The Ryzen 3000 series of CPUs can still offer competitive performance for the budget-conscious builder. The Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6 core 12 thread processor that boasts clock speeds ranging from 3.6GHz all of the way up to 4.2GHz with some tweaking and simple overclocking. With a rock-bottom TDP of 65W, this fast CPU can deliver high frames and speedy workstation performance without spiking your internal case temperature. That low power draw makes this previous generation CPU an alluring buy for those looking to get enough power out of an SFF (small form factor) build or those looking to save additional cost on their PSU. 

Enthusiasts can take further advantage of this powerful little processor with new generation motherboards that can support the newer PCIe 4.0 technology. While those differences may be minimal at this price and performance bracket, builders will find the Ryzen 5 3600’s vast compatibility options and robust feature set a solid pairing with new generation B550 and previous generation B450 motherboards. This guide lays out the four best motherboards for the budget, enthusiast, mini-ITX, and micro-ATX builds with the Ryzen 5 3600.

Related: List of AM4 Motherboards with USB BIOS Flashback (for Zen 2 compatibility)

Best Motherboards for Ryzen 5 3600 – Our Recommendations

Award	Model	Design	VRM
Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600	MSI B450 Tomahawk		6 Phase (4+2)
Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600	MSI MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon Wi-Fi		12 Phase (10+2)
Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600	ASRock B550M-ITX		8 Phase (6+2)
Best micro-ATX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600	ASRock B550M PRO 4		8 Phase (6+2)

Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600

The MSI B450 Tomahawk; this board offers excellent price-to-performance, at just under $100, given its range of features, connectivity, and best-in-class VRM quality.

MSI has nailed their B450 lineup, with the B450 Tomahawk leading its price bracket with the best VRM cooling of any B450 motherboard out there – which makes it ideal for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600 on a budget. Only its bigger brother, the MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC, has better VRM cooling than the B450 Tomahawk. Still, considering the low TDP of the Ryzen 5 3600 and 3600X, either of these motherboards is almost overkill.

Connectivity-wise, the B450 Tomahawk has USB Type C, 6 SATA ports, and 4 DIMM slots supporting up to 128GB of 3466MHz memory.

Drawbacks here are small but present nonetheless, with no VCore offset function, and only a single M.2 slot where most other B450 ATX motherboards have at least two.

Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600

It’s not necessary to take the leap directly from a B450 board up to a premium board with an X570 chipset like the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon Wi-Fi. However, this board comes with a premium feature list that sets it well above the other contenders on this list. Not only does this full ATX motherboard support PCIe 4.0 technology, but it can also deliver exceptional LAN and Wi-Fi speeds with both Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5G networking built-in. 

This premium-class board supports GPU SLI, custom water cooling, dual Gen 4 M.2 drives, up to 128 GB of DDR4 memory, and it has a jam-packed I/O with all of the connectors an enthusiast needs. The I/O has five USB 3.2 ports, a USB C port, high-definition audio connectors, a handy BIOS flash button, and a couple of additional USB 2.0 ports. This board is equipped with Mystic Sync RGB that can, as the name implies, sync with any other RBG device or fans you may have in your rig. The extended heatsink and onboard “Frozr” fan ensure that your components operate at optimal temperatures. With a steep price set at right around $179, this premium board is meant for only the most serious gamers and professionals out there.

Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600

Building a small form factor machine doesn’t mean that you can’t take advantage of the same premium features that come with full-sized ATX boards. Well, unless you plan to rig up a GPU SLI configuration, but that technology is on the way out in terms of support anyway. ASRock’s B550M-ITX motherboard offers an impressive feature set in a compact size. The B550 chipset means that this motherboard can take full advantage of PCIe 4.0 as well as run the newer 5000 series CPUs with a simple BIOS flash for those that plan to upgrade down the line. 

With form factor in mind, this board offers dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and gigabit LAN, which makes it easy to pick the system up and take it on the go. This B550 board even supports Gen 4 Hyper M.2 and has an included heatsink. Those features are often seen on higher-end X570 boards, so having those features on this B550 board is luxury. 

The I/O has six USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a rear type-C port, and ports for 7.1 CH HD audio. While it may lack some of the more expansive features that full ATX boards offer, the ASRock B550M-ITX packs a lot of punch at the low price point of $129.

Related: Best mini ITX cases for Small Form Factor builds

Best mATX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600

ASRock knows how to make a high-quality and affordable small form factor board. The ASRock B550M PRO 4 supports PCIe 4.0, Zen 2 & 3 Ryzen CPUs, SLI GPU configurations, and it has four DIMM slots capable of handling DDR4 memory with speeds over 4700MHz. Packing all of those features into an mATX board was no easy feat. The sleek white and black metal finish will make this board look at home in any micro-build. 

Unfortunately, this board does lack Wi-Fi. It has speedy gigabit LAN built-in, but enthusiasts on the go will want to pick up an external Wi-Fi card. Thankfully, this board has plenty of room for those expansions with the additional PCIe connection. 

The ASRock B550M PRO 4 also supports dual 4.0 M.2s that can be kept running fast and cool with the included heatsinks. Builders will be able to enjoy Nahimic audio with optional HDMI output, Polychrome RBG, and an impressive array of I/O connections. You get 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB C port, and a solid array of eight USB 3.2 GEN 1 ports. This board has plenty of options for expandability despite its small size and even smaller price point at just $109.

Summary

The Ryzen 5 3600 is a bit of a game-changer, as it opens the door for a lot more users to 6c/12t processors than ever before. With this level of price-to-performance supported by platforms that are just as feature-filled and low-cost as the unit that drives them, it’s hard to say “no,” to Team Red these days.

Best Entry-Level: MSI B450 Tomahawk – Excellent VRM and feature-set at an extremely modest price.

Best High-Performance: MSI MPG X570 Gaming PRO Carbon Wi-Fi – One of the most robust VRM solutions in the X570 lineup, coupled with a comprehensive feature set and USB Type C support – this is a great motherboard pairing for the Ryzen 5 3600 in high-end builds.

Best mini-ITX: ASRock B550M-ITX – this ITX B550 motherboard packs a lot of punch at just $129 – with a decent feature set, VRM, BIOS flash inbuilt as well as type-C support.

Best mATX: ASRock B550M Pro4 – A great feature-set micro-ATX motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600. Plenty of expansion options, RGB, a decent I/O – this board has plenty of options despite its small size and even smaller price point.

Have you recently built a system with the Ryzen 5 3600? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!

• Related: Best CPU Coolers for the Ryzen 5 3600
• Related: Best Graphics Cards to Pair with the Ryzen 5 3600
• Related: Best RTX 2060 Super Aftermarket Cards

The post Best Motherboards for Ryzen 5 3600 Builds appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

AMD has officially unveiled its Ryzen 5000 processors in an online event that really went hard in highlighting the gaming capabilities of these new processors, with CEO Lisa Su stating that “gaming begins with AMD”.

AMD has officially launched the new Ryzen 5000 CPU (Zen 3) series, code-named Vermeer. Already providing undisputable multi-threaded performance for every price point, their focus for this generation has been improving the architecture for gaming and low latency tasks. They’ve gone all-in by optimizing on-die components and the manufacturing process in order to claim a whopping 19% IPC performance over the previous Zen 2 (Matisse) processors. The Instructions per Clock (IPC) are very important to a CPU thanks to how relative single-core performance is calculated by multiplying IPC x Clock Speed. IPC doesn’t come with additional power consumption or thermal requirements and its arguably always better to improve IPC instead of just raising Clock Speed.

AMD took a great route with their new lineup by both improving Clock Speeds and significantly improving IPC, resulting in an overall gaming performance improvement of around 26% over their previous best gaming CPU, the Ryzen 9 3900XT. This is huge news in the tech horizon since this is the first time in many generations when AMD is performing better than its Intel counterpart in gaming performance; they’re also doing it at 2.8x better efficiency than Intel.

The direct successor to the Ryzen 5 3600X is the new Ryzen 5 5600X (that’s right, they skipped the 4000 series for desktop) and today we will be comparing these two to see if the new part is a significant enough improvement over the last one. We will be looking at performance uplift, specs, efficiency, and pricing.

Ryzen 5 5600X vs Ryzen 5 3600X: Specification Comparison

The Ryzen 5 5600X is very similar in specs to the outgoing 3600X model and thus, its targeted to the same mainstream market but the performance obtained from architectural improvements puts the 5600X well ahead of the 3600X. We can also observe a 30 W deduction in TDP suggesting a big uplift in efficiency even if clock speeds are almost 10% higher. The fastest approved memory speed is 3,200 MHz although you can tweak it to much faster speeds due to the improved IMC (integrated memory controller). We have no official data yet but the previous Ryzen 5 3600X has been seen running with 4400MHz+ memory speeds and we have no reason not to believe the new one is even better for memory tweaking.

