Ryzen Out The Ashes

[g0ggles1994]

Hello everyone

After a long time of leaks, teases and such finally the time has come to build my all singing, all dancing Ryzen rig.

Now I would like to take this opportunity to say; this is (unfortunately) not a custom mod build. As much as I'd love to do one, I don't have the time nor the cash, but I can see one in the future, but can't say how far in the future.

However, this build is not it's final form, my first (oh lord) custom water cooling loop will be coming at some point as well.

Some of the parts came from my old rig (SSD, Cooler, PSU) and the rest I've been purchasing slowly over the last six months.

Also this build is not sponsored by Corsair despite having a lot of Corsair components, I wish it was but I chose the components for a lot of reasons which I will delve into later.

Anyway, enough with the waffling, time for the components:

AMD Ryzen R7 1700X

MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon

16GB Corsair Vengeance LED 3200Mhz

XFX Radeon RX480 8GB GTR with Blue LED HSF Fans

Corsair H100i v2 Liquid Cooler with 2 x ML120 120mm Fans

240GB Corsair Neutron GTX SSD + 2 x 1TB HGST Travelstar HDD

Corsair RM850 850W Fully Modular 80 Plus Gold PSU with Blue/Black CableMod Braided Cables

3 x Corsair ML120 Pro Blue LED 120mm Fans

I'm going to fit it all (somehow) in this Corsair Carbide 400C

I will start building tomorrow when my Corsair Bracket arrives and will update of course, I would do video but that will be over 90% swearing.

Thanks for reading everyone and hopefully I will be posting from my new PC!

 

[Tripp]

Looking forward to updates mate, love me a blue themed rig....plus AMD so winning all round

 

[Reloaded2]

It that the XFX GTR Black Edition because I got 1500Mhz on core and 2250MHz on memory with a timespy GPU score of 4800 which is by far one of the best 480's

I also got it in RED LED

Just looked at your box, it isnt the black edition which is a shame because its a really good OC

 

[g0ggles1994]

Looking forward to updates mate, love me a blue themed rig....plus AMD so winning all round

Thanks mate, always loved the Blue and Black/White colour themes.

I've wanted to go back to AMD the moment Zen got announced a few years ago. Won't be the first time I've switched from Intel/Nvidia to all AMD

It that the XFX GTR Black Edition because I got 1500Mhz on core and 2250MHz on memory with a timespy GPU score of 4800 which is by far one of the best 480's

I also got it in RED LED

Just looked at your box, it isnt the black edition which is a shame because its a really good OC

I was looking at the Black Edition but my budget was a little constrained so I got the GTR instead and going to OC the difference, I know I'm playing the silicon lottery but fingers crossed I've got a good binned GPU.

 

[Reloaded2]

Thanks mate, always loved the Blue and Black/White colour themes.

I've wanted to go back to AMD the moment Zen got announced a few years ago. Won't be the first time I've switched from Intel/Nvidia to all AMD



I was looking at the Black Edition but my budget was a little constrained so I got the GTR instead and going to OC the difference, I know I'm playing the silicon lottery but fingers crossed I've got a good binned GPU.

Yea I got my one for £245. Now they are worth £270 which is a shame because the black edition is specifically binned for high OC not just the base OC is increased. Hope you get lucky like I did

 

[Wraith]

Hell yes, a Ryzen build! Looking forward to seeing this beast come alive.

 

[AlienALX]

Off to a great start

 

[g0ggles1994]

Thanks for the replies everyone, little update.

It's built and running but, never EVER use the RAID mode, it was a total nightmare.

Because of that, I'm still setting a lot up at the moment so pictures will be coming soon, hopefully later today

 

[g0ggles1994]

Right, update time! I had intended of updating as I built it but teething problems, uni and work had other ideas, so here is everything.

So, obviously first things first, strip the case and remove the pre installed fans, as everyone knows packaged Corsair fans are loud

I know I'm going to sound like every reviewer but this 2.5" mounting system is absolutely brilliant, comes in handy as I've got a pair of 2.5" HDDs to go with my SSD

While waiting for my Corsair brack to be delivered, I decided to get the fans mounted and the PSU in, only to realise that my rear fan is the wrong way around after taking the photo

The motherboard itself looks excellent, very sleek and neutral. Only shame is that the rear I/O is red which ruins the rest of the aesthetic, but hell I never look so I don't care

And the CPU, looks great with the RYZEN printed on it, only to be hidden away.
The RAM however looks great, matches with the motherboard very well.

Finally the Corsair bracket arrived! So got the standoffs on and the motherboard in the case

Now starts off my gripes about that case, I've had to mount my radiator to the front of the case as it can't be mounted to the top without interfering with the RAM which is very annoying as my personal preference is that radiators should be used on the exhausts, but I've seen plenty of others use this configuration without trouble so I thought I'd best give it a go

Gripe number 2! Once the PSU shroud is back on, there is barely any space for cable routing except for the center cut out, which as reviewers have said, is a little weirdly positioned especially because my RM850 isn't exactly small. However it's also weird that this motherboard's front panel pins are in the bottom center not bottom right which instead, SATA and Front USB3 are there.
I know there is the little hole below the PCIe slot but to use that, the entire motherboard would have had to come out as the Audio port and Fan port wouldn't fit through, and by that time, taking the motherboard out for something so trivial was out the question. So my own stupidty I'll admit

Time to get the GPU in, but first, take off the normal black fans it came with and fit the blue LED fans instead, handy to have these fans on the side as spares in case the others break or something.

