To put things bluntly, Intel should be pretty shook by the upcoming Zen 3 processors from AMD, especially considering the Ryzen 7 5800X. There’s still no telling if Zen 3 will have any worthwhile overclocking headroom to speak of, but even if the eight-core/sixteen thread 5800X is flat out incapable of boosting past 4.7GHz, it spells trouble for Intel’s current flagship 10900K.

AMD has boasted roughly 20% instructions per clock (IPC) improvement for Zen 3 over Zen 2 thanks to their new architecture and L3 cache restructure. This means that, despite the 5800X having fewer cores and slower clock speeds than the 10900K, it may not matter in the face of superior technology on a smaller process. Worst of all, for Intel, the 5800X will be nearly $100 cheaper than the 10900K.

Even though we’re due for an announcement of Intel’s 11^th Generation CPUs, the fact that they’re still stuck on 14nm, compared to AMD on 7nm, there’s no guarantee that Intel will be able to maintain their last bastion: gaming performance. AMD isn’t pulling any punches, and they may very well end up with another crown.

Of course, we will have to wait until Zen 3 and Rocket Lake are both out (and Intel is holding off until next year) to see how they truly stack up. Regardless, the 5800X might not be the guaranteed best bet, but it’s guaranteed to be a damn good one. So if you’re placing that bet, today we’re going to help you also place your order for the best motherboards depending on your preferred style of build.

Best Motherboards for Ryzen 7 5800X – Our Recommendations

Award	Motherboard	Design	VRM	Price
Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X	Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro AC		50A 14 Phase (12+2)	$180
Best Overall Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X	Asus ROG STRIX X570-E Gaming		60A 16 Phase (12+4)	$300
Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X	MSI MEG X570 Ace		60A 15 Phase (12+2+1)	$360
Best mATX Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X	Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi)		50A 10 Phase (8+2)	$175
Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X	Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming		70A 10 Phase (8+2)	$250

Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X

Perhaps you’re not only eyeing a brand new 5800X, but you’re interested in a brand-new chipset as well. Thanks to B550, builders have the option to save a bit of money (or opt-out of the slightly more extensive PCIe 4.0 and connectivity support) they’d potentially waste on an X570 platform. That is where the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro AC comes in!

B550 motherboards are somewhat restrictive due to having only a PCIe 3.0 link between the CPU and chipset, where X570 has PCIe 4.0. While you still get PCIe 4.0 lanes from your CPU, the lower bandwidth PCIe 3.0 chipset link forces motherboard manufacturers to sacrifice some features in favor of others, chief among them being rear I/O USB connectivity. Some B550 motherboards only have a total of 5 USB ports on their rear I/O, with maybe a couple of USB 3.2 Gen 2 or Gen 1 ports. However, a handful of B550 boards prioritize the rear I/O, especially the B550 Aorus Pro AC, which is usually the deciding factor when determining the best B550 options.

Featured on the B550 Aorus Pro AC are 50A Power Stages, a direct 14 Phase VRM (12+2), support for up to 128GB DDR4-5200MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots (1x PCIe 4.0 x4), Intel AC 3168 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC1220-VB Audio CODEC, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C), 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 6x USB 2.0 ports, 6x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an internal USB 3.2 Gen 1 header, and BIOS Flashback.

At $190, the B550 Aorus Pro AC manages to pack some impressive connectivity options, on top of a real finned VRM heatsink and integrated I/O shield, into a package that lives up to the stellar design and build quality of the Aorus name. If you’re looking for a reliable platform to get the job done in gaming and light productivity work, the B550 Aorus Pro AC won’t disappoint.

Best Overall Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X

The 5800X, if the 3800X was any indicator, should be a powerhouse in workstation tasks but should also be exceptional for gaming, and one of the best overall homes for it is the Asus ROG STRIX X570-E Gaming for $300.

The X570-E Gaming is another remarkable entry to Asus’s ever-popular ROG STRIX series. ROG/STRIX components have always offered top-tier features and performance and some of the best proprietary software solutions, user interfaces, and build quality, all complimented by strong design language.

The X570-E Gaming offers 60A Power Stages, a 16 Phase VRM (12+4), support for up to 128GB DDR4-4400MHz memory, 2x PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, Intel Gigabit LAN + AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN, SupremeFX S1220A Audio CODEC, 8x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) ports, 8x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 + 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 internal headers, BIOS Flashback, and a POST code readout.

Asus has been one of the most popular and premier PC hardware manufacturers for what seems like an eternity for one main reason; consistency. Of course, every company makes mistakes or missteps here and there, but it’s no coincidence Asus controlled at least 45% of the market share in the motherboard market (2017-2019). You’re always going to find rock-solid motherboard options in nearly any Asus lineup, and the X570-E Gaming is one of the best overall X570 motherboards available for the 5800X.

If you’re not fond of Asus for some reason, or if you’re specifically looking for features like onboard Power/Reset and Clear CMOS buttons, check out the MSI MEG X570 Unify for the same price!

Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X

When it comes to enthusiast-class X570 motherboards, at least ones that won’t cost you a month’s worth of utility bills, you have only a few options, all with relatively similar features and pricing. Today, our award for the best high-performance motherboard for the Ryzen 7 5800X goes to the MSI MEG X570 Ace. The X570 Ace certainly isn’t the king of the hill over the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme regarding VRM thermals, but that board costs $700. Further, if you want that highest tier VRM for AMD with a cheaper price tag by opting for their B550 Aorus Master, you end up losing out on the bandwidth/connectivity of an X570 chipset. Hence our decision, because MSI’s X570 Ace is one of the most popular, well-reviewed, and well-rounded enthusiast X570 motherboards ($350-$700) with arguably the best balance of features, build quality, and aesthetic design.

Here, $370 nets you 60A Power Stages, a 15 Phase VRM (12+2+1), support for up to 128GB DDR4-5000MHz memory, 3x PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, Intel Gigabit LAN + AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC1220 Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an internal USB 3.2 Gen 2 header, onboard Power/Reset buttons, Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, and a POST code readout.

The X570 Ace is one of only two platforms MSI didn’t decide neglect after the release of X570 about a year ago. Many of the options priced under the Ace at the time, like the Gaming Edge Carbon and Gaming Edge (Wi-Fi), had worrisome issues with thermal throttling, even for some Zen 2 chips! However, MSI eventually addressed those issues and, as a response, released their MEG X570 Unify, which is essentially a slightly more affordable, blacked-out version of the Ace. If you want one of the sleekest and most potent X570 motherboards on the market, though, consider MSI with their “ace in the hole” .

Best mATX Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X

mATX motherboards are overlooked and underappreciated. It’s a disservice and a tragedy that we don’t see as many high-end mATX options as we should. Until recently, there was only one mATX option for the X570 chipset from ASRock, and it was mediocre at best. Thankfully, with the release of the new B550 chipset, we now have access to several mATX Ryzen motherboards with great VRMs, and the best of the bunch is the $180 Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi).

The B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) comes with 50A Power Stages, a 10 Phase VRM (8+2), support for up to 128GB DDR4-4600MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots (1x PCIe 4.0 x4), Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC S1200A Audio CODEC, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, and BIOS Flashback.

Despite the general disinterest in mATX compared to full-sized ATX and mini-ITX PCs, mATX can offer the best of both worlds. You can reduce your rig’s overall size from standard ATX while avoiding much of the hassle associated with the extensive hardware compatibility research and tedious build process required for most mini-ITX systems. Now, thanks to Asus and their ubiquitous TUF Gaming series, we have a spectacular mATX motherboard that’s capable of driving even a 5950X. However, it may not keep up with any serious overclocking if Zen 3 turns out to have some headroom to play with, which Zen 2 essentially didn’t, so keep that in mind. But, if you’re itching to shrink your footprint and you don’t want a shoebox PC, the B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) offers some of the best mATX VRM quality and USB connectivity for Ryzen CPUs to date, making it the clear winner for those looking at the 5800X.

Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 7 5800X

While we may not ever experience the same sort of droughts for mini-ITX motherboards that we do for mATX, there’s quite often one option to choose from each of the major manufacturers. Today, we’ve chosen the Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming for $250.

Asus has managed to cram an impressive feature-set onto this little guy with; 70A Power Stages, a 10 Phase VRM (8+2) with active cooling, support for up to 64GB of DDR4-4800MHz memory, 2x PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, Intel Gigabit LAN + AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, SupremeFX S1220A Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports.

Not only does the STRIX X570-I have competitive VRM performance for ITX AM4 motherboards overall, but it also sports some of the best rear I/O USB connectivity and memory overclocking support. Builders who want the best possible SFF (small form factor) PC for high-end Ryzen CPUs like the 5800X, you cannot go wrong with the X570-I Gaming.

Summary

AMD continues to dominate the CPU market with Zen 3, and based on their consistent and dramatic improvements, things might start to get tense in the GPU market later this year when Big Navi finally drops. Even though Zen 3 brought a price hike, the performance improvements more than justify an additional $50 on top of what was already a reasonable ask for each tier of Ryzen. However you feel about any PC hardware company, competition is almost always a marvelous thing. We have tons of crazy developments headed our way for at least the next few years because of it.

Best Entry-Level: Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro AC – This is the best option under $200 for builders looking to leverage PCIe 4.0 with a 5800X who may not want to “waste” features like support for multiple Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs on the more expensive X570. The B550 Aorus Pro AC also prioritizes rear I/O USB connectivity more than most other available B550 options.

Best Overall: Asus ROG STRIX X570-E Gaming – Consistency, quality, and reliability are typically the hallmarks of ROG STRIX products, and the X570-E Gaming is no different. With a rock-solid VRM, plenty of USB 3.2 and SATA III ports, and a POST code readout, Asus has one of the most well-rounded high-end X570 boards perfectly suited for the 5800X. If you’re not a fan of Asus, or you specifically require onboard Power/Reset and Clear CMOS buttons, check out the MSI MEG X570 Unify for the same price instead.

Best High-Performance: MSI MEG X570 Ace – For $370, the X570 Ace is one of the best enthusiast-class motherboards with a competent high-end VRM, gorgeous design, and similar features to even $700 boards like the MEG X570 Godlike or Gigabyte’s $700 X570 Aorus Xtreme.

Best mATX: Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) –  The TUF Gaming series continues to deliver with its digital camouflage aesthetic, excellent build quality, and best-in-class USB connectivity for $180.

Best mini-ITX: Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming – Competitive VRM design for X570 ITX and massive USB connectivity on the rear I/O. If you’re thinking of grabbing a 5800X, there is no better option for SFF systems on the market!

The post 5 Best Motherboards for the Ryzen 7 5800X appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Well, the GeForce RTX 3070 has finally launched and made it out into the wild… Sort of. Nvidia’s Ampere launch has, admittedly, been quite troubled by severe availability issues. Limited stock is usually expected given the nature of new consumer electronics, on top of recent global concerns, but few could have anticipated this much of a drought even in the face of Ampere’s significantly higher demand compared to Turing. The good news for hardcore fans of Team Green is that, with a bit of patience, AMD might have recently helped to alleviate issues with RTX stock thanks to their incredible RDNA 2 reveal. Team Red’s bold claims and testing results still need real world testing with units from the shelves, but things are finally going to start heating up for top-tier graphics cards.

Despite however strong AMD’s Zen 3/RDNA 2 CPU-GPU combo turns out to be, that doesn’t change the fact that there are now two primary choices for 2080 Ti level performance for less than half the price. Regardless of whether features like Smart Access Memory prove effective for gaming in general, AMD still has to contend with builders’ familiarity and brand loyalty. It’s been many years since Radeon GPUs have truly competed for the top spots in games performance and benchmarks, and, there’s no way around this, AMD’s software solutions and driver support have been lackluster compared to Nvidia’s.

Many gamers are likely going to stick with what they know even if they’ve boarded the Zen 3 hype train, and for many good reasons. Chief among them, the RTX 3070. You might point to the RTX 3070 having only 8GB of VRAM compared to the 16GB available for all of AMD’s currently announced 6000 series cards, but you don’t particularly need any more than that if you’re below 4K resolution at max settings, which the vast majority of gamers are.

