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better bang for my buck

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  • Asus
  • Systems
  • Gigabyte
  • Evo
Last response: in Systems
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May 22, 2013 5:09:35 AM

So i have a fx 4100. the mobo i did own doesnt work anymore. looking to get a new one. these are the couple i was looking at

-Asus M5A88-M Evo
-Asus M5A78L-M LX
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

all of them cost between $60-$130

my dilemma is the is a deal on microcenter for an intel build i always wanted to try.

-i5-3570k ivy bridge($169)
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H($139)

both cost $334 + tax and shipping(cheapest deal i found)

so i dont know if i should fork out the money for the intel build(is it worth it?)

or buy a cheaper amd mobo so i have more money to upgrade my graphic card. (my current one might or might not work anymore) -xfx hd 5870

i do have a ssd in the mail (samsung 840 series)<<what would go well with this?

what would be a better choice.(more cost efficient)

More about : bang buck

May 22, 2013 5:12:59 AM

best value would be a phenom 965 or fx6300
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May 22, 2013 5:19:07 AM

Marcopolo123 said:
best value would be a phenom 965 or fx6300


I dont disagree. But im not trying to get a new cpu unless i switch to intel.
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May 22, 2013 5:30:00 AM

AshieRough said:
So i have a fx 4100. the mobo i did own doesnt work anymore. looking to get a new one. these are the couple i was looking at

-Asus M5A88-M Evo
-Asus M5A78L-M LX
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

all of them cost between $60-$130

my dilemma is the is a deal on microcenter for an intel build i always wanted to try.

-i5-3570k ivy bridge($169)
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H($139)

both cost $334 + tax and shipping(cheapest deal i found)

so i dont know if i should fork out the money for the intel build(is it worth it?)

or buy a cheaper amd mobo so i have more money to upgrade my graphic card. (my current one might or might not work anymore) -xfx hd 5870

i do have a ssd in the mail (samsung 840 series)<<what would go well with this?

what would be a better choice.(more cost efficient)


Worth it is somewhat subjective. In your shoes, I would probably go with the Intel option. Microcenter has a pretty amazing deal on it, and your GPU is still pretty competitive with current models. That said, you might consider waiting for Haswell to drop, to see if the combo will be updated with Haswell processors.

Your SSD should work fine in either case.

If you mean cost for FPS, upgrading your GPU would likely have more immediate benefit. However, a 4100 would bottleneck a powerful GPU. Without knowing your exact budget, I can't make a concrete recommendation.
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May 22, 2013 6:06:12 AM

AshieRough said:
So i have a fx 4100. the mobo i did own doesnt work anymore. looking to get a new one. these are the couple i was looking at

-Asus M5A88-M Evo
-Asus M5A78L-M LX
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

all of them cost between $60-$130

my dilemma is the is a deal on microcenter for an intel build i always wanted to try.

-i5-3570k ivy bridge($169)
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H($139)

both cost $334 + tax and shipping(cheapest deal i found)

so i dont know if i should fork out the money for the intel build(is it worth it?)

or buy a cheaper amd mobo so i have more money to upgrade my graphic card. (my current one might or might not work anymore) -xfx hd 5870

i do have a ssd in the mail (samsung 840 series)<<what would go well with this?

what would be a better choice.(more cost efficient)


Personally I'd look at some motherboard reviews and get a good over clockers board for your FX chip. The 4100 isn't that bad (should be more than adequate for current games) and if coupled with a good cooler can be pushed quite a way above stock settings. The overall cost would be much less than building a new Intel rig, and I always enjoy a bit of over clocking especially in this case as effectively its a 'free' chip in that you already own it. Worst case is it gives up after a few months on aggressive settings, but even then the cost of a replacement will be less than the i5.

