# i5-2500k into Ryzen 5 3600



## InKline (May 6, 2020)

Hello everybody!

I've finally decided that it's the time to leave my awesome i5-2500k Sandy Bridge platform which was running at moderate 4.5GHz and swim into new options in 2020.

What i have left from previous platform:

GPU: *Sapphire R9 390 Nitro*
PSU *Thermaltec 650W Gold*
Samsung & Corsair SSDs (SATA3)

So after getting up to speed what's going on in CPU/GPU world, i've decided that for a simple gaming platform i would go for:

CPU: *Ryzen 5 3600* (nothing against Intel but they really need to get their homework done)
MOBO: *MSI Tomahawk Max*
RAM: *3600 DDR4 CL16* or so (then work on them but from what i see it's the sweet spot for Zen 2 anyway)

I've also thought about moving into *1440p (60Hz)* area and that would mean GPU/Display upgrade. What would be the best price/perf sweet spot GPU for that task? (up to 400$)

If you also have some other recommendations in regards to CPU/MOBO/RAM and a "mid tier" gaming machine, feel free to give input - always happy to get one.

Thanks!


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## xman2007 (May 6, 2020)

5700/x/2060 super or thereabouts for the gpu upgrade with your budget, no complaints about the cpu/mobo/ram upgrade just be sure you pick the correct ram, usually not corsair


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## dirtyferret (May 6, 2020)

xman2007 said:


> 5700/x/2060 super or thereabouts for the gpu upgrade with your budget,


+1



xman2007 said:


> no complaints about the cpu/mobo/ram upgrade just be sure you pick the correct ram, usually not corsair



Why not?  They tend to get the pick of the litter on Samsung runs.


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## Countryside (May 6, 2020)

Tomahawk is decent if you willing to wait a bit b550 is out next month for 1440p gaming go with 5700\2060S and for memory i would recommend G.SKILL Trident Z there are many ram kits with ryzen support

If you dont wait for the b550 the X470 GAMING PLUS MAX is usually only extra 15-20$ and it has better VRM. Quick check on pcpart shows that the x470 is only extra 5$

Personally i would not recommend the Thermaltake PSUs go with Seasonic or EVGA as long as its a Super Flower unit.


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## Cranky5150 (May 6, 2020)

5700 all day choice for me. Yeah, you might want to wait for B550 also...Everything else looks good.


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## InKline (May 6, 2020)

Thank you very much for your replies! 

Some other questions:

1) Is it worth going the X570 route? Or stay with B450 and call it a day? I see that B550 is coming but from leaks it looks it will bring PCIE 4.0 at most.

2) Cooling: air/water? From what i see the boosting in Ryzen depends a lot on the Temps so i assume the less you have, the higher it can go, righty?

Much appreciated


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## Cranky5150 (May 6, 2020)

Honestly..i would wait for B550, however any B450/ X470 would be just fine too. I like you really don't need PCIE 4.0 at the moment. A good air cooler would be fine as well, but a AIO or custom loop works too. It just depends on what you want to spend.


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## Iceni (May 6, 2020)

The only reason to go X570 would be SLI/Crossfire at the cheaper end of the X570 motherboard range. The PCIE4 support is nice but not essential. B550 should have PCIE4 anyway.

The temps on the 3600 will determine your overclock potential. On a stock cooler I'm hitting 80+ with no overclock just using the 4.2Ghz stepping boost. I'm planning on a better air cooler for my system, I had originally planned on migrating my Hyper 212+ but the backplate for AMD has been lost. As it stands with the stock cooler overclocking isn't something that is possible.

I also moved from an overclocked 2500K system and even with the 3600 running stock it's considerably faster. Adding a nice fast M.2 Nvme PCie3x4 hard drive will add quite a bit to the performance as well even if you have been previously using an SSD.

I asked loads of questions about parts, and had a thread running when I upgraded with loads of help from the guys on here. Might be worth a read through.









						I5 2500K Upgrade - R5 3600 - x470 - Quick look over parts please.
					

