New build crashing in games (but not stress tests)

[goshsowitty]

Refund is coming through for the original CPU, RAM and motherboard.

Time to start thinking about how to spend that.

Do I stick with what I had:

* Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE AX V2
* AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

Or switch it up a bit?

The motherboard I originally chose is basically the cheapest so that is somewhat compelling as the feature set is pretty decent for the price. There are motherboards, which seem to me at least, of a very similar spec that are easily £60 more. A different brand entirely is somewhat appealing even if I don't get much for the additional cost; I guess my confidence in Gigabyte is somewhat knocked if it indeed ends up being that the motherboard that was at fault. (Not that we'll ever know, now, as both mobo and CPU are being replaced).

Somewhat of a toss up between the original Gigabyte, an Asus ROG, Asus TUF, or an MSI MAG which all seem similar B550 chipset boards at varying price points.

Of course I could look at CPU too.

If I stuck with the original Gigabyte mobo I could probably afford either a Ryzen 7 5700X or a Ryzen 7 5800X. Though I'd also need to buy a cooler for both of these I think (recommendations welcome for coolers too; doesn't need to be too fancy).

 

[Norton]

Or switch it up a bit?

MSI boards are pretty decent for setup and most/all come with the EZ debug LED so you can diagnose if have a boot/post problem easier. I haven't used a Gigabyte or Asus board in a while but have had no real issues with MSI, Asrock is ok but a little buggy sometimes

There are plenty of cooler options and as long as you are using a 6 or 8 core cpu you can get away with most budget coolers

 

[goshsowitty]

I suppose a secondary question stemming from that is whether or not to go for the slightly cheaper MSI motherboard that uses B550 or spend a little more and go for the X570S chipset.

On balance given my budget I may stick with the Gigabyte B550 and spend extra on the CPU. I'm reading the 5700X is probably a good option.

 

[Norton]

I suppose a secondary question stemming from that is whether or not to go for the slightly cheaper MSI motherboard that uses B550 or spend a little more and go for the X570S chipset.

On balance given my budget I may stick with the Gigabyte B550 and spend extra on the CPU. I'm reading the 5700X is probably a good option.

B550 for gaming rig is 100% fine, X570/X570S probably a waste of funds for your use case. 5600X and 5700X are both good choices for gaming.

 

[goshsowitty]

Final update on this thread.

I got a refund, bought essentially the same motherboard (ended up being revision 1.3 rather than the original revision 1.1 I had, not that it should be significant) but I bought a Ryzen 7 5700X and a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 cooler.

In what should not be a surprise to anyone, the system is now perfectly stable in all games for prolonged periods of time at the highest settings and raytracing AND with the RAM running at 3600MHz with the XMP profile.

Kind of annoying I wasn't able to narrow it down to the specific component but frankly I was low on funds (and patience!) to buy further parts for testing and it just ended up being quicker and easier to send both parts back and start again.

But regardless, all that matters now is we have a working machine. Thank you so much everyone who had input on this thread. I appreciate it.

 

[wNotyarD]

Final update on this thread.

I got a refund, bought essentially the same motherboard (ended up being revision 1.3 rather than the original revision 1.1 I had, not that it should be significant) but I bought a Ryzen 7 5700X and a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 cooler.

In what should not be a surprise to anyone, the system is now perfectly stable in all games for prolonged periods of time at the highest settings and raytracing AND with the RAM running at 3600MHz with the XMP profile.

Kind of annoying I wasn't able to narrow it down to the specific component but frankly I was low on funds (and patience!) to buy further parts for testing and it just ended up being quicker and easier to send both parts back and start again.

But regardless, all that matters now is we have a working machine. Thank you so much everyone who had input on this thread. I appreciate it.

Glad you were able to sort your rig out, even if you had to resort to a sledgehammer method. If you had any friend nearby with compatible parts, you could have singled out what the issue was (did it once with a Asus X470 Prime of a friend of mine, tested my R7 2700 on his MB and his 2700 on my GB X470 Aorus G7 so to discover where trouble was happening).

 

[goshsowitty]

Yeah was a shame that wasn’t possible. However not far off building a second rig which will be mostly identical so that will make debugging easier!