AMD 3900x build

Soldato
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Good day all,
I'm looking for help with a 3900x build, a CPU, Motherboard, cooler and ram. What do people recommend?

From the bit of research I've done so far there are a few contenders:
MSI x570a pro
Gigabyte x570 aurous ultra
Rog crosshair viii

I currently have a 6700k, 16gb ram and a hero maximus VIII.

I'm okay for a case as I will use what I currently have, a Phanteks Evolv. I've a Samsung 960 1tb, a sumsung 850, super flower 650w PSU, gigabyte 2080ti and a creative ae-5.

I understand there is some difference with the PCI-E on the AMD boards to use gen 4? I've also seen that temps can get quite toasty using M2 drives. Is this just on gen 4 or all M2 drives?
Can anyone seen any conflicts with what I have currently and new gear?

Thanks
 
Soldato
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Ultra if you need the WiFi, Elite would be fine enough if not needed .
Viper steel 3600hz is a speedy number that works well

Chipset gets hot when your doing heavy reading or writing to a Gen 4 m.2 or its in raid . For gaming, will never reach its peak heat

Actually cheaper then Ultra , but lacks higher grade VRM but fine for 3900X

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £255.48 (includes shipping: £10.50)​
mobile-minimized.png
 
Last edited:
Soldato
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MSI x570a pro
While MSI ruled in B450, in X570 they're pretty much scamming with half the range having copypasta VRM from £100 B450 boards.
X570 Aorus Elite is the most sense making X570 board for huge majority of uses:
It has modern design higher efficiency and overkill strength VRM for any AM4 CPU.
PCIe slots are sensibly positioned giving plenty of expandability choises and connectivity is pretty darn good at stock. (2 USB3 headers unlike in expensive boards of poor Asus)
And chipset cooler is sensibly designed with actual heatsink and positioned farther from graphics card's heats allowing semi passive cooling.

Unlike Asus using tinfoil origami heatsink under huge marketing garbage covers and positioned under graphics card to be bathed in its heat...
I mean can't have that chipset cooler operating semi passively and fan having too long life, can't we?

Put saved money towards having 2x16GB of memory to match CPU in room for multitasking.
Dual rank's command interleaving also gives some extra performance per bus speed.
This using two single rank 8GB DIMMs per channel, but result is same to one dual rank DIMM per channel:
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SYZVDKhjk8poNr7qyW8rGf.png

In drives you better forget PCIe v4 drives go for PCIe v3 and more actual capacity.
Only game they would give advantage is copying files to new folders over and over to fill the drive and then format and start over.
Instead of paying for that marketing hullabaloo go for more capcity, or enough RAM to avoid need for some "page file streaming".
 
Soldato
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@EsaT

Corvus must be showing wonders for b450 stocks . Not that they weren't hard to shift but up coming b550 and lessor models being the only ones left and likes of Toma rising in price by £20+...

A320 will be in demand next ! :(
 
Soldato
OP
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Thanks for the replies. This is really useful information and greatly appreciated. I follow tech lightly so have rough ideas of what is out there, but when it comes to upgrade time there can be a lot to digest.

In regards to RAM, I remember reading something about 3400 being the best option, is this correct?
I understand that the Prism cooler is also pretty good, is there any reason to get something else over this, I guess if I were to overclock I'd want to get something after market. But for stock it would be fine?
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Posts
18,514
Thanks for the replies. This is really useful information and greatly appreciated. I follow tech lightly so have rough ideas of what is out there, but when it comes to upgrade time there can be a lot to digest.

In regards to RAM, I remember reading something about 3400 being the best option, is this correct?
I understand that the Prism cooler is also pretty good, is there any reason to get something else over this, I guess if I were to overclock I'd want to get something after market. But for stock it would be fine?

x570 board the 3600hz


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £288.67 (includes shipping: £8.70)​


if you know what your doing, 3200hz viper should hit 3600hz oc
 
Soldato
OP
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Posts
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Location
Swindon
Overclockers have a nice bundle on the 3900X and the Auros Elite so I think I am going to get that when it is back in stock.
I currently have a Noctua NH-D15 on this build and it turns out I can use it on the 3900x as well? So if that is the case, I think I will just use that and it saves me buying another cooler which would be great. I really like this one so am more than happy that I can keep it.
 
Soldato
Joined
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Posts
18,514
Overclockers have a nice bundle on the 3900X and the Auros Elite so I think I am going to get that when it is back in stock.
I currently have a Noctua NH-D15 on this build and it turns out I can use it on the 3900x as well? So if that is the case, I think I will just use that and it saves me buying another cooler which would be great. I really like this one so am more than happy that I can keep it.

As above, reuse
 
Soldato
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Soldato
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I've just done the build in my sig.

I originally was going to go MSI motherboards as when I previously had desktops - this is the first I've had for 10 years ! - I always had them. This Gigabyte Elite seems great though.
 
Soldato
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I've just done the build in my sig.

I originally was going to go MSI motherboards as when I previously had desktops - this is the first I've had for 10 years ! - I always had them. This Gigabyte Elite seems great though.

Damn, missed your posting. Rig looks awesome !

For OP, grabbing Elite and Aorus WiFi 6 cheaper option then Ultra
 
Soldato
OP
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You can get free AM4 mounting kit from Noctua, if you bought it before AM4 socket era.
https://noctua.at/en/nm-am4-mounting-kit-order-form

Mounting kit is also available separately, but out of stock and likely not any faster to get that way.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noctua-nm-am4-mounting-kit-hs-037-nc.html

This is great. I am going to dig the box out and check if I have this kit. I have a feeling I do.

I've just done the build in my sig.

I originally was going to go MSI motherboards as when I previously had desktops - this is the first I've had for 10 years ! - I always had them. This Gigabyte Elite seems great though.

Great stuff. I've owned a few Gigabyte things in the past and have always liked them so glad to see this board is decent.
 
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