TR Forums

Hey guys, I'm considering buying a AMD setup in a few weeks. I'm trying to keep it below 700 and I want to know if you guys think this is unreasonable or if you'd change anything...

First, I have a case, optical drive and hard drive. So I don't need those.

PSU Rosewill 500w (has good reviews and its cheap) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182044
CPU FX-8350
GPU 7950 Black Edition http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... hics-Cards
RAM GSKILL Ripjaw 2x4gb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... top-Memory
MOBO ASRock 970 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... llFullInfo



PSU $50
CPU $200
GPU $320
RAM $40
MOBO $85

$695

I'm planning on snatching one of those korean IPS panels as well. Anyone use em for fast paced gaming?

It looks like you're trying to grab one the full-size Piledriver CPUs, but we haven't seen the reviews yet. For gaming the Bulldozers simply cannot be recommended over the equivalently priced Intel CPU. An Intel 3570k is on order.

You'll also want to look closely at the PSU- you don't need more wattage, but Newegg reviews can be deceiving in this instance. Try and get a real review for that PSU, or look at something from Corsair or Silverstone, especially if you plan on overclocking- and if you do, you'd do well to look up an HSF like the CM Hyper 212 Evo.

For the Korean monitors, you'll want to find one that only takes it's native resolution and doesn't have an OSD- otherwise it'll have unnecessary input lag.

Before deciding i'd highly recommend reading this two articles:
http://techreport.com/review/23246/insi ... day-cpus/3
http://techreport.com/review/23419/nvid ... eviewed/10

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk bussiness. First of all, i don't trust that 2 LED fans, crappy looking PSU, but if you want to keep the PSU budget low, this is the lowest i'd recommend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... r-Supplies

Now you be thinking "But the wattage is too low!". Now that gfx review i linked above comes in handy and if you browse to the Power consumption page you'll notice that the total system power consumption with all the cards tested, is bellow 360W. But you should also notice that all the GTX 660Tis are just a smidget less power hungry, so given you're situation, i'd recommend buying a 660Ti.

Alternative, don't skimp on the PSU and buy the 7950, but not the XFX model you linked, get one with a nice dual fan cooler (but read reviews and find the ones that also feature heatsinks for the GDDR memory and VRMs).
Alternative PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... r-Supplies

Regarding the CPU, again looking at the articles above, you will notice that all AMD chips get demolished in gaming by even the low end i3 Ivy Bridge, not to mention that the power consumption will be a lot greater, thus if you go for an AMD CPU you will also have to buy a beefier PSU.

Motherboard.....depends on which CPU you will buy, but mostly look for the ones that feature heatsinks around the CPU socket and have more than 4 power phases (or was it 4+2 the minimum?) - by looking again at the area around the socket (or by reading the mobo specs).

Lastly i want you to remember one thing NOISE. Noise will drive you nuts if you don't pay attention to what you buy. So to keep noise down during load buy a video card with 2 fans and an aftermarket cooler for the CPU, if you don't already have one that has support for the socket you're intersted in.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... s-Desktops - $195
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... top-Memory - $36
MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... therboards - $88
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... r-Supplies - $75
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... hics-Cards - $300

TOTAL: $694

entropy13 wrote:

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... s-Desktops - $195
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... top-Memory - $36
MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... therboards - $88
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... r-Supplies - $75
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... hics-Cards - $300

TOTAL: $694

Great build, i'd only suggest he stretches a bit and buy at least the i5 3470. The card is also great and it has heatsinks for the VRMs
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/ ... ion/4.html

I know the ivybridges are way better for gaming and a better deal. However, I'm inclined to go with AMD simply because they aren't doing well. The piledriver will see a very small increase in performance, I'm going to wait till the benchmarks before I bite. Is that unreasonable? (honestly, not sarcastically)

If I'm going to stick with AMD, what do you recommend? I'm not 100% set on it, but I'd really prefer to support them right now.

I'm expecting to overclock the CPU considerably, I should have mentioned that before. The zambezi seemed to do very well overclocked, so i was expecting to crank the vishera up to eleven.

The 660TI and 7950 are about matched in performance and price. So once again, I'd opt for AMD to support them.

oh and good eye on that seasonic 520! thank you. I will probably add that to my build.

Man, I do have the itch though to buy one of them fancy Intel cpus. I gotta stop looking at those benchmarks you guys posted.

I'll just add +1 to the "don't buy an AMD processor for gaming"

AMD are only competetive in the graphics business, their processors (and the processor portions of their APU chips) are fast becoming a joke.

lol dang i came in here wanting to support AMD and now even that MSI 660TI looks better.

As far as the korean monitor thing goes, i was planning on using the one Scott reviewed. Anyone else gotten one of those?

Yeah, the Seasonic was fine in its day.
However, it is a very old and not very efficient by current standards.

