Ryzen 5 3600 and air cooling

CountMike said:

I would suggest B450 TOMAHAWK MAX | Motherboard | MSI Global instead. Gigabyte has been lagging with BIOS since the beginning and can't be 100% sure (unless you check with seller) that it comes with full 3rd gen Ryzen compatible BIOS. MSI Max MBs come with one for sure and have an option to update BIOS even without any CPU. 5450 is woefully inadequate nowadays. Any newer games and high res is out of question. Not even sure it would work with this setup.
Unless you desperately need 6 cores, R5 3400g may be better option, it even comes with GPU waaay better than 5450.

Thanks. I don't play games, I don't do video editing. I will go for the 6 cores.
I will check what you said about the mobo (and I will ask the seller if they can update the BIOS).

bobkn said:

Looking at my favorite online seller in the US, Newegg, I'd guess that Arctic is the obvious choice for an aftermarket air cooler. I have no experience with one on a Ryzen 5 3600, but 65W TDP isn't a high powered CPU.

Thanks for your answer.
Indeed, 65W TDP isn't a high powered CPU, but people are having problems with the bad stock cooler.

bobkn said:

If you were in the US, I'd offer you a spare Prism cooler left over from a Ryzen 9 3900. I presume that a cooler for a 105W CPU would be adequate for a 65W one.

Thanks for your cooler offer, but I'm not in the US.

bobkn said:

I'm not sure why you're not considering AIO water coolers. I used large air coolers for many years, but lately I've been using Corsair AIO coolers. That's mostly to free up space around the CPU. No leaks, so far.

I don't want to risk leaking with AIO/water coolers, since air coolers can work adequately well.

bobkn said:

As regards motherboards, can your vendor provide an X570 board at a reasonable price?

X570 mobos seem to be pricey. And I don't think I need a more powerful mobo.

bobkn said:

As you're going for a Ryzen 3 CPU, it'd be nice to use a MB that is intended to support it.

What do you mean? Doesn't Gigabyte B450 Aorus M support Ryzen 5 3600?

bobkn said:

Aside from out-of-the-box Ryzen 3 support, you'd also get PCIE 4 support, mainly of interest at the moment for an M.2 PCI-E NVME SSD. (Up to 2X the speed of a PCI-E 3 SSD.)

Gigabyte B450 Aorus M does support M.2.

bobkn said:

You're using a 5450 graphics card? That's an ancient (2010) model. If you're not playing 3D games, not doing CAD, and not wanting good performance at high resolutions, it may be adequate.

Yes, I don't play games or do video editing.

George300 said:

Usage: no games, no OC, no video editing. I need visual studio (sometimes more than 2 open), sql server management studio, many other programs open at the same time, 4 browsers open at the same time with even 30+ open tabs in total, and sometimes a virtual machine. I also create large backups (60-100GB) using encryption so the cpu will work hard I think.

You don't really need any special cooling at all. The three AMD stock coolers in order of preference would be Wraith Prism, Wraith Spire, Wraith Stealth.

AMD Stock Coolers Tested: Wraith Prism vs. Wraith Spire vs. Wraith Stealth - TechSpot

Is the CPU coming with a stock cooler supplied? If so, I wouldn't worry about needing any additional cooling. As a 65 watt processor, not overclocked, it just isn't going to produce that much heat anyway.

Of the brands in your open only Alpenfohn seemed to have a good selection of air coolers. If you really want to move from the Wraith stock cooler to a tower air cooler, I would go with one of the lower end Alpenfohn air coolers in the 130-150W range.

I was using the stock Wraith when I first set up my Ryzen 7 2700X build and my temps were fine running Visual Studio and even gaming. I had no problems with it at all. It can be a bit loud at high temps, but that's true of all coolers.

My temps never broke 55C when gaming and 60C when benchmarking, but I have excellent airflow in my case. I'm not sure where the negative reviews about the Wraith are coming from, but my experience has been positive all round with it. Your mileage may vary, of course.

