New to forums, quick question.

[Ziramond]

Ok, so im new to these forums but i've watched quite of a few of linus' videos on youtube and have been building pc's for a while now. First problem, I've never built an AMD machine and Linus doesn't do a lot of AMD builds. So my question is...I might be building a new rig using the Lian-Li 05SX case as sort of an HTPC/4k console replacement and i want some advice as to which hardware i should go with. I have to stick to the mini-ITX platform as that is the platform that particular case supports and if at all possible i would like to go team red with this build. Every PC i have built has been Intel/Nvidia and this time i want to try something different, mainly due to the ASUS R9 390X. I've done a decent amount of research on this card and i think its a good 1 card solution to playing most of the games that i play or would want to play on my 60" Samsung UHD TV. However, the mini-ITX platform only supports the AMD1, FM2/FM2+, and the FM2+ cpu sockets. I haven't seen any APU's that i could crossfire with card with so i think i want to run the AMD X4 860K processor. Given its price and quad-core performance i think it will work ok but i can't find much info on this particular cpu and how well it might work with the R9 390X. Will this cpu bottleneck the 390X really hard? Or is this a decent/expensive mini-ITX solution for an HTPC/4k console killer? Also the best PSU i've found so far to run this thing is a 500 watt from Silverstone, i would think that would be enough but i'm not an AMD savvy dude. How much OC headroom would i have if any? Thanks to anyone who responds, I appreciate the help.

[coppertj]

Welcome to the LTT forums!

 

AMD X4 860K is quad core with 3.7 ghz right off the bat and you can even overclock it so I see no reason for this bottleneck. Correct me if im wrong.

[evilarceus]

Welcome to the forum! Remember, don't dump your thread into general discussion but do look around at the subforums to find where to post something.

This subforum would help you the most: http://linustechtips.com/main/forum/18-new-builds-and-planning/

 

The 860K will be fine.

[Enderman]

Welcome to the LTT forums!

 

AMD X4 860K is quad core with 3.7 ghz right off the bat and you can even overclock it so I see no reason for this bottleneck. Correct me if im wrong.

pretty much all AMD CPUs are a bottleneck

 

its not all about the number of cores or the number of MHz

even a 8 core 4GHz 8350 is a bottleneck

 

this is why unless you are buying an APU you will get much better performance by going with an intel CPU, even if its only a 2 core or 2 core hyperthreaded CPU

 

now the 390X is a powerful GPU, and you can still get good framerates with the 860K, but you can get better framerates with a pentium or i3

[coppertj]

pretty much all AMD CPUs are a bottleneck

 

its not all about the number of cores or the number of MHz

even a 8 core 4GHz 8350 is a bottleneck

 

this is why unless you are buying an APU you will get much better performance by going with an intel CPU, even if its only a 2 core or 2 core hyperthreaded CPU

 

now the 390X is a powerful GPU, and you can still get good framerates with the 860K, but you can get better framerates with a pentium or i3

 

He said he wanted to goto AMD for cpu I thought?

[Enderman]

He said he wanted to goto AMD for cpu I thought?

yeah but I don't see a reason for wanting to go with AMD in this case other than fanboyism...

it just plain performs worse, and he wont get all the potential from his GPU

[coppertj]

yeah but I don't see a reason for wanting to go with AMD in this case other than fanboyism...

it just plain performs worse, and he wont get all the potential from his GPU

 

Yeah AMD cpus have been bad with newer gpus for a while now...

[Enderman]

Yeah AMD cpus have been bad with newer gpus for a while now...

well their CPUs are 5 years old technology...so cant expect much from that

[Ziramond]

yeah but I don't see a reason for wanting to go with AMD in this case other than fanboyism...

it just plain performs worse, and he wont get all the potential from his GPU

Believe me, i'm not an AMD fanboy. I fully understand that i'll be kinda gimping the build by going AMD, but i do want to get some experience messing around with AMD processors so curiosity is basically the only reason for going AMD with the cpu in this build. I'm just concerned about really weighing down the 390X by either not having enough pci-express lanes or the cpu just not being able to hold up its end of the bargain in general. I saw a guy use this cpu with an R9 280X in this case and it didn't so well when it game to 4k gaming but that card also only had 4GB frame buffer so i didn't expect it to do well, i just don't want to not be able to at least play with everything the 390X can do and not be gimped on some feature because im using an FM2+ socket over something else. If i went Intel with this build i'd probably just throw an i5 4690 in it and call it a day but i'd rather try out AMD on this one.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Look, so using that case and other things, clearly price isn't a concern for you here. I would highly highly discourage you from going team red on the cpu because even if you overclock it to overcome a bit of bottleneck then you are going to create thermal issues in a small form factor pc. 

 

Actually, since you know it's not much of either a price or performance difference... I would recommend the 5675c (i5) or 5775c (i7) broadwell cpus.

