Component Advice/Recommendation (Planning a Ryzen 2 Build)

[hujan86]

I've made up my mind on the motherboard model. It's Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro, which in my opinion presented the best value. At the cheapest price from RM460 to RM480, it stood just right in the spot between price and spec (standard ATX size, decent amount of USB3 & SATA3 connections, PCIe 3.0, M2 slot, Intel Gigabit Ethernet, Realtek ALC1220). Other components however I have yet to decide.

1.) Will a cooler with 92mm fan be enough for a non-overcloked CPU with 95W TDP? Example: Noctua NH-D9L & Noctua NH-U9S. The upcoming Ryzen 7 3700 is rumored to have 12C/24T but run with 95W TDP. The 3700X on the other hand will run at higher clock speed at the same configuration, hence its 105W rated TDP. I understand that even 8 cores might be overkill in gaming but I'm also doing hours of video encoding work. Ripping and convert DVDs is a breeze, but high quality conversion from a 1080p source still takes 1-2 hours average with 8 threads.

2.) DDR4 2666Mhz RAM with latency 16-16-16-36. Will such latency give rise to significant amount of bottleneck, despite the increase in frequency (from 2133Mhz CL-15 module in the old build)? The Apacer 8GB gaming module with such spec is currently on sale for RM214, which seems like the best value when compared to the cheapest price of DDR4-2133 CL-15 (w/o the heat spreader) at RM199 for the same capacity.

3.) For HDD (as secondary drive for storage; boot drive will remain using SSD), Western Digital Caviar Black or Ultrastar? There were articles on the web that stated the Ultrastar brand (previously owned by HGST) is the most reliable, compared to Seagate and even WD's branded products. Both Caviar Black and Ultrastar have the same 5-year warranty and are priced similarly for 4TB and above (the former is slightly cheaper, with price difference of RM20). The latter loses out in terms of price for 1TB & 2TB version (RM100 price difference). Toshiba's price is the lowest (cheaper by 40%) but no-go, due to stingy 2-year warranty even for its performance-class product.

4.) Is a 750W PSU overkill for a PC of following spec: 95W TDP CPU, 2 x 8GB DDR4, 1 mid-range GPU (TBP 150W-225W), 1 x SSD, 1 x 7200rpm HDD & 2 case fans? And maybe a PCIe sound card in the future, if the onboard sound doesn't produce any problems. I'm thinking Cooler Master V - small footprint (150mm x 140mm), no in-cable capacitors, 100% Japanese capacitors, fully modular & Gold efficiency. The OEM for the V-series appears to Seasonic. V550 & V650's reviews looks good except they didn't attain min spec for hold-up time and there's some questionable quality with the bundled cables (according to reviewers). The V750 didn't appear to have these issues.

Note: Malaysia RM1 = US$0.24

[van p]

hujan86, I don't know much about nuthin', so I'll limit my display of ignorance to your item 4.

My basic system specs are shown in my Signature. I don't understand much of what you're talking about, so I won't attempt to match your specificity.

I bought a power meter a few months ago and measured the electricity usage of each component of my computer (among other things), and the total usage with everything running at the same time. With everything going, I got a range of 66-133 watts. The high number occurs when starting something--browser, video, song, whatever. After that 'something' is initiated, the power level drops. Now if you're doing some serious computing (powerful gaming, nuclear physics computations, etc.) you might need a super power unit. But based on my results, power usage of a computer system is minimal, and 750 watts would be overkill for most people.