New build advice

[Kylesims]

Alright.. So, after I got my head knocked on straight (I was a little crooked, and thanks to the guys in the watercooling thread I'd posted for straightening me out), I took my soon-to-be-new build back to scratch.. Curious what everyone thinks about it, and any possible improvements that can be recommended.

Asus Sabertooth 990FX
AMD FX-8350
Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
Adata SP900 256GB SSD
2x8GB G. Skill Ripjaws RAM
XDX Double D Radeon HD-7870 GHz edition.

Some of the reviews I've seen on the Sabertooth are saying that it's not compatible with the FX series processors without a BIOS flash, via an AM3 socket, or RMAing it back to Asus.. but, my current board supposedly had the same issue with the Phenom II X4's on an AM2+ socket, and it worked fine despite all reports. Any word on if I should worry about it with the Sabertooth?

Also, someone from my watercooling thread had mentioned that the first board I was planning on using (An Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z) wouldn't overclock as easy as I wanted it to. Is the Sapphire better for it? Tips, advice?

 

[EarthDog]

Why AMD? Do you need those 8 cores or something? Id rather get 3570K and Z77 board personally (though the AMD will be fine of course).

I dont like the sabertooth line across the board as it is no better than other boards but costs more because of the gimmicky cooling they put on it.

 

[Kylesims]

Meh. AMD because old habits die hard. I've been using 'em for.. 15 or so years, and never had an issue. Generally, when I upgrade, I go with the best they've got and stick with it for a few years.. Upgrade, and give the old model to my parents or something, assuming I don't cannibalize parts from it.

Price doesn't seem to bad on the Sabertooth board, but I generally don't like paying more than I need to for.. Well, as you put it, gimmicky stuff. Lets assume I wanted to pay about that price, perhaps a bit more, what would a better board be? As I said, preferably something that won't fry on me when I start upping the processor and graphics clocks.

EDIT: Also. I prefer to stay away from Gigabyte boards. I've used Asus ever since I was little, so tend to stick with them (Again, old habits).. But, I could be open to a new brand, if it's worth it.

 

[Kylesims]

...I say I tend to stay away from Gigabyte boards, and then I go and read up on a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3..

As far as Newegg goes, it's rated higher than the Sabertooth board.. Doing a google search for it turns up a lot of positive reviews on its BIOS for overclocking, as well.. Now, it's only a ~$30 dollar savings, but.. Could have me convinced to stray from my usual Asus bias.

 

[EarthDog]

Bias needs to go.. Its only limiting your choices and usually for no good reason. AMD is not my bag, Im an intel guy since the performance crown lay squarely on its shoulders. So someone AMD will have to help you out in boards... sorry.

 

[Kylesims]

Yeaaah, that's what everyone tells me. xD But, eh. I'm thinking I'll go with the Gigabyte board though, after some further review.. Lotta positive, current comments.. Somethin' like 650 reviews total, and a four-egg rating.. Accounting for a portion of those being people posting useless comments, that still doesn't seem bad.

I'll keep a watch on the thread though, for more tips/advice. ^.^ Thanks for the little bit you did have, EarthDog.

 

[EarthDog]

newegg reviews are only good for DOA. Otherwise, its mostly muppets that have little clue. Read other reviews on the web... like type in Gigabyte 990FX UD3H reviews and look at those.

 

[azanimefan]

The Sabretooth is a much better board for an AMD chip then it is for an INTEL... not sure why that's the case... but when looking at intel MBs i'd never advise the sabretooth, while the same can't be said on the AMD side.

The general consensus around these parts seem to be that the Sabretooth and Gigabyte Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 are the best two boards for an FX series CPU.

I'd probably go with a different SSD... generally quality really matters with those, so taking one because it's the cheapest at it's size isn't typically advisable (unless it's a great one on sale). Generally the champs at 256mb are OCZ Vector, OCZ Vertex 4, Samsung 830, Samsung 840, Crucial M4, or the Mushkin Atlas

You don't need 16gb of ram, 8 is fine

If your budget for a GPU is about 220, you're better off spending it on a 7870 LE (or XT, or Myst or Tahiti.LE, or whatever the different manufacturers are calling it), not a 7870 GHz edition.