Hello, It's been a while.   I'm set to upgrade my 2500K as it's started suffering from instability, I think I've had my monies worth out of it lol!  I'm looking at moving over into AMD Ryzen 5, But haven't kept up to date with specs and reviews.    This is only for Mobo - CPU - Ram - SSD.  GPU's...




					www.techpowerup.com


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## bug (May 6, 2020)

InKline said:


> Thank you very much for your replies!
> 
> Some other questions:
> 
> ...


There was this thread the other day where some guy was trying to figure out why his 3600 wasn't quite hitting the advertised boost speeds. It was probably his mobo, also a B450. We're talking only like 100MHz here, so no big deal, but the point is, while compatible, B450 boards were designed before Ryzen 3000 series hit the market.
X570 is also an option, but imho it's too expensive to pair with a 3600.

Air. Cool them as you wish, Ryzens don't go much past what's written on the box.


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## Devon68 (May 7, 2020)

This might be an unpopular opinion but I would look into an used GTX 1080 Ti. Performs similar to a RTX 2070S.


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## TheLostSwede (May 7, 2020)

dirtyferret said:


> Why not?  They tend to get the pick of the litter on Samsung runs.


Because a lot of people have had issues with Corsair RAM and Ryzen CPUs. Mainly the LPX modules, some of it being older revisions, but it's too hard to figure out what is good and what is not. As such, pretty much any other brand is a safer bet.



InKline said:


> Thank you very much for your replies!
> 
> Some other questions:
> 
> ...


1. How long do you intend to keep this system? If it'll be as long as your current rig, I'd say yes, it's worth getting a PCIe 4.0 compatible board. We're already seeing graphics cards and NVMe SSDs moving to PCIe 4.0, but slowly more things will be moving to the faster interface. From what I have been told, it looks like B550 will only support PCIe 4.0 on the first x16 slot and the NVMe slot that's connected to the CPU. X570 is full PCIe 4.0.

2. Depends where you live. Good air cooler should work on that chip, but are you planning on upgrading to something with more cores a couple of years down the road? then you might want to consider liquid to get the boost speeds from that future CPU. AMD's stock coolers are poop imho. 
Keep in mind that manual overclocking is more or less dead on these chips, so to get the full boost speed, good cooling is needed. 

My system now boost 50-75MHz over the rated peak boost speed, but early on I was 150MHz below peak boost speeds. So whatever board you get, make sure you update the UEFI/BIOS before you start tweaking it, as the latest updates contain a lot of fixes that are needed, both for the CPU and RAM.


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## InKline (May 7, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> Because a lot of people have had issues with Corsair RAM and Ryzen CPUs. Mainly the LPX modules, some of it being older revisions, but it's too hard to figure out what is good and what is not. As such, pretty much any other brand is a safer bet.
> 
> 
> 1. How long do you intend to keep this system? If it'll be as long as your current rig, I'd say yes, it's worth getting a PCIe 4.0 compatible board. We're already seeing graphics cards and NVMe SSDs moving to PCIe 4.0, but slowly more things will be moving to the faster interface. From what I have been told, it looks like B550 will only support PCIe 4.0 on the first x16 slot and the NVMe slot that's connected to the CPU. X570 is full PCIe 4.0.
> ...



Of course the plan is to keep it as long as possible and perhaps upgrade down the road to Ryzen 4000 / PCIE 4 GPU at some point. I don't like changing systems too often =)

On the other hand, just found out a used MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus which would be only 15 EUR more than a brand new MSI B450 Tomahawk. Go for it or stay with Tomahawk?


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## TheLostSwede (May 7, 2020)

InKline said:


> Of course the plan is to keep it as long as possible and perhaps upgrade down the road to Ryzen 4000 / PCIE 4 GPU at some point. I don't like changing systems too often =)
> 
> On the other hand, just found out a used MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus which would be only 15 EUR more than a brand new MSI B450 Tomahawk. Go for it or stay with Tomahawk?


Used can be scary, depends if it's guaranteed to be working or not.
Keep in mind that MSI doesn't use PCIe 4.0 re-drivers on that board, so all the x1 slots are only PCIe 3.0. The same applies to the second M.2 slot. There's a reason why it's a cheap board.


