The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2

Pwnz · Jul 16, 2019

Chaz said:
How many folks here are actually using a Zen 2 CPU with a B450/X470 mobo? Specifically an ASUS or MSI board?
r/AMD is going nuts over horrible beta bios, causing spiking voltages with high temps on idle and being unable to set RAM to correct frequencies/timings without the system just shutting down.

Normally I would chalk this down to teething issues but judging by the sheer amount of people posting about the issue it appears to be a pretty big problem right now and none of the mobo manufacturers except Gigabyte seem to be communicating very much on when to expect more stable BIOS drivers. Im curious if anyone here has experienced similar issues. The B450 Tomahawk specifically appears to be an absolute mess on Zen 2.

The rest of my parts arrive tomorrow and I will be using a ASUS ROG B450-I board and I am seriously contemplating just not setting it up until ASUS releases something more stable because I am worried the performance is just going to be all over the place with the current BIOS.

I have an x570 Asus prime pro, 3900x, and 1080ti. Anything GPU related crashes or blue screens. Nvidia is working on a driver fix according to a few websites. additionally there's amd bios updates in the works.

AMD fucked up the launch, but I'm not personally upset because I'm not playing any games right now.

TaySan · Jul 16, 2019

Pwnz said:
I have an x570 Asus prime pro, 3900x, and 1080ti. Anything GPU related crashes or blue screens. Nvidia is working on a driver fix according to a few websites. additionally there's amd bios updates in the works.

AMD fucked up the launch, but I'm not personally upset because I'm not playing any games right now.

We really are the beta testers. lol

Pwnz · Jul 16, 2019

TaySan said:
We really are the beta testers. lol

Shit happens. I may be more upset if tomorrow it blue screens with GPU acceleration disabled in remote desktop settings. It *shouldn't* but if it does it'll be during teams meetings.

Like sandy bridge was a great CPU but sata devices were getting fried.

Pwnz · Jul 16, 2019

I hope epyc Rome has a 16 core high frequency CPU like 4 GHz. Would be a game changer for build machine vms.

killertofu · Jul 16, 2019

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X Processor is $500 on Amazon.... should I jump in or wait for September? This is mostly gonna be for 3D modeling/Cinema4D

Nothing · Jul 16, 2019

I found this funny: AMD baited Nvidia by faking its original RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 pricing at E3

Jag · Jul 16, 2019

Nothing said:
If your PC is for gaming only then why are you buying a Ryzen 3700x?

Thought it would be future proofed. I want to make sure it can still power through games over the next few years and I'm worried about underbuying a CPU. Honestly I really don't know which one to get. I'm running an RTX 2080 and a Acer Predator 144hz.

Nothing · Jul 16, 2019

Jag said:
Thought it would be future proofed. I want to make sure it can still power through games over the next few years and I'm worried about underbuying a CPU. Honestly I really don't know which one to get. I'm running an RTX 2080 and a Acer Predator 144hz.

I hear ya. The 3700x offers the best value in its class, that's for sure. But the 9700K still outperforms it for gaming purposes. You won't be using all those extra threads in gaming. On the bright side you can't go wrong with either processor, as both will last for several years. So no worries either way.

Personally, if I were you'd I'd probably get the Intel just to avoid the growing pains, crashes, and compatibility issues in games. (like guy posted on the previous page) Since you said you were going to be using it for gaming only.

NOKYARD · Jul 16, 2019

Chaz said:
How many folks here are actually using a Zen 2 CPU with a B450/X470 mobo? Specifically an ASUS or MSI board?

On an Asrock B450 Fatal1ty with the pre-launch (June 4) BIOS update.

It crashes about once a day without warning, usually without any pertinent log files. Other than that it's been solid, including an uneventful build and OS load.

Mzen · Jul 16, 2019

So... While looking at that example build 7 (Intel), I've decided to change the region to where I'm living (Germany) and one of the RAM suggestions was this: Alternate.de RAM

Besides looking hideous, I've noticed that it says below "For AMD" and there's AMD branding on it as well... Excuse my noobish ways, but what's up with that? Isn't RAM supposed to work the same way everywhere? Or are there certain memories that can be temperamental with Ryzen?

NOKYARD · Jul 16, 2019

Mzen said:
So... While looking at that example build 7 (Intel), I've decided to change the region to where I'm living (Germany) and one of the RAM suggestions was this: Alternate.de RAM

Besides looking hideous, I've noticed that it says below "For AMD" and there's AMD branding on it as well... Excuse my noobish ways, but what's up with that? Isn't RAM supposed to work the same way everywhere? Or are there certain memories that can be temperamental with Ryzen?

Samsung B-die. It was designed for the previous Ryzen CPU generation where B-die was king. They are still a solid choice but the Corsair - Vengeance LPX are cheaper and just as compatible with Ryzen 3000 series.

asmith906 · Jul 16, 2019

which one of these ram would you recommend for a Ryzen build. They are both $59.99

NOKYARD · Jul 16, 2019

asmith906 said:
which one of these ram would you recommend for a Ryzen build. They are both $59.99

AMD published this list recently but for some reason they skipped over DDR4-3000.

