Time to upgrade the old girl...

[Biscuit]

I have done a fair bit of deliberation about what to do with my PC in the last few months. One of the biggest sticking points has been my case, which is an mATX.

I really like the case and it has only actually had one PC build in it, so I didn't want to replace it already, but the selection of mATX boards for Ryzen is pants, with no X470's making it into that form factor.
There is an ASRock mATX X399 board thats really nice, so I was planning a Threadripper, with the theory that I probably wont upgrade for a while, so I might as well go all out.... now.

After some honest reflection whilst hovering over the "buy" button for certain items, I decided that despite doing more work and less gaming with my PC (I actually currently have 2 PCs) Threadripper is probably overkill for me, and a 2700x would suffice. The bonus being that I can use my existing Be Quiet Dark Rock 3 (as I already got the AM4 bracket delivered for free) and dont need to worry about cooling 180w in a small case.... and of course a few hundred quid

I'm probably going to keep my R9 for the time being, my PSU is fine, but I will also be grabbing some M.2 SSD. Probably 2 x 1Tb.

So then i looked through the B450 boards and read some things, finally settled on this:
B450M Mortar Titanium

Now my questions before I go in and buy:
Do both M.2 slots support basically any NVME drive, but with the PCIe 2.0 one having reduced bandwidth?

How about 10GbE network card? should a 10GbE NIC get full bandwidth on int he x4 2.0 slot (and does anyone know of one which plays nice)?

Do i go for 3200Mhz RAM? I know I should be looking for single rank, and samsung B-Die if poss... I was considereing just getting some crucial stuff tbh... bad idea?
How about the "Team Group" stuff on OCUK?

I'd like to get as much out of the CPU through XFR/Precision boost as possible, is there anything else I need to know?

---

Purchased so far:
AMD 2700X from (Ebuyer Express - Ebay) + MSI B450M Mortar from (CCL - Ebay) = £335.49
Patriot DDR4 16GB 3733MHz (Amazon UK) = £186.99
WD Black NVME 500GB (Amazon UK) = £149.97
Seasonic Focus Gold (Amazon UK) = £94.96
Be Quiet Silent Wings 3 (Scan) = £73.97

[Biscuit]

No-one wants to help me?

Could really do with some input on the M.2 slots as its something I've had zero exposure too.

Looking a bit deeper on the MSI website, it seems that the x4 slot is disabled when one of the M.2 slots is populated:

1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (PCI_E1)
Supports x16 speed with AMD® Ryzen™ 1st and 2nd Generation processors
Supports x8 speed with AMD® Ryzen™ with Radeon Vega Graphics processors - Only x8 speed with Vega? - Does this mean if an APU is installed it takes up 8 lanes of PCI-E?

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (PCI_E4, supports x4 mode)1
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots2

PCI_E4 slot will be unavailable when an M.2 SSD is installed in the M2_2 slot.
PCI_E2 slot will be unavailable when an expansion card is installed in the PCI_E3 slot.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sorry,got destracted - I assume you want to keep your case? If not small full ATX cases like this one exist:

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/rioto...w-33675-2.html
http://www.legitreviews.com/riotoro-...-review_184652

[Biscuit]

Sorry,got destracted - I assume you want to keep your case? If not small full ATX cases like this one exist:

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/rioto...w-33675-2.html
http://www.legitreviews.com/riotoro-...-review_184652

I looked at that, and I kinda like it, but this Lian Li one wasnt cheap and I do really like it. I feel there might be a bit of a build quality gulf between the two.

I kinda want to keep my options open for watercooling aswell. This case has 2 spots for 240mm Rads... so its kinda flexible.

Would the B450 with 2700X be a bit of a bottleneck?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I looked at that, and I kinda like it, but this Lian Li one wasnt cheap and I do really like it. I feel there might be a bit of a build quality gulf between the two.

I kinda want to keep my options open for watercooling aswell. This case has 2 spots for 240mm Rads... so its kinda flexible.

Would the B450 with 2700X be a bit of a bottleneck?

OK,my main concern is that the B450 boards do tend to have more basic VRMs which tend to be fine even with a Ryzen 7 2700 AFAIK,but the Ryzen 7 2700X is an overvolted SKU with a 105W TDP and watercooling would mean you need very good airflow over the VRMs,especially those of B450 boards.

[Biscuit]

OK,my main concern is that the B450 boards do tend to have more basic VRMs which tend to be fine even with a Ryzen 7 2700 AFAIK,but the Ryzen 7 2700X is an overvolted SKU with a 105W TDP and watercooling would mean you need very good airflow over the VRMs,especially those of B450 boards.

This is also a concern of mine... The reason I fell into this board is it seems to have the best of a bad bunch in terms of VRM.

Pretty good resource here:
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/communit...e-1155146.html

Do you know of any other super-compact ATX cases?