For $70 the following is better in voltage regulation, efficiency, and ripple.

For $70 it is hands down the best value in the market. (Don't work for newegg or super-Flower...just follow these trends)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... r-Supplies

The 450 watt at the same price is plenty for your build and is Modular.

shaq_mobile wrote:

I know the ivybridges are way better for gaming and a better deal. However, I'm inclined to go with AMD simply because they aren't doing well. The piledriver will see a very small increase in performance, I'm going to wait till the benchmarks before I bite. Is that unreasonable? (honestly, not sarcastically)

If I'm going to stick with AMD, what do you recommend? I'm not 100% set on it, but I'd really prefer to support them right now.

I'm expecting to overclock the CPU considerably, I should have mentioned that before. The zambezi seemed to do very well overclocked, so i was expecting to crank the vishera up to eleven.

The 660TI and 7950 are about matched in performance and price. So once again, I'd opt for AMD to support them.

Oh, i'm sorry then. By all means buy AMD. Thank you! But again if u go for the v2 Bulldozer be sure to get something beefier in terms of PSU, the 520W being actually underpowered if you want to go crazy on Ocing. Better get a >600W PSU just to have the headroom and not force the PSU to work close to it's limits under load.

mdk77777 wrote:

Yeah, the Seasonic was fine in its day.
However, it is a very old and not very efficient by current standards.

For $70 the following is better in voltage regulation, efficiency, and ripple.

For $70 it is hands down the best value in the market. (Don't work for newegg or super-Flower...just follow these trends)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... r-Supplies

The 450 watt at the same price is plenty for your build and is Modular.

That PSU u linked is not modular. Ither than that, gold rating is hard to question. If you look up plantinum rating that same brand should have an offering at less than 100 bucks but iirc it's also non modular. If OP doesn't mind that it should be good. Even unknown brands can't cheat on platinum units, right?

Supporting AMD CPU's is admirable, but this is a consumer market, don't give them a pitty party. Buy the best product in your price range for your needs. Your one purchase is not going to affect them at all. If you've got $190 to spend on a CPU or are focusing on purely gaming performance, the choice is clear...Intel. If your budget is lower, AMD may still have some advantages over i3's and Pentiums (just not in gaming)

Do you live near a Microcenter?

No, the GTX660 Ti is not better than a 7950, most especially if you buy a 7950 with a dual-bios.

I have this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... hics-Cards, and I love it. It has a great cooler that cools the memory as well as the core and a dual-bios switch. I flashed the bios using the Gigabyte 7970 bios on techpowerup.com and ATIFlash, and the card is now running rock solid at 1GHz default core and 1375 memory after a 10 second bios flash. The card now smokes the GTX660 Ti, and it has an extra GB of video memory. Yes, I can overclock it higher with software, but I don't bother, since I try not to use software overclocking. It's just more crap to load in at startup and more code running in the background to cause crashes/instability while you're gaming.

As far as gaming goes, you can go Intel, but I'm waiting to see the whole story on the FX-8350. If it is faster than Bulldozer, and it overclocks well, and it's under $200 (all of which seem to be confirmed at this point), I'd wait for the benchmarks and bear in mind that the AM3+ motherboard it takes will also be pin-compatible with the Steamroller processor, which by all accounts, will be a large improvement again over the Piledriver. Who knows with Intel? In short, you'll save money by going AMD, and you won't loose much if anything in gaming performance, unless you're running old, crappy single-core games that really will run fast as hell on any modern CPU these days anyhow.

Besides, you'll be supporting the better company. Frankly, AMD would have to go bankrupt before I'd give Intel any money for a CPU. They don't deserve it after trying to threaten/blackmail companies into shunning AMD when AMD clearly had the superior product. I'm not going to reward a company for that kind of crap.

DPete27 wrote:

Supporting AMD CPU's is admirable, but this is a consumer market, don't give them a pitty party. Buy the best product in your price range for your needs. Your one purchase is not going to affect them at all. If you've got $190 to spend on a CPU or are focusing on purely gaming performance, the choice is clear...Intel. If your budget is lower, AMD may still have some advantages over i3's and Pentiums (just not in gaming)

Do you live near a Microcenter?

i feel yeah. i guess it doesnt matter much.;p i suppose i could spend a little extra and spring for a 3570k. i really wanna overclock

unfortunately, i live in western oregon. there are no microcenters anywhere near me.

Besides, you'll be supporting the better company. Frankly, AMD would have to go bankrupt before I'd give Intel any money for a CPU. They don't deserve it after trying to threaten/blackmail companies into shunning AMD when AMD clearly had the superior product. I'm not going to reward a company for that kind of crap.

