Advice desired: Building an AMD PC with prerogative to quality over form&function

[dgianstefani]

Thanks to all for your feedback. Does my latest build-to-buy look good?:

CPU: 7600X @ 230€
CPU Cooler: NH-U12S SE-AM4 83€
RAM: 2x16Gb | G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo | 5600MT/s | 30-36-36-89 | AMD EXPO 163€
Main: ASUS Proart B650 330€
PSU: Seasonic Prime Platinum 156€
SSD: Samsung 990 Pro Heatsink 160€
Case: Fractal Design Focus 2 70€

Total: 1190€. Around 1200€ with shipping.

The only item I find questionable is RAM as the selection is huge. But this looks like a good premium kit.

The only problem is, the Samsung 990 Heatsink Edition will only arrive to Europe on April 6th and then it will take up to a week to arrive to my place. But I guess it's worth the wait if I want the best quality. I want to know my SSD is not overheating!
The reason I am leaning towards 990 Pro instead of Gen5 SSDs is because I think I'd rather have the #1 Gen4 SSD than the very first experimental Gen5 ones that will be left behind soon by new releases every month.

Edit:
Possible easy savings that I consider:
Could take cheaper simpler RAM for 110€.
Simple 990 PRO for 140€
And Noctua U12S Redux cooler for 60€
For total savings of 96€

Don't buy €160 5600 MHz RAM.

Get 6000/C38 or better.

Remember this is the equivalent of 3000/19, which isn't good latency. 5600/30 is 2800/15 which also isn't great.

Spending €80+ on a cooler for a €200 CPU also doesn't make sense.

990 Pro doesn't need a heatsink either, and most good motherboards will have one anyway.

 

[Chry]

Does the motherboard already provide NVMe heatsink? If so then it should be fine to get the NVMe without the heatsink.
(edit: just saw a picture of it. looks like you can reuse the mobo heatsink)

Is it good enough though? I mean mobo m2 heatsink probably won't touch all the important parts of the SSD? Maybe it will even affect the temps negatively by enclosing it?

Don't buy €160 5600 MHz RAM.

Spending €80+ on a cooler for a €200 CPU also doesn't make sense.

most good motherboards will have a heatsink anyway.

Good points! Will seriously consider changing these.
I guess U12S Redux Noctua cooler is good enough.
990 Pro could be considered without a heatsink, even though surely it'd be a nice one to have?
As for RAM - I'm a bit confused as to what to pick instead. Anything good you see on amazon.de on quick glance?

 

[dgianstefani]

Is it good enough though? I mean mobo m2 heatsink probably won't touch all the important parts of the SSD? Maybe it will even affect the temps negatively by enclosing it?

It's fine.
NAND flash actually works best at higher temperatures, 40-60 c is ideal, higher than 85 and lower than 40 is bad and will hurt longevity. Controllers can get hot and should be cooled but Samsung 990 Pro doesn't really have this issue.

If you're concerned about temperatures just ensure you have good case airflow around RAM, SSD and VRM. None of those three typically require heatsinks if there's good enough airflow.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Is it good enough though? I mean mobo m2 heatsink probably won't touch all the important parts of the SSD? Maybe it will even affect the temps negatively by enclosing it?

There will be a thermal pad with all NVMe heatsinks for contact. I think will be fine as long as you have decent case airflow. Perhaps someone has specific recommendation for this model of NVMe if a beefier heatsink is necessary.

 

[Vya Domus]

Is it good enough though? I mean mobo m2 heatsink probably won't touch all the important parts of the SSD? Maybe it will even affect the temps negatively by enclosing it?

They're fine, much better than no cooling, the motherboard heatsink on my board keeps my PCIe 4.0 NVME below mid 60s.

NAND flash actually works best at higher temperatures, 40-60 c is ideal, higher than 85 and lower than 40 is bad and will hurt longevity.

Never heard of such a thing.

 

[dgianstefani]

They're fine, much better than no cooling, the motherboard heatsink on my board keeps my PCIe 4.0 NVME below mid 60s.



Never heard of such a thing.

Temperature Impacts on Endurance and Read Disturbs in Charge-Trap 3D NAND Flash Memories - PMC

Temperature effects should be well considered when designing flash-based memory systems, because they are a fundamental factor that affect both the performance and the reliability of NAND flash memories. In this work, aiming to comprehensively ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

There's other sources and research too.