Now the full build, since I'm not modding there's not much else to show in between, so here it is! Also, I absolutely love the door panel.

As I've said, I've had teething problems most of which were motherboard bound and have been fixed (relatively) with a BIOS update.

My FPS Drop problem turned out to be F.Lux interferring in the background, disabled it and it now runs perfectly

All in all, I want to love Ryzen, I really do. But in it's current state, I can't. It feels like all the potential is there, but until better support comes I can't use it all, primarily on the BIOS front. I know that mainly pins the blame on MSI but let us not forget how AMD launched Ryzen but forgot to support the motherboard manufacturers building up to it, unless there's a saboteur behind the curtain *cough*Intel*cough*. The RAM problem is specifically bad especially since advertising support for 3200MHz RAM is a selling point for this board, I just hope it will be fixed, and fixed soon, also same goes with the RAID drivers, they are downright horrible, getting Windows to detect the drives is one thing, but working the system or something else, Corsair Link wouldn't work, neither would CPU-Z or Speccy, I would get service crashes and such, it was a nightmare.

Finally, like I said this isn't the beast's final form, a custom water cooling loop will be coming sometime this year purely dependant on cash, unless EKWB will sponsor it (I wish) and will post more updates as BIOS updates come and once I feel like it's stable enough, I will do some proper OC'ing on the CPU and GPU.

Thanks for reading and I will be back soon

 

[g0ggles1994]

Rather large BIOS update

MSI have released a new BIOS update (V1.3) which is a terrific update.

The BIOS finally detects my G510 Keyboard which is about time, and the POST doesn't take as long anymore along with the new AGESA microcode update.

But the main thing is the A-XMP mode on the RAM. It finally works, but still not at my RAM's native 3200MHz. It has 2 profiles, 1 which runs at 2999MHz and profile 2 which is the whole hog 3200MHz. Profile 1 works perfectly, not a problem but Profile 2? Still getting the bootloop whenever POST tries to test the RAM which is a bummer, BUT as WYP said in the AGESA article, AMD are planning on releasing updated AGESA code to help with the memory issues and I'm hoping, that's when I can start using my RAM at native speed.

So in short, the updates are coming and the fixes/improvements are coming as promised which is fantastic

 

[rigel023]

my dream setup!

 

[AlienALX]

There isn't much of a difference between 2999 and 3200. I could understand the panic if it was running at 1333

I'm glad your issues seem to be getting sorted though. Rig looks great, BTW.

 

[g0ggles1994]

my dream setup!

Thanks mate, I used to look at other rigs the same way years ago, took a lot of saving for this one, but hell it's worth it in the end, absolutely

There isn't much of a difference between 2999 and 3200. I could understand the panic if it was running at 1333

I'm glad your issues seem to be getting sorted though. Rig looks great, BTW.

Thanks dude, looking at water cooling options now. I'm thinking of throwing a Vega in then doing a full, CPU, GPU, dual radiator setup. I would do it with my 480 but since it's a custom PCB there isn't any blocks available (From what I've seen) which I will admit is a shame but that's life. And I won't lie running stable at 2999 is fine, but it's quite annoying for me knowing there's still headroom I can't tap into

 

[AlienALX]

If you are thinking of going Vega I would not block up the 480. Well, not unless you do what I did with my GTX 950 and just get a core block for around £15. I'll admit, it worked splendidly (temp drops 30c+ and I got close to 1600mhz !) but yeah, I would not invest in full cover with a back plate if you are contemplating getting rid.

 

[BuGGzLuVaGAMING]

That's a nice Build you have there how is it going for you buddy.

 

[g0ggles1994]

If you are thinking of going Vega I would not block up the 480. Well, not unless you do what I did with my GTX 950 and just get a core block for around £15. I'll admit, it worked splendidly (temp drops 30c+ and I got close to 1600mhz !) but yeah, I would not invest in full cover with a back plate if you are contemplating getting rid.

That's what I'm thinking. Core blocks are tempting but it leaves the rest of the card exposed and only cooled by the case airflow, which I'm a bit wary of. Plus seeing the rest of the card exposed would just annoy me. Tit for tat

That's a nice Build you have there how is it going for you buddy.

Thanks mate. Originally it didn't work fantastic. But I credit most of that down to the motherboard BIOS being hit and miss at best. Now I've had a few updates and I've got my RAM up to 2999 the whole thing works great. I wasn't expecting much of a boost from my old setup but I am pleasantly surprised. As long as MSI get the RAM speed sorted with the next AGESA update so I can run at 3200 as well as POST speed, I'll be more than happy. Otherwise I might be replacing the motherboard with a newer generation board like the upcoming X370 Strix.