Hey fellow forum siders! I'm building a new pc for about £900 and would appreciate your input. I want it to be good value, and future proof/upgradeable for up to 2 or 3 years to come. I'm particularly unsure about the cpu, AMD FX 8320 is very good value for money, but it's no longer supported. Here is a build I had in mind: AMD FX 8320 Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card Fractal Design Define R4 Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter BenQ GL2450HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor Saitek Cyborg V5 Wired Gaming Keyboard What if I went with something like this, but replaced the cpu with AMD A10 7850k? How would that perform? It would at least be upgradable.
That is a very Solid build that will run PS2 just fine at High settings. I am running a very similar build myself, and I am quite happy with it. That 8320 is a fine CPU, and can OC to 8350 Performance or more, if you get a Black Edition version. Although, depending on where you shop, you may only be able to find 8350's available. If you want to save a little money though, you can just get the FX-6300/6350 version like I did, as it will perform almost identical as the 8320/8350 in PS2, and most other games. Dropping from 8 cores to 6 cores isn't drastic, and the chip will overclock the same as the 8 core version. Mine currently running at 4.51Ghz, and I still have headroom to take it even higher.. The only time you will want to go 8 cores, is if you plan on doing anything else outside of gaming, such as Video editing or rendering, maybe even high end sound production, as there are apps that will utilize all 8 cores, but that is going to be your call. Just a warning though, you are going to get people in here that will tell you going AMD is for scrubs, and that all AMD chips are garbage, and to go Intel or go home. I assume you did your research already on Intel vs AMD, and probably know that Yes, intel chips tend to be better performers in Single Threaded applications, such as games. However you are paying 100% - 200% more in price for maybe a 15% performance boost (On Average without any sales bundles or discounts). I myself was going to buy a 4670k instead of my 6350, however for $250.00, I got a 6350 and a Mobo. The 4670k with a mobo would have cost almost 400, so you can see I went for the best bang for my dollar, rather than the best performer. Anyone can tell you, that if your goal is to get the best performing CPU, go get an Extreme Edition i7, however you are going to be spending anywhere between $500-$1000 bucks on a CPU. The point being, having the best isn't always "better", it is just what a person, as a consumer, can get for their money. The build you listed, is a very solid build for your budget, which is $900. Before the Intel fanbois arrive, I will say that adding a comparable Intel CPU to that build is going to go over that $900 budget, unless you drop to a lower quality Case/HDD/PSU/Generic Ram/Smaller Monitor/etc. Anyways, let us know when you pull the trigger on this build and how it performs for you.
AMD eh? New AMD seem like junk to me.. And my last 4 builds are AMD.. I am was an AMD fanboy.. Here are the charts comparing it to the most used CPUs: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD A10-7850K APU with Radeon R7 Graphics Here are the charts comparing it with intel i5: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2133&cmp[]=828&cmp[]=1933 I have an old AMD x6 1090t from 4 years ago.. Look at the comparison with the 2014 chip your looking at: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2133&cmp[]=393
There are no black editions, they all have their mutliplers unlcoked. All cores will be used so there is a performance difference, i'd still go for the fx 8320 or 8350. Still though, its a statement of fact (I have a 8350) that a i5 4670k will perform better and the price difference is fairly small.
Firstly, thanks for the input. Secondly, to clarify, my budget is £900 which actually equates to approx $1100 consider pc parts are cheaper in US. Trust me, I've done my research, I know how they perform. I want to know if AMD FX socket will be an upgradeable platform in the future, particularly for RAM, with DDR4 round the corner.
What about the GPU, should I get gtx 770 or r9 280x. Or should I get gtx 760 or r9 270x and then get a second one further down the line?
Did you read my entire post? I said that I was going to buy an i5 4670k due to it being a better processor, however it is an entire $100 more expensive than an FX-6350. If you have the funds, and can afford the extra $100 for the CPU and maybe an extra $20 - $40 for the appropriate Motherboard, then the i5 is the clear choice winner. However if you don't have the extra $100 to spare for the CPU, then the FX-6350 will get you the same performance in Planetside 2 as an 8350. The 8350 will be a better overall CPU in other applications because of its extra cores, and has some extra features unlocked, however I am talking just about performance in Planetside 2.
