Ryzen 3 + ASRock - Hardware Unboxed Review

I'm going to go ahead and resurrect this old thread once more, since I've nearly completed my new Ryzen build and I ended up getting one the the CPUs that previously made maybe the least sense to me: the 1500X.

Initially I was planning on getting the 1200. After all, Ryzen 2 is coming next year and upgrading from a 1200 would sting the least. If I'd choose to wait for Ryzen 3, the 1200 would still be able to get nearly all out of my GTX 1060. However, I started to miss those extra threads after looking at benchmarks, considering the various games I like to play and a possible GPU upgrade next year. Also, I would certainly want to overclok the snot out of it, which would mean that the stock cooler would have to be replaced. That would mean a significant price hike and the 1200 started looking less like the great deal I had thought it was.

The next CPU I considered was the 1400. Extra threads meant steadier performance in thread hungry games, but it would come with the same, smaller cooler as the 1200. Overclocking the 1400 would be inevitable, and so would be having to buy a better cooler. Also, the 1400 had less L3 cache than the 1500X, which just rubbed me the wrong way even though the difference in performance is in most cases negligible.

I was still sceptical of the 1500X, so I quickly considered the 1600. However, I knew I was going for a mATX build, which meant the VRM of the motherboard would at best be average. And again, I would want to overclock the CPU and even though the 1600 comes with the larger stock cooler, it would benefit from a bigger one. Finding a suitable cooler could be a challenge and if I'd have to opt for a tower cooler, then I might have to worry about the VRM temperatures. Furthermore, since I currently have a GTX 1060, I wouldn't really benefit from the extra power the 1600 had to offer before I would upgrade my GPU. Keep the stock cooler and disable a few cores in favor of higher clock speeds? It just didn't seem right.

So, I started to feel the 1500X would be the answer after all. It had the extra threads, the full 16 MB of L3 cache and the bigger stock cooler. It would have decent single thread performance even at stock speeds, yet the stock cooler should have enough headroom for overclocking so that I could skip spending money on an aftermarket cooler if I wanted to take that route. Also, my motherboard's VRM should be able to handle the four core without issues, especially if I could keep the stock cooler, which is a top-down blowing design. During the process of planning my new rig I had seen the 1500X on sale and I started to regret I hadn't bought it when I had the chance. I decided that if I'd see it on sale again, I'd get it. I did and, well, I did.

TL;DR: The CPU I previously thought to be one of the least sensible Ryzen CPUs ended up providing the most bang for buck and being the most rounded choice in my use case.

Now all that's left is installing an OS and I can start fighting with memory speeds, temperatures and clock speed multipliers...

The Bristol Ridge AM4 Athlons and APUs are another budget entry into the AM4 platform. I see a fair amount of "why did AMD bother" but the fact is, not everyone can afford a full platform upgrade all at once. Bristol Ridge AM4 CPUs will encourage users to upgrade to the platform and allow them to upgrade further later on. There is no way this is coincidence. Intel has Celeron, AMD has these now. APUs offer particular value in that they have integrated graphics, it's even decent enough for casual gaming and E-Sports (albeit not at blistering FPS). 

petrolhead

the logic for some people is sound to buy the cheaper cpu when building up a new system
allowing important extra few bucks/euros/pounds to buy better suited ram/graphics/psu and at a later date 6 months-year when you have some spare cash then purchase a better suited mid range/priced cpu
from my experiance the r5 1600 really seems to hit the mark of price vs performance i can see this cpu being the biggest seller

it wont be very long in terms of pc tech before the r5 1600 is easy to buy a lot cheaper anyway
when zen2/zen+ is launched ebay will have plenty for sale ,or in fact good discounts should be had buying new from large dealers

i also think your logic about cores and threads is sound thinking
in my view
either get the cheaper 4c and clock it or go the proper next stage and get a 6 core

the cpus between that eg 4c8t or the ones with half the cahce disabled just dont make much sense in the pricing stages

its kinda like the old phenom2 cpu range either grab the 4 core and clock it or go full blast and get a 6 core

Ryzen 3 is a true quad core and will shine vs a 2c4t in more threaded loads. I am somewhat underwhelmed too but not surprised. For someone looking to build a solid all round PC on a tight budget the Ryzen 3 beats out the Pentium and i3 range from intel. It also won't be long until 2c4t starts to flail in games now that higher core counts are becoming more prevalent than ever before. SMT can't match up to real cores. 

Edited by Xaltar - 28 Jul 2017 at 3:36pm