There’s no denying that builders, at least those not frantically searching for an available Ampere card, face a tough choice this generation; but for gamers determined to fly the Green flag, we’re here to help you determine which 3^rd party RTX 3070 is right for your next upgrade.

Best RTX 3070 Aftermarket Cards – Our Recommendations

Award	Design	Model	Boost Clock	Length
Best Extreme Overclocking RTX 3070 Card		EVGA RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra Gaming	1815MHz	300mm
Best Overall RTX 3070 Card		Asus ROG Strix RTX 3070	1755MHz	319mm
Best MSRP AIB RTX 3070 Card		Zotac Gaming RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC	1755MHz	232mm
Quietest RTX 3070 Card		MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio	1830MHz	323mm

Best Extreme Overclocking RTX 3070 Card

The RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra Gaming has entered the arena to carry on the FTW3 flagship legacy for EVGA. Aside from their renowned customer service and warranty support, EVGA has built its reputation on the build quality, performance, and over-engineering of their GPUs, especially with the FTW3 series.

Housing EVGA’s best binned silicon, the FTW3 is aptly named (“for-the-win” with a triple-fan cooler). As is custom with FTW3 cards, the 3070 FTW3 Ultra Gaming has a custom VBIOS and PCB in tandem with a chunky heat sink and triple-fan cooling solution which allow for the additional overclocking headroom. All of these improvements over reference for the FTW3 3070 mean EVGA is able to push the power budget between 300-320W, allowing for even higher boost clocks above the already tuned 1815MHz.

The two most important considerations when it comes to the FTW3 series are cost and your interest in overclocking. If you don’t plan on playing with programs like MSI Afterburner or EVGA’s own Precision X1 to overclock and benchmark your card to get the most performance possible, then you’re much better suited by a Founder’s Edition reference model directly from Nvidia rather than the FTW3, or many other top-tier custom cards. Although, if an extra $120 for one of the most capable RTX 3070s available sounds like a good deal, then the FTW3 Ultra Gaming is a phenomenal choice. If you enjoy testing how you fared in the silicon lottery by seeing how much free performance you can pull from your GPU, especially with liquid (or subzero for competition) cooling, the RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra Gaming might just be the card you set some records with!

Best Overall RTX 3070 Card

If not for the FTW3’s superior ability to handle more extreme overclocking methods, the Asus ROG Strix RTX 3070 would arguably the best custom RTX 3070 card, but it’ll simply have to settle for being the best overall AIB .

Perhaps not quite able to compete in the extreme overclocking department, the ROG Strix RTX 3070 goes toe-to-toe with the FTW3 in out-of-the-box overclocking features and performance, while also having a slightly higher power target of around 340W. In addition to the Strix’s equally hefty cooling solution compared to EVGA’s, Asus’ design brings a 1755MHz boost clock speed with an impressive amount of headroom to find your most stable OC.

Asus also decided to offer the only RTX 3070s, including the ROG Strix, with more than a single HDMI output, which is a welcome benefit to multi-monitor gamers who have yet to acquire units with DisplayPort inputs. Outside of these quality of life and engineering upgrades, the only potential downside for some builders would be the massive triple-slot design. At 319mm, the ROG Strix 3070 is one of the longest RTX 3070 cards which might lead to compatibility issues with more compact cases or front-mounted radiators for you liquid cooling enthusiasts.

Regardless, Asus may not top the charts for default boost clocks with their premier RTX 3070 entry, but they’ve got one of the sharpest looking and most well-rounded cards, hands down.

Best MSRP AIB RTX 3070

Perhaps the primary reason the RTX 3070 may end up being Nvidia’s hottest ticket this generation is the amount of performance 3^rd party manufacturers can now pack into much more space-friendly cards. One of the most compact 2080 Ti killers, that also happens to offer some of the best performance as close to MSRP as possible, is the Zotac Gaming RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC.

For $570, even many ITX systems can now enjoy incredible performance in games well into 144Hz+ 1440p or 60Hz 4K resolutions! For a dual-slot/dual-fan card only 232mm in length to reliably boost up to 1755MHz is quite the feat from our friends at Zotac, and one they should be proud of. Considering the exponential growth in popularity of SFF (small form factor) gaming PCs, the Twin Edge OC 3070 might end up being one of the most difficult Ampere cards to get your hands on!

Despite its size, the Twin Edge OC doesn’t skimp in the cooling department with improved fans and direct contact heat pipes which Zotac has dubbed “Ice Storm 2.0.” Whether you’re a fan of shoebox PCs or not, heat kills performance, and the extra attention paid to keeping the RTX 3070 nice and cool is nothing but a boon no matter what case you decide to build in.

Now, you can try your hand at overclocking this little guy even more than Zotac already has with their included Fire Storm software, or programs like MSI Afterburner, but most of the work has already been done before you even open the box. Unless you’re lucky enough to have gotten an ultra-high-quality piece of silicon, don’t be disappointed if you’re not able to get more than a few extra MHz for your trouble. Depending on whether we see smaller Radeon models appear from our favorite add-in board partners, the Zotac Gaming RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC might very well be a given for anyone considering “budget” performance, particularly those looking to build the smallest gaming powerhouse they possibly can.

Quietest RTX 3070 Card

If you’re looking for a RTX 3070 that not only has exceptional performance, but is able to perform quietly under load, then look no further than MSI’s RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio. This card is the latest generation of MSI’s renowned Gaming X Trio series, and for this latest triple-cooler iteration, it is one of the quietest AIB graphics cards ever benchmarked, matching the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio for its total noise under pressure, measured at 34 decibels. For reference, the RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio Founders Edition performs 4 DbA higher at 38 decibels, but features a lower factory boost clock and up to 3% increased performance over the FE edition.

Summary

It’s important to remember that both Nvidia and AMD are likely to announce even more reasonably priced next-generation GPUs as we pass their Ampere and RDNA 2 launches, respectively, especially with how intense the competition is shaping up to be. But for now, the RTX 3070 series looks to offer legendary 1080p and 1440p games performance to more builders than ever, and more than likely thanks to AMD holding their feet to the fire.

Are you excited for the RTX 3070? Are you waiting to see how it stacks up in the real world against the RX 6800? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below, and as always, thanks for reading!

The post 4 Best RTX 3070 Aftermarket Cards for 2021 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Next-gen Radeon and Ryzen are… just on the horizon . Zen 3 and RDNA 2 represent some of the most impressive and affordable generational performance improvements that AMD has been promising for years since the launch of the original Zen architecture. They made a fantastic showing last generation for mid-range GPU performance with their Radeon RX 5700XT, which, understandably, made numerous gamers question whether they really needed to shell out the extra dough for immature Ray-Tracing features from Nvidia’s roughly equivalent RTX 2070 Super. Now, builders are facing an even more challenging question. Will RDNA 2 be worth the cheaper price tag in the face of Ampere’s incredible Ray-Tracing support?

DLSS (deep learning super sampling) was honestly a bit of a joke when Nvidia first developed it. Only a handful of games supported Ray-Tracing, and usually with limited application. Depending on the title and implementation, Ray-Tracing only offered minor visual improvements for a significant FPS penalty no matter how robust your build was. DLSS was initially intended to offset this penalty by rendering games at a lower resolution and upscaling them with Nvidia’s AI technology, but it simply wasn’t very effective. However, DLSS 2.0 has grown into a force to be reckoned with. Games like Control, F1 2020, Death Stranding, Minecraft RTX, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Anthem, Metro Exodus, Battlefield V, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XV, and Monster Hunter: World, to name a few, all support DLSS and receive insane performance benefits with anywhere from 20-200% higher FPS by merely having it enabled. Whatever your opinion on any of those titles might be, free FPS is always welcome. That’s not even considering the plethora of upcoming games that will also support DLSS, like Cyberpunk 2077 and Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War.

AMD has discussed RDNA 2’s Ray-Tracing support and their answer to DLSS, but they’ve yet to reveal any official benchmarks compared to Ampere, and, rumor has it, Ray-Tracing may not be the reason you want to opt for Team Red when it comes to the GPU for your next gaming build. Of course, we’ll have to see how things play out when AMD’s new hardware launches over this holiday season, so keep an eye for our latest updates and results!

Regardless of the Radeon RX 6900XT’s Ray-Tracing performance, one thing is certain, AMD is competitive at the high-end again, and for a deep discount. Compared to the $1500 RTX 3090, the RX 6900XT is only going to cost $1000. Translation: for $50 less than the cost of just Nvidia’s top-tier gaming GPU this generation, you can purchase the Radeon RX 6900XT and the Ryzen 7 5800X. We’re going to go out on a limb and say that even if the rumors are true and RDNA 2’s Ray-Tracing performance leaves a lot to be desired, AMD still makes a more compelling offer for the majority of gamers looking to build a new rig this year. Not to mention the uphill battle that Intel is facing in the wake of Zen 3’s reveal!

So, today, we’re going to recommend the best 6900XT build for PC gaming with a budget of $3500. Let’s take a look.

Best $3500 Radeon RX 6900XT Gaming PC Build – The Parts List

Component	Selection	Design	Price
CPU	Ryzen 9 5900X		$550
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-U12A		$99.99
Motherboard	Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)		$379.99
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 CL16		$178.99
Storage	2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus (x2)		$599.99
Graphics Card	AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT		$999
PC Case	be quiet! Dark Base 700		$179.99
Power Supply	Corsair AX1000 80+ Titanium		$399.99
Case Fans	be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm		$107.60
		Total	$3495.45

CPU

It’s likely that no matter how clever Intel manages to be with 11^th Gen Rocket Lake, another 14nm process is going to struggle to compete with Zen 3 across the board, especially considering AMD’s incredible power efficiency. The top-tier gaming CPU from the new Ryzen lineup will be the $550 Ryzen 9 5900X. Just over $500 is about the tail end of what most gamers are willing to spend for optimal FPS performance if Intel’s Core i9 series has been any indication.

The 5900X is poised to not only trounce the current gaming champion, the Intel Core i9-10900K but with Rocket Lake maxing out at eight cores, the 5900X should still readily compete against the 11^th Gen Core i9 series CPU as well. The new Ryzen 9 5900X sports twelve cores, twenty-four threads, boost clocks up to 4.8GHz by default, and 64MB of L3 cache. With technologies like Smart Access Memory and the new RAGE mode, an auto overclocking feature, pairing Zen 3 and RDNA 2 should see incredible benefits by opting for the beefy, if not slightly overkill for games, 5900X. The best part is that you’ll have more than enough processing power to tackle the most demanding creative workloads as well as max settings in the latest AAA titles at up to 4K resolution, each with buttery smooth performance.

CPU Cooler

Sitting atop our new 5900X will be the Noctua NH-U12A. There’s nothing wrong with liquid cooling, be it a custom open-loop or AIO unit. If you prefer the look of liquid cooling solutions, and if you’re willing to accept the maintenance and potential points of failure that come with them, you’re welcome to dive right in. However, I personally stand by air-cooling considering the level of performance that companies like Noctua, be quiet!, and Scythe can offer. A well-engineered air-cooler brings airflow and thermal performance on par with even some of the best 240mm AIO units on the market, and the 105W TDP of mid to high-end Ryzen Zen 3 CPUs isn’t exactly demanding. Thus, one of the most recent and well-rounded air coolers from the world’s premier heat sink manufacturers seems to make the most sense for our build today.

The NH-U12A essentially brings the thermal and noise performance of Noctua’s renowned dual-tower NH-D15 in a more compact, single-tower package. A dense fin stack, seven heatpipes, and two NF-A12x25 fans virtually guarantee cool CPU temps and spectacular case and RAM compatibility to allow you the most freedom when selecting the other components for your build. Finally, Noctua’s included NT-H1 thermal compound means you don’t have to spend any extra money to ensure you get the most out of the NH-U12A.

Motherboard

Our motherboard today has 60A Power Stages, a 16 Phase VRM (14+2), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-4800MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN, SupremeFX S1220 Audio CODEC, 8x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 8x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an integrated I/O shield, Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, a POST code readout, onboard Power + Reset buttons, as well as a BIOS Safe Boot + ReTry buttons! We’re talking about the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi).

