Sandybridge era build - weighing pros cons of new platform versus a GPU upgrade

[newconroer]

Even if current AM5 CPUs practically limit you to 6000, just get one of those CL30 or CL32 kits if you can find it for a good price. When future CPUs come around, you don't want to be stuck with a 36-36-36 Samsung kit that has 0 freq scaling beyond 6000, it's not like you're paying a massive premium for Hynix. If you opt for Intel, then anything other than Hynix is out of the question regardless.

One of hardware unboxed's earlier videos (not the "Zen 4 on roids" one) showed that not much has changed, AM5 prefers faster/tighter memory as much as AM4 did, it's not "less" memory sensitive. X3D CPUs will lessen that to some degree.

Thank you for the insight

So at the moment I can do (order of cost)

Ripjaw S5 5600 30-36-36-891.25V
(it does specify XMP ;shrug
£119

Gskill Flare X5 5600 30-36-36-89 1.25v
£123

Gskill Flare X5 6000 32-38-38-96 1.25v
£128

Gskill Ripjaws S5 6000 30-40-40-96 1.35v
(it does specify XMP ;shrug
£131

Dubious about the last in that the product SKU is F5-6000J3040F16GA2-RS5K however when you look that up on their website they also list with it the F5-6000J3040F16GX2-RS5K
Which happens to be more expensive and to make it more confusing (this could be Amazon's fault), the other 'color' on that prior advert is the silver which is a SKU F5-6000J3040F16GA2-TZ5S

 

[tabascosauz]

Thank you for the insight

So at the moment I can do (order of cost)
Gskill Flare X5 5600 30-36-89 1.25v
£123

Gskill Flare X5 6000 32-38-38-96 1.25v
£128

Gskill Ripjaws 6000 30-40-40-96 1.35v
(it does specify XMP ;shrug
£131

EXPO really hasn't shown that it's fundamentally any different from or more consistent than XMP in practice. A lot of the hype around EXPO is that it "should" be more compatible with AM5, but in the end it's mostly still marketing and speculation, much like when "Ryzen Ready" DDR4 kits started being released for AM4. There's no magic dust, it's still the same Hynix A/M at the end of the day.

I'd personally take the Flare X CL32 kit. No reason to save 5 buckaroos to drop to 5600. Given that the best Hynix scales way beyond 6000, I'm not sure 100mV extra for CL30 is a sign of a good bin.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Probably the middle one it will potentially be less work depending on motherboard you go with.

The XMP kit you may need to manually do everything which is fine I just doubt you'll notice much difference assuming all other things are equal.

 

[newconroer]

EXPO really hasn't shown that it's fundamentally any different from or more consistent than XMP in practice. A lot of the hype around EXPO is that it "should" be more compatible with AM5, but in the end it's mostly still marketing and speculation, much like when "Ryzen Ready" DDR4 kits started being released for AM4. There's no magic dust, it's still the same Hynix A/M at the end of the day.

I'd personally take the Flare X CL32 kit. No reason to save 5 buckaroos to drop to 5600. Given that the best Hynix scales way beyond 6000, I'm not sure 100mV extra for CL30 is a sign of a good bin.

Probably the middle one it will potentially be less work depending on motherboard you go with.

The XMP kit you may need to manually do everything which is fine I just doubt you'll notice much difference assuming all other things are equal.

Presume then you gentlemen are both suggesting

Gskill Flare X5 6000 32-38-38-96 1.25v
£128

or was that one for the 5600, one for the 6000?

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Presume then you gentlemen are both suggesting

Gskill Flare X5 6000 32-38-38-96 1.25v
£128

or was that one for the 5600, one for the 6000?

The 6000CL32 flare X5

The XMP kit is fine if you go intel.

 

[tabascosauz]

Presume then you gentlemen are both suggesting

Gskill Flare X5 6000 32-38-38-96 1.25v
£128

or was that one for the 5600, one for the 6000?

The 6000CL32 Flare X, affirmative.

When it comes to G.skill, you only have to make sure that the spec is right and that you get the aesthetic you want. They will essentially offer the exact same stick (ie. 6000CL32) in a dozen different colors and heatspreaders, get the cheapest one you will accept aesthetically.