Kinda feeling like looking at the X399M again due to all this PCIe slot limitations

[Zak33]

ref M2 slots. They look neat, but in actuality, a good SSD on a cable is just as fast in most cases.

I pondered the M2 thing, and then realised that a few times in my last PC, I had to take the boot drive out, and stick another in it and frankly I have more SATA drives than M2 ;-)

[Biscuit]

I suppose I could get by with just one super high speed storage drive

During the course of further investigation, I found this video:


Gives me a bit of confidence. If I stick with the Black Rock for the moment, that should deal with any airflow concerns around the CPU socket.

[Biscuit]

Apparently the Mortar and Mortar Titanium are the same board except for the colour.

The Mortar is only £90 vs ~£110

Is that really the case?!

So for the moment, the plan is I think:

2700X ~ £300
B450M Mortar ~ £90
1 x 1TB M.2 - Any brands to go for/avoid?
2 x 8GB RAM - Guess I need to look at CTF's thread here. The tool linked to it is mental! Edit: Currently looking at this kit.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

BTW,Ebay are doing a 15% off code today until 8pm:

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/15-...m-1708-3018405

So look for a well known shop which sells the Ryzen 5 2700X or the RAM kit you want and get it off Ebay??

Also the Ryzen 7 2700X stock cooler is very good.

Regarding SSDs I got put off the Sandisk Ultra II models do to me and many others I know having issues with them although YMMV.

Edit!!

Its valid for checkout of a whole cart.

[MrJim]

This is a useful video if you're thinking of going down the B450 route:



If you're planning to overclock a 2700X, the VRM needs to be up to the job, as well as the heatsinks. These days VRM heatsinks seem to be all about looks rather than cooling performance! Actively cooling the heatsinks with a fan can make a big difference though...

[MrJim]

Regarding M.2 SSD, my go to choice would be a Samsung 970 Evo, followed by the Western Digital Black G2 (make sure you don't go for the older G1 WD Black, there's a big difference in performance):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Black-WD...m.2%2B1tb&th=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-V-N...70+evo+1tb+m.2

Both are quite expensive though - there are cheaper options I'm sure.

Regarding Samsung B die RAM - although you can get 3000Mhz CL14 stuff, you do pay quite a bit over the more widely available CL16 RAM. G.Skill do quite a few kits that are 'optimised' for Ryzen systems...

[Biscuit]

This is a useful video if you're thinking of going down the B450 route:

If you're planning to overclock a 2700X, the VRM needs to be up to the job, as well as the heatsinks. These days VRM heatsinks seem to be all about looks rather than cooling performance! Actively cooling the heatsinks with a fan can make a big difference though...

I have watched that through and it's part of the reason I was so hesitant to go down the B450 road, unfortunately (unless I missed it) he doesn't go into detail on the B450M Mortar specifically. I saw a rumour he might be doing a build using this board, and the ATX boards seem to have been received quite well. The MOSFET part numbers certainly seem to check out, but I'm not an expert by any means.

Regarding M.2 SSD, my go to choice would be a Samsung 970 Evo, followed by the Western Digital Black G2 (make sure you don't go for the older G1 WD Black, there's a big difference in performance):

Thanks!

Regarding Samsung B die RAM - although you can get 3000Mhz CL14 stuff, you do pay quite a bit over the more widely available CL16 RAM. G.Skill do quite a few kits that are 'optimised' for Ryzen systems...

Problem im finding is actual part numbers that are both in stock and at around £200-£250 for 16GB, which is a real challenge. I dont need the super awesome max performance turbo overclocking stuff, I just want the stuff that allows me to get the most out of XFR/PB

There is a good comment on that reddit thread about latency and what to look out forso I was kinda hoping that a 3866 kit with CL18 timing that I linked above might get me close to ideal with a lower clock.

[Biscuit]

BTW,Ebay are doing a 15% off code today until 8pm:

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/15-...m-1708-3018405

So look for a well known shop which sells the Ryzen 5 2700X or the RAM kit you want and get it off Ebay??

Also the Ryzen 7 2700X stock cooler is very good.

Regarding SSDs I got put off the Sandisk Ultra II models do to me and many others I know having issues with them although YMMV.

Edit!!

Its valid for checkout of a whole cart.

Nice... so I guess Im buying today then

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Nice... so I guess Im buying today then

Just make sure they have not sneakily upped the price though!

Make sure you check the online retailers too.

[Biscuit]

Just make sure they have not sneakily upped the price though!

Make sure you check the online retailers too.

They have, but there is still a bargain to be had.

Hmm... I seems there is a maximum discount of £50

I just tried to get M.2, CPU and motherboard which would have been a discount of ~110, but it capped at £50...

2700X and B450M Mortar for for £350 though...

Edit: Correction... Ebuyerexpress had the CPU for £1 more, but I added it to basket and an additional promo was added which brings my total for the CPU and motherboard to £335

Happy with that. Double thanks to CTF for spotting that one, probably saved me a cool £40-50