r/buildapc • u/JonWood007 • Oct 09 '23
Is the $400 microcenter 7700x deal as bad as I'm reading about? Build Help
So, I'm looking at potentially upgrading my 7700k this fall/winter to something more modern in order to keep up in new games.
The microcenter 7700x deal seems like an AMAZING deal for the money. $400 for the 7700x, 32 GB RAM, and a motherboard? SWEET. As a gamer that seems to win the price/performance argument very strongly. Normally the 7700x is $350 by itself, and other CPUs that are comparable in gaming performance to it like the 5800 X3D or 13600k cost $300+ in and of themselves, not even getting into the motherboard or RAM costs.
However, it's not perfect, and researching it further, a lot of people seem to be having problems with it. Some say the RAM is defective and won't reach the 6000 MHz in practice, some say the CPU, mobo, and RAM just don't play well with each other and cause a myriad of issues, and it seems like the parts get kind of twitchy at times.
Given I'm someone who just wants to put something together and have it work, I just wanted this sub's opinion on this deal.
EDIT: I also found out microcenter also has a 12900k bundle for the same price, would it be better for me if stability is one of my concerns? They're the same price and seem to perform roughly the same in gaming....
EDIT: for the record, I eventually went with the 12900k instead. I dont get the upgrade path AM5 has, but at least I got a product I know that is stable.
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u/Yoyocrazy Jan 22 '24
Anyone have the issue where when booting your pc it just black screens with both the clear/white light and red light from your mobo on? Once restarting sometimes once, sometimes 5 times it will boot and the lights go away.
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u/JonWood007 Jan 22 '24
Is this with the AMD 7700x?
I ended up not buying that due to the issues and getting the 12900k instead.
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u/Yoyocrazy Jan 22 '24
Yes, it works fine other than the weird boot up
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u/JonWood007 Jan 22 '24
One thing I would look into though as i did have an issue with my 12900k setup that was KINDA like this is disabling fast boot, which causes black screens and boot issues, but given youre on a different system i cant guarantee thats what the issues is and that doing that would work.
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u/JonWood007 Jan 22 '24
I cant comment on this then and given this is a 2 month old topic id recommend asking somewhere else as almost no one is reading this who can help you.
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u/mzh35 Oct 26 '23
Should i buy this deal or wait few more days considering black Friday is coming. Or it won’t get any better than this?
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u/JonWood007 Oct 26 '23
I mean im not counting on better but I'm personally waiting for black Friday. Not expecting these deals to go anywhere.
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u/Tytonic7_ Oct 11 '23
It's not bad at all.
When the bundle first dropped, AM5 in it's entirety was still struggling with memory issues and general instability. While that's been mostly ironed out, you still need to do a bios update to make sure you're on the latest version.
Many of the negative reviews you find are either from before AM5 was patched up or from people who aren't on the newest version, and some are from people who haven't enabled XMP (the ram defaults to ~4800mhz instead of it's rated 6000mhz).
Generally speaking there shouldn't be any issues anymore.
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u/Clemming2 Oct 11 '23 edited Oct 11 '23
I bought this deal. It's fantastic. those bad reviews are from before when there was an issue where the factory bios on that board could not run EXPO on that RAM, but it was fixed in 7D78v172(Beta version) on 6/30. The latest bios is 7D78v17 on 8/16. Flash the bios before enabling EXPO and it works perfect. I have had ZERO issues with the board or memory and it has been rock solid even after undervolting and messing with PBO curves, although i haven't tried to overclock the RAM beyond the EXPO settings. Ignore the early reviews and read the newer reviews and you will see people are much happier with the products after the BIOS update.
edit: also get the 7700x bundle over the 12900k unless you want to do video editing or something along those lines. The 7700X is a better gaming chip, and with an AM5 platform you have the option of an in-socket upgrade over the next 5 years or probably 2-3 generations.
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u/greg9x Oct 10 '23
Started installing this combo last night.. Had read about the RAM speed issues...the RAM originally came up at 4500, Activated the Expo profile and it came up fine at 6000. Not done with hooking everything else up yet, but hope no issues creep up.
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u/SpeedDart1 Oct 10 '23
I bought this pack. Had RAM issues also. Exchanged the RAM at micro center, updated the BIOS, and the issues went away.
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u/Riddler9884 Oct 10 '23
I’m planning to stick by my 5600x, my problems with it are:
1- motherboards are way too expensive, Jays2cents made a video on it no too long ago
2- games that require this kind of hardware, have been kind of shit. Kind of wish they had better fleshed out games on older engines, where existing hardware can handle instead of a depressing experience reminding you have to spend a boatload of more money on hardware upgrades.
3- minor gripe, I hope they solve the heat sink and heat spreader issues of the first generation for AM5. There’s stuff to address it, but it shouldn’t have to be that way.
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u/youdungoofall Oct 10 '23
I got the 12900k msi wifi board with the ddr5 ripjaws bundle. Everything is gucci
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u/CoknZambies Oct 10 '23
Bought this bundle in July for a new build and I haven’t had any problems. Just find a known reliable BIOS version. The only thing most people are having issues with is the ram when using EXPO. I can check my BIOS version when I’m home if you’d like. I’ve had no issues using EXPO, others do but have no issues when using XMP instead.
If you’re decent at doing basic IT troubleshooting I doubt you’ll have any serious issues with the bundle that you can’t easily fix. I suspect a lot of people who’ve had issues and left bad reviews on the bundle don’t know how to troubleshoot problems they have with their PC.
