R5 1600 vs R5 1600X / B350 vs X370

Roger Wilco

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Mar 20, 2017
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I'm putting together a Ryzen build in the near future; I'm looking to get as much of an overclock as possible on the CPU.

Will the 1600X increase the likelihood of a higher overclock? Will an X370 board overclock better than a B350 board? I don't have any need for crossfire, sli, or anything like that. I'm willing to spend ~$150 on a board.

I already have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo on hand (I still have yet to acquire the AM4 conversion brackets). I'm not sure if this is up to par with the Wraith Cooler, but it's what I will probably use if I get the 1600X.

Thank you!
 

Hendrickson

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Dec 30, 2016
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It looks like right now at Newegg there is only a $10 difference between the 1600 and the 1600x. That being the case, I would go with the 1600X.

I have an Asrock X370 Taichi, and a Asus B350 Prime. After the latest BIOS updates, I would say as far as CPU overclock, there isn't a difference. Memory favors the Taichi though. Either way, I would spring for the B350, and throw the extra cash into a better GPU. That will make a much larger difference, than a couple hundred Mhz on the CPU.
 
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Topweasel

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Oct 19, 2000
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I'm putting together a Ryzen build in the near future; I'm looking to get as much of an overclock as possible on the CPU.

Will the 1600X increase the likelihood of a higher overclock? Will an X370 board overclock better than a B350 board? I don't have any need for crossfire, sli, or anything like that. I'm willing to spend ~$150 on a board.

I already have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo on hand (I still have yet to acquire the AM4 conversion brackets). I'm not sure if this is up to par with the Wraith Cooler, but it's what I will probably use if I get the 1600X.

Thank you!

For the most part I would say look at your feature list requirements. Need more than 1 NVME. Need better 3.1 USB support. Need 8 SATA or more. Then get X370. Otherwise get a B350. In a perfect world you would get a X370 if you want to overclock, just for no other reason than the better VRM solution being on X370 (the Taichi for it's price probably has the best VRM's and one of if not the best feature sets). But realistically the limit is about 4.1GHz on an overclock and that is extremely rare and the power usage doesn't really put that much pressure on the VRM's.

Now this is going to be the same socket for at least the refresh next year. The new process shrink late next year or early 2019 and maybe even its refresh in 2020. Any one of those might clock better or use more power when overclocked. So if you plan on getting a board and upgrading when options get interesting (the 7nm will go to 12 cores). Then you might want to spend the extra $50 or so for a better board.

As for what chip to get. I would go 1600x. It's got the best clocks and best overclocking capabilities all things considered (like binning) and the price isn't that different. I can't tell you if the 212 evo with a AM4 conversion is a great option for overclocking but it should handle the default 90w well enough.
 

guachi

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Nov 16, 2010
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I have a Hyper 212 as well (plus version) on my Ryzen 7 1700. Keep in my that the bracket will rotate the fans 90 degrees. Rather than blowing front to back fans will blow laterally across the motherboard.

In my case, it was actually a good thing as I have tow large case fans on top. rotating the CPU fans put the fan about two inches from the top of the case and the hot air shoots right out of the case. Much better than before.

In your case, it might be a negative. So keep that in mind.
 

Roger Wilco

Diamond Member
Mar 20, 2017
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Thanks for the feedback guys. I think I can reconfigure the case fans to work with the 212 Evo turning 90°. I'll probably end up getting the 1600X in hopes of achieving 3.7 - 4 Ghz on all cores.

The X370 boards look nice, but I don't really need most of those features. I might just get a good overclocking B350. If/when I decide to upgrade to Zen 2/3, I can upgrade the board if I need to.
 

Ratman6161

Senior member
Mar 21, 2008
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Thanks for the feedback guys. I think I can reconfigure the case fans to work with the 212 Evo turning 90°. I'll probably end up getting the 1600X in hopes of achieving 3.7 - 4 Ghz on all cores.

The X370 boards look nice, but I don't really need most of those features. I might just get a good overclocking B350. If/when I decide to upgrade to Zen 2/3, I can upgrade the board if I need to.

Either the 1600 or 1600X can easily get into the 3.7 -4 Ghz territory you want. My 1600 is currently at 3.8 with 1.35 v which is what AMD recommends for a safe long term voltage...which is what I want. Most of the people I see hitting 4 ghz or a bit higher are using 1.4 V or higher....but its completely your call on that one. 1600 is only $199.99 now at microcenter if you are like me and lucky enough to live near one.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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Either the 1600 or 1600X can easily get into the 3.7 -4 Ghz territory you want. My 1600 is currently at 3.8 with 1.35 v which is what AMD recommends for a safe long term voltage...which is what I want. Most of the people I see hitting 4 ghz or a bit higher are using 1.4 V or higher....but its completely your call on that one. 1600 is only $199.99 now at microcenter if you are like me and lucky enough to live near one.
I can run my R5 1600 at 3.8, I forget what voltage, like 1.3250V, or maybe I had to go to 1.3500V for stability, but I cranked it down to 3.70Ghz @ 1.2875V, because of high temps, even on a 120mm rad AIO CLC. (MasterLiquid Lite 120, works fairly well, but not as good as a 240mm. Came with AM4 brackets out of the box though.)

