The only thing I'd change is putting a better cooler on it from the start, it'll just work better. If you're re-using one, make sure it's cleaned well. Compressed air is best. Maybe go for 1x16GB RAM module to give headroom for upgrading, assuming that the motherboard can handle it. You know how Adobe software eats RAM.
Okay, will look into a better cooler, although a bundled cooler might be necessary at first for budgetary reasons. As for the RAM, will he be able to notice the difference between single-channel and dual-channel?
Might get a 3700X for similar money, same TDP.
In this case, it'd make sense to get a better cooler from the start. The reason I suggested 3600 is because they're like €100 in classifieds. 3700X is not that much more, but we'll see once he starts buying parts.
Worth getting a 1Tb NVMe or for main drive.
That's the plan, but he has a 500GB SSD drive which will have to do for the start. I know NVMe from start would be great, but once again, we'll see if the budget will allow it.
Oh well, that means he can save some money. Although I'm starting to think of B450 as well, it's considerably cheaper.
Fans: Noctua, BeQuiet
Motherboards:
B550 brings PCIe 4.0 at lower prices. But higher-end models stray into X570 price territory.
www.tomshardware.com
www.techpowerup.com
cases
We've tested the best PC cases to keep your system cool and looking good.
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That's some useful info, thanks!
That combination works. I have an ASRock B450 board and replaced a Ryzen 5 2600 with a 5600G when the graphics cards prices were absurd and my old graphics card died. B550 boards generally have M.2 NVMe slots as well so he can always plug in an NVMe SSD as replacement/addition to the current SATA SSD. The difference between PCIe 3 and PCIe 4 is negligible.
Great to know, thanks! B450 is an alternative, I might persuade him to go for a B450/3700X combo because in all honesty, B450 doesn't seem any worse, and the difference in price is enough to consider going that route.