 

[Kylesims]

The Sabretooth is a much better board for an AMD chip then it is for an INTEL... not sure why that's the case... but when looking at intel MBs i'd never advise the sabretooth, while the same can't be said on the AMD side.

The general consensus around these parts seem to be that the Sabretooth and Gigabyte Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 are the best two boards for an FX series CPU.

I'd probably go with a different SSD... generally quality really matters with those, so taking one because it's the cheapest at it's size isn't typically advisable (unless it's a great one on sale). Generally the champs at 256mb are OCZ Vector, OCZ Vertex 4, Samsung 830, Samsung 840, Crucial M4, or the Mushkin Atlas

Ah, yes. I'll look into 'em.. Had never heard of Adata, but there's a lot of things I haven't heard of.. I'm not really picky on cost, so long as it'll last and has the read/write speeds I want.

As for the board, I actually found reviews on the UD3, UD5, and the UD7 models.. As far as I can tell, the UD7 definitely isn't a downgrade, and may or may not be a minor upgrade for what is probably a not-worth-it price increase (Something like 149ish to 200), but I like the look of the UD7 better.

GPU-wise.. I was actually considering going to a 79XX series, but haven't looked into cost comparisons and such, yet. As it stands, I was prepared to dump about 2100 into a custom built machine from Cyberpower, and have so far tallied up about.. 1500 from Newegg for, more or less, the same machine, not to include a watercooling system. Budget on the GPU is only a minor issue.. Though, if the card is cheap enough, I might just go crossfire out of the gates instead of waiting.

 

[EarthDog]

Nothing at all wrong with that Adata drive..when they release FW to fix the TRIM issue (no eta).

I reviewed it.

I never heard of the Mushkin Atlas though.

 

[azanimefan]

GPU-wise.. I was actually considering going to a 79XX series, but haven't looked into cost comparisons and such, yet. As it stands, I was prepared to dump about 2100 into a custom built machine from Cyberpower, and have so far tallied up about.. 1500 from Newegg for, more or less, the same machine, not to include a watercooling system. Budget on the GPU is only a minor issue.. Though, if the card is cheap enough, I might just go crossfire out of the gates instead of waiting.

the 7950 is easily the price/performance winner of the high end GPUs... considering they can overclock to 7970 speeds.

the sweet spot for price performance for GPUs tends to be the $200-$300 range and the 7870->660ti->7950s that inhabit it.

If you can scrape up the extra cash for a 7950, then do it. otherwise your best bet will probably be a 7870 LE/XT/Myst/Tahiti.LE whatever it's called.

 

[Kylesims]

So, updated and whatnot. The full build is looking like...

HAF-X case
Barracuda 2TB 7200 RPM HDD
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD
Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD7 (I like the way it looks, over the UD3/5. All three seem great.)
XFX 7950 Core Edition
Corsair HX 850W PSU
2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X RAM
FX-8350 Vishera
LG Blu-ray reader CD/DVD burner

Coming out around 1500 with 3-day shipping. Leaves me about.. 600ish to get my watercooling system. Depending on how that turns out, I might throw another 7950 in just for S&G's.

 

[dtrunk]

see my post in your water cooling thread... i think you're overlooking some things, spending money where you could save it, and could redo this build a little better. I too was an AMD fan forever, great performance/price; however with the SB and IB intel chips, Intel is smoking AMD in almost everything except major multitasking. 3570k OC to 4.4ghz easy and smokes a 8350 as far as i know.

 

[Ajay57]

On the never ending question of AMD and Intel and which way to jump or go, maybe the main question is! What are you going to use this for, why it could determine which way to go? As for the Stats on the 2 main CPU's as you will see in different areas ones better than the other. AJ.