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## mtcn77 (May 7, 2020)

Don't exchange your gpu. Force 200% vsr with mlaa filter on everything. If you can, scale 75% in game along with 4x ssaa in driver.
"Don't even think to cross me, I've sacrificed too much to let this fall apart!" _- Emperor Mengsk._
You can name your gpu some long in the tooth titles since it has aged pretty well.


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## oxrufiioxo (May 7, 2020)

The Tomahawk is better than any of the budget msi x570 boards they're all pretty terrible when it comes to vrm.... I would also wait to see what B550 brings. 











Msi is going to fix their budget ish range with this board but if you watch the videos you can see how bad the other sub $250 msi boards are.


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## JrRacinFan (May 7, 2020)

Someone mentioned multi gpu, dont bother with it and be tempted. Go B450 (or B550 if out at the time). @InKline  I basically went the same route you will be pleased with the results.


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## Hyderz (May 7, 2020)

5700XT 2060Super 2070 Super are the gpu's i would pick for gaming at 1440


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## JrRacinFan (May 7, 2020)

Oh a follow up to my prior post. Double check your motherboard choice for 3000 series compatibility. Most you will need to flash a bios to. Some come with USB bios flashback, some like the MSI Max series come preflashed with a 3rd gen compatible bios. If neither, im pretty sure AMD will mail you a compatible loaner CPU to get it flashed


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## Caring1 (May 7, 2020)

JrRacinFan said:


> im pretty sure AMD will mail you a compatible loaner CPU to get it flashed



   
You can take it to a shop and *pay* to have it flashed, or you *buy* a cheap processor to do it yourself.


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## JrRacinFan (May 7, 2020)

Caring1 said:


> You can take it to a shop and *pay* to have it flashed, or you *buy* a cheap processor to do it yourself.



Why you laughing bruh? Why not get it done at near 0 cost, do it yourself AND get familiarized with the motherboard quicker? Sounds like a winner to me.

Oh and for future reference: see the following link for the Boot Kit



			https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-100#faq-Short-Term-Processor-Loan-Boot-Kit


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## Iceni (May 7, 2020)

InKline said:


> just found out a used MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus



That's the board I went with in the end but you have to understand it's limitations.

Out of the box it will support the 3600 without an issue and mine is boosting to 4.2 with no modification, It's also running 3600Mhz ram without any issues on the A-XMP profile.

It doesn't have the strongest VRM. And overclocking isn't going to be something you can really push because of that. Having said that Ryzen seems to be very close to it's max potential out of the box anyway.

So for me - A man who knows he can live without overclocking it was an ideal solution. If you think you will want to be overclocking then get something else.


Without overclocking I have yet to see the chipset fan spin up. So it's very quiet, It looks nice, and the bios seems to be very good.

I ran the CPU-Z bench this morning just to have a look at how the board is doing.

I reset the bios the other day, So it's 100% stock with the A-xmp profile added (no ram tweaks beyond that). On the stock cooler.









						CPU-Z Benchmark for AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (12T) - CPU-Z VALIDATOR
					

Best CPU performance - 64-bit - December 2022




					valid.x86.fr


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## JrRacinFan (May 7, 2020)

Iceni said:


> will want to be overclocking then get something else



I will say this, nowadays overclocking is a near moot point anymore, with alot of apps being more and more multithreaded (aka they like more cores)

There is no way you can overclock a cpu to get more threads, well not anymore that I'm aware of (read Phenom 2 core unlock)


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## Caring1 (May 7, 2020)

JrRacinFan said:


> Why you laughing bruh? Why not get it done at near 0 cost, do it yourself AND get familiarized with the motherboard quicker? Sounds like a winner to me.
> 
> Oh and for future reference: see the following link for the Boot Kit
> 
> ...


The link didn't specify, but I doubt they cover cost of mailing to Australia and back. Just for reference.


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## Decryptor009 (May 7, 2020)

Grab the 5700XT if you want value for your money. It is up there with the 2070S.

