Need advice with Ryzen PC build (not for SC)

[Lorddarthvik]

Hey fellas

I was asked by an older friend, who has no clue about what's good or not these days, to put together a capable PC. He got offered some really weird setup (low cost msi mobo with intel 10400, and some random crap amd gfx card with surprisingly decent gskil ram), so I wanna correct that before he buys a tower of expensive poop.

He is not a gamer, he won't be playing anything else on it, and he want's it to last as long as possible. Not "future proof", as he is not planning on suddenly becoming a next next gen CoD pro gamer, just simply reliable!

Budget: 1200 USD (+100 at most), main PC hardware only (mobo, cpu+cooler, gfx, ram, ssd, psu)

Main use: MS Flight Sim (the next one still in development, requiring many cores and ram), daily stuff (mail, browing...)

So, 32 gigs of ram+ and the more cores the better I'd imagine.
I could slap together an Intel build any day, but I was thinking of a Ryzen build because of the low budget and need for cores.
-What's a good Ryzen CPU worth it's money these days?
-What brand of mobo is considered good for AMD builds? (I know I'd go with Gigabyte for an intel build cos cost/quality)
-What's a decent enough PSU brand? ( I got older corsairs, work fine but heard bad things about newer ones)
-GPU: Nvidia obviously, but should he wait for RTX 30xx and get a something cheapo now? Or should he go for an RTX20xx? He doesn't really want to bother with re-selling to buy new one as such....
-Storage: he has older HDDs (maybe even an SSD) but I'm guessing a good samsung nvme ssd is an obvious choice, so it should be in the budget

So, I gave you all the context and limitations that I know of, I'm eagerly awaiting your recommendations! Thank you!

 

[Szioul]

A bit late to the thread, so I don't know if it's any use anymore, but right now is a bad time to build a PC. The biggest problem is the PSU. They're all made in China, so all the good ones at a decent price are out of stock. A lot of the other components also have inflated prices, but the PSUs seem to be the most affected.

With that in mind, this might be a good base. 3700X has a low TDP and comes with the Wraith Prism, which is quite decent, although can be loud at full blast. Some cheap tower coolers will do a good enough job, if it's a problem. Although if the case doesn't have a top exhaust slot, make sure which way the cooler would mount. The Arctic Freezer 13, which is very good for its price, will only mount exhausting either up or down.
If you can find one at a decent price , EVGA SuperNova G3 550 or 650W would be great. Although you might want to order an extra PCI-E cable from EVGA, since they only include 2 with the PSU. However, the cables are currently out of stock on their site, due to being made in China.
Could also consider dropping the GPU down to a 2060 Super or even 1660Ti, if he really won't be playing anything else for a while.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($273.47 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Gaming OC 3X Video Card ($539.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1168.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-30 20:36 EDT-0400

 

[atpbx]

I wouldnt buy a 400 series motherboard If I was looking for longevity.

It would be 550/X570 especially considering the budget available.

 

[Szioul]

B450s will support Ryzen 4000, after which there'll be a new socket. Only thing he'd be missing is PCIE-4, and some additional PCI-E lanes. And unless you're getting a high end graphics card in 2-3 years from now, PCIE-3 should still be plenty of bandwidth.
Last I'd seen (over a month ago) the rumoured prices for B550s were ridiculous, but I just checked and the actual prices do seem ok. I suppose it was because the prices I saw were only for the high-end B550 BMs, like the Taichi @300$. the Asus Prime B550M line-up, or the Asrock Phantom Gaming 4 look like decent deals at MSRP. In fact, the Asrock would be the same price as the B450 Tomahawk.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Thanks for all the input!

This is a project that will take some time to take shape so no problems with being late lol.

Some changes happened to the original plans, a reduction in max cost down to 1100 max, and it must include a case and coolers as well.

Due to pricing of stuff here mostly cos of the +27% VAT we got, and being behind on what's available in general, I can only come up with something kinda close to the specs you posted.

Before you guys posted, I did 5 minutes of digging and came up with 2 setups. See pics. Basically the same machine just different mobo for future upgrades. The cheaper one has money to spare on an HDD or something, but not enough for a more decent video card.

Just for reference, a single set of Corsair Vengeance LPX 16Gb 3000 costs about a 100-110 usd equivalent, 32 gigs goes for 220. Corsairs very popular and pricey here, had to choose cheaper.

THe 3700X costs 370 usd here so it's out of the question. The 3600 on the other hand, is "only" 225 usd lol

Strangely enough, the cheapest RTX 2070 I could find is the almost the same" just" 2X non-OC version for that exact price, so GFX cards are not an exact +27%. Had to go cheap out on a 1660 cos
there are no 1060s available anymore, and can't fit an RTX into that budget. The cheapest 2060 is 410 usd, and it's not even a super just the base version.. I did try to put together an RTX build but came out at 1200 usd, but only had the 400mobo and 16 gigs of ram.

I chose a fractal design case as I know they are great value. No RGB bullshit, just good design. Have one myself for 8 years now, and had tons of different models around me for the last 10 years at studios, and they always love em.

Added a cheapo fan (I use 5 of those in my 2 PC's, silent and smooth for 2+ years now) to add to the back of the house. Will keep the stock cooler that comes with the CPU for now. The case has 2 fans built in already in the front. There won't be any overclocking or any shenanigans like that, will the stock cooler suffice?

PSU is a CoolerMaster 600w, cos it's reeeealy cheap compared to the next cheapest branded one and has good reviews. I know it's far from a solid choice but Basically it's what's available.








SO, if you have any suggestions as to what I should change out, keeping in mind that you should add like 25% to your prices to match mine, I'd be happy to get your advice! Thanks!

 

[BUTUZ]

Hey I just built a Ryzen gaming PC for myself. I was upgrading from my old i7 3770k rig.

I didn't want to spend too much money now but I wanted to build something that I could hopefully slot in a newer more expensive processor into next year.

Went for Aorus X570 Elite motherboard. Very happy / lucky choice as I will explain later!
32GB Vengence RGB RAM.
Ryzen 3700x.

Ran it standard for a month and was happy. Decided to watercool it with a custom loop, I already had most of the parts so just needed a GPU and CPU block and a few fittings.

Luckily for me when looking at CPU blocks, I stumbled on the fact that EK make an all in one Motherboard/CPU block for the X570 Elite - so one big block does the CPU and all the VRMs around it.

So now I have watercooled 3700x and Radeon VII and I am very happy as both whilst not amazing for gaming are not bad - and it's a very powerful multi thread system for other things (should be good on MS flight sim when it comes out!).

I think the 3700x is great value for money, it's nae on as fast as my mates i9 and for not far off half the price!

Plus next year I can drop in a new gen 3900x and hopefully double the core count.