1, http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/697?vs=701

 

[azanimefan]

Tom's just reviewed the FX8350 vs the i7 3770, just to revisit the FX. It showed the FX going toe to toe with the i7 3770 in most games with negligible difference in frame rate. Strangely it was on lower resolutions the i7 showed any significant advantage...

which lead Tom's to conclude AMD's issue wasn't CPU structure but the memory controller that was gimping their chips.

A very common conclusion around here i might add.

In my opinion, if AMD ever got that issue ironed out they'd have a chip as fast or faster then intel's offerings... which makes it all that much more puzzling... since this isn't an unknown issue yet AMD has let it languish unfixed for years now. Someday they'll get the memcontroller issues and northbridge sorted out... and be able to actually get data to their cpu at solid speeds... cause right now, their FX chips are being strangled by that bottleneck.

 

[Knufire]

Lower resolutions = more CPU usage, so it makes sense that the 3770 performed better. Higher resolutions = more GPU usage, CPU matters less (assuming it's not bottlenecking the video cards, that is).

Really, for gaming, it doesn't matter, outside the fact that power consumption on the AMD is WAY higher.

If you're planning on WCing, I'd take a look at some different cases, such as the NZXT Switch 810. The HAF-X is more air-cooling oriented.

Really, you're going to spend that much more on a motherboard just because the way it looks?

I haven't seen any proof that the 8350 actually overclocks higher than the 8320, still seems to me like they're pretty much the same CPU. Since you're OCing, might as well get the 8320.

There's a power cap limit on the AMD 7xxx cards. They shouldn't ever draw enough to need an 850W PSU, 750W is plenty.

Money is ALWAYS an issue. Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to spend it, or that it's a wise decision to spend it. Buy what you need, not what you want.

 

[Kylesims]

Lower resolutions = more CPU usage, so it makes sense that the 3770 performed better. Higher resolutions = more GPU usage, CPU matters less (assuming it's not bottlenecking the video cards, that is).

Really, for gaming, it doesn't matter, outside the fact that power consumption on the AMD is WAY higher.

If you're planning on WCing, I'd take a look at some different cases, such as the NZXT Switch 810. The HAF-X is more air-cooling oriented.

Really, you're going to spend that much more on a motherboard just because the way it looks?

I haven't seen any proof that the 8350 actually overclocks higher than the 8320, still seems to me like they're pretty much the same CPU. Since you're OCing, might as well get the 8320.

There's a power cap limit on the AMD 7xxx cards. They shouldn't ever draw enough to need an 850W PSU, 750W is plenty.

Money is ALWAYS an issue. Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to spend it, or that it's a wise decision to spend it. Buy what you need, not what you want.

Now that's interesting, about the 8320 vs 8350.

You'd think with the 8350 being a 4GHz compared to the... 3.5(?) of the 8320, that it'd clock higher. Higher start point should mean higher end point.

I like the way the HAF-X looks too, though I hadn't been able to find how 'watercooling friendly' it is. Mm.. Might have to go look around for those. Maybe.

Newegg, tigerdirect, and Xoxide for cases still these days?

 

[Knufire]

Mostly Newegg. Killer on any online store is the shipping price though...usually if you can source it local you might be able to get it cheaper.

The HAF-X CAN watercool fine, it's just not primarily optimized for it. The only real requirement for a watercooling case is that it's big, which the HAF-X definitely satisfies. I just feel like (with the entire HAF series), they're primarily designed for airflow first and everything else 2nd. There are some small features that I wish the cases had, and with watercooling airflow isn't as big of a concern.

Looking at Newegg, I'd say the best deal on a board right now is the ASUS M5A99FX PRO.

 

[EarthDog]

If a case is 'air cooling friendly' and has the space for rads, then its water cooling friendly... why you ask, because that same air cools the rads/water!!!!

The silcon (CPU's) will be within a 100-200MHz of each other on ambient cooling. Id go 8320 as well personally.

 

[Kylesims]

What're the biggest differences in that, and the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5?

Other than it being Asus, who I'm much more fond of.. But the blue all -over- the place. Blah.