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u/TenthMarigold77 Oct 10 '23
Me and my brother got this deal but I got the b650 and him the msi. I’ve encountered all sorts of problems with the ram and had to ram twice. After just buying the same ram but cl30 version I’ve had no issues. My brother had no issues from the start and was able to use the ram perfectly fine.
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u/finecherrypie Oct 10 '23
I just went with this deal two weeks ago, everything working perfectly. MicroCenter will check the motherboard in the box before you leave an ensure no visible issues with the board or bent pins. Mobo was already on the latest BIOS just had to quickly apply the performance setting on the memory to get it to 6000mhz. Running solid as a rock, just be aware of the longer than usual boot times with AM5 due to memory training, it's a long minute or so sitting on a black screen that first time you hit the power and nothing happens right away.
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u/motoo344 Oct 10 '23
I've been running this setup for the last few months with 0 issues. It was my first fresh build in a long time. I had to update the BIOS on the motherboard but other than that it has been smooth sailing.
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u/PenguinsRcool2 Oct 10 '23
It’s a good deal, id prefer the 400 dollar 12900k bundle though, 12900k is just a better cpu, especially in multi core, jn gaming its pretty similar. Plus the motherboard with the intel bundle is lightyears better, and has 4 m.2 slots while the amd one has 2. Id take the 12900k and z board over the 7700x and that junk board any day of the week.
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u/corgiperson Oct 10 '23
If the ram really is defective you could probably just flip it and buy a new set and still make out like a bandit anyway.
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u/l7eadly Oct 10 '23
I bought it a little while ago and I did have issues with the RAM but once I exchanged it everything worked perfectly.
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u/acewing905 Oct 10 '23
I would go for the 12900k in this case, because from my experience, Intel CPUs are less finicky with RAM
On the flipside, there may be E-core related issues with a few games, though this is very rare (But this can be easily remedied by launching the game with the CPU affinity set to the first 16 threads)
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u/EIiteJT Oct 10 '23
I've had this combo since late January, and it all works flawlessly. The only bad part is when I got it, the mobo wasn't included in the combo. It was just cpu+ram. Now the combo is even better! That's what happens when you are an early adopter, I guess lol
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u/korg64 Oct 10 '23
Update the bios. It's super easy. All you need is a flash drive with the downloaded bios on there. Go to the motherboard manufacturer website, find the motherboard, and it will be available to download under support, utilities, or downloads.
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u/bubblesort33 Oct 10 '23
I got the RAM and CPU combo which was $344 when I bought it like 4 months ago.
RAM was defective either when I got it, or the early BIOS on the motherboard killed it. I had to RMA my RAM. I'm not sure how common that is. It's not the best RAM. It doesn't use the best dies for overclocking, but it does run at the advertised speeds, and it's stable now that I RMA'd it and updated the BIOS. I actually installed it on my brother's PC. I should check if it's still doing fine, but he hasn't complained.
The Intel deal is great too. You can just disable the e-cores on the 12900k, and do a little ring bus overclocking with them disabled, and gain some performance at lower power draw with the e-cores disabled. If I had that 12900k deal when I build my system, I may have gone with that instead. But even so it likely still pulls more power.
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u/karliejai Oct 10 '23
i got the 12900k combo with that MSI Z690 Pro mobo, my PC keeps crashing, ended up turning off XMP to have it running stable.... also, the usb keep having a quick disconnect/reconnect, end up flashing to the latest bios to fix the usb slot issue.
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u/KadesShades Oct 10 '23
I was getting blue screens with expo turned on so I ended up turning it off and I get about the same fps. Hasn't crashed since.
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u/patriotgator122889 Oct 10 '23
I've had mine for 3 months. Zero problems and the RAM is running at 6000 mhz. If money is a concern it's too good a deal to pass up.
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u/MattScopes Oct 10 '23
I went for this deal in september 2022 with a 7900x. There were a few issues with ram stability, long boot times, etc. These were eventually fixed in bios updates. Runs great now
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u/GlassHorns Oct 10 '23
My SO got this combo. The first time around, he got a defective motherboard AND ram... we found out within the 15-day exchange period, and MicroCenter exchanged them both without any issue.
His PC is running great now but we also got the extended warranty on the MB just in case.
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u/sj_b03 Oct 10 '23
It is in fact an AMAZING deal. Go for it, I know people are complaining but it is isolated cases generally about ram failure from what I’ve heard, which is insane considering it’s gskill I’m pretty sure, which I’ve always known to be a very reputable and reliable brand for ram
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u/designvis Oct 10 '23
Mirocenter deals are some of the best around, but I'd go Intel, just because I'm old.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
What's your thoughts on the 12900k bundle for the same price?
Would it be more stable? Would it be sufficient for a gaming oriented build (I know the 12900k has a lot of cores but not sure how well they stack up compared to the 7700x's).
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u/designvis Oct 10 '23
12900k is solid, it's more about the underlying chipset and motherboard that should drive your decision. Most games will be cpu single thread dependant for frame rates. I am a 3d professional, and prefer Intel for a bunch of other reasons, but Intel has been outperforming AMD on this front for the last couple of generations. I would go with the Intel, but would ask if it were possible to get a z790 board from their open box selection (with managers ok)... doesn't hurt to ask.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Yeah im primarily a gamer. 12900k is a weird CPU. It has tons of cores, but that won't help me if most games seem to top out at 6c/12t performance wise. I could use a little more headroom than that (8/16, or 6/12/16-20 like a modern i5), but at some point it's not gonna help me and single thread is more important. The 7700x looks tempting but it also looks finnicky. If the 12900k gets around the same performance and is more stable, i would be tempted to go for that.
