The CPU – AMDs Ryzen 5 1400 for the narrow thaler
Let's get to the heart of the system —the processor. Actually, I wanted to install a Ryzen 5 1600, which with 6 cores, 12 threads and larger L3 cache would probably have been the better choice. But as it should be for a low-budget project, you have to take what you get. Then The existing Ryzen 5 1400 came to me, which I bought in July 2019 for a cheap 45€ (incl. box cooler). As of March 2020, a price of around 50€ is still called for this CPU, which is why I definitely recommend the Ryzen 5 1600, which usually costs only 15-20€ more and offers a significantly higher performance.
The selected 1400-stroke has a fairly low base clock of only 3200MHz and a single-core boost of 3400MHz. As it turned out, however, the little one still has a lot of air for overclocking, which I will go into in more detail in the third part.
CPU Cooler – Raijintek Themis 120
If you operate the small Ryzen 5 with standard clock, then the supplied stealth cooler is of course absolutely sufficient. With the just mentioned 3200MHz boost on all cores, however, the clock is very economical and a few hundred megahertz more are welcome to play. When overclocking, however, the smallest AMD cooler literally runs out of steam and especially with regard to future upgrades, I decided from the outset for a more potent cooling solution. First I got an unused AMD Wraith Spire LED cooler for 5€.
Up to a certain point, this one was also completely sufficient and was able to score with good performance, acceptable volume and pretty optics. At a certain time, however, acceptable temperatures were only reachable at quite high volume, which is why I finally resorted to an accessory cooler. However, a large tower cooler from well-known premium manufacturers would have just blown the frame, as would an expensive AIO water cooling system. And of the usual budget coolers I have already had most in my fingers…
So – fitting the case – I immediately reached into the shelf of Raijintek and chose the Themis 120. After all, you have to broaden your horizons. For the installation on the present AM4 socket an additional upgrade kit was necessary, with which the cooler can then unfortunately only be mounted "horizontally" (in the old AM3 way). As a result, the cooler sucks in the warm exhaust air when the graphics card is simultaneously underload, which in turn does not have a particularly positive effect on the CPU temperature.
In a separate test, I got the cooler mounted vertically with a craft solution, which led to a reduction of the CPU temperature of over 10°C under gaming load. With a differently shaped solution (such as Noctua uses it), the cooler would work much better and can therefore only get a recommendation from me for mounting on Intel systems. This is a real pity, because the cooler itself is perfectly processed and offers a very good cooling performance for the small purse at acceptable volume.
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