[edit] i used the DDR-4 3200 Corsair. Ran Memtest overnight with 0 errors.

Insomniac · Jul 16, 2019

asmith906 said:
which one of these ram would you recommend for a Ryzen build. They are both $59.99

Ballistix are E-die and should overclock nicely. Absolutely go with those.

TheOne · Jul 16, 2019

I'm planning to replace my old cpu cooler, the venerable Noctua NH-D14 with a closed loop. Budget is $150 max. What are the best ones in this price bracket? I favour cooling performance over RGB, if that can help.

SlothmanAllen · Jul 16, 2019

Rex_DX said:
Unfortunately no as I've been working 80-hour weeks and haven't had time to do much pc gaming. A friend of mine is using my setup to play God of War though so HDR does work on the TCL tv.

Once I get some time off I'll investigate further. Let me know if you have any luck though please.

I fixed it! (...I think)

So I spent the last couple of evenings after work trying to get it working and I think I have found the solution.

Under the 'Settings' tab on your TV, navigate to 'TV inputs' and then navigate to the input you have your computer hooked into (my computer is attached to HDMI 1 and named Computer). Once you have navigated to the HDMI input, you should see an option labeled 'HDMI mode'. Select 'HDMI mode' and you will be presented with three options: Auto, HDMI 1.4 and HDMI 2.0. Select 'HDMI 2.0' to force your TV into HDMI 2.0 mode. Windows should now recognize your display as HDR compatible. You might have to enable the HDR mode again under display settings.

So far this is working for me with every game I have tested (Assassin's Creed: Origins, Devil May Cry 5, Mortal Kombat 11, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sikero and Resident Evil 2)!

Hope this helps.

asmith906 · Jul 16, 2019

ended up getting the 16gb Ballistix ram . Also got a 500gb NVME drive. I sold some random games I had lying around and after ebay bucks my out of pocket cost was $58. All I need now is to pick a pc case.

Rex_DX · Jul 16, 2019

SlothmanAllen said:
I fixed it! (...I think)

So I spent the last couple of evenings after work trying to get it working and I think I have found the solution.

Under the 'Settings' tab on your TV, navigate to 'TV inputs' and then navigate to the input you have your computer hooked into (my computer is attached to HDMI 1 and named Computer). Once you have navigated to the HDMI input, you should see an option labeled 'HDMI mode'. Select 'HDMI mode' and you will be presented with three options: Auto, HDMI 1.4 and HDMI 2.0. Select 'HDMI 2.0' to force your TV into HDMI 2.0 mode. Windows should now recognize your display as HDR compatible. You might have to enable the HDR mode again under display settings.

So far this is working for me with every game I have tested (Assassin's Creed: Origins, Devil May Cry 5, Mortal Kombat 11, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sikero and Resident Evil 2)!

Hope this helps.

Hey great memory! It's really nice of you to remember to get back to me.

This totally worked. I remember I initially had to do this last year when I bought the tv to get HDR working with my PC and consoles but it never occurred to me to check this since I had already set it up.

The semi-recent TCL update must have reverted the settings thus disabling Windows HDR.

Talk about a quick fix!

Thanks for thinking of me. Cheers.

Deleted member 2172 · Jul 17, 2019

Nothing said:
I hear ya. The 3700x offers the best value in its class, that's for sure. But the 9700K still outperforms it for gaming purposes.

If this guy is talking about future proofing and next-gen consoles will likely have 8c/16t, why are you recommending the 9700k?

Nothing · Jul 17, 2019

Chaz said:
If this guy is talking about future proofing and next-gen consoles will likely have 8c/16t, why are you recommending the 9700k?

because it's the better gaming processor.

why would it matter how many supposed threads are on the next gen console processor, and why do you assume that it's 16? Do you think they are putting $329 Ryzen 7 3700x processors inside the new ~$499ish PS5?

AMD didn't suddenly invalidate Intel, people.

Deleted member 49611 · Jul 17, 2019

another day of trying to figure these crashes out on my PC. specs:

3700X with stock cooler
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master (F5G bios)
32GB 3200 CL16-18-18-36 Corsair LPX Vengeance RAM
RTX 2080 (Founder's Edition) with 431.36 drivers
250GB Samsung 960 NVMe SSD (boot drive)
1TB Samsung 850 SATA3 SSD
1TB WD Blue 72k HDD
2TB WD Blue 54k HDD
Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card - not currently installed
EVGA 750W G2 PSU (old PSU) and EVGA 1000W G3 PSU (new PSU) - using the 750W right now
Windows 10 Pro (1903)

Everything is up to date. Windows. drivers. chipset.

after setting up my PC with a clean install I started getting crashes. Not BSODs. The computer would either instantly turn off and reboot, freeze for 20 seconds (fans + lights still on in my case) then reboot, or would just freeze with no restart where I'd need to hold the power button on my cash.

