PCS FrostFlow 100 V3 or 150 CPU cooler for the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X?

[Navillus360]

Hello everybody! I hope you are having a wonderful day I am looking at buying some components to implement into the Fractal design focus G case, as my main intention for this setup is to develop games within the Unreal engine (as well as developing/texturing models within Maya and Substance painter), for a games development course I am currently partaking in. However, since creating such wonderful pieces of creativity can be stressful to the components under heavy workload as I will also be using for gaming as well, I just wanted advice for which CPU cooler I should go for due to the fact both CPU coolers within the title above fit within my total budget of £1230 and look practical enough in terms of cooling for my AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU (in my opinion.)

Case
Send In Your Own Case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
128GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W CV SERIES™ CV-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fans
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)

 

[DarTon]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that build is rather sub-optimal. The 3700X is a prior gen CPU and you'd be better going for the 5600X. The motherboard is prior gen. AMD CPUs need 3200MHz RAM. You've selected slower SATA storage, rather than faster NVMe M2. The PSU is inadequate etc. The cooler choice isn't actually a problem since you could even get away with the stock cooler.

What is your budget net of the Fractal case? What monitor will you be using?

 

[Navillus360]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that build is rather sub-optimal. The 3700X is a prior gen CPU and you'd be better going for the 5600X. The motherboard is prior gen. AMD CPUs need 3200MHz RAM. You've selected slower SATA storage, rather than faster NVMe M2. The PSU is inadequate etc. The cooler choice isn't actually a problem since you could even get away with the stock cooler.

What is your budget net of the Fractal case? What monitor will you be using?

No worries Darton, thank you for the reply nonetheless. The budget for the fractal case is £54 as I will be getting it from Amazon, I won't be hooking my computer up to a monitor rather I will be using a TV instead

 

[Navillus360]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that build is rather sub-optimal. The 3700X is a prior gen CPU and you'd be better going for the 5600X. The motherboard is prior gen. AMD CPUs need 3200MHz RAM. You've selected slower SATA storage, rather than faster NVMe M2. The PSU is inadequate etc. The cooler choice isn't actually a problem since you could even get away with the stock cooler.

What is your budget net of the Fractal case? What monitor will you be using?

If you don't mind me asking Darton, which of these motherboards would be a better alternative in your opinion?

 

[Navillus360]

After some configuration with the specs and some finalisation with the overall budget (which is £1300), I have thankfully managed to pick out these changes within my previous specs using your recommendations which should hopefully be correct in terms of overall quality for my build. Before I forget, the Fractal focus G case has a cheaper price on Amazon depending on the variations of the colour E.G black is £54 and blue is £35 etc:

Send In Your Own Case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
128GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (1000 MB/R, 600 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fans
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that build is rather sub-optimal. The 3700X is a prior gen CPU and you'd be better going for the 5600X. The motherboard is prior gen. AMD CPUs need 3200MHz RAM. You've selected slower SATA storage, rather than faster NVMe M2. The PSU is inadequate etc. The cooler choice isn't actually a problem since you could even get away with the stock cooler.

What is your budget net of the Fractal case? What monitor will you be using?

 

[DarTon]

That's massively improved. If you could provide the configuration link for that spec (at the bottom of the section where you post it to the forum) then we can probably tweak it a bit more. I'd say the cooler is a wasted amount of money, the storage can be improved since a 128gb SSD is rather pointless, PSU upped a bit to give you more headroom for possible upgrades etc.

 

[Navillus360]

That's massively improved. If you could provide the configuration link for that spec (at the bottom of the section where you post it to the forum) then we can probably tweak it a bit more. I'd say the cooler is a wasted amount of money, the storage can be improved since a 128gb SSD is rather pointless, PSU upped a bit to give you more headroom for possible upgrades etc.

Apologies for the late reply, here is the link for the configuration: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/nFFAdbQdGW/ I would like to really thank you for your assistance in this mater Darton, as I am really new to these kind of things without heavy amounts of research to back me up XD

 

[Bigfoot]

Something like this would have better storage and a better PSU. We usually recommend the RMX850 for future proofing, but that takes you a bit further over budget.

