Ryzen 5 2600x has better memory support, improved latencies all round, and higher IPC. It's going to perform better in most, if not all games.
Ryzen 7 1700x has 2 more cores, and 4 more threads. It's going to perform better in heavily multi-threaded situations for the most part.

So, 2600x vs 1700x depends on price and whether or not you value the 2600x's improved single core performance(and other improvements) over the 1700x's better multi-thread performance.

I love my 1700x but I got it for waayyy less than a 2600x cost at the time, so that was my sole reasoning. Was initally going to get an R5 1600x but got the 1700x for a tenner more lol. I can definitely recommend the 1700x, it's an absolutely stellar CPU IMO, but so is the 2600x.

XFR2 with the R5 2600x is very good, so honestly manual overclocking could be a total waste of time with it. A custom loop is entirely unnecessary for both CPUs by the way, Ryzen is pretty damn efficient.

I have an MSI X370 board and I hate it, I also hated my old MSI Z97 motherboard(swapped it for an Asus board immediately lol). I find it hard to recommend MSI boards now because of weird issues I've had with mine, as well as the BIOS not being great. That said, objectively speaking MSI boards are usually pretty good for the most part, with just their super budget options being fairly questionable quality. To be fair, MSI's BIOS isn't terrible, like Gigabyte's is. While I've not used an Asrock mobo in a long time, I hear their BIOS still isn't great either so Asus is probably the only other motherboard manufacturer with a better BIOS than MSI. Other than maybe EVGA, but they don't make AM4 boards. Still, I'd recommend at least considering an Asus board in a similar price range to the MSI mobo you're currently looking at.

For PSU, keep in mind that quality is more important than wattage. Also, 80+ Gold doesn't necessarily mean good quality. A good 450W unit would be fine for an R5/57 and single RX 580. I'd probably aim for a 500-550W unit though. If you were to add a 2nd RX 580, I'd look at a 650W unit. If you can get 750W for a similar price, then that would be a good shout but no need for more than 750W, and if a 650W unit is considerably cheaper, I'd probably just get that.

Adding RAM isn't going to require much more wattage, not enough that you'd need to consider a different PSU for the upgrade option in the future(it's less than like 8W for 2x8GB). Overclocking will increase power consumption but not too significantly(at least not with your components anyway). It will use more power than adding more RAM though.

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I'd be interested to know what you're upgrading from and how much you're spending. Might be better options for you.

Also wondering why you're doing a somewhat ghetto custom loop?

I actually found both the 1700X and 2600X for ~$180, the price difference is less than $5 for those two so I'm honestly stuck lol. I actually have a 650W PSU in my current build, so I guess I lucked out? lol.

Current build is actually an Asus Q77 (only used Asus and Gigabyte boards before and I liked the Asus SO much more than the Gigabyte. So many failed BIOS updates...), 16GB DDR3 RAM, i5-2500 and a GTX 1050ti. To be honest I think I decided AMD only because all I've ever thought of or used is Intel processors and NVIDIA GPUs, the Ryzen chips were the first AMD CPUs to stand out. It's also mainly for shits n gigs. I built a desk similar to [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] and want all of the pc components to be visible from where I sit. I also have PCIe risers and will be getting water blocks for the GPUs so I can lay them flat and add them into the loop, and I want to have the radiators separated from the PC components to keep heat displaced. Ofc there is full air flow through the desk with filters to prevent dust from getting in, fans sucking air in on the side with the mobo & other components and blowing it out past the radiators. I also want to be able to keep it on 24/7 without hurting anything, so water cooling is for aesthetics and kinda has a function lmao

Budget (excluding desk and peripherals and PSU) is ~$1k, but the lower the better.

xChillest wrote I actually found both the 1700X and 2600X for ~$180, the price difference is less than $5 for those two so I'm honestly stuck lol.

Yeah, understandable. You're really not going to regret either purchase, both great CPU's. Only you're going to be able to decide between the 2 though, based on what you feel is more important to you, 2600x's better IPC, or 1700x's better multi-thread performance.

xChillest wrote I actually have a 650W PSU in my current build, so I guess I lucked out? lol.

Depends on quality. If it's pretty low quality, it'll be fine with a single GPU but not sure I'd feel comfortable with an XFire RX 580 set-up on a low quality 650W unit.

xChillest wrote Current build is actually an Asus Q77 (only used Asus and Gigabyte boards before and I liked the Asus SO much more than the Gigabyte. So many failed BIOS updates...), 16GB DDR3 RAM, i5-2500 and a GTX 1050ti. To be honest I think I decided AMD only because all I've ever thought of or used is Intel processors and NVIDIA GPUs, the Ryzen chips were the first AMD CPUs to stand out.