For nearly half the price, the Crosshair VIII Hero readily competed in VRM thermal benchmarks with the Gigabyte X570 Aorus XTREME and the MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE. That’s a respectable showing from a motherboard with teamed power phases, which was more than capable of handling last generation’s Ryzen 9 3950X. If you plan to see just how much headroom AMD has left with Zen 3, there are few better options for less than $700!

Memory

Just because our focus is gaming doesn’t mean we need to restrict ourselves to 16GB of RAM, especially nowadays. With multiple monitors, dozens of programs running in the background, inefficient browsers, and memory leaks, even if you don’t plan on doing any photo/video editing or 3D rendering, 32GB allows you the freedom to use as much of your machine as possible, simultaneously. Further, since DDR4 has matured incredibly over these past several years, pricing for DRAM has dropped considerably, meaning you have access to 32GB kits of high-performance memory for less than $200!

That is where the G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 memory kit comes into play. While leaving you space to upgrade down the line should you choose to dabble in more intensive creativity/productivity programs, you’ll have ample memory to push your multi-monitor display setup, games, comms programs, and media consumption at the same time without worrying about memory usage.

Storage

Ding dong, spinning drives are dead… For the most part. Unless you have reason to store massive amounts of documents, photos, videos, and project files, solid-state storage is the way of the future. SSDs have come down so far in price, even for high-capacity (2TB) options, that gamers in particular need to consider making them their primary and secondary storage options for their libraries. Next-gen consoles having SSDs as their standard storage devices means that game developers have already (i.e., finally) started to take advantage of the speeds available with solid-state storage to stream assets directly to the GPU. The best example of this process in action is the Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart trailer, where you see the dynamic duo traversing portals to different, incredibly diverse worlds instantly and seamlessly.

Thus, we have chosen two 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSDs for our OS and bulk storage drives. M.2 drives mean no cable management and some of the fastest transfer speeds outside of PCIe 4.0 SSDs. If you don’t play many games at once, utilize cloud storage for most of your general files, or just want to save some money, feel free to pick up only one and worry about upgrading later when you need the extra space!

Graphics Card

The piece de resistance of our build: The Radeon RX 6900XT. Performance comparable to a card that costs $500 more and uses an additional 50W is borderline miraculous, and AMD is rightfully proud. Ray-Tracing aside, RDNA 2 looks to not only be gunning for the performance crown at 4K resolution but also for gamers’ wallets as they offer numbers that some users couldn’t even dream of shelling out for just a short year ago.

The 6900XT comes with 16GB of VRAM, boost clocks up to 2.25GHz, 5,120 GPU cores, 448GB/s memory bandwidth and a Total Board Power (TBP) of only 300W. $1000 isn’t exactly cheap, but again, compared to the $1500 Nvidia is asking for their top-tier SKU, it almost seems tantalizing, even if it ends up bombing in regards to Ray-Tracing benchmarks.

PC Case

Energy-efficient components tend to generate less heat, which means they need less cooling, which means they generate less noise. So, to further maximize the benefits of AMD’s supremely efficient new hardware, we’ve opted for the be quiet! Dark Base 700 ATX Mid-Tower for the ultimate noise optimization.

The Dark Base 700’s modular internals allow for completely inverted ATX builds, riser cards, and storage drive capacity with removable side panels. There’s even a removable panel on the PSU shroud for a bottom intake fan, which we’ll take advantage of in the next section! With two included Silent Wings 3 140mm fans and case-mounted fan controller, thermal and noise performance are great by default. The overall build quality is immaculate with a beautifully machined motherboard tray and exterior, and a tinted tempered glass side panel, making this one of the sleekest cases on the market.

Fans

To fortify our thermal performance and airflow, we recommend picking up four be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm High-Speed PWM fans. Two are for additional front intakes, one for the bottom intake below the PSU shroud, which we mentioned earlier, and one is to assist the included rear exhaust at the top of the case. This setup will maximize the performance we get from the NH-U12A and provide ample airflow for all of your components while keeping noise levels down and saturating the included fan controller.

Power Supply

Finally, the delivery of clean and stable power to our enthusiast build will be handled by a Corsair AX1000 80+ Titanium power supply. With the AX1000, we receive full modularity for easy cable management, the highest efficiency rating possible, plenty of overclocking headroom, and a total wattage that should put us in the optimal peak load efficiency range (where your system’s combined TDP equals ~50% of your PSU’s total). The team at PremiumBuilds will always stress just how vital your PSU is to your system. Ensuring a stable and clean supply of electricity to your components should improve their longevity and overclocking results, meaning you should always opt for the best possible option for your power supply. If there are two things you shouldn’t ever skimp on, it’s this and your motherboard. Buying the best you can for each component means that you can use them in builds for years to come, and Corsair’s 10-year warranty means some of you PC parents might be able to hand the AX1000 on to your next generation of enthusiasts!

Closing Thoughts

Ray-Tracing or no Ray-Tracing, RDNA 2 is going to be marvelous, especially if AMD is capable of satisfying their demand even slightly better than Nvidia has been able to since Ampere launched. We might be looking at a typical case of the tortoise vs. the hare, and Nvidia might end up seriously regretting rushing the 3000 series out the door to try and crash AMD’s party. If you’ve got 4K or high-refresh 1440p gaming aspirations, AMD looks like a snack this holiday season !

The post Best $3500 Radeon RX 6900 XT Gaming PC Build for 2021 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Yesterday AMD finally revealed their upcoming RDNA 2 6000 Series GPUs, making your decision whether to upgrade or build a new system this generation incredibly easy. The answer is yes, absolutely, and you should be heavily leaning towards Team Red.

While AMD’s performance claims for Big Navi still need to be vetted by real-world benchmarks, they have been utterly transparent about product performance since the release of the original Zen and RDNA architectures. Thus, it is reasonable to expect their presented figures to be accurate within a few percent, especially when pairing an RDNA 2 graphics card with a Zen 3 processor to leverage Smart Access Memory (SAM). SAM is a proprietary AMD feature that grants Zen 3 CPUs direct access to the VRAM for RDNA 2 GPUs for increased bandwidth and decreased latency. Thus, in addition to AMD’s new RAGE Mode (an automatic overclocking feature), Zen 3 and RDNA 2 combined can harness upwards of 10% more performance in games at 4K resolution! Beyond these new features centered on AMD’s dynamic duo of next-gen hardware, Zen 3 and RDNA 2, individually, offer promised generational performance improvements that are already competitive or outright better than what’s currently available from teams Green and Blue, respectively. Granted, we still have to see what Intel has up their sleeve come next year, but Zen 3 presents a guaranteed uphill battle for yet another 14nm process with 11^th Gen Rocket Lake. Still, AMD is poised to dominate the GPU market this holiday season with products that have incredibly competitive performance compared to Nvidia’s Ampere cards for astonishingly competitive prices. If Team Red manages to satisfy the demand for RDNA 2 even slightly better than Team Green, who’s seriously fumbled their Ampere launch thus far, tons of people can, and should, turn to them in their hour of need.

The initial RDNA 2 lineup consists of three cards, the $580 RX 6800, the $650 RX 6800XT, and the $1000 RX 6900XT. The 6900XT is arguably the most compelling option considering its ability to trade blows with the RTX 3090 for $500 less. Even if AMD doesn’t have a sufficient answer to Nvidia’s DLSS or Ray-Tracing performance, RDNA 2 still makes more sense for all but the most affluent builders who demand the unrivaled amounts of VRAM and uncompromising raw performance, pricing be damned.

Today, we’ll be examining the best CPUs for Radeon RX 6900XT builds, with a slight caveat. Due to the inherent synergy between Zen 3 and RDNA 2, even after we get our hands on Intel’s 11^th Gen processors next year, there’s no reason to buy anything other than a new Ryzen CPU alongside a new Radeon GPU, period. If you only plan to buy the 6900XT as an upgrade, simply keep whatever CPU you’ve got in your system. However, if you’re planning a complete overhaul or brand new build, a Zen 3 Ryzen CPU is the only sensible pick. Furthermore, because the 6900XT packs so much performance into a more compact and reasonably priced top-tier selection than the RTX 3090, you’ll be capable of 4K gaming with nearly any combination of parts in the rest of your build if they’ve released within even the last several years. That said, with the RX 6900XT as our GPU of choice, we’re going to detail each Ryzen 5000 Series processor and explain which use cases and budgets they’re best suited for.

Best Zen 3 Pairings with the Radeon RX 6900XT

Award	Design	Model
Best Entry Level CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 5 5600X
Best Mid Tier CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 7 5800X
Best High Performance CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 9 5900X
Best Workstation CPU for RX 6900 XT		Ryzen 9 5950X

Best Entry Level CPU for RX 6900 XT

“Entry-Level” might be a bit of a stretch if you’re buying a $1000 GPU, but for only $300, the Ryzen 5 5600X nets you quite a bit of CPU for a reasonable amount of money. While your processor certainly plays an integral role in FPS performance, if you’re not planning on ultra-high resolution gaming at max settings, it’s not the area where you need to break the bank. Even as modern titles begin to take advantage of multi-threaded performance, many users can honestly still get away with having only four cores and eight threads with a beefy enough GPU. So builders who don’t intend to use their PC for anything other than gaming, web-browsing, and content consumption, the six-core/twelve thread 5600X is more than adequate. You’ll still be able to leverage AMD’s Smart Access Memory and RAGE Mode with the 6900XT to enjoy top-tier gaming performance.

The 5600X also offers the lowest thermal design power (TDP) of Zen 3 with a minuscule 65W, on top of 32MB of L3 cache, and boost clocks up to 4.6GHz. The paltry 65W TDP means you don’t need the craziest motherboard or CPU cooler, which might allow you also to snag some higher-end storage and RAM. While you may not want to do any full-time creative work (photo/video editing, 3D rendering, etc.), you won’t feel bogged down should you decide to dabble. If you want to divert as much of your budget to GPU performance as possible and pick up a 6900XT, you end up sacrificing very little by opting for the 5600XT.

Best Mid Tier CPU for RX 6900 XT

Based on AMD’s numbers, the 5800X actually enters the realm of high-end performance, especially when paired with the RX 6900XT. However, we still have two SKUs above this one with more, even faster cores!

For $450 ($100 less than the Core i9-10900K), the 5800X delivers eight cores, sixteen threads, 32MB of L3 cache, and boost clocks up to 4.7GHz with a 105W TDP. AMD has, incredibly, managed to keep their Ryzen TDPs at or below 105W for all of their CPUs above the 5600X, but even identical to last generation’s Zen 2 Ryzen processors. The generational improvements AMD has promised for Zen 3 without any uptick in power requirements directly translate to savings for builders, especially those upgrading from Zen 2. Suppose you’ve already purchased an adequate motherboard and CPU cooler. In that case, they will be equally as effective for the 5800X, if not more so considering the overall efficiency improvements expected to come with the Zen 3 architecture.

Equivalent performance for a significantly lower price is AMD’s motto for Zen 3 and RDNA 2. If you decide to pair the 6900XT with a 5800X, you’ll undoubtedly have one of the most potent and cost-effective combinations for top-tier gaming performance for years to come.

Best High Performance CPU for RX 6900 XT

$550 for the 5900X in addition to the cool grand for the 6900XT firmly cements this pairing in the “enthusiast” category. When the cost of just two components equals that of many low to mid-tier builds, including peripherals, a big budget, or plenty of time spent saving, is unavoidable. However, the trade-off for your initial investment, or patient penny-pinching, is performance many gamers have been dreaming of for years.

Still, with only a 105W TDP, the 5900X sports twelve cores, 24 threads, 64MB of L3 cache, and boost clocks up to 4.8GHz to significantly bolster the 6900XT’s ability to perform at 4K resolution and virtually guarantee blazing fast 144Hz+ FPS at 1440p Max Settings. Suppose you’re also able to dedicate enough resources to high-quality, high-capacity RAM. In that case, this combination allows you to break into much more intensive creative workloads and leverage the stellar multi-threaded performance of the 5900X. Realistically, there’s not much reason to consider anything above the 5900X if your primary use case is gaming since pricing from here starts to scale exponentially rather than linearly.

