Upgrade - New AMD A-Series - 500€

[GxStorm]

Hi there....my first post here

Well, I decided Im going to upgrade my computer
A toaster actually

Pentium 4 - 3.00Ghz - 512Kb Cache - HT Enabled - Socket 478 - pretty old -.-
Asrock P4V88
Seagate Barracuda 7200Rpm 120Gb
Sapphire Radeon HD3850 Agp - 512Mb GDDR3
2Hix Jet 500W
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

As you can see this is a pretty old system, and i maid the mistake of adding a HD3850, causing a huge bottleneck to it...
So....For Christmas I decided to upgrade my system, just the rig and i was really impress by the new AMD`s........

And i went and saw some parts:
Case - Thermaltake V4 Black Edition - 41.85€
Motherboard - ASRock A75 Extreme6 - 114.80€
CPU - AMD A-Series A8-3850 FM1 - 125.80€
Graphics Card - MSI Radeon HD6670 1GB DDR5 PCI-E - 89.85€
Mems - GeIL PC3-12800 Black Dragon 8GB CL9 (4x2GB) DDR3 - 61.60€
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 32MB SATA III 3.5 - 50.95€
Power Supply - Nox NX Series 520W - 40.60€

Total - 525.45€

Thats about my wage, rounding 500€
I dont know the currency you`re in sorry

I started this thread so that you guys could help me, with the best config around that motherboard and cpu

Sorry for bad english

 

[Theocnoob]

Your English is better than most people who live in North America. No worries.

That's a good system for average use, HD video, office work, productivity, moderate image/video editing and moderate gaming on medium settings. If you know and are cool with that, go for it.

If you wanted to be running high end games maxed out, this is not for you.

Most of your parts are from known manufacturers and will be reliable parts but I am not familiar with that power supply. Maybe seasonic, corsair, a quality Kingwin unit, or a quality BeQuiet unit. I would personally get a Western Digital Black or Samsung F3 drive but that is based on Seagate's dismal mid 2000s units and not reflective of current units.

Also, you may not need 8GB. Most people don't. What are you doing with this machine?

 

[GxStorm]

Well, my main goal is the gaiming part....
And I Want to play the best possible , round that budget....
I dont know if that graphics card is the best to match with the cpu, but i would add it, and put in crossfire together with the integrated graphics card
Oh and I did some research on the CPU and i could easily go from 2.9 to 3.6 Ghz.....
And i dont understand much about GPU overclocking, but i would give it a go too......

In not a Hardcore Gamer, but i like to play recent games, and they dont need to be maxed out all the time, if I`m able to play a game maxed out with decent framerates, i play it .........if i cant, ill just put the game in medium settings or low until i get those framerates playable Im happy both ways
For example, can i play Crysis 2 with that rig?
Im not a fan of the Crysis series, never had a chance to play crysis , but I would be happy if i could play that in medium, just an example of what the rig could do

 

[Theocnoob]

Ok then you want to look at the $500 gaming PC thread. Parts are more expensive in the UK/EU but it'll work itself out.

You're looking at 955BE CPU
GTX 460 graphics
4GB RAM
300ish GB HD
budge optical drive

 

[GxStorm]

Can you give me the link to the thread, I don`t understand much of the forum for now

Oh, and will i get better performance with the AMD Phenom II x4 and the Nvidia Card?

And i want the computer to last a few years.......but Im only getting the pc in christmas, and amd is planing to release more cpus till then, including the amd bulldozer coming this month.....

I dont know why, but i prefer going to the config that i showed you guys, its a more overall rig i think.....
In the config that i presented in the first message, is everything balanced? Like,should i change a part or other for better system balance, because i pretend to overclock, the cpu, and maybe the graphics card, do you recommend me another part that suits the rig better?
Maybe swap the mems or something, guide me please

 

[vdgamer]

Phenom II x4 is a cheap quad core that with a decent overclock wont bottleneck even high end cards, thats why its a good choice for you, as for nvidia or amd card it really depends on the game, some run better on nvidia some on amd, the reason why he listed GTX460 is because its a good performance card for the price thas still in your budget, i would also look for HD5850/HD6870, also dont skimp on power supply, look into Corsair CX Series there good quality units for cheap price, 430w or 500w should be enough for your system and there about $40-$60 US dollars so less then 50 euros i would guess, also you will probably want to overclock that cpu so i would look into getting decent aftermarket cooler like hyper 212+ or XIGMATEK Gaia there cheap but do their job extremely well

 

[GxStorm]

Really, i prefer the config i presented, because its an overall system in the end
The cpu can be OC to 3.6Ghz Which is pretty good.....
I can do crossfire with the HD6670 together with the onboard graphics card which is a good one too, even knowing that the card is onboard, i would get an overall performance, even knowing that my primary goal is gaming....

Another thing, is the HD6670 the best to put together with the onboard graphics card? I`ve read some reviews and I got confused.......
Same with the mems speed

 

[GxStorm]

Corsair CX-600W

is this enough?

And what about case fans?

I think the case comes with this

Cooling System

-Front (intake):
120 x 120 x 25 mm optional
-Rear (exhaust):
120 x 120 x 25 mm Blue LED fan, 1300 rpm, 17 dBA
-Top (exhaust):
120 x 120 x 25 mm optional
-Bottom (intake):
120 x 120 x 25 mm optional

Is it good? Optional? does it mean that is gonna cost more with the fans included?

