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Forums - PC Discussion - Building a PC, Thoughts about this Specs

Captain_Tom on 19 December 2014
Alby_da_Wolf said:
@OP: just a suggestion, 8GB can be fine for now, but it's the bare minimum, and if you see you're going to need more, don't make my mistake, upgrade the RAM before DDR3 goes out of production, or at latest little time after, because when it will go out of production its price will stopp dropping, and after a while it will rise again.


8GB is not not the bare minimum at all.  4 is.   8GB will be fine for many years.



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Captain_Tom on 19 December 2014
Sentient_Nebula said:
Captain_Tom said:
Sentient_Nebula said:
Personally, I think the 8-core is slightly overkill for gaming. Most games don't even use more than 4 at a time.

In my opinion, you should go with the 6-core 6350 (or 6300, if you're confident in overclocking). The money you saved on the CPU could then be put towards the newer, more powerful Radeon R9 280X GPU.

The 280X is no newer than the 280, and he sould NOT get that right now (280X is fairly overpriced).  However an FX-6300 + R9 290 wouldn't be a bad idea.


Whoops! I was actually thinking of the 285. My mistake.

If you do get the 285, get the 4GB version.  Otherwise the 290 is bairly more expensive and is FAR stronger.



theodoreklopez on 19 December 2014

This is the best you can get for around $700. 

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2R8M23

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2R8M23/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.29 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($47.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Team Dark Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($57.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.00 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  ($254.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($32.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ NCIX US) 

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $685.22

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-19 17:25 EST-0500



Alby_da_Wolf on 19 December 2014
Captain_Tom said:
Alby_da_Wolf said:
@OP: just a suggestion, 8GB can be fine for now, but it's the bare minimum, and if you see you're going to need more, don't make my mistake, upgrade the RAM before DDR3 goes out of production, or at latest little time after, because when it will go out of production its price will stopp dropping, and after a while it will rise again.


8GB is not not the bare minimum at all.  4 is.   8GB will be fine for many years.

Having 4GB (last time I made a partial upgrade I chose to upgrade from onboard HD3300 to an R7 250 GPU on card because buying another 4GB DDR2 ECC would have cost me almost the same for a much smaller performance boost except under heavy memory load, and anyhow the GPU upgrade allowed me to free the half GB previously used by the  onboard GPU) I can say I both agree and disagree: yes 4GB are enough for most games and obviously for every 32bit game, but using the PC for other than games they start being uncomfortable under heavy memory load, for example opening many tabs on the browser, then also opening images in a graphic editor the system slows down noticeably. 8GB are enough now, but they could become not particularly comfortable in a near future. In any case I don't suggest the OP to absolutely upgrade the RAM immediately, just to try and predict the possible future necessity of such upgrade with enough advance and in that case do it before DDR3 prices start rising again.



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Vasto on 19 December 2014
Skidmore said:
So after all I read, what you all suggest is for me to go with an I5-4690K and a Radeon 280x or 285 with a PSU of ~500 to 550W(more if I would opt to upgrade to dual card in the future)

That old story about AMD GPU works better with AMD CPU is bullshit?


If you want the option of going dual card in the future then look for a better power supply. Also the 8350 at $169 is my choice.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/448/AMD_FX-Series_FX-8350_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-4690K.html



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CosmicSex on 19 December 2014
Skidmore said:

I was never into PC gaming, so I am not sure about how long and how this setup will peform, I would like some thougts or alternatives in the same budget:

CPU: AMD FX 8350 AM3 4,2GHZ

GPU: ASUS RADEON R9 280 3GB DDR5 - Tahiti pro 2

Memory: Kingstom DDR3-RAM 8GB PC3-14900

HD: 256 GB SSD + 1TB HDD (Brand to be decided)

MotherBoard: GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD3

PSU: I was thinking about a 550 or 600W.

Excellent build.  Go 550W if you want single GPU but go no lower than Gold Certified. 



