SP's AMD build!

I have been wanting to do an AMD build for a long time now, and now that I have saved up a lot of $$, I figured I'd be able to finally build this system.
I already know Intel > AMD in 99% of the cases, so I'm not expecting AMD to blow the 3570K out of the water.
This thread will be for build advice, and overclocking + any troubleshooting I may have.
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The goal of this build will be to replace my 3570K as my daily driver, with some high overclocking I'm hoping to beat or at least match the preformance of my 3570K since I can't OC it any higher, I figured there's room for an AMD chip to beat it.

This rig will be for gaming (Minecraft 90% of the time, Skyrim the other 10%) and folding for 80% of the day, which I figure more cores would benefit F@H nicely.



Shrimpbrine has suggested an FX 8300 to me, and I was thinking of pairing it with a GA-990FXA-UD5, with a fan to help keep the VRM's cooler than without one.
I'd prefer to stay away from ASUS mainly due to price, (since the UD5 can be had for $189 CAD @ canadcomputers) but I'm not against buying a Saberkitty.
RAID 0 is a must, which might mean a simple RAID card since I hear RAID is a PITA on AMD..... (Hopefully Rgone's solution works for him though!)

I'd be using the same RAM, PSU etc from my 3570K.

Parts I own for this build are:
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EVGA 850G PSU
G.Skill 1600 CL9 RAM.
Noctua NH-D14
Win 7 x64
2x WD caviar Greens, RAID 0
1x Segate 1.5Tb backup HDD
Custom open-frame wood case (lots of airflow here) Would a fan cooling the back of the socket help here?
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So since I'm new to the AMD world, I'd like everyone's suggestions on what chip to buy, which motherboard, which GPU to get (I'm thinking of trying out Nvidia, maybe a used GTX 770?) and what I could realistically expect overclocking/preformance wise.

Thanks guys, looking forward to this build

I'll be back when I have more time. Silver

il send u shipping info via pm for the 3570k!

i dont know much about amd so im not much use here... though im pretty sure the intel is....nvm.

Blaylock said:

I'll be back when I have more time. Silver

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wagex said:

il send u shipping info via pm for the 3570k!

i dont know much about amd so im not much use here... though im pretty sure the intel is....nvm.

Click to expand...

Thanks guys

@wagex
I might keep the 3570K as my 2nd folding rig....
If I choose not to though, you have first dibs on it.

All depends on how this rig does.

I don't mean to be a negative nancy, but why? I imagine the performance is very comparable between the 8300 and the 3570k, so beyond a 'learning experience' of using an AMD system, is there much other reason to downgrade/sidegrade to AMD from where you are?

Janus67 said:

I don't mean to be a negative nancy, but why? I imagine the performance is very comparable between the 8300 and the 3570k, so beyond a 'learning experience' of using an AMD system, is there much other reason to downgrade/sidegrade to AMD from where you are?

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Wanted to try my hand at OCing an AMD system mainly.
Intel is all, increase vcore, set multiplier and done. AMD is all tinker with this, then that, try vcore.. etc.

I have an itch to try AMD, and it has to be scratched
Much like Rgone had an itch to try the new 4th gen Intel.
I figured even if the rig don't do what I want it to do, it'll serve as a good 2nd F@H rig for GPu folding.

FX6300 or 6350.
It's still pretty easy though.
If you want to have fun with AMD and maybe learn something, you need to go back to 939 or socket A.

Mr.Scott said:

FX6300 or 6350.
It's still pretty easy though.
If you want to have fun with AMD and maybe learn something, you need to go back to 939 or socket A.

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Thanks scotty!

Like that old Duron I have eh?
Yeah, that was fun to tinker with

Why 6350? I figured the 8300 with more cores would be better?
Or having the 2 less cores doesn't make a difference in real world and would make less heat = higher overclock?

Silver_Pharaoh said:

Why 6350? I figured the 8300 with more cores would be better?
Or having the 2 less cores doesn't make a difference in real world and would make less heat = higher overclock?

