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New PC build, what you are thinking about it?
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Dax Tailor Aug 4, 2019
Hi everyone,
I'm planing to build a new (gaming) PC and like to know your opinion on the components.

Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PLUS MAX AM4
SSD (M.2): Micron 2200 - SSD - 1 TB - intern - M.2 2280
RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX black DDR4-3000 DIMM CL15 Dual Kit
CPU: Ryzen 3600 (6 core)
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U12S SE AM4
Graphic card: Sapphire Radeon RX VEGA 56 8 GB PULSE
Power supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 650 W 80+ or Super Flower Leadex III Gold 650W ATX
OS: Arch Linux (no windows)

Why did I choose this components:

Power supply: I think I will go with the Super Flower. As far as I know, this company develops and produces power supplies by them self.

RAM: Why 3000 and not 3200? Because of this test: https://youtu.be/CloyuBw_E_0. The result was the 3200 adds only very few to the overall performance, but cost more. Money I can spend better. (BTW, the RAM module is listed on the MSI web side as compatible.)

Why the MAX version of that board? Because this version has at least a bigger flash. Maybe the CPU voltage regulators are a better fit for the ryzen 3000 series. Unfortunately I could not find any information on that.

Graphic card:: This one was hard to decide. I would like to go with an 5700XT but the kernel driver are not ready yet. My hope is, the Vega 56 will be good for the next 3 years. Currently I'm using a GTX970 and most of my games are still playable even with the 3440x1440 screen resolution. Why not NVidia? The Vega 56 is currently about €250,-. A NVidia card with the same performance cost at least €100,- more. And I think that NVidia pushed the prices up to high. What we should have now is a card with the performance like a 1080(ti) for €250,-. (If you like an other opinion, look here: https://youtu.be/rL08W20nbuI

CPU: Why not the X version? The performance gain are to small for the €50,- more. Ok, the box cooler is better, but I think putting the €50,- into the Noctua cooler is a better investment.
Do you think going with the 8 or even 12 core now is a better investment into the future? With the 12 core an X570 mother board is a must have I think because of the CPU power supply on board. (Look at this list: AM4 Vcore VRM Rating Spreadsheet )

Case: Not sure yet, maybe one from Fractal Design. And I think I will need some more Noctua fans.

Did I missed something?
Looking forward to your comments.
lucinos Aug 4, 2019
Quoting: Dax TailorHi everyone,
Graphic card:: This one was hard to decide. I would like to go with an 5700XT but the kernel driver are not ready yet. My hope is, the Vega 56 will be good for the next 3 years. Currently I'm using a GTX970 and most of my games are still playable even with the 3440x1440 screen resolution. Why not NVidia? The Vega 56 is currently about €250,-. A NVidia card with the same performance cost at least €100,- more. And I think that NVidia pushed the prices up to high. What we should have now is a card with the performance like a 1080(ti) for €250,-. (If you like an other opinion, look here: https://youtu.be/rL08W20nbuI

If I can do what I want reasonably well with a non-nvidia I would never choose nvidia. Because of the free drivers. Since last year amdgpu is pretty good.
Dax Tailor Aug 4, 2019
That what I've heard too. I think I bought the GTX970 about 5 years ago. Back then AMD was not worth a buy because of the drivers. I have to say that NVidia did a very good job with there drivers even there are closed source. I wonder what the additional costs are developing closed source driver compare to open source drivers. (For graphic cards that is not only the kernel but mesa too.)

Unfortunately Navi will come a little bit to late for my new PC. I already waited for the Ryzen 3000 over a year now. At some point you just have to buy whats available.
medve Aug 4, 2019
The Radeon RX 5700 cards with custom cooler design will be out in days or weeks. I would definitely choose one of those if their prices will be ok. With that Navi card a smaller PSU (550W) would be enough.

Otherwise I'd choose the same hw or something close.
Shmerl Aug 6, 2019
Not sure what MSI is using, but check that it has Nuvoton super I/O chip, not the ITE one. Don't buy motherboards with ITE chips.