Windows isn't able to tell me what happened except in Event Viewer I'd get a Critical entry with Event ID 41 and Task 63. Source says "Kernel-power" and the note "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

At first I thought it was my new PSU but when I put in the old one it was still crashing. Next I thought it might be my Sound Card so i removed it and the drivers then used the onboard audio and it still crashed. Now I've reset my bios to default and made sure my GPU isn't overclocked. Yesterday I managed to go 3 hour and a half hours without a crash. My system has only been running 20 minutes so far today. Crashes can happen after just 10-20 minutes or after 3 hours. Completely random and seems to happen under light load (just using Chrome + Spotify). I've been able to run programs like Cinebench + RealBench. I've done maybe 5 or so Cinebench runs and let RealBench run for half an hour while using up to 32GB RAM. Never crashed under load.

Right now, if it doesn't crash then I suspect it's either my RAM or GPU. I've had these RAM sticks for 9 months but only running at 2666. If I get no crashes I'll enable overclocking on my GPU and wait and see if it crashes again. I definitely remember overclocking my GPU in Afterburner the other day but when I went in to remove it I noticed it had already been removed. Also I've noticed in Event Viewer that my GPU is causing a lot of WHEA-Logger entries. Not sure if related. I'll also try reenabling XMP on my RAM to see if it's that. I will also try entering the clock speed + timings manually instead of XMP. If I suspect it is the RAM i'll set up my old PC and test them in that too and try see if it's just a BIOS issue or if the sticks just can't stay stable at the advertised speed.

Deleted member 2172 · Jul 17, 2019

Nothing said:
because it's the better gaming processor.

why would it matter how many supposed threads are on the next gen console processor, and why do you assume that it's 16? Do you think they are putting $329 Ryzen 7 3700x processors inside the new ~$499ish PS5?

AMD didn't suddenly invalidate Intel, people.

Oh yeah because you and I both know thats exactly how AMD/Sony/MS deal with CPU's, just slap a 3700x in there /s Nevermind the fact we are talking about consoles launching over a year from now, not tomorrow.

Its all speculation at this point but the biggest conversation around next gen processors is we could likely see a downclocked 8c/16t CPU. If thats true, we expect next-gen only games to heavily utilise these cores and threads, something the 9700k may struggle with over time. That is not what I define as 'futureproofing'. You can say we don't know any of this for a fact and thats true, but its better to be safe than sorry. 3700x/3800x/9900k are what I would recommend.

I am not saying AMD is invalidating Intel. No one is saying that, even. But when someone requests future-proofing I do not think to recommend a 8c/8t CPU in the current market.

Deleted member 49611 · Jul 17, 2019

Next gen consoles will use a Zen 2 CPU but it'll be a low powered APU not a 3700X desktop chip. I don't think the PC Zen 2 APUs will be out until early next year. The low end 3000 series CPUs (3200G/3400G) i think are still Zen+ architecture.

Deleted member 2172 · Jul 17, 2019

The 9700k is better at gaming only but it is not so much better that I would recommend it over the 3700x and risk those 8 less threads causing worse performance in the future.

It is the unfortunate situation you put yourself in when deciding to upgrade your CPU on the cusp of next gen beginning. Some people have smartly decided to wait on seeing the next gen consoles official specs before upgrading (Im not one of those people)

spootime · Jul 17, 2019

edit: nevermind, i should research this more before talking

Santini · Jul 17, 2019

WillJoe said:
another day of trying to figure these crashes out on my PC. specs:

3700X with stock cooler
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master (F5G bios)
32GB 3200 CL16-18-18-36 Corsair LPX Vengeance RAM
RTX 2080 (Founder's Edition) with 431.36 drivers
250GB Samsung 960 NVMe SSD (boot drive)
1TB Samsung 850 SATA3 SSD
1TB WD Blue 72k HDD
2TB WD Blue 54k HDD
Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card - not currently installed
EVGA 750W G2 PSU (old PSU) and EVGA 1000W G3 PSU (new PSU) - using the 750W right now
Windows 10 Pro (1903)

Everything is up to date. Windows. drivers. chipset.

after setting up my PC with a clean install I started getting crashes. Not BSODs. The computer would either instantly turn off and reboot, freeze for 20 seconds (fans + lights still on in my case) then reboot, or would just freeze with no restart where I'd need to hold the power button on my cash.

Windows isn't able to tell me what happened except in Event Viewer I'd get a Critical entry with Event ID 41 and Task 63. Source says "Kernel-power" and the note "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

At first I thought it was my new PSU but when I put in the old one it was still crashing. Next I thought it might be my Sound Card so i removed it and the drivers then used the onboard audio and it still crashed. Now I've reset my bios to default and made sure my GPU isn't overclocked. Yesterday I managed to go 3 hour and a half hours without a crash. My system has only been running 20 minutes so far today. Crashes can happen after just 10-20 minutes or after 3 hours. Completely random and seems to happen under light load (just using Chrome + Spotify). I've been able to run programs like Cinebench + RealBench. I've done maybe 5 or so Cinebench runs and let RealBench run for half an hour while using up to 32GB RAM. Never crashed under load.

