Cheapest AM4 mATX board for 3700x

[Percy1983]

So the short is I am looking at a 5900x to replace my 3700x in my x570 board.

So my Son (7 year old) currently has an AMD 8320 (OC'd, slowly backing down as the board burns) 16gb ram a mATX case (aerocool dead silence) with an R9 290, also has a 256gb sata SSD and 1TB hard drive.

So looking at used ram I can get 16gb 3000/3200 cheap enough.

Currently use HDMI audio from GPU and wired network connection, plan to use sata storage for now but may upgrade later (even a cheap NVME will be an improvement).

I don't think my current cooler (spire thermax eclipse) will fit, so potentially looking for a cheap cooler, tower height isn't an issue and could fit a 240mm rad if cheap enough.

Generally saying thinking cheap as possible but not against a little for 'future proofing'. Not against used parts or aliexpress. Don't care for RGB, and try to pay less for non RGB stuff but I am aware its not always possible.

[Terbinator]

Are you looking for general suggestions or asking specifically if anyone here has stuff to flog?

All I'd say is make sure your use case makes sense with the 5900X and not the 5800X 3D.

Edit: This appears to be the cheapest board on Scan but not coming in to stock until Jan 11th
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/giga...gen1-micro-atx

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...b-32-gen2-matx
This looks to be the cheapest overall and their website says it supports 3xxx series, but, it looks pretty barebones power wise so not sure if a 3700X is going to be best suited for it? Asus website isn't letting me view their CPU support list for some reason.

Could well be some other better deals by then, but I imagine new boards are most likely to be B550s that are in stock now.

[Rob_B]

Cheap a320? Will set you back about £30, just check the available BIOSes first.

[Percy1983]

I do worry that a320 boards will limit the 3700x when it comes to PBO etc, this is where cheap as possible but without cutting corners comes in.

With that some b450 boards seem to have cheaped out on vrms too.

B550 makes the most sense new but not many cheap or used going about.

Personally the 5900x makes more sense as my computer is photography/videography first and gaming second.

[cptwhite_uk]

Pretty barebones, but it's a B550 for £60....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275533330...t2qYQ&LH_BIN=1

[Percy1983]

Looks interesting,not sure on 2 ram slots as I would be locked into 16gb, not a definate later upgrade but nice to have the option.

Seems there is good deals on B450 boards to which I understand the main difference will be PCIE 3 instead of 4, but realistically I don't see cards needing more than 3.0 x16 for a while and more importantly the cards which do aren't going to be in a price range I am happy to pay for a very long time.

I know I don't need a 'gaming' board but some of the cheaper bare boards don't seem right to me.

[DanceswithUnix]

I do worry that a320 boards will limit the 3700x when it comes to PBO etc, this is where cheap as possible but without cutting corners comes in.

Do you really mean PBO?

Personally I keep PBO turned off. These chips are pretty quick in their standard power rating and do a super job of making the best use they can of available thermal headroom.
If you turn on PBO then the machine gets noisier, it needs a really good motherboard and preferably a water cooled setup to get a few percent more speed out of it.

That's a 65W chip, so a fairly cheap motherboard should be enough. The available B450 boards seem pretty thin atm sadly, I've been in a similar position trying to find a board I like for my old 2200G which is sat on a shelf.

[Percy1983]

Problem solved, I got an MSI B550M Bazooka for £76.49, a little more than planned but fits the bill and has the scope for future upgrades.

So now figuring ram, seemed used prices aren't much different to new. It has been running on 3200mhc CL16 and that would be the cheapest to get now, but 3600mhz C18 kits are similar in price but then I think of timings and a C16 kit starts getting close in price to 32GB 3200mhx C16.

So I keep going up and down the scale in an indecisive loop.

[MrJim]

Problem solved, I got an MSI B550M Bazooka for £76.49, a little more than planned but fits the bill and has the scope for future upgrades.

Great motherboard! It's what I would have recommended, but I couldn't find one for less than about £160. I assume you bought second-hand? Got potential for adding a 12 or 16 core Ryzen further down the road if needed.

[DanceswithUnix]

Problem solved, I got an MSI B550M Bazooka for £76.49, a little more than planned but fits the bill and has the scope for future upgrades.

So now figuring ram, seemed used prices aren't much different to new. It has been running on 3200mhc CL16 and that would be the cheapest to get now, but 3600mhz C18 kits are similar in price but then I think of timings and a C16 kit starts getting close in price to 32GB 3200mhx C16.

So I keep going up and down the scale in an indecisive loop.

Over thinking it?

3600MHz is 1.125 times 3200
18 is 1.125 times 16

so AFAICS the latency in microseconds is the same for 3200CL16 and 3600CL18, which might explain why they are a similar price.

[MrJim]

Over thinking it?

3600MHz is 1.125 times 3200
18 is 1.125 times 16

so AFAICS the latency in microseconds is the same for 3200CL16 and 3600CL18, which might explain why they are a similar price.

In practice, for most workloads I very much doubt anyone could notice the difference between the faster ram with looser latency, and the slower ram with tighter latency. My inclination would be to go with the most compatible (on the compatibility list for the motherboard), or the cheapest

[Percy1983]

Great motherboard! It's what I would have recommended, but I couldn't find one for less than about £160. I assume you bought second-hand? Got potential for adding a 12 or 16 core Ryzen further down the road if needed.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285026525146

They did have 10% off, says refurbished so basically used with 12 month warranty.

Over thinking it?

3600MHz is 1.125 times 3200
18 is 1.125 times 16

so AFAICS the latency in microseconds is the same for 3200CL16 and 3600CL18, which might explain why they are a similar price.

So the difference would be the infinity fabric at 1600 or 1800 assuming 1:1 so the 3600mhz CL18 will see a small improvement for a couple of quid so might as well. the jump to 3600mhz will of course see another improvement but the cost of that jump probably isn't worth it in real terms for what the PC will be.

[MrJim]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285026525146

They did have 10% off, says refurbished so basically used with 12 month warranty.



So the difference would be the infinity fabric at 1600 or 1800 assuming 1:1 so the 3600mhz CL18 will see a small improvement for a couple of quid so might as well. the jump to 3600mhz will of course see another improvement but the cost of that jump probably isn't worth it in real terms for what the PC will be.

If you don't mind doing a bit of tinkering, I'd be surprised if you couldn't get the cas latency down to 16 on the 3600 ram kit (depending on the particular kit, of course). Buildzoid is quite knowledgeable on ram overclocking:

https://www.youtube.com/@ActuallyHar...20overclocking

[DanceswithUnix]

In practice, for most workloads I very much doubt anyone could notice the difference between the faster ram with looser latency, and the slower ram with tighter latency. My inclination would be to go with the most compatible (on the compatibility list for the motherboard), or the cheapest

Agreed. I'm running ECC ram here which is something like CL24, and I really can't tell it's CL24

[Percy1983]

If you don't mind doing a bit of tinkering, I'd be surprised if you couldn't get the cas latency down to 16 on the 3600 ram kit (depending on the particular kit, of course). Buildzoid is quite knowledgeable on ram overclocking:

https://www.youtube.com/@ActuallyHar...20overclocking

This true, even if I don't get all the way down to C16 tighter timings will always help.

Settled I will go 3600mhz C18 as a good value and try and tighten timings but not a problem if it doesn't work.