The Brand New Ryzen 7000 Series Processors: A Budget Building Challenge

Today is the launch of the brand new Ryzen 7000 series processors, and I've taken an early trip to our sponsor, Micro Center, to take a look at exactly what kind of PC I can build. The catch is that I'm going to build the entire PC for less than the price of an RTX 4090.

I've got my eyes on the new Ryzen 7000 series processors, and one of them is the 7900X right up here. However, I think for this build, I'm going to need to save a little bit more money than that. But if I can squeeze my budget up to a Ryzen 7, I think that's going to be my best move.

I'd like to purchase a Ryzen 7700X, but the response is "maybe." Maybe what? Oh, there we go! The idea here is that for a $1,600 budget, I should be able to build something pretty powerful. These new Ryzen 7000 chips are obviously a big step forward, and on top of that, graphics card pricing has come down a lot over the last six months.

This means that while there are new cards coming out, the existing RTX 3000 series cards have gotten dramatically less expensive. Meaning that I could pick up some legitimately great deals. Woo! Now, that's what I'm talking about!

Okay, do you have any affordably priced options? You know, I wanna make sure I'm getting the maximum bang for the buck. What I think I might end up doing is going with the Aorus X670 Aorus Elite. This kind of budget is not gonna be using PCIe 5.0, and I'm not gonna go for anything that's all that crazy. This is $290, which means that I'm gonna go into the rest of this build with about $900 to spend.

I think that's my move. Maybe I can find Ken or someone to help me walk around with the camera. This is awkward! Jim, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? I'm making a video. Aren't you supposed to be like playing with a Steam Deck or something?

