which AMD CPU for new build?

[disaster999]

Hi all. I recently got an old shuttle barebone which my friend claims it didnt work. It came with an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ cpu and nothing else. I cleaned it up, searched high and low for some used DDR2 800 ram and bought myself a MSI R7770 ghz edition card and built my self a little desktop. Thing worked great, but the weakest link is the CPU. CPU usage is constantly at 90-100% when playing modern games and working with photoshop is a pain.

Having already stepped back into the pc building world, I didnt want to waste the display card I just bought. I thought about building a brand new system.

My budget is around $400 to complete the build and I plan on using half of it to buy the Silverstone SG08 case. Saw the case one day and liked it a lot. It has similar dimension as the Shuttle I'm using and it will be a good replacement.

So with around $200 bucks to spend on a motherboard, CPU and ram. What are my options for a decent gaming that matches my 7770? I think Intel is out of the questions since I've looked up the prices for Intel i5 CPU and the cheapest cost $200 already. AMD is a lot cheaper but I have no experience with AMD processors.

Can anyone recommend me a CPU+mini ITX board combo?

Thanks

[Guest]

You're pretty out of luck. The only AMD mini ITX boards I know of are both FM2 sockets by ASRock which limits you to things like A6 5400K due to the fact that you need RAM as well. What country are you in specifically so I can get a better idea of how much each part will cost.

Your other option is to not go with the SG08.

[TechFan@ic]

MSI has a mini ITX FM2 socket board

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Socket-PCI-E-Motherboard-FM2-A75IA-E53/dp/B00A2VJIQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362394007&sr=8-1&keywords=fm2+mini+itx+msi

I'd recommend something like an A10 5800K or an A8 5600K for the APU.

[Guest]

MSI has a mini ITX FM2 socket board

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Socket-PCI-E-Motherboard-FM2-A75IA-E53/dp/B00A2VJIQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362394007&sr=8-1&keywords=fm2+mini+itx+msi

I'd recommend something like an A10 5800K or an A8 5600K for the APU.

Damnit PCCG - You've let me down :(

[disaster999]

You're pretty out of luck. The only AMD mini ITX boards I know of are both FM2 sockets by ASRock which limits you to things like A6 5400K due to the fact that you need RAM as well. What country are you in specifically so I can get a better idea of how much each part will cost. Your other option is to not go with the SG08.

$400 is a ballpark. I'm willing to leave ram out of the equation if I can get the motherboard and cpu and case for 400 bucks. Ill save a little more if thats the case.

I am from Hong Kong so it might be harder to help check up on the prices. Although a quick search online does yield similar prices for the CPU and motherboard.

MSI has a mini ITX FM2 socket board http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Socket-PCI...2+mini+itx+msi[/url=http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Socket-PCI-E-Motherboard-FM2-A75IA-E53/dp/B00A2VJIQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362394007&sr=8-1&keywords=fm2+mini+itx+msi] I'd recommend something like an A10 5800K or an A8 5600K for the APU.

Thanks. Ill look into AMD's A series CPU. Are there any difference between that and the FX? Im not really familar with AMD so these different types of CPU APU etc is a bit foreign to me.

The A10 5800K and A8 5600K have about a $30 difference which is enough for me to but a stick of 4gb ram. Are there significant difference between the 2 tho? the msi motherboard and the A8 5600K do fit the bill nicely.

Also while talking about ram, do I really need to get really good gaming ram or would any 2x4gb sticks at around $50 is more than enough for my needs?

Thanks again

[TechFan@ic]

AMD's A series APUs have powerful built-in graphics processors , while AMD's FX CPUs are just that CPUs with no graphics processing component.

Unfortunately there are now mini-itx boards for FX processors yet.

The A10 5800K has a slightly more powerful built-in graphics than the A10 5600K and a slightly higher clock-rate of 3.6 vs 3.8 Ghz.

Both APUs are part of the K series which are highly overclockable.

As for RAM, if you intend to play games on the built-in graphics of these APUs then you should try to get faster RAM (max is 1866) because the built-in graphics requires a massive amount of memory bandwidth and thus performance will increase significantly with faster RAM.

Of course you can get good overclockable 1600mhz RAM sticks and just raise the clock rate on those to 1866 without any risks.

G.Skill ripjaws are highly overclockable and tend to be reasonably priced.

Corsair Vengeance, Kingston HyperX, Patriot Viper are also very good .

[Wats]

If you're going to use the APU, make sure you get at least 1866MHz memory. I really suggest getting a 2x4GB kit.

