AMD Upgrades.

[Ryan Leech]

It's not BIOS compatibility, it's the CPU Support list meaning it's been tested. The BIOS number is just that, the version of the BIOS you need to have for the BIOS to detect your 8350 as a 8350 and post with it. The screenshot shows two things. Which processors will work great with the board, AND which BIOS version you need to have for your CPU to be detected properly.

Once again the 8350 will not be stable on a cheap mATX board designed for dual core Athlons, yes it will work but not for very long and with games only using four cores there is no reason to put eight cores on an mATX board that can't handle it. When the board dies as a result, it will probably take his RAM, GPU, and HDD's with it and I'm sure he doesn't want to have spend a couple hundred dollars to have some added workload performance for a year only to have to buy everything.

[Ryan Leech]

I don't understand what OP really wants at the end...

 

But, if you go with dedicated graphic card, getting APU is not only pointless, but also, step backward, instead of judging by numbers, i will say only one thing, L3 cache is there for a REASON.

 

Also, getting anything less then 970 chipset for AM3+ CPU's is ridiculous, getting 4-core CPU over 6-core CPU (or 8 cores) is also ridiculous for the same platform, unless budget is problem.

 

Any motherboard that is above 140$ from ASUS will do the job fine for overclocking even 8-core CPU's with TDP of 125W (they are usually 140W by specification from ASUS).

 

Personally, i wouldn't go with 7xx, 8xx chipset for AM3+ processors, when good deals are available for newer chipset. Also, i have to add that motherboards with lower price range (example my motherboard) are not good for OC, but they are fine for non overclocked CPU's up to 95W (125W with custom cooling and good airflow).

 

If you can, go with 8320 or 6300 (similar price as 4xxx, yet much better), forget about overclocking since you will not need it, and buy some decent motherboard at over 120$ price range from ASUS. Or, if you use 95W CPU, you can go with much cheaper motherboards from MSI that will do job very good (no overclocking).

Only problem is that he is building an mATX rig.

[bartekxx12]

Once again the 8350 will not be stable on a cheap mATX board designed for dual core Athlons, yes it will work but not for very long and with games only using four cores there is no reason to put eight cores on an mATX board that can't handle it. When the board dies as a result, it will probably take his RAM, GPU, and HDD's with it and I'm sure he doesn't want to have spend a couple hundred dollars to have some added workload performance for a year only to have to buy everything.

 

Right, I will now stop arguing with you as surely you can't be that ignorant. The board I posted will work fine for YEARS with an 8350. ASUS says "Supports CPU's up to 140W" . The 8350 is a 125W processor. It will work without ANY problems, just as long as any other board would with any other processor. 

Yes you might want to buy a newer mATX board if you can find one, ALL you need to do is check if it supports the CPU and if you want to be sure, check how many watts the board is rated for. There is no magic after that, if everything says it will work, it will work perfectly fine. You can't just make up random reasons for why it won't, somehow I believe that Asus has more experience with designing ,validating & rating boards than you do. 

[leipero]

Only problem is that he is building an mATX rig.

Fair enough, now i would love to know reason for that, but ok.

 

In that case, i would go with Intel if there is no decent AM3+ mATX motherbaord, but honestly, I don't understand why is that important anyways (mATX vs ATX, vs FullATX etc.).

[leipero]

Right, I will now stop arguing with you as surely you can't be that ignorant. The board I posted will work fine for YEARS with an 8350. ASUS says "Supports CPU's up to 140W" . The 8350 is a 125W processor. It will work without ANY problems, just as long as any other board would with any other processor. 

Yes you might want to buy a newer mATX board if you can find one, ALL you need to do is check if it supports the CPU and if you want to be sure, check how many watts the board is rated for. There is no magic after that, if everything says it will work, it will work perfectly fine. You can't just make up random reasons for why it won't, somehow I believe that Asus has more experience with designing ,validating & rating boards than you do. 

But i would go for 9x0 chipset mobo from ASUS, i bet there are some decent ones that are mATX.

[bartekxx12]

But i would go for 9x0 chipset mobo from ASUS, i bet there are some decent ones that are mATX.

