Since this is already going to cost me roughly 600€ I'm going to delay an aftermarket CPU cooler, m.2 PCIE SSD and a new case for a few months.
Ryzen - or rather the motherboards - seems to be picky regarding RAM. I chose a single stick of 16GB DDR4-2400 because of the price (120€). Others like @Dje4321, @MichaelLindman and @dinscurge pointed out other reasons to go with 1x16GB instead of 2x8GB (which made sense when I read them but....I already forgot, sorry).
I'm mainly going to use it for gaming, occasional movie transcoding and procrastinating on Al Gore's virtual information highway. Nothing fancy and the 1700 is probably overkill, but....coming from an i3-4130 and being someone that rarely upgrades anything I want it to last a few years (hence the 1700 instead of the 1600X). Same goes for the motherboard. The main reason I chose the Asus X370 Prime is because it's the cheapest mobo with 8x SATA ports, Intel LAN and the m.2 is not crippled like on the Asrock X370 Killer SLI. I was also told more phases = better.
Oh, and I'm going to use it with a fresh version of Win10.
Is there anything I might have missed? Overall regarding Ryzen or something specific with one of those components?
Well more phases doesnt allways mean better by all means. It highly depends on the types of mosfets used on the vrm aswell, and how efficient those are. But the Asus X370 prime pro should be a good choice. The only thing it lacks is a B-clock generator i think.
Not sure how much the Asrock X370 Taichi cost at your area. But that board is one of the best X370 boards out there.
The cheapest ones start at ~150€ with the Asus X370 Prime Pro being the only one that cheap with 8x SATA 6Gbps ports. Close follow ups for me would be the MSI X370 SLI Plus and Asrock X370 Killer SLI (leaning more towards the Asrock).
Ryzen performance in scenarios when inter-core communication is prevalent is reliant on memory frequency. Raising the clock on your memory via an overclock to the ~3000mhz range would net you a nice performance bump. The "infinity fabric" as AMD calls it is what connects the two groups of 4 cores together on a Ryzen 7 octacore processor, and this "infinity fabric" interconnect runs at half the memory frequency, hence why raising the frequency aids in tasks that require cores from one complex to communicate with cores in the other complex. Raising the frequency 20% doesn't result in a 20% performance bump, but its sizable and worth your time regardless. Have fun!
You can get slower ram and OC it, but it'll require you to run a higher memory voltage and looser memory timings. Spending a bit more on Ram and going something like 2x8GB @ 3200Mhz would be advisable. Just make sure that the kit of memory you buy is specifically listed on whatever motherboard you buy's QVL memory list. If its not on the list, your going to run into more issue.
Great points. High frequency DDR4 speeds adds to Ryzen performance unlike other platforms. If you can get to 3200mhz/1600mt's then great... if more? Even better.
A rumored AMD/Mobo manufacture UEFI/Bios release is due any week now and is stated to increase compatibility and performance.
Also, as suggested choose the motherboard wisely if you are looking for a 'gaming PC'. An external BCLK generator is only available on select X370 models... unless you are 'OK' with 'not' OC'ing your DDR4 via that method.
Only things I ever OC'd were my GPUs with a simple slider. Other than that I have basically no knowledge about and absolutely no experience when it comes to overclocking.
Is it that big of a deal? "As long as it has the same speeds and timings it's okay to mix RAM" is what I read a lot (at least for platforms that aren't brandnew).
So on Intel, XMP works. XMP basically is Intel's standardized protocol/feature/thing that basically allows the motherboard to read from the memory what settings the memory needs to run at its optimal speed and timings. This is however, an Intel feature that is exclusive to the Intel platforms. So, for Ryzen, AMD has to go in and manually setup profiles for every different kit of ram for the ram to work. If AMD has not explicitly made a "profile" of sorts for that memory, it will either not boot or will only boot at the base memory speed and loose timings. I don't know if its no boot or just base memory speed boot, and I don't have a Ryzen system to test this on. Either way, you'll want to just go for kits on the QVL memory list.
I think AMD had some RAM kits (most likely rebranded like the OCZ/Toshiba SSDs) with supported speeds and timings (AMP). It doesn't seem to be very common for any other brand. All I could gather about RAM for Ryzen is that "you want" high speeds, single rank and Samsung b-die. Among the specific models seems to be G.Skill Flare X (high prices, scarce availability).