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Pretty much, yes.

Rgone has PM'd me some very interesting reads about Gigabyte's AMD lineup. Specifically, the 990FXA-UD3.

I'm not impressed to say the least, as I was expecting Gigabyte to be very solid, and here I am reading about motherboard warping, poor VRM temps, crappy tech support and mixed reports about which revision is best....

If I'm to go Gigabyte, seems I must choose very carefully, and slap a fan over the VRM's. (was going to do that anyway) I'm still unsure if the UD5 has the same issue as the UD3 does... Sicne I was planning on getting the UD5.


As such, what other motherboard should I be looking for?
Saberkitty and that's it? Or does say ASRock have anything nice?


I'm leaning towards the FX 6300 now.. What are everyone's thoughts on that?

Asrock 990FX EXT6 or 990FX EXT9.
I'm biased though. I blew up a couple EXT9's. I won't go back.

I know the CHV is probably the most popular board for pushing FX CPUs. I personally know 2 or 3 people with Sabertooths, and they have absolutely nothing bad to say about them. There really aren't many boards that get high recommendations for the FX lineup, but those are among them.

I have the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 and I have to say its a pretty solid board. I haven't pushed a 6 or 8 core with it yet but I'd have no questions about it's ability. As far as customer service goes I really can't complain. I had to RMA my first board and was able to without having to jump through to many hoops. The replacement board was used(this is fairly normal) and worked flawlessly for 6 months. However once I started benching on it I noticed the chipset was not a 990FX but some server chipset. Again the board worked fine but AMD Overdrive wouldn't recognize the chipset. This was unacceptable to me so I called their CS and got a direct line to the same rep that I had before (Deisy). She issued a 2nd RMA the same day without questions and I've been happily beating the crap out of the board since. Extreme cooling will be next...likely this summer, hopefully.

I can honestly say that I'd recommend the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 to anyone looking for an AMD board.

Mr.Scott said:

Asrock 990FX EXT6 or 990FX EXT9.
I'm biased though. I blew up a couple EXT9's. I won't go back.

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Extreme 6 is in stock @ newegg for the same price as the UD5

Dlaw said:

I know the CHV is probably the most popular board for pushing FX CPUs. I personally know 2 or 3 people with Sabertooths, and they have absolutely nothing bad to say about them. There really aren't many boards that get high recommendations for the FX lineup, but those are among them.

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Oh, the CHV!
Forgot about that board.

Yeah it seems selection is slim for top of the line boards, or at least boards that are actually any good.
Seems the world prefers Intel... everything seems more solid for them, leaving AMD all this crap.

Hopefully, by the end of today, I can get a list of some sort of motherboards I'd consider buying.
Then we can narrow it down to one good board. (Hopefully without breaking the bank lol)

Blaylock said:

I have the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 and I have to say its a pretty solid board. I haven't pushed a 6 or 8 core with it yet but I'd have no questions about it's ability. As far as customer service goes I really can't complain. I had to RMA my first board and was able to without having to jump through to many hoops. The replacement board was used(this is fairly normal) and worked flawlessly for 6 months. However once I started benching on it I noticed the chipset was not a 990FX but some server chipset. Again the board worked fine but AMD Overdrive wouldn't recognize the chipset. This was unacceptable to me so I called their CS and got a direct line to the same rep that I had before (Deisy). She issued a 2nd RMA the same day without questions and I've been happily beating the crap out of the board since. Extreme cooling will be next...likely this summer, hopefully.

I can honestly say that I'd recommend the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 to anyone looking for an AMD board.

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Another for ASRock

Newegg has both, EXT9 is $249 CAD and EXT6 is $189 CAD.
Question is, what's the difference?

Nevermind, figured it out 8+2 for EXT6 and 12+2 for EXT9!
Curious to know what happened with the EXT9's Mr.Scott had.
I'd like to know why they blew up...