George300 said:

Thanks for your answer.
Indeed, 65W TDP isn't a high powered CPU, but people are having problems with the bad stock cooler.

Thanks for your cooler offer, but I'm not in the US.

I don't want to risk leaking with AIO/water coolers, since air coolers can work adequately well.

X570 mobos seem to be pricey. And I don't think I need a more powerful mobo.

What do you mean? Doesn't Gigabyte B450 Aorus M support Ryzen 5 3600?

Gigabyte B450 Aorus M does support M.2.

Yes, I don't play games or do video editing.

B450 AORUS M (rev. 1.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE U.S.A.

The Gigabyte B450 Aorus M Rev 1.0 supports the Ryzen 5 3600 from BIOS F40 (16 May, 2019) on. The current BIOS is F50 (27 November, 2019).

I don't think I'd call an X570 a "more powerful" motherboard. More compatible, mainly. My opinion is that if you're going with a third generation Ryzen, it'd be worth a modest additional expense to get a board that was designed for it. It can be a modest expense in the US. I don't know what it'd be where you are. I'm using an MSI MPG X570 Plus Gaming, with a Ryzen 9 3900X. (I don't game.) $170US. About double the Gigabyte B450, but not much of a difference in the total system cost.

The Gigabyte B450 Aorus M does M.2. The Ryzen 5 3600 would support PCI-E 4.0 on an X570 motherboard, but only PCI-E 3.0 on a B450 board. (No benefit to PCI-E 4.0 without an SSD that supports it, of course.)

I wonder whether the stock cooler is really inadequate if you're not overclocking? The main criterion is avoiding having the CPU throttle due to exceeding its specified temperature threshold. You should be OK if that never happens, although maybe you'd like to run cooler if you expect to keep the processor for 10 years. (Heaven knows what home computing will look like in 2030.)

Gurn Blanston said:

I was using the stock Wraith when I first set up my Ryzen 7 2700X build and my temps were fine running Visual Studio and even gaming. I had no problems with it at all. It can be a bit loud at high temps, but that's true of all coolers.

My temps never broke 55C when gaming and 60C when benchmarking, but I have excellent airflow in my case. I'm not sure where the negative reviews about the Wraith are coming from, but my experience has been positive all round with it. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Ok, but R7 2700X is a different cpu/cooler. I read about people that are having heat problems with R5 3600. I will have to get a better cooler.

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bobkn said:

B450 AORUS M (rev. 1.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE U.S.A.

The Gigabyte B450 Aorus M Rev 1.0 supports the Ryzen 5 3600 from BIOS F40 (16 May, 2019) on. The current BIOS is F50 (27 November, 2019).

I don't think I'd call an X570 a "more powerful" motherboard. More compatible, mainly. My opinion is that if you're going with a third generation Ryzen, it'd be worth a modest additional expense to get a board that was designed for it. It can be a modest expense in the US. I don't know what it'd be where you are. I'm using an MSI MPG X570 Plus Gaming, with a Ryzen 9 3900X. (I don't game.) $170US. About double the Gigabyte B450, but not much of a difference in the total system cost.

The Gigabyte B450 Aorus M does M.2. The Ryzen 5 3600 would support PCI-E 4.0 on an X570 motherboard, but only PCI-E 3.0 on a B450 board. (No benefit to PCI-E 4.0 without an SSD that supports it, of course.)

I wonder whether the stock cooler is really inadequate if you're not overclocking? The main criterion is avoiding having the CPU throttle due to exceeding its specified temperature threshold. You should be OK if that never happens, although maybe you'd like to run cooler if you expect to keep the processor for 10 years. (Heaven knows what home computing will look like in 2030.)

I don't want to risk high temps. I must get a better cooler. I have seen people calling the stock cooler "garbage".
I'll think about your mobo suggestion.