advice for my new build?

[Vishera]

I'm going to hopefully be building a computer soon, based off either an AM3 or FM2 CPU. intel fanboys don't waste your typing energy, it's staying AMD. now for the usages, internet browsing, wii and gamecube emulation which will be CPU heavy (dolphin emulator is like that) and maybe actual gaming later on. the specs i'm looking at:

CPU: AMD Phenom 2 X4 970 BE/ A10-5800K/ A8-6600K

GPU: Radeon HD 5550 1GB

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model and CORSAIR 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model (total 6GB RAM)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-DGS FM2 AMD A55 (Hudson D2) Micro ATX AMD Motherboard or ASRock 760GM-GS3 AM3 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Power Supply: LEPA N Series N500-SA 500W ATX12V Power Supply

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

Case: NZXT Source 210

CPU Cooler: COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO

HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB


so advice? which CPU should i get, the 970 or one of the APUs? which APU? any criticism is appreciated

 

[Theocnoob]

I'd suggest going with a higher quality power supply. Get a better video card like a 7750 to run with your APU. And get the A10-6800K. It's better. Not much more money to up the GPU/APU.

 

[Knufire]

How many cores does dolphin use?

 

[Vishera]

up to three i believe, either that or two. and how would i go about setting the GPU card as my graphics so it wouldn't use the APU graphics? and my budget won't allow the richland APUs except for the A8 i mentioned. as far as an actual number my dad is paying for this and he tells me if it fits in the budget or not. he won't give me a number.

 

[Knufire]

An Intel i3 is probably going to perform better than the APU in the emulator, but the dual graphics of the APU for the same budget is probably going to handle real games better.

It's really hard for us to make a recommendation without a number budget.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Why would you get a 970? They're very old.

Either go FX-43xx or A10-6xxx.

 

[Theocnoob]

My dad is paying for this and he tells me if it fits in the budget or not. he won't give me a number.

Tell your dad to come to the computer and read this message.
Dear Father of "Vishera": We need a number so we can recommend the best possible list of parts for you. We simply need a number. We won't be able to help effectively without it.

 

[mokrunka]

Even better, we suggest several builds, starting with a budget of, say, $5,000US, and each build decreasing $500 or so in price until pops gives in.

Problem?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Even better, we suggest several builds, starting with a budget of, say, $5,000US, and each build decreasing $500 or so in price until pops gives in.

Problem?

Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!

 

[Vishera]

max budget is $400-$450 USD for now, any updates needed can be made later. SO can anyone give me some suggestions here?

 

[Zodicus]

I got an old AMD Tiburon laptop I'll sell you for 300

J/K ofc I am not an AMD guy period so I couldn't even begin to make a recommendation here. At least not in that budget range. Good luck with you build bud!

 

[Vishera]

AMD is best for low end stuff. intel's pentiums and such are still super expensive to get the chip and board. AMD all the way

 

[Zodicus]

I haven't seen a Pentium in years. Sure they can be had for 30 bucks or so on ebay. Hell and old school P4 3.0 Prescott would whoop the crap out of 3/4 of AMD's line up now lol.

Ok back on topic. Maybe you could shop around on ebay and find you an older AM2 chip that would be perfect for what you are doing. It could shave off a bit on that price point. I may be a hardcore intel dude but I want to see you get the best you can get with in reason for your build. I think a AM2 or even an older AM3 would suit you just fine. Maybe something along the line of an Athalon X2.

 

[Vishera]

ivy bridge had a line of pentiums and celerons.

and as far as AM2 or AM2+ i have a phenom x4 9850 black edition right now and it sucks so hard it's not even funny. AM3 is an option because i was thinking phenom 2 x4 970, but for the same price i can get the APU and then at the same time get a better GPU. the 5550 isn't the best card, i know that, which is why i'm leaning more towards the APU.

the reason i say intel is more expensive is because i've never found a decent board for intel under $100. the ones i do find, the reviews say "DOA, it runs for crap, spend the extra money for a better board and you'll be happy you did" whereas with AMD i found a $50 ASRock board for FM2 and everyone said it runs fantastic. intel is for the power gamers, OR the really low end internet people. AMD has options for either one, or somewhere in between. the FX-6300 is a six core CPU for $120 on newegg. You can't beat that, intel, honestly. and for me hyperthreading isn't important.

i might get into gaming and even then i won't use intel. honestly if anyone asked me to recommend them a CPU i'd dig around for an AMD, because AMD as far as i can see has the better value, better range of products, and is more affordable. granted, their lack of hyperthreading means you can't run adobe after effects and a CPU intensive game at the same time, but for me i don't care about that. i despise intel as much as i hate apple. both are overrated and super expensive. sometimes i wonder if apple owns intel because i haven't seen one yet that runs AMD

 

[||Console||]

If you are not hung up that it needs to be new , you can check out the classified section and get a much better deal .