Yeah, this is a Steam... No, don't look for it. Can you help me? I've gotta build a PC. Can you guide me through Micro Center? Yeah, totally! It's almost like we planned this or something and that Jim wasn't randomly at the store this morning.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Today is the launchof the brand new Ryzen7000 series processors.So, I've taken an early tripto our sponsor, Micro Center,to take a look at exactlywhat kind of PC I can build.The catch, I'm goingto build the entire PCfor less than the price of an RTX 4090.So, these are the brand newRyzen 7000 series processors.We have the 7900X right up here,but I think for this build,I'm gonna need to save a littlebit more money than that.But if I can squeeze mybudget up to a Ryzen 7,I think that's gonna be my best move.Would you be so kind as to allow meto purchase a Ryzen7700X?(upbeat music)- Maybe.- Maybe. What do you mean maybe?Oh,(upbeat music)there we go.The idea here is that for a $1,600 budget,I should be able to buildsomething pretty powerful,because first of all,these new Ryzen 7000 chipsare obviously a big step forward,but on top of that, graphics card pricinghas come down a lot overthe last six months.Which means that while thereare new cards coming out,the existing like RTX 3000 series cards,have gotten dramatically less expensive.Meaning that I could pick upsome legitimately great deals.Woo.Now, that's what I'm talking-Wow.Okay.Do you have any affordably priced options?You know, I wanna make sure I'm gettingthe maximum bang for the buck.What I think I might end up doing,I might end up going with theAorus, the X670 Aorus Elite.For this kind of budget,I'm not gonna be using PCIe 5.0,I'm not gonna go for anythingthat's all that crazy.This is 290 bucks, whichmeans that I'm gonna gointo the rest of this buildwith about $900 to spend.I think that's my move.(upbeat music)Maybe I can find Ken or someone to help mewalk around with the camera.This is awkward.(car motor droning)Jim, what are you doing here?- What are you doing here?- I'm making a video.Aren't you supposed to be like playingwith a Steam Deck or something?- Yeah, this is a Steam...- Is there a Steam Deck behind here?- Yeah, don't look for it.- Can you help me?I've gotta build a PC.Can you-- Yeah. For sure.- Guide me through Micro Center?- Yeah, totally.- It's almost like weplanned this or somethingand that Jim wasn't randomlyat the store this morning like,"Hey, can you be in thisvideo please?" (laughs)- No one's gonna believe thisbut I actually was just randomly here.- No, a hundred percent,a hundred percent.We were like walking around the cornerand Jim's just like, "Oh, I'm just hereto swap out my power duct."I'm like, "Hey, comehelp me with my video."Let's start out by looking for our GPU.- So, what's the budgeton the graphics card?- I think around 500 bucks.- Okay.- We'll cut corner, I mean,we'll make creative decisionsfor the rest of the build.Who needs a (indistinct) SSD?Pfft. Not us, that's who.- Who needs an SSD?Not us. (laughing)- Let's take a look at theNVIDIA cards and then we'll lookat Open-Box and we'll decideif we can negotiate our wayinto a great deal at Micro Center.Huh, what am I saying?Every deal's great at Micro Center.(Jim chuckling)Who do you think would be upsetif we get a little creativewith our pricing?Do we need 16 gigs of RAM?I figure we could do like four-- Four?- Yeah. Do we need a case?- No, we could just likeput it on some cardboard.We could build it on a box.On the graphics card box.- Yeah. Yeah, this is great.If we could look at some ofyour best deals in Open-Boxes,that'd be great.(laid-back music)Aw, it's fine.You live here but you'renot considered an employee.Oh my goodness.This is only one rack.This is all the NVIDIA cards.(trolley rattling)- Very cool.I'm gonna get this budget.Okay, here we go. Here we go.(finger tapping)425 for a 3060 Ti.Okay, that is-- That's the cheapest by $25.That's what we're looking for.How much is this 37?512.- 512!That's only 12 over budget. Ha!- I mean realistically 500 bucksis still putting us prettyclose to the limit here.- Okay, that's waytoo much money. (laughs)- We should probablygo with the 3060 Tibut this seems more fun.- 512, hello?We can be creative.(bell pinging)Now that we made ourquestionable decision,we have our CPU, our motherboard,and our graphics card.We have about 400 left.Technically less, about 400 left.- 400.(cash register pinging)- So, I think let'sstart, let's be serious.- Yes.- Let's cut as many pricing,as many corners as we can.- So, we're doingeight gigs of RAM like.- Well, so here's the thing.We gotta go DDR5'cause this is the new AM5motherboards and everything.Good Sir, can I have thecheapest possible DDR5that has ever been inside this cabinet?So, 94 bucks for-- Actually, it's not that bad.- I mean it's 16 gigs.- 16 gigs?I mean it's obviouslyvery entry level memorybut that's fine.I'm an entry level improviser.(bell pinging)I feel like let's geta relatively affordablelike 512 gig.Of course, Inland brand, theonly brand I would ever want.Could we swing one terabyte?I'm feeling punchy right now.Could we do it?- We have $305 and that is 80.- We're gonna make the smart decision.We're gonna go with the $45Inland Prime 500 gigabyte SSD.You know what doesn'thave 500 gigs of storage?An RTX 4090.Checkmate on video.(bell pinging)Let's look for a power supply.These all look too nice.Can we get away with 650?No, we probably shouldn't.- We need like those ones that are wrappedin like the thick flea market plastic?You know what I'm saying?(Austin laughing and clapping)- Yeah. Power Speck isprobably gonna be our move.So, there's this 750 watt semimodular supply for 80 bucks.That's the smart move.I should buy that.Can we swing 80 bucks?- Yeah, we got that extra$5 we've been hanging on to.- $80.(bell pinging)- Yeah, what's our budget right now?- We have one 170.(cash register pinging)Now this is where thingscan get a little cringeas the kids say.- Yeah.- We're gonna need tofind the cheapest casethat we can stuff our components into.