Sanity Check: 5600X/B550 Vs 3600/B450

coota1268 on 19/01/2021 - 10:26

My old Intel board died recently, but I was able to sell the CPU…

Originally I was set on getting a 5600X/B550 combo to replace it. But after seeing the prices and benchmarks, I don't think it's that big of a performance jump from a 3600/B450 combo & the price jump is a few hundred extra for things I don't really need (PCIe 4.0, 2.5GB LAN, USB 3.2 Gen 2 etc)… Plus the Australia Tax makes the 5600X pretty expensive.

I mostly do 24” 1080p 144hz gaming or maybe 27” 1440p in the future & I'll be using an existing RTX2070 + 16GB RAM. My next build hopefully won't be for a few years w/ the new AMD Socket, DDR5 etc (Hence not needing B550 atm).

3600 CPU + B450 Motherboard

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $306.90 @ Newegg Australia
Motherboard MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard $168.00 @ Skycomp Technology
Total $474.90

vs

5600X CPU + B550 Motherboard

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor $545.00 @ Mighty Ape
Motherboard MSI MAG B550M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $239.00 @ Centre Com
Total $784.00

Tell me I'm not crazy & making a mistake buy going the 3600/B450… Hopefully I won't regret it in a few months :/

Computing

Comments

  • gmail92 on 19/01/2021 - 10:42
    +1

    I've gone down the route of 10400F + Z490; with the upgrade path in a few years when they throw out 11th gen I7/I9

    • Lighter Fluid on 21/01/2021 - 00:15

      so been thinking about doing that, the only reason why I stuck with am4 is due to the far greater power efficiency which means that I don't have to change out my 850w psu. With intel 14nm ++++++++++++++++++ cpu's the only thing you can be sure about is that it'll be at least 100w over ryzen 5000 under any kind of real workload which with a beefy gpu may be a good reason your pc may crash on a 650 or 750w psu.

      That being said the ces pricing makes me want to laugh so hard. Simply because AMD is charging more for this new gen Intel's back to the give you less charge you more. In case you don't know yes you get single core ipc increase with 11th gen, but you lose multi thread performance which again is pretty much the only reason you would even bother upgrading to i7/i9 from your i5 since gaming wise you simply won't see that big of a difference.

      • gmail92 on 21/01/2021 - 12:16

        Will it be good enough to max out my 3070 performance and hold me out for a good amount of time? Probably. I don't see consoles or games requiring significantly more cores in the near future.

  • mizx on 19/01/2021 - 10:45
    +8

    Watch this and save yourself $300.

    • zrmx on 19/01/2021 - 10:56
      +1

      ^+1

      The 3600/B450 combo will definitely be the better value option, and will suffice especially you're only pairing with a 2070. If you don't really need a full ATX board, the micro-ATX MSI B450M Mortar Max would save you a bit more too ($145 delivered from Harris Technology via Amazon AU, https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07WC6LLB6). It has the same good build and quality VRM as the Tomahawk Max.

      See here for a few scenarios explored if you're also considering 10400F vs 3600.

      • Lighter Fluid on 21/01/2021 - 00:20

        Question. If one worries about 5600/b550 or 3600/b450 then can one assume that they would still be on 1080p? Jokes by the way but it's a legit point of consideration for alot of people, if you're gaming on a budget then go with 10th gen i5 with how far the prices have fallen lately for max 1080p performance at same price bracket.

        • zrmx on 21/01/2021 - 10:18

          The resolution they might want to target depends more on what monitor they've already got lol, or what they're going to get, which also relate to budget as well.

          E.g. I already have a 1440p monitor (albeit 60Hz) when I was previously on a 1600AF/B350, and then got a 3600/B450, but still 1440p. In terms of performance, as long as you aren't on 1080p, the bottleneck will almost always be the GPU in practice (as long as your modern CPU (I'd say from-Haswell for intel, and from-Zen for AMD) has more than 6 threads).

          So yea it'll be heavily dependent on budget, but depends on how much they would like to stretch things, for what the different budget points allow for them.