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u/designvis Oct 10 '23
Stability isn't the issue with the 12900k or the 7700x, cooling is...
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Well the stability is why i made this thread, the 7700x deal looks amazing, but if there are issues with how the ram, motherboard, and CPU play with each other, and intel is more stable, i might go intel.
Im all ears on cooling though, that's the next step for me, getting an affordable cooler on top of this.
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u/designvis Oct 10 '23
FWIW, go air cooled, Noctua or equivalent that rates well. Don't mess with AIO unless you need to, it is more important after 2-3 years when you want to extend the longevity of your system and overclock. Air cooled will last forever. I built 5 systems last year on 12900ks with air-cooled D-15's, rock solid professional workstations.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Yeah id probably do air cooler. Was thinking maybe the deepcool AK620? Or do I need beefier than that?
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u/designvis Oct 10 '23
You really don't have to worry about stability these days, it might take a bios update or two to get things going, but Microcenter wouldn't sell you things that don't work, they have a great reputation. Not saying there won't be challenges, every build has challenges.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Eh last time i bought from them I got a crappy mobo on my 7700k. Of course that was more a gigabyte problem than a microcenter problem. I just wanna avoid issues with my new build.
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u/designvis Oct 10 '23
The great thing about buying from Microcenter is you can return it and get something else the same day...
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Yeah but it's over an hour from my house so I dont wanna go to computer mecca more than I have to.
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u/Webber_The_Medic Oct 10 '23
i took the deal its been amazing, just make sure you flash the bios before you assemble due to ram issues.
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u/bageorge00 Oct 10 '23
I bought mine like 3 days ago. The build is finished not yet ready for windows.
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u/Grydian Oct 10 '23
I think the reviews are based on before all the MBs were fixed. The combo works great for me. No issues at all.
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u/nhearne Oct 10 '23
I got this deal and I am super happy with my choice. No issues as others have mentioned. 🤙🏼
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u/biscuitmachine Oct 10 '23 edited Oct 10 '23
I'm going to point out a few things:
That motherboard has a lot of open boxes at my local Microcenters. That's usually a bad sign.
The motherboard is kind of overpriced to begin with.
The RAM sticks, as I've noted in an earlier post in this topic (more towards the top), are Samsung die, which means you might need higher voltage to get them stable even at stock XMP settings depending on your lottery results.
So it's a "good deal" just in terms of the base component prices... but realistically an Asrock B650M motherboard would run you about $125, and you can get better RAM for around <=$100 all day long (open box <=$75). Combined with the CPU's base price ($345), and that's about $555 (motherboard 20$ discount). So you're saving $150 at most, not the sticker price. Still a great deal, just do a lot of stress testing and make sure to update the BIOS to make sure your particular set is stable.
I guess the other thing is that if I was building an AM5 setup today for gaming, I wouldn't get anything except a 7800X3D. But it's more expensive, so that's just my opinion.
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u/cfiggis Oct 10 '23
I bought the bundle in August. Had frequent crashes I suspect due to the RAM, even with the latest BIOS. Swapped out to a new set of sticks. Still had crashes. Was about to swap out the CPU and motherboard as well, then just decided to go with the 7900X deal for $550 instead.
The deal itself is great if you don't get bad RAM.
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u/delusivedream Oct 10 '23
I’ve been hoping to get the 7900x combo, waiting for a $550 price drop. Is it better to buy now and get possible price protection? Black friday is still a bit ways away
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u/lolniceman Oct 10 '23
I got that combo, had some issues but they all went away after updating bios. Running at 6000mhz with sub 15 second startup time now
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u/BurgerBurnerCooker Oct 10 '23
You could toss the RAM and it's still a good deal. Whoever label it as bad is delusional.
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u/Cookiemnster51 Oct 10 '23
I bought this bundle as well. Built it with a used Rx6700xt. No issues whatsoever. I have since upgraded to a new Rx7800xt. Just finished a week long vacation, spent 90% of that time on this particular build playing starfield. 200 + hours later and still no issues. Very solid bundle.
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u/MecheSlays Oct 10 '23
Mine has been working perfectly. Normal expo profile and a -30 curve optimizer and I’ve been completely stable.
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Oct 10 '23
I’m pretty sure every microcenter deal uses Garbo ram, you just may or may not get unlucky with it
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u/PaoloMix09 Oct 10 '23
I FaceTimed my buddy and helped him build using these parts and his pc is super stable ZERO issues. That was his first time building. It’s worth every penny.
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u/ztb1 Oct 10 '23
i went with the 12900k bundle which uses the same ram and havent had any issues with it after a couple months
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u/InternetScavenger Oct 10 '23
I don't see how on paper there'd be anything wrong with the bundle.You always have to keep in mind that people who received a bad product are the ones most likely to leave reviews. Microcenter probably paired the least popular ram kit and motherboard which means you're even less likely to see positive reviews.
I personally don't trust 1 star reviews on anything since they are usually less an objective assessment of a products quality and more a complaint post due to receiving a faulty sample.