Yes same, I would also go with a newer board, not sure if there are any mATX ones and to be fair... there isn't really a performance benefit with going with the new chipset, so as long as it has the features the OP needs it will be fine but yeah... newer = more better. I didn't really look for more expensive boards as from the first few posts here it seemed like the OP is a on a serious budget so I looked for a cheap mATX board that can handle 125W. But it turns out they just believed an overclocked FX4100 will perform better than an 8350... which it won't.

[Plastictree]

Should I just go atx instead? The only real reason I wanted to go m-atx is because I love my define mini, and I really don't want to go Intel. I really just wanted an 8350 or 8320 in the first place. Mid tower isn't that much bigger than an m-atx anyway. When I get home I'll look at mid towers

[Plastictree]

Lets update what op wants, 8 core amd, with xfire or sli. What I really want is an amd based gaming machine that will last a few years. With a budget of 1000-1500$ as an upgrade to what I have. Right now I have an m atx non USB 3 gygabite board, a 4100 stock, and a 560. All in the great looking define mini, which I dont wanna give up. But if I have to I might be able to get a buck out of it

[Plastictree]

I'm getting off break. I'm gonna look over the thread again when I get home, re evaluate my budget, and get back to you guys. Stop misreading stuff and read the whole thread, there's some good discussion here

[leipero]

Lets update what op wants, 8 core amd, with xfire or sli. What I really want is an amd based gaming machine that will last a few years. With a budget of 1000-1500$ as an upgrade to what I have. Right now I have an m atx non USB 3 gygabite board, a 4100 stock, and a 560. All in the great looking define mini, which I dont wanna give up. But if I have to I might be able to get a buck out of it

In that case, i would advice you not to go with mini because you will be better of dealing with heat with larger case.

 

If that is the case, there is no doubt you should go with good ASUS motherboard with 990 chipset (or at least 970), 8350 (maybe eve 8320 if you don't mind to overclock and risk any possible instability).

 

I would also advice against SLI or CFX, but, if is needed for you, you have no other option. From the driver perspective, i would go with AMD GPU's for FX CPU's, and reasons behind this are as follows:

 

Intel have largest market share, so any GPU is well optimized for that platform.

nVidia is AMD competition, same as Intel, they probably give their best to optimize their drivers for AMD (FX) platform, but i think it will be less likely to run into problems with AMD GPU's, because that is their platform, as logic suggest, they will optimize well for it, even if is not very large part of the market.

 

At the end, you are free to do as you wish, but this is advice from experience with all sorts of CPU-GPU combinations, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that AMD CPU will work bad with nVidia GPU, all I'm saying is, that how nVidia GPU will work on AMD platform, is up to nVidia, not AMD.

 

For motherboard choice, someone else will need to recommend it.

[bartekxx12]

I'm getting off break. I'm gonna look over the thread again when I get home, re evaluate my budget, and get back to you guys. Stop misreading stuff and read the whole thread, there's some good discussion here

If your budget is $1500 USD I would just sell the computer you have now. Should go for $400-600? 

And get something like this http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1ml0z

 

And then once your computer sells get another 7970. 

[KneesWeak]

Here is my build. http://www.overclock.net/lists/display/view/id/4657018

 

 

My cpu is a bit unstable. I get errors in p95 every 15 hours. This causes me to have some odd errors from time to time.

 

I want an 8350, but I can't find the tdp of my socket, but gigabyte says that it takes all fx cpus.

 

Here's the order that I think is best.

 

8350

Some sort of stock 780

An asus am3+ matx board  and a nice heatsink with silent fans(you guys can recomend me some, but I'll figure it out if not)

big hard drive(not ready for ssds yet)

Quieter, psu, maybe more watts, so I can use it in bigger builds in the future.

 

Does this order seem good to you guys, or is something else I should change, and what do you guys recomend when I didn't name something specific.