Right now, if it doesn't crash then I suspect it's either my RAM or GPU. I've had these RAM sticks for 9 months but only running at 2666. If I get no crashes I'll enable overclocking on my GPU and wait and see if it crashes again. I definitely remember overclocking my GPU in Afterburner the other day but when I went in to remove it I noticed it had already been removed. Also I've noticed in Event Viewer that my GPU is causing a lot of WHEA-Logger entries. Not sure if related. I'll also try reenabling XMP on my RAM to see if it's that. I will also try entering the clock speed + timings manually instead of XMP. If I suspect it is the RAM i'll set up my old PC and test them in that too and try see if it's just a BIOS issue or if the sticks just can't stay stable at the advertised speed.

I don't have firsthand experience with this situation, but I'd recently read about others with a similar setup (Ryzen series 3000 CPU, an X570 MB, NVMe SSD running on Windows 10) having WHEA issues, which may be related to what you're going through.

So there may be something in this reddit thread that can help you figure out what's going on. There may also be something up with a recent Windows 10 update, as pointed out in this article mentioned in that discussion.

Anyhow, hope something there can help you get things sorted out.

Deleted member 49611 · Jul 17, 2019

Santini said:
I don't have firsthand experience with this situation, but I'd recently read about others with a similar setup (Ryzen series 3000 CPU, an X570 MB, NVMe SSD running on Windows 10) having WHEA issues, which may be related to what you're going through.

So there may be something in this reddit thread that can help you figure out what's going on. There may also be something up with a recent Windows 10 update, as pointed out in this article mentioned in that discussion.

Anyhow, hope something there can help you get things sorted out.

i saw that. that's what made me look in the event viewer. i've had 10 "WHEA-Logger" critical entries so far today and a total of 360 since i built my PC on saturday with a clean Windows install. checking the note it's the same two Device Names causing it:

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_10F8&SUBSYS_12A610DE&REV_A1 - High Definition Audio Controller
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1E87&SUBSYS_12A610DE&REV_A1 - RTX 2080

I've installed the latest GPU drivers and the audio drivers from Gigabyte's site. I know Nvidia is working on a driver update to fix WHEA crashes. It seems most people are getting BSODs which i've not had. my pc just turns off and reboots or freezes then reboots or freezes and doesn't turn off. Windows can only tell me that it was an unexpected power loss/crash.

right now i've got 5 hours without a crash so it's either my RAM or GPU both of which were working fine in my old system. Bought them both at the same time 9 months ago.

starblue · Jul 17, 2019

Prelude said:
Some people can't flash the bios, others can't boot after flashing it and other stability issues. It seems they're still not quite ready for Zen 2.

Just got my ryzen and b450 tomahawk and it looks i can't flash the bios with external HDD USB...The external HDD do flashlight but when I press the bios flashback button...nothing happend, no LED...and no light to the HDD. I unplugged all and repeated and nothing...maybe I have to use a USB sticker instead of HDD ?

I will go buy the USB Sticker now and see...but...lol I think I will return the tomahawk and get an x570.

Deleted member 49611 · Jul 17, 2019

starblue said:
Just got my ryzen and b450 tomahawk and it looks i can't flash the bios with external HDD USB...The external HDD do flashlight but when I press the bios flashback button...nothing happend, no LED...and no light to the HDD. I unplugged all and repeated and nothing...maybe I have to use a USB sticker instead of HDD ?

I will go buy the USB Sticker now and see...but...lol I think I will return the tomahawk and get an x570.

what kind of external drive? is it formatted correctly? what kind of USB port is on the motherboard? some USB ports don't have enough power to spin up a HDD. you're best using a USB flash drive.

asmith906 · Jul 17, 2019

starblue said:
Just got my ryzen and b450 tomahawk and it looks i can't flash the bios with external HDD USB...The external HDD do flashlight but when I press the bios flashback button...nothing happend, no LED...and no light to the HDD. I unplugged all and repeated and nothing...maybe I have to use a USB sticker instead of HDD ?

I will go buy the USB Sticker now and see...but...lol I think I will return the tomahawk and get an x570.

I think you need a flash drive for bios updates.

starblue · Jul 17, 2019

WillJoe said:
what kind of external drive? is it formatted correctly? what kind of USB port is on the motherboard? some USB ports don't have enough power to spin up a HDD. you're best using a USB flash drive.

It's USB 2.0. The HDD is USB 3.0, maybe that's the problem, not enough power. to run the HDD.

asmith906 said:
I think you need a flash drive for bios updates.

I will go get one now and see.

Thank you guys !

asmith906 · Jul 17, 2019

starblue said:
It's USB 2.0. The HDD is USB 3.0, maybe that's the problem, not enough power. to run the HDD.

I will go get one now and see.

Thank you guys !

Looking at your manual looks like the usb drive also has to be formatted as fat32

empo · Jul 17, 2019

USB 3.0 flash drive worked fine for me, just FAT32, partition it to a couple of GB max.