QuoteThis one was hard to decide. I would like to go with an 5700XT but the kernel driver are not ready yet.

It will be ready quite soon (or you can already run 5.3-rc3). Get Navi, not Vega. I have same Vega 56 now, and plan to upgrade to Navi.
Dax Tailor Aug 7, 2019
@shmerl
Just read your comment, but I ordered the parts yesterday. Did not want do wait any longer. The only thing I changed is the CPU, ordered the Ryzen 5 3600X because it was only €233,- (the 3600 was €206,-).

My current plan is to upgrade to Navi in 1 or 2 years (or whats available then). Until then I just want to know if it is possible to get gtx 1080 performance out of the Vega 56. If the Vega was a mistake, at the moment there are almost no offers on eBay. Or I can test the card for two weeks and send it back if I don't like it.

Never thought about the super IO chip. But you reminded me that ITE does put there documentation behind a NDA. Is this still the case?

I checked which chip the MSI board has. Its difficult to read on the blurry picture but there is a chip which could be from Nuvoton. The text is to long for ITE. Found a picture of the none MAX version and that is better to read: NUVOTON.

@medve
Thats strange. I wrote a longer text about the power supply but it is not here. That is infuriating because it took me at least 30 minutes to wrote, looking up some links and try to get the right words (some I have to look up in leo.)

To make it short, the 550W and the Vega would work but there is no room for much expansion. So I ordered the Supper Flower 650W (for about €98,-). There is a test with shows that is a very good one and the warranty is 6 years I think.
The Vega takes in 8ms peak up to 330W. The TDP is lower then the Navi but I don't have any numbers for the 8ms peak. Could be much lower.
Who knows the 650W might be still good for the next PC (in maybe 4 years) :)
Shmerl Aug 7, 2019
Good that it's Nuvoton. ITE are simply nasty and don't provide any documentation, so driver for it is total hit and miss and is basically abandoned.

If you can still return your Vega 56 and get Navi (custom model) - better try that, since Vega 56 is going to be behind 1080 in performance. It's aimed more to be on par with 1070. Navi (2700 XT for sure) on the other hand should be enough.
Dragunov Aug 8, 2019
The Manual for your motherboard states that it is a NUVOTON NCT6797 Controller Chip. You can download the Manual from the MSI website.

B450-GAMING-PLUS-MAX
razing32 Aug 8, 2019
Hmm have not heard great things about MSI boards. Personally had better experience with Asus (and ocassionally Gigabyte) myself.
Guess it depends on the model.
tuubi Aug 8, 2019
Quoting: razing32Hmm have not heard great things about MSI boards. Personally had better experience with Asus (and ocassionally Gigabyte) myself.
Guess it depends on the model.
I'm about to upgrade to a new Ryzen as well, and I've been skimming some motherboard reviews. It would seems that MSI's higher-end B450 and X470 boards are pretty decent. But I'm so disappointed with the build quality of my MSI GPU that I'm not going to trust them any time soon. It's going to be ASUS again for me.
Dax Tailor Aug 8, 2019
@Dragunov
Thanks for the link. Have not thought about that.

I think with so many boards and GPU card this big companies produce one can always find customers which have some trouble with there products. At the beginning of my PC time Gigabyte was the best company. Then I had problems with one board (dual pentium board). Now ASUS was the best in the world until one board was getting instable. I have to say, back then, the ASUS support was great, couldn't solve the problem but keep on giving me ideas to look for.
Then the Phenome II was just not good enough anymore. Because AMD had nothing worth to buy, an Intel CPU was the way to go. I remembered that MSI had some major problems with capacitors some years a go, now there will be make sure that the quality is good so I bought a MSI board and a MSI GTX970 which I'm still using. Never had any trouble with them except the GTX970 fan control in the GPU BIOS. Sometimes one fan just don't start spinning then the other will jump to 100%. Given the none spinning fan a little kick will solve the problem.

But in the end, you can get a very good board and a bad board from the same company.

I wonder how long the 7nm chips will work, maybe there are going bad after a few years?
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