PCIe Gen 4.0 is available with the new Ryzen 5 5600X and compatible X570 and B550 motherboards, allowing you to get significant storage and secondary device performance uplift from this improved interface. The only downside with the 5600X is the absence of the integrated graphics device but the majority of people who buy such a powerful processor will also pair it with a dedicated graphics card. The included CPU cooler is good enough to keep the processor running stock and will probably allow for a bit of overclocking, exactly like the previous generations’ included stock coolers. For pushing the clock speeds to the limits, consumers will likely need to purchase a better aftermarket cooler. The Ryzen 5 5600X is the only released Vermeer CPU to include a stock cooler but this may be subject to change if AMD will be launching additional products at different price tiers.

Ryzen 5 3600X vs Intel Core i5-10600K

When compared to its mainstream competitor, the Ryzen 5 5600X looks to be demolishing its $299 counterpart, the Intel Core i5 10600K; and AMD has the benchmarks to prove it. They are touting a 19% single core advantage and 20% multi core advantage over the 10600K resulting in a 13% 1080p gaming performance advantage. To explain, 1080p gaming performance is a good metric to measure overall gaming performance because it puts the most strain on the CPU; this makes AMD very confident in their product and rightfully so. Another big selling point of the new Ryzen micro architecture is the improved efficiency which AMD says is on average 2.8 times more power efficient, especially at the top end; this means quieter and cooler utilization with less money spent on cooling solutions or power bills.

So should you buy the new Ryzen 5 5600X?

Thanks to how the new generation is compatible with previous motherboard chipsets, if you are on an older Ryzen build, you can easily upgrade to this CPU with just a BIOS update provided by your motherboard vendor. The performance uplift between generations is very tempting, especially in gaming where the cheapest Ryzen CPU, the 5600X, outperforms even their most expensive mainstream market CPU from the previous generation, the 16 Core Ryzen 9 3950X. Is it a good buy? We think so. The launch price is also not completely indicative of retail price and you may soon find great deals and offers for this part. We will also be using it in lots of our upcoming gaming builds!

The jury is still out on just how AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series chips will perform in the real world because we just know the numbers AMD showed us during the launch presentation. We can formulate an even more informed opinion on this Ryzen 5600X CPU once the reviewers are getting their hands on samples. AMD is also not known to mislead or lie in their presentations but expect November 5 to come with decisive information on the performance matters.

The performance does look promising and even with the $50 price premium over the previous Ryzen 5 model, AMD has made plenty of alterations that should boost performance significantly and warrant the slight price increase.

The post Ryzen 5 5600X vs 3600X: Which Are The Key Differences? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

The $1000 price point for a gaming PC build may just be one of the most contested out there easily, because of how many different combinations of components you can fit in such a budget. It all depends on the use really. For example, if you want to get the best performance for triple-A Ultra graphics gaming you will need to get the most powerful GPU since even lower-end CPUs can handle 60 fps easily nowadays; on a different perspective, if you’d like to use your system for productivity, editing, rendering or general number-crunching tasks, you’ll need to get the most powerful multi-core CPU you can a cheap GPU that will handle the display capabilities.

Today though we’re going to be focusing on something else. High refresh rate gaming is getting more and more popular, many console users coming to PC just for the experience of smooth gameplay with no compromises. If you’re among them, that’s great because we have the right build just for you! We’re going to recommend a list of parts that assembled together will result in one of the most compelling $1000 high refresh rate gaming builds on the market. Our main benchmark will be Call of Duty: Warzone as its one of the most popular shooters out there with fast gameplay and good graphics; we will be aiming to get 144+ FPS in this game with the build coming ahead.

$1000 Warzone High FPS (144+) Gaming PC Build – The Parts List

Component	Design	Item	Price
CPU		AMD Ryzen 5 3600	$166
Motherboard		MSI B450 Tomahawk Max	$114
Memory		Team T-FORCE DARK Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16	$59
Storage		Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME SSD	$99
Storage (Additional)		Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" SSD	$114
Graphics Card		MSI Radeon RX 5700 8 GB MECH OC	$304
Case		Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh	$68
Power Supply		Corsair CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze	$66
		Total:	$990

At PremiumBuilds we thrive to give you the best-intended performance for your money. We take pride in offering you an informed look at what your next system should look like; research is done continuously in our team in order to be able to pass as much relevant information to our readers as possible. We write these build guides in such a way for our readers to understand the decisions we take at each step. We’re certainly not leaving you in the dust with scattered information that you may or may not find informative; we’re your building buddy for the whole journey of you accomplishing the building of your dream system, whichever that may be!

In the following sections, we will show you each chosen component for this high FPS Warzone build and why it’s earnt its place.

CPU

Every so often there comes a processor that captures the market. AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600 is really that right combination of price, cores, efficiency, frequency, performance, features and compatibility that combined with the right motherboard is something of undeniable value to the market. The Ryzen 5 3600 is Amazon’s best seller CPU and it really does have the right to fly off the shelves like that. It offers six high-performance Zen 2 cores, 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes and it debuted at just $199; you can get it around $169 now . The hype with this CPU is real as it allows tighter budgets to build incredibly strong systems with it.

Just three years ago, the Ryzen 5 3600 would have been the best consumer CPU on the market and today you can have that kind of performance for just $166. AMD’s new Zen 2 microarchitecture allows this to happen with its incredible versatility, efficiency and powerful IPC; it pushes the performance boundaries clock for clock against Intel’s other desktop offerings.

Some of you may remember of the popularity of Intel’s Sandy Bridge i5 2500K; it was essentially such a good leap forward by the blue team that people still use it in their PCs as a decent performer. We see the R5 3600 ageing the same or even better than the 2500K with its 6 unlocked cores and 12 threads. The majority of the market will still be thoroughly satisfied with the incredible performance and stellar value the Ryzen 5 3600 offers years and years after its summer 2019 launch.

Motherboard

This versatile B450 motherboard, the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max, can be easily recommended in a wide variety of PC builds due to its excellent value, VRMs, build quality and all-around features. It strikes the balance absolutely perfectly and only boards that are twice and upwards more expensive will offer you additional features; it’s that good.

The rear IO panel features a BIOS Flashback button with which you can safely roll back the default BIOS in case of an update or tweak failure, two USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 keyboard/mouse, DVI port, HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, USB 3.1 type-A, USB 3.1 type-C, Gigabit LAN, and 7.1 channel gold plated audio jacks. Its a solid I/O and I can’t see people other than true enthusiasts needing more than this on the back of their systems. Considering the price of the motherboard you can’t expect to find six fan headers on board but MSI made an effort to add in the headers and they are all hybrid! The Tomahawk also has some awesome aesthetics, the grey heat sinks on the motherboard looking really high-end; the matte black PCB with the silkscreen make the motherboard look durable.

The MSI B450 Tomahawk is actually a very impressive motherboard for a product that comes in just under $100. It has a very color neutral look, which adds a lot of value in this price segment. The large VRM heat sink is also very effective in lowering VRM temperatures and that means the Tomahawk is also great if you think about upgrading your CPU in the future.

Memory

We love our systems to have plenty of memory for their intended use. People don’t realize the importance of RAM until the operating system maxes it out and you then get a freezing and slow system. What’s also important is the speed of the RAM which you might not notice in daily tasks such as browsing or watching videos but during games and productivity tasks, each and every additional drop of speed from the memory modules help performance.

These Team T-Force Dark 2 x 8GB modules come in at just $60 and are an incredible bargain considering their 3200MHz tuned clock speed and respectable CL 16. Especially with Ryzen builds, RAM plays an important role in providing consistent frame times and FPS smoothness by keeping the 1% and 0.1% lows in check; in other words, fast RAM like this kit we’re using here will not allow games to jump between high and low FPS values thus ruining your game experience by stuttering.

Dual Channel 2 x 8GB is incredibly important for having double the bandwidth of a single 1 x 16GB RAM stick so we highly recommend always getting two or more sticks instead of just one, especially at this great price! This RAM kit that we’re using is also highly tweakable thanks to its great factory binning; anyone will be able to understand the uses for his system and adapt RAM for specific applications. If that seems hard to you, check out our memory tweaking guide! Changing memory latencies and speeds is very easy through the motherboard’s BIOS and will definitely impact your overall user experience.

Storage

Thanks to the incredible value the Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and RX 5700 GPU offers, we also have the budget to splurge into superior storage devices. For this build we chose the Samsung 970 EVO 500GB for the system device since operating system speed is of utmost importance for the user experience. Its still one of the fastest NVMe drives out there with speeds around 3.5 GB/s read and 3.3 GB/s write; those are insane numbers for such a small footprint device and we can easily fit it into this $1000 gaming build! We are not joking around, this drive will contribute to the highest level of responsiveness you ever felt in a system and your PC will be faster than you can think; it will be done with any task you’ve assigned it before you even decide for the next move. That is the power of going from SATA to M.2.