I really woudln't go matx for amd, if anything your cpu isn't unstable but the vrms are probably getting too hot and not giving enough power to the cpu after 15 hours, you should really get good airflow over the nb/vrms if you want to have a good stable oc. but going atx would be much better

[Plastictree]

I'm still looking around at stuff. But according to this, would 2 7970s be that much better? http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/390567/fs/373689

[bartekxx12]

I'm still looking around at stuff. But according to this, would 2 7970s be that much better? http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/390567/fs/373689

 

Yes, 3D Mark scores aren't everything. You would get almost double the performance in most games. Probably 80% extra average 

If you want to save some money 2 7950s are a great choice as they will be almost as fast as 2 7970s but much cheaper

[Plastictree]

Yes, 3D Mark scores aren't everything. You would get almost double the performance in most games. Probably 80% extra average 

If you want to save some money 2 7950s are a great choice as they will be almost as fast as 2 7970s but much cheaper

Thanks for the tip, I actually looked up youtube benchmarks, and I guess you're right.

 

Now after reviewing everything, eating dinner, and looking at more stuff, I came up with this.

So in my original post, I stated that this is a step by step upgrade. Get things basically a week at a time. This is an upgrade, not a full build. So the idea of just buying a new system and selling off my old one won't work for me. So for my first purchase, does this look good?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1mshV

 

 

Then I would get another 7950 and a psu.

Then a heat sink or all in one water cooler. I wish I could do a custom loop but nope. pockets say no. and some nice case fans too

either raptors or ssd hdd combo

Ram. I don't do much other than gaming so I'm not worried about it. but I'll probably up the gigabytes

I'd probably clean it up with sleeved cables, lighting, fan controllers and post a pretty album of it 

 

I do need a power supply recommendation, and to review this overall.

[bartekxx12]

Thanks for the tip, I actually looked up youtube benchmarks, and I guess you're right.

 

Now after reviewing everything, eating dinner, and looking at more stuff, I came up with this.

So in my original post, I stated that this is a step by step upgrade. Get things basically a week at a time. This is an upgrade, not a full build. So the idea of just buying a new system and selling off my old one won't work for me. So for my first purchase, does this look good?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1mshV

 

 

Then I would get another 7950 and a psu.

Then a heat sink or all in one water cooler. I wish I could do a custom loop but nope. pockets say no. and some nice case fans too

either raptors or ssd hdd combo

Ram. I don't do much other than gaming so I'm not worried about it. but I'll probably up the gigabytes

I'd probably clean it up with sleeved cables, lighting, fan controllers and post a pretty album of it 

 

I do need a power supply recommendation, and to review this overall.

Yes, that's all good but I would really recommend getting an SSD now. The Samsung 840 120GB would be a great choice. I can tell you right now that an SSD will make a massive difference when using programs and just Windows, everything feels extremely fast and snappy with an SSD

[Plastictree]

Yes, that's all good but I would really recommend getting an SSD now. The Samsung 840 120GB would be a great choice. I can tell you right now that an SSD will make a massive difference when using programs and just Windows, everything feels extremely fast and snappy with an SSD

I know. But.. Games. gamesgamesgames. >.> games aren't prgrams <.< whats windows >.> who needs snappiness <.<

[TechFan@ic]

Yes, that's all good but I would really recommend getting an SSD now. The Samsung 840 120GB would be a great choice. I can tell you right now that an SSD will make a massive difference when using programs and just Windows, everything feels extremely fast and snappy with an SSD

I really don't recommend the Samsung 840, it's got absolutely atrocious endurance because of its TLC flash, meaning in a few months time you'd lose almost 50% of the original performance of the drive.

Something like a Sandisk Ultra Plus is a much better choice, better write speeds, equally good read speeds and significantly better endurance + it usually costs the same or even slightly less.

I also agree with Plastictree, after upgrading from a slow HDD to a pretty fast SSD I can confidently say that it's an utterly pointless upgrade unless you install games on it, titles that take quite a long time to load like modded Skyrim or BF3.

[bartekxx12]

I really don't recommend the Samsung 840, it's got absolutely atrocious endurance because of its TLC flash, meaning in a few months time you'd lose almost 50% of the original performance of the drive.

