AMD Motherboards/CPU Advice?

[Baeger]

Hey y'all

I'm a complete AMD noob and I could do with some advice (I've built a noteworthy amount of PCs but somehow they've always been Intel so I haven't got any idea when it comes to AMD).  I'm building a PC for a friend and since he knows absolutely nothing about PCs, he asked me to pick some parts for him too.  I originally looked into Intel a ton but then completely forgot that the RX 480 is a thing over on the AMD side with it being so cheap which got me thinking about the other components, so then I thought it might be worth changing the whole system over to AMD just to cut a little bit of the cost while still having decent gaming and video editing performance (my buddy has a budget of £1000).

 

So, I guess my question is, what advice can anyone give me? Ideally I need a motherboard that's DDR4 compatible but some basic google searches suggested that DDR4 wasn't avaliable yet for AMD users? (which I thought couldn't be right)

I also need a processor similar in performance (with some sacrifice for a cheaper CPU) to an Intel 6500 if possible.

 

My main goal is to replace the Intel parts I had down on PCPartPicker with some similar AMD parts in the hopes of saving a little cash for my friend so he can take advantage of an RX 480

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/XWB8M8

 

TLDR; Good DDR4 AMD Motherboard (if any)? + Good AMD Processor for between £120-£170 ($154USD - $219USD) 

[EPPHO]

DDr4 AMD motherbords don't exist.

[Guest]

Zen is what you want, but it's not out yet.

 

Go with intel or stick with what you have. 

[HKZeroFive]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but AMD doesn't have any DDR4 compatible sockets as of this moment. It's best to go Intel as of this moment since there's no real competitor to the Skylake Intel i5s. If you're deadset on AMD, there's Zen which will hopefully be alot better than their current offerings + comes with DDR4 RAM.

[Nena Trinity]

If you want AMD then FX-8370 with a MSI 970 Gaming or ASUS 970 Aura is the cheapest option that will be the best pair for a RX 480, or on the Intel side you can grab a i5-6600K and a Z170 board from any reputable brand!

[vorticalbox]

Just now, Nena360 said:

If you want AMD then FX-8370 with a MSI 970 Gaming or ASUS 970 Aura is the cheapest option that will be the best pair for a RX 480, or on the Intel side you can grab a i5-6600K and a Z170 board from any reputable brand!

Personally I was advise against amd until zen. The 8350 was ok on a budget a few years back but there have been a few generations of intel in that time and it's really not worth it now.

[Baeger]

1 minute ago, HKZeroFive said:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but AMD doesn't have any DDR4 compatible sockets as of this moment. It's best to go Intel as of this moment since there's no real competitor to the Skylake Intel i5s. If you're deadset on AMD, there's Zen which will hopefully be alot better to their current offerings + comes with DDR4 RAM.

Nah, I didn't think so but I had to check.  I was just seeing if I could save any cash on that build but if Skylake really doesn't have any competition at the moment, I'll just tell my buddy to save up a little more cash so he can enjoy both Skylake AND an RX 480.  If Zen isn't going to be available in the next 2 months that is

[Nena Trinity]

Just now, vorticalbox said:

Personally I was advise against amd until zen. The 8350 was ok on a budget a few years back but there have been a few generations of intel in that time and it's really not worth it now.

On multi-threaded they are about the same as a i7-3770 but on single threaded they are slightly better than 1st gen i series so it depends on the work load mainly if they are good or bad!

[Sintezza]

FX8370 + Asus 970 pro gaming Aura basicly is a very good combo.

But i would advice to go intel if he can.

[HKZeroFive]

Just now, Baeger said:

Nah, I didn't think so but I had to check.  I was just seeing if I could save any cash on that build but if Skylake really doesn't have any competition at the moment, I'll just tell my buddy to save up a little more cash so he can enjoy both Skylake AND an RX 480.  If Zen isn't going to be available in the next 2 months that is

Yeah, it's in your best interest to go with Skylake in that case. Zen is rumoured to be released in limited quantities around Christmas time and supposedly going to be in full-swing by early 2017.

[Baeger]

1 minute ago, Nena360 said:

If you want AMD then FX-8370 with a MSI 970 Gaming or ASUS 970 Aura is the cheapest option that will be the best pair for a RX 480, or on the Intel side you can grab a i5-6600K and a Z170 board from any reputable brand!

I have an i5-6500 down right now on this parts list (this guy isn't gunna be doing any OCing ) but it just wouldn't hurt to cut costs a little, so if I'm set on Intel, maybe it would  be worth moving down to an i3-6300? 

[Nena Trinity]

Just now, Baeger said:

I have an i5-6500 down right now on this parts list (this guy isn't gunna be doing any OCing ) but it just wouldn't hurt to cut costs a little, so if I'm set on Intel, maybe it would  be worth moving down to an i3-6300? 

Skylake i3 is worse than FX-8300s in most tests I have seen, I would avoid any dual-core if I were you... o3o

[vorticalbox]

5 minutes ago, Nena360 said:

On multi-threaded they are about the same as a i7-3770 but on single threaded they are slightly better than 1st gen i series so it depends on the work load mainly if they are good or bad!

Oh yeah my 8350 can eat multi threaded apps like a boss. on single cores an i3 beats it by quite a bit.