But we’re not done yet! We do realize 500 GB is far from the amount of space many of you will eventually use on your systems and this is why we chose the Crucial MX500 SATA SSD for an additional 1 Tb of fast storage. This drive may not have all the bells and whistles of the 970 Evo but its a sturdy and consistently fast storage device that doesn’t slow down during high load operations thanks to its added cache. The MX500 will make for a great secondary disk where it will work together with the main system NVMe to store your other applications, files and games that won’t fit on the OS drive. 1.5 Tb of disk space split into an ultra fast 500 GB for the OS and fast 1 Tb extra SSD should be enough for the majority of people and their virtual needs.

Graphics Card

For this build, we chose the best GPU we could fit in a $1000 budget without compromising too much on the other components. The RX 5700 is based on AMD’s new NAVI architecture and is built on 7nm. Its good value, great performance and stellar efficiency are some of the advantages AMD has over the other mid-range competitors like the RTX 2060 Super. As stated in other reviews already, RX 5700 sits at the Vega performance level, the improved architecture being sound and pretty fast. The realm AMD is sitting in performance-wise with the RX 5700 series is the models 2060 and 2070 with exceptions here and there; while the RX 5700 doesn’t come with Ray Tracing features, it still outperforms the Nvidia cards by 10 to 15%.

The AMD RX 5700 AIB implementation we’re using in the build comes in the form of the MSI Mech OC series, which carries a dual-slot, dual-fan configuration – very similar to MSI’s Ventus graphics cards but with a darker color palette. The design is appealing, even if fully in plastic save for the backplate, which is full black and has some white strips to add a little more interest to the otherwise blank surface.

The MSI Radeon RX 5700 Mech OC graphics card ships with 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.0 ports, and will join other MSI custom design mainstays in the company’s portfolio for AMD-based hardware. Its cooling performance is sufficient and properly silent for the money you’re paying.

Gaming performance will definitely leave you satisfied, this card being able to easily hold above 144 fps in any current eSport game, at 1080p. The main focus of this build though is Call of Duty Warzone and this card performs especially well in this title thanks to it being AMD Optimized. You can say goodbye to sluggish performance and stuttery gunfights because you’ll be in for a treat.

PC Case

A rather new mid-tower case from Phanteks, the Eclipse P300A Mesh, features a much-improved airflow over other similarly priced competitors in its price range; the letter A in the P300A name stands for airflow so we know Phanteks means business! This case is packed with quality materials and features that you will find only in much more expensive cases. Its edge to edge tempered glass side panel, PSU shroud and mesh front are just some of them. Space for additional fans, easy cable management with lots of tie-down points, great airflow and a solid metal build; really, what’s not to like?

While many manufacturers took the route of giving edgy aesthetics & RGB to people interested in mid-range cases, Phanteks focuses on functionality and a simple trusty design where performance and cooling power are of utmost importance. This case is a great example of an evolutionary case design packed with quality components and a well thought out layout. The mesh material in the front paired with the dust filters around the case allows the air to pass freely through the build while doing a great job at keeping it as clean as possible. During performance testing, this case maintained one of the most consistent temperatures in its price range and this is why we’re going to be using it in our build!

Power Supply

The RX 5700 GPU we are using pulls around 165W in the most heavy gaming situations while the Ryzen 5 3600 pulls a max of 88W during heavy so we will be very safe to use a 550W PSU that may also host another system upgrade down the line.

Introducing the Corsair CXM 550W, a very popular PSU that stands out as a high quality and well-revised product from a reputable company. Its good efficiency and semi modularity are great features at this price range, allowing you to keep your case tidy by only using the cables that you really do need; all the others can go back in the box for future use. The 24 PIN is not modular but that’s not a problem because you’re inevitably going to use to power the motherboard.

The presence of 2 x 6+2 PCIe cables means that you can easily upgrade your GPU in the future without the need to get a new PSU if the wattage capacity is within limits. The Corsair CXM 550W consists of quality sleeved cables, modularity, 80+ efficiency and a reputable brand name with a great track record and warranty. There are other decent PSUs at this price range that you may use instead of the CXM, especially if you can’t find it but try to compare features and get something similar for the money.

How will this build perform on Warzone and other eSports games?

Finally, we can get down to the performance figures after planning out our build. Lets see if it was worth it! From the get go and from our testing we can see that the Ryzen 5 3600 and RX 5700 combo is a strong one, all high refresh rate games in our list performing smoothly like they should. We guarantee you’ll be thoroughly impressed with the capabilities of this $1000 build. You may find other similarly priced builds out there from OEMs like Dell/HP that claim great performance out of their overpriced systems but if we break down the components, you will undeniably realize that they use cheaper parts in order to get as much margin back from their sales. We don’t do that here!

This build is just another researched build from us that will definitely put a smile on your face; and we do it free of charge! What’s left for you is to just buy the parts and assemble them, which is most of the time an easy but intriguing process.

With every build that we plan and recommend, we prepare a set of helpful benchmarks in order for you to understand the performance of the build and to be able to compare it with other performance figures online. We know that you’re most likely using other resources besides Premium Builds but we thrive to be as complete as we can! Here’s some helpful benchmarks of this very system, with its Ryzen 5 3600 + RX 5700 combo:

Solid performance numbers all around. Besides the build, we would also recommend getting a 1080p 144hz+ monitor in order to take advantage of this high-performance build. If your monitor is stuck at 60hz, you won’t be allowed to profit and lose some of the smooth experience.

Conclusion & After Thoughts

When planning to do this build we were deciding between the Ryzen 5 3600 + RX 5700 combo and the new Intel Core i5 10600K + GTX 1660 Super. We ultimately came to the conclusion that the first CPU-GPU combo would perform better in the majority of situations; and it also comes at a cheaper price because of the more expensive CPU and the need for both a higher end motherboard and a cooler heatsink capable of dealing with the 10600K when overclocked.

While the second combo you may have gotten better performance out of lightly threaded games like CS:GO but ultimately, performance would’ve been bottlenecked by the GTX 1660 Super which is essentially 20% slower than the RX 5700 we’re using in our build of choice. You can, of course, go for either combo but in our testing, the upper build performed better and more consistent overall.

We appreciate that you stuck with us till the conclusions; that means we didn’t do this boringly and we thank you! Now its probably time to start to order your parts because its a very good time to do so; the market is more competitive than ever and pricing offers good value. We also hope that the sections and explanations we chose to include in this article were helpful to you and you weren’t left with many unanswered questions; if you’d like further help, we love to help in the comment section below!

Complete building video guides are coming in the near future so definitely stay tuned for them!

The post Best $1000 Warzone PC Build for High (144+) FPS Gaming appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

As part of our PC build series here at PremiumBuilds, we aim to assemble the best possible PCs based on a specific need (e.g., gaming), form factor (e.g., ITX), budget (e.g., $500 or $2500) or component selection (e.g., building around the RTX 2080 Super or Ryzen 9 3900X).

For this entry to the series, we are focusing on the increasingly-popular ITX form factor with the best possible price-to-performance and the best possible aesthetic. Thus, we have decided to build a powerhouse SFFPC, at a mid-range budget of $1500, in the highly-rated LOUQE Ghost S1.

Our goal is to select components that offer extreme levels of performance, but don’t necessarily command an expensive price tag. We at PremiumBuilds are confident that we’ve created one of the best price-to-performance ITX gaming PCs in the mid-range market, and arguably one of the best looking SFF systems out there.

Note: We have cherry-picked the best components, proven to perform in the Ghost S1, and if we were to build in another chassis such as the Dancase A4-SFX – the case fan, CPU cooler, and PSU selection may be completely different.

How fast will this ITX gaming PC perform?

For this particular mid-range ITX build, we want to be able to game at 1440p resolution – preferably at a 16:9 ratio and minimum 100hz, or at 21:9 ultrawide 1440p at 80hz on high settings. The perfect graphics card that can achieve this, within budget, and provide futureproofing is Nvidia’s RTX 2070 Super – which is arguably the best mid-range 1440p graphics card currently on the market.

At only a $1500 price bracket for this SFF build, we, unfortunately, can’t expect to be gaming comfortably at 4K above 60Hz, even on Medium-Low graphics settings. Thus, we are aiming to nail >60Hz at 1440p on High settings for many AAA titles – with ray tracing.