Is everything installed in a case? Look at the back IO panel, it's a specific USB port you have to use.

starblue · Jul 17, 2019

asmith906 said:
Looking at your manual looks like the usb drive also has to be formatted as fat32

The HDD was in FAT32 but it's power thing, now im using kingston usb drive and it's flashing now. :D Also the PSU is spinning so now looks like it works.

jtb · Jul 17, 2019

32 gb of RAM.... still pointless?

Papacheeks · Jul 17, 2019

WillJoe said:
another day of trying to figure these crashes out on my PC. specs:

3700X with stock cooler
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master (F5G bios)
32GB 3200 CL16-18-18-36 Corsair LPX Vengeance RAM
RTX 2080 (Founder's Edition) with 431.36 drivers
250GB Samsung 960 NVMe SSD (boot drive)
1TB Samsung 850 SATA3 SSD
1TB WD Blue 72k HDD
2TB WD Blue 54k HDD
Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card - not currently installed
EVGA 750W G2 PSU (old PSU) and EVGA 1000W G3 PSU (new PSU) - using the 750W right now
Windows 10 Pro (1903)

Everything is up to date. Windows. drivers. chipset.

after setting up my PC with a clean install I started getting crashes. Not BSODs. The computer would either instantly turn off and reboot, freeze for 20 seconds (fans + lights still on in my case) then reboot, or would just freeze with no restart where I'd need to hold the power button on my cash.

Windows isn't able to tell me what happened except in Event Viewer I'd get a Critical entry with Event ID 41 and Task 63. Source says "Kernel-power" and the note "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

At first I thought it was my new PSU but when I put in the old one it was still crashing. Next I thought it might be my Sound Card so i removed it and the drivers then used the onboard audio and it still crashed. Now I've reset my bios to default and made sure my GPU isn't overclocked. Yesterday I managed to go 3 hour and a half hours without a crash. My system has only been running 20 minutes so far today. Crashes can happen after just 10-20 minutes or after 3 hours. Completely random and seems to happen under light load (just using Chrome + Spotify). I've been able to run programs like Cinebench + RealBench. I've done maybe 5 or so Cinebench runs and let RealBench run for half an hour while using up to 32GB RAM. Never crashed under load.

Right now, if it doesn't crash then I suspect it's either my RAM or GPU. I've had these RAM sticks for 9 months but only running at 2666. If I get no crashes I'll enable overclocking on my GPU and wait and see if it crashes again. I definitely remember overclocking my GPU in Afterburner the other day but when I went in to remove it I noticed it had already been removed. Also I've noticed in Event Viewer that my GPU is causing a lot of WHEA-Logger entries. Not sure if related. I'll also try reenabling XMP on my RAM to see if it's that. I will also try entering the clock speed + timings manually instead of XMP. If I suspect it is the RAM i'll set up my old PC and test them in that too and try see if it's just a BIOS issue or if the sticks just can't stay stable at the advertised speed.

Do me a favor, Plug in the new evga 1000 unit leave it outside the case, just hook up your 24-pin, 4-8 pin on the motherboard, and your drives. Turn it on. Also it sounds like you also might have memory training on. If thats still present in x570. It was a big issue with my b350.
Also make sure you adjust voltage for cpu if it's running super high. Wendel from level1techs was seeing x570 default bios was putting voltage way too high that was causing instability.
Check your memory is the biggest thing. I would run it without xmp profile and see what the board does to run those. See how it acts on default which could be 2133, 2666.

Do that run some tests, like play some games, run cinebench and then see if it crashes. Also check your bios version, motherboard manufacturer's have been updating like crazy to fix micro code issues, and default voltage settings.
Also I noticed your running 32gb, is it 4 channel or are you running dual 16gb sticks? If so that also might be an issue as there are reports of having stability issues running 4 sticks in quad channel.

Even though he's talking about overclocking Jay goes over early stock bios vs. matured bios and goes into detail in manually making voltage changes for better stability.

I highly recommend watching that video I linked it might help with stability.

Deleted member 49611 · Jul 17, 2019

jtb said:
32 gb of RAM.... still pointless?

for games? 16GB is still fine but if you want to future proof i'd recommend going for 32GB if you can and especially now prices have dropped significantly. I paid just under £300 for my 32GB kit 9 months ago and now they are going for ~£150-200.

i had 16GB but upgraded to 32GB because i noticed some games starting to use around 10GB which doesn't leave much going forward. my 32GB mostly sits unused but some games I've saw use up to 13GB.

Papacheeks said:
Do me a favor, Plug in the new evga 1000 unit leave it outside the case, just hook up your 24-pin, 4-8 pin on the motherboard, and your drives. Turn it on. Also it sounds like you also might have memory training on. If thats still present in x570. It was a big issue with my b350.

Also make sure you adjust voltage for cpu if it's running super high. Wendel from level1techs was seeing x570 default bios was putting voltage way too high that was causing instability.

Check your memory is the biggest thing. I would run it without xmp profile and see what the board does to run those. See how it acts on default which could be 2133, 2666.

Do that run some tests, like play some games, run cinebench and then see if it crashes. Also check your bios version, motherboard manufacturer's have been updating like crazy to fix micro code issues, and default voltage settings.