If anything I want to keep the prices low. Paying for features I'll probably won't even use (no way around them if they come with the bundle), luxury (like color matching parts) and the likes (general overkill for my needs) is not what I'm looking for. Keeping the cost low without sacrificing stability or features is what I want.
It is great to see someone also doing advance research before making the purchase!
If you are not an advanced CPU/DDR overclocker then it is true that a base clock modifier on the select X370 motherboards is of little or no importance. It also can cause trouble with PCIE add in cards.
The DDR4 then is a critical choice at the moment, it will become less of an issue as AMD/Mobo manufacturers update the microcode for their UEFI/Bios. As those updates occur, usability/compatibility and performance will increase. So, again I would at least try to find @3200mhz/1600m/T's DDR4 that is single sided(rank) & Samsung B-Die chips(IC's). - Which you have already discovered!
Also the 'profiles' that memory come with have the FSB:DRam ratio, timings, voltage and speed which currently allow many to run their DDR4 at the advertised 'rated' speed, but due to the immaturity of the AM4 platform some of us are running... at lower speeds than the 'rated' speed. Hopefully that changes any day now...
I bought the same setup and it was working great out of the box. Updating the UEFI bricked my board. I get a replacement board in a few days. Im not sure if it was a one off thing just I thought I would let you know my experience. I still had the CPU overclocked and used the UEFI tools to do the update.
For memory I picked some cheaper 2666Mhz ram and only 8G because it was cheap at $105AUD. I will get more memory when it settles in price. It posted fine at 2666. HyperX HX426C15FBK2/8 8GB (2x4GB) 2666MHz DDR4
Outside of my doing the UEFI update it seemed to be working great.
I'm still a bit sceptical about the whole Samsung b-die thing. Where's the difference to other RAM and why does it "perform" better (or rather: as advertised) than RAM without Samsung b-die? Is this going to be a permanent thing (get something else, settle for less, even if the specs are the same) or is parity between all RAM to be expected?
My only choice of 1x16GB 3200MHz with or without Samsung b-die is the G.Skill Ripjaws V (listed in a reddit post about RAM with Samsung b-die). There doesn't seem to be any other RAM kits listed that are 1x16GB 3200MHz.
@Marten I read that thread....a bummer. Do you think it was because you updated with the OC profile still active?
I try to be pretty read up on tech but when it comes to hardware I only update my machine every 4-6 years so I dont have a lot of experience there. Im not going to bother with the UEFI on the next board if it works out of the box like the first one did.
Flashing firmware is pretty mainstream now. I dont know if the OC was the problem or it was just that one off thing. Im pretty sure the store won't be happy if I come back with another bricked board
Last 3 PC builds where all asus boards with no problems or complaints however.
Doesn't matter if they're happy or not. You're the customer and a product they sold to you didn't work/had a malfunction. If it's in such a short time after the purchase they have to prove to you that it was your fault. If they can't then you probably did nothing wrong and it's a flaw of the product and the manufacturer's fault. If it keeps happening they might want to look into it and stop selling that specific motherboard.....that is if they care enough (and they should cause it could save them trouble with returning a product).
Since AM4 is a new platform it might just be that it doesn't like having the BIOS flashed with an OC profile in place. Seeing how picky AM4 is with RAM it wouldn't surprise me. A quick google search shows multiple forum posts as results where people have trouble with their Prime X370 Pros.
It's a new platform and some issues are to be expected (or rather not, which makes them issues). If your store doesn't understand that you might want to shop somewhere else.
Please, don't be 'skeptical'. It's... actually a real issue - at the moment. True, the hope is over the next AMD microcode update that the Motherboard manufacturers then release to us will increase compatibility between the memory chip makers. Namely Samsung, Hynix and Micron.
Currently Samsung is known for making higher quality chips, as far as year 2017. Some may disagree, of course.
So, if you can get a good or great price on single ranked/Samsung B-die memory you will have better performance in the 'here and now' and not have to wait for microcode/bios updates(which is the situation I am in:disappointed:)
My DDR4 is TridentZ Hynix memory rated @3200mhz...currently clocking in @2400mhz. But at CAS12!!! So that's a "+"