Best Value Mini ITX Gaming PC Build for 2020 – The Parts List

Component	Selection	Design	Price	Reasoning
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600		$174	Best value, price/performance CPU on the market today
CPU Cooler	Noctua LH-12S		$49	Best air cooling performance for the LOUQE Ghost S1
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-I Gaming		$135	Best feature-packed B450 ITX motherboard, with Ryzen 3000 pre-flashed onto BIOS
Memory	Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB 3200 MHz CL16 (2x8GB)		$97	Great value, Easy to overclock to 3600 MHz CL16, Low-profile
Storage	Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe M.2 2280 SSD		$149	Great price/performance NVMe SSD, cheaper than the Intel 660p but similar performance
Graphics Card	Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition		$489	Capable of 1440p ultrawide gaming, future proofed, best value mid-range GPU of 2020
PC Case	LOUQE Ghost S1 (No Tophat, Copper Grill)		$269	Great build quality, performance, possibly the best ITX case (so far?)
Power Supply	Corsair SF600 Platinum		$149	Best in class SFX power supply, Platinum variant for sleeved cables (vs Gold rated)
Case Fan	Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM		$19	Best performing 120mm slim case fan
Thermal Paste	ARCTIC Thermal MX-4		$9	Top budget, carbon-based thermal paste
		Total Price	$1539

CPU

We want to squeeze as much performance as possible out of our components, which only leaves one option for our processor – AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600. For the money, the 3600 is regarded as the best price-to-performance value currently on the market, especially for SFF systems. It’s a fantastic 65W chip that offers performance on par with the Intel Core i5-9600K (overclocked) and its more expensive brother, the 3600X. See our comparison of the Intel Core i5-9600K and the Ryzen 5 3600.

With 6 cores, 12 threads, a base/boost frequency of 3.6/4.2 GHz, and PCIe 4.0 support – all at an extremely modest price point – there is very little to dislike about the Ryzen 5 3600.

CPU Cooler

The Noctua NH-L12S, considered to be one of the best low profile CPU coolers on the market, offers significant cooling performance improvements over the stock Wraith cooler (included with the Ryzen 5 3600). Moreover, it has shown best-in-class performance over other CPU air cooling solutions when paired with the LOUQE Ghost S1 – and considering we are building an ITX machine focused on price-to-performance – this is our best bet.

Note: The Noctua NH-L12S is just a few millimeters too large for the LOUQE Ghost S1, so for it to be compatible, many ITX builders opt to slightly bend the heat pipes to gain that few extra millimeters of headroom. Space is tight, but once you get it to fit, you know you have the best possible cooling setup within the LOUQE Ghost S1. See our guide for bending the NH-L12S.

Motherboard

For our platform, we decided to go with a B450 motherboard, which either had to be pre-flashed with the latest BIOS, or at least have USB BIOS Flashback so we can do it ourselves. If we want to utilize the latest PCIe 4.0 support offered by the Ryzen 5 3600, we would have to choose an X570 motherboard. However, both X570 motherboards and PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs are simply too expensive for a mid-range build. With our budget, we, unfortunately, won’t be able to utilize PCIe 4.0.

Our best option here is the ROG Strix B450-I Gaming. Despite its size, this ITX board certainly packs a punch with the number of features for the price: RGB, onboard WiFi module, 8x USB ports, a robust VRM for great thermals, all with a super sleek design. If only this motherboard also had USB Type C…

Memory

Picking RAM specifically for the LOUQE Ghost S1 and Noctua NH-L12S combo can be especially tricky – and many builders have found out the hard way that theirs do not physically fit in the case. Due to the Noctua NH-L12S being a low-profile CPU cooler, it has severely limited RAM clearance (even with a topside fan configuration), so we’re required to opt for super low-profile RAM to get it actually to fit.

Another consideration when picking the best RAM for the Ryzen 5 3600 is CAS latency – of which we have a comprehensive guide here. The main takeaway is that DDR4 3600MHz CL16 appears to be the sweet spot for price-to-performance, so that’s where we’re aiming. Interestingly, the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT with a 3200 MHz CL16 configuration can be easily overclocked to 3600 MHz, thus offering fantastic value for its impressive performance. The Ballistix Sport LT also has just enough clearance to fit under the NH-L12S. Additionally, this RAM features white ‘digital camo’ heat spreaders, which give them a very sleek look.

For most use cases, 16GB is still more than enough memory for gaming and basic multitasking, hence why we decided against a 32GB kit. We’re not going to be able to utilize that amount of RAM unless we start getting into intensive workstation tasks like rendering and editing.

Storage

For our storage, we decided that a single 1TB NVME SSD would be sufficient. 1TB is more than enough space for our boot drive, general storage, and game library. Our ROG Strix B450-I Gaming has a single M.2 slot, as well as 4x 6Gb/s SATA ports (though we won’t be using them in this build due to internal case volume restrictions). The LOUQE Ghost S1 has enough room for a drive at the bottom of the case, but you can decide to replace that with a new 120mm slim case fan – which is what we’ve done to ensure maximum cooling performance.

As we mentioned previously, Ryzen 3000 CPUs support the latest PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, which offer blazing-fast transfer speeds compared to their predecessors. However, with our focus being maximum price-to-performance, we decided to stick with PCIe 3.0, and opt for one of the best values on the market. That title goes to the Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe SSD, which has proven to be an excellent NVMe SSD for gaming.

Graphics Card

Although there are plenty of AIB/aftermarket RTX 2070 Super cards that offer improved stock overclocks, PCBs, and VRMs over the Nvidia 2070 Super Founders Edition, we decided to stick with it here. The main reasons include the surprisingly decent performance of this dual fan design within the LOUQE Ghost S1, as well as its gorgeous design that feels right at home in such a stunning enclosure. We readily admit that the aesthetics are still a critical deciding factor in this particular build (while retaining the maximum price-to-performance for our given budget).

We wanted this system to be capable of gaming at 16:9 1440p, as well as pushing up to 4K should we decide to upgrade in the future. The alternative was a 5700 XT, but we’ll need that slight bit of extra headroom to be able to push 1440p at higher settings. See our head-to-head comparison of the Nvidia RTX 2070 Super and the AMD Radeon 5700 XT.

PC Case

Ever since the Kickstarter announcement of this small form factor (SFF) ITX case, the LOUQE Ghost S1 has been an absolute hit. Widely regarded as one of the most desirable PC cases in 2020, it had to be the star of our next build. It’s certainly not cheap and won’t maximize our overall price to performance, but the overall look and build quality justifies the cost, especially if it’s going to be sitting on our desk for the next few years. With a jaw-dropping, understated design – this ITX case will undoubtedly impress any of your fellow PC builders and fill them with envy!

Note: There have been reported shipping issues for many people that have bought this case, and many PC builders (including us!) have had to wait months upon months to get their hands on it. Most of these issues have reportedly been ironed out by LOUQE, but it may still be difficult to acquire one – so be aware. If you don’t feel like waiting or shelling out $269 for your enclosure – here is our guide on the best Ghost S1 alternatives to consider.

Power Supply

Corsair’s SFX series of PSUs, widely regarded as the best on the market, left us with an easy decision here: the SF600 Platinum. With this 600W unit, we have some overclocking headroom and the ability to upgrade components in the future. Furthermore, it was rated 9.8/10 by JohnnyGuru – a testament to its fantastic voltage regulation, performance, build quality, and value.

Benefits of the Platinum rated version of the SF600 over the Gold version include premium sleeved cables (perfect for cable management in our ITX system) for a clean interior, as well as an improved fan. However, we wouldn’t recommend the $10 premium over the Gold SF600 if you aren’t planning on using the stock sleeved cables, and are instead going for a custom sleeved cable configuration.

Case Fan

The LOUQE Ghost S1 allows for one additional 120mm case fan slot at the bottom of the chassis – should you choose not to install a 2.5” SSD drive. Occupying this slot is, of course, the industry-leading brand – Noctua. They need no introduction, offering best-in-class airflow, cooling performance, and build quality – as long as you don’t mind Noctua’s striking color scheme! The specific model we opted for was the Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM, which is a 120mm x 15mm slim case fan – with PWM fan control..

Thermal Paste

In our roundup of the best thermal pastes on the market earlier this year, we found the Arctic MX-4 to be the best carbon-based thermal paste on the market. It offers fantastic performance for its price, costing considerably less than the highly-regarded Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut, while still competing on thermal performance.

Priced at just $7 for 4 grams, the addition of the Arctic MX-4 to our build is a cheap but effective upgrade for our Ryzen 5 3600’s thermals.

Closing Thoughts

For the money, it’s tough to beat a reliable ITX gaming system. As manufacturing processes continue to improve, and smaller components offer more performance and features, SFF computers have been skyrocketing in popularity. If ever you’ve found yourself interested in joining the SFFPC community, we’re confident this build is a fantastic place to start… even if you lack the patience to wait for the LOUQE!

Have you built in the LOUQE GhostS1? Are you considering switching to an ITX system? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!