[Baeger]

2 minutes ago, Nena360 said:

Skylake i3 is worse than FX-8300s in most tests I have seen, I would avoid any dual-core if I were you... o3o

Oh wow really?  I mean I knew there was quite the difference but damn  ah well, maybe I can cut a few costs in the motherboard and maybe skip a third party cooler (that's if the 6500 comes with one, my 6700k didn't when I got that recently ) 

[Nena Trinity]

1 minute ago, Baeger said:

Oh wow really?  I mean I knew there was quite the difference but damn  ah well, maybe I can cut a few costs in the motherboard and maybe skip a third party cooler (that's if the 6500 comes with one, my 6700k didn't when I got that recently ) 

Yes all non-K CPUs from Intel have a stock cooler! (but AMDs stock coolers are better)

[Sintezza]

This is what i could recommend to go with, if this rig is for gaming and some video editing.

 

Option1: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/qbHQD8

 

Option2: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/JNwp2R

 

The Skylake Xeon E3-1230-V5 and Xeon E3-1240-V5 are basicly a locked i7´s  without an igpu, they have 4 cores 8 Threads.

But since you are going to pickup a dedicated gpu anyways that doesnt matter much.

The only downside that with this particular Asus motherboard you cannot overclock those Xeon´s.

But with a RX480 that doesnt matter either, because those Xeon´s will be more then capable to max out the RX480 or GTX1060 at any time.

The big plus of those Xeon´s is that they are realy stable and reliable, which is a big plus for rendering projects.

 

Good luck, let me know what you think.

 

P.S if you could find the Asrock E3-V5 performance motherboard.

Thien it might be possible to overclock those Xeon´s.

[Baeger]

Just now, Sintezza said:

This is what i could recommend to go with, if this rig is for gaming and some video editing.

 

option1: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/qbHQD8

 

Option2: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/JNwp2R

 

The Skylake Xeon E3-1230-V5 and Xeon E3-1240-V5 are basicly a locked i7´s  without an igpu, they have 4 cores 8 Threads.

But since you are going to pickup a dedicated gpu anyways that doesnt matter much.

The only downside that with this particular Asus motherboard you cannot overclock those Xeon´s.

But with a RX480 that doesnt matter either, because those Xeon´s will be more then capable to max out the RX480 or GTX1060 at any time.

The big plus of those Xeon´s is that they are realy stable and reliable, which is a big plus for rendering projects.

 

Good luck, let me know what you think.

 

Wow, thanks for making those changes

I never actually thought of going Xeon because I can never distinguish the generations without looking more into it unlike with the i3/i5/i7s but that's definitely a good option

I really like changes anyway, I'd say they're definitely better, it's just a matter of if my friend will be willing to fork out some extra monies (apparently working professionally in video editing doesn't pay as well as I thought ) 

[SLAYR]

2 minutes ago, Baeger said:

Wow, thanks for making those changes

I never actually thought of going Xeon because I can never distinguish the generations without looking more into it unlike with the i3/i5/i7s but that's definitely a good option

I really like changes anyway, I'd say they're definitely better, it's just a matter of if my friend will be willing to fork out some extra monies (apparently working professionally in video editing doesn't pay as well as I thought ) 

With xeons the v# at the end is the generation v3 is haswell, v4 broadwell, v5 skylake. 

 

Depending on what they have now a better cpu could mean a lot faster rendering time allowing for more work to be done.

[Baeger]

Just now, SLAYR said:

With xeons the v# at the end is the generation v3 is haswell, v4 broadwell, v5 skylake. 

 

Depending on what they have now a better cpu could mean a lot faster rendering time allowing for more work to be done.

Considering what they have now is a 4 year old AIO, I'd say it's definitely better

But in all seriousness, I'm sure it's still a fair jump in rendering times and for general multitasking in video editing, I've never used Xeon myself but even the move from an i5 to an i7 seemed to give Adobe Premiere a little boost. 

[Sintezza]

12 minutes ago, SLAYR said:

With xeons the v# at the end is the generation v3 is haswell, v4 broadwell, v5 skylake. 

 

Depending on what they have now a better cpu could mean a lot faster rendering time allowing for more work to be done.

Yeah the only main diffrence between the E3 - V5 Skylake Xeon platform, and the previous Xeon e3 platforms.

Is that Intel decided to lock down the possibility to use a Skylake E3-V5 Xeon on consumer chipset boards like Z170, H170 so on.

You can only use a Skylake Xeon E3 - V5 on a C-series chipset board.

But Asus, Asrock and Gigabyte made gamer gear´d C232 and C236 chipset boards, to make it interesting for Gamers again.

I could realy recommend to go with it for this scenario.

[SLAYR]

34 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

Yeah the only main diffrence between the E3 - V5 Skylake Xeon platform, and the previous Xeon e3 platforms.

Is that Intel decided to lock down the possibility to use a Skylake E3-V5 Xeon on consumer chipset boards like Z170, H170 so on.

You can only use a Skylake Xeon E3 - V5 on a C-series chipset board.

But Asus, Asrock and Gigabyte made gamer gear´d C232 and C236 chipset boards, to make it interesting for Gamers again.

I could realy recommend to go with it for this scenario.

Don't think that Intel just started with skylake, the sandybridge, and ivybridge e3s, and the lga 1156 x34## series before those were all locked to the workstation/server "c" chipset boards though there are some instances of them working on some consumer boards. The haswell e3s are the one exception to it.