Yeah, Ryzen would be a decent upgrade from LGA1155. If you had a more modern Intel CPU it might not make so much sense, but LGA1155 is getting pretty old. So despite Sandy Bridge still being a great architecture, R5/R7 would be a massive improvement. I noticed some pretty substantial gains from even my i7-4790k to R7 1700x. If you're currently running a 1050Ti, maybe re-use that with the Ryzen set-up for a little bit, sell your old system and try to get something a little higher end than an RX 580. You can find some used GTX 1070(Ti)'s for an absolute steal. I've even seen some Vega 56's at good prices but 1070(Ti)'s are far more common.

xChillest wrote I built a desk similar to [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] and want all of the pc components to be visible from where I sit. I also have PCIe risers and will be getting water blocks for the GPUs so I can lay them flat and add them into the loop

Ah, I see, desk system. I was thinking you were going to run a pump on your desk and a system inside a case for some reason lol.

xChillest wrote and I want to have the radiators separated from the PC components to keep heat displaced. Ofc there is full air flow through the desk with filters to prevent dust from getting in, fans sucking air in on the side with the mobo & other components and blowing it out past the radiators. I also want to be able to keep it on 24/7 without hurting anything, so water cooling is for aesthetics and kinda has a function lmao

Yeah, so run the rad(s) one one side of the desk, and the system itself on the other, then I'd have storage and what not in the middle probably. You really don't need a custom loop for these components, heat's really not going to be an issue as long as your desk case isn't starved of airflow. So I'd hope it's just for aesthetic reasons lol. That said, I wouldn't spend too much on the watercooling stuff, maybe even get one of EK's aluminium kits, those are really well priced but make sure to only pair it with other aluminium parts if you add more watercooling stuff than comes in the kit(like fittings, rads, etc).

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Not sure if the budget is $1k before watercooling parts of including watercooling stuff, so here's a $1k system without case and PSU;
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] / [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

CPU: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] ($179.99 @ Newegg Business)
Motherboard: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] ($158.64 @ OutletPC)
Memory: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] ($159.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] ($86.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] ($369.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $955.50

GTX 1070(Ti)'s are even getting pretty cheap new, but like I said, if you look at the used marker, you can get some banging deals(<$250-280ish). Nice Asus mobo and Corsair RGB RAM since you're kinda focusing on aesthetics here anyway. The Vengeance RGB Pro RAM is pretty damn nice, I had TridentZ RGB but swapped it for Vengeance RGB Pro.

Here's the EK aluminium watercooling kit;
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
comes with an AM4 compatible CPU block, and a Pascal GPU block, so will work with a 1070(Ti) but not RX 580.

You'll also probably want to get some custom sleeved cables at some point but those can get pretty expensive since you probably won't want to run just extensions.

Definitely sticking with the Asus Prime X470, it's a damn nice board. I actually read your response some time this morning and ended up looking into everything, and I ended up getting quite an extensive setup all planned lmao. I decided on the R5 2600X too only because it's slightly more recent. Considering this is going to be a lengthy build and a major factor is aesthetics, I went ahead and bought connectors and wire and will be setting all of that up and sleeving everything until other items are ordered/shipped. I ditched the RGB RAM in favor of adding the RAM to the water cool loop, it also ended up being significantly cheaper per GB (excluding cost of cooling) and end up with twice the RAM. I also completely forgot about the Vega GPUs, I ended up finding some for less than $300, so I'll definitely be taking advantage of that lol

Thanks for all the input, I finally got it all planned out and started. So far here's the list

Mobo: ASUS Prime X470-Pro ($150)
CPU: AMD R5 2600X (water cooled) ($220)
GPU: Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB (water cooled) (<$300)
RAM: G.SKILL Aegis DDR4 32GB (water cooled) (8GB x 4, $230)
Memory: Kingston A400 240GB SSD ($40) & WD Black 4TB HDD (already own)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 (Already own. I was wrong about the 650W thing lol)

That brings the total (excluding water cooling and any wire sleeves, custom components etc) to $900. I guess that's good for me

Water Cooling Setup:
D5 pump, a big ole tube reservoir, flex tubing the whole way thru lol. Airflow should be pretty good, intake and exhaust are on opposite sides with nothing massive blocking the air. Both intake and exhaust have 2 filtered 180mm fans and are adjustable, hoping that'll be good but if not I can always add more ports. The top I found for the D5 pump actually has two in/out ports, so there will be two loops going. Only using 120mm single fan radiators because there'll be two of em, and they'll both be placed by the exhaust side.
First loop: reserve -> pump -> radiator1 -> GPU -> reserve
Second loop: reserve -> pump -> radiator2 -> CPU -> RAM -> reserve

There will be overclocking...

