet for games).

You don't even need to buy a license for Windows 10, since you have a Windows 7 license now - just use the free upgrade to switch to windows 10.

Update - get the B350 Tomahawk, it's a great all-rounder. The Gaming Pro Carbon is also very good. I'd skip the Mortar, but I can't say it is justifiable - it's a good board as well. But my personal recommendation is the B350 Tomahawk, from what I've heard, read and seen.

Any reason to choose MSI boards only? The Asus Prime B350-Plus is also a very good board for a low cost.

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

Shektron :

Hasn't the free upgrade ended?
Update - I am just choosing MSI because im paranoid if I maybe some products may come in confict if im crossing between two companies.

So overall which Mobo would you recommend?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06X9LN311/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1501771631&sr=1-1&keywords=Asus+Prime+B350-Plus

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-B350-TOMAHAWK-Socket-Motherboard/dp/B06WWPDJ95/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501770358&sr=1-3&keywords=msi+motherboard+am4

Would the Asus fit work with my GPU?

Shektron · Aug 3, 2017

Mohan_27 :

https://www.howtogeek.com/272201/all-the-ways-you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free/

The first two methods on this page will still let you upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

If you prefer MSI, that's okay - but you can totally use different brands of motherboard and GPU, there'll be no problems at all if you use the Asus board and MSI card. Both boards are very good, so it really boils down to your personal preference - if you want to reduce unnecessary costs, then the Asus board is cheaper. The Tomahawk does have a few extra features - more SATA ports, and a USB 3.1 gen1 header, more fan headers, etc. :

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=-1%7C13-144-018%5E13-144-018%2C13-132-965%5E13-132-965

Honestly, unless you need the few extra features of the B350 Tomahawk, you can save your money and go with the B350 Prime Plus. But if you are going to use any of those features, get the Tomahawk, it is also an equally great board.

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

Shektron :

Mohan_27 :

https://www.howtogeek.com/272201/all-the-ways-you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free/

The first two methods on this page will still let you upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

If you prefer MSI, that's okay - but you can totally use different brands of motherboard and GPU, there'll be no problems at all if you use the Asus board and MSI card. Both boards are very good, so it really boils down to your personal preference - if you want to reduce unnecessary costs, then the Asus board is cheaper. The Tomahawk does have a few extra features - more SATA ports, and a USB 3.1 gen1 header, more fan headers, etc. :

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=-1%7C13-144-018%5E13-144-018%2C13-132-965%5E13-132-965

Honestly, unless you need the few extra features of the B350 Tomahawk, you can save your money and go with the B350 Prime Plus. But if you are going to use any of those features, get the Tomahawk, it is also an equally great board.

I also have brought this case:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NZXT-H440-Accent-Tower-Chassis/dp/B015XQL3S8/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501773320&sr=1-3&keywords=nzxt

This comes with 4 fans, can all these fans work with the ASUS mobo, because as you said the msi motherboard as 'more fan headers' whatever that means...

Update - So I can just install windows 10 from their website onto a flash drive and launch it through bios then enter my previous-used windows 7 key?

Shektron · Aug 3, 2017

Considering the 4 fans, get the B350 Tomahawk, the Asus Prime B350-Plus only has 2 fan headers. You can absolutely use a splitter to connect two fans to each header, but I take it you'll prefer 4 fan headers over that. So get the B350 Tomahawk, and you can connect each fan to one header. It's a great and reliable board, and hopefully MSI has good customer service in your area as well.

What I said means that the Tomahawk motherboard will have 4 places to connect the fans to, while the Prime Plus will only have two. You can buy a cheap splitter to use one header for connecting more than one fan, but if you can afford a motherboard with 4 fan headers, you might as well get that.

Update to reply to your update - apparently you can.

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

Shektron :

Well thats it, I will be purchasing the tomahawk, ryzen 1700 and ddr4 16 GB of RAM. S
Is there anything I should consider before getting this/adding this?

Thanks!

Shektron · Aug 3, 2017

Mohan_27 :

Alright, good luck! That seems like all to me, if you have any issues you can always PM me.