Gamers nexus did some testing too.

 

[Vya Domus]

Temperature Impacts on Endurance and Read Disturbs in Charge-Trap 3D NAND Flash Memories - PMC

Temperature effects should be well considered when designing flash-based memory systems, because they are a fundamental factor that affect both the performance and the reliability of NAND flash memories. In this work, aiming to comprehensively ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

There's other sources and research too.

Gamers nexus did some testing too.

I mean if by low you mean -30 or 0 degrees, I guess...

Inconsequential for all intents and purposes.

 

[SL2]

Don't buy €160 5600 MHz RAM.

Get 6000/C38 or better.

I don't see the point.

 

[dgianstefani]

I don't see the point.
View attachment 288562

The point is for €160 you can get better performing RAM, or spend less and get the same performance.

 

[SL2]

The point is for €160 you can get better performing RAM, or spend less and get the same performance.

While still going from CL30 to CL38? WTH are you talking about..

 

[dgianstefani]

While still going from CL30 to CL38? WTH are you talking about..

Don't buy €160 5600 MHz RAM.

Get 6000/C38 or better.

400 MHz is still better than a few ns in the majority of workloads. If this was a high fps expensive rig obviously I would be suggesting 6200/30 or 6000/28, but obviously budget is a concern and Trident is a premium brand you're paying for over actual performance. Plus it's important for Zen infinity fabric to be running at higher speeds for the cpu in general.

 

[Kapone33]

Don't buy €160 5600 MHz RAM.

Get 6000/C38 or better.

Remember this is the equivalent of 3000/19, which isn't good latency. 5600/30 is 2800/15 which also isn't great.

Spending €80+ on a cooler for a €200 CPU also doesn't make sense.

990 Pro doesn't need a heatsink either, and most good motherboards will have one anyway.

I bought 5200 30 and am pretty happy with it. A 6000 kit at those speeds is still pretty costly for 64GB but has about a $20-30 premium at 32GB where I live. I just returned some 6000 Gskill 32GB set that cost me $209.99 Canadian but Newegg of course sent me the ones with just the XMP profile and not Expo so my board did not like them. To me Expo support is the first thing that RAM must have and then to me Timings are more important than speed. The thing is my CPU runs faster than any CPU I have had before and I can feel it. One of the things that we don't think about is SAM and how it has changed the field. If I was the OP I would definitely get the card with the most VRAM I could. A 3060 12GB, 6700XT or 6800 should be in the ballpark.

 

[Chry]

I bought 5200 30 and am pretty happy with it. A 6000 kit at those speeds is still pretty costly for 64GB but has about a $20-30 premium at 32GB where I live. I just returned some 6000 Gskill 32GB set that cost me $209.99 Canadian but Newegg of course sent me the ones with just the XMP profile and not Expo so my board did not like them. To me Expo support is the first thing that RAM must have and then to me Timings are more important than speed. The thing is my CPU runs faster than any CPU I have had before and I can feel it. One of the things that we don't think about is SAM and how it has changed the field. If I was the OP I would definitely get the card with the most VRAM I could. A 3060 12GB, 6700XT or 6800 should be in the ballpark.

What is SAM?
I am indeed only considering EXPO kits as per yours and other member's suggestions.

 

[dgianstefani]

What is SAM?
I am indeed only considering EXPO kits as per yours and other member's suggestions.

Smart Access Memory.

It can be useful for a couple % performance.

 

[Chry]

I bought 5200 30 and am pretty happy with it. A 6000 kit at those speeds is still pretty costly for 64GB but has about a $20-30 premium at 32GB where I live. I just returned some 6000 Gskill 32GB set that cost me $209.99 Canadian but Newegg of course sent me the ones with just the XMP profile and not Expo so my board did not like them. To me Expo support is the first thing that RAM must have and then to me Timings are more important than speed. The thing is my CPU runs faster than any CPU I have had before and I can feel it. One of the things that we don't think about is SAM and how it has changed the field. If I was the OP I would definitely get the card with the most VRAM I could. A 3060 12GB, 6700XT or 6800 should be in the ballpark.

Looks good?

Cheaper and slightly better timings.

 

[siluro818]

What is SAM?
I am indeed only considering EXPO kits as per yours and other member's suggestions.