 

[newconroer]

Thank you all, item are on their way

I was looking over the boards PCIe configuration


CPU:
- 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 Slot (PCIE1), supports x16 mode*
- 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 Slot (PCIE3), supports x4 mode*
Chipset:
- 1 x PCIe 4.0 x1 Slot (PCIE2)*
- 1 x M.2 Socket (Key E), supports type 2230 WiFi/BT PCIe WiFi module


I have the GPU, a sound card(also PCIe) and the SSD

Presumable I'd put the drive in the PCIE2 as indicated above for Chipset?

 

[oxrufiioxo]

What type of ssd is it Sata or M.2?
Guessing sata considering how old your system is.

Also what motherboard did you go with.

 

[newconroer]

What type of ssd is it Sata or M.2?
Guessing sata considering how old your system is.

Also what motherboard did you go with.

ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2

Supports AMD Socket AM5 Ryzen™ 9000, 8000 and 7000 Series Processors; 8+2+1 Power Phase, Dr.MOS; 2 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7200+ (OC); 2 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Integrated AMD RDNA™ 2 Graphics<span style=color:red;>*</span>; Graphics Output Options...

www.asrock.com

Aye it's Samsung 850 EVO M.2 Sata

​

 

[oxrufiioxo]

ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2

Supports AMD Socket AM5 Ryzen™ 9000, 8000 and 7000 Series Processors; 8+2+1 Power Phase, Dr.MOS; 2 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7200+ (OC); 2 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Integrated AMD RDNA™ 2 Graphics<span style=color:red;>*</span>; Graphics Output Options...

www.asrock.com

Aye it's Samsung 850 EVO M.2 Sata

​

one of these spots. Although I would save the top one for a better drive.



Not a bad looking board for the price...

 

[tabascosauz]

ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2

Supports AMD Socket AM5 Ryzen™ 9000, 8000 and 7000 Series Processors; 8+2+1 Power Phase, Dr.MOS; 2 x DDR5 DIMMs, Supports Dual Channel, up to 7200+ (OC); 2 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 4.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Integrated AMD RDNA™ 2 Graphics<span style=color:red;>*</span>; Graphics Output Options...

www.asrock.com

Aye it's Samsung 850 EVO M.2 Sata

one of these spots. Although I would save the top one for a better drive.

Not a bad looking board for the price...

You sure those M.2 slots support SATA? Traditionally (as recently as B550), ASRock declares on its spec page when it's a dual use slot (SATA or NVMe) - not seeing any of that here.

As an example, here's the page for the B550M Steel Legend; I don't remember if "Hyper/Blazing M.2" in ASRock parlance means NVMe only, because that seems like it to me.

 

[ir_cow]

I was about to ask from what I gather it's all the same concept and EXPO is more of a recent thing(as a buzz word at least, idea is older)though I can still use it and may have to adjust some timings

Officially AMD does not support XMP because its a Intel technology. I assume some licensing agreement would be needed to have official support. So motherboard vendors just took the SPD data and calls i A-XMP, or DOCP, etc, etc. Its a XMP profile on AMD, but not called XMP because they can't. AMD now has EXPO, which is open for anyone to use. Still the same thing as XMP, just the data isn't arraigned differently. I think it might have some extra timings as well.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

You sure those M.2 slots support SATA? Traditionally (as recently as B550), ASRock declares on its spec page when it's a dual use slot (SATA or NVMe) - not seeing any of that here.

View attachment 293273

As an example, here's the page for the B550M Steel Legend; I don't remember if "Hyper/Blazing M.2" in ASRock parlance means NVMe only, because that seems like it to me.

View attachment 293272

Just looked at the storage QVL no sata drives on it... Won't hurt to try worst case he needs to buy a cheap 1tb gen 3/4 drive I guess.

Honestly it's been so long since I've used one I forgot there where sata m.2 in the first place. probably around 2013/14 lol.

 

[newconroer]

You sure those M.2 slots support SATA? Traditionally (as recently as B550), ASRock declares on its spec page when it's a dual use slot (SATA or NVMe) - not seeing any of that here.

View attachment 293273

As an example, here's the page for the B550M Steel Legend; I don't remember if "Hyper/Blazing M.2" in ASRock parlance means NVMe only, because that seems like it to me.