To reiterate, we still need to consider whether Nvidia will rework their Ampere lineup in the face of such a compelling product stack from AMD and whether 11^th Gen Intel will be able to compete in any meaningful way. However, as it stands for this holiday season, AMD is the sure-fire way to achieve ideal games performance at whatever your desired resolution is, be it 1080p, 1440p, or 4K!

Best Workstation CPU for RX 6900 XT

While sixteen cores and thirty-two threads certainly can’t hurt your FPS performance in games, the 5950X practically demands that you spend serious time in productivity workloads, daily, and preferably for financial compensation! $800 for the 5950X sees those sixteen cores and thirty-two threads boost up to 4.9GHz while having access to 64MB of L3 cache, meaning that the only consumer-grade CPU options likely to compete will be AMD’s Zen 3 Threadripper chips due sometime in Q2 of next year.

At this stage, you should have already decided that you want to work and play at 4K resolution because the 5950X and 6900XT will demolish nearly every AAA title, except perhaps Microsoft Flight Sim 2020. Better yet, given enough RAM, no matter how high-resolution the timeline you’re scrubbing through, nor how many layers your project file has, your favorite productivity programs should run buttery-smooth as well. The 5950X is the primary reason why, despite still needing to see what they’re capable of, many of us here at PremiumBuilds doubt whether Intel will genuinely be able to compete with Zen 3 while they’re still stuck on 14nm, no matter how optimized it’s grown to be.

Summary

Merely due to AMD’s Smart Access Memory, no matter what Intel has to show come next year, it makes no sense to pair the upcoming Radeon RDNA 2 GPUs with anything other than Zen 3. Again, if you only plan on upgrading your GPU, then feel free to keep whatever you’ve got at the moment. However, if you’re at all considering moving to a new platform, and you’ve got your eye on something like the 6900XT, don’t wait. Jump on Zen 3 as soon as you can because they’re sure to be in very high demand over the holidays.

The post 4 Best CPUs for AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Builds appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Today, this one is for the window shoppers and 1%. There might be a handful of builders in the world that genuinely need this level of performance out of a machine, but there’s not a soul who wouldn’t appreciate it.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we must mention the fact that the RTX 3090 can’t yet claim the title of best high-end GPU until the world can get its hands on AMD’s new RDNA 2 cards. Regardless, the RTX 3090, especially our choice today, is guaranteed to sit amongst the top of any and every benchmark you can throw at it. Starting at $1500, the RTX 3090 manages to be even more jaw-dropping than the last generation’s FPS king, the RTX 2080 Ti. However, even with the RX 6000 purportedly achieving boost clock speeds of up to 2.5GHz, those with enough patience or disposable income won’t have many other options for absolutely top-tier performance from their next GPU.

Here at PremiumBuilds, we pride ourselves on maximizing price-to-performance for every curated build we present. However, as evidenced by Jon’s recent RTX 3090 Gaming Build, that doesn’t mean we shy away from systems with a more premium price tag. Further, all of our parts lists are made to be completely modular. So, if you have more or less money to play with, you can pick from some of the alternatives we offer or decide on your own upgrades/downgrades.

Now without further ado, let’s examine one of the most powerful consumer desktop configurations possible (courtesy of this exciting new age in gaming performance)!

Ultimate $5000 Ryzen 9 5950X + RTX 3090 Command Center – The Parts List

CPU

One of our centerpieces today is the Ryzen 9 5950X, available starting November 5^th of this year.  The 5950X is a shoo-in for this generation’s performance champion based on some recently leaked benchmarks and AMD’s internal testing. The generational improvements coming with Zen 3, including a reworked L3 cache to allow each CPU core direct and simultaneous access, should roughly translate to a 20% instructions per clock (IPC) improvement over Zen 2 while maintaining the same 105W TDP (thermal design power)!

Zen 3’s power efficiency and relatively tame thermal performance are a testament to AMD’s engineering, and the genius of the Zen architecture. Opting for a chiplet design, opposed to monolithic CPU dies, developing improvements to Zen, and manufacturing the physical product is easier and faster for AMD and TSMC. This is the biggest reason AMD can deliver on their promises of significant upgrades with each new generation of the Zen architecture.

With sixteen cores, thirty-two threads, 64MB of L3 cache, and default boost clocks of up to 4.9GHz, the 5950X aims for the CPU summit this generation. If Zen 3 has also managed to hide some significant overclocking headroom, where Zen 2, by and large, did not, then AMD is almost guaranteed to take home the trophy for workstation and FPS performance.

CPU Cooler

Today’s build is brought to you by the colors black and white, and our first component is Noctua’s legendary NH-D15 Chromax.Black dual-tower heat sink.

By no means is the NH-D15 the only option for premium air-cooling performance, but it is still one of the best even after so many years. Noctua sets itself apart by almost always opting for function over form, and immaculate build quality, which is why it came as quite a surprise when they finally yielded to popular demand and created the Chromax variants for their most popular models. For the longest time, Noctua held fast against criticisms of their notorious brown color scheme until finally offering blacked-out versions of heat sinks like the NH-D15, NH-U12s, and NH-L9a. Now, anyone who may have used the “ugly” brown color scheme as an excuse to stay away from Noctua products essentially has no reason to snag one of the best CPU coolers of all time.

Aside from the slick new color treatment, the Chromax NH-D15 brings the same 240mm AIO level cooling performance with six heat pipes, two 140mm fin stacks, and two of their renowned NF-A15 140mm fans. Considering the unchanged 105W with Zen 3 compared to Zen 2, even if Zen 3 ends up capable of serious overclocking, there’s virtually no reason to opt for liquid cooling outside of a completely custom open-loop. Air coolers will forever remain a preferable option for most builders with better noise performance, roughly equivalent cooling performance, and minimal points of failure. If you’re excited about liquid cooling, then by all means, but if all you care about is performance and reliability, there is no better alternative to a premium air cooler.

Motherboard

Today’s motherboard is the embodiment of the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and it keeps with our black and white theme! The MSI MEG X570 Unify returns, as it has been a staple in mid to high-end AMD builds ever since its initial release. The X570 chipset has seen few options as well-rounded and well-designed as the Unify, hence how prolific it’s been as a top-tier pick regardless of who you ask.

The X570 Unify boasts 60A Power Stages, a 15 Phase VRM (12+2+1), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-5000MHz memory, 3x M.2 slots, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC1220 Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, an internal USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C header, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an integrated I/O shield, rear Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, onboard Power and Reset buttons, and a POST code readout, all of which are stylishly blacked out.

If Zen 3 can be overclocked, a stellar pick for Zen 2 will be even better! The X570 Unify already has incredible VRM performance; thus, with virtually no change in TDP for Zen 3, $300 even will ensure you extract as much power from the new 5950X as possible!

Memory

AMD’s Zen 2 CPUs performed remarkably well in games, but they were really intended to provide unparalleled productivity performance for consumer desktops. This time around, Zen 3 is coming in guns blazing to not only retain their superior workstation performance but shoot for the top spot in gaming as well. With this in mind, we’ve chosen the G.Skill Ripjaws V 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 memory kit to ensure you’ve more than enough memory for gaming and tasks like photo/video editing and rendering.

However, if you’re not interested in anything other than gaming, feel free to pick up the 32GB version (2x16GB) to leave an upgrade path for yourself, still have ample memory for gaming and multi-tasking, and save some money!

Storage

Everything keeps getting smaller, and thanks to solid-state drives, all of your data can now fit on something near the size of a pack of stick gum! Enter the $300 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD, our OS drive of choice. M.2 SSDs are some of the fastest storage devices available outside of even pricier PCIe 4.0 options. They eliminate the cable management that comes with 2.5” and 3.5” drives, are incredibly easy to install and replace, and thanks to the X570 Unify, you have the option to expand with up to two more down the road.

Additionally, we’ve selected a 2TB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5” SSD for our bulk drive. Our build today is an exceptional workstation, but AAA games are getting more and more storage-intensive. More assets need to be retrieved and faster than ever before. Meaning, unless we see some incredible breakthroughs in spinning drive technology, and soon, SSDs will quickly become a requirement for your favorite new games to run at peak performance. That’s precisely why the next generation of game consoles have chosen to include SSDs as their default storage devices. Sony and Microsoft have each developed proprietary technologies to facilitate the transfer of textures and assets from high-speed solid-state drives to the GPU. This means that consoles might be the best way to experience certain games until developers finally start to take advantage of technology that’s been available to PC gamers for years.

Graphics Card

The EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 24GB FTW3 Gaming; our other centerpiece for today’s build. As with most aspects of enthusiast builds, the RTX 3090 is extravagant, it’s overkill, and it’s supremely expensive.

The base price of an RTX 3090 is $1500, but EVGA offers its signature performance, over-engineering, and design flair to bring the FTW3 up to nearly $1750. With a monster-sized heat sink, triple cooling fans, and stylish RGB shroud, this triple-slot beast will be just as ridiculous as and right at home with the rest of our system.

With boost clocks up to 1740MHz, 24GB of VRAM, and a gargantuan 350W TDP, it’s a good thing EVGA has a rich history of high-performance GPU cooling because this guy will surely need every bit of cooling performance EVGA can muster. Alas, our theme isn’t quite perfect due to the RGB fan shroud, but if you genuinely hate the idea of any lights interrupting the pure black aesthetic we’ve chosen, you can turn them off with EVGA’s LED Sync software as part of their Precision X1 overclocking tool.

It remains to be seen just how competitive the next generation of AMD’s cards is. Still, the performance offered by the RTX 3090 allows for astronomical FPS below 4K resolutions and absolutely remarkable performance at and above it, and with every setting cranked as high as possible.

PC Case

For the sake of contrast, we’ve chosen an incredible black and white case from Fractal Design, the Meshify S2.

The Meshify S2 is a hybrid of their incredibly popular Meshify C mid-tower and Define S2 full-tower cases. With the Define series’ internal design and the airflow centric features of the Meshify, the Meshify S2 is essentially a stretched out Meshify C with enough room to accommodate the chunky RTX 3090 and NH-D15.

With three excellent 140mm PWM fans included (two front intake, one rear exhaust), you can rest assured that your parts are getting enough airflow without having to spend any extra money. The Meshify S2 also sports a tempered glass side panel to provide an unobstructed view of our blacked-out internals and the signature angular Meshify front panel to keep things looking attractive on the outside.

Power Supply

In the interest of efficiency, and considering those of you prone to never turning off your PCs, we’ve chosen to power our build with an EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 T2 80+ Titanium PSU. While you could get away with an 850W PSU for a machine like this (which should draw around 615W under load), we want to make sure we’re as close to the “sweet spot” for PSU efficiency (50-60%) while retaining as much headroom as possible for overclocking and external device connections.

AMD might have kept their high-end CPUs at a reasonable 105W TDP, but the RTX 3090’s 350W is no joke, and overclockers who win the silicon lottery might be able to squeeze another 100W out of it thanks to EVGA. Finally, knock on wood, should anything go wrong, EVGA has you covered with their tremendous 10-year warranty and customer support.

Display

Before capping off our crazy command center, another quote seems fitting, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” The RTX 3090 and Ryzen 9 5950X CPU-GPU combo are more than able to demolish plenty of gaming benchmarks at 4K resolutions, but not all of them. Titles with insane graphical fidelity like Jedi: Fallen Order, Red Dead Redemption 2, Flight Simulator 2020, and Horizon: Zero Dawn still cannot break the 100FPS barrier at Ultra 4K settings even with the RTX 3090. So to guarantee 144Hz+ gaming in nearly every game out there, we suggest you pick up a ViewSonic ELITE XG270QG 27” 1440p 1ms 144Hz (165Hz OC) IPS Nano display.

