Personal computing discussed

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churin
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Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:18 am

My sister-in-law wants to upgrade her 9 years old machine - Athlon 64 3400 + Radeon X700 Pro. Since I am a AMD fan boy what I come up with is a combination of FX-6300, HD6570 and Asus M5A97 R2.0. These can be had for $265 at a local computer shop.
My question is what if I go for Intel cpu. Suggestions are appreciated.
 
Arvald
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 2:33 pm

Consider an AMD APU as well... they may come in at a better price point and you can drop the vid card.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 3:18 pm

Arvald wrote:
Consider an AMD APU as well... they may come in at a better price point and you can drop the vid card.

An AMD A8-5600K might do well here.
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churin
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:17 pm

Thanks for the suggestions.
As for the AMD APU, there is currently a bundle deal for A10-5800K + FA-F2A85X-UD4 for $205 at my local PC shop, which I may consider as an alternate system.

Is there any suggestion using Intel cpu?
 
auxy
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:29 pm

I don't know how relevant this is, since you are talking about a local shop and all, but I run my own little "local shop" home business building, repairing, and maintaining PCs, and this has been a popular build for me the last 6 months.

For those that can't decipher the link, it's an A10-5800K, 8GB of DDR3-1866, a 120GB SSD, and a slimline MicroATX case with power supply included, all for around $400. Actually, I was selling them for $350 or so before/without OS, but RAM and SSD prices have gone up since then...

That little case I picked not only includes a (terrible, but sufficient) 450W power supply, but it also includes a keyboard and mouse to match the case! Nice sleek white apple-style. It's classy!

It makes a really nice "home PC", with sufficient CPU performance for any task, and enough GPU to make sure that fancy flash game they want to play doesn't slow down. I have had zero trouble with any of these machines. I've sold them with a few different SSDs; that 840 series I've used in the last couple provides a noticeable (!) improvement over the Vertex Plus drives I was using before.

As far as an Intel build goes, you could do one, but I don't really recommend it. Intel CPUs are great for gamers and people who need that intense single-thread performance, but you end up spending a lot more if you want a discrete GPU, and despite what a lot of folks are saying these days, I do not find that Intel HD 2500 (which you will have in any cheap CPU, or worse if you go Pentium) is really sufficient for intense web2.0 experiences at 1080p.

[edit] I want to make it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that I do not mean "unable to provide an acceptable experience" in these cases. Certainly any Intel HD graphics is *capable* of virtually any desktop task and indeed some 2D and 3D games! However, I have found that they, for whatever reason, don't accelerate 2D all that well (poor Direct2D driver?) and sometimes will lag or stutter with lots of Flash or other video elements. That's all I mean; it doesn't give the kind of seamless, appliance-like (game-console-like?) experience that "regular consumers" expect of things. AMD's APUs provide more of a "fire and forget" type solution. [/edit]
Last edited by auxy on Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
Captain Ned
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:33 pm

auxy wrote:
I don't know how relevant this is, since you are talking about a local shop and all, but I run my own little "local shop" home busines building, repairing, and maintaining PCs, and this has been a popular build for me the last 6 months.

For those that can't decipher the link, it's an A10-5800K, 8GB of DDR3-1866, a 120GB SSD, and a slimline MicroATX case with power supply included, all for around $400. Actually, I was selling them for $350 or so before/without OS, but RAM and SSD prices have gone up since then...

That little case I picked not only includes a (terrible, but sufficient) 450W power supply, but it also includes a keyboard and mouse to match the case! Nice sleek white apple-style. It's classy!

It makes a really nice "home PC", with sufficient CPU performance for any task, and enough GPU to make sure that fancy flash game they want to play doesn't slow down. I have had zero trouble with any of these machines. I've sold them with a few different SSDs; that 840 series I've used in the last couple provides a noticeable (!) improvement over the Vertex Plus drives I was using before.

No harm no foul so far, but if you're offering systems for sale they belong in the Bargain Basement which has some forum-specific rules.

Thanks for listening.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
auxy
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:45 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
No harm no foul so far, but if you're offering systems for sale they belong in the Bargain Basement which has some forum-specific rules.

Thanks for listening.
N-no way! I wasn't at all ! (>_<;)

Just offering a friendly build suggestion on what's been popular for me! I don't think he even lives in my country!
 
Captain Ned
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:47 pm

auxy wrote:
Just offering a friendly build suggestion on what's been popular for me! I don't think he even lives in my country!

OK, cool. Just want to establish the ground rules, and advocating something you once sold simply triggered an automatic response.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
DPete27
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:49 pm

churin wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions.
As for the AMD APU, there is currently a bundle deal for A10-5800K + FA-F2A85X-UD4 for $205 at my local PC shop, which I may consider as an alternate system.

If you meant the GA-F2A85X-UP4 with the A10-5800K, that's a GREAT deal for $205. Just make sure your case can fit the ATX-size mobo.

churin wrote:
Is there any suggestion using Intel cpu?