One of the ongoing mythos of the rabid techie. Unfortunately, every company "acts like that" when given the opportunity. Look how rapidly Apple is turning into a patent pariah when they were the darling of the mobile device revolution just a few short years ago. AMD has provided a nice counterbalance to Intel over the years but they made some truly huge business mistakes starting with how the ATi purchase was priced and managed, and haven't recovered momentum since. Right now, the middle and the high end for consumer products is totally dominated by Intel (i5/i7), and the price/performance ratios are incredible. May as well enjoy it while it lasts because the era of the interchangeable desktop CPU is declining rapidly.

ludi wrote:

One of the ongoing mythos of the rabid techie.

It's not a myth, it's a fact. Also, I'm not a 'rabid' techie. I'd say I'm an enthusiast, but 'rabid' would be stretching things too much.

ludi wrote:

Unfortunately, every company "acts like that" when given the opportunity.

I'd like to presume AMD is innocent until proven guilty. There's little doubt in my mind that it's possible for AMD to behave that way, but unless and until they do, I'm going to give them my money instead. It's called voting with your dollars for the better candidate.

ludi wrote:

AMD has provided a nice counterbalance to Intel over the years but they made some truly huge business mistakes starting with how the ATi purchase was priced and managed, and haven't recovered momentum since.

This, I agree with. AMD should have merged with nVidia back in 2005. Who knows what the latest AMD CPU would have been like if THAT had happened. Oh well, it's STILL possible going forward, if only nVidia's Jen Hsun can find a container somewhere on the planet large enough to store his ego in for the period of the merger negotiations. Imagine AMD and nVidia combined vs. Intel. If this happened, likely all bets would probably be off for Intel.

ludi wrote:

Right now, the middle and the high end for consumer products is totally dominated by Intel (i5/i7)

No, it's not 'totally dominated' by Intel That's the real myth. The Bulldozer and Piledriver chips are price/performance competitve with the Intel line up up to the i2600K or so. With the FX-8350, AMD will probably creep up the ladder higher, probably past the i3570k.

ludi wrote:

May as well enjoy it while it lasts because the era of the interchangeable desktop CPU is declining rapidly.

Actually, the era of the interchangeable desktop CPU is just starting to heat up again after a long hiatus (with the demise of the Alpha and Power PC and MIPS chips) with the advent of 64 bit ARM architectures. In just a couple of years, you may walk into a computer store and choose between an Intel x86, AMD x86 or AMD x86-fusion or AMD ARM-fusion or ARM (various flavours) chip as the basis of your new computer, and the software you install will recognize your architecture and install a compiler-optimized verison automatically.

I would suggest that it won't be very long before we see AMD's first ARM-fusion chips, since Rory Read seems to recognize the pivotal importance of the phone/tablet/hybrid markets.

Also keep in mind that, beyond the "smoothness of framerates" in the TR Article that Arclight linked, there are games that are CPU bound and games that are GPU bound. The latter will show little/no differences in frame rates between various processors, AMD or Intel. (ie the BF3 page of that article) Of course, if I were building a gaming rig, price being equal, I would rather not have to suffer in CPU bound games down the line; so an Intel CPU would make more sense.
What I'm getting at, as with ANY computer component purchase, don't lose sight of the real world differences when you're looking at all these benchmarks. Also, with your Korean IPS monitor at 2560x1440, you might be better served by a 7950's wider memory pipeline in those resolutions.
While I'm less than impressed by Tomshardware most of the time, they still come up with good ideas every once in a while. Read this article on 660Ti memory performance.

good article, dpete. I couldnt agree with you more about THG. that's a diamond in the rough.

7950 double D 3gb it is.

shaq_mobile wrote:

I'm inclined to go with AMD simply because they aren't doing well. Is that unreasonable? (honestly, not sarcastically)

Go with the product that offers the best value for you, the consumer. For gaming today, that probably means an Intel CPU paired with an AMD GPU and a Samsung SSD.

I would love to see AMD do better but INTEL cpu and a 300$ AMD gpu is the way to go. Look at it this way your giving intel only 200 and AMD a good bit more. If you want to help AMD more get some AMD branded ddr3 1866 memory.....it seems like with ivy bridge cpu for price vs performance ddr3 1866 gives you the most memory bandwidth for the money.....2133 2400ddr3 mem only gives you a little bit more performance not the jump you get from ddr3 1600 to 1866.

roger that. just ordered it all.

3570k
seasonic 520w
2x 4gb ram
7950 double d 3gb
asrock h77 mobo
$740 with shipping

fsm 270yg monitor
$340 with shipping

$1080

I may pickup some of them samsung ssds in the future. i need to recover from this blow first!

Thank you guys for all the help. I'll send pics when i finish.

shaq_mobile wrote:

roger that. just ordered it all.

3570k
seasonic 520w
2x 4gb ram
7950 double d 3gb
asrock h77 mobo
$740 with shipping

fsm 270yg monitor
$340 with shipping

$1080

I may pickup some of them samsung ssds in the future. i need to recover from this blow first!