Also I noticed your running 32gb, is it 4 channel or are you running dual 16gb sticks? If so that also might be an issue as there are reports of having stability issues running 4 sticks in quad channel.

i'm not sure what you mean about the PSU. i was using the 1000W at first and was getting crashes. i thought it might be the PSU so put in my old 750W and it has still been crashing. removed my sound card still crashing. i've turned of XMP/gpu overclocking and so far no crashes.

voltages range between 0.9-1.5V. very rarely do i see 1.5V but it does appear as max in hwinfo. usually it's about 1.47/1.48V but it's not constant and only in light usage. it goes that high for a second or so then down and sometimes it's just certain cores. under heavy load voltages drop to about 1.2-1.3V.

the ram is running at 2133 right now with 15-15-15-36 timings which is default. now that it seems like the crashes are gone i'm gonna re enable my GPU overclock to see if that was causing it. if not then i'll re enable XMP.

everything is up to date. i've managed to run cinebench/realbench without any crashes. temps and voltages seem normal too. BIOS is the latest version.

Papacheeks · Jul 17, 2019

WillJoe said:
for games? 16GB is still fine but if you want to future proof i'd recommend going for 32GB if you can and especially now prices have dropped significantly. I paid just under £300 for my 32GB kit 9 months ago and now they are going for ~£150-200.

i had 16GB but upgraded to 32GB because i noticed some games starting to use around 10GB which doesn't leave much going forward. my 32GB mostly sits unused but some games I've saw use up to 13GB.

i'm not sure what you mean about the PSU. i was using the 1000W at first and was getting crashes. i thought it might be the PSU so put in my old 750W and it has still been crashing. removed my sound card still crashing. i've turned of XMP/gpu overclocking and so far no crashes.

voltages range between 0.9-1.5V. very rarely do i see 1.5V but it does appear as max in hwinfo. usually it's about 1.47/1.48V but it's not constant and only in light usage. it goes that high for a second or so then down and sometimes it's just certain cores. under heavy load voltages drop to about 1.2-1.3V.

the ram is running at 2133 right now with 15-15-15-36 timings which is default. now that it seems like the crashes are gone i'm gonna re enable my GPU overclock to see if that was causing it. if not then i'll re enable XMP.

everything is up to date. i've managed to run cinebench/realbench without any crashes. temps and voltages seem normal too. BIOS is the latest version.

Voltage is way too high for stock. Whats your temps at for cpu? If in the bios your seeing 40 degrees thats a red flag for too high of voltage. See what your ram voltage is as well. Should not be exceeding 1.38-1.40v I if this is non OC memory speed it should be 1.35v depending on what the specs are for memory kit from manufacturer.

Cpu should also be in the 1.35+ range. If you are seeing 1.4+ something is wrong in the bios. Having the default be .9-1.5 is dangerous. I would set it at 1.35 and see how it acts. I think your issue is voltage related and thats whats causing your system to crash when you have xmp turned on. Not having a set voltage and having the motherboard find it for you in that .9-1.5v range is priobably whats causing instability. Hence why when you turned off xmp and ran memory at 2133 it seems find. LOWER speed mhz does not require a lot of voltage with those timings.

Higher the freq, more voltage it requires. I would try 1.35 to start run tests on stock 2133mhz, same with vcore. USE JAYstwocents video I linked as a base. Once it seems stable at that, figure out what all your timings are(RAS, CAS ETC) and set them manually, same with memory speed. First try 2666, if you run it without crashes, up it to 2933, then 3200.

I think this is where the issues are.

Deleted member 49611 · Jul 17, 2019

Papacheeks said:
Voltage is way too high for stock. Whats your temps at for cpu? If in the bios your seeing 40 degrees thats a red flag for too high of voltage. See what your ram voltage is as well. Should not be exceeding 1.38-1.40v I if this is non OC memory speed it should be 1.35v depending on what the specs are for memory kit from manufacturer.

Cpu should also be in the 1.35+ range. If you are seeing 1.4+ something is wrong in the bios. Having the default be .9-1.5 is dangerous. I would set it at 1.35 and see how it acts. I think your issue is voltage related and thats whats causing your system to crash when you have xmp turned on. Not having a set voltage and having the motherboard find it for you in that .9-1.5v range is priobably whats causing instability. Hence why when you turned off xmp and ran memory at 2133 it seems find. LOWER speed mhz does not require a lot of voltage with those timings.

Higher the freq, more voltage it requires. I would try 1.35 to start run tests on stock 2133mhz, same with vcore. USE JAYstwocents video I linked as a base. Once it seems stable at that, figure out what all your timings are(RAS, CAS ETC) and set them manually, same with memory speed. First try 2666, if you run it without crashes, up it to 2933, then 3200.

I think this is where the issues are.

ok thanks. makes sense.

my RAM is rated for 3200 16-18-18-36 with 1.35V. my CPU is averaging about 41C but clock speed can go as low as 2.2 with voltages to about 0.7-0.9V.

so i should just go into my BIOS and lock the vcore to 1.35 and enter RAM settings manually?

