PC Processors

[eagle12426]

Hello to everyone again. I really hope I'm not over staying my welcome with all the questions I have been asking on this AMD site. I feel as though it's the best site to get the answers I need before, during and after my build. Everyone on this site has been EXTREMELY nice, courteous, and respectful. It's the kind of site I would not mind my 2 year old great grandson to come on and ask questions if he was older or when he gets older. Well for my question. If you had to choose between the Ryzen 9 3950X or 3900X which would it be? Looking at the specs, there's really not much of a difference, that I can tell, except one has 16 cores 32 threads and one has 12 cores 24 threads. If anyone can give me advice or some input like my other questions it would be helpful an great. Thanks again in advance. eagle12426 - DON

[Thanny]

As with any hardware decision, that depends entirely on what you're going to be doing with the computer.

Your budget is also a factor, of course, but I get the sense that's not as important to you.

[eagle12426]

Yes, my/our budget is very important. I'm looking for something I'm going to have for MANY YEARS with out needing a serious or major update. I'm talking about 5-6+ years down the road. My case that I already have will be able to do or handle any of that. I got it at the end of 2018, beginning of 2019. It's just been sitting until I was able to do this. I can't remember if I had said what it is but its: Thermaltake Core X71 Tempered Glass Edition. I have always wanted to do my own build but, things kept coming up. My wife's needs  took first priority over EVERYTHING, and always will. Sorry if I'm sounding mushy but that's the way I feel as it should be. Anyway, Back to my question. Not only will it be for everyday use but, also for financial calculation, among other things besides everyday use. I hope I answered your questions/inquiry about what it's going to be used for. 

[Thanny]

In general usage and "financial calculation" (spreadsheet?), you won't get any real benefit from a high core count.  Even the 3900X would be overkill.  You don't need a lot of cores unless you either use programs which use a lot of threads to do complex work (rendering videos or graphics), or you have a habit of running many active tasks at once (i.e. actually computing in the background).

You mentioned before getting two GPU's, which is generally a waste for gaming these days, which is why I thought your budget wasn't particularly important.

Overall, I still don't really know what you'll be doing with the computer.  If it's gaming, stick with a single GPU.  The 3600X would be basically just as good as the 3950X.  Video rendering?  Go for the 16 cores.  General usage with basic productivity apps?  Cores don't matter a whole lot.

Maybe if you clarify that a bit, and perhaps list some of the actual applications you currently use (or will use with the new computer), a better recommendation can be made.

Short of that, I'd hazard a guess that a B550 or X570 board with a Ryzen 5 3600 and 32GB of RAM (two dual-rank 16GB DIMM's) would be a good place to start.  That would let you upgrade in the future to a 16-core 5950X when availability and prices settle down, if you find that more cores would be of benefit.  The 3600 is $200, and the 3950X about $720.  Over the next year or two, I can easily see a 5950X dropping below $520, after Zen 4 on a new platform comes out, and supply chains have returned to normal.  As for graphics card, that entirely depends on whether or not you'll be playing games, and if so, what kind.