Case and RAM recommendations?

Hey everyone, so I'm currently in the middle of putting together a new build powered by a Ryzen chip—probably leaning towards the 1600X.
I was eyeing this motherboard here:

1. I saw online that this board supports SLI, so my little dream is to toss in a 1070 Ti to start, and then maybe grab a second one used down the road if the stars align.
Could someone walk me through how that actually works on this specific board, and honestly, is it even worth the headache?
Plus, I’ve got an old GTX 960 just sitting around at home, so I was wondering if it's even possible to run two different cards in SLI, like pairing a 960 with a 1070 Ti.

2. Also, I'm curious about which RAM would play nicest with this Ryzen setup. I'm looking at getting two 8GB modules. I've been reading some horror stories online about certain memory sticks being totally incompatible with Ryzen, and I really don't want to mess this up.

3. Any suggestions for a solid, good-looking case with a glass side panel for under $267 that won't turn my components into a literal oven? I need decent airflow.

Thanks a ton!

That link is broken, and I have no idea which motherboard you're looking at. Just a heads up: for SLI to work, you need two identical GPUs. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend SLI at all (say, running two 1070Tis)—the whole concept is basically dead. Even hardcore enthusiasts don't bother with it anymore. It’s much better to just sell your old card and put that money toward one single, more powerful GPU.

For the CPU, go with the or if you decide to step up to the 1600X (which is roughly $400 in that link), grab a Freezer 33 cooler too, since it doesn't come with one.

As for RAM, you could go with this or this. If you end up buying the rest of your parts from that same site, you might even roll the dice on this, YOLO.

Motherboard—that really depends on your budget, but like I said, don't make SLI or Crossfire your goal. It's an outdated, headache-inducing concept that's completely unnecessary.

So my buddy picked up a Phanteks Eclipse 350 x. Honestly, I’m such a fan of this case that I was about two seconds away from ordering one for myself. It’s a total steal for what you actually get.

That Gigabyte Aorus GA-AX370 gaming K5 motherboard was on sale, but it looks like they’re all sold out now, which is probably why the link is dead. 😢
Now I'm looking at this MSI B450 gaming Pro carbon AC, an AM4 board for $350.
Or maybe just something else in that same price bracket so I can drop in a beefier CPU in two or three years.

So, basically, should all these RAM sticks be compatible with both the processor and the motherboard?
And will that CPU hold its own with a 1070ti? Also, is the motherboard actually good enough, or am I overdoing it?

Peter Green said:Man, this guy picked up a Phanteks Eclipse 350 x. Honestly, I'm so stoked on that case that I almost pulled the trigger on one for myself. It's kind of hilarious how cheap you can get a chassis like that.

It looks awesome. Way cheaper than that other one I was eyeing at https://www.newegg.com/nzxt-s340-e...-blue/product/

Honestly, you can't really go wrong with either one. Personally, I’m leaning more towards the Phanteks side of things—it just hits different for me, both in how it looks and how it actually performs.

The motherboard seems solid; it actually has slightly better voltage regulation and much improved cooling compared to the Gigabyte K5 model.

That all sounds good to me. By the way, what kind of monitor are you planning to run? I really hope you aren't sticking with some ancient relic that only has a VGA connection

Right now, I'm just rocking this old Samsung SyncMaster 2333 that runs at 59Hz, though I've been thinking about maybe treating myself to a much nicer monitor sometime next year.

Anyway, quick question—what kind of cooler should I grab for this CPU?
Is the Freezer 33 cooler actually the way to go?

The monitor is fine; it’s got all the connections you need, like DVI or HDMI.

Freezer 33

In my opinion, if you're strictly gaming, you're better off grabbing the R5 2600. You'll save some $100, plus it comes with a cooler included. While the Ryzen 7 1700X gives you an extra 2 cores and 4 threads, you won't see much of a benefit from that unless you're doing heavy video rendering or something similar. On the flip side, the R5 2600 actually has about 3% better IPC and roughly 200MHz more overclocking headroom—plus, it's cheaper and includes the cooler.

Alright, here’s what my benchmark scores turned out to be:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/12480153
So, I noticed something a little funky—my BIOS is showing my memory frequency at a measly 2133MHz, even though I'm running a 2x8GB kit of Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 paired with an MSI B450 gaming Pro carbon AC motherboard.

Does anyone happen to know how I can bump that up to 3000MHz?
I already went ahead and flashed a newer version of the BIOS.
I also double-checked the RAM compatibility with the board, and honestly, everything looks like it should be totally fine.

I'd suggest heading into the BIOS and picking the X.M.P. profile set for 3000MHz, then just save and exit. Once you've got that loaded, you could probably try bumping it up to 3200MHz manually if you're feeling adventurous 😛 ...though those profiles tend to be pretty conservative by default.

crimsonstag84 said:You’ve gotta hop into your BIOS, find that X.M.P. profile set for 3000MHz, and then just hit save and exit. Once you've got that loaded up, you can actually try to manually nudge it up to 3200MHz if you're feeling adventurous 😛 ...honestly, those profiles are usually tuned pretty conservatively anyway.

Got it working! 🙂 thanks.