Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAmazing performance at an incredible price
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2017
First, system specs:
ASRock X370 Taichi board
16 GB (2X8) Team T Force Nighthawk DDR4 3200 RAM
Sapphire R9 280X (1080p)
Kingston Hyper X 3K 120 GB SSD for OS
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
This was an upgrade from an FX 8320 OC to 4.2 Ghz and 990FX board. Most components were carried over to the Ryzen system. I must say, this is a very noticeable increase in performance! This CPU takes anything I throw at it and doesn't even break a sweat. Handbrake encode times on my custom settings are less than 1/4 the time it took the FX to complete, Blender renders much faster, games are smoother with higher frame rates, and the list goes on. It was well worth the upgrade. Even with the dated and aging GPU I have seen average frame rate gains as high as 50% over the 8320. The AGESA 1006a BIOS update (V3.0 for this board) seems to have solved the early memory problems and stability issues. My board has no issue using the XMP profile for 3200 RAM with the correct timings and the system is fully stable. Shop around and be very selective on your RAM choice. DDR4 3200 is the fastest supported so far, but this will likely change in time. Get the fastest you can, Ryzen performance gains are pretty much linear up to DDR4 3600.
The Ryzen platform still has some rough edges that need smoothing out, but it is at the point now where it will run fine in most any circumstance. For such a new platform, I'm surprised at how well it works. I've not had any stability issues at all. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this CPU and platform. I'm not even going to bother overclocking it yet, it's plenty fast enough for me.
This CPU runs very, very cool. Temp monitoring software reports the 1700X and 1800X at 20 degrees Celsius higher than it actually is. Subtracting the 20 degrees, the highest I've seen is 52 degrees running handbrake, and 54 degrees under heavy gaming load. It hovers around 35 degrees when browsing the net. I'm using a Corair H 60 AIO cooler. It is also extremely efficient. I have seen ~96 watts or so under heavy load, and 20-35 during internet browsing.
XFR boosting is an absolutely awesome thing! This CPU with the H 60 regularly runs at 3.5 GHz on all cores, and boosts as high as 3.9 GHz when using less cores.
Things to consider:
I actually was going to get the Ryzen 5 1600X, but the sale price for the 1700X made me go after it instead. The 1600X is roughly equal to or faster compared to the 1700X at stock clocks in games. So if all you're doing is gaming, that's the top choice. If you (Like me) do other things as well such as rendering, video encoding, photo shopping, or CAD work, the 1700X makes more sense. It is also likely a bit more future proof than the hex core Ryzens are as well.
Get a good cooler if getting one of the X models! They do not come with a cooler (As of the date I bought mine). The non X CPU's have a very nice stock cooler. The Corsair H 60 is more than enough for this beast at stock clocks and is dead silent. There are many great air coolers out there, too. Just look for one that comes with the AM4 bracket. Most companies will send one separately if the cooler doesn't come with it.
TLDR; This CPU is more than enough to handle anything you want to do. It is a massive upgrade from anything older (2008-2014), especially any FX CPU and quad cores. Ryzen is about 76% faster than Piledriver (FX) clock for clock! I am very happy with it and recommend it to anyone looking to build a new system.