Case
Send In Your Own Case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fans
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,314.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/UCeC4rxfXm/

 

[Bigfoot]

Something like this would have better storage and a better PSU. We usually recommend the RMX850 for future proofing, but that takes you a bit further over budget.

Case
Send In Your Own Case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fans
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,314.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/UCeC4rxfXm/

I am not sure if you need the extra case fans. Do you need WiFi? We could also up the motherboard to the TUF B550. How tight is your budget limit?

 

[Navillus360]

I honestly forgot to mention this when stating about the finalisation of the budget which I sincerely apologise for any confusion caused, the £1300 has to also accommodate the case (which is why I am going for the cheaper £35 blue colour variant) and a intel 11ac network card (from scan.co.uk and costs £27) which does include both WIFI and Bluetooth as the PC will be a good distance away rendering wired mouse and keyboards useless. Furthermore, I only included the extra fans as I have no proper knowledge on how good the temperatures for the GPU and CPU will be without them.

 

[DarTon]

The @Bigfoot spec is pretty much ideal but I understand if you need to stick to budget. So if we assume £1265, after the case bought for £35, then this minor variation of the above spec

Case
Send In Your Own Case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W) - Reduced second SDD to 512 to save money.
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0 - added Wifi/BT card for £19 so don't need to spend £27 on one from third party
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,255.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/PQMSvk8vVM/

I've also cut the extra fans since the Focus G has 3 which is enough and that saves some money.

 

[Navillus360]

The @Bigfoot spec is pretty much ideal but I understand if you need to stick to budget. So if we assume £1265, after the case bought for £35, then this minor variation of the above spec

Case
Send In Your Own Case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W) - Reduced second SDD to 512 to save money.
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0 - added Wifi/BT card for £19 so don't need to spend £27 on one from third party
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,255.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/PQMSvk8vVM/

I've also cut the extra fans since the Focus G has 3 which is enough and that saves some money.

That seems quite like a extremely better config than the one I was proposing before. Although if you don't mind me asking, are M.2 SSD's more beneficial and more reliable than standard SSD's? As I sadly have little information about the difference between both types of SSD's.

 

[DarTon]

There is an argument that mechanical HDDs are still more reliable than SDDs. Whether SATA SDDs are more reliable than NVMe M2 SDDs, I'm not aware of that.

You definately want your OS and major programs on a M2 SSD. Same price and much faster. For the second drive, you have more flexibility. On the PCS configurator, the price difference between SATA and M2 just isn't enough in my view to favour the SATA. If you want a cheap/high capacity HDD, for say movies/photos/archival data, possibly go for that but it is slow for games.

Of course remember that you could just configure a single drive and add another one from a third party yourself later if you can't decide.

 

[Navillus360]

There is an argument that mechanical HDDs are still more reliable than SDDs. Whether SATA SDDs are more reliable than NVMe M2 SDDs, I'm not aware of that.

You definately want your OS and major programs on a M2 SSD. Same price and much faster. For the second drive, you have more flexibility. On the PCS configurator, the price difference between SATA and M2 just isn't enough in my view to favour the SATA. If you want a cheap/high capacity HDD, for say movies/photos/archival data, possibly go for that but it is slow for games.

Of course remember that you could just configure a single drive and add another one from a third party yourself later if you can't decide.

That seems pretty reasonable and helpful, I shall get the ball rolling on my side and order the case first so that then I can get the parts from the website without delay. However in all honestly, thank you both @DarTon and @Bigfoot, you've both been a massive help and I hope you both have a lovely day

 

[Bigfoot]

That seems quite like a extremely better config than the one I was proposing before. Although if you don't mind me asking, are M.2 SSD's more beneficial and more reliable than standard SSD's? As I sadly have little information about the difference between both types of SSD's.

SATA and M.2 SSDs are essentially the same technology, but the SATA interface is limited in speed. SSDs are not necessarily less reliable than HDDs but they tend to fail suddenly with all your data, while HDDs go gradually and much of the data can be recovered. With SDDs (SATA or M.2) it is worth checking the write endurance, as this effectively tells you how long the drive will typically last. There can be a big difference in this between different makes and model. Write next is usually expressed in TBW (Terabytes Written). TBW divided by drive capacity (in TB) gives you an estimate of how many times you can completely overwrite the drive.