Yerffej · Jul 17, 2019

Can I get some help? I'm really torn right now. I've gone all these years with a 3500k and it's been a tremendous value. I've never felt pushed to need an upgrade. I'm that type of gamer, I just like to stretch it. I'd be looking to stretch it through next-gen with my new build and am wondering what you guys think about my pick. I thought maybe AMD would be the way to go, but the more I look at these things, the more I realize I don't think I need these extra cores. I have zero use for the multimedia stuff. The most I'll tax my system is with games, Photoshop, and using a dual-screen setup.

With that in mind, do you guys think the 9700k would be the right call for me? It's what I was eyeing months ago before AMD's reveals. Now, with those reveals, my total build has gone down like 300 bucks and man I'd like to jump on that. I'm just curious if anyone thinks I won't be able to keep up as the new gen rolls on enough. I don't always need to play with everything on max. 1440p and a decent frame rate is good enough for me.

PuppetMinion · Jul 17, 2019

Yerffej said:
Can I get some help? I'm really torn right now. I've gone all these years with a 3500k and it's been a tremendous value. I've never felt pushed to need an upgrade. I'm that type of gamer, I just like to stretch it. I'd be looking to stretch it through next-gen with my new build and am wondering what you guys think about my pick. I thought maybe AMD would be the way to go, but the more I look at these things, the more I realize I don't think I need these extra cores. I have zero use for the multimedia stuff. The most I'll tax my system is with games, Photoshop, and using a dual-screen setup.

With that in mind, do you guys think the 9700k would be the right call for me? It's what I was eyeing months ago before AMD's reveals. Now, with those reveals, my total build has gone down like 300 bucks and man I'd like to jump on that. I'm just curious if anyone thinks I won't be able to keep up as the new gen rolls on enough. I don't always need to play with everything on max. 1440p and a decent frame rate is good enough for me.

Not really an expert but I seriously seriously doubt you won't be able to keep up with an 9700k this upcoming generation.

Deleted member 49611 · Jul 17, 2019

Papacheeks said:
Voltage is way too high for stock. Whats your temps at for cpu? If in the bios your seeing 40 degrees thats a red flag for too high of voltage. See what your ram voltage is as well. Should not be exceeding 1.38-1.40v I if this is non OC memory speed it should be 1.35v depending on what the specs are for memory kit from manufacturer.

Cpu should also be in the 1.35+ range. If you are seeing 1.4+ something is wrong in the bios. Having the default be .9-1.5 is dangerous. I would set it at 1.35 and see how it acts. I think your issue is voltage related and thats whats causing your system to crash when you have xmp turned on. Not having a set voltage and having the motherboard find it for you in that .9-1.5v range is priobably whats causing instability. Hence why when you turned off xmp and ran memory at 2133 it seems find. LOWER speed mhz does not require a lot of voltage with those timings.

Higher the freq, more voltage it requires. I would try 1.35 to start run tests on stock 2133mhz, same with vcore. USE JAYstwocents video I linked as a base. Once it seems stable at that, figure out what all your timings are(RAS, CAS ETC) and set them manually, same with memory speed. First try 2666, if you run it without crashes, up it to 2933, then 3200.

I think this is where the issues are.

i went into my BIOS and tried setting 1.35V but the cores were still going up to near 1.5V. there was another setting that let me set a lower or higher limit so i did +0.15V and the voltages went to 1.6V! i quickly turned the system off.

i managed to set my RAM properly but i have no idea how to deal with the CPU.

Prelude · Jul 17, 2019

starblue said:
Just got my ryzen and b450 tomahawk and it looks i can't flash the bios with external HDD USB...The external HDD do flashlight but when I press the bios flashback button...nothing happend, no LED...and no light to the HDD. I unplugged all and repeated and nothing...maybe I have to use a USB sticker instead of HDD ?

I will go buy the USB Sticker now and see...but...lol I think I will return the tomahawk and get an x570.

Make sure you know what kind of chipset fan noise you'll have to deal with if you really want to go down that route. I doubt you'll be spending $600 so you never know with the cheaper ones. I've heard some that people posted online and, oh boy, fuck that.

You should take a look here anyway: https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/comments/ce3ift/msi_b450_tomahawk_update/

Yerffej said:
Can I get some help? I'm really torn right now. I've gone all these years with a 3500k and it's been a tremendous value. I've never felt pushed to need an upgrade. I'm that type of gamer, I just like to stretch it. I'd be looking to stretch it through next-gen with my new build and am wondering what you guys think about my pick. I thought maybe AMD would be the way to go, but the more I look at these things, the more I realize I don't think I need these extra cores. I have zero use for the multimedia stuff. The most I'll tax my system is with games, Photoshop, and using a dual-screen setup.

With that in mind, do you guys think the 9700k would be the right call for me? It's what I was eyeing months ago before AMD's reveals. Now, with those reveals, my total build has gone down like 300 bucks and man I'd like to jump on that. I'm just curious if anyone thinks I won't be able to keep up as the new gen rolls on enough. I don't always need to play with everything on max. 1440p and a decent frame rate is good enough for me.

Don't buy a cpu without SMT in 2019, you'll regret it.