Despite the insane numbers that are possible nowadays, the most popular resolution is still 1080p. 1080p’s continued dominance is due, primarily, to the performance overhead, hence why we’ve chosen a fantastic middle-ground with 1440p. With 1440p, you still get to enjoy more pixels and screen real estate over 1080p, but without hampering yourself in the most GPU intensive games. Because the RTX 3090 is capable of pushing 4K resolutions so hard, 1440p ensures you’ll hit the refresh rate cap of 144Hz/165Hz, and stay there.

A final note, we recommend not using the OC feature to push the refresh rate of the ViewSonic ELITE to 165Hz. Not only is there a point of diminishing returns in perceived smoothness for the majority of gamers between 120-144Hz, but overdrive/overclocking functions for most displays increase the refresh rate at the cost of additional motion blur, visual artifacts, and “ghosting.”

Closing Thoughts

To sum up this generation’s hardware? Just, wow. If this is the sort of machine we can build today, then we cannot wait for whatever tomorrow holds. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading!

The post Ultimate $5000 Ryzen 9 5950X + RTX 3090 Command Center for 2021 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

Based on the newly revealed Zen 3 lineup, mid-range builders have a lot to be excited about thanks to the upcoming Ryzen 5 5600X. If you saw the announcement, you might have noticed the slight price hike across the board for Zen 3 at roughly $50 more for each tier than Zen 2. However, fret not, dearest enthusiasts, because if AMD’s recent track record of transparency and accuracy regarding their internal testing since the original Zen launch is anything to go by, they’ve more than earned that premium.

The primary reason why anyone looking for a new mid-range build or CPU upgrade should be ecstatic is the 5600X’s 65W thermal design power (TDP), which will make it arguably the most compelling option on the market when it finally drops in November. That’s astounding considering the TDP for the both the 3600X and 3600XT is 95W (realistically 105W). Thus, AMD has not only managed to bring a generational performance uplift of roughly 20% with Zen 3 compared to Zen 2 but, in the battle of the Ryzen 5s, they’ve done so with even lower power consumption. Any veteran member of Team Blue should understand why such an achievement is worthy of a double-take because Intel has barely managed to keep their Core i9 series under 350W during peak load performance. If Zen 3 manages to have any overclocking headroom whatsoever, where, by and large, Zen 2 really didn’t, then there’s a good chance Intel may not be able to compete until at least next year when their 12^th Gen 10nm Alder Lake is supposed to release.

Two essential factors in Zen 3’s power efficiency are AMD’s chiplet design (whereas Nvidia and Intel still utilize massive, monolithic dies), and undoubtedly the changes made to their core complexes (CCXs) within each chiplet. Chiplets allow AMD to separate processor cores between multiple smaller dies, meaning designing and manufacturing each new architecture is significantly easier. Further, each chiplet now houses up to eight unified cores and 32MB of L3 cache. So for higher-end Ryzen processors with two chiplets, each core has simultaneous and direct access to a genuine total of 64MB of L3 cache. Couple this with the improved architecture of Zen 3 on a refined 7nm process, and you’ve achieved a 19% improvement in instructions per clock (IPC) with nearly identical TDPs in every performance bracket.It cannot be understated how impressive this is. Such outstanding efficiency means that upgrading to Zen 3 is as simple as installing your new processor, with no need for a new cooling solution, and new builders won’t have to break the bank on their motherboards, power supplies, and CPU coolers. Thus, all of the best and most popular picks for Zen 2 directly translate to Zen 3.

With that understanding, today we’ll reaffirm some of the best motherboards to choose for your next AMD build with the Ryzen 5 5600X!

Best Motherboards for Ryzen 5 5600X – Our Recommendations

Award	Motherboard	Design	VRM	Price
Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X	Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus		50A 14 Phase (12+2)	$165
Best Overall Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X	MSI MEG X570 Unify		60A 15 Phase (12+2+1)	$300
Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X	Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)		60A 16 Phase (14+2)	$380
Best mATX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X	Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi)		50A 10 Phase (8+2)	$180
Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X	Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming		70A 10 Phase (8+2)	$250

Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X

The Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus, and Asus’ TUF series, in general,continues to offer fantastic price-to-performance in terms of VRM performance and connectivity. Furthermore, Asus’s BIOS interface and proprietary motherboard software have long been favored by PC enthusiasts and overclockers thanks to their intuitiveness and responsiveness. Plus, Asus’s BIOS designs tend to be very aesthetically pleasing, including the BIOS for the TUF Gaming X570-Plus! The TUF Gaming X570-Plus is also the prime example of why the 5600X is such an incredible offering, with 20% more performance for 38% less power, any motherboards that performed well with Zen 2 Ryzen 5 CPUs will be even better.

The TUF Gaming X570-Plus offers 50A Power Stages, a 14 Phase VRM (12+2), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-4400MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots, Realtek 1G LAN + ALC S1200A Audio CODEC, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and 8x SATA III 6Gb/s ports for only $165. Considering B550 pricing, Asus retains the crown for entry-level motherboard best-suited to builders looking to get the most out of their new Ryzen 5 5600Xs. If you’re looking for a rock-solid motherboard without all the fluff from more premium flagship motherboards, the TUF Gaming X570-Plus is tough to beat .

Note, if you’re looking for an entry-level option with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) variant is only an additional $25!

Best Overall Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X

The MSI MEG X570 Unify was a magnificent response to troublesome VRM thermal performance issues with the MSI X570 boards priced under the MSI MEG X570 Ace. With the X570 Unify, MSI arguably has the best X570 motherboard on the market for overall build quality, performance, and features, which is why it’s still an outstanding choice.

The X570 Unify sports 60A Power Stages, a 15 Phase VRM (12+2+1), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-5000MHz memory, 3x M.2 slots, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC1220 Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, an internal USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C header, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an integrated I/O shield, rear Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, onboard Power and Reset buttons, and a POST code readout, all of which are stylishly blacked out.

If you’re looking for the ultimate ATX motherboard to pair with your new 5600X at $300, there are almost no arguments to make against the X570 Unify.

Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X

The Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) clinches our top spot for the best high-performance motherboard thanks to its incredible price given its VRM and feature-set compared to the other available enthusiast X570 motherboards; the MSI MEG X570 Godlike and the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme. For just $380, the Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) has equivalent power delivery and connectivity features to the $700 MSI and Gigabyte options, which is nearly 55% cheaper!

Featured on the Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) are 60A Power Stages, a 16 Phase VRM (14+2), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-4800MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN, SupremeFX S1220 Audio CODEC, 8x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 8x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an integrated I/O shield, Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, a POST code readout, onboard Power + Reset buttons, as well as a BIOS Safe Boot + ReTry buttons!

Unless you have $700 burning a hole in your pocket, your best bet for the ultimate motherboard for the Ryzen 5 5600X is undoubtedly the Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi). Although, if even $380 is a bit too rich for your blood, you can also opt to save even more with the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master. At $280, you’re getting an identical VRM to that of the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme, just without the additional PCIe 4.0 bandwidth for the chipset link on the B550 Aorus Master.

Best mATX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X

Considering there is legitimately only one option for mATX x570 motherboards, the Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) is the clear winner here at only $180. While MSI does offer their incredibly popular MAG B550M Mortar (Wi-Fi) for around the same price, the TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) provides a similar VRM layout, better memory overclocking support, and vastly superior connectivity for the rear I/O.

Asus shows the woefully neglected mATX form factor some love with 50A Power Stages, a 10 Phase VRM (8+2), support for up to 128GB DDR4-4600MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots (1x PCIe 4.0 x4), Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.1, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC S1200A Audio CODEC, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, and BIOS Flashback.

For any builders looking to cut down the size of their next machine without having to worry about extensive hardware compatibility research and potentially frustrating cable management, the TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) is a reliable platform with plenty of fantastic features.

Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600X

Despite some of the impressive mini-ITX B550 motherboards that are now available, our award for the best mini-ITX for Ryzen 5 5600X builds belongs to the Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming, which comes in at $250. Again, the pricing for B550 motherboards compared to X570 isn’t cheap enough to recommend over many current X570 options. While you can go for the Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX for $180, you lose out on rear USB connectivity on a form factor that already struggles to pack on as much as it can due to space constraints.

With the X570-I Gaming, you get 70A Power Stages, a 10 Phase VRM (8+2), support for up to 64GB of DDR4-4800MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots, Intel 1G LAN + AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, SupremeFX S1220A Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports.

Perhaps if B550 pricing drops after its release window, we’ll change our tune, but until then, the X570-I Gaming is still the king of mini-ITX motherboards for mid to high-end Ryzen builds.

Summary

Zen 3 signals the beginning and the end of an era. The AM4 socket is on the home stretch as we await the next one (AM5?) and approach the release of technologies like DDR5 RAM, but will go out with a bang by housing the most enticing consumer desktop CPUs we’ve seen in years!

If you’re more interested in the B550 chipset, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best B550 motherboards!

Best Entry-Level: Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus– The TUF Gaming X570-Plus continues to prove one of the best price-to-performance values for Ryzen builders with solid VRM thermal performance, connectivity features, and overall build quality – with the (Wi-Fi) variant available for an additional $25 if needed.

Best Overall: MSI MEG X570 Unify– The X570 Unify is arguably the most compelling motherboard for any mid to high-end Ryzen build thanks to its ultra-slick blacked-out aesthetic, impressive VRM, capable memory overclocking, and a plethora of connectivity features. MSI responded to the performance issues with many of their X570 motherboards in a big way with this one.

Best High-Performance: Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) – At $380, Asus provides the absolute best enthusiast-class motherboard for high-end Ryzen builders that don’t have $700 to throw at options like the MSI MEG X570 Godlike or the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme. If you want to save even more money for best-in-class VRM thermal performance, check out the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master, which offers an identical VRM to that of the X570 Aorus Xtreme for less than half the price, albeit with comparatively gimped connectivity.

Best mATX: Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi)– When there’s only one mATX X570 motherboard out there, Asus deserves credit for bringing phenomenal VRM performance and connectivity options to the under-appreciated form factor.

Best mini-ITX: Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming – Although we’ve seen more decent mini-ITX options for Ryzen builds with many new B550 motherboards, they don’t provide enough competitive features or performance for how similar they are in price. However, if you’re still looking to shave off $70 from your build, consider the Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX. Just be aware that you’re getting even worse rear I/O connectivity on a form factor that’s already somewhat limited.

Are you planning your next build or upgrade around the 5600X? What are your thoughts on Zen 3, and do you think Intel has a chance of competing with their upcoming 11^th Gen CPUs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below, and as always, thanks for reading!

The post 5 Best Motherboards for the Ryzen 5 5600X appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

AMD’s initial Zen 3 lineup has finally been revealed, and it may very well have the new gaming CPU champion among its ranks! The Ryzen 9 5900X is shaping up to be a serious contender for gaming enthusiasts and users in need of some powerful productivity performance. Across the board, Zen 3 processors enjoy the benefits of AMD’s new architecture and unified L3 cache and core complexes (CCXs). These two changes allow for boost clocks up to 4.9GHz, and up to eight cores to share simultaneous access to 32MB of L3 cache within a single CCX.

Translation: Zen 3 brings a 19% boost in instructions per clock (IPC) and, according to AMD, a 26% performance uplift over Zen 2, all while remaining at or below the TDP of Zen 2. Even if you’ve recently procured yourself a Zen 2 processor, Zen 3 offers compelling upgrades to what could be the best CPUs on the market for quite some time. Furthermore, if Zen 3 is capable of even slightly more overclocking than Zen 2, Intel may have a rough time even trying to compete in gaming performance, which they’ve been clinging to for so long.

The fact of the matter is that AMD has had Intel’s feet to the fire for nearly two years, and it’s only been getting hotter. Thanks to Team Red, there has never been a better time to upgrade your current system or build a brand new one. While we may not yet have an idea of what’s in store for their upcoming Big Navi Radeon GPUs, Zen 3 is a safe bet to make while we await new technologies like DDR5 memory, Quantum Dot displays, and a process from Intel smaller than 14nm .