SAM is AMD's term for resizable BAR, which is a mode for CPU VRAM access that makes for significant gains in some games.
On average it's not that much, but in titles like Forza Horizon for example you get over 20% extra fps just like that ^^

 

[dgianstefani]

Looks good?
View attachment 288564
Cheaper and slightly better timings.

Nice.

Lack of RGB circuit saves power budget and potential interference too. Couple watts of lighting waste heat is a degree or so of temperature too.

Plus RGB software is horrible bloatware unless you use openRGB.

 

[Deleted member 223428]

Looks good?
View attachment 288564
Cheaper and slightly better timings.

As @dgianstefani said those are good. If you can spare another 20 Euro, you can get down to CL32:

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/G-Skill-F5-6000J3238F16GX2-FX5-Memory-Module-6000MHz/dp/B0BFG9VTKL/

Or CL30 for yet another 20 Euro with:

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/G-SKILL-Trident-2x16GB-F5-6000J3038F16GX2-TZ5N-Matte/dp/B0BFCV7JZ8/

 

[Chry]

As @dgianstefani said those are good. If you can spare another 20 Euro, you can get down to CL32:

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/G-Skill-F5-6000J3238F16GX2-FX5-Memory-Module-6000MHz/dp/B0BFG9VTKL/

Or CL30 for yet another 20 Euro with:

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/G-SKILL-Trident-2x16GB-F5-6000J3038F16GX2-TZ5N-Matte/dp/B0BFCV7JZ8/

The default is 4800mhz, correct? So if I decide not to use expo/overclock these, they will run at 4800/CL32 or 4800/CL30 respectively?

I'm asking because I prefer stability over performance. So maybe if I buy 6000mhz CL30 I can just use it at its standard 4800/CL30?

Nice.

Lack of RGB circuit saves power budget and potential interference too. Couple watts of lighting waste heat is a degree or so of temperature too.

Plus RGB software is horrible bloatware unless you use openRGB.

Great technical thoughts about RGB!
Not to mention I don't even like any/of then shiny colored things!

 

[siluro818]

The default is 4800mhz, correct? So if I decide not to use expo/overclock these, they will run at 4800/CL32 or 4800/CL30 respectively?

I'm asking because I prefer stability over performance. So maybe if I buy 6000mhz CL30 I can just use it at its standard 4800/CL30?


Great technical thoughts about RGB!
Not to mention I don't even like any/of then shiny colored things!

No, no, you want the rated for 6000mhz chips to run at 6000. Especially on an AM5 configuration where the CPU is without V-cache.

 

[dgianstefani]

The default is 4800mhz, correct? So if I decide not to use expo/overclock these, they will run at 4800/CL32 or 4800/CL30 respectively?

I'm asking because I prefer stability over performance. So maybe if I buy 6000mhz CL30 I can just use it at its standard 4800/CL30?


Great technical thoughts about RGB!
Not to mention I don't even like any/of then shiny colored things!

Go Intel if you want stability.

Zen 4 AM5 is still new, and all AGESA bugs won't be fixed for a year or maybe more.

It's stable enough, and 6000 MHz will also be stable enough. But expect long boot times and some quirks.

Anything past 6200 is still unstable at this moment.

 

[Chry]

No, no, you want the rated for 6000mhz chips to run at 6000. Especially on an AM5 configuration where the CPU is without V-cache.

Is it because of the performance? Wouldn't it run at 4800mhz with better stability and less errors though?

 

[unwind-protect]

There is a point to the BIOS mess with AM5 at this time. Who knows what is hiding in there, release notes are generally useless. For example, AMD told us that ECC support has made it through their part of the BIOS making, but mainboard manufacturers mention that only if you are lucky.

 

[dgianstefani]

Is it because of the performance? Wouldn't it run at 4800mhz with better stability and less errors though?

Either you error or you don't. Unstable or stable.

6000 MHz is pretty safe for DDR5 AM5. But the platform itself has issues that haven't been patched yet and it's first generation.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Is it because of the performance? Wouldn't it run at 4800mhz with better stability and less errors though?

Generally speaking if your RAM, CPU, and motherboard support it, you should minimally try to run the RAM at the top speed they are all compatible with. Running at lesser speeds doesn't make sense unless you are running into a problem or you have a specific configuration issue where you are forced to run at lower speeds.