If your last computer was an Intel build, what ended up being the reason you switched to AMD for this build?

What parts did you use in your build?

What problems, if any, have you experienced thus far?

Do you think RYZEN will be enough to turn the tide for AMD?

Ryzen seemed like a good value for the cost and I felt like rewarding AMD for their hard work in the hopes they'll continue to improve the product line and give Intel a reason to look over their shoulder again.

Do you believe AMD's comments regarding the potential for improvement in terms of game-specific code optimizations?

Ronin4740 wrote: Hadn't upgraded in forever (i7 920) and always liked an underdog.  Back in the early days I ran Cyrix processors :) Ryzen seemed like a good value for the cost and I felt like rewarding AMD for their hard work in the hopes they'll continue to improve the product line and give Intel a reason to look over their shoulder again.

Intel users, diehard and casual alike, seem to be split in the way they've responded to RYZEN. Many are using their buying decisions to air grievances over cost and a perceived lack of innovation, while others seem to be as supportive of Intel as they ever have been.

What caused you to assume your current position?

Problems; RAM has been an issue. Ryzen boards did not like some of the RAM we purchased, but we have sorted that out.

I think Ryzen has already proven itself to be a real competitor to Intel CPU's. R5 and R3 will only increase AMD's market share. Competition is good for us, and it is really good for technology. Having two companies try to out tech each other means we may see great gains in CPU's that have been missing for the last 10 years or so.

So, back in the early days of 386's, 486's, the Pentium and the Pentium II Intel slugged it out with AMD and Cyrix in the IBM compatible space and Motorola in the overall Personal Computer arena.  As I said I'm a fan of a fair, multiple dog fight so, after buying a Microsoft Surface to replace an aging laptop around Christmas time I started to think about upgrading my desktop as well.  

I looked hard at prebuilt systems and nearly pulled the trigger on an Intel based Alienware system at the same time I purchased the Surface but decided to wait.  Last month I started to do a bit of research related to building out a machine and that's when I learned about Ryzen.  

I waited patiently for the first batches of CPU's to ship and read many of the published reviews.  I'd hoped the Ryzen CPU's would blow the doors off of comparable Intel processors but wasn't all that  disappointed to learn that they're fast but a bit slower than comparable Intel Procs - that's the way it was in the 90's when comparing Non-Intel Procs to Intel Procs.  

Maybe the performance advantage Intel has over AMD's Ryzen is partially due to everything out there which runs on a PC being code optimized to run on Intel chips... Maybe it's truly a design advantage.  The point is unless Ryzen sells fairly well and gains a bit more market share for AMD we'll never really know what it might be capable of because software houses won't spend their time doing any code optimization and Ryzen's legacy will be a paragraph or so on a Wikipedia page.  

My hope when choosing Ryzen to build a system around is that enough others will follow suit and this will energize AMD into being able to compete on a more even level with Intel through building on Ryzen's design.  In my mind we ALL win when two companies like Intel and AMD are slugging it out in the same space trying to maintain or claim dominance over the other.  It spurs technological innovation and drives prices down.  

...and it makes me happy when I remember those early days of home computing, system building, manually setting IRQ's and booting from floppy disk :)

Maybe it will in the future games.But for most of the games we are playing now,it is naerly impossible to ask the game makers to spend time (and money) on updating a game already sold for 1~2 years .It is uneconomical.

So you weren't satisfied simply reading about it, you wanted to see for yourself? That's an intriguing reason..

parsec wrote: I must say that gaming is not the only use or reason to have a PC. For those that dismiss Ryzen for not beating every Intel processor in gaming performance, your view of the world is very narrow.

I haven't gamed in years, so I'm with you on this point. It's been a little irritating trying to keep up with Ryzen news when its mostly been about gaming, thus far.

parsec wrote: One of the main questions I have is, why are the memory manufactures seemingly so behind in providing Ryzen specific memory in the marketplace? That is, plug and play memory, which we have been accustomed to for a long time. We saw some memory incompatibility between the various Intel DDR4 platforms, again caused by mismatches in the SPD and XMP data.

Well, it stands to reason that if the MOBO manufacturers weren't given a sufficient amount of time to develop their boards, then how could the memory manufacturers have had enough time? In other words, if there weren't fully formed MOBOs to work with, what were the memory manufacturers supposed to have used to test with?

parsec wrote: Ryzen is far from a mature platform, all of the first generation Ryzen processors are not even available yet! I also will be building a Ryzen system to learn about it, since it will be with us for a while, and is worth getting to know. But the relationship is just getting started.

Given your vast knowledge of computers, and this comment, I'd say that you may work in some IT related field.. True?

twf85 wrote: What parts did you use in your build?

This is what I originally went with but had to RMA the Taichi...

AMD Ryzen 1800x
G.Skill DDR4 3866 @ 3200
Asrock Taichi X370
XFX Radeon R9 390X @ 1100/1400
2x OCZ Vertex 4 raid 0 (512gb)
WD Black 1TB HDD
Corsair HX1200i

twf85 wrote: What problems, if any, have you experienced thus far?

Corrupted bios issues.

twf85 wrote: Do you think RYZEN will be enough to turn the tide for AMD?

I hope so because a one horse race is no fun.

If they make enough of a splash that Intel is forced to react, it'll be better for everyone.

I just installed some of the Flare X sticks, and they seem to be running fine @ 3200 (no BSODs yet) with the voltage at 1.35 and these settings you've mentioned on Auto.

Should I be playing with those? Would it improve performance at all if I did?