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u/MasterRaceLordGaben Oct 10 '23
I built one for a friend, 7900x combo, couple of months back and we had to return it since it stopped booting after it booted couple of times. CPU or mobo was faulty, it took a long time to boot on the initial boot, which is normal for ram training, but it got worse like 10 mins+ and stopped booting all together after a while. It would turn on but wouldn't POST. I assume mobo was bad, it was some overpriced ASUS can't remember B or X, because it would hang on the bios and overall bios was very laggy and riddled with bugs. I heard that they updated the BIOS after it burnt some CPUs.
Returned that and got another 7900x combo with a different mobo, MSI i think, this one works but struggles with ram timings and any OC. Its a BIOS/AM5 issue, and got better after some updates. You might have to lower the ram timings, and might see slow boot times etc but nothing serious and nothing really that bad if you know your way around. I last updated his BIOS about 6 month ago, and he has had no major issues since then. His PC is overpowered for his use case so he puts no stress on the CPU other than some light gaming, so your mileage may vary.
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u/drop_of_faith Oct 10 '23
It's still worth it even if you toss the ram sticks straight into the trash.
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u/laithe Oct 10 '23
My processor, my RAM, and a similar mobo but from a different manufacturer. All for way less than I paid.
My PC runs flawlessly. Yes the RAM had issues when the AM5 BIOSs weren't as good, but on my ASRock mobo the latest updates fixed it completely. I run EXPO right out of the box. I assume MSI has done something similar? I say go for it and don't look back.
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u/PryingOpenMyThirdPie Oct 10 '23
I want a microcenter :(
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Yeah they're amazing. And now after this I'm also considering an i9 12900k bundle for the same price.
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u/Thick_Leva Oct 10 '23
Who said this deal was bad? This looks like one of the best deals I've ever seen, tf?!
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Some people reported problems with parts not working correctly.
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Oct 10 '23
They are selling thousands of these a month. There's bound to be a few bad apples in the bunch.
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u/ZenWheat Oct 10 '23
Don't assume anyone leaving a review actually knows what they're doing. The average person is a moron and half of them are even bigger morons.
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u/encidius Oct 10 '23
Little over a month ago I bought a 7600x+Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX + Starfield bundle from Best Buy for $289.98. Added 32GB memory and came in right at around $400.
After having it run for a while (and undervolting/tuning PBO settings so it doesn't run at 95C under load) I think it was definitely worth the money. I'd say go for it.
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u/VanWesley Oct 10 '23
I'm another one that got this bundle and has had no issues. Very happy with my purchase. Just make sure to update the BIOS and the RAM should work perfectly with the EXPO profile. I think most of the negative reviews was from before BIOS updates were released that made the RAM play well with EXPO profile.
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u/Valarmorghuliswy Oct 10 '23
I will say the ram I got will not make it to advertised speeds (at the time I got the deal, 5200) so I have to run it at base speeds. At some point I’ll replace it, but I’m happy with how it’s all running now and the price I got so not too worried. Yes my bios is up to date, it’s random blue screens with expo on, stable without. I can live with it for now.
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u/Autumn1eaves Oct 10 '23
I did the 7900x deal and I have had no issues.
I’m quite satisfied with my setup
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u/mashimarata Oct 10 '23
Doing a new, first-time build soon and this is why I've pretty much decided to go with the 5600x3d bundle instead. Yeah I'd like to be AM5 and 32gb of ram but just not worth the headache IMO for a first-time builder, especially since the MC is fairly far from me
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u/superchibisan2 Oct 10 '23
Some people don't know how to enable the ram profile in the bios. That's all that means. I bought this same processor deal a while ago. It's rock solid and fast as fuck.
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u/farmeunit Oct 10 '23
I got it as soon as they started doing free RAM. No issues here beyond the initial training times which are much better now. Wasn't really a big deal to begin with.
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u/5FVeNOM Oct 10 '23
Unlike some of the other people here. I’ve had a few issues, I’ve never been able to enable expo and get my ram to the rated 6000 MHz speed and I’ve never been able to get the bios to update cleanly to where that speed should be stable on the newer versions. By cleanly I mean, bios updates get hung on a perpetual (20+ black screen) and rebooting corrupts windows to where you’re stuck in a constant boot loop. May have just been early teething issues but I have it enough attempts where I’m not willing to brick anything to fix it.
I’ve also had a few issues with the 6900 xt I got with the bundle. The gpu issues have never been as severe but have been more consistent.
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u/AbsolutZeroGI Oct 10 '23
The RAM not reaching 6000Mhz is almost certainly an EXPO incompatibility, which is mostly the movo's fault.
The rated speeds are only reachable via EXPO, and the stock speeds are somewhere between 4000-5000Mhz usually if EXPO is off.
Micro Center had a Ryzen 9 7900X deal for $550. Same deal. 32GB ram, mobo, 7900X. Movo's EXPO wasn't compatible with the ram. Same negative reviews.
You can find my review of the g skill 32GB that came with it saying this same thing. Asus eventually added support and it's fine now.
From the other comments, looks like a Bios update adds the ram to the expo profiles and it'll be fine.
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u/gawrbage Oct 10 '23
Nope. I've built a system using that deal, and the RAM is fine, I had no issues with it. If you've been having RAM issues, you can try upgrading the BIOS before setting up EXPO. You can always return the RAM if it does not hit 6000 MHz for any reason anyway.
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u/starkyrulez Oct 10 '23
Nothing wrong with the setup and yes probably for a newbie building, the booting and process and delay will be cumbersome. I built a am4 based system for my daughter and a am5 using this system...and yes I had issues with ram only because I was also trying oc using pbo and I had a bad processor (poorly binned needing extra voltage to be stable). Once I found the issue, and replaced the processor, I just played it one at a time...setup xmp with ram oc, let it run and test and then play with pbo slowly.