Blaylock said:

I have the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 and I have to say its a pretty solid board. I haven't pushed a 6 or 8 core with it yet but I'd have no questions about it's ability. As far as customer service goes I really can't complain. I had to RMA my first board and was able to without having to jump through to many hoops. The replacement board was used(this is fairly normal) and worked flawlessly for 6 months. However once I started benching on it I noticed the chipset was not a 990FX but some server chipset. Again the board worked fine but AMD Overdrive wouldn't recognize the chipset. This was unacceptable to me so I called their CS and got a direct line to the same rep that I had before (Deisy). She issued a 2nd RMA the same day without questions and I've been happily beating the crap out of the board since. Extreme cooling will be next...likely this summer, hopefully.

I can honestly say that I'd recommend the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 to anyone looking for an AMD board.

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Sorry, I can't agree. On the chiller, I grenaded the VRM sections on both boards. I'll see if I can dig up a pic for you.
As for the CS, I can't comment because both boards were 'samples'. I knew going in that they wouldn't replace them.

Mr.Scott said:

Sorry, I can't agree. On the chiller, I grenaded the VRM sections on both boards. I'll see if I can dig up a pic for you.
As for the CS, I can't comment because both boards were 'samples'. I knew going in that they wouldn't replace them.

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Interesting...

I've read that there's a chance ASRock's "8+2" VRM could be a double 4+1..
Perhaps the 12+2 on the Extreme 9 is a double 6+1?

I can't find a review on the Extreme 6 to confirm that though

Pics would be cool if you can get them scotty

Fx 6300 is a good chip and you'll get as much fun Ocing it as you would any other Fx chip. As mentioned above you will likely be able to Oc in higher on Air then the Fx 8xxx. Additionally, I agree with RGone as far as not going with Gigabyte for a board. We have seen so many issues with people using them it makes it very difficult to recommend them.

If you are looking to Oc the everliving pee out of the chip and be able to change just about anything you want in the BIOS the CHV is the way to go. Additionally you get ROG connect so you can make changes on the fly Via laptop or other computer while benching. That said it's overkill for most users. I have both the Saberkitty and Chv and they are both great boards. I cannot speak for Asrock only because I do not own an AMD board from them, I do really like my Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 I have my 2500k on, which I can get 5.3 on Air for benching.

Asrock's Intel boards are incomparable to their AMD boards. They are excellent.

Mr. Scott I trust your opinions. You are certainly more experienced in this than I am, but I'm curious as to how you toasted them. You said you were using the chiller so I have to assume you were pushing pretty hard as we tend to do. At what point did it fail? How many volts? Could it have been caused by condensation? I'm not questioning whether you did anything "wrong". Is it possible that it failed because it was an ASRock, or could those conditions have killed any board. There are alot of variables. I would like to see those pics. Partly because I'm sadistic and partly because I would like to know what my board may look like if I ever decide to grab an FX 9590.

The other question is more towards Silver. How hard do you plan on pushing? In your OP you say this build will be a daily driver/folder that you can "play" with on the weekends. Weekend race cars aren't really meant for the track. If you plan on going BALLS OUT(read LN2) then the ASUS Crosshair V Formula. It's what the big boys play with.

Blaylock said:

Mr. Scott I trust your opinions. You are certainly more experienced in this than I am, but I'm curious as to how you toasted them. You said you were using the chiller so I have to assume you were pushing pretty hard as we tend to do. At what point did it fail? How many volts? Could it have been caused by condensation? I'm not questioning whether you did anything "wrong". Is it possible that it failed because it was an ASRock, or could those conditions have killed any board. There are alot of variables. I would like to see those pics. Partly because I'm sadistic and partly because I would like to know what my board may look like if I ever decide to grab an FX 9590.

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Was running a delidded 8320 @ roughly 5.4 @ 1.6 or so volts. Not a condensation issue.
I've done worse to the Sabertooth without any issues.
Looking for pics now. I'm pretty sure I still have them.
Could have just been a pair or crappy boards, who knows. I'm not judging Asrock as a whole because of them. Just left a bad taste in my mouth for that particular board is all.