- Well, they got a lot of options.- I need the most budget of budget.Oh sorry, I'm getting a tip.A hot tip here.You got something spicy for me back here?If you could gimme a $20 case, I'd buy it.So, this is why it paysto come to Micro Centerbecause you can getall the tips and trickson exactly where to find the deals.He's pumping the dealsup right now for me.(laid-back music)Ooh.What you got hiding back here, huh?- Montech cases.- Oh, I've never builtone of these before.- Yeah, but thisone is ATX and it is $50.- $50. Well, that sounds like what I,yeah, there's some fans.That's good.- We just got some breaking intelthat the graphics carddoes fit in this case.- So, your card's 300millimeters, that's max 305.- You know what's incredible?Is the knowledge ofMicro Center employees.I didn't even, I spoke the words out loudand the information just wafted this way.Five millimeters.All right, I'll take it.(bell pinging)Done deal.Does the 14Ss come withAMD mounting brackets?It does.Okay. So we could do a U14S.It has reasonable size forbetter overall compatibility.That's my motto in life.Reasonable size for betteroverall compatibility.I think this will work and in fact-- We're in the budget.- We're in the budget now.- We're in the budget.- How much is that?- $90.- $90?- Can you do the math on this real quick?- Do you want to know the actual number?'Cause you're gonna find it insane.- Yes.- If that is $90- 89.99 just for record.89.99.(bell pinging)- All your parts together rightnow are $1,597. (laughing)(cash register pinging)(crowd cheering)- All right, so we've gotall of our components here.I'm feeling really goodabout what we've got here.Should probably double check.This Open-Box item is,well it says "as is."Oh wait, it says incomplete.- Does this not have everything?- I mean(box rattling)visual graphics cardinside, that's all I need.Aah.- Did you checkthe box before you left?- No, I did not.Okay. So, that's one of the concerns.The other one is going to be on cooling.So, while this is avery powerful processor,AMD have kind of changedthe way they do thingsin that it is really kind of targetinga much higher temperature.That is intended.That is the way they have designed it.But it also means that your cooleris gonna be very important.A U14 is by no means a smallcooler, but most peoplewho are building with theseare using liquid coolers.Between that and the potentiallyless than ideal airflowof this case, I may have a slight problem,but here's the thing, I don't carebecause I got a whole PC forthe price of one graphics card.I just realized I've gotthe YouTuber special.A JerryRigEverything knifeand an LTT screwdriver.For $50, the Montech X1is very lightweight.Look, cases are not important.This has like fans, temperedglass, mounting points.You also have a little bitof that sort of mesh design.You do have also a magneticdust filter on the top.- That's actuallyreally impressive.- I'm feeling good about the case.Let's go ahead and crackopen our graphics card.Before we build this pc,I'm just gonna take a minuteand make sure that allour components are ready.'Cause, you know, when youlooking for the good deals,sometimes you have tomake some hard decisions,some sacrifices if you will.And mine are that I don'tknow if everything'sgonna fit and work.(Austin coughs and titters)Look at this.(plastic crackling)Look at this very largeChungus graphics card.(plastic crackling)Gonna fit, right?(funky music)Okay. (coughing)Ah, just an angle, youknow, is fine. (chuckles)I'm gonna put in like this,obviously there's no motherboard.So, if I do this and then there we go.Look how much space there's gonna be here.Tons.Who needs a GPU supportwhen the GPU is touchingthe entire case at once?Is that cooler gonna fit?Hm. It's a little big, butyou know what they say.It's fine.Let's go to the fun part.I'm going to prep my X670 Aorus board.For the very first time,I'm gonna be using Socket AM5.This one is exciting becauseinstead of bending the pinson your CPU, you'renow gonna bend the pinson your motherboard.I mean, hypothetically, of course.Woo. Look at those pins.As time goes on, cheaperAMD CPUs will be coming outon Ryzen 7000 as well asmore affordable motherboards.But this should give us plentyof stuff to get started.Let's install our CPU.So, this is our Ryzen 7 7700X.I like that AMD have gottena little bit creativewith the design here.It's definitely interesting lookingbut you're gonna look atyour CPU once, throw a cooleron it and never look at it againunless you're Mr. Yeesterin which you're gonnamake thermal-paste art.Let's go.So, what's great about thesenew chips and the new Socketis that if you flip it around,unlike pretty much every AMDchip for a very long time,there are no pins here.Now, you should still,of course, be carefulbut now instead of ruiningyour expensive CPU,you could ruin your expensive motherboard.Normally when you're installingthe CPU you have to lookfor like little likegolden arrows and whatnotbut to make it really straightforwardbecause there's a littlelike line across the metal,which corresponds with the actual Socket,which means that you wouldhave to be a complete moronto think that that lines up vertically.Shout out to AMD foractually putting a little bitof thought into makingit very straightforwardfor a first-time build.Ryzen 7 7700X, they'vegot AMD Ryzen on the top,AM5 on the bottom.They've definitely gone very like Ryzen,that's all I've got.Let's go ahead and finish buildingthe rest of the component.The challenge here is a hundred percentgonna be in can I get everything to fitin this very small, affordable case?CPU installed, RAM installed,let's throw in ourhigh-quality Inland Prime SSD.I'll be right back after I(coughs) do some test fitting.So, we made some good progress.I will say building in this case,is at the like bare minimumof what I would say is acceptable.We got everything in here,but like it is a tight fit.We had to remove this rear fanjust to clear our IO shieldto slide the motherboard in.We obviously could