You're comparing a Deneb core to an APU, which an APU isn't supposed to be a high-end processor, but a form-factor all-in-one Chip. The charts there show the obvious, which is that i5's/i7's perform better than the FX series CPU's. However the FX-8350 is not at the bottom of the barrel, it is middle of the road in the 'High End CPU" category. It also shows that the 8350 has the best performance value out of all of the CPU's on that list, which is why you would buy AMD over intel.
Right now the GTX 770 is the better bang for buck deal out of those two GPU's. They are kind of neck and neck in performance Benchmarks, with the GTX 770 coming ever so slightly a head in some of them, and right now it seems the GTX 770 is a bit cheaper. However, as far as future proofing your machine, AMD is working on it's Mantle API, which is going to increase efficiency in the way the GPU and CPU communicate, which in short term means better performance. It will mostly be seen in machines with lower end CPU's, effectively putting most, if not all, of the rendering work on the GPU, but it is going to be a future technology that can benifit an AMD/Radeon system when it is supported by more games. Right now only a few games support it, one being Battlefield 4, and it is still in is early stages of life, but so far it looks promising. Eventually it will be available on nVidia GPU's in the far future, but for the immediate future, it is going to be exclusive to AMD Radeon cards.
I think you get my point then, he is trying to build on an APU... APU builds are for like media centers, not for gaming rigs.. He should just get go intel.. something like this.. or something.. Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119256 $50 HSF: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099 $35 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028 $70 HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236625 $90 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231519 $80 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 $230 MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293 $130 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125504 $330 $1050 I just can't recommend using an APU I just don't see the point in buying an APU and then tossing a GTX770 on it.. I have an AMD A8-3870 APU system sitting right next to me... It is a great media center, and good for light gaming. Like I said, I am amd fanboy.. but I would build last gen intel if I was going to build right now for this game.. Just my opinion... grain of salt and all that..
That's a fine build. Only thing I would consider changing is swapping out the CPU cooler for something better such as a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (budget king) or Noctua NH-D14 (better but more expensive). Also look at your case fans and airflow setup and make additions and alterations as necessary. You'll surely want to overclock the FX-8320 for this game and improving cooling will definitely help with that. I don't know if anyone outside of North America is being affected by the artificially inflated prices of AMD GPU's due to their demand among script-based cryptocurrency miners, but if you can get an R9 280X for less than or equal to a GTX 770, it would be a fine alternative. I'd actually prefer the AMD card due to it's higher VRAM. Don't get the last two hoping to multi-GPU them down the line.
One thing OP. I can't help but notice you have included a wireless network card in your build. I really hope you don't plan to play PS2 over Wi-Fi, as that's probably going to ruin your gaming experience. Where at all possible (even to the point of buying a 30M CAT5 patch lead) play over a hardwire connection direct from your PC to the router. Wi-Fi packet loss will kill you more than friendly grenade spam.
I'm already playing over wifi, yes it sucks, and you're right, it kills me more than grenade spam. Unfortunately I have no choice.
What? The original post shows that he is trying to throw an FX-8320 in his machine, which is NOT an APU. Who is trying to build a machine with an APU?
The 6350fx is a great cpu. To parrot what entrailsgalore said. In terms of performance my system delivers constant frame rates in the high 50's. Ands that's with a now ageing gpu.
Um.. the original poster asked about A10 7850k APU ↓ So I said, god no, please don't APU your gaming rig. You serious recommending Hitachi, the makers of the infamous Deathstar (desk star) series of HDD? Wow.. I always buy WD drives, I have yet to have one fail on me, I have WD IDE that have been running 24/7 for 10 years now.. I also have 4 1TB blacks, 2 2TB Green, 2 640AALS, and 3 IDE 500GB, all flawless. Here is my media box, runs 24/7: The 2 WD 640Gb AALS are in raid-0 in my gaming rig and have been going non stop for 4 years now..
Hitachi makes some very reliable drives. You can't count out a manufacturer based on one bad product, because if you could do that, you could count out WD too... WD1003FZEX is an excellent pick though, dense 1TB platter, 5 year warranty, price is pretty good too. What's not to like. I recently picked up a couple WD3003FZEX 3TB Blacks for video editing .
When discussing hard drive reliability, please don't EVER reference those infamous Backblaze reports again. Everyone knows they were full of sh*t. Yes they got their 15 minutes of Internet fame (ain't no such thing as bad publicity right?) but they've also done irreparable damage to their reputation and credibility.