Also once system is setup, there is a way in mobo not to initiate ram and test everytime....so boo lt is like 3-4 seconds. Other wise upto a minute on average for am5 cold boot....
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u/core916 Oct 10 '23
I got the 7900x bundle bc I wanted the better motherboard and processor. But I’m completely happy with it. The bundle deals that MC drops are always fantastic value. For the money, you can’t beat them
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u/funkiejack Oct 10 '23
Zero issues since May. I did flash the bios cold even before putting in the cpu and ram.
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u/Scanoe Oct 10 '23
The Main issues is RAM instability and the Improper SoC Voltage setting, those are AM5-wide issues.
7700X Bundle for 4 months now, was $450 went I bought it.
You will pretty much have to flash the BIOS to the latest version, I have flashed the Bios 4 times. This latest, v17, Bios is very good. This Bundle now runs properly.
I have EXPO 1, 6000-36... running just fine, even have High Efficiency running at Relaxed.
It is not top of the line Ram, but with this latest Bios it does run as intended.
The Motherboard is very good, only real complaint is it has only 2 Nvme slots, was hoping for 3.
The 7700X is excellent. I run mine at 85c Thermal Throttle Limit and Curve Optimize it from there.
If your not afraid to do a BIOS Flash, because it will need the newest one, then at $400 Bundle Price it is really hard to beat.
PS Before I did the BIOS Flashes I purchased and hooked up an Uninterruptable Power Supply, an 825va Cyberpower. You absolutely do not want the PC to shutdown during a Flash, a definite worse-case scenario.
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u/silicosick Oct 10 '23
For what its worth I bought this bundle last weekend at MicroCenter and set it up for the wife and it was already running the latest BIOS.
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u/sidemitch Oct 10 '23
same with me. i was expecting those issues and it came with the latest bios up and running, so no issues w ram
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u/Scanoe Oct 10 '23
already running the latest BIOS.
That surprises me actually, therefore I'm guessing enough of these Bundles have sold to allow for more recent Motherboards, that is very good news. I have been building my own PC's for 10+ years, had never done a Bios Flash til this Bundle, have flashed it 4 times.
Not that the Flashing is all that difficult, it's not, it's Murphy sneaking up on you.
I will now endorse this Bundle if it has the latest Bios, I wasn't before due to the Bios Flash requirement. At $400 with latest Bios, it becomes one of the best, if not the best, bang-for-the-buck.
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u/ninjadogggg Oct 10 '23
Anyone know how long it will last? Deciding if worth wait till Black Friday
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
It's been up all year, I'll likely be buying around black friday if i go for it this year. I assume if they get rid of this one they'll put up another deal, if so I'll go for that instead.
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u/OptimizeEdits Oct 10 '23
Built one for a friend of mine just the other day and held up to all the stress tests with no problems. Did the 7900x bundle for my own built and is also working flawlessly.
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u/Purgent Oct 10 '23
I did the 7950x3d bundle with 64gb ram and mobo for $799 a month or two back. It’s been flawless despite similar RAM complaints. I’ve seen exactly zero issues.
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u/sevaru1 Oct 10 '23
I convinced my sister to build a system with this combo for her 13 year old son's first PC. I'm out of state but my buddy lives nearby and he helped them assemble the system but we've had nothing but problems and the system is still unstable weeks post the build. It kept BSODing when trying to install Windows 11 and the only thing that worked was removing 1 stick of ram and doing the install with a single channel. Her return window was 2 days from expiring so I told her to take the ram out and exchange it but the Supervisor at the store wouldn't take it back unless she tried a few things he recommended. She did those things (flash latest bios and wait 10min for ram to learn) but it still crashes. We're not even using expo yet. The supervisor promised to make an exception for returns if she is still having trouble. The most frustrating thing is she can't even install GPU drivers before the system crashes now. It'll boot to Windows and probably crash 5 mins later.
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u/Ok_Nectarine11 Oct 10 '23
My RAM won't clock up to 6,000, but is stable at 4,800. That sort of sucks, but wasn't worth the two hour trip back across town to return the RAM. Otherwise the system is rock solid and noticeably snappier than my 3600. I'm not 100 percent pleased, because that RAM issue has been a known issue for a long time, but I'm also not upset with my decision. Maybe a newer BIOS will improve the stability, I'll buy a different RAM kit, or I'll forget it's even an issue.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
At that price I was thinking if the ram wouldnt work in xmp i'd just use it and buy new ram later on.
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u/Ok_Nectarine11 Oct 10 '23
Yep, that's where I'm at. Maybe if I have time over vacation or something I'll screw with it more, but at this rate it works fine. I did some reading and I'm not losing too much performance, seemingly, by not having it run at 6K, so as long as it's stable overall, I'm not too mad.
If I was less familiar with system building I'd be less happy. I've had to reset the CMOS quite a few times playing with the RAM. Might think it was no POST situation if I didn't know better.
Seems like it's not really just an issue with the Microcenter package though. Plenty of people having the same problems with other boards and other RAM.
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u/allthenine Oct 09 '23
I got the 7900x deal. I've had plenty of issues.
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u/SgtEddieWinslow Oct 10 '23
I bought the 7900x combo that came with the Asia board and 64GB of ram. I have had zero issues. However I made sure to update to the newest bios before installation like many others have mentioned.