As others have said, an Intel CPU is probably not ideal for the purpose of this build.

PS. I like auxy's suggestion of the 120GB Samsung 840 SSD if the budget allows. The APU with 8GB of RAM is a MAJOR improvement over the current system, but adding an SSD would be icing on the cake. Your sister-in-law would worship you for it.
Main: i5-3570K, ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, MSI RX480 8G, 500GB Crucial BX100, 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4, 16GB 1600MHz G.Skill @1.25V, EVGA 550-G2, Silverstone PS07B
HTPC: A8-5600K, MSI FM2-A75IA-E53, 4TB Seagate SSHD, 8GB 1866MHz G.Skill, Crosley D-25 Case Mod
 
churin
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:46 pm

It appears that A10-5800K is the way to go. The total cost including the sales tax amounts to $330 for the CPU, the mobo(GA-F2A85X-UP4 is correct model name), 8GB(4Gx2)RAM and a case. Her budget is $430 so I had 1TB SATA600 hard drive in mind to complete the system but instead I now opt for 120G SSD. I will throw in my used 500GB SATA300 hd instead of 300GB SATA150 hd from her present machine. DVD drive and psu(380W Antec) on the present machine will be re-used on the new box.
 
auxy
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:53 pm

churin wrote:
It appears that A10-5800K is the way to go. The total cost including the sales tax amounts to $330 for the CPU, the mobo(GA-F2A85X-UP4 is correct model name), 8GB(4Gx2)RAM and a case. Her budget is $430 so I had 1TB SATA600 hard drive in mind to complete the system but instead I now opt for 120G SSD. I will throw in my used 500GB SATA300 hd instead of 300GB SATA150 hd from her present machine. DVD drive and psu(380W Antec) on the present machine will be re-used on the new box.

Looks pretty good! ( ` ェ ´)b三b

A few things:
  • SATA150 vs. SATA300 makes almost no difference at all for mechanical (i.e. non-SSD) drives, so if you want to keep your 500GB drive it won't matter much. ┐( ̄ヮ ̄)┌
  • I *strongly* suggest you get 1866MT/sec (DDR3-1866, aka PC3-14900) memory for the APU. It will make a big difference in graphics performance!◝(⁰▿⁰)◜
 
churin
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:54 pm

I have just been to my local pc shop and got the AMD APU, the motherboard, a DDR3 1866 8GB stick, and a 120GB SSD.
I opened the APU box and noticed the heatsink/fan is much smaller that that for Phenom II x3 720 on my HTPC machine.
I want to get better one. Any recommendation for a relatively inexpensive one?
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:05 pm

The stock heatsink and fan may perform acceptably for you. If your case has room for a tower heatsink with a 120mm fan like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, it is quiet and effective. For a bit less, a 92mm model like the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 is still an upgrade from the stock cooler.

For best performance, you should equip your system with two DIMMs, since it has two memory channels. A pair of 4 GiB DIMMs would provide better performance than a single 8 GiB DIMM.
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
churin
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:52 pm

I thought of increasing RAM size later but considering how she will be using the machine, 8GB would be sufficient for any foreseeable future. I will return to the store tomorrow and have it replaced with a pair of 4GB.

Compatibility list for Hyper 212 Evo includes FM2 but that for Hyper TX3 does not. Can the TX3 be mounted on FM2?
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Thu Mar 07, 2013 7:53 pm

I believe that AMD's Socket-FM2 uses the same mounting bracket as Socket-FM1, which uses the same mounting bracket as Socket-AM3, which uses the same mounting bracket as Socket-AM2.

Here's a list of Cooler Master heatsinks that fit Socket-FM2:
http://www.coolermaster.com/category.ph ... ry_id=3594
You can see that the Hyper TX3 is listed there. If you click on its product page, you'll see Socket-FM1 listed.
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6602
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
auxy
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:00 pm

churin wrote:
I thought of increasing RAM size later but considering how she will be using the machine, 8GB would be sufficient for any foreseeable future. I will return to the store tomorrow and have it replaced with a pair of 4GB.

Compatibility list for Hyper 212 Evo includes FM2 but that for Hyper TX3 does not. Can the TX3 be mounted on FM2?

As long as it lists FM1 or AM3, it should mount just fine on FM2.
Cooler Master doesn't even list the TX3 on their site...
 
churin
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:48 pm

OK, so the mounting bracket for AMD CPUs has not been changed since AM2.
Thank you very much everyone for your help.
 
auxy
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Re: Advice for system upgrade

Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:52 pm

churin wrote:
OK, so the mounting bracket for AMD CPUs has not been changed since AM2.
Thank you very much everyone for your help.
Gosh, so polite! Thanks for listening to our suggestions! (^▽^) Most people I help with hardware tend to listen to my suggestions and then buy whatever they wanted to buy in the first place -- and then they're unhappy with it! Ahh, fie on them. (ノ´ー`)ノ

I hope your sister-in-law enjoys her new Fusion-powered system! \( `∀´)/

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