Building a friend a PC next weekend and I keep second guessing myself on parts. Any help? Budget: £475 Main uses of intended build: Gaming (Medium-High graphics on new games are the target) Parts required: All tower components apart from a GPU and OS Previous build information (list details of parts): He's got my old GTX 580 already Monitor resolution: 1080p Storage requirements: 1TB HDD at least Will you be overclocking: No Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): None needed Extra information about desired system: None I've been thinking an i5 3470 based system, but then he can't have an SSD. But if I used a 3240, an SSD would be possible. Then there's the whole AMD side of things which I haven't a clue about really. Never given much thought to AMD. Can somebody help?
AMD FX 6300 http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...3++6-Core+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=52724 990 FX UD3 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...Socket+AM3+)+ATX+Motherboard+?productId=54473 A great starting point IMO.
How do AMD's most recent offerings hold up for gaming? Everything I see for AMD tends to be that they're only good when you use all the available threads, which most games don't.
Near on everything released lately will see the cores and use them. As an example - Tomb Raider. Crysis 3. Sleeping Dogs. And so on. Anything that doesn't use 6 cores (such as Bioshock Infinite) is piss easy to run any way so you'll see no negative effects from using an AMD. I 'splashed out' on the FX 8320 and honestly I can say nothing but good about it. It beats my old Xeon (I5 2400 Sandy) in everything I have tested it with. Obviously the main selling points are that it is a 6 core fully unlocked CPU that can be overclocked via both the multi and the bus. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-future-proofing-your-pc-for-next-gen Have a read of that. But basically the FX 6300 when utilised properly will be about level with the 2500k at similar clock speeds. The FX 8320 will be about the same as the 3570k (in fact I've beaten the 3570k at the same clocks in 3Dmark (13). http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/331...vishera-review-finally-good-enough-conclusion With the six-score FX-6300 the differences are more significant. The processor appears to be an average of 31.6 percent faster than a Core i3 3220. In multi-threaded benchmarks differences in excess of 50 percent are not unusual. You notice the fact that it's six instead of two cores.
NP. I edited in a review for you but yes, 30-50% faster than the I3. They will do 4.5ghz even on a 4+1 board so yes, very overclockable too. PC Format now have it as their all round CPU of choice. Really is fantastic value. Just know that you will probably need to run the memory @ 1.6v or 1.65. AMD boards are not happy with 1.5v memory when you overclock. So try and get 1.65v memory if you can, if not just overvolt it yourself
Thanks again. Also, these AMD boards on Scan seem to not support the latest FX processors out of the box. Are there any that do, or is this just a mislabel on Scan's part? Edit; looking at the Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P on Gigabyte's site. It says that it doesn't support FX Series processors without an update, but in the CPU support list it says it's supported in BIOS version F1, which is the release version. Now I'm confused. God damn mislabeling...
I would get a 990FX. That way you get Crossfire, SLI and every SATA port will be SATA 3. The UD3 I linked to above is a sterling board tbh. You might be able to get away with what I'm running.. The Asrock 990FX Extreme 3. http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-990F...990161&sr=8-1&keywords=asrock+990fx+extreme+3 The only thing it lacks are serious power stages so I hit a brick wall at 4.2ghz. However, I am running an 8 core, so you should get 4.5 out of a 6300 easily enough. You do get all of the other nice things from the 990FX chipset mind. Full SATA 3, USB 3, etc. Edit. Sorry that doesn't help with your question... The Asrock board supports the 6 and 8 core CPUs on a certain bios.I was told by Asrock that if my board came with an older one and it wouldn't fire that they would send me a bios chip out (they're pullable on the 990FX X3). So yeah, I wouldn't worry too much as I got mine from Amazon and they have restocked since and the batches they have have the latest bios on them
Have a look at Scan's today only section. The top has a bundle for £456 which is everything you are asking for.
Again, looking at that GA-970A-DS3P, that would probably be best. SATA III and USB 3 are both present on that board. And with regards to overclocking and SLI/Crossfire, they're both not really needed. My friend doesn't know the first thing about PC's so buying with OC in mind would be a bit of a waste. If that or a similar bundle is there next weekend, then I'll definitely buy him that. I always forget about today only... Putting that aside though, I've got this list. AMD FX 6300 Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P 8GB Corsair XMS3 1.65v Cooler Master Elite 430 Case 600W Corsair Builder Series PSU 1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD Cooler Master Hyper EVO 212 CPU cooler Generic ODD MSI Twin Frozr II GTX 580* The total price comes to £469.76. Would this be a good, well rounded build for the money? *He already has the graphics card.
Yeah it is very cheap, making me feel a little cautious but still. Anyway, thanks for your help guys.
