New ITX build - Rocketlake or Zen2?

/\ndy · 24 Mar 2021 at 15:28

Already have the case and PSU and have a good idea which RAM and SSD I want. It's just the core architecture I'm struggling with.

Will be used for casual gaming at 1080p 60hz and occasionally media encoding. Not interested in the GPU market for obvious reasons, my trusty RX480 will have to do for now.

I'm torn between the following:

Intel:
Motherboard - B560 (£100)
CPU - 11440F (£150) OR 11600KF (£230)

Waiting for reviews for the above CPUs - fingers crossed they're a worthy upgrade from 10th gen.

AMD:
Motherboard - B450 (£100)
CPU - R5 3600 (£170)

The R5 3600 still does well according to benchmarks, and the reason I opted for B450 is because the boards are cheaper and support 5000 series with a BIOS update. I'm avoiding the 5600x as I can't justify the cost - maybe somewhere down the line there will be a vanilla 5600 to upgrade to that isn't stupidly priced.

momo56 · 24 Mar 2021 at 15:34

If you don't care about PCIE 4.0 I'd just get a cheap 2nd hand 10th gen tbh.

Managed to get a new 8 core 10700k for £225 on ebay. I'd imagine a used will be cheaper.

mickyflinn · 24 Mar 2021 at 15:45

B560 now supports ram overclock so you can use higher xmp profile than before as it was limited to 2666mhz on thd i5.

ASMB · 24 Mar 2021 at 17:18

Either choice is good for 1080p 60mhz, as you will be aware the bottleneck will be your current gpu. My choice would be the intel. it is good enough to last awhile and cheap enough that you can sell on and not have lost that much when you want to upgrade again.

PhilleH · 24 Mar 2021 at 19:43

I've been having this same debate recently while trying to spec a new build but I was erring towards the Ryzen.

I'm not sure if others know something I don't but I would wait on reviews for the 11th gen CPUs from intel. There is only one review I've seen for the 11700K but it's not very positive, and you might be better off saving and going with 10th gen.

Journey · 24 Mar 2021 at 19:59

I'd go B560, and 10400f with some decent 3200MHz+ RAM. The extra £30 for the 11400f doesn't seem worth it.

If you plan on upgrading ever, then I'd go AM4 and get the R5 3600, and at least then you can drop in a higher core-count/faster CPU easily and cheaply.