  • pharkurnell on 19/01/2021 - 13:12

    Which would be better 'future' proof out of the 2 OP's options ??

  • SuperMrBlob on 19/01/2021 - 13:19
    +1

    I think B450 / B550 is a somewhat separate decision than 3600 / 5600X. You can run Zen 3 on B450. If it's just a 6 core it'll be fine on most/all boards.

    At this point both CPUs are not a good value, if you're keen to go AMD I would personally wait for the rumored $220 USD 5600 (non-X).

    • smashman42 on 19/01/2021 - 15:33

      I'm waiting for that non-X 5600 or possibly the i5-11400 with the B560 with unlocked RAM OC support - the market is batshit atm

      AMD really should have used one of the other 7nm nodes (+ or p or whatever suffix) rather than having all their shit (Zen 2 and 3, RDNA 1 and 2, console chipsets) on the one oversubscribed node

  • axlfan on 19/01/2021 - 13:31
    +1

    I think you should be perfectly fine with Ryzen 5 3600 and B450 combo.
    If it's possible, you can try to get the B550 mobo since the difference is only about $60 and you will have more options as in PCIe 4.0 etc should you need it in the near future.

    • pformag on 19/01/2021 - 13:37

      PRO4 B550 is $169

      • axlfan on 19/01/2021 - 14:00

        Thats perfect and should make choice easy for OP.

  • Abaddon on 19/01/2021 - 13:36

    You are buying a dead end motherboard/RAM for a single generation. I don't see the point paying 65% more for an extra 4-10% at 1080p and 2-4% at higher resolution.

    I'd put the extra dollars towards a higher spec GPU which you'll probably keep through your next upgrade.

    • AustriaBargain on 19/01/2021 - 14:30

      Maybe when he upgrades he's going to give this one to his nephew, which will have to last the nephew for 5+ years. It's like people complaining about others who upgrade their phones every year or two. Do you think we are just throwing the old devices in the bin?

      • Abaddon on 21/01/2021 - 16:01
        +1

        What you say makes zero sense. I'm saying whatever CPU you put on the board is going to stay there. There isn't an upgrade path beyond what exists now for this board/memory. GPU's are only going to become more powerful and cheaper, which will only shrink any benefit you'd get out of the CPU here.

        So you could maybe get a gen 4 SSD in the future, but gen 3 should be just fine with this CPU/board/memory.

        I never said it's going in the bin, just that there is no point future proofing something with no upgrade future.

        • AustriaBargain on 21/01/2021 - 17:02

          Years from now why would his nephew need an upgrade path? By that point you just run the computer in until it dies.

  • bazingaa on 19/01/2021 - 14:35

    My next build hopefully won't be for a few years

    10400F + H410/B460

  • knobbs on 19/01/2021 - 14:41
    +1

    I too am looking at similar and have decided since I do not plan to upgrade it for 5yrs+ I don't care about the architecture as it will be obsolete the next upgrade I do.

    I have settled on the 3600 + B450. I was a little picky on the board as I need 5.1 audio + 2x M.2 slots and either wifi or PCI slot for wifi card. Otherwise I might have gone for a 300 board.

    • EightImmortals on 19/01/2021 - 16:02

      Sounds good, I was musing over an upgrade myself (i5 4690) and looking at the 5600 but was put off by the price.

  • EightImmortals on 19/01/2021 - 18:49

    P.S. What would be a good 32gb ram kit to go with the 3600 and a decent air cooler…I'm feeling kinda motivated right now and might start collecting parts. :)

  • MJi on 19/01/2021 - 22:38

    I got my 5600x for 469, and plus b550m ds3h for 149, a month ago. Capable of overclocking single core to 4.95ghz, all cores 4.7ghz. If you can wait, I'd say get the latest combo.

  • [Deactivated] on 20/01/2021 - 17:44

    Go aliexpress 10600k + (domestic) z490

    Or if you don't feel comfortable buying from aliexpress go 10400f + h470

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