Trashbytes wrote on 2026-08-23, 14:18:

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2026-08-23, 14:11:

Update to my last post. Its not an RX460 its an RX560 4Gb card.

Both GCN 4 cards and honestly not a lot between them performance wise, the 4GB on the RX560 does make it more useful.

Should be enough to play World of Tanks on at least medium settings.
Ive been playing it on the iGPU of an i7-7700, upgraded it slightly to an i5-8500T/RX560

Will see how it goes I suppose.

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 22:28:

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

That is a tough decision. The 5500 is a newer architecture so is a bit faster per clock but it is actually a cut down 5600G with the graphics portion disabled. So, as you said, it has half the cache of non-G chips (like the 5600, 3600 etc.). It is also limited to PCI-E 3.0, if that is something you're concerned about. If you have an older board that doesn't support PCI-E 4.0 anyway, this isn't an issue.

Are you upgrading an existing Ryzen? If so, what CPU + motherboard do you have?

If you do anything that makes use of the extra cores and threads (3700X is 8c\16t, 5500 is 6c\12t) then I would go with the 3700X, as that is probably a bigger difference than the lead the 5500 may have in situations where it wins. If it's exclusively for gaming... ehh... you pretty much have to look at benchmark results per-game to see if the ones you play favor the 5500 or not. It seems that both chips win pretty handily in different games.

Otherwise, a 5700X from aliexpress (or other similar stores) for around $135US is about as good as you can get for the money without having to switch to a DDR5 based platform. My brother bought one of those a few months ago and it has worked very well for him. If I'd have know there was a DRAM shortage coming that would make AM4 appealing again, I'd have stocked up on 5700X3D chips when they were less than $150.

If you will be gaming get the 5500, if you will be doing productivity and virtualization get the 3700X. Ideally, get a 5600, best of both worlds.. I am still on a 5600X and three years later still an amazing CPU.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 22:28:

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

If its a stop gap CPU which is cheaper for you to just throw in place ?

Forget performance since its going to get replaced and its not really the point.

But ..if you want to do anything involving production type work then the 3700X is the way to go unless you can get a 5600X, I have a 5600X myself in a secondary rig and its a little monster of a CPU. Avoid that 5500 its not worth the money you would be spending on it.

Not sure how much more the 5600X is in Canada over the 3700X but its 100% worth looking into if you can swing the extra, itll outlive the 3700X in usefulness and will hold its resell value better when you want to get rid of it.

I finally bought a new mouse to replace the one with the flaky scroll wheel. I got a Cherry Stream Comfort (the other Stream version doesn't seem to actually be available). It's so big that it makes the Microsoft Intellimouse look like one of those "mobile" mice, so it took some time to get used to it. It actually follows the shape of my hand if I do a claw grip. The buttons are a little light and easy to press, too. Overall, I can get used to it and keep it.

Also, I think I'm the only person to actually buy a Fnirsi product instead of having it donated as some social media influencer scheme. It's DOA, which is expected.

appiah4 wrote on 2026-09-01, 08:38:

If you will be gaming get the 5500, if you will be doing productivity and virtualization get the 3700X. Ideally, get a 5600, best of both worlds.. I am still on a 5600X and three years later still an amazing CPU.

Trashbytes wrote on 2026-09-01, 09:53:

If its a stop gap CPU which is cheaper for you to just throw in place ? […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 22:28:

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

If its a stop gap CPU which is cheaper for you to just throw in place ?

Forget performance since its going to get replaced and its not really the point.

But ..if you want to do anything involving production type work then the 3700X is the way to go unless you can get a 5600X, I have a 5600X myself in a secondary rig and its a little monster of a CPU. Avoid that 5500 its not worth the money you would be spending on it.

Not sure how much more the 5600X is in Canada over the 3700X but its 100% worth looking into if you can swing the extra, itll outlive the 3700X in usefulness and will hold its resell value better when you want to get rid of it.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-09-01, 00:20:

That is a tough decision. The 5500 is a newer architecture so is a bit faster per clock but it is actually a cut down 5600G with […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 22:28:

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

That is a tough decision. The 5500 is a newer architecture so is a bit faster per clock but it is actually a cut down 5600G with the graphics portion disabled. So, as you said, it has half the cache of non-G chips (like the 5600, 3600 etc.). It is also limited to PCI-E 3.0, if that is something you're concerned about. If you have an older board that doesn't support PCI-E 4.0 anyway, this isn't an issue.

Are you upgrading an existing Ryzen? If so, what CPU + motherboard do you have?

If you do anything that makes use of the extra cores and threads (3700X is 8c\16t, 5500 is 6c\12t) then I would go with the 3700X, as that is probably a bigger difference than the lead the 5500 may have in situations where it wins. If it's exclusively for gaming... ehh... you pretty much have to look at benchmark results per-game to see if the ones you play favor the 5500 or not. It seems that both chips win pretty handily in different games.

Otherwise, a 5700X from aliexpress (or other similar stores) for around $135US is about as good as you can get for the money without having to switch to a DDR5 based platform. My brother bought one of those a few months ago and it has worked very well for him. If I'd have know there was a DRAM shortage coming that would make AM4 appealing again, I'd have stocked up on 5700X3D chips when they were less than $150.

Thanks guys, been letting this stew, with the do I really wanna spend much at all on a "temporary" CPU or go better and have it maybe be just a longer temporary CPU.

However. I have been seeing some hints here and there that certain B550 boards unofficially support 1st and 2nd gen ryzens. It seems to be a "try it and see" proposition with no guarantees, and a BIOS update could wipe out compatibility any time, and complete absence of flakiness is not guaranteed. So that's not a real recommendation to spend money but...
Re: Bought this (Modern) hardware today
Got a 1500x a while back (Wow, 2 years already, time flies when you are frantically stumbling around from crisis to crisis 🤣 )

So I may as well just stick that in the CPU hole and see what happens. Better keep "mission critical" stuff off it for a bit though. But that might have happened anyway, due to only having a crappy m2 SATA to stick in it.

Anyway, that will get the system conglomeration started, and I can try to snipe a cheap 5xxx for months. It will be almost as exciting as putting a 486SX20 in a Socket 6 board I betchya! 🤣

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-07-13, 13:38:

Snagged a Lenovo T92P tiny for cheap, machine type 3238. Q77 chipset, low watt i5 3rd gen, got vpro I think. Came without a HDD installed and missing the SATA cable and power cable for it (From the motherboard) so I have to figure out the pinout of the motherboard power header. It's some tight pitch like 0.05 or smaller.

Not sure what job it is destined for yet. Wanted to mess around with a miniPC for ages, but this one avoids atom nonsense at least. Might end up in a firewall or pihole role. Might end up as a TV box with emulators. Anything you want to expand it with has to be USB of course.

Currently has 8GB installed in two 4GB sodimm. Will probably want to scare up a couple of 8s for it if anything windows is involved.

Guess I could order a "real" PSU for this but it's being a bitch for PSU fussiness. Feels weird I would have to pay more to get PSU here than I have into the thing, so not over anxious to do that. Put it on a Compaq one that was theoritically ample for watts and volts and it goes "blink blink blink, not having this shit.." very sarcastically at me. Then weirdly, when I tried this 45W universal, which is also half a volt down, but had the only other barrel plug that fit the chonky peg in the ThunkCentur, I got a POST screen, but that was as far as I dared go on 20W underpowered.