[disaster999]

AMD's A series APUs have powerful built-in graphics processors ' date=' while AMD's FX CPUs are just that CPUs with no graphics processing component. Unfortunately there are now mini-itx boards for FX processors yet. The A10 5800K has a slightly more powerful built-in graphics than the A10 5600K and a slightly higher clock-rate of 3.6 vs 3.8 Ghz. Both APUs are part of the K series which are highly overclockable. As for RAM, if you intend to play games on the built-in graphics of these APUs then you should try to get faster RAM (max is 1866) because the built-in graphics requires a massive amount of memory bandwidth and thus performance will increase significantly with faster RAM. Of course you can get good overclockable 1600mhz RAM sticks and just raise the clock rate on those to 1866 without any risks. G.Skill ripjaws are highly overclockable and tend to be reasonably priced. Corsair Vengeance, Kingston HyperX, Patriot Viper are also very good .[/quote']

Thanks for the explanation. I did a little research on my own and it seems like the A10 and A8 are pretty capable at playing games. Which makes me think if my 7770 is a bit of a waste.

I rewatched the video Linus made where he compared the AMD APU to Intel's CPU on purely CPU power, which is what I would be running anyways as my research tells me the 7770 isnt capable on running hybrid crossfire, and the Intel side destroyed the AMD's CPU. Even and i3 cpu performed better. Granted he tested this with a 660Ti to eliminate and bottle neck found on the display card. Will I see a similar result with the 7770?

I know I said I only want to make a good enough gaming rig, but if I can get more from 400 bucks then its something I might consider.

[TechFan@ic]

AMD's A series APUs have powerful built-in graphics processors ' date=' while AMD's FX CPUs are just that CPUs with no graphics processing component. Unfortunately there are now mini-itx boards for FX processors yet. The A10 5800K has a slightly more powerful built-in graphics than the A10 5600K and a slightly higher clock-rate of 3.6 vs 3.8 Ghz. Both APUs are part of the K series which are highly overclockable. As for RAM, if you intend to play games on the built-in graphics of these APUs then you should try to get faster RAM (max is 1866) because the built-in graphics requires a massive amount of memory bandwidth and thus performance will increase significantly with faster RAM. Of course you can get good overclockable 1600mhz RAM sticks and just raise the clock rate on those to 1866 without any risks. G.Skill ripjaws are highly overclockable and tend to be reasonably priced. Corsair Vengeance, Kingston HyperX, Patriot Viper are also very good .[/quote'] Thanks for the explanation. I did a little research on my own and it seems like the A10 and A8 are pretty capable at playing games. Which makes me think if my 7770 is a bit of a waste. I rewatched the video Linus made where he compared the AMD APU to Intel's CPU on purely CPU power, which is what I would be running anyways as my research tells me the 7770 isnt capable on running hybrid crossfire, and the Intel side destroyed the AMD's CPU. Even and i3 cpu performed better. Granted he tested this with a 660Ti to eliminate and bottle neck found on the display card. Will I see a similar result with the 7770? I know I said I only want to make a good enough gaming rig, but if I can get more from 400 bucks then its something I might consider.

In a lot of games you will see the i3 3220 (125$) pull ahead of the 5800K when a discrete graphics card is used, but this trend seems to be coming to an end pretty soon, after seeing the Crysis 3 CPU benchmarks I wouldn't be comfortable at all going with a dual core processor at this point in time for gaming.

http://linustechtips.com/main/forum/computer-hardware/cpus-motherboards-and-memory/100765-amd-cpus-destroy-intel-s-in-crysis-3

So unless you can squeeze in a quad core i5 intel processor into your budget I wouldn't consider intel.

You can get an intel core i5 3470 for about 190$ or a 3350p (which doesn't have integrated graphics) for 180$.

[disaster999]

Thanks for your advice TechFan. I think I will be happier with Intel and this rig should last me a while.

[asusfan]

All i can say if you want something to run modern games and want to build a rig for $200 then you will be very limited to get all 3 main components for 200 bucks.

you might be able to get a motherboard and cpu for that but need to run DDR3 memory with a modern m/board.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Overstock/overstock_slc.asp?CatId=22&category=CPUs%20/%20Processors

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=13&sel=Detail%3B31_160_7486_7486

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=13&sel=Detail%3B31_160_7486_7486

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Overstock/overstock_slc.asp?CatId=10&category=Memory

some links to cheap / clearance CPU's and some mini itx m/boards & memory.

You might get better deals with a mini atx m/board as mini itx is expensive, but if you want small factor computer then it will just limit then amount of hardware you can get, especially for $200, if thats all you have i would get a $100 case and put the other 100 towards better equipment