Best $2600 Ryzen 9 5900X Build – The Parts List

CPU

Today’s crown jewel: The Ryzen 9 5900X. Poised to sit atop most gaming benchmarks with its older brother, the 5950X, the $550 5900X is likely the more sensible option for the majority of builders to still crush performance in multiplayer arenas as well as in scrubbing through chunky timelines. With 12 cores, 24 threads, a 105W TDP, a 4.8GHz boost clock, and the improvements offered by AMD’s Zen 3 architecture, the 5900X earns its slight price uptick in our book.

Zen 3 will be the last series of processors to drop into the AM4 socket (barring any refreshes), so if you’re looking to make the most of your build and avoid upgrades for the next several years, it might be wisest for you to save up and spring for a Ryzen 9. Worst case scenario, AMD refreshes the 5000 series sometime next year, and your build ends up a half step down from the top! You’ll still have a beastly processor with incredibly tame thermal performance. Unless Intel can work some genuine technological wizardry, there’s not likely to be much competition in the CPU market from the elderly 14nm process.

CPU Cooler

Again, here’s to AMD and their ability to keep TDPs very much inline despite the beefy performance uplift with Zen 3. With such a relatively low 105W power draw expected from the 5900X, most users’ best bet will be air cooling, and when it comes to air cooling, there are few better options than Noctua. Today we’ll be recommending the Noctua NH-U12A, a nifty little heat sink that’s capable of competing with the monstrous NH-D15 dual-tower unit within a few degrees while also ending up a few decibels quieter.

With two of their specialized NF-A12x25 Sterrox© bladed fans, seven heatpipes, and a compact fin stack with an impressive amount of surface area, the NH-U12A has the cooling capabilities of even most 240mm AIOs in a 140mm single-tower. Unless you’re dead set on liquid cooling, there are very few other air or liquid coolers that can compete with the thermal and noise performance on top of this level of hardware compatibility. You shouldn’t have trouble fitting this beauty in nearly any compact, mid-sized, or full-sized ATX PC enclosure.

Motherboard

Now, if we’re still talking regal headwear, the MSI MEG X570 Unify is the crown that holds your 5900X gem. At this stage, the X570 Unify is one of the most tried and true AM4 motherboards released to date. While you might see some new entries from companies like Asus with the new ROG Crosshair DARK HERO and STRIX B550-XE, the X570 chipset is going to be the best home for your new Zen 3 CPU. Updates and refreshes are always welcome, but that doesn’t suddenly deprecate the long-standing benchmarks for build quality and performance, which the X570 Unify most certainly is.

The MSI X570 Unify boasts 60A Power Stages, a 15 Phase VRM (12+2+1), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-5000MHz memory, 3x M.2 slots, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC1220 Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an integrated I/O shield, Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, onboard Power/Reset buttons, and a POST code readout for $300. For the most part, there’s not too much reason to look outside of the X570 Unify for mid to high-end Ryzen builds nowadays. MSI essentially created the perfect AM4 motherboard at damn near the perfect price. While it may not exactly be cheap, you’re buying one of the sleekest and most well-rounded options on the market with extremely competitive VRM performance and stellar component/build quality. (Plus, it’s a nice change of pace to have an option without the superfluous RGB lighting that’s all too common nowadays ).

Memory

For our system memory, we have chosen a G.Skill 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600MHz CL16 kit, which should be available for about $145. Not the bleeding edge of memory performance, but as Jon discovered in the PremiumBuilds Test Lab for Zen 2 memory performance, there is a point of diminishing returns. Thus, 32GB of 3600MHz DDR4 allows us speeds that are plenty fast enough for gaming, with enough capacity for serious multi-tasking in addition to some relatively hefty productivity workloads. Whether you’re gaming with dozens of browser tabs and other programs open on your second display, or if you end up needing to do a bit of photo/video editing, 32GB in a 2x16GB kit gives you room to breathe and the opportunity to upgrade in the future should you so choose.

Storage

The end is nigh for spinning drives in gaming machines, folks, especially if the next generation consoles are any sort of barometer for the future. Game developers are beginning to actually take advantage of storage transfer speeds for things like streaming game assets directly from the drive. In fact, consoles might even perform tasks like that better than PCs for a while, thanks to some proprietary hardware that’s been developed to facilitate such operations. Regardless, you’re going to want to consider not only investing in SSDs for most of your storage (especially for games) but also setting aside some money for PCIe 4.0 SSDs as they continue to mature and come down in price.

That said, we’ve chosen two storage devices for today’s build: a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD for your OS and favorite games/programs and a 2TB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5” SSD for your bulk library storage. There’s not much to say when it comes to SSDs; there are many fantastic options, but the most fantastic tend to come from Samsung. Programs, and especially games, seem to be getting bigger and bigger, so not only do you want the fastest storage devices possible, but you want as much space as you can get for a reasonable price. Thankfully, SSDs have long since fallen from their astronomical highs a few years ago and only start to get ridiculously priced past 2TB or with PCIe 4.0 support. However, if you’re concerned about price, or perhaps just don’t need quite so much space, consider dropping the additional 2.5” SSD and investing that money in a stack of premium case fans or some new peripherals!

Graphics Card

Consider this the halo above your aforementioned crown, the EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming. (IMPORTANT NOTE: We strongly recommend holding out on purchasing any 3000 Series RTX cards for the moment. There’s a good chance that Nvidia is planning to release updated 3070s and 3080s with double the total VRAM to compete with AMD’s upcoming Big Navi Radeon cards).

The 3080, despite Nvidia’s slightly troubled launch thus far, is a truly magnificent specimen, and the EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming pushes it to the bleeding edge. Where the reference TDP for an RTX 3080 is a mindblowing 350W, the EVGA FTW3 can easily hit 420W () with enough metal and fan speed to spare. EVGA has done a phenomenal job in taming this particular power-hungry beast and has undoubtedly crafted one of the most competitive third party overclocking cards to date. If ever you were considering gaming at 4K but held off due to concerns of performance? The one-two punch of a 5900X and RTX 3080 should properly dash any last reservations and will scream through any gaming benchmarks you can throw at it. If you plan to game at less than 4K? Forget about it; you’ll be stomping on 2080 Ti performances all day, and at a massive discount. Just a final reminder, do your best to hold off until Nvidia confirms they’ll be releasing an updated version with 20GB of VRAM!

PC Case

Next, we’ll look at the bones of your new beautiful beast: the Lian Li LANCOOL II-X ATX Mid-tower. Lian Li has been responsible for some great enclosures over the years, and the LANCOOL II-X is no exception. Simple, clean, a tasteful amount of RGB, and the premium build quality and materials many of you might be familiar with.

The Lancool II has hinged tempered glass side panels, cable shroud panels to hide your nest on the underside of your motherboard tray, a shrouded PSU and hard drive basement, well-thought-out cable management throughout, not to mention excellent ventilation and a reasonable amount of RGB lighting for the front panel. If you’ve been struggling to pick out your next case, or maybe you’ve grown just a little weary of my incessant Fractal Design recommendations, then the Lian Li LANCOOL II-X is an outstanding choice.

Power Supply

To wrap things up for our 5900X build, the PSU: the EVGA SuperNOVA G3 850W 80+ Gold. Your power supply is the most crucial component of your computer, and we’re just now starting to come out on the other side of severe availability issues due to recent global events. Prices are beginning to normalize, and the more reliable picks are becoming more readily available.

Enter the SuperNOVA G3 850W. EVGA has earned its reputation for more than just GPUs, with many of their power supplies being the affordable go-to choices thanks to their excellent build quality, performance, and warranty/customer service that’s second to none. For clean and stable power and stable power where you need it most, EVGA is always an excellent option!

Closing Thoughts

Zen 3 has raised the bar for consumer electronics relatively high from the looks of AMD’s initial lineup. With so many new technologies on the horizon, we can’t help but reiterate that there won’t be a better time to upgrade your machine or build a new one after Zen 3 finally launches this winter. Today’s build should get you pretty close to the cream of the crop for a reasonable sum and leave you plenty of breathing room to upgrade down the road. Are you planning on buying a Zen 3 CPU? Are you excited to see what kind of performance you can squeeze out of the new RTX cards? As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments down below, and thanks for reading!

The post $2600 Ryzen 9 5900X Gaming Build for 2021 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

PC Builders rejoice, the Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs have been revealed, and AMD looks to hit the ground running by early November with impressive improvements across the board. Although pricing may have gone up slightly, 11-30% across Ryzen 5, 8, and 9, it’s looking to be more than worth the price of admission based on the potential performance uplift offered by even just the new 6c/12t Ryzen 5 5600X.

First and foremost, the most important update is the introduction of unified CCXs (core complexes) which allow for 8 CPU cores to share all 32MB of L3 cache simultaneously. Second, the architectural changes for Zen 3, in addition to AMD’s chiplet design and new CCXs, should allow for approximately a 19% IPC boost over Zen 2 based on their internal testing. Of course their results will have to stand against real-world benchmarking after Zen 3 becomes available, but AMD has been on a streak of honesty and accuracy in their presentations for the past few years since they first broke the news of the original Zen architecture. It’s clear they’re very proud of their recent work, and it’s been proven time and again that they have every reason to be. We’re confident that by the time builders unwrap their shiny new Zen 3 CPUs that AMD’s findings will prove reliable. A final note, and arguably the most impressive attribute of Zen 3, is that while the prices may have increased, the TDP for Zen 3 comes in at or below that of Zen 2… Across the board. This means that if you’ve situated yourself with a motherboard that can accept Zen 3 (any 500 series, and most 400 series, provided a proper BIOS update) then you’re already prepared to socket a Zen 3 processor as soon as you’re able to acquire one!

Zen 3 seems to confirm, yet again, that AMD has its hooks deep into the industry, and it doesn’t plan on letting go anytime soon. Not only have they managed to keep their promise of “true” year-on-year improvements, they’ve long since kept their promise for hardware compatibility support by remaining on the same socket (AM4+) until Zen 3. This makes both of our jobs that much easier , since the same components that were the best choices for Zen 2 are going to apply to Zen 3. Now get ready for a bit of déjà vu, here are the best motherboards to pair with the Ryzen 9 5900X for 2021.

Best Motherboards for Ryzen 9 5900X – Our Recommendations

Award	Design	Model	VRM
Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X		Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi)	14 Phase (12+2)
Best Overall Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X		MSI MEG X570 Unify	15 Phase (12+2+1)
Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X		Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme	16 Phase (14+2)
Best Budget High-Performance Motherboard for		Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)	16 Phase (14+2)
Best mATX Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X		Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi)	10 Phase (8+2)
Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X		Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming	10 Phase (8+2)

Best Entry-Level Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X

The Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) still represents some of the best price-to-performance on the market for any mid to high-end Ryzen CPU, even still for the new Ryzen 9 5900X. With how mature the AM4 socket is at this stage, the “cream has risen to the top,” so to speak, and you’re almost guaranteed to see many similar recommendations consistently over time. Asus’s TUF Gaming series has proven a reliable option for many different Intel and AMD chipsets for years, including X570, and that’s why it remains our go-to pick for nearly every current chipset.

With the TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) you get 50A Power Stages, a 14 Phase VRM (12+2), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-4400MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots, Realtek 1G LAN + ALC S1200A Audio CODEC, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and 8x SATA III 6Gb/s ports for $190. For builders in search of the most well-rounded motherboard under $200 to pair with any Ryzen CPU, the X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) is hard to pass up.

Best Overall Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X

Next, our best overall pick for the 5900X: The MSI MEG X570 Unify. Considering the early, and worrying, reports regarding many of MSI’s VRM temperatures for their X570 motherboards priced under the MEG X570 Ace, the X570 Unify is a world-class response from a motherboard manufacturer. With the X570 Unify, MSI has showed they’re genuinely determined to improve in terms of overall product quality and their commitment to their userbase. The X570 Unify is universally praised, and rightfully so, for being arguably the best “total package,” capable of handling any component you can throw at it, now including the 5900X.

The X570 Unify offers 60A Power Stages, a 15 Phase VRM (12+2+1), support for up to 128GB of DDR4-5000MHz memory, 3x M.2 slots, Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC1220 Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, an integrated I/O shield, Clear CMOS + BIOS Flashback buttons, onboard Power/Reset buttons, and a POST code readout for $300. If you’re not in the market for something smaller, or cheaper, the X570 Unify is an extremely sleek and powerful motherboard for your new 5900X.