Did I mess anything up in the planning?

xChillest wrote Definitely sticking with the Asus Prime X470, it's a damn nice board.

Yeah, the Strix was on sale yesterday for the same price which wouldn't been good, but the Prime X470-Pro is a great board anyway so I'd probably just save the $25+ over the Strix now. Only real addition with the Strix over the X470-Pro AFAIK is an addressable RGB header but that's not exactly a huge deal lol, the Prime X470-Pro still has a normal RGB header.

xChillest wrote I actually read your response some time this morning and ended up looking into everything, and I ended up getting quite an extensive setup all planned lmao. I decided on the R5 2600X too only because it's slightly more recent.

Yeah, solid choice. I'd take the 2600x over the 1700x as well for the same price for the minor architectural improvements. Plus, 2700(x)'s will probably be on the used market cheap as chips when Ryzen 3000 launches anyway so you could always upgrade then if you wanted, or even just go Ryzen 7 3700(x).

xChillest wrote I ditched the RGB RAM in favor of adding the RAM to the water cool loop, it also ended up being significantly cheaper per GB (excluding cost of cooling) and end up with twice the RAM.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that. Adding RAM to the loop is just a complete waste of money IMO. If you don't particularly care for RGB RAM, you can get some nice non RGB RAM for a reasonable price and it'll look fine. Personally, I think RAM in a custom loop looks a bit odd anyway. If you want 32GB, I'd recommend just doing 2x8GB for now, that way you can spend more money elsewhere right now and still easily add another 2x8GB in the future, hopefully when RAM is cheaper. I remember when 16GB DDR4 was <$80 easily.

xChillest wrote I also completely forgot about the Vega GPUs, I ended up finding some for less than $300, so I'll definitely be taking advantage of that lol

Yeah, I think 1070Ti's are still around the $300 mark used and they perform pretty similar to Vega 56 so V56 for $300 is a solid choice.

xChillest wrote Mobo: ASUS Prime X470-Pro ($150)
CPU: AMD R5 2600X (water cooled) ($220)
GPU: Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB (water cooled) (<$300)
RAM: G.SKILL Aegis DDR4 32GB (water cooled) (8GB x 4, $230)
Memory: Kingston A400 240GB SSD ($40) & WD Black 4TB HDD (already own)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 (Already own. I was wrong about the 650W thing lol)

Yeah, 750G2 will be perfect. Had a 750G2 myself but got a free upgrade to an 850G2 that I've been running for years lol. I wouldn't be surprised if this thing survived an apocalypse lol. As I said above, I'd reconsider RAM a little. RAM pricing has been coming down(really quite slowly unfortunately), but I really think grabbing 16GB for now, and adding another 16GB later would be the best option. Also I'd aim for a 480-512GB SSD at this point, they're just stupidly well priced. Crucial MX300/MX500, OCZ Trion 200, and Samsung 860 EVO are all good SSDs.

xChillest wrote Water Cooling Setup:
D5 pump, a big ole tube reservoir, flex tubing the whole way thru lol. Airflow should be pretty good, intake and exhaust are on opposite sides with nothing massive blocking the air. Both intake and exhaust have 2 filtered 180mm fans and are adjustable, hoping that'll be good but if not I can always add more ports. The top I found for the D5 pump actually has two in/out ports, so there will be two loops going. Only using 120mm single fan radiators because there'll be two of em, and they'll both be placed by the exhaust side.
First loop: reserve -> pump -> radiator1 -> GPU -> reserve
Second loop: reserve -> pump -> radiator2 -> CPU -> RAM -> reserve

There will be overclocking...

Did I mess anything up in the planning?

That wouldn't really be a dual loop. I'm not even sure how it would work tbh. I'd just set it all up as a single loop. If you've not got rads already, I'd go for a single 240/280mm rad probably. 360/420mm would be perfect if you could fit it, but a little overkill lol. If you've already got 2 x 120's, it'll be fine.

Remember to have the reservoir higher than the pump, if possible. I'd run the loop like this;
Reservoir>>pump>>GPU>>CPU>>Rad(s)>>Reservoir

I think it might be easier the way your system will be set up to go GPU to CPU with the loop, but obviously depending on orientation, you might want to go pump>>CPU>>GPU instead. If that's the case, it's fine, it's not going to make a huge difference to temps, if any.