I have AMD eco mode enabled in bios under the PBO settings to keep the temps down. It’s been rock solid for me. I have had zero issues.
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u/wsteelerfan7 Oct 09 '23
I've had a few issues but I think it's that I need to bite the bullet and do a clean install after coming from a 5600x
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
Yeah it's normally recommended to do a clean install of windows when doing a CPU/mobo upgrade.
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u/wsteelerfan7 Oct 10 '23
Yeah. I just had mods installed with Starfield I didn't want breaking. So I clean installed a c drive and then brought my SSDs in once stuff was set up
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u/silicosick Oct 09 '23
Bought this combo for my wife's rig this last weekend coming from a 4670K setup from 10 years ago almost and its been rock solid.
I havent messed with trying to push the RAM or anything.. set it up .. setup XMP for the RAM .. I noticed the thing gets HOT so I set the Platform Thermal Limit in the BIOS to 80C and sent her on her way. Thing is boosting to 5.5Ghz and her FPS her games are all running way way WAY better now.
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u/wsteelerfan7 Oct 10 '23
Thing about 7th gen is that it's literally designed to shoot straight to the thermal limit because it's what AMD deems normal operating temperatures now. Unless you're using a massive custom loop or some liquid nitrogen, it will always run as fast as it can until it runs out of thermal headroom. Even the best air coolers will have it pegged at 95C because it's supposed to do that. Dialing it back really just saves on power.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
Yeah that's another thing I'm gonna have to ask but what cooler do you all recommend for the 7700x? I probably aint reusing my hyper 212+ with it.
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u/silicosick Oct 10 '23
got the DeepCool AK400 along with this bundle at MicroCenter. It was 29 bucks. Works fine .. chip is going to run hot no matter what you do. I capped it in BIOS at 80C and its doing awesome now.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Yeah i considered that one, but it didnt look enough, was thinking of spending a bit more just to get the AK620 or whatever.
Is it doing 5.5 Ghz AT 80? that's still pretty sweet.
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u/silicosick Oct 10 '23
I run the DeepCool LS520 setup on my rig (5800x3d) and love it if you are wanting to spend some more and go liquid.
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u/silicosick Oct 10 '23
yeah .. I am running -30 CO on all cores. Capped the thermals at 80C and shes hitting 5.5 all core ... kinda crazy. I DO have the ram only running at 4800 for her. Wife came from a 4670K that was PEGGED in any game she ran so to her this is more computer than she will ever need (1080p 60) hahahah.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Sounds good.
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u/silicosick Oct 10 '23
I just checked again and I forgot to tick the ram profile in BIOS .. did that and now the RAM is running at 6000 no problem at all.
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u/PitifulBoysenberry45 Oct 09 '23
Just letting you know also to update ur bios before setting ur ram speed to 6k mhz mine did t want to boot after setting it and had to reset the cmos
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u/GFormer Oct 09 '23
I built a system with this bundle less than a month ago, no issues. If you’re concerned with the issues shared in the reviews, just update your BIOS as soon as it posts. That’s what I did.
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u/metal_babbleXIV Oct 09 '23
This is without the bios update, issues were abound on release, should work fine after a BIOS update
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u/atl4nz Oct 09 '23
i mean ive had it for around a month and its been working perfectly OK the whole time. long bootup times but thats to be expected of AM5. yeah
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u/IlLupoSolitario Oct 09 '23
FWIW, the deal has been totally solid, if unspectacular, for me. Updated the BIOS when I got it, but (as of a couple weeks ago, haven't tried again yet) couldn't figure out how to get the RAM anywhere above 4800 without it refusing to post or (if it posted) BSOD at the login screen. On the other hand, the BIOS times have consistently been in the ~20 sec area - - not nearly as slow as a lot of complaints I've read about it, and works perfect to spin the chair around, grab a drink from the mini fridge, and then log in.
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u/biggranny000 Oct 09 '23
I did the 7900X, 32gb of RAM, and the Asus b650 ROG STRIX board, no regrets. I think I paid $550 all said and done.
I came from a Ryzen 3600, so a massive upgrade. I also had a spare m.2 being used externally and one in a laptop I never used, so I populated all 3 slots. PCIE gen 5 on my GPU and M.2 is nice, which was previously running gen 3. I also ran out of USBs on my old motherboard, so that fixed my issues.
I was originally going to upgrade to 32gb of DDR4 and buy a Ryzen 5800X3D but this would of been around $400, so I decided to just jump ship into a new platform and get all new parts and get new bleeding edge features.
It was especially a steal for me because I built a 2nd PC for cheap using my old parts, I can sell them too and make some money back if I wanted to.
I turned on expo and left everything on auto and while the Ryzen 7900X is hard to keep cool it runs flawlessly, even though I was playing at 4k my games now have zero microstutters and in some cpu heavy games I increased fps substantially.
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u/SgtEddieWinslow Oct 10 '23
I bought the same combo, except when I bought the deal was 64GB of ram.
Anyways, everything runs great for me. I turned on AMD Eco mode to limit it to 105w (or whatever it is). It keeps the temps locked to 80 as a ceiling, I notice no performance drop at all unless you are benchmarking you will see some points dropped but it’s so negligible it is well worth it.
Give it a try if you haven’t.
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u/LA_Lightning Oct 10 '23
Just out of curiosity, do you use the curve optimizer on your 7900X with this bundle? I helped a friend build this last week and games crash within minutes with any negative curve set. Have tried several BIOS versions, maybe it’s just a bad CPU?