The post Best ITX Gaming PC Build under $1500 (ft. LOUQE Ghost S1) for 2020 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Congratulations! You’ve settled on the new CPU king of price-performance gaming capable of being paired with even the highest-end GPUs for great performance: the Ryzen 5 3600. You have chosen your motherboard (maybe with the help of our budget X570 article), you have your SSD picked out, and maybe your peripherals as well. But you remember hearing that a strong power supply unit, a PSU, is important. After all, you wouldn’t want to buy a sub-par power supply and either fry your components, waste electricity with poor efficiency, or not be able to use your components to their full potential due to a lack of power! And you would be right on the mark, the PSU is often seen as the hero-behind-the-scenes in most builds as it is a vital piece of any PC.

This guide will help you choose which power supply is right for you! In almost all builds, the two components that dictate which power supply level you need are the CPU (in this case, a Ryzen 3600) and the GPU. Unless you have a crazy number of storage drives or RGB fans and lights, they will have a very minimal impact on your system’s TDP, or Thermal Design Power (a measure of necessary Watts for your system). Since the Ryzen 3600 comes in at a very power efficient 65 Watts (without overclocking), your GPU will help decide what the total power draw for the system will be.

A good PSU typically includes high-quality components, comes with a strong warranty, has a good efficiency rating, and does not make too much noise (mainly from the fan). So for our recommendations, we will be focusing on the information from great resources like JohnnyGuru and the LinusTechTips tier rating for PSUs, while balancing it with price and what is useful for your typical enthusiast gaming build.

As a sidenote for the whole guide, we will be focusing on current generation GPUs as new builders will typically choose one of them, but if you are still using a previous generation card like the Vega 56/64, RX 580/590 or Nvidia GTX 10XX series, check the TDP of your GPU and find the closest one in this guide, and the PSU for that TDP should work for you too!

With those things in mind, here are our recommendations:

Best Power Supplies for Ryzen 5 3600 Builds – My Recommendations

Award	Design	Model	Example of Graphics Card Tier
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Mid-level GPU		Bitfenix Whisper Series 550W (BWG550M)	Nvidia GTX 1660, GTX 1660Ti, RTX 2060, AMD RX 5700
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Performance GPU		Corsair RM650x	Nvidia RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Super, AMD RX 5700 XT
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Enthusiast-grade GPU		Seasonic PRIME 750W	Nvidia RTX 2080, RTX 2080 Super, RTX 2080 Ti
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 SFF Builds		Corsair SF600 Gold	N/A

Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Nvidia GTX 1660 / GTX 1660Ti / RTX 2060 / AMD RX 5700

We are going to start with the minimum tier of GPUs we would consider pairing with the new Ryzen 3600: Nvidia’s GTX 1660/1660Ti and RTX 2060/2060 and AMD Radeon RX 5700. This combination will offer great 1080p gaming, with 60+FPS in even the most recent AAA games and much closer to 144hz for eSports or older titles.

At this level, we recommend getting a high-quality 550W power supply. 550W is still likely far more than your PC would use in any gaming situation, but if you decide to overclock either your GPU or CPU (or both!) the extra headroom will be sure to give you enough power to squeeze out some extra performance. For the 1660/1660Ti, you could get away with a 450W power supply likely (without overclocking), but the price difference is not significant and a good power supply can often last multiple builds, so we recommend going for the 550W.

And at the 550W category, there is no better performer for its price than the well-reviewed and highly rated Bitfenix Whisper Series 550W. The BWG550M uses high quality components like Japanese polymer capacitors, offers full modular cabling to help with cable management, provides constant clean power with good ripple suppression and load regulation, and has a great 80+ Gold efficiency rating. The only complaint we see in reviews is a difficult ATX cable, but nothing that stops users from actively recommending this unit to potential buyers.

All those features together and a 7-year warranty at its very reasonable price of $80 (or $70 if you find it on sale) make the Bitfenix Whisper 550W PSU a solid buy.

* Can be considerably higher with partner cards!

Best PSU FOR Ryzen 3600 + Nvidia RTX 2060 Super / RTX 2070 / RTX 2070 Super / AMD RX 5700 XT

If you are looking to jump into 1440p gaming, or want to push 144hz in almost all titles at 1080p, the next step up GPUs offer a great combination with the Ryzen 3600.

These GPUs offer more power than the tier above, but therefore consume more power as well. While not necessarily a huge jump for something like the 2060 Super over the 2060, some partner cards come with factory overclocks that push their true power draw over even the listed price. For that reason, at this level of GPU, we recommend going for a 650 W PSU to ensure you have plenty of power, even if overclocking. And at 650W, we recommend the Corsair RM650x.

The RM650x is a part of the very-well respected RMx line from Corsair, and the 650W model is one of the best in the lineup. With a 10-year warranty, stellar reviews from JohnnyGuru and a high rating in the different PSU tier lists based on high-quality components, great efficiency, and provision of clean power, the RM650x will not let you down.

The RM650x is listed at a very attractive $88 as of the time of writing this article, and has been known to drop down to around $80. At that price point, there is no reason to look beyond this super reliable PSU.

* Can be considerably higher with partner cards!

Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Nvidia RTX 2080 / RTX 2080 Super / RTX 2080 Ti

In this tier, we have started to arrive at the higher end of gaming GPUs and some truly power-hungry cards with some powerful performance. These cards were made for 1440p 100+FPS gaming, or even some dabbling in 4K gaming for the 2080 Ti. If we are going to spend a nice chunk of change on the GPU, we want to make sure we have the PSU to match. With that in mind, we recommend one of the best PSU’s on the market, the Seasonic PRIME 750W.

For many people, Corsair is a known name, as are other PSU makers like CoolerMaster, EVGA, or even Bitfenix. But what most people do not know is that those manufacturers often build their units based on supplies from third parties. And one of those major third party suppliers is Seasonic, making them one of the strongest producers of PSUs available, with less name recognition than some of their counterparts.

The Seasonic expertise is on full display with the entire PRIME series, and the 750W model is no different. Top-of-the-line components, stellar build quality, an 80+ Titanium efficiency rating, a 12(!) year warranty….there really is nothing to negatively say about this PSU. It is definitely more pricy at $190 (this type of quality doesn’t come cheap!), so a strong alternative that still has great quality components but has a less-than-perfect 5-year warranty and an 80+ Gold rating is the be quiet! BN619 Straight Power 11 750W.

* Can be considerably higher with partner cards!

Best PSU FOR Ryzen 5 3600 SFF Builds

Finally, a guide is not complete without a thought for our space-concerned small form factor builders. While SFF PC’s can use GPUs at almost any level, there is less choice when it comes to PSUs that follow the SFX-L sizing.

In this category, we are going to stick with one of the big names and recommend the Corsair SF600 as the best all-around SFX-L PSU. Johnnyguru gives this PSU a 9.7/10 after putting this model through his grueling testing suite, and we see no reason to disagree.

With a 7-year warranty, the same high-quality parts and build quality we see in Corsair’s other high-end PSU lines, and an 80+ Gold efficiency rating (that actually hit 80+ Platinum in most Johnnyguru tests), and all within a small size and at the very affordable $120 price point….I don’t think there is anything else to say, we’ve found our SFX-L PSU.

Conclusion

Award	Design	Model	Example of Graphics Card Tier
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Mid-level GPU		Bitfenix Whisper Series 550W (BWG550M)	Nvidia GTX 1660, GTX 1660Ti, RTX 2060, AMD RX 5700
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Performance GPU		Corsair RM650x	Nvidia RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Super, AMD RX 5700 XT
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Enthusiast-grade GPU		Seasonic PRIME 750W	Nvidia RTX 2080, RTX 2080 Super, RTX 2080 Ti
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 SFF Builds		Corsair SF600 Gold	N/A

While not as flashy as the GPU, as extensively covered as the CPU, or even given as much attention as the motherboard or RAM in most builds, the PSU is the unsung hero that keeps your PC going hour-after-hour, day-after-day. So when building your PC, make sure to save a piece of your budget (usually somewhere around 10-15%) to get a high-quality PSU that will ensure clean power to your components and let them reach their full potential. And if you do invest in a high-quality PSU with a long warranty, do not be afraid to use it in the next build, as long as it has enough power for your new components.

The post Best Power Supplies (PSUs) for Ryzen 5 3600 Builds in 2021 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

While PC builders are almost always interested in price-performance more than anything else, many of us are equally interested in building an aesthetically-pleasing machine that can sit on our desk without being an eye-sore. Creating a ‘battlestation’ that is eye-catching and as exciting to look at as to use allows us to enjoy our hobbies as more than simple tools, but as expressions of our hobbies.

And while every person’s aesthetic is different, most of us look to add a little personal flair with some RGB, matching colors, an overall theme, or generally pleasing products. They might cost a bit more than the simples, no-frills, budget components, but if you plan on keeping your computer for years at a time, the joy of using it might be worth the extra dollars.