Something like a Sandisk Ultra Plus is a much better choice, better write speeds, equally good read speeds and significantly better endurance + it usually costs the same or even slightly less.

I also agree with Plastictree, after upgrading from a slow HDD to a pretty fast SSD I can confidently say that it's an utterly pointless upgrade unless you install games on it, titles that take quite a long time to load like modded Skyrim or BF3.

Emm, no the 840 isn't as bad as people make it out to be and... are you using an SSD as a secondary drive? 

[TechFan@ic]

Emm, no the 840 isn't as bad as people make it out to be and... are you using an SSD as a secondary drive? 

They actually are quite bad, especially for the price, they're supposed to be the budget SSDs but there are several cheaper SSDs that are quite a bit better.

Keep in mind the Sandisk Ultra plus costs the same as the 840 sometimes even quite a bit cheaper.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/04/02/sandisk_ultra_plus_256gb_ssd_review/8#.UfhirW3cuUk

 

 

 

And of course I'm not using it as a secondary drive, that would defeat the whole purpose of using an SSD.

 

[leipero]

Thanks for the tip, I actually looked up youtube benchmarks, and I guess you're right.

 

Now after reviewing everything, eating dinner, and looking at more stuff, I came up with this.

So in my original post, I stated that this is a step by step upgrade. Get things basically a week at a time. This is an upgrade, not a full build. So the idea of just buying a new system and selling off my old one won't work for me. So for my first purchase, does this look good?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1mshV

 

 

Then I would get another 7950 and a psu.

Then a heat sink or all in one water cooler. I wish I could do a custom loop but nope. pockets say no. and some nice case fans too

either raptors or ssd hdd combo

Ram. I don't do much other than gaming so I'm not worried about it. but I'll probably up the gigabytes

I'd probably clean it up with sleeved cables, lighting, fan controllers and post a pretty album of it 

 

I do need a power supply recommendation, and to review this overall.

This motherboard is in the same price range "Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+", maybe you can consider that motherboard instead? Also, input from others would be great, if someone knows if this motherboard have any problems.

[Ryan Leech]

This motherboard is in the same price range "Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+", maybe you can consider that motherboard instead? Also, input from others would be great, if someone knows if this motherboard have any problems.

In my opinion, Gigabyte makes the most reliable and longest-lasting boards of anyone not say the others like Asus and MSI are bad, but Gigabyte has made many innovations in their motherboards so they can call their motherboards ultra durable. Just my opinion though and I'm sure I will upset some Asus fanboys.

[leipero]

In my opinion, Gigabyte makes the most reliable and longest-lasting boards of anyone not say the others like Asus and MSI are bad, but Gigabyte has made many innovations in their motherboards so they can call their motherboards ultra durable. Just my opinion though and I'm sure I will upset some Asus fanboys.

Not a fanboy here, and i agree that gigabyte boards are durable in most cases, probably even more durable compared to ASUS or MSI, i don't deny that. But, from OP post, he says he will build this rig for period of 3 years or so, warranty for all those boards is 3 years as minimum, and they should last at least those 3 years. After 3 years, his rig will become obsolete, so maybe it will be irrelevant for him even if board die after warranty expire (tho very unlikely).

 

I don't think Gigabyte is best choice for AMD platform, and personally, for gaming rig. i would go with ASUS or MSI (not an option in this case) over Gigabyte. 

[Plastictree]

I do like gigabyte. And I know I would like to upgrade every 3 years but you never know, after everything I might think the 8320 is still great and usable. And thinking how that this machine will be pretty much a beast, it'll still be great in 3 years and my priorities might change. 

 

But the board is all black and happens to be gigabyte. If there really is performance drop then I would take it for all black and still be 100 bucks. All I really want in a board is crossfire, usb3, and sata 6, and average overclocks. Maybe more than average, we'll see how my luck is

[Ultimate_PIMP]

I've recently upgraded to a FX 6300  and I've never been happier.  I got to 5ghz stable and running to my amazement extremely cool quite easily.

 

What voltage did you have to use to get to 5?

I wonder if i'm going too high or too low.