I do appreciate your feedback. After much consideration, I have amended my order to the Corsair 4000D Airflow case, the Corsair 550W TXm Series PSU and this combination would only have cost an extra £25 extra as I have now ditched the ASUS Xonar SE card, but unfortunately that brought up a message informing me that my selected video card was in short supply, so I have reluctantly had to “upgrade” to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 which means I have now paid £99. Shame that was the only choice available. I think you’re right in that I’m sure there shouldn’t be any discernible difference with the TUF B550 handling the sound. Bearing in mind that I am replacing a 10-year old Intel i7 860 @ 2.80GHz with an AMD Radeon HD 5850 and ASUS Xonar sound card, I’m sure that things will have improved somewhat since then.
Which processor cooler is superior (if any)?
- Thread starter Altech
- Start date
sck451
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I'm a little lost as to what your actual use is for the system now. Is it for gaming or other graphically intensive work? (Eg content creation like video editing.) If not, you could go for the 5600G and no graphics card at all. This option only just appeared in the configuration tool and it could be a really good shout to save you quite a bit.
No, no gaming or other heavy-duty use but I am deliberately (to a point) trying to over-specify (still within a limited budget) to give me some headroom for the future. I have sent a polite message about not being happy about the way I found out about being forced to spend more on the video card, i.e. via the amendment process and not being informed earlier, when I originally selected it. I totally understand the 5600G option and will await their reply before possibly acting upon that version. Thanks again.
sck451
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It's a terrible time to buy a graphics card, so the 5600G is currently a really tempting option if you don't need super high graphics performance. I wouldn't want to spend that money on a 1660 (which isn't a value for money card at the best of times). A system with a 5600G could easily and cheaply be upgraded to be much more powerful in a year or so if you wanted. In your shoes I'd definitely be doing that.
On that basis, if I go for the 5600G, then I guess the fact that it is PCIe Gen3 based as opposed to the PCIe Gen4 of the 5600X is pretty irrelevant if all I want to do is watch up to 4K video playback from the likes of Amazon Prime, Netflix or YouTube etc. Sounds like a no-brainer as I could reduce my overall cost by £334 just by making this adjustment and not requiring a separate graphics card.
sck451
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Very little today needs Gen 4. The super fast storage is certainly nice to have, but it is by no means essential and for your requirements it might not even be perceptible.
I’ll go all out and treat myself to some Arctic MX-4 Extreme thermal paste while I’m about it, so that results in a £325 reduction overall. I just hope I don’t get any further enforced changes!
I can’t believe I am asking this, as I have already actioned as stated above, but in your opinion, for me, is there any justification in now paying £180 more, thus reducing my saving to £145, for the privilege of reinstating the 5600X along with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, just in case I down the line need upgraded graphics? As you say, the 5600G can be added to later, although I realise that it doesn’t include all the finesse of the 5600X. Having said that, I feel that it is so unlikely that I will actually need to upgrade, that I have probably answered my own question! Ignore me!
TonyCarter
VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
If you go with the 5600G, there's nothing stopping you adding in a discrete GPU (and remembering to switch the monitor cable to the new GPU of course) down the line when your requirements change...and possibly when the mad GPU pricing has ended (or you're lucky enough to snag a new GPU at RRP).
@Altech. If you are buying a 5600G system rather than a 5800X or even a 5600X, I think you've seen the light!
I don't know the exact spec you've gone for but unless what you want to do if very different from the core productivity/leisure stuff you've implied then it will perform fine. For £850-900 or so you can get a perfectly decent custom built PC for that role.
Add a discrete sound card if the on-board is not up to scratch. Add a low-end discrete GPU if necessary. Add more storage. Add more RAM. All easy to do later. But right now you can save £350+ vs. the original build. Money staying in your pocket is the biggest form of future proofing you can ever get.
sck451
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
The problem with that plan is that the 1050 Ti is also not amazing, so it wouldn't do the job for you in future anyway. You'd be better off sticking with the integrated graphics now, and only upgrading when you need it, when hopefully the money will go a lot further. The gap between the 5600G and 5600X is honestly very small: the smaller cache doesn't seem to matter as much as it does on the eight-core 5700G.
I wouldn't go for the upgraded thermal paste, but as I understand it faster RAM is probably worthwhile as it also acts as video memory. 3600MHz would probably be an advantage, though it's hard to say how much in the real world.
Thank you Tony. That sounds like a plan. I’m sure the 5600G will be absolutely fine for my requirements.
Hi, thank you for your comments. I feel confident now that the 5600G is the right decision. When you check the specifications, it does say system memory up to 3200MHz which is what I have ordered. I can’t see me making too many demands on that aspect anyway, so should be fine.
Hi DarTon, I do appreciate your feedback, thank you. I’ve gone for:
Corsair 4000D Airflow Case
Ryzen 5 5600G
ASUS TUF Gaming B550-Plus (WiFi)
16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz
No graphics card
2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
1TB Samsung 970 EVO PLUS M.2
USB 3.0 External Card Reader
Corsair 550W TXm Series PSU
Standard AMD Cooler
Onboard 6-channel (5.1) High-Def Audio
2-port (1 x Type A, 1 x Type C) USB 3.1 PCIe
After all my invoices and credit notes, I paid just over £1000 for this package, presuming that I receive it at some stage. Today was working day 16 so I expect there’s a way to go yet!
I have deliberately selected a better spec than I actually need, (mainly up to 4K video playback/streaming/no gaming) just to build in some headroom and future-proofing. As you say, there is always room for upgrading down the line if needed.
PS I didn’t in the end go for the special thermal paste as I saw that this was pre-applied to the processor.
Thank you. I did wonder about the USB port situation as the case itself actually has 1 x Type A (3.0) and a Type C on the top-front as well. I should have three Type C ports altogether as there is also one on the motherboard which is fine as there will be more use for them going forward.