Small Form Factor Budget AMD build

Hi All,

As i'm on a really really tight budget, i've been toying around in both the AMD and Intel camps, and i've decided an AMD APU is the best route (for now) I've been on the Intel wagon since the E6700, so my AMD knowledge is low, but i think i've come up with something that will work.

Budget: £450
Uses: Media/Blu-Ray playback, Light gaming (C&C, Railworks 3)
Retailer: Scan
Required: Just the tower, will be hooked upto my TV and 5.1, will use HDMI.
My Server will have my Steam Backups and all media

I don't need a PSU, as i already have a 450w Modular Thermaltake PSU.

CPU: AMD A8-3870K Black Edition - £103
MOBO: Asus F1A75-M - £65
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance - £40
SSD: 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD - £76
Case: Ace Ecco 250 - £33
BD: Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP - £47
Cooling: Noctua NH-L12 + 120mm Noctua NF-F12 - £49+£15

At a later date, i plan to add:
GPU: HD7770 - £105

And later later on, i have plans to add another SSD

So what are peoples thoughts? Anything i can improve on?

Cheers for the input.

Sam

 

Looks good to me, I'm currently using a similar setup as my main PC and it doesn't fair too badly.
Might be worth dropping the cpu down, even if it's just to the 3850 to save some monies since there will be very little performance difference, especially for the kinda stuff it will be used for.

 

Thanks for that George, That's reassuring to know.

Will give it some thought

Sam

 

remember to get get dddr3 1866 with the A8's because this can srsly help boast overall performance

 

That's a very solid budget build, but there are two changes I would make:

SSD - The Agility 120GB is amazing it certain situations (compressible data) and very mediocre in other ones (incompressible), due to the SandForce controller and asynchronous NAND doesn't offer as high a performance. (Anandtech Review)

I would opt for the Crucial M4 128GB which is a much more well rounded SSD. Obviously its peak performance is a bit lower than the Agility, but the average performance is greater and reliability is far superior. You can currently get this drive for under £85. (Amazon UK)

RAM - For the budget build, I would opt for the Samsung 8GB 1600MHz 30nm for £50. (YoyoTech). This RAM is one of the easiest to overclock and your system will benefit greatly from higher speed memory. People have been hitting 2400MHz with them on Intel chips so I imagine 1866MHz should be possible with the A8-3870K. AMD processors perform a lot better with the higher speeds. (Anandtech ***MUST READ***) (Bit-Tech)

Each of the above options would add about £10 each to your budget, but I think the performance gain is worth the £20 extra.

Good luck with your build.

 

as said above - the A8 really loves faster ram (for its onchip gpu) - IMO i would get the 1866 over the 1600 , and its £47 for 2x4 corsair (1866 ofc) on scan

 

if you want to buy today aria have a 1 day fire sale:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...r+Unit+(Socket+FM1)+-+Retail+?productId=47449

your chosen cpu for £82

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/274061-g-skil...kit-cl11-11-11-11-30-1-5v-f3-17000cl11d-8gbxl

£48 for 2133 ram the cpu is £89 there too.

 

Thanks all for the comments and ideas, all food for thought.

@Kodongo, Thanks for the links, Much reading. I've decided to switch RAM to 1866MHZ Corsair stuff, rather than over clocking some slower ram. Regarding the SSD, will have to mull it over, i've had an M4 before.

Thanks for the links to the CPU, shame i don't have £90 spare right now.

Thanks again.
Sam

 

Sam, off topic, it was only last week that I decommissioned your old 7800GTX - and your old PSU is still chugging away.

As for the rig, the only thing I'd say is echoing the comment about the graphics card - unless the light gaming is on a pretty high res setup, you should be able to step it down a notch or two...

 

Is the A8 a good cpu? I've been thinking about a budget build, but I thought the new amd cpu's were a flop? What about gaming performance, e.g BF3 etc...

 

The FM1 CPUs use the older K10.5 cores, not Bulldozer. They'll be replaced with Piledriver cores in the coming months.

 

Bindi's on the ball. The Llano chips are based on Improved Phenom II designs, while Bulldozer is a whole new processor layout - That failed pretty horrifically - this means, while Llano isn't the fastest thing in the world; it's proven, it's effective, and it's bloody fast for the cost. The IGP is one of the best you'll ever find in the current crop of processors, and the design actually stands up for itself. I would be curious to see if 2133mhz memory can up the IGP performance any more, though.

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/07/06/the-best-memory-for-llano/2

the speed is ramping with faster ram at all resolutions - maybe BT can redo it with even faster ram??

 

That's awesome, I remember the days i had 2 of those, and 2 8800GTX's, How things have gone down hill since then.

Sam