White-themed PC’s are popular for people focusing on a certain aesthetic for several reasons:

1. White components allow for almost any combination of RGB lighting to reflect easily and avoid conflicting colors;
2. White goes with everything, so simply changing your RGB coloring or swapping out less-expensive colored components over the years won’t create conflicting color schemes if you decide you no longer like blue but prefer orange;
3. For RGB-haters or minimalism fans, white and black builds offer a very zen style build that fits with almost any décor scheme for your office or battlestation.

That’s not to say that some people will not go for a black/red or black/yellow themed build, but once you go down that road, it becomes difficult to adjust. White offers a flexibility that can range from an all-white LED setup for an elegant, clean look to a unicorn-vomit, RGB-rainbow, all-out color extravaganza without too much difficulty.

So for this build guide, we will focus on that upper mid-range machine that offers a strong aesthetic while still giving you enough horsepower to maintain 1440p 100-144hz in the majority of games available today.

Ultimate 1440p 144hz White Ryzen 5 3600 Gaming PC Build – The Parts List

Component	Design	Model	Price
CPU		Ryzen 5 3600	$198
CPU Cooler		Corsair H100i Platinum SE	$155
RAM		Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro White 3200MT/s CAS16	$100
SSD		Intel 660p 1TB NVMe	$95
GPU		Gigabyte 2070 Super Gaming OC White	$530
Motherboard		ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi	$210
Power Supply		Corsair RM750x White	$130
PC Case		Lian-Li O11 Dynamic White	$135
Case Fan(s)		Corsair LL120 White (3-pack)	$120
Fan Hub		Corsair Commander PRO	$65
		Total Price	$1735

CPU – Ryzen 5 3600

The heart of any PC is the processor. The processor, or CPU, is the starting point for any build and the piece that will lay the foundation for the other pieces, based on the planned usage of the computer. For gaming, the CPU is one of the two most critical components in determining the FPS, or frames per second, of which the build will be capable.

As this is a gaming build and not a workstation build, more than 6 cores will not be useful. In the future, games may be optimized for multi-core usage, but for now, 4 cores or more are more than enough, especially if those cores can hit higher clock speeds. So to balance more cores in case of future optimization with high single-core boost speeds, and all at a great price, this build uses the Ryzen 5 3600. With six cores and 12 threads, and a 4.2ghz all core boost speed, this processor will push 100+ frames in almost all games, and 144+ frames in more than half of current titles. At $200, this processor is an absolute steal for the modern gaming PC.

If you think you may also do some productivity workloads and have $130 more to spend, upgrading to a Ryzen 3700x will help with some applications like video/photo editing, but wouldn’t impact gaming to any noticeable degree.

CPU Cooler – Corsair H110i Platinum SE

As this is an all-white themed build and aesthetics are important, this build uses an AIO (all-in-one) CPU Cooler. AIO coolers are expensive, but subjectively look much nicer than bulkier air coolers, and offer quieter performance in the majority of cases. This build went for one of the top-rated white AIO’s on the market today: the Corsair H100i Platinum SE. The special edition white 240mm cooler uses a high-quality ASETEK pump, is backed by the strong Corsair warranty, and features enough RGB to make any rig explode with colors or simmer in elegant white light. This baby isn’t cheap at $155, but it certainly is a statement in the beauty of the right components.

As an alternative, if you don’t like AIOs or just prefer a cheaper, high-performance option, the Noctua DH-15 with the white Chromax frame is a very elegant, minimalist CPU cooler (although very large in pure size) that should offer top-of-the-line performance to keep your 3600 very chilly under even the heaviest loads. For around $100-$110 total on sale, not a bad option at all.

RAM – Corsair RGB Pro White 3200MHz CAS16

Ryzen processor discussions almost always include sections on which RAM to use to make the most out of your system. According to AMD, the sweetspot for RAM is 3600MT/s with CAS 16, but that requires either a bit of luck with the silicon lottery with a chip like Micron E-Die, or a Samsung B-Die RAM module. As both of those options can be expensive, especially when adding in the requirements for a white, RGB RAM that fits our white-themed PC, alternatives seem to a better choice. For that reason, we recommend Corsair RGB Pro White 3200MT/s CAS 16. The difference in clock speed will be insignificant for the vast majority of users, and if you really want to raise that clock speed, a small overclock should get you close. The RGB on this RAM and its easy compatibility with Corsair iCue make it the most reliable RAM module available that mixes high performance with absolutely stunning aesthetics.

If you really want to try and hit that Ryzen sweet spot, the 3600MT/s CAS 18 version of this RAM is a great alternative, although the extra $40 is a steep price for what should amount to a very minor difference in almost all games.

SSD – Intel 660p 1Tb

While storage is important, gaming simply isn’t the most demanding in terms of constant loading or unloading. Most SSD’s today will be perfectly adequate for gaming and will offer very fast load times and strong reliability. However, as this build is meant to also be beautiful, we recommend choosing an NVMe drive to take away those extra cables and improve that minimalist look. But since we do not need anything too fancy, we recommend the affordable, reliable, and still shockingly fast for 95% of users, Intel 660p 1Tb.

The 1Tb option is the sweet spot for many because the 660p is a better performer at higher capacities (over 512GB), and because of the very attractive price of the 1tb option (regularly around $85 on sale). So we say go for the 1Tb NVMe storage now and have no regrets later, letting you have one drive for both booting and game storage.

Graphics Card – Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super Gaming OC

Aside from the CPU, the GPU is the other major component in determining the FPS you will push for any given title. While the CPU is often more important in getting from 60FPS to 144+ FPS, the GPU is largely responsible for the resolution you will be able to support. To hit 1440p and not experience difficulty maintaining high FPS, the GPU will need to be one of the higher-end models. And while white-themed GPU’s exist, they are few and far between. With all those criteria, our recommendation is the Gigabyte 2070 Super Gaming OC which combines a beautiful white backplate and shroud with very high performance.

The 2070 Super is one of the new Super-line graphics cards that are essentially refreshes to last years Nvidia Turing release that bump each model one rung up the stack. A 2070 Super should perform like a 2080 and be able to maintain 1440p and keep frames above 100 FPS in almost all titles, with most hitting between 120-144 frames with High/Ultra graphics, depending on the detailed choices you select.

If the 2070 Super is outside of your budget, a Gigabyte 2060 Super Gaming OC should be able to achieve close to 144 FPS at 1440p for eSports titles and older games and will keep over 60 FPS even in ultra-quality for almost all games available today. Check out our article for some strong 1440p 144hz alternatives to the GPU in this build.

Motherboard – ASRock X570 Steel Legend Wifi/ax

This section will be a bit shorter since we recently put out an article talking about strong budget X570 motherboards that goes in-depth on our recommendations. For the motherboard of a white-themed build, there are only two quality options out there for the X570: the ASUS X570 Prime Pro, and the ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi ax. Between the two, the Steel Legend is quite a bit cheaper and offers almost all of the features while sporting VRMs that will have no trouble with our recommended Ryzen 3600 (or Ryzen 3700x) processors, even with a significant overclock. So for this white-themed gaming build, we recommend the ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi ax. For more information, check out the dedicated article.

Power Supply: Corsair RM750X

The PSU is the behind-the-scenes hero of any build. A strong build is always at risk of failure if you choose a weak PSU, so we recommend being sure to go for a high-quality warranty backed by a 10 year (or at least 7 year) warranty from one of the major manufacturers. For this build, the fit the white theme, we chose the Corsair RM750x. This PSU will give you plenty of power, has an 80+ Gold efficiency rating, a 10-year warranty, and those sweet, sweet white cables to match with your build.

PC Case Case Fans, and Fan Hub

Finally, we need something to put all these components in. And since you spent so much time and money choosing components that are beautiful, the case needs to showcase (see that pun?) your parts and highlight the white elegance and RGB. The fans need to provide some extra RGB to top-off your build color flexibility while also offering strong cooling and avoiding too much noise.

So to satisfy all those needs, we recommend the Lian-Li 011 Dynamic White and 3 x Corsair White LL120 fans. The case has two tempered glass panels that will allow your guests to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over your beautiful build, and the fans offer the best RGB/performance/noise value on the market, and luckily come in a great matte white version perfect for this build. With the 240mm AIO Radiator (and its two included LL120 fans) on top and the 3 x LL120 fans serving as cool air intake on the side of the Lian-Li Dynamic, your case will look great and keep all the components nice and cool.

Because the Corsair LL120s offer so many lighting options and plenty of fan curve customization options, we recommend getting the Corsair Commander Pro hub to hook up all your fans to the iCue software, giving you total control over your builds performance and lighting.