One thing, if you're only playing games, the Ryzen 5 1600 is also a good choice, unless you want to keep the CPU for a really long time(6+ years). If you'll upgrade within 5 years or so, then the 1600 will help you save some money and perhaps even get an aftermarket cooler for better overclocks. Rest assured, in modern and future games, you'll get approximately the same FPS. If you are also going to do highly multi-threaded things like video editing, then the 1700 will be better, but just for gaming, the 1600 is enough, for now as well as for around 5 years in the future. So consider that as well, if you're not going to do anything other than play games on the PC.

Places where the 1700 will be better: video editing, multitasking, streaming while gaming, and everything else that uses all the cores it can get its hands on.

feelinfroggy777 · Aug 3, 2017

Mohan_27 :

If this is a strictly gaming rig, you may want to start thinking about getting a new GPU. The 970 is not a bad GPU, but its not getting any younger either. You are building a very nice rig and the 970 will be by far your weakest link. If I were you I would get a AMD 1600 and a B350 motherboard and use the money saved to put towards a GPU upgrade.

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

Shektron :

Mohan_27 :

Alright, good luck! That seems like all to me, if you have any issues you can always PM me.

One thing, if you're only playing games, the Ryzen 5 1600 is also a good choice, unless you want to keep the CPU for a really long time(6+ years). If you'll upgrade within 5 years or so, then the 1600 will help you save some money and perhaps even get an aftermarket cooler for better overclocks. Rest assured, in modern and future games, you'll get approximately the same FPS. If you are also going to do highly multi-threaded things like video editing, then the 1700 will be better, but just for gaming, the 1600 is enough, for now as well as for around 5 years in the future. So consider that as well, if you're not going to do anything other than play games on the PC.

Places where the 1700 will be better: video editing, multitasking, streaming while gaming, and everything else that uses all the cores it can get its hands on.

Even though I will only be playing games, the games I will be playing are the most CPU intensive games out there. E.g Arma 3, Squad, Battlefield, games wiith extremely large maps to load in.

Shektron · Aug 3, 2017

Mohan_27 :

Even so, the Ryzen 5 1600 will handle all these games easily. The 6 cores are really enough for gaming, Ryzen 7 CPUs are mostly for content creators and for gamers who aren't going to upgrade for a long time(but mostly just content creators). And as feelinfroggy777 suggested, the money you save can help you upgrade to a better GPU as well, if that's something you wish to do. The GTX 970 just gets by for playing at 1080p today, so you might wanna start looking for a more future-proof option, like the GTX 1070, 1080 or even 1080 Ti.

feelinfroggy777 · Aug 3, 2017

Mohan_27 :

I am sure that I will make a lot of people angry, but I will go ahead and say it. If you are just gaming and you want the best performance from a CPU, then you should get a 7700k. The vast majority of games, even the ones you listed, don't scale well with more cores. They scale much better with very fast single threaded operations.

Most will make the argument that now that 8 core CPUs are mainstream that games developers will make games use those 8 cores. It takes years to make AAA games and by the time most games scale well with 8 cores the 1700 will be a dinosaur.

With that being said, if I were building a gaming rig today I would use the 1600. The price vs performance ratio is incredible.

I would not build a gaming rig where the CPU cost more than the GPU. I understand that if you already have the 970 and plan to upgrade later than that makes since. A system with a 1600 and a 1070 would get better fps than a system with a 1700 and a 970 on 99% (and maybe more) of pc games.

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

Shektron :

Mohan_27 :

Even so, the Ryzen 5 1600 will handle all these games easily. The 6 cores are really enough for gaming, Ryzen 7 CPUs are mostly for content creators and for gamers who aren't going to upgrade for a long time(but mostly just content creators). And as feelinfroggy777 suggested, the money you save can help you upgrade to a better GPU as well, if that's something you wish to do. The GTX 970 just gets by for playing at 1080p today, so you might wanna start looking for a more future-proof option, like the GTX 1070, 1080 or even 1080 Ti.

I do not really want to play games above 1080p, plus, the graphic cards you said are way above my budget.