Best High-Performance Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X

Given the $550 price tag of the 5900X, we’re going all out with our high-performance pick this time: The $700 Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme. Ryzen 9 processors are monstrous, with 12 cores/24 threads on the 5900X, 16 cores/32 threads on the 5950X, 105W TDPs, and blistering performance across both gaming and productivity workloads, they’re bound to be two of the best consumer desktop CPUs on the market, period. If you’re buying one of the best processors around, you’re likely interested in the best motherboards as well, and the X570 Aorus Xtreme is the king of VRM thermal performance, while also having the benefit of a passively cooled chipset!

The X570 Aorus Xtreme comes barreling in with 70A Power Stages, a direct 16 Phase VRM (14+2), support for up to 128GB DDR4-3600MHz memory, 3x M.2 slots (PCIe 4.0), AQUANTIA 10G LAN, Intel Gigabit LAN + AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, Realtek ALC1220-VB Audio CODEC + ESS SABRE9218 DAC, 6x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 4x USB 2.0 ports, 6x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, onboard Power/Reset buttons, Clear CMOS + Q-Flash buttons, and a POST code readout!

Of course, we’re well aware that a $700 price tag may have made some of you audibly laugh, and that’s entirely fair. If you’re like the majority of even PC enthusiasts, and you don’t have money positively burning a hole in your pocket, you’re going to want to check out the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi). The Crosshair VIII does not have passive cooling and typically ends up running a few degrees hotter than the X570 Aorus Xtreme. Still, it’s nearly 50% cheaper at only $380 for otherwise identical features. Furthermore, while Asus may run “teamed” phases, they’re not cheaply/improperly “doubled” without the prerequisite additional, and high-quality, components. Not adding the necessary hardware to a doubled VRM design is a supremely inefficient (and potentially dangerous) way manufacturers occasionally try and “raise” phase counts to match better designed VRM configurations. Asus has undoubtedly been doing things right. Where both the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme and MSI MEG X570 Godlike cost $700, the Asus Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) readily competes in terms of clean power delivery and thermal performance at a massively lower price point. If you’re not sweating () the few extra degrees and still desire one of the best enthusiast AMD motherboards out there, the Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) significantly lessens the impact on your wallet for the same quality and nearly identical features.

Best mATX Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X

mATX, I will die on the hill that says it’s a criminally underappreciated form factor . Despite being every bit as capable of providing top-tier VRM configurations, hardware compatibility, connectivity options, and overall design quality, builders and motherboard manufacturers alike seem to be a bit disinterested in mATX. This disinterest, in addition to the massive spike in popularity of small form factor (SFF) mini-ITX builds, leads to regularly sparse micro motherboard options for both AMD and Intel chipsets. Thankfully, we have the $180 Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) to make up for the general lack of higher-end mATX motherboards we’ve seen, especially with B450 and X570.

The TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) provides 50A Power Stages, a 10 Phase VRM (8+2), support for up to 128GB DDR4-4600MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots (1x PCIe 4.0 x4), Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.1, Realtek 2.5G LAN + ALC S1200A Audio CODEC, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 + 2x USB 2.0 ports, 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports, and BIOS Flashback. If you find yourself interested in building an mATX Ryzen system, the TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) is your best bet, especially when it comes to VRM performance and rear I/O USB connectivity.

Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5900X

Considering the aforementioned interest in mini-ITX builds, with no end in sight, the Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming is the proof in the pudding that they’re only going to continue to grow in popularity. At $250, there’s a good reason for the X570-I Gaming’s consistent appearance as our recommendation for the best Ryzen mini-ITX board; it’s beastly. Of course, there are other excellent contenders for mini-ITX Ryzen motherboards (especially on B550), but if you’re choosing a Ryzen 9 CPU for your next SFFPC, you’re going to want the best, and the ROG STRIX X570-I delivers.

This tiny Asus board touts 70A Power Stages, a 10 Phase VRM (8+2) with active cooling, support for up to 64GB of DDR4-4800MHz memory, 2x M.2 slots, Intel Gigabit LAN + AX200 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0, SupremeFX S1220A Audio CODEC, 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 is Type-C) + 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and 4x SATA III 6Gb/s ports. Thanks to the active VRM cooling for already robust power delivery, the X570-I Gaming is guaranteed to keep even a 3950X nice and cool in all but the most restrictive SFF cases!

Summary

AMD continues to put their money where their mouth is by consistently introducing amazing performance at a reasonable price, even with their slight markups for Zen 3. They’ve had Intel on the ropes for some time, and if Intel isn’t able to conjur some modicum of technological wizardry, they may get knocked over them before having a chance to strike back! That may not be entirely true, as this massive game of cat and mouse has been going on for decades, but we’re potentially still at least a couple of years before Intel might be considered truly competitive with AMD again. Here’s hoping Intel haven’t done themselves in for a 14-year chase like AMD just finished!

Best Entry-Level: Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) – The tried and true TUF Gaming series from Asus continues to deliver stellar price-to-performance value, under $200, for even the top-tier Ryzen CPUs.

Best Overall: MSI MEG X570 Unify – MSI knocked it out of the park with the X570 Unify, and at the same time, proved they’re committed to their users and the overall quality of their products. If you’re in the price range for it, the X570 Unify is arguably the sleekest and most compelling X570 motherboard to date.

Best High-Performance: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme – Raw, undeniable performance… For a price. At $700, Gigabyte is asking a lot, but the Aorus Xtreme truly offers best-in-class VRM performance, extensive connectivity, and build quality. However, if you nearly choked at the thought of spending $700 on a motherboard, the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi), is the best reasonable enthusiast-class X570 at nearly half the price; $380.

Best mATX: Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) – Asus provides one of the absolute best mATX AM4 motherboards to date, with equivalent VRM performance compared to its direct competition, but with superior rear I/O USB connectivity.

Best mini-ITX: Asus ROG STRIX X570-I Gaming – Despite a strong lineup of high-end mini-ITX AM4 motherboards for X570 and B550, the X570-I Gaming still comes out on top. Especially for a high-end Ryzen 9, Asus is the king of the SFF scene.

The post 5 Best Motherboards for the Ryzen 9 5900X appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

We’ve made it folks! AMD’s initial Zen 3 lineup has been revealed, and it’s a doozy. The long and short of it is: Zen 3 has the same or lower TDP than Zen 2, a new architecture, and the benefit of their new unified eight-core CCXs (core complexes) with shared 32MG L3 caches which all allow it to boost performance up to 19% over Zen 2. That’s not insignificant by any stretch of the imagination. Especially when considering that AMD may have just finally caught up to Intel in single-threaded performance. Which means Intel’s last vestige of superiority might have finally been destroyed until they’re able to finally strike back and get off of their ancient 14nm process!

Again, AMD’s achievement with Zen 3 should not be understated. While Intel has had to resort to every engineering trick in the book with their 14nm process to improve performance, AMD continues to refine and maximize their chiplet design and process architecture, all while keeping power efficiency and consumption identical to their previous generation! That’s a marvellous prospect for any would-be adopter of Zen 3, because it means that your entire system is just a CPU swap away from being entirely finished and ready to rumble until it’s time to build a completely new rig.

Thanks to AMD keeping it’s promise to support the same socket until Zen 3, as well as it’s ability to flatline their TDPs, members of Team Red can start looking to save money for the next generation of hardware like DDR5 memory and whatever new CPU socket AMD develops for Zen 4 right after they upgrade to a Zen 3 processor. This is incredibly important to understand, since the AM4 socket is now end-of-life outside of any refreshes AMD might provide for Zen 3. We’re on the cusp of a new type of RAM (which means a new pinout), and the eventual standardization of PCIe 4.0. So if you’re not terribly keen on building a completely new computer anytime soon, get the best one you can now with Zen 3, because things are going to change pretty drastically starting next year.

Today, we’re going to show you the best air and AIO coolers to pair with AMD’s latest Ryzen 5 5600X – ensuring that you’re extracting as much performance from this powerful CPU as possible.

Best CPU Coolers for Ryzen 5 5600X – Our Recommendations

Award	Model	Design
Best Liquid Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X	EVGA CLC 240 RGB
Best Air Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X	Noctua NH-U12A
Best Entry-Level Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition
Best Low-Profile Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X	Noctua NH-L12S

Best Liquid Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X

For those of you willing to opt for closed-loop AIO coolers for the Ryzen 5 5600X, we recommend the $120 EVGA CLC 240 RGB. EVGA is a renowned name in the GPU market, at least for US customers, but they’ve greatly expanded into other markets over the years, including CPU liquid coolers. The crucial elements of EVGA’s stellar reputation are their consistently high build quality, fantastic performance, extended warranties, and their exceptional customer service. All of these qualities extend to the CLC 240, making it one of the best-reviewed AIO coolers in direct competition with the mega-popular Corsair H100i Pro RGB ($140).

With its competitive $120 price point, the EVGA CLC 240 RGB sports a 240 x 12 x 27mm aluminum radiator, sleeved tubing, EVGA’s custom 120mm low-noise 2500RPM fans with Teflon bearings, and an RGB pump block. Now, you’re not going to want to run your fans anywhere near max RPM, because, despite the fact they’re “low-noise,” they can get exceptionally loud above ~2000RPM. However, at around 1250RPM (which measures about 40dBA), you can expect phenomenal thermal and noise performance on par with, or better than, the majority of other available 240mm AIOs. If you’re looking to liquid-cool your new 5600X, it’ll be challenging to find a better price-to-performance value than EVGA’s CLC 240 RGB.

Best Air Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X

For most enthusiasts, the name Noctua means one thing: quality. Noctua has built itself a nearly unrivaled reputation compared to any other PC component manufacturer by consistently offering the best CPU air coolers and fans for many years. Whatever your opinion of Noctua’s, uhh, striking brown color scheme, you cannot deny the level of overall build quality, performance, and extraordinary design that they’ve offered the DIY PC market for such a long time. Better yet, they’ve recently been giving many of their products long-awaited black iterations with their Chromax series, except our pick for the best air cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X builds: The Noctua NH-U12A… At least so far.

It’s almost ironic that the sort of innovation and competition the U12A brings to the premium tower air cooler market comes from Noctua. It must truly take the best to rival the best because this 120mm single-tower cooler directly competes, within a few degrees, with not only the significantly larger Noctua NH-D15 140mm dual-tower cooler but even many 240mm AIO liquid coolers (with normalized noise levels). Of course, larger air and liquid coolers can brute force their way to better thermal results, but it comes at the cost of potentially unbearable fan noise.

The critical factors lending to the performance of the U12A are the included NF-A12x25 fans with Sterrox blades, and the seven heat pipes Noctua managed to cram through the cold plate and fin stack. Sterrox is a unique material developed by Noctua, which allows for the distinct curve of the fan blades, as well as their remarkable 0.5mm clearance from the frame. Thus, the NF-A12x25s can achieve higher RPMs at equivalent noise levels to other fans while moving more air over a larger surface area compared to similarly-sized heat sinks, giving the NH-U12A the ability to punch well above its weight class. If you’ve avoided more premium CPU tower coolers due to concerns with size and compatibility, the NH-U12A is an extremely compelling choice for your new Ryzen 5 5600X build.

Best Entry-Level Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X

The Cooler Master Hyper 212 BlackEdition is an all-gunmetal black rendition of the legendary Hyper 212 EVO. Say what you will about some of their cases, Cooler Master has been the undeniable king of entry-level CPU coolers for ages since they released the Hyper 212 EVO. Now they’re offering the same incredible value in a much more visually pleasing package that competes with even the ultra-sleek looks of be quiet!’s Dark Rock line – a perfect match for the Ryzen 5 5600X.

More specifically, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 BlackEdition’s thermal and noise performance are identical to that of the be quiet! BK024 Dark Rock Slim, while costing nearly half as much! The Hyper 212 Black is currently $36 (regularly priced at $40), where the Dark Rock Slim comes in at a whopping $65. That’s a rough price differential to try and justify when be quiet! can’t even claim better aesthetics in comparison anymore, especially when you consider the possibility of taking those savings and putting them towards an additional Cooler Master Silencio FP 120mm fan for even better CPU thermals.