Thank you guys for all the help. I'll send pics when i finish.

Why a H77 mobo with a K proc? You'd want a Z based chipset if you're overclocking.

oh someone recommended it earlier. i dont know much abotu the intel chipsets. oh well, if i dont like it ill just call it defective and RMA it.

horay, first article i clicked on was very specific about that. i suppose i shouldnt assume people know what i want. thank you for the heads up, i'll change it now.

shaq_mobile wrote:

oh someone recommended it earlier. i dont know much abotu the intel chipsets. oh well, if i dont like it ill just call it defective and RMA it.

horay, first article i clicked on was very specific about that. i suppose i shouldnt assume people know what i want. thank you for the heads up, i'll change it now.

Aside from that, it looks like it's turning out great! Congrats!

thanks! i've never had a nice IPS panel before and its been years since ive had a nice computer. the computer that ive been borrowing for occasional use is pretty old laptop. 9800m gts with a core2 p8400 and 4gb ram. starting to show its age on games like planetside (3-15 fps at minimum settings).

thank you guys for your help, i appreciate it! keep on rockin!

If you just ordered it i am sure you can call newegg and get a nice z77 board.... one of the best overclocking boards right now is the asrock formula it's 239$ but it has 10 sata ports supports tri fire. And did i sat its about the best overclocking otherboard out there beating the asus rog boards.....no wonder asus is trying to buy them, The asrock company that is.
If 239 is a bit high you can get another board....the asus z77zlk or something is like 139$. it would serve you well but the asrock formula has been getting higher overclocks with less voltage then most boards.

Since you will be running a ivy chip make sure you get a good cooler a ALL in one water or even a coolermaster hyper 212 evo. the 212 plus is a little cheaper but the direct contact heatpipes have gaps in them the evo does not, so it cools like 5c better.

The asrock formula z77 board is on shell shocker sale for 215$ 25$ off
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... %20formula
3570k ....230$
roswill hive 550 watt 38 amp 12v rail modular for a clean build 69.99 20% off w/ promo code RW20PSU, limited offer free ship 56$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... llFullInfo
Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 9 9 9 27 timings at 1.5 volts 50$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... top-Memory
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100352VXSR Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 with 950mhx boost plus it overclocks better then the hot runing xfx double doodoo:) 325$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... hics-Cards
Total 876$
or drop the 7950 and get MSI's hd 7870 hawk for 259$ it has a gpu reactor just lke the 7970 lightning and easily overclocks from its stock oc of 1100 core 1250 mem to 1300 core 1480 mem with 1400mhz core very possible making it perform as good as a 7970
total with the hawk card 810$ Plus with the asrock formula your getting one of the best z77 motherboards out there with so many extras built in wifi blu tooth 10 sata ports etc.

Here is a link to two reviews showing the power of the overclocked MSI 7870 hawk with the gpu reactor
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4709/m ... index.html
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=72
Both reviews have the cores running at 1400 on the core and 1500 on the memory.
Smoking the 7950 and running right with the 7970 in aliens vs predator the 7870 hawk oced at 1920-1200 87fps 7950 78fps.
Ohh i forgot to add it has the twin frozer cooler on it with the dust cleaning solution.....on boot up the fans run at max speed in reverse for like 30 seconds to clean the dust from the fins.....i wish all cards did that.
Change that order bud that motherboard rockss and so does that 7870 hawk definitely worth the extra 70$ with that motherboard alone.

I haven't read the reviews but at first glance this board should be more than adequate for ocing
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... therboards

It has heatsinks for the VRMS, 8+4 power phases, ATX design, what more do you need? Ofc i advise reading the review before deciding. Don't worry if you already ordered a mobo, you can return/replace it within a certain period of time. In my coutnry it's 10 working days but i heard that newegg accepts replacements/returns within 3 months. Regardless, you have time, more so if they haven't shipped the items yet.

with all of the concessions i made in other parts of the build, i ended up going with a asrock z75 mobo. im not going to run any dual card setups but it still has good reviews and OC capability.

unfortunately, i did pickup one of those 256gb samsung 830s though. my extra hdd was a 320gb laptop drive (WD blue). ok for storage but i dont wanna be the last guy loading the match! thanks fellas!

shaq_mobile wrote:

oh someone recommended it earlier. i dont know much abotu the intel chipsets. oh well, if i dont like it ill just call it defective and RMA it.

horay, first article i clicked on was very specific about that. i suppose i shouldnt assume people know what i want. thank you for the heads up, i'll change it now.

You must be referring to entropy's recommendations. If you notice, he recommended an i5-3450 (no "K" suffix so locked multiplier, hence not overclockable) and an H77 mobo (cannot adjust CPU multiplier). That pair is perfectly fine.