 

[vdgamer]

Phenom II x4 can be overclocked to 4.0Ghz pretty easy, and with GTX460 or HD6870 it will be a lot better gaming machine than APU @ 3.6Ghz + HD6670 cobined with onboard graphics, not sure how well HD6670 works with on board gpu but i can tell you that it wont outperform GTX460 or HD6870, you said your main focus is to game with this build, my advice is: dont mess with HTPC parts and that is what AMD's APU is, its is built specifically for HTPC's and HD6670 can barely be called a gaming card, its more like very good HTPC's card, a lot of times manufacturers will hype up thier products, like i know they said APU can be good for gaming, but thats compared to old integrated chipsets that intel used to put out, but really you would be much better of with setups we recommend you.

 

[Theocnoob]

Really, i prefer the config i presented, because its an overall system in the end
The cpu can be OC to 3.6Ghz Which is pretty good.....

That means nothing. A Pentium 4 can hit well over 4Ghz. It's still horrible. (If anybody has a P4, sorry. I'm just making a point)

Hz can be thought of as RPM. Of what?
My old land scooter's 2 stroke got up to like 9000RPM all the time. A cube van could beat it in a race without breaking 2000RPM.

You'll be happier with the PII 955. You also aren't limited to relatively low end GPUs as with the A series. Anything past a 66XX and you shut off the GPU in the APU. That leaves you with an OK quad core CPU that has almost no cache. Which is bad.


http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=684263

Please look at this thread. It has really great ideas.


Or just buy this:

For you:
(From SCAN.CO.UK you can order these parts directly. Prices are in GBP. Include VAT)

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-...-s-am3-32ghz-8mb-cache-ht-3600mhz-125w-retail
955BE CPU 87

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...r3-sata-iii-6gb-s-raid-sata-pcie-20-(x16)-atx
Motherboard 71

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...0-(1600)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v
4GB DDR3 24

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...shader-clock-1526mhz-336-cores-2x-dl-dvi-i-mi
GTX 460 119

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/antec-300-three-hundred-black-midi-tower-ultimate-gaming-case-w-o-psu
Antec 300 45

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500g...caviar-blue-sata-6gb-s-7200rpm-16mb-cache-8ms
500 GB Hard Drive 29

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lite...dvdplusrw-x8-rw-x6-dvd-ram-x12-sata-black-oem
DVD drive 14

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w...v2uk-80-eff-80-plus-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx-v23
Power supply 52

441 incl VAT

So for 441, you can have a more powerful system. 9 series chipset too so you can get an 8 core bulldozer (FX series. Launching soonish) later if you want it.

That leaves 59 GBP for a couple of PC games and beer. Or 8GB of RAM and a better hard drive. Or a slightly better GPU. Or an aftermarket CPU cooler so you can overclock. In other words, even for 500, you can have a decent system and some wiggle room.

 

[vdgamer]

Theocnoob links to newegg are dead

 

[Theocnoob]

It's ok. He's in the UK. Scan is the only relevant E-store for him that I know of. It's ginormous and many here have ordered from it.
**(removed N E links)

 

[GxStorm]

Im from Portugal, and Im buying it in a physical store, Alientech btw

Asrock 890GX Extreme 4.....this one here is 119€....cant find that msi

The bulldozers are compatible with the am3 socket?

 

[GxStorm]

Also, i would spend the rest of the cash in the 8gb of ram memory and maybe the hard drive, show me the goods xD

 

[GxStorm]

Oh, and I dont want to be a pain in the *** but, i prefer the AMD Ati graphics card, just because im more used to deal with the ati`s

Also, i dont need the dvd drive

 

[vdgamer]

i used ati cards until my 570 and im happy i swithced to nvidia its very easy transition their control panel is simple and easy to use, and their drivers give me 0 trouble. with ati i had tons of issues. but now that amd took over i think their drivers are getting better, as i listed above, if you want amd card look into 6870. its 135 euro on the site theocnoob listed http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...u-940mhz-1120-stream-processors-dvi-hdmi-mdp-

i would recommend this one http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...r5-gpu-930mhz-1120-stream-processors-dvi-hdmi for just 5 more euro

 

[GxStorm]

Wow! they are way expensive for my budget... :O
On alientech they`re at 165€

Those are in punds, british currency, converted it and its 162€ here

 

[GxStorm]

Wich do you recommend me?

Asrock 890GX Extreme 4
Asus M5A97 AMD 970 AM3+ - with this one I wont get the bulldozer so soon i think , dont know the prices yet either

 

[vdgamer]

also since you have some money left over i would strongly recommend getting aftermarket cpu cooler so you can overclock right away and get best performance, i personally dont even bother putting stock heasinks on i get aftermarket right away since overcloking cpu is part of building a system for me, i never run anything stock from heatsinks they have available i would recommend this one http://www.scan.co.uk/products/cors...an-cpu-cooler-intel-775-1366-1156-amd-am2-am3 but hyper 212+ or xilmatec guia are good too and should be cheaper if you can find them

 

[Theocnoob]

Wich do you recommend me?

The bulldozers are compatible with the am3 socket?

Asrock 890GX Extreme 4
Asus M5A97 AMD 970 AM3+ - with this one I wont get the bulldozer so soon i think , dont know the prices yet either

9XX boards and 8XX boards support Bulldozer. AMD has been hazy with details. AFAIK you can not manipulate the multiplier for Bulldozer on 8XX series boards, but the CPU will work. The 9 series boards also have better SATA connectivity and there isn't much price difference.. If any.

Bulldozer is AM3+. Same pinout as AM3. It needs a 9 series chipset to be fully supported. WORKS on 8 series with limitations (multiplier).

Didn't realize you were in portugal. Regardless, you can afford, for under 500 euro,

955BE
9 series mobo
4GB RAM
500GB HD
GTX 460 graphics card (you can't quite match this price/performance on the ATI side)
optical
600W PSU
case