I've subsequently cranked it back down to stock speed / voltage, because my A/C is having trouble keeping my whole apt cool, what with two of these R5 1600 CPUs (both at stock, now) crunching away, and myself heating up the room. Been in the 90F outside recently.

In fact, I'm not current crunching on one of them, I might not until it gets a bit cooler outside.

Edit: Oh yeah, SuperBiiz has the Ryzen 5 1600 CPUs for $199.99 + ship too, now, if you don't want to go to MC.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
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Get the Taichi if you can afford it. Very nice board. It'll be a bit overkill for an R5 but no problems there!
 

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
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I can run my R5 1600 at 3.8, I forget what voltage, like 1.3250V, or maybe I had to go to 1.3500V for stability, but I cranked it down to 3.70Ghz @ 1.2875V, because of high temps, even on a 120mm rad AIO CLC. (MasterLiquid Lite 120, works fairly well, but not as good as a 240mm. Came with AM4 brackets out of the box though.)

I've subsequently cranked it back down to stock speed / voltage, because my A/C is having trouble keeping my whole apt cool, what with two of these R5 1600 CPUs (both at stock, now) crunching away, and myself heating up the room. Been in the 90F outside recently.
......
When you overclock, does AMD cool'n'quiet still work to reduce voltage/speed during less intensive/idle periods or is the voltage stuck at 1.3V all the time?
 

Reinvented

Senior member
Oct 5, 2005
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When you overclock, does AMD cool'n'quiet still work to reduce voltage/speed during less intensive/idle periods or is the voltage stuck at 1.3V all the time?

It depends on which board you get. Some boards will disable CnQ when you increase multiplier, etc. Some require you to manually disable it, and then adjust p-states and c-states accordingly. You can leave it on if you wish, but it might not behave normally.
 

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
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It depends on which board you get. Some boards will disable CnQ when you increase multiplier, etc. Some require you to manually disable it, and then adjust p-states and c-states accordingly. You can leave it on if you wish, but it might not behave normally.
Do you happen to know which B350 boards will not disable CnQ after overclocking?
I'd like to know what @VirtualLarry CnQ experiences are with the Asrock.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Overclocking on my board, seems to set the P-States up, with certain freq/voltage, so I think CnQ stays active. Not so sure that's a good thing, though.
 

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
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Overclocking on my board, seems to set the P-States up, with certain freq/voltage, so I think CnQ stays active. Not so sure that's a good thing, though.
Could you confirm if the voltage and speed goes down to stock idle levels (~1.08V) like Intel speedstep when you are not doing anything intensive like browsing.
 

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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Could you confirm if the voltage and speed goes down to stock idle levels (~1.08V) like Intel speedstep when you are not doing anything intensive like browsing.
HWMonitor doesn't report proper vcore. Sometimes, it's 2.4-2.7+. Which can't be right.
 

formulav8

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2000
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When you overclock, does AMD cool'n'quiet still work to reduce voltage/speed during less intensive/idle periods

On my 1600 using Win764 no, C&Q does not work oced. It does at stock, but not on an oc. At least on Win7. I'm using an Asus B350 Prime mobo.
 

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
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HWMonitor doesn't report proper vcore. Sometimes, it's 2.4-2.7+. Which can't be right.
What about other utilities? Coretemp, cpu-z report the speed, vcore in real time, portable zipped executables available for download, from the main websites, just look carefully for the links. Hwinfo64 is another good alternative to HWMonitor.

According to this thread on MSI forums with a reply from tech support, they don't support CnQ but Gigabyte does for B350 boards.
 
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Reinvented

Senior member
Oct 5, 2005
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What about other utilities? Coretemp, cpu-z report the speed, vcore in real time, portable zipped executables available for download, from the main websites, just look carefully for the links. Hwinfo64 is another good alternative to HWMonitor.

According to this thread on MSI forums with a reply from tech support, they don't support CnQ but Gigabyte does for B350 boards.

Core Temp doesn't report the vcore in real time for Ryzen. CPU-z vcore isn't something to really be trusted. The ONLY real vcore you can trust is either bios or DMM. MSI does support CnQ, but what it doesn't do is support it when you overclock.
 

Ratman6161

Senior member
Mar 21, 2008
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Core Temp doesn't report the vcore in real time for Ryzen. CPU-z vcore isn't something to really be trusted. The ONLY real vcore you can trust is either bios or DMM. MSI does support CnQ, but what it doesn't do is support it when you overclock.
there is a Ryzen specific version of CPU-z floating around. Can't remember where I got it but I found it just googling it. Seems to wo5k near as I can tell in terms of matching up with what I set in the bios.
 

Reinvented

Senior member
Oct 5, 2005
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there is a Ryzen specific version of CPU-z floating around. Can't remember where I got it but I found it just googling it. Seems to wo5k near as I can tell in terms of matching up with what I set in the bios.

Ryzen specific or not, it doesn't matter. It will report the same exact way for Intel too. There will either be an offset or it jumps around a lot when at idle/load. There's no way to tell how accurate it is, unless you have a multi-meter reading it at the same time. It's been this way for years. It'll get you a rough estimate, but not accurate enough. I'd NEVER base what it tells me on fact, period.

Also, just because you set in something in bios, doesn't mean it's accurate either. Need to account for vdroop as well.