The Gigabyte B450 Aorus boosts these CPU's to their full potential and has a lot of features on the board.
But from what i can see, they are out of stock almost everywhere.


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## Hyderz (May 7, 2020)

Decryptor009 said:


> Grab the 5700XT if you want value for your money. It is up there with the 2070S.
> 
> The Gigabyte B450 Aorus boosts these CPU's to their full potential and has a lot of features on the board.
> But from what i can see, they are out of stock almost everywhere.



hehe they are out of stock because b550 is coming very soon


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## JrRacinFan (May 7, 2020)

Caring1 said:


> The link didn't specify, but I doubt they cover cost of mailing to Australia and back. Just for reference.



I'd say, now this is only an assumption don't put me on the record, that whatever procedure they take on any warranty replacement would apply.


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## tabascosauz (May 7, 2020)

@JrRacinFan the Athlon loaner program works well in theory, if you're in the US. In reality, you put up with one hell of a wait, and when most larger stores charge $20-30 to get the BIOS updated, it's not a significant cost for getting your system up and running without waiting weeks. Tthe way I got mine done, I placed an order for a few parts including the board, and arranged for it to be flashed before I came to pay for and pick up the parts. That way, you eliminate the risk of the board being DOA (because it can't be flashed if it's dead lol) and it's ready to go. Getting the Athlon to do it yourself only works if the retailer you buy from has a 100% lax, no questions asked returns policy. Some places aren't too receptive to the buy-and-return after BIOS flashing.

@dirtyferret Corsair gets the top B-die bins but only for their absolute top of the line Intel kits, usually 4000-5000MT/s. The stuff in the middle, of which 3200C16 is one of the worst culprits, is extremely muddy and literally every IC from any manufacturer is fair game for some of the LPX SKUs, hence why there have been chronic Ryzen compatibility issues with 3200/16 LPX kits, where you can end up with bottom bin B-die, low bins of CJR, AFR, among others that may not even POST at JEDEC speeds.


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## JrRacinFan (May 7, 2020)

@tabascosauz 
I appreciate you taking the time to post up your own experience with it. Thank you, I myself have never used it but have only known a few that had.


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## bug (May 7, 2020)

JrRacinFan said:


> @tabascosauz
> I appreciate you taking the time to post up your own experience with it. Thank you, I myself have never used it but have only known a few that had.


I think you're better off buying the CPU yourself, updating the BIOS and then returning it. That's how I got stuck with mine (couldn't return it because of the lock down).
But honestly, at this point waiting for B550 is a no brainer.


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## InKline (May 7, 2020)

Thanks for all the comments guys.

With todays annoucement about compatibility of Zen 3 platform with B550/X570, X570 started to look more promising to me right now, especially that if Zen 3 would be a lot better than Zen 2, there's always option for an upgrade.

What do you think about it?


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## oxrufiioxo (May 7, 2020)

I think you should definitely go with a decent B550 or wait for the X570 Tomahawk


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## TheLostSwede (May 7, 2020)

You'll have to wait about a month or so for B550, so it depends if you have the patience to wait or not.


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## oxrufiioxo (May 7, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> You'll have to wait about a month or so for B550, so it depends if you have the patience to wait or not.




At least AMD let people know with a semi decent amount of time prior to 4000 launching.


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## InKline (May 7, 2020)

oxrufiioxo said:


> I think you should definitely go with a decent B550 or wait for the X570 Tomahawk



I will probably wait for X570 Tomahawk and be done with it


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## birdie (May 7, 2020)

I strongly do not recommend buying a Navi (RX 5XXX) series GPU. Some lucky people report no issues with them but the drivers for these GPUs are still very unstable.

Also, if you've waited for so long, I guess you can wait for two more quarters and buy a Ryzen 4XXX desktop CPU.

Also, in the fall 2020 you could buy an NVIDIA RTX 3XXX GPU which is going to be a beast.

In short, if you can wait, wait.

