Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi, Rob here.

Many, many years ago, I used to be a forum moderator for a semi-popular website, in addition to writing articles and product reviews for them (as a hobby). The owner abandoned the site after establishing himself a family and a great job (for which I don't blame him), but instead of keeping up with the latest trends, I dropped out. This was back when the AMD Athlon XP 2400+ was all the rage. If you don't remember the chipset, then I'm too old.

Anyway, my last build was back in 2011 and even then, it took me two weeks of research before even buying the first part. The game that I loved to play was "City of Heroes" and it was closed down about, what, four or five years ago? Since then, I really didn't have the motive to upgrade with my desktop primary being used for work, word processing, and internet surfing. A couple of spiritual successors, though, are heading to market within a year or two and I'd love to upgrade before they do (City of Titans and Ship of Heroes are the two that I'm interested in...both run on the Unreal 4 engine). Originally, I was going to buy an AIO (please don't ban me yet) with a 34" curved monitor (the HP Envy), but since talking with some friends, I think I'll go back to just building my own again. It's just that I'm horrible at cable management and I hate dealing with silicone and chipset fans.

So, I'm here to poke around to find out if AMD has managed to keep ahead of Intel in the area of gaming. I want to sample the flavor of what's popular and find a good mix, in addition to learning a little bit along the way. I've always had a two monitor setup, but I want to go with a three monitor setup this time. I've only done a couple of hours of research, but I'm looking to get an AMD Ryzen 5 1600x (6-core) but I've heard a lot about the Intel 7 chipsets. I'm partial to ASUS and have vowed (from past experience) never again to buy Gigabyte or MSI.

I'll look around a bit, but I always welcome advice.

Thanks,

Rob M.

Here's my current build...

======================================================================================

SiSoftware Sandra

Computer
Model : OEM System Product Name
Serial Number : **********
Chassis : Desktop
Mainboard : ASUS P6X58D-E
Serial Number : ***************
BIOS : AMI (OEM) 0108 03/23/2010
Total Memory : 3GB DIMM DDR3

Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz (4C 8T 3.21GHz/3.35GHz, 2.14GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 8MB L3)
Socket/Slot : FC LGA1366

Chipset
Memory Controller : ASUS X58 I/O Hub 2x 2.41GHz (4.82GHz)
Memory Controller : Intel Core Desktop (Bloomfield) UnCore 2x 2.41GHz (4.82GHz), 3x 2GB DIMM DDR3 1.07GHz 192-bit

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Hewlett Packard HP 2710
(1920x1080, 27.2")
Video Adapter : AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series (18CU 1440SP SM5.0 765MHz/725MHz 5% OC, 1GB DDR5 4.5GHz 256-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series (1440SP 18C 765MHz/725MHz 5% OC, 1GB DDR5 4.5GHz 256-bit)
Compute Shader Processor : AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series (1440SP 18C 765MHz/725MHz 5% OC, 1GB DDR5 4.5GHz 256-bit)

Storage Devices
Seagate ST2000DL003-9VT166 (2TB, SATA300/600, 3.5", 5900rpm) : 2TB (M:)
Seagate ST500DM002-1BD142 (500.1GB, SATA300/600, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (C:)
USB SD Reader (USB2/NVMe) : N/A (E:)
USB CF Reader (USB2/NVMe) : N/A (F:)
USB SM Reader (USB2/NVMe) : N/A (G:)
USB MS Reader (USB2/NVMe) : N/A (H:)
HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22LS30 (2.8GB, SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : 3GB (D:)