Update - I may consider in getting the ryzen 1600x

Mohan_27 · Aug 3, 2017

feelinfroggy777 :

Mohan_27 :

I am sure that I will make a lot of people angry, but I will go ahead and say it. If you are just gaming and you want the best performance from a CPU, then you should get a 7700k. The vast majority of games, even the ones you listed, don't scale well with more cores. They scale much better with very fast single threaded operations.

Most will make the argument that now that 8 core CPUs are mainstream that games developers will make games use those 8 cores. It takes years to make AAA games and by the time most games scale well with 8 cores the 1700 will be a dinosaur.

With that being said, if I were building a gaming rig today I would use the 1600. The price vs performance ratio is incredible.

I would not build a gaming rig where the CPU cost more than the GPU. I understand that if you already have the 970 and plan to upgrade later than that makes since. A system with a 1600 and a 1070 would get better fps than a system with a 1700 and a 970 on 99% (and maybe more) of pc games.

Yes I was considereing in getting the 1600x as it is cheaper, and maybe in the future upgrade, however it would be a long time until I get a 1080 due to the price, maybe a 1050? What do you think? 1700 or 1600x I saw videos of FPS difference and there was an average difference of 5-10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqYc09-K_8I

Update - However I am really lost on the whole cooling system, apparently the 1600x does not come with one. I do have a 212 Evo however I know it will not work.

feelinfroggy777 · Aug 3, 2017

I would not get the 1600x. The 1600 comes with the wraith spire cooler and the only real difference is the 1600x has xfr which only accounts for up to a 100mhz clockspeed difference under certain circumstances. The 1600 will OC to the same speeds that a 1600x will.

Shektron · Aug 4, 2017

Mohan_27 :

It's quite a waste to jump from the 1600 to the 1600X - they are literally the same processor, the only difference being that the 1600X will auto-overclock a little bit, and if you're overclocking both CPUs, there will be absolutely no difference. If you really don't want the 1600, just stick with the 1700 then, don't waste your money on the 1600X. It's a great processor, but the premium you're paying for that 'X' is just unjustified.

If you can't afford a GTX 1070, then just stick with the 970 for now, it's still better than the 1050 and even the 1050 Ti. You can upgrade the GPU later, once you can afford at least a GTX 1060 6 GB, if not something better than that.

Mohan_27 · Aug 5, 2017

Shektron :

Mohan_27 :

It's quite a waste to jump from the 1600 to the 1600X - they are literally the same processor, the only difference being that the 1600X will auto-overclock a little bit, and if you're overclocking both CPUs, there will be absolutely no difference. If you really don't want the 1600, just stick with the 1700 then, don't waste your money on the 1600X. It's a great processor, but the premium you're paying for that 'X' is just unjustified.

If you can't afford a GTX 1070, then just stick with the 970 for now, it's still better than the 1050 and even the 1050 Ti. You can upgrade the GPU later, once you can afford at least a GTX 1060 6 GB, if not something better than that.

Hello, I actually purchased the 1600 yesterday, thank you for your help!

Update - I will overclock it so that it would be as powerfull. However have no clue how to!

Shektron · Aug 5, 2017

Mohan_27 :

There's tons of guides out there. If you want a general how-to-overclock guide, I'm listing out the steps here:

1. Increase the clock speed multiplier by 1 number, and stress test. If the PC does not crash, continue to increase the multiplier by one until it does crash.
2. Once it has crashed, increase the voltage bit-by-bit until the PC becomes stable again. Then, again start increasing the multiplier, and repeat the previous step.

Keep repeating this until either the voltage becomes too high(generally 1.35-1.4 V is considered safe for Ryzen) or the temps become too much.A Ryzen 1600 on stock cooling should hit between 3.8 and 3.9 GHz, 4.0 GHz if it's a good chip. 4.1 is really rare, but still possible.

Here's an infinitely more detailed guide:

http://www.overclockers.com/amd-ryzen-overclocking-guide/

And a more basic video guide:

https://youtu.be/gtqBEfHDRLg

Would my parts work?

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