FHIZ · Jul 17, 2019

s

Yerffej said:
Can I get some help? I'm really torn right now. I've gone all these years with a 3500k and it's been a tremendous value. I've never felt pushed to need an upgrade. I'm that type of gamer, I just like to stretch it. I'd be looking to stretch it through next-gen with my new build and am wondering what you guys think about my pick. I thought maybe AMD would be the way to go, but the more I look at these things, the more I realize I don't think I need these extra cores. I have zero use for the multimedia stuff. The most I'll tax my system is with games, Photoshop, and using a dual-screen setup.

With that in mind, do you guys think the 9700k would be the right call for me? It's what I was eyeing months ago before AMD's reveals. Now, with those reveals, my total build has gone down like 300 bucks and man I'd like to jump on that. I'm just curious if anyone thinks I won't be able to keep up as the new gen rolls on enough. I don't always need to play with everything on max. 1440p and a decent frame rate is good enough for me.

You'll be good, especially if you're just looking for gaming purposes. When you're pushing 1440p, that's going to be the GPU more than anything.

Yerffej · Jul 17, 2019

Prelude said:
Make sure you know what kind of chipset fan noise you'll have to deal with if you really want to go down that route. I doubt you'll be spending $600 so you never know with the cheaper ones. I've heard some that people posted online and, oh boy, fuck that.

You should take a look here anyway: https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/comments/ce3ift/msi_b450_tomahawk_update/

Don't buy a cpu without SMT in 2019, you'll regret it.

What's SMT?

Deleted member 1594 · Jul 17, 2019

Anyone have much experience with smaller form factor cases? I want to build a PC for my living room. Things I'm looking for:

Looks nice
Relatively comfortable to build in (I expect some headaches)
Quieter than a PS4 Pro
Can fit and keep cool pretty powerful hardware (2070 Super at least).

I've been looking at case reviews for a few days trying to get an idea of what I want. Figure I'll either have to go with a blower style GPU cooler or a hybrid cooler with a 120mm rad, as the GPUs that exhaust hot air into a small case probably isn't a good idea?

Anyone have some experience with this and has some recommendations?

Soda · Jul 17, 2019

Jim2point0 said:
Anyone have much experience with smaller form factor cases? I want to build a PC for my living room. Things I'm looking for:

Looks nice
Relatively comfortable to build in (I expect some headaches)
Quieter than a PS4 Pro
Can fit and keep cool pretty powerful hardware (2070 Super at least).

I've been looking at case reviews for a few days trying to get an idea of what I want. Figure I'll either have to go with a blower style GPU cooler or a hybrid cooler with a 120mm rad, as the GPUs that exhaust hot air into a small case probably isn't a good idea?

Anyone have some experience with this and has some recommendations?

What performance are you looking for? Like, 1080p low settings, or 4K? What framerate/refresh rate is your monitor/TV screen?

I added this list to the OP a while back. I highly recommend you look through it, then cross-reference it with reviews. You can sort the cases by volume (size) etc.

Soda · Jul 17, 2019

Yerffej said:
What's SMT?

SMT is Simultaneous Multi-Threading. It's AMD's version of Intel's Hyper-threading, aka, some CPUs have 4 physical processing cores with the ability to split the workload in a way that the PC will actually run the system with 8 logical processing cores. Most modern CPUs have hyperthreading/SMT. The 9700K is honestly a very powerful gaming 8-core/8-thread CPU right now, but the other poster is arguing that in a few years, you'll regret not having a processor with 6-core/12-thread or 8-core/16-thread.

Personally, I'm not sure I agree with that. Logical cores (hyper-threading/SMT) only add about 30% of the performance in most tasks compared to a physical core. So, I think there's a reasonable argument for getting an 8C/8T CPU over a 6C/12T CPU, depending on use-case.

starblue · Jul 17, 2019

Prelude said:
Make sure you know what kind of chipset fan noise you'll have to deal with if you really want to go down that route. I doubt you'll be spending $600 so you never know with the cheaper ones. I've heard some that people posted online and, oh boy, fuck that.

You should take a look here anyway: https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/comments/ce3ift/msi_b450_tomahawk_update/

Don't buy a cpu without SMT in 2019, you'll regret it.

Thank you! I had all setup and...black screen, no signal...

I get light on the motherboard, the CPU spin is working, RAM is with led....GPU with led...

But...no signal. I have to flashback the bios again with the one at reddit ? Do you know if I can do flashback without disassembling all again ? Thank you !

Deleted member 1594 · Jul 17, 2019

Soda said:
What performance are you looking for? Like, 1080p low settings, or 4K? What framerate/refresh rate is your monitor/TV screen?

I have a 4K OLED TV. I plan on aiming for 60 FPS. So a capable CPU (dont plan to overclock), probably a 2070 Super (I understand some games will require me to turn down a few settings).

That list will be super helpful, thanks :) Didn't realize there were so many choices.

I like the look of the Inwin A1 Mini-ITX. Just don't know if it's quite big enough. Will need to look into it to see what it supports in the way of cooling.

The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2

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