View attachment 293272

What about a PCIe card with M2 slots?

 

[tabascosauz]

What about a PCIe card with M2 slots?

I'm pretty sure most of those card risers are for NVMe

SATA M.2 is easy to solve, just get one of those 2.5" enclosures and turn it into a regular SATA SSD if you have no slots. Example:

M.2 SSD to 2.5" SATA III Aluminum Enclosure Adapter

Added protection for your SSD with enclosed housing Convert an m.2 NGFF solid-state drive into a Standard 2.5in SATA III 6Gbps SSD Note: It doesnÕt support M2. PCI-E

sabrent.com

 

[newconroer]

I'm pretty sure most of those card risers are for NVMe

SATA M.2 is easy to solve, just get one of those 2.5" enclosures and turn it into a regular SATA SSD if you have no slots. Example:

M.2 SSD to 2.5" SATA III Aluminum Enclosure Adapter

Added protection for your SSD with enclosed housing Convert an m.2 NGFF solid-state drive into a Standard 2.5in SATA III 6Gbps SSD Note: It doesnÕt support M2. PCI-E

sabrent.com

I should have said, I already own a m.2 ~ PCIe adapter card

 

[Aquinus]

I should have said, I already own a m.2 ~ PCIe adapter card

M.2 SATA drives use SATA for signaling, not PCIe. The riser cards are usually for PCIe NVMe drives unless it comes with a SATA controller on it. FWIW, with how cheap SSDs are these days, you may want to consider getting even a PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive. It'll be light years ahead of what you have now in terms of performance. As @tabascosauz said, you might want to get one of those 2.5" enclosures and just use a regular sata cable, you're not losing anything. M.2 SATA is basically just SATA drives in the M.2 form factor. Same connector, different signaling.

Edit: Side note, I have a 512GB Samsung NVMe SSD in my 3930k machine with a riser and it blows the two disk RAID-0 of SATA3 SSDs I have out of the water. You'll love it.

 

[newconroer]

It is one of these

 

[tabascosauz]

I should have said, I already own a m.2 ~ PCIe adapter card

Support for SATA (SATA) M.2 and NVMe (PCIe) M.2 are usually mutually exclusive unless the board or enclosure states otherwise.

Of course, don't ditch the SATA drive if it still works fine (just grab an enclosure if no board support), but 1TB NVMes are cheap and plentiful these days (e.g. SN570). SATA still has a place especially for cheap high capacity drives, but it's on its way out, and M.2 SATA never really took off the same way NVMes did. Just really pointless, given the limited compatibility of M.2 SATA yet universal potential of 2.5" form factor.

 

[nemesis2219]

I'm having to use a laptop with a Sandy Bridge I5 and it's really struggling as my 6700k system died on me yesterday. I got 7 years out of it and I think the mobo died but the 6700k was still solid for a 7 year old CPU.

 

[Aquinus]

It is one of these
View attachment 293284

That probably would work with the SATA port plugged in. It pulls power from the PCIe slot. It'd be the top slot you'd use for M.2 SATA I think. The bottom is for NVMe.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

It is one of these
View attachment 293284

It should work.

 

[newconroer]

That probably would work with the SATA port plugged in. It pulls power from the PCIe slot. It'd be the top slot you'd use for M.2 SATA I think. The bottom is for NVMe.

By top did you mean top of the bottom two?
That is the Chipset NVME
The one I circled is a PCIe 4x, which I would think is where the adapter goes
(Although am slightly confused about the Hyper slot to the right )

 

[oxrufiioxo]

By top did you mean top of the bottom two?
That is the Chipset NVME
The one I circled is a PCIe 4x, which I would think is where the adapter goes
View attachment 293286

Yeah it's only 4.0 X1 so useless for pretty much anything else

 

[tabascosauz]

By top did you mean top of the bottom two?
That is the Chipset NVME
The one I circled is a PCIe 4x, which I would think is where the adapter goes
(Although am slightly confused about the Hyper slot to the right )
View attachment 293286

View attachment 293287

Pretty sure @Aquinus is referring to the riser card adapter you have, not the board

The top slot is B+M keyed for SATA drives and probably requires a SATA cable plugged in next to it. The bottom is a normal slot for NVMe drives.