Arkaign on 20 December 2014
Vasto said:
Skidmore said:
So after all I read, what you all suggest is for me to go with an I5-4690K and a Radeon 280x or 285 with a PSU of ~500 to 550W(more if I would opt to upgrade to dual card in the future)

That old story about AMD GPU works better with AMD CPU is bullshit?


If you want the option of going dual card in the future then look for a better power supply. Also the 8350 at $169 is my choice.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/448/AMD_FX-Series_FX-8350_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-4690K.html

The FX-8350 is an okay CPU for general windows usage, but the AM3 chipsets are horrendous, the power consumption is terrible, and they are generally awful at gaming compared to Intel :

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-test-gpu.html

http://i62.tinypic.com/oedc0.jpg

The 8350 is slightly slower than the many-years-old i3-2100, and is utterly dominated by ANY i5, let alone the much newer i5 Haswells. With the Haswell i5, you use half the power or less, tons less heat, much better SATA, USB 3.0, PCI Express performance, it's just fundamentally superior in every way. Even the top of the line FX 9590 @ 4.7Ghz (5Ghz Turbo) loses easily to the Haswell i3.

TLDR : Don't buy an AMD Chip for gaming in 2014. Just dont.

Now an AMD GPU? They can be outstanding depending on $/perf you are seeking and budget.



Vasto on 20 December 2014
Arkaign said:
Vasto said:
Skidmore said:
So after all I read, what you all suggest is for me to go with an I5-4690K and a Radeon 280x or 285 with a PSU of ~500 to 550W(more if I would opt to upgrade to dual card in the future)

That old story about AMD GPU works better with AMD CPU is bullshit?


If you want the option of going dual card in the future then look for a better power supply. Also the 8350 at $169 is my choice.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/448/AMD_FX-Series_FX-8350_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-4690K.html

The FX-8350 is an okay CPU for general windows usage, but the AM3 chipsets are horrendous, the power consumption is terrible, and they are generally awful at gaming compared to Intel :

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-test-gpu.html

http://i62.tinypic.com/oedc0.jpg

The 8350 is slightly slower than the many-years-old i3-2100, and is utterly dominated by ANY i5, let alone the much newer i5 Haswells. With the Haswell i5, you use half the power or less, tons less heat, much better SATA, USB 3.0, PCI Express performance, it's just fundamentally superior in every way. Even the top of the line FX 9590 @ 4.7Ghz (5Ghz Turbo) loses easily to the Haswell i3.

TLDR : Don't buy an AMD Chip for gaming in 2014. Just dont.

Now an AMD GPU? They can be outstanding depending on $/perf you are seeking and budget.

 

 

Sorry but I totally disagree.



Barkley on 20 December 2014

Get an intel processor, the 8350 is so archaic.



Arkaign on 20 December 2014

 

 

Sorry but I totally disagree.


You can't just disagree without evidence. What evidence do you have that the 8350 is a good CPU for gaming? Here, I'll give you a list of games where the 8350 is worse than the current gen i5 (and in many cases the i3) :

MGSV : Ground Zeroes (8350 slower than i3 and i5)

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes-test-gpu.html

Watch Dogs (8350 slower than i5)

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/watch-dogs-bad-blood-test-gpu.html

Battlefield 4 (8350 slower than i3 and i5)

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/battlefield-4-final-stand-test-gpu.html

Far Cry 4 (8350 slower than i3 and i5)

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/far-cry-4-test-gpu.html

Assassin's Creed Unity (8350 slower than i3 and i5)

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/assassin-s-creed-unity-test-gpu.html

COD Advanced Warface (8350 slower than i3 and i5)

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-test-gpu.html

Evolve (8350 slower than i3 and i5)

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/evolve-alpha-test-gpu.html

-- you know what, I'm bored of clicking on these. You'd be hard pressed to find a handful of titles where the 8350 is even competitive with the i5, while it usually even loses to the current i3 CPU. 

Bottom line : you can't claim something without evidence. There's no reason to buy an FX/AM3 processor for gaming in the modern era. They are SEVERELY outdated and hampered by chipsets that are many gens old now.