With such a tried and true design getting such an excellent face-lift, it’s rough to try and justify any entry-level cooler over the Hyper 212 Black. If it fits in your case, and you’re only looking for a slight upgrade over a stock Wraith cooler, you cannot go wrong with the Hyper 212 Black Edition.

Best Low-Profile Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X

For builders keen on downsizing their next rig to a Ryzen 5 5600X small form factor (SFF) PC, we suggest the Noctua NH-L12S. Four heat pipes and Noctua’s NF-A12x15 slim 120mm fan translate to some of the best CPU cooling performance for extra-small PC builds on the market. One of the only ways to achieve superior air cooling with the same footprint as the NH-L12S is by slapping a Noctua NF-A12x25 on the Scythe Big Shuriken 3. However, the Scythe/Noctua combo only nets you a few extra degrees and brings your total cost up to about $77, where the L12S is only $50. When it comes to the ultimate in SFF air cooling out of the box for a 5600X, you cannot beat the NH-L12S.

Speaking of the NH-L12S, we have an exciting twist to announce; Noctua has just launched a new version! This latest iteration has been custom-tailored for the LOUQE Ghost S1, which is terrific news for anyone who’s been eyeing (or already owns) the coveted enclosure but hasn’t wanted to risk bending the standard NH-L12S to get it to fit correctly. For the luxury of a guaranteed, hassle-free fit for the Ghost S1, the NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition will only run you an additional $5, and you can also opt to replace the included NF-B9 fan with an NF-A9 for even better cooling. Whatever tiny SFF cases you want to build in, the NH-L12 is a powerhouse pick for even the most top-tier CPUs on the market.

Summary

With the reveal of AMD’s initial Zen 3 lineup, this might just be as good as it gets for PC builders until new memory and sockets are revealed. There couldn’t be a better time to start preparing for your next upgrade or build, because everything is going to change starting at the end of next year. We have some incredible memory, display, and storage technology on the horizon, especially with the advent of PCIe 4.0, but that isn’t to say what we’ve access to now is anything short of exceptional. AMD truly is changing the market for the better, and we can only hope that their meteoric rise with the Zen architecture continues and puts companies like Intel’s and Nvidia’s feet to the fire. Competition is a beautiful thing, and AMD could be the match that lights the fire for a golden age of consumer electronics!

Best Liquid Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X: EVGA CLC 240 RGB – EVGA extends its premium touch to the mid-range all-in-one liquid cooler market. With a five year warranty, competitive price, and outstanding performance, the CLC 240 is arguably the premier closed-loop CPU cooling solution on the market.

Best Air Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X: Noctua NH-U12A – Noctua: A name that signifies rock-solid performance, simple but elegant design, and pure reliability for the vast majority of DIY PC enthusiasts. Never has this notion been proven more true than with the recent NH-U12A. Thanks to its seven heat pipes and the specially designed NF-A12x25 Sterrox fan blades (a material developed by Noctua), Noctua has brought serious competition to even their massive 140mm dual-tower, the NH-D15, with a 120mm model. If you’re looking for the ultimate thermal and noise performance in a reasonably sized air cooler, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything better.

Best Entry-Level Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X: Cooler Master Hyper 212 BlackEdition – Cooler Master’s entry-level goliath, the Hyper 212 EVO, now has the option for a coat of gunmetal black paint! When it comes to affordable CPU air cooling, the Hyper 212 series is second only to Noctua in terms of reputation, popularity, performance, and reliability. The Hyper 212 Black Edition brings the tried and true performance of the 212 EVO with a level of sleek visual design that’s on par with even a company like be quiet! Additionally, if you’re looking for even better thermal performance with the 212 BE for a 5600X, consider snagging an additional Cooler Master Silencio FP 120mm fan for a push/pull configuration!

Best Low-Profile Cooler for Ryzen 5 5600X: Noctua NH-L12S – If you want the best out of the box performance for SFF cases that can’t fit anything taller than 70mm, this is your best option. While you can achieve better CPU thermals by securing a Noctua NF-A12x25 fan on the Scythe Big Shuriken 3, doing so costs significantly more money while also completely wasting the stock Scythe fan. Additionally, Noctua has just released a new NH-L12 designed explicitly for the extremely popular LOUQE Ghost S1, so builders no longer have to bend the heat pipes on the original L12S.

The post 4 Best CPU Coolers for the Ryzen 5 5600X appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

It’s time for another installment of our manufacturer comparison series! We’ve previously covered the most prevalent Graphics Card AIB (add-in board) partners, as well as the biggest Motherboard manufacturers on the market. Today, we’re going to take a look at the most popular Memory (RAM) manufacturers and offer a brief rundown of each one, their reputations, and when you might consider opting for a new memory kit from them. By the end, you should have a better understanding of the RAM market and be able to make a well-informed decision on which brand is right for your next PC!

Corsair

Kicking things off, we have one of the world’s most premier PC hardware manufacturers: Corsair. Corsair is probably one of the most renowned brands for everything from PC cases, power supplies, and peripherals, to CPU coolers, high-speed storage devices, and, most importantly for today, system memory! Not only does Corsair consistently offer some of the best build quality, performance, and variety on the market, they have stellar customer service and excellent warranties for every product they provide as well. They’re very similar to the famous GPU manufacturer, EVGA, in that respect, on top of the fact that they’re also an American-based company.

Now, concerning their RAM, all Corsair memory kits are covered by a lifetime limited warranty and are guaranteed to come in a size and speed suitable for any build from the most conservative entry-level systems, to the most overkill workstation powerhouses worth thousands of dollars. Further, Corsair’s LPX series of low-profile RAM is essentially the de facto choice for anyone building a small form factor (SFF) PC, as they’re typically the best performing DIMMs to opt for in compact cases that have limited clearance. Corsair has undoubtedly earned its reputation in the DIY PC building market, so much so that you’ll be hard-pressed to find much fault with anything in their lineup, let alone their RAM offerings. However, despite the reliability and quality of Corsair’s DDR4 products, they can’t quite claim the performance throne since they share it with another company…

G.Skill

While G.Skill does have a handful of other products like a gaming mouse, some keyboards, a couple of headsets, some storage devices, and some power supplies, it’s primarily known for one thing: RAM. G.Skill is the other “top dog” in the RAM market that offers an insane variety of memory kits up to, and including, 256GB 8-piece sets of their gaudy Trident Z Royal series with gold or silver finishes and crystalline RGB light bars. Being such a highly specialized/focused company, G.Skill also gets to enjoy the benefit of binning the best DRAM chips to the point where they have a decent majority of the higher-quality Samsung dies wrapped up in many of their products. While the particular die manufacturer may not make or break a specific set of RAM, be it Samsung, SK Hynix, or Micron, Samsung is the largest company that creates the DRAM semiconductors that make our computers a possibility. Thus, with G.Skill basically having their pick of the litter, they’re able to eke out consistent performance leads by not only clocking their memory kits higher but with lower CAS Latencies as well.

G.Skill wouldn’t be particularly worthy of the phrase “top dog” if they only competed with Corsair in quality and performance, however. They also have excellent customer support that will go out of their way to help you in the event something goes wrong with your RAM, as a limited lifetime warranty covers all G.Skill memory as well. It’s here I can speak from experience, as I’ve gone through the RMA process with G.Skill and left nothing but satisfied. However, there is a stark contrast between G.Skill and Corsair being Taiwanese and American companies, respectively, and the English support for G.Skill is relatively small, so their turnaround is markedly slower. If you look hard enough, you can find horror stories regarding any number of companies’ customer service, but by and large, most simply want to help you to the best of their ability to keep your patronage!

Kingston

Next up, while G.Skill and Corsair typically trade blows on price-to-performance, we have Kingston, specifically with their HyperX FURY and HyperX Predator series of RAM. As we go down the list of manufacturers today, we’ll start to notice less and less variety in the gaming/performance specific memory with which most PC builders are familiar. However, that doesn’t mean they’re significantly worse, nor that they’re inadequate for even high-performance workstation/gaming builds. The prime example being Kingston’s HyperX RAM, which is a stellar way to pay a little bit less and suffer no performance or reliability penalty in the long run given how well-reviewed they are across all e-tailer sites.

When it comes to their support, you’ll be pleased to know that there is a standard lifetime limited warranty for all of their modules. The guarantee even extends to the DDR3 kits that they still have to offer if you’re looking to breathe a bit of life into some older hardware instead of completely rebuilding. Kingston is another American-based company with stellar customer service to back up their value-packed offerings as well, so you can rest assured that if you ever run into any issues, you’ll be in good hands.

Patriot

Our fourth primary memory provider is Patriot Memory, another American electronics manufacturer with stellar price-to-performance value courtesy of their Viper series. Since 2003, when the company released its first line of branded DDR SDRAM and actually helped popularize the use of bladed heat spreaders, even on memory modules that don’t run particularly hot to extend longevity and improve performance.

While they do have assembly lines in the US as well as Taiwan, Patriot can keep manufacturing in-house in America thanks to their highly efficient logistics processes and structure. As is customary with popular and reputable manufacturers like the others found on today’s list, Patriot Memory provides a limited lifetime warranty on all of their different Viper memory modules. While they may not have the absolute lowest latencies/tightest timings on the market, series like the Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 sets are an insanely economical way to nab some high-frequency RAM for ultra-cheap prices.

Crucial

Crucial is the penultimate brand on our list, and quite the intriguing one at that, as it’s actually just a subsidiary of one of the “Big Three” DRAM producers on the market: Micron. Micron, and by extension, Crucial and BallistixGaming, is the final noteworthy US-based entity in the SDRAM market for regular use, enterprise deployment, and high-performance gaming PCs alike. Chances are if you’ve been given a laptop for school or work, it either has a set of Crucial memory installed, or it will if you decide to order an upgrade.

For most of us and our purposes, however, we’re concerned primarily with Crucial Ballistix performance memory. With Ballistix RAM, you’re guaranteed a certain level of quality since all Crucial memory is made with components directly from one of the top three SDRAM providers in the world. While Ballistix memory may not be the pinnacle of RAM performance, it’s certainly going to be capable of taking the heat from your most intensive gaming or productivity sessions and stand the test of time thanks to another solid limited lifetime warranty.

TeamGroup

Last but not least, we have a Taiwan-based brand: TeamGroup. The youngest/most recent manufacturer on the list, Team Group Inc., which was started in 1997, and has only recently begun to make a name for itself with their T-Force series of DDR SDRAM. For many builders, T-Force presents the most bang for the buck in terms of realistic memory performance. Not to mention one of the cheapest options for vivid and flashy full-length RGB light bars integrated into the installed heat spreaders.

Regardless of how comparatively obscure TeamGroup and their T-Force memory might be, they’re far from the worst choice for builders interested in saving some extra cash on their next build. Especially considering the bountiful 5-star reviews for several of their mid-range T-Force RGB kits on both Amazon and Newegg. Finally, it wouldn’t be a proper recommendation without mentioning that Team Group joins the party in offering a lifetime limited warranty for all of their RAM modules.

Conclusion

There really hasn’t ever been a better time to become a PC builder. Aside from the impending release of new-generation GPU and CPU hardware, the level of freedom and choice available to DIY enthusiasts and prospectives alike is unprecedented. We’re at a point where there genuinely aren’t many choices you can make for something like your RAM that can indeed be considered “bad.” You may get unlucky and have to submit an RMA request and deal with customer support from one brand or another, but by and large, the very worst-case scenario for RAM in most systems nowadays would be “sub-optimal.” It’s unlikely we’ll see much change within the memory market until DDR5 becomes the new standard; and companies begin to compete for the highest-quality/highest-performance semiconductors for a completely new design.

What do you think? What have your experiences with these brands been like in the past or recently? Do you have a better understanding of the major players in the memory space? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and, as always, thanks for reading!

The post Best RAM Brands for 2021 – Top Six Manufacturers Compared appeared first on PremiumBuilds.