If you absolutely cannot, go for Ryzen 7 3700X/GeForce RTX 2060 - this is the best combo for moderate 1440p gaming. Actually RTX 2060 is not sufficient for this resolution, you'd better go for RTX 2060 SUPER instead.


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## Vario (May 7, 2020)

Rumors are the 3060 will be pretty potent.




__





						NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce RTX 3060 could beat flagship RTX 2080 Ti
					

Ampere is going to be nuts, but a GeForce RTX 3060 that beats a $1200 card? Wow.




					www.tweaktown.com


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## birdie (May 7, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> That is fake, fake and fake.



This message contains just the same amount of truth, i.e. next to zero or maybe negative.

There are two things you can do about rumors:

1) Deny them if you have the information which *you don't*
2) Deny them if they are so outlandish, they are *not physically possible* - there's little which indicates that.

Alternatively you can remain silent just to save your face and not look extremely biased.


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## birdie (May 7, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> It's been verified as fake from multiple sources, but I guess you like reading sites with fake news on them?
> 
> I don't know how you can call me biased, when I comment on the fact that a rumour out of China is fake.
> You really seem to want to piss people off as of lately and I don't understand why.



Has NVIDIA denied anything? Yeah, keep on spewing nonsense.

_NVIDIA does not comment on rumors or new unreleased products. EVER. _It's been their policy for the past >25 years. Again you have zero information, yet you're talking as if you're straight from NVIDIA HQ (in which case you've long been fired).


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## birdie (May 7, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> Spewing nonsense? Nvidia doesn't pre-announce products as far as I'm aware.
> 
> How do you know I have zero information? You don't know me, you don't know what I do for a living, etc.
> Seriously, take a chill pill.
> ...



Never seen a single person who insists on something being utterly wrong whilest he doesn't have a teeny weeny piece of relevant proven information.

Oh, wait, I've seen lots of them: they are called followers or sectarians. The followers of sects, cults, religions, Gods, etc. Are you one of them?

Here, take this:


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## birdie (May 7, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> So you throw up some random png's from who knows where, that proves the dodgy chinese pictures is somehow correct, yet there's nothing in there that corroborates that, right...
> 
> I don't know if you looked at my system spec, but I have an RTX 2080 card...



I do not comment on rumors while you outright deny them because ... reasons and I'm crazy? How lovely of you.


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## birdie (May 7, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> I'm sorry, exactly where did I say you were crazy?
> I said you seem to be going around these forums trying to piss people off. I don't know why you're being so hostile towards just about anyone here that doesn't agree with your point of view.
> 
> Again, you know nothing about me, but you are clearly making a lot of claims about who you think I am.



You've used a very specific emoji which means someone is crazy in many cultures on this planet, including the USA:

https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/52561/gesture-implying-someone-is-insane

https://www.google.com/search?q=crazy+gesture&hl=en&gl=US&pws=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X

I guess you're being polite towards me. Yeah, right.

Also, I'd be glad to see where I've been hostile towards you in this thread. All I said it's better to remain silent instead of brandishing ... the lack of information which you insist on again and again while now trying to _discuss me personally_ and giving up on your initial claim altogether for the lack of arguments. I get it. Over and out.


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## the54thvoid (May 7, 2020)

You two ought to take your bickering to PM, or better, ignore one another.

This topic has been cleaned up, feel free to to carry on with the topic in a constructive manner pertaining to our forum guidelines or moving on. Thanks!


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## Lindatje (May 7, 2020)

Devon68 said:


> This might be an unpopular opinion but I would look into an used GTX 1080 Ti. Performs similar to a RTX 2070S.


Why pay more for a used card? Buy a new RX 5700XT, it’s cheaper then a used 1080TI and is similar to a 2070S.



birdie said:


> But the drivers for these GPUs are still very unstable.


No, drivers are very stable, some very unlucky people has problems but there are also some very unlucky people that have problems with Nvidia or Intel or..... you name it.


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## bug (May 7, 2020)

oxrufiioxo said:


> At least AMD let people know with a semi decent amount of time prior to 4000 launching.


After keeping us waiting 9 months for the B550


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