As for the graphics card- the 5870 is still a viable card (take a look at Toms graphics card hierarchy chart, it sits with the current HD 7850 and Geforce 650ti, both capable mid range cards). The question as to whether this is enough or not depends on the resolution you want to game at. At anything less than 1080p I don't think you'd get much benefit. If you do decide to upgrade you need to be thinking the HD 7950 or a GTX 670 to get a decent improvement. The 5870 is even DX11 capable so you're not missing out on any new special fx.


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May 22, 2013 6:42:23 AM

Jack Revenant said:
AshieRough said:
So i have a fx 4100. the mobo i did own doesnt work anymore. looking to get a new one. these are the couple i was looking at

-Asus M5A88-M Evo
-Asus M5A78L-M LX
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

all of them cost between $60-$130

my dilemma is the is a deal on microcenter for an intel build i always wanted to try.

-i5-3570k ivy bridge($169)
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H($139)

both cost $334 + tax and shipping(cheapest deal i found)

so i dont know if i should fork out the money for the intel build(is it worth it?)

or buy a cheaper amd mobo so i have more money to upgrade my graphic card. (my current one might or might not work anymore) -xfx hd 5870

i do have a ssd in the mail (samsung 840 series)<<what would go well with this?

what would be a better choice.(more cost efficient)


Worth it is somewhat subjective. In your shoes, I would probably go with the Intel option. Microcenter has a pretty amazing deal on it, and your GPU is still pretty competitive with current models. That said, you might consider waiting for Haswell to drop, to see if the combo will be updated with Haswell processors.

Your SSD should work fine in either case.

If you mean cost for FPS, upgrading your GPU would likely have more immediate benefit. However, a 4100 would bottleneck a powerful GPU. Without knowing your exact budget, I can't make a concrete recommendation.


i havent done any research on the new haswell coming out but thank you for pointing that out.
About my budget. money aint the problem, but im the one that likes to save and not spend unnecessarily. especially on tech. since new and better ones are always coming out. so you could say the bundle for the intel build would be as much as i would pay for a cpu mobo combo. as for my gpu. im not wanting gtx 670 price like. more in the $200 range. i was looking the 7870 or 7850 to suit the fx4100 i already have. so it wont bottle neck it like you said. any thoughts?
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May 22, 2013 6:53:00 AM

cdrkf said:
AshieRough said:
So i have a fx 4100. the mobo i did own doesnt work anymore. looking to get a new one. these are the couple i was looking at

-Asus M5A88-M Evo
-Asus M5A78L-M LX
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

all of them cost between $60-$130

my dilemma is the is a deal on microcenter for an intel build i always wanted to try.

-i5-3570k ivy bridge($169)
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H($139)

both cost $334 + tax and shipping(cheapest deal i found)

so i dont know if i should fork out the money for the intel build(is it worth it?)

or buy a cheaper amd mobo so i have more money to upgrade my graphic card. (my current one might or might not work anymore) -xfx hd 5870

i do have a ssd in the mail (samsung 840 series)<<what would go well with this?

what would be a better choice.(more cost efficient)


Personally I'd look at some motherboard reviews and get a good over clockers board for your FX chip. The 4100 isn't that bad (should be more than adequate for current games) and if coupled with a good cooler can be pushed quite a way above stock settings. The overall cost would be much less than building a new Intel rig, and I always enjoy a bit of over clocking especially in this case as effectively its a 'free' chip in that you already own it. Worst case is it gives up after a few months on aggressive settings, but even then the cost of a replacement will be less than the i5.

As for the graphics card- the 5870 is still a viable card (take a look at Toms graphics card hierarchy chart, it sits with the current HD 7850 and Geforce 650ti, both capable mid range cards). The question as to whether this is enough or not depends on the resolution you want to game at. At anything less than 1080p I don't think you'd get much benefit. If you do decide to upgrade you need to be thinking the HD 7950 or a GTX 670 to get a decent improvement. The 5870 is even DX11 capable so you're not missing out on any new special fx.




i have googled reviews for good oc mobo, but it was very vague. was hoping to get a concrete recommendation here. any recommendations?

