Need help replacing CPU, MOBO, Memory

CRS

Hi Everyone,

my CPU recently gave up the ghost, and so I will be replacing it in the near future. I have a budget of about $500.

I want to have an all round PC for some gaming, full stack development, and virtualization using docker and kubernetes. I don't do much competitive gaming, I play starcraft 2 a bit, and then games like Witcher 3. No FPS or anything requiring a heavy cruncher CPU which is why my first thought is a Ryzen 3700X, or maybe Ryzen 3600X. I am leaning towards the 3700 due to the fact that it has two additional cores. I'd like to start with 32GB of ram but be expandable up to 64GB to manage virtual machines. I will be setting up configurations in virtual box to act as DB servers, Web Servers, and other server machines as well as having microservices deployed in Kubernetes.

I do not intend to do any overclocking, so hopefully I can get away with the stock coolers. As far as the motherboard goes, I am thinking something low end, but wouldn't be adverse to a built in WIFI. I was initially thinking a B450 as the base, as long as the BIOS compatability issue is not a thing, but not set in stone.

thanks in Advance,

Carl

TSTonyV

The 3700X is a great all around processor and yes, you will absolutely be fine with the stock cooler. The Wraith Prism that comes with the 3700X is actually quite capable for an out-of-box cooler. Even if gaming is not a priority, the third gen Ryzen CPUs are quite capable when it comes to gaming anyway and you'll have no complaints on that front either. 

You could use a B450 board, but if you're interested in PCIe 4.0 support for the future, you'll want to go with a B550 or X570 board, however that will push over your $500 budget. There shouldn't be any compatibility issues with a B450, and pretty much all the boards should have the BIOS update out of box at this point. 

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=58a8ac51-680b-441f-b597-1620c8c1bfa8

This has the cheapest B450 board with on-board WiFi we carry. You could save a little bit of cost on the Ram if you went with DDR4-3200 speed, but Ryzen third gen likes 3600. 

CRS

Thanks !!!

CRS

So would I be correct in thinking I would have to change the default settings on the motherboard to change the frequency to get the most out of the memory. I looked on the Motherboard and it shows compatible memory for DDR4 3200 O.C., 2933 O.C., 2667, 2400, 2133

Is this likely to have much of an effect on heat or is this sort of "overclocking" unlikely to have much effect from a heat perspective 

TSTonyV

By default any motherboard is going to clock DDR4 memory down to 2133, and you have to enable the XMP/DOCP setting in BIOS to use it at its full speeds. If the board is listing 3200 as the max compatible speed, I'd probably go with a 3200 kit actually. It'll save you a little bit of money anyway. Alternatively, jump down to the 3600X and go with a better board that can use 3600 memory. 

It won't really have an effect on heat and I wouldn't be concerned about that unless you were doing some pretty extreme memory overclocking anyway.