Summary

Component	Design	Model	Price
CPU		Ryzen 5 3600	$198
CPU Cooler		Corsair H100i Platinum SE	$155
RAM		Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro White 3200MT/s CAS16	$100
SSD		Intel 660p 1TB NVMe	$95
GPU		Gigabyte 2070 Super Gaming OC White	$530
Motherboard		ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi	$210
Power Supply		Corsair RM750x White	$130
PC Case		Lian-Li O11 Dynamic White	$135
Case Fan(s)		Corsair LL120 White (3-pack)	$120
Fan Hub		Corsair Commander PRO	$65
		Total Price	$1735

There you have it, our recommendations for building a beautiful, powerful, 144 FPS-pushing, 1440p high-definition resolving, $1750 gaming PC. The different pieces of this build will often go on sale, so keep an eye out for any deals to ensure your gorgeous PC will be as affordable as possible – if you time it right, the whole rig can be had for around $1500. Of course, if you are looking for pure performance, take a look at our GPU guide for 1440p 144hz gaming as well.

White-themed PCs are certainly beautiful, but they also cost quite a bit more than your average color-agnostic build when speaking about the same computing power. If you want to achieve performance that is still very good but at about 2/3 the price, check out our article on another great gaming build guide. And if you are looking to upgrade your monitor to take full advantage of your new gaming PC, check out our article on 1440p 144hz monitors.

The post Ultimate $1750 White 1440p 144hz Gaming PC Build appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

1080p or ‘Full HD’ is the starting point for a great gaming build – but it shouldn’t be considered entry-level. For many gamers running 1080p resolution has an advantage beyond the value it offers: With relatively inexpensive GPUs a carefully specified system can offer high frame rates. High FPS means a rewarding and fluid experience, but for competitive e-sports players pushing frames can mean you see an opportunity a split second before an opponent does – and that can equate to a competitive edge. In this article Premium Builds recommend a versatile 1080p/144hz gaming machine that can be built for $1000/£1000 and will satisfy the needs of general-purpose players and hardcore competitive gamers alike.

Build Ethos:

The demands of 1080p 144hz gaming are perhaps counter-intuitive. There are two factors that must be balanced: The Graphics Processor needs to be powerful enough to render the frames, but the CPU has to be powerful enough to compute the game data to produce them! Unless the core of the system can run the game engine towards or past 144fps, you won’t be maximising the refresh rate of the monitor. For this reason, a 144hz capable system needs a strong CPU irrespective of its target resolution, whilst one of several mid-range GPU options will supply the rendering horsepower.

The luxury of competitive e-sports is that you can always lessen the burden on the GPU by lowering graphical quality settings to boost performance: Indeed you’ll struggle to find a winning e-sports player who doesn’t run bare minimum graphical settings. But don’t worry – the system we’re recommending here is more than capable of doing both fast AND pretty! Expect excellent performance on high or even ultra settings with this build at 1080p resolution. It’s worth managing expectations at this point: There are plenty of games at no current system will run at or past 144fps. Demanding AAA titles like Monster Hunter World or Shadow of the Tomb Raider won’t reach that speed no matter how much processor you throw at them. Some games are simply poorly optimised, and they’ll struggle too (PUBG or Assassins Creed Odyssey, for example).

Thankfully, e-sports title developers know that fast frame times are key to a fluid and thrilling experience so stalwarts like Apex Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League and even Fortnite will, given the right system, run to very high frame rates. We’d recommend pairing this build with a 144hz monitor with FreeSync capability. With this technology matching the monitor refresh to the GPU output on a frame by frame basis you’ll experience smooth gameplay without screen tearing even on games where the magic 144fps isn’t attainable.

Ultimate 1080p 144hz All-rounder build – The Parts List

Component	Image	Base	Price
CPU		AMD Ryzen 5 3600	$200
Motherboard		MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX	$120
Memory		Kingston HyperX Predator 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200	$110
Storage		Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD	$100
Video Card		Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE	$370
Case		Phanteks ECLIPSE P350X ATX Mid Tower Case	$60
Power Supply		SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold	$80
		Total Price	$1040

CPU: Ryzen 3600 ($200)

This system uses the huge value and performance of the Zen 2 AMD Ryzen processors at its core. There’s little on the market to challenge the Ryzen 5 3600 right now, and with 6 cores and 12 threads it’s sure to remain capable for years to come. The $50 more expensive 3600X promises 200mhz higher clock speeds – but the reality in this iteration is that there’s barely any performance difference and certainly not enough to warrant the additional spend. Just 3 months ago we’d have been recommending the intel i5-9600K for a high FPS build, but the Ryzen 3600 has it matched in frame rates and well and truly beaten for versatility and value, making it the clear choice. The inclusion of the Wraith Stealth cooler cements its value.

Motherboard: MSI Tomahawk B450 MAX ($120)

The MSI Tomahawk established itself as a firm favourite for the Ryzen 2600, but the transition to the Ryzen 3000 series has prompted MSI to release the revised ‘B450 Tomahawk MAX’ version. This motherboard comes with rock solid CPU power delivery hardware and Ryzen 3000 ready BIOS. It’s compatible with a wide variety of ram and has a rugged ‘Arsenal’ themed aesthetic.

RAM: Kingston Hyper X 16Gb (2x8GB) DDR4 3200mhz CL16 SKU HX432C16PB3K2/16 ($110)

Ryzen CPUs have always been RAM sensitive owing to the ‘infinity fabric’ architecture. The Ryzen 3000 series is no different with a good correlation between performance and RAM speed. There’s a balancing act though: Whilst select RAM kits may allow 3600mhz or even 4133mhz overclocks they’re hard to find and incredibly expensive. With performance gains in the realms of single percentage points, it is not a cost-effective means of boosting performance. We’re left looking for high-quality RAM on the Qualified Vendor List of the motherboard and balancing price and performance. The Kingston Hyper X Predator Ram kit (and yes, this specific SKU as checked against the QVL for the MSI Tomahawk B450 MAX) fits the bill perfectly whilst not costing the earth. 16Gb is more than adequate for current titles, and Dual-channel mode is essential for optimised RAM performance.

Storage: Intel 660p 1Tb NVME M.2 SSD ($100)

We’re nearing the end of the spinning platter: Ever since vendors broke through the SATA interface bottleneck, and then began offering bulk storage drives with low cost per Gb Storage and high speeds the writing was on the wall for traditional mechanical Hard Disks. The last 18 months has seen a wealth of consumer SSD’s hit the market promising high speeds and good value. The Intel 660p 1Tb NVME M.2 SSD is aimed squarely at the general use market. It’s not the fastest NVME SSD by quite some margin, but that doesn’t stop it being more than fast enough for general and gaming use.

The price point is nearly unbeatable, although the Cruical P1 which uses the same controller and NAND has dipped below in pricing recently. For a gaming PC, this drive is all you need. If you intend to capture gameplay footage, edit video, or manipulate large files on a regular basis, you may find a MLC based NVME Drive such as the Sabrent Rocket, Corsair MP510, HP EX 920, or ADATA SX8200 Pro meet better meets your needs. All are available for around £130/$150 for a 1Tb drive.

GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8GB Pulse ($370)

AMD’s Navi GPUs came to market this summer riding a wave of hype – and quickly crashed to shore with a $50 price drop to ensure they remained competitive with Nvidia’s refreshed ‘RTX SUPER’ line up. Navi takes the brute horsepower of the VEGA predecessors and addresses some of the issues those GPU’s posed, namely high power consumption and heat output. We’re left with a fantastic offering to drive 1080p at high FPS in the AMD Radeon RX 5700 GPU.

AMD’s partners are now offering GPU’s with axial coolers and it’s one of the first to market, the Sapphire Pulse, that we recommend in this build. It performs at least on par with the $50-$100 more expensive RTX 2060 SUPER although it trades blows depending on the game engine – some simply favour NVIDIA. Sapphire is a long-standing AMD partner and trusted manufacturer of GPUs. This cooler design promises 10dBa Sound reduction (that’s huge!) and cooler temperatures than the blower versions of the card. AMD has even addressed competitive gaming with technology that claims a 30% reduction in input lag. If you’re aiming for a 1080p system at the $1000/£1000 price point the RX 5700 – in non-blower format – is the GPU for you.

PC Case: Phanteks Eclipse P350X ($60)

Every system deserves a decent case. It protects your expensive components whilst providing adequate airflow, and of course it defines the look of the whole build. Quality cases also help keep a system quiet.

For this system we’ve opted for the Phanteks Eclipse P350X. Phanteks are a premium case manufacturer and despite a low $70 price point, this case has all the features you need: A PSU shroud and tempered glass side window keep things looking neat. It has a slick black finish with discreet RGB accents – which sync with MSI mystic sync on the Tomahawk motherboard. Dust filters prevent unsightly build up inside the case and are removable for easy cleaning whilst slide-out drive caddies make fitting 3.5” bulk storage drives a cinch. It is supplied with one 120mm fan: We’d recommend supplementing this with a pair of 140mm PWM fans in front such as the BeQuiet! SilentWings 2 to ensure ample airflow into the case, whilst the supplied 120mm fan can take care of exhaust at the top rear position.