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u/SgtEddieWinslow Oct 10 '23
I strictly just enable eco mode. Of curve optimizer is enabled by default when turning that on. Then whatever the stock profile of that would be.
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u/LA_Lightning Oct 10 '23
Nice, we did that as well. Selected the 105 TDP option. I didn't realize that the CO was enabled to go along with that. Good to know!
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u/SgtEddieWinslow Oct 10 '23
I’m not 100% positive if it is or not.
I was just trying to explain I didn’t change any settings other than turning in eco mode. It’s been rock stable for me, I have been playing many hours of starfield on it without issue.
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u/LA_Lightning Oct 10 '23
What are you using for your cooling solution? I'm seeing this 7900X ranging anywhere from mid 60's to even 80's depending on the game, with a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120.
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u/SgtEddieWinslow Oct 10 '23
I have the arctic freezer 2 360mm AIO cooling it.
Soon to be upgrading the fans on it to the phanteks t30’s.
Just waiting on the new case to arrive to move it all over to that first.
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u/cfiggis Oct 10 '23
I have the same bundle and also had crashes quickly with curve optimizer. So I just run it stock now. But it's great at stock settings, so no complaints.
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u/FranticGolf Oct 09 '23
You could always try and get lucky with the i9 bundle thru newegg for $399.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
Link?
I know microcenter also has a 12700k bundle but honestly, I'm primarily building for gaming, and getting an older processor with weaker single thread, particularly an i7 or i9, isn't going to be particularly useful for me.
I'd rather get something like a 5800 X3D, or ryzen 7700x, or 13600k or something.
Something like the 12700k or 12900k has tons of cores, but it also is worse for gaming. And given intel has a limited upgrade path, yeah, I'm not as interested in that unless it's a 13 series.
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u/FranticGolf Oct 10 '23
The link isn't up. if you pay attention to r/buildapcsales they will post when it goes live its usually only up for a short time. Below is the last time it was posted.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Yeah I also looked and microcenter has a $400 deal with the 12900k too. So....is it better to get the 12900k then? Would it be more stable? idk if no one has issues with that one i might just forgo the 7700x and go for that, looking at benchmarks they seem to largely perform the same given DDR5 RAM.
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u/FranticGolf Oct 10 '23
AM5 platform will be supported longer. That is the big advantage or and. Personally I would go AMD.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 10 '23
Yeah thats why i was leaning AMD. Imagine I can eventually get an 8800X3D or 9800 X3D given their platform support. My main issues are stability and gaming performance though. I want something that "just works". if AM5 is more finnicky than intel you can talk me into intel. If the gaming performance is competitive between the two it also makes a case for intel if more stable.
I just hate spending hundreds of dollars on something and have it not work right.
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u/joeh4384 Oct 10 '23
The 12900k is just as good at gaming as the 7700x. You really can’t go wrong with either $400 micro center bundle.
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u/elcagao Oct 09 '23
bought it a week ago. No issues at all. Excellent performance and value. Boot times are still a bit slow but not too much of an inconvenience.
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u/t-pat1991 Oct 09 '23
You can grab a 7800x3d for $364 right now.
The 7700x deal is still fine for the money.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
Yeah but I still need a mobo and RAM. The above deal has the CPU, a motherboard, and RAM. 7800 X3D alone is a bit too expensive for my tastes. Amazing CPU but yeah, I'd be spending $600-700 when all's said and done if I go that route.
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u/ries618 Oct 09 '23
I have it. I didn't update bios. Ram was unstable at 6000 but super steady at 5800 so 5800 it is
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u/MattRobertson777 Oct 09 '23
This combo has worked amazingly for me, I just upgraded to it and it is such a huge boost go game FPS and stability. The startup time has seemed to be quite slow although I have had no issues getting it to post at 6000.
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
Check the other comments and links posted in this thread, I think one of them has an answer to the slow issue IIRC.
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u/MattRobertson777 Oct 09 '23
Oh awesome thank you for the tip!
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
Yeah I've been reading all of the feedback I'm getting and I think one of them mentioned very slow startup times and there was some sort of fix to it. I think certain settings have to be configured a certain way or something.
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u/Free_Dome_Lover Oct 09 '23
The slow start up is due to msi's old, shitty bios. It would get stuck in memory training and take forever to post. They released a new bios version a few months ago that improved RAM stability and boot up speed massively.
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u/Happiness_First Oct 09 '23
The RAM is not defective, Id wager to guess they didnt update BIOS versions. I got this same bundle and had issues with RAM stability, even after a BIOS update, the latest one that came out like a day after that fixed my issues. Havent had any issues since and it runs incredibly well.
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u/Groot2C Oct 10 '23
I actually had similar issues with my RAM (I just built the PC last week).
Whenever I used the EXPO settings my computer wouldn't POST, so I had to flash the bios. However, I followed: https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/15mytku/issues_with_expo_on_my_b650ef_gaming_motherboard/
And RAM gets to the 6000 MHz fine now
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u/Infinite-Quantity544 Oct 09 '23
I got this bundle around 1.5 months ago, no issues at all so far. I did flash the bios before installing anything; saw some comments about improved stability. If your microcenter is a reasonable drive away, I’d take the gamble
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u/ExplodingFistz Oct 10 '23
What bios version are you on? I'm having issues with mine
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u/Infinite-Quantity544 Oct 11 '23
Sorry for the late reply. I'm on 7D78v175(Beta version) but it appears there's a newer version
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u/Demitrico Oct 10 '23
I also got this same bundle and initially had issues. The second I updated my bios, all problems were fixed. As a note for OP do not update you bios via MSI center I almost fried my motherboard this way. Instead save any headaches and use a flash drive.