notinstall the CPU cooler yetbecause we need to putthe graphics card in.And because the graphicscard fills it up so much,we also had to do basicallyall of our cablingbecause once the GPU is in there,there's gonna be zero space.To say that we're maxing this case outI think would be an understatement.Look, it's fine.We're gamers.We don't compromise, we just optimize.Let's install the GPUand hope for the best.So here, yeah.Oh!Look at that.That's gonna line.That's fine.That's totally fine.It actually fit totally fine.What else?There's no question,anyways, so plenty of space.I'm gonna go ahead andscrew this in immediatelyso it doesn't rip out my entire Socket.There might be some tolerance issuesenough that one screw fitsand the other one does notbecause they're not lined up at all.With the power of the LTT screwdriver,I'm gonna make my own hole.There we go.Who needs a supportbracket when your entire PCis your support bracket?- Does that stick?Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.- There you go. It fits now.- That poor GPU. (laughing)- You know what theimportant thing though?It works.Suck it nerds.Jared?- Huh?- Give me a Sharpie.Don't try this at home.Look how much better this is gonna look.Trust me, I'm an expert.You know what?It's just a little bitof extra insulation.The ink from the Sharpieis very beneficial.Gamers don't compromise and neither do I.Look, it's so much better.It's not done yet, butthat's so much better.Yeah, you see a little bit of color,you also see a little bit ofcolor through the sleeve tooso it's just kind of like darker.It's only when you get really close. See?- Oh so, that does hide it.- See?We're just not gonna have alight directly over the top.- Except for the RGB fan. (laughs)- What else can I Sharpie out?Should I get rid of the Montech logo?What if I make itTech?(friend laughing)M Tech for Mystery Tech!Look, I need to install a coolerbut I'm having way morefun with the Sharpie.E Mo Tech.(Jared and friend laughing)Let's install a cooler now, friends.Now that the aestheticsare really on pointwith this system.What if I just shave allof these little things off?What are these?(cross-talking)You know, I think that if I take those offit'll probably gimmebetter performance anyway.You know, they'll kind of-One of the nice thingsabout the new AM5 Socketand AM5 motherboards is thatwhile the Socket is different,it should theoretically still workwith all the AM4 coolers.So, if you've got something like thiswhich has AM4 mounting hardware,it should just go straight on.And because it's Noctua,it's actually designedfor human people to use.Our studio is Noctua-themed.(Jared gasps)Noctua, hit us up.We can just call this the Noctua Studio.- Noctua. Yeah.- Yeah. It's like, youknow, crypto.com Arena.- Noctua Studio.- The Noctua Studio.- Sponsored by Noctua.- Noctua Clock Media.- Can you draw your emotions on (mumbles).Don't tell us how you feel.Show us how you feel, Jared.- Aw.- Aw.- Aw, Jared, is it okay?It'll be fine.(Jared wailing)It'll be fine. I'm sure Linus is hiring.- Oh.- Here goes nothing.Once we put this on andif it doesn't fit, we cry.(device clicking)Is that it?Oh, that actually lined up perfectly.Ooh, look at me.- Wow. Okay.- I'm successful and creative.- I would screw thatdown as tight as possible.- Look, I want maximum CPU touchage.Maximum connectivity.(hands clapping)I just want it to be likethis part just go like...(bomb exploding)Are we done?Did we do it?Okay? Does this fit?It's a lot of things that are right there.Well, you know what? Let's just...(glass plate clicking)Yo, I mean, yes,I am pushing on the fan, butI think we just screw it in.That'll be fine. Okay.So,this is a new patented cooling method.It's the exhaust on the bottom.See, what we've done is we've engineeredthis gaming PC build, muchlike NVIDIA designed the 4090for maximum performance,and for maximum performance,you need ingenuity.And this is ingenuity at its finestbecause we've got a lotof fans in this systemwhich means that we have tohave air to supply to the fans.Which means that weare going to intake airfrom the bottom and exhaust it out.That's what's gonna happen here.And it's not gonna just be aleaky mess of fans spinningand air being turbulentlyspun around in the case.This is intentional.(upbeat music)(lid clanking)All right, my friends,it's the moment of truth.The Mo Tech, mo power,best money system isoperational.And look at that,immediately comes to life.(laid-back music)(keyboard key clicking)Beautiful.And we are in, we'vegot our Ryzen 7 7700X,we've got ourselves our16 gigs of crucial memory.PCI 4.0 SSD.Let's play some games.Well, clearly gamers don't compromise,especially when it comesto the beautiful aestheticsof the Mo Tech system that we've built.We also don't compromisewhen it comes to performancewhich is the whole point of this video.How about 4K 60 on ultimatesettings on Horizon?Look at this, lock 60 fps, full 4K 60.It's not even breaking a sweat.In fact, I should probablybump this up to like 120or 144 on this monitor.So, when it comes to this system,I feel really good aboutthis Ryzen processor.There is a ton of performance,especially for gaming.And while for this particular build,the 3070 is a lot of performancefor the value as far as that500-ish dollars that we spend.I do think there's an argumentto potentially waitingand keeping an eye outfor both the new NVIDIA cards as wellas the new AMD graphics cardswhich is going to becoming out very shortly.But the NVIDIA stuff is gonnabe incredibly expensive.At the very least, I am incredibly happythat we were able to getsomething as powerfulas the 3070 in a budget like this.Maybe next time we'll justspend a little bit more timeon the aesthetic.But thankfully, our kindsponsors, Micro Center,have you covered with all kindsof wonderful looking cases,RGB and various different componentsof all shapes and sizes.So, make sure to go checkthem out in the linkin the description.If you'll excuse me,I'm going to go patent mybackdraft cooling method.(laid-back music)BackdraftTM.