 

At stock speeds, they will be more than capable at any game you through at it (better than any overclocked amd you can touch no matter what) and the 65W TDP (although you can feel free to overclock them as well) is awesome for HTPC computers because it makes keeping them cool a laughable affair.

 

Just my two cents.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Believe me, i'm not an AMD fanboy. I fully understand that i'll be kinda gimping the build by going AMD, but i do want to get some experience messing around with AMD processors so curiosity is basically the only reason for going AMD with the cpu in this build. I'm just concerned about really weighing down the 390X by either not having enough pci-express lanes or the cpu just not being able to hold up its end of the bargain in general. I saw a guy use this cpu with an R9 280X in this case and it didn't so well when it game to 4k gaming but that card also only had 4GB frame buffer so i didn't expect it to do well, i just don't want to not be able to at least play with everything the 390X can do and not be gimped on some feature because im using an FM2+ socket over something else. If i went Intel with this build i'd probably just throw an i5 4690 in it and call it a day but i'd rather try out AMD on this one.

Look, you can go amd, but it just straight up WILL be noticeably worse than a haswell or broadwell i5/i7. Not to mention the TDP is likely to be higher so cooling will be more difficult. To be honest though, I don't see any value in learning anything about amd cpu's at the moment, because Zen will be the first new architecture in 5 years so you can expect it to be RADICALLY different and most things you learn are not likely to apply whatsoever.

[Ziramond]

At stock speeds, they will be more than capable at any game you through at it (better than any overclocked amd you can touch no matter what) and the 65W TDP (although you can feel free to overclock them as well) is awesome for HTPC computers because it makes keeping them cool a laughable affair.

.

I'm probably liquid cooling so i know that i can keep it cool, and i see you point on not wasting time on current AMD technology because its probably going to change pretty soon, but if that is the case then i'll probably just wait for the new stuff to come out and play with that, assuming its coming to the FM2 socket, or they put the new socket onto a mini-ITX platform. I know Intel is A LOT better than AMD especially right now, but i'm not just doing it for raw performance, the rig I'm on now is running an i7 4790k. I just want to check out the dark side for a bit and see whats there, maybe the new processors will be something worth taking a look at. But it will most likely be drowned out by skylake so who knows, thanks though.

[Curufinwe_wins]

I'm probably liquid cooling so i know that i can keep it cool, and i see you point on not wasting time on current AMD technology because its probably going to change pretty soon, but if that is the case then i'll probably just wait for the new stuff to come out and play with that, assuming its coming to the FM2 socket, or they put the new socket onto a mini-ITX platform. I know Intel is A LOT better than AMD especially right now, but i'm not just doing it for raw performance, the rig I'm on now is running an i7 4790k. I just want to check out the dark side for a bit and see whats there, maybe the new processors will be something worth taking a look at. But it will most likely be drowned out by skylake so who knows, thanks though.

It's not so much that Zen is coming soon. It really isn't, but the point is AMD's next cpu is going to be so incredibly radically different than the current ones they offer that basically the only benefit you are getting is practice building computers in general. No way will it come out on FM2. Not possible.

 

Even with liquid cooling, I mean overclocking a decent amd card high enough where it will compete with for example that broadwell i5 (at 65W) will likely take power draws around 250-300W (or double TDP whatever is lower), which is insane to think about.  EDIT: compete is the wrong word... 'where it will not likely produce a noticeable bottleneck' is more accurate.

 

I totally understand the desire to go to the dark side, but it really is in a rough place right now. Like by far the roughest it's ever been in.... 

[Nena Trinity]

Ok, so im new to these forums but i've watched quite of a few of linus' videos on youtube and have been building pc's for a while now. First problem, I've never built an AMD machine and Linus doesn't do a lot of AMD builds. So my question is...I might be building a new rig using the Lian-Li 05SX case as sort of an HTPC/4k console replacement and i want some advice as to which hardware i should go with. I have to stick to the mini-ITX platform as that is the platform that particular case supports and if at all possible i would like to go team red with this build. Every PC i have built has been Intel/Nvidia and this time i want to try something different, mainly due to the ASUS R9 390X. I've done a decent amount of research on this card and i think its a good 1 card solution to playing most of the games that i play or would want to play on my 60" Samsung UHD TV. However, the mini-ITX platform only supports the AMD1, FM2/FM2+, and the FM2+ cpu sockets. I haven't seen any APU's that i could crossfire with card with so i think i want to run the AMD X4 860K processor. Given its price and quad-core performance i think it will work ok but i can't find much info on this particular cpu and how well it might work with the R9 390X. Will this cpu bottleneck the 390X really hard? Or is this a decent/expensive mini-ITX solution for an HTPC/4k console killer? Also the best PSU i've found so far to run this thing is a 500 watt from Silverstone, i would think that would be enough but i'm not an AMD savvy dude. How much OC headroom would i have if any? Thanks to anyone who responds, I appreciate the help.

That should tell you all!

 

Yet the video description says use FX-6300 with 295x2 as minimum.