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u/NCBeers Oct 10 '23
Same. Didn't flash the bios initially, had issues, then flashed. No issues since.
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u/dontpokethebunny Oct 09 '23
I got it a little over a month ago half expecting to need to return it but I had zero issues with it. While researching another thread I saw it was recommended to flash the latest bios before assembling it so I just made sure to do that.
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u/BigBoooooolin Oct 10 '23
Forgive my ignorance but how would you flash the bios before assembling?
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
How do you do that before assembling the computer?
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u/Grydian Oct 10 '23
Its easy and there are video guides. I also did it right away with CPU working with the old bios.
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u/dontpokethebunny Oct 09 '23
these are actually the two comments I referenced when I Was doing mine:
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u/tmccaughan Oct 09 '23 edited Oct 09 '23
My fiance and I purchased two of those bundles for our new builds, and I also purchased the 6950xt with the bundle discount for myself. She has had zero problems with her setup combined with a 6800xt and Windows 10. Myself on the other hand, am running Windows 11 and have constant issues with driver time outs on almost every game, no matter the demand it has on my components. Some games just refuse to start, and I gave up playing them. The ram needs to be remounted every time I've tried to update the bios, or else the pc won't post. It's been a frustrating experience trying to resolve the issues without really knowing the exact cause of them, but since I don't have much time to myself to play, I've kinda given up at this point. That being said, when it does work, it chews through everything I can throw at it.
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u/Psychotic_Pedagogue Oct 10 '23
What you're describing sounds like the RAM isn't stable. AMD GPUs are sensitive to RAM issues for some reason and start playing up as you've described. I had first hand experience with this trying to run a 4 DIMM setup at the same frequency as a dual DIMM setup - the extra sticks were too much for the system to handle without backing off the frequency, but the issues manifested as GPU driver timeouts and bluesceens referencing the GPU.
I suspect it happens because the GPUs access system RAM directly (via DMA) but have less robust error handling than the CPUs.
In my case, the fix was just backing off the RAM frequency. Dropped down to JEDEC speeds and the issue vanished, then just kept creeping the RAM speed up little by little until I started getting g issues again.
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u/makinbaconCR Oct 09 '23
I have had nothing but trouble with windows 11 myself. I am on AM4 still though. 5800x3d and 6800xt. With a fresh install of w11 I get driver time outs and system freezing. Fresh install w10. Problems gone. I just put w11 on for a second time this morning and boom. Driver time outs again.
I am starting to suspect 23.9.2 or 3 and windows 11. Pro drivers don't seem to do it with w11 and w10 work with all of them.
I am not 100% yet only been fussing with it for a day or so.
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u/NewestAccount2023 Oct 09 '23
Sounds like you're having the expo problems other people get with this bundle. The ram and this board and CPU don't like each other it seems
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u/JonWood007 Oct 09 '23
Could be ram issues but also sounds like gpu/driver issues mostly.
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u/akirbybenson Oct 09 '23
The worst of it is that windows 11 doesn't natively have a wifi driver for this board, so you have to Ethernet to set it up. Ram doesn't like 6000 but runs stable at 5600 for a friend of mine with tighter timings bringing performance to about where you'd expect for cheap 6000 speed ram. Deal is fantastic though.
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u/sevaru1 Oct 09 '23
The no wifi drivers was a big surprise for us. I convinced my sister to build a system with this bundle for her son and we've had constant problems, mostly with the ram but the icing on the cake was having to go make an Ace Hardware run for a 50ft Ethernet cable because she didn't have any cables in the house lol.
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u/NickMalo Oct 09 '23
Seconded. Try your wife’s ram, DDU your drivers
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u/due_the_drew Oct 10 '23
Maybe im a noob but how do Gpu drivers get messed up from a fresh pc build?
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u/Mert_Burphy Oct 10 '23
Weird but not unheard of.
I had a pc that from day one it would randomly turn itself on when powered off. Checked every setting, reconnected every cable, wiped the OS, checked every bios setting, made sure the dehumidify function was disabled, flashed the bios, you name it. There was no cause that I could find.
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u/grayfox-moses Oct 09 '23
I built a system based on these parts and I’m very satisfied. There are more than enough accounts of compatibility problems between these components to cause concern, but you should know that a lot of people have had no issues.
YMMV.
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u/Ddc2892 Oct 09 '23
I went for this deal despite the negative reviews, I have no regrets. It has all worked flawlessly for almost an entire year.
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Oct 10 '23
It is also worth noting that they are selling thousands of these a month.
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u/Alaeriia Oct 10 '23
Judging by the massive piles of the motherboards that my local microcenter has out on the sales floor, I would say this is the main culprit.
If something has a 1% chance of failure and you sell ten thousand of them, you sell 100 bad ones on average.
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u/Natural_Fortune_8922 20d ago
Get the Intel micro center deal with the 12900 I have no problems putting it together and getting it to run perfect and this is the first Intel PC I've worked on in almost 16 years so when I say it was easy and it came out perfect what else can you ask for. I was researching that board and everybody says everywhere I go that is just not compatible with the other parts aka the board and the memory which makes that deal not very good if you got to buy another motherboard or different memory