 

[||Console||]

ivy bridge had a line of pentiums and celerons.

and as far as AM2 or AM2+ i have a phenom x4 9850 black edition right now and it sucks so hard it's not even funny. AM3 is an option because i was thinking phenom 2 x4 970, but for the same price i can get the APU and then at the same time get a better GPU. the 5550 isn't the best card, i know that, which is why i'm leaning more towards the APU.

the reason i say intel is more expensive is because i've never found a decent board for intel under $100. the ones i do find, the reviews say "DOA, it runs for crap, spend the extra money for a better board and you'll be happy you did" whereas with AMD i found a $50 ASRock board for FM2 and everyone said it runs fantastic. intel is for the power gamers, OR the really low end internet people. AMD has options for either one, or somewhere in between. the FX-6300 is a six core CPU for $120 on newegg. You can't beat that, intel, honestly. and for me hyperthreading isn't important.

i might get into gaming and even then i won't use intel. honestly if anyone asked me to recommend them a CPU i'd dig around for an AMD, because AMD as far as i can see has the better value, better range of products, and is more affordable. granted, their lack of hyperthreading means you can't run adobe after effects and a CPU intensive game at the same time, but for me i don't care about that. i despise intel as much as i hate apple. both are overrated and super expensive. sometimes i wonder if apple owns intel because i haven't seen one yet that runs AMD

On a side note i have no Idea why all the hate .
Fact you need a good MB to clock the FX amd series .
Fact the lowest lvl z87 but will oc a haswell upto 4.7ish (chip depenedent)
Fact you need to Overclock the AMD fx's to @ least 4.5ghz to start to reach the gaming performance of the intels @ stock . A i3 is faster in most games than amd (8core) @ stock .

 

[Vishera]

like i said, intel has better technology that gives them a boost. but you pay for that better technology. take this into consideration price wise: a dual core APU is less than $100 USD. when haswell hadn't come out and ivy bridge was still the newest thing, a dual core pentium from ivy bridge would have cost me at least $115. it's really no competition. buy the pentium and still have to buy a GPU, or buy the APU and have the same amount of cores WITH the the GPU as well.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I haven't seen a Pentium in years. Sure they can be had for 30 bucks or so on ebay. Hell and old school P4 3.0 Prescott would whoop the crap out of 3/4 of AMD's line up now lol.

Yeah...............not a chance, and you can get P4's all day long for less than 10 bucks.
Don't be a hater.

 

[Knufire]

Except those two cores from Intel are waaayyyyyy faster than the APU. Also, the APU doesn't have cores, it has modules AFAIK. So while it can use all its cores for integer (whole nunber) calculations, it can only use half the cores for floating point (decimal) calculations since the cores aren't whole cores and share parts. This was the new design with the FX CPUs (and all the FM2 APUs I'm 90% sure). So comparing a A8 APU to a dual core i3 (which is in the same price range) that also has Hyperthreading, you're going to get significantly more CPU horsepower with the Intel. The iGPU (pentiums have them too) isn't half bad on the Intel, though the APU is considerably better and has dual graphics.

Then you throw in the FX-6300, which doesn't have the iGPU, but has the extra module (3 module, 6 cores). At stock it's okay, but it overclocks very well. Problem is that overclocking on anything less than a $100 board for FX CPUs is a bad idea and you need an aftermarket cooler.

So:
FX-6300+Gigabyte 970 UD3+Hyper212=$120+$100+30=$250

i3-3220+cheapest 7 series board=$110+$60 =$170

A8-6600K+cheapest FM2 board=$120+$50=$170

A8-6600K+decent FM2 board+Hyper212=$120+$80+30=$230

So, in short, the i3 and the APU cost the same if you choose not to OC. One has more graphics horsepower, one has way more CPU horsepower. If you want to overclock to close that gap a bit, you need to pay an extra $60 or so. The OCed FX-6300 is way more than the i3 but worth it if there's the budget for a good GPU.

There's something called brand bias, and it's stupid.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Even better, we suggest several builds, starting with a budget of, say, $5,000US, and each build decreasing $500 or so in price until pops gives in.

Problem?

Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!