PSU: SeaSonic Focus Gold 650W Semi Modular ($80)

AMD’s new generation of CPU’s and GPU’s have brought incredible efficiency improvements. This means that we don’t have to over-specify a power supply. The unit chosen here, the SeaSonic Focus 650 Gold offers fanless mode for quiet operation when power demands are low. It’s gold-rated for high efficiency and Seasonic Back it with an outstanding 10-year warranty. With 650W it offers enough headroom for component upgrades if you choose to add a more power-hungry CPU or GPU in the future. At $100 this power supply forms a solid backbone for the system – This PSU will probably power your next build as well as this one!

So, that concludes PremiumBuilds’ recommendation for a high performance 1080p gaming machine. With the current best in class CPU and GPU and a host of strong supporting components, this system will provide top-flight entertainment for years to come without breaking the bank.

Related: Cheapest 1080p 144hz Gaming Monitors of 2020

Summary

Component	Image	Base	Price
CPU		AMD Ryzen 5 3600	$200
Motherboard		MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX	$120
Memory		Kingston HyperX Predator 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200	$110
Storage		Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD	$100
Video Card		Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE	$370
Case		Phanteks ECLIPSE P350X ATX Mid Tower Case	$60
Power Supply		SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold	$80
		Total Price	$1040

The post Ultimate $1100 PC Build for 1080p 144hz Gaming (High Settings) appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

AMD have confirmed that along with their newly announced X570 motherboards for Ryzen Zen 2 / 3000 CPUs, their previous generation chipset motherboards will support the new Ryzen 3000 processors, such as the Ryzen 5 3600, Ryzen 7 3700X / 3800X and Ryzen 9 3900X. The chipsets that will support these new Ryzen 3000 processors include the X470, B450, B350 and X370 motherboards, but will require a BIOS update out of the box for it to be compatible.

Therefore, if you want to build a Ryzen 3000 PC with an X470, B450, B350 or X370 motherboard, you will need to pick one with USB BIOS Flashback – to make this BIOS update as easy as possible and for it to be compatible with Zen 2.

In this short guide, we will overview all B450, X470 and X370 motherboards with USB BIOS Flashback, and thus compatible with the new AMD Ryzen 3000 processors in 2020.

AM4 Motherboard (B450, X470, X370) List with USB BIOS Flashback

The post List of AM4 Motherboards with USB BIOS Flashback for Ryzen 3000 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Now that AMD Ryzen Zen 2 has finally been released and PC builders are beginning to get their hands on this highly anticipated line of processors, many are asking the same question for their Ryzen 3000 build – what are the best RAM timings for the Ryzen 5 3600, Ryzen 7 3700X/3800X and Ryzen 9 3900X?

Impressively, the new X570 chipset motherboards for Ryzen Zen 2 support very fast memory clock speeds, in some cases DDR4 RAM is supported up to 4666 MHz! For most builders, however, what is important is getting the most performance and value for the money – and picking the right DDR4 RAM and memory timings to get optimum performance from the Ryzen 7 3700X / 3800X / Ryzen 9 3900X build.

Related: Best Graphics Cards for Ryzen 7 3700X Builds

Any RAM kit you do buy for the Zen 2, technically you will be able to overclock it past its claimed rating on the box, which is what the RAM speed guarantees to run at. If you download the Ryzen DRAM calculator it will be possible to manually overclock your RAM past its manufacturer’s rating, or use the XMP technology which makes RAM overclocking far simpler.

In this guide we will show you the best RAM timings to pair with Ryzen 3000 builds – and also offer some recommended DDR4 RAM suggestions for Ryzen Zen 2 builds in 2021. HardwareLuxx did a benchmark testing the Ryzen 7 3700X at different memory speeds, to see which memory timings are the best performing under different tests. We will be using these findings to recommend the best RAM for Ryzen Zen 2 builds.

It is important to note which RAM speeds your build will support is dependent on the chipset & motherboard you build you Zen 2 system with. For example, many B450 motherboards such as the B450 Pro Carbon AC will only support p to 3466 MHz RAM, but the new X570 chipset motherboards will support past 3600 MHz+ – even up to 4666 MHz!

CL14 vs CL16 for Ryzen 3000?

If you’re deciding between CL14 and CL16 memory for Ryzen 3000 / Zen 2 – we would recommend opting for C14 as the best memory rating since it is optimised for tighter timings and utilises B-Die memory from Samsung, which have been known to have better compatibility with Ryzen IMC.

Related: Best RAM for Ryzen 9 3900X Builds

Best RAM for Ryzen 3000 – My Recommendations

Best RAM for Ryzen 3000	Award	Recommended Model	Design	B-Die
DDR4 3600 CL16	Best performance	G.Skill TridentZ RGB		Yes
DDR4 3200 CL14	Best value	G.SKILL TridentZ		Yes

1. DDR4-3600 CL16 – Ryzen 3000 Memory Sweet Spot

According to HardwareLuxx’s recent test where they compared the performance of the Ryzen 7 3700X at different memory speeds, they concluded that DDR4-3600 with a CL18 was the sweet spot for Zen 2 builds, in terms of performance relative to its price.

According to AMD themselves, they recommend 3600MHz CL16 as the sweet spot for Ryzen 3000 series processors, in terms of price to performance ratio, and thanks to the Infinity Fabric technology, memory will scale up at a 1:1 ratio up to 3733 MHz, and above this clock speed it will begin to use dividers, and the performance effects of higher clock timings will become marginally smaller.

It was originally speculated that DDR4 3733 MHz was going to be the fastest RAM for Zen 2, but these tests showed that DDR4 3600 MHz outperformed the higher clock speed rating in many storage capacity tests (Cinebench) as well as in gaming situations, such as Battlefield V and Division 2 FPS tests.

In addition, these results go against the contrary of this Reddit thread discussing the best RAM for Ryzen 3000 – where 3200MHZ CL14 is theoretically the fastest memory when using memory featuring Samsung B-Dies.

Our recommended 3600 MHz CL16 Memory for Ryzen 3000 builds is the G.Skill TridentZ RGB, which features Samsung B-Die DDR4 that helps you overclock this further, timings of 16-16-16-36, and features one of the best-looking heatsinks on any DDR4 memory kit.

If you want maximum performance RAM for your Ryzen 3000 build, or want the best RAM for the X570 chipset – then we recommend going for DDR4 3600MHz CL16 RAM, with Samsung B-Die since these perform exceptionally well on Ryzen systems.

DDR4-3600 CL16 DDR4 Memory List

(Table below has horizontal scrolling enabled – best viewed on a full-width desktop to see all data columns for the DDR4-3600 MHz RAM)

2. DDR4-3200 CL14 – Best Value & Compatible with B450/X470 Motherboards

It has been noted that 3200MHz CL14 is theoretically the fastest memory timings for Ryzen Zen 2 compared to 3600MHz CL17 and 3733MHz CL17 on paper, but the recent test at HardwareLuxx goes against this – or at least for the Ryzen 7 3700X.

Thankfully, the test does show that DDR4 3200 CL18 performs (almost) just as fast as DDR4 3600 and 3733 in FPS tests and Storage tests such as Cinebench – and thankfully the 3200 MHz memory speed will be supported by many more motherboards including the B450 and X470 chipset.

3200Mhz CL14 memory kits are far cheaper than the other memory options I have mentioned for Zen 2 builds, and theoretically, you should be able to overclock your 3200MHz kit to 3733 MHz without breaking a sweat using the DRAM calculator.

The best 3200MHz CL14 B Die Memory Kit for Ryzen 3000 we recommend is the G.SKILL TridentZ series, with a timing of 14-14-14-43 and a voltage of 1.35V.

DDR4-3200 CL14 DDR4 Memory List (B-Die only)

(Table below has horizontal scrolling enabled – best viewed on a full-width desktop to see all data columns for the DDR4-3200 CL14 RAM. In addition, I have only included B-Die memory as these are by far the best performing on Ryzen systems. If I have missed any that should be included, let me know!)

• Related: Best X570 Motherboards for Ryzen 3000 Chipsets
• Related: Best Graphics Cards to Pair With the Ryzen 5 3600
• Related: Best Graphics Cards to pair with the Ryzen 7 3700X & 3800X
• Related: Best Motherboards for Ryzen 7 3700X & 3800X Builds
• Related: List of AM4 Motherboards with USB BIOS Flashback
• Related: Best RTX 2060 Super Aftermarket Cards

The post Best RAM Timings for Ryzen 3000 CPUs (3600 / 3700X / 3800X / 3900X) appeared first on PremiumBuilds.