Alright, help me with my new build

[Easto]

I already have a very nice case, 1000W PSU and all the peripherals. My first priority is to use it as a workstation. I run Adobe Lightroom 4 and I'll be updating to a new version of Steinberg's Cubase sometime soon. What I really need help with is the CPU/Mobo combination. I'll be buying a 256gb SSD for the OS and primary software. Then another 500gb ssd for storage then a remote HDD for nightly backups. I have a HDD dockingstation so being able to connect to the Mobo with eSata would be a plus. I'm very interested in using the new M.2 technology as either a secondary drive or as a scratch drive when using Lightroom.

Gaming is not really a priority but I will eventually be getting a video card, but since I only run at 1080 I really don't need all that power.

I would be willing to spend up to $750 - $1000 for the CPU/Mobo combination.

[Mark]

look hard at the new AMD ryzen chips, 8 core, overclockable and cheap from what i have seen

AMD is also coming out with new cpus nicknamed "thread ripper" that should be an incredible value compared to the intel 10-12 cores

i believe the mobos will be pricier that the ryzen chips for sure though


https://hardforum.com/forums/amd-processors.6/

https://hardforum.com/forums/intel-processors.5/

[YARDofSTUF]

Since gaming isn't a big thing I agree with mark on getting a Ryzen chip. A modern video card could benefit you with lightroom too, they have a GPU acceleration feature and I think 4 has it.

750-1000 you can get a Ryzen 1800x, 1700x is probably the best value though. Quality motherboards seem limited right now since Ryzen is new, but the ASRock Taichi looks nice and is well reviewed, but no esata. Might be low on internal pcie slots as well.

[Philip]

Ryzens are cool, I'm glad AMD is back. Either that or one of the newest series I5/I7. I would be careful about the Ryzen motherboard as Yardy said if you decide to go that way, they are very new and some have quirks/issues. Just check the reviews on Newegg.

[Easto]

From what I've been seeing the Ryzen Mobos are somewhat buggy. I may stick with Intel. Do the M2 SSDs have speed ratings? I'd like to try out that technology but I'm not as up on these as I should be. I just want to get the Mobo/CPU right along with a couple SSDs and the M2.

Is it advisable to load the OS on a Primary SSD or the M2?

1. 250g SSD for Apps
2. 500g SSD for pictures
3 M2 as a scratch drive?

[Philip]

For both M2 and SATA SSDs, I'd stick with Samsung (or Intel).
For the MoBo... I was very happy with my old Intel Mobo, but since they stopped making consumer ones I am back to ASUS. Nice flashy BIOSes now, seems they work great, haven't had any issues in a year. I'd stick with one of the big names here as well, newer chipset, fast DDR4 support, good onboard NIC(s) brand, the slots and M2 support you need.

I would install the OS on the fastest drive, M2 presumably, and use another for storage. One big SSD is better than two small ones imho, you get more even wear, they come with bigger cache and often better MTBF.
Don't skimp on an efficient PSU as well (I know you wouldn't)

[David]

I have been looking into a off lease server as my next desktop.

EBay has dual cpu 10 cores with tons of RAM on the cheap.

[Philip]

Some servers can get quite noisy, I'd be careful on that front

[Philip]

I am upgrading my daughter's i3 (the Asus MoBo died, it's ~5 years old). After a lot comparing benchmarks of I5/I7 CPUs with Ryzen, decided to give AMD a shot - seems like much better price/performance ratio. I am going with the following:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6-core 3.2 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo, 65W)
MoBo: ASRock X370 Killer SLI/AC
RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000. CAS 15, timing 15-15-15-35, voltage 1.35V
All for ~$500 @ Newegg, CPU is $200, Motherboard $140, RAM $180

Here are some comparable CPUs benchmarks/prices, showing about $100 advantage in AMDs favor:
CPU mark (higher is better) - price / model (source: cpubenchmark.net)
12,820 - $300 Intel Core i5-8600K @ 3.60GHz
12,336 - $200 AMD Ryzen 5 1600
12,095 - $300 Intel Core i7-7700K @ 4.20GHz
11,694 - $230 Intel Core i5-8400 @ 2.80GHz
11,110 - $360 Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.00GHz
10,800 - *** Intel Core i7-7700 @ 3.60GHz
9,183 - $210 Intel Core i5-7600K @ 3.80GHz
8,464 - *** Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.40GHz
6,469 - *** Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.30GHz

It's been a while since I built an AMD box, will let you know if installation goes smoothly

[Easto]

Philip. Thanks for those specs. I'm still unsure which way I'm going to go with the CPU/Mobo.

[YARDofSTUF]

For an i3 upgrade I can see going Ryzen, but looking at comparisons of the Ryzens to the older 2600k from intel its kinda sad how bad it can be at gaming. For a non gaming focused machine Ryzen would be a viable choice.

[Easto]

Right now I'm running an i5 - 2500 with 8gig of ram. Almost anything would be a huge upgrade from where I am now. I'm not doing any gaming and I don't think I'll be getting back into it anytime soon. I'll probably be using the onboard vid hardware of whatever mobo I go with. I've never been a bleeding edge kind of guy, but I would like to scratch the surface a bit.

Mostly I'm using Lightroom 4. I'd like to get a snappier response when I'm loading and editing large photos. The other program is Steinberg's Cubase. I'm using Cubase 5 which is about 6 years old. It was well matched to my current hardware and since I will not be upgrading to a newer version, any improvement in hardware will and should be noticable.

What's killing me now are the prices for RAM. Anything on the horizon pointing to prices going down a bit?

[YARDofSTUF]

I hear ya dude, doesn't seem like it, but I'm hoping for a drop in early 2018.

[Philip]

For an i3 upgrade I can see going Ryzen, but looking at comparisons of the Ryzens to the older 2600k from intel its kinda sad how bad it can be at gaming. For a non gaming focused machine Ryzen would be a viable choice.

Ryzen 5 1600 is a much better processor for the price than any i5 imho. 2600k was i7, and 2500k was i5 if I remember correctly?

[Easto]

My current CPU is a i5 2500 (non "K"). No overclocking. I'm positive anything is going to be a huge improvement.

[YARDofSTUF]

Ryzen 5 1600 is a much better processor for the price than any i5 imho. 2600k was i7, and 2500k was i5 if I remember correctly?

Ya, the Ryzen will do much better at everything other than gaming, and for some games it'll pull ahead, but theres alot of games the 2nd gen i5s will keep up with ryzen, and the i7s will surpass.

The Ryzen 5 1600 is def a better choice, jsut surpising it cant pull a solid win over the 2nd gen intels.

EDIT: Solid win for gaming that is.

[Philip]

You are right, I looked at some gaming benchmarks too. It is a bit unimpressive for gaming at the moment vs. I5s. I suppose those benchmarks are a bit murkier because of the differences in number of cores, graphic card biases, etc. and mainly software optimization (Zen architecture). Still a great CPU for $200. It's been so long since I've built an AMD rig I just have to jump at the opportunity when the performance is there.