Logical Storage Devices
System Reserved : 100MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Seagate ST2000DL003-9VT166 (2TB, SATA300/600, 3.5", 5900rpm)
Hard Disk (C:) : 465GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Seagate ST500DM002-1BD142 (500.1GB, SATA300/600, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache)
Media (M:) : 2TB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Seagate ST2000DL003-9VT166 (2TB, SATA300/600, 3.5", 5900rpm)
Hard Disk : 450MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Seagate ST500DM002-1BD142 (500.1GB, SATA300/600, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache)
Removable Drive (E:) : N/A @ USB SD Reader (USB2/NVMe)
Removable Drive (F:) : N/A @ USB CF Reader (USB2/NVMe)
Removable Drive (G:) : N/A @ USB SM Reader (USB2/NVMe)
Removable Drive (H:) : N/A @ USB MS Reader (USB2/NVMe)
WIRING (D:) : 3GB (UDF, 2kB, Read-Only) @ HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22LS30 (2.8GB, SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : ASUS LPC Interface Controller
Audio Device : ASUS HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi High Definition Audio
Audio Device : ASUS Cypress HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5800 Series]
Audio Codec : AMD HDMI Audio
Disk Controller : ASUS 4 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS 2 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS 88SE91A3 SATA-600 Controller
USB Controller 1 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #5
USB Controller 3 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #6
USB Controller 4 : ASUS USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 5 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 6 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 7 : ASUS USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 8 : ASUS USB EHCI Controller #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : ASUS VIA VT6308 1394 OHCI Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Send to Microsoft OneNote 16 Driver (1200x1200, Colour)
Printer : Send To Microsoft OneNote 2010 Driver (1200x1200, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer v4 (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft Print To PDF (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : CutePDF Writer (4000x4000, Colour)

Peripherals

Network Services
Network Adapter : Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Ethernet, 1Gbps)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 10 Personal 10.00.10240
Platform Compliance : x86

Performance Enhancing Tips
Warning 2513 : TPM not detected. Some security features are unavailable.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.

You're jumping back in at a great time. AMD has come out strong with Ryzen. I've seen good things in reviews from a number of popular YouTube tech channels. I try to stay mid range, so I would recommend the 1700X, rather than the 1600 or 1800. Intel looks to be playing a bit of catch-up. It's good to have strong competition again.

If you go intel, I'd lean towards the i5 6600K. Unless you're creating media, I'm of the opinion that the i7 processors are overkill. I'd rather put the money saved into a bigger SSD or a better video card.

AMD is right around the corner from releasing the new Vega flashship GPU. Will be interesting to see what happens there. From a mid-range perspective, AMD has good stuff with the RX 500 series. NVIDIA has good stuff in the mid to high end range with the 1060, 1070 and 1080.

Lots of options on monitors. I've personally moved away from multi-monitor setups. I've gone to gaming on a single large ultrawide. Adding a 2nd panel to that is a good option. I always like a 16:9 in Landscape with the ultrawide.

You could go a single large 4k. I've just finished reviewing the Dell P4317Q. While I can't recommend that specific model, there are some cool things you can do with both custom resolutions and the PBP functionality. You can check out the review below. I'll be returning the Dell and getting the LG to test as well.

Thanks for the info! Here's what I've come up with...

AMD RYZEN 7 1700 - I went with the 1700 over the 1700x. Currently, there is very little out there on the market for an after-market CPU fan. The 1700 comes with a fan. I'm not that heavily invested in wanting a 3.4 over a 3.0.
ASRock X370 Killer SLI/ac AM4 AMD Promontory X370 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Had a hard time trying to find a mobo that I'm comfortable with. It seems that Gigibyte has a pretty large market share, so maybe their product line has improved some.....but I'm still pretty gun shy.
MSI Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 RX 580 GAMING X 8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - I just couldn't seem to find a non-Gigibyte or non-MSI card that I liked, so I'm going to take a chance on MSI.
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 Platform Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15D-32GVR
EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G2 220-G2-0550-Y1 80+ GOLD 550W Fully Modular EVGA ECO Mode Includes FREE Power On Self Tester Power Supply

If I do go the curved monitor route, here's the one that I'm going to go with...

LG 34UC79G-B 34" 21:9 UltraWide IPS Curved Gaming Monitor 2560 x 1080 (2K) Resolution, AMD FreeSync, 144 Hz Refresh Rate, Dynamic Action Sync & Black Stabilize, DisplayPort/HDMI/USB 3.0

(You can copy and paste those descriptions into NewEgg for more info)