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May 22, 2013 8:00:30 AM

AshieRough said:
cdrkf said:
AshieRough said:
So i have a fx 4100. the mobo i did own doesnt work anymore. looking to get a new one. these are the couple i was looking at

-Asus M5A88-M Evo
-Asus M5A78L-M LX
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

all of them cost between $60-$130

my dilemma is the is a deal on microcenter for an intel build i always wanted to try.

-i5-3570k ivy bridge($169)
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H($139)

both cost $334 + tax and shipping(cheapest deal i found)

so i dont know if i should fork out the money for the intel build(is it worth it?)

or buy a cheaper amd mobo so i have more money to upgrade my graphic card. (my current one might or might not work anymore) -xfx hd 5870

i do have a ssd in the mail (samsung 840 series)<<what would go well with this?

what would be a better choice.(more cost efficient)


Personally I'd look at some motherboard reviews and get a good over clockers board for your FX chip. The 4100 isn't that bad (should be more than adequate for current games) and if coupled with a good cooler can be pushed quite a way above stock settings. The overall cost would be much less than building a new Intel rig, and I always enjoy a bit of over clocking especially in this case as effectively its a 'free' chip in that you already own it. Worst case is it gives up after a few months on aggressive settings, but even then the cost of a replacement will be less than the i5.

As for the graphics card- the 5870 is still a viable card (take a look at Toms graphics card hierarchy chart, it sits with the current HD 7850 and Geforce 650ti, both capable mid range cards). The question as to whether this is enough or not depends on the resolution you want to game at. At anything less than 1080p I don't think you'd get much benefit. If you do decide to upgrade you need to be thinking the HD 7950 or a GTX 670 to get a decent improvement. The 5870 is even DX11 capable so you're not missing out on any new special fx.




i have googled reviews for good oc mobo, but it was very vague. was hoping to get a concrete recommendation here. any recommendations?



Hi, I've had a quick look at what's available, this MSI board looks good and is going very cheaply at Ebuyer...
http://www.ebuyer.com/270882-msi-990fxa-gd65-socket-am3...

Found a review of it which gives it 5 out of 5 http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/motherboards/1290388/msi...

Also of note it fully supports both Crossfire and SLI so whatever graphics card you get you have the option to add a second at a later date (maybe another 5870 if you can find one at a good price on Ebay?)...
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May 22, 2013 2:34:15 PM

AshieRough said:
Jack Revenant said:
AshieRough said:
So i have a fx 4100. the mobo i did own doesnt work anymore. looking to get a new one. these are the couple i was looking at

-Asus M5A88-M Evo
-Asus M5A78L-M LX
-GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3

all of them cost between $60-$130

my dilemma is the is a deal on microcenter for an intel build i always wanted to try.

-i5-3570k ivy bridge($169)
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H($139)

both cost $334 + tax and shipping(cheapest deal i found)

so i dont know if i should fork out the money for the intel build(is it worth it?)

or buy a cheaper amd mobo so i have more money to upgrade my graphic card. (my current one might or might not work anymore) -xfx hd 5870

i do have a ssd in the mail (samsung 840 series)<<what would go well with this?

what would be a better choice.(more cost efficient)


Worth it is somewhat subjective. In your shoes, I would probably go with the Intel option. Microcenter has a pretty amazing deal on it, and your GPU is still pretty competitive with current models. That said, you might consider waiting for Haswell to drop, to see if the combo will be updated with Haswell processors.

Your SSD should work fine in either case.

If you mean cost for FPS, upgrading your GPU would likely have more immediate benefit. However, a 4100 would bottleneck a powerful GPU. Without knowing your exact budget, I can't make a concrete recommendation.


i havent done any research on the new haswell coming out but thank you for pointing that out.
About my budget. money aint the problem, but im the one that likes to save and not spend unnecessarily. especially on tech. since new and better ones are always coming out. so you could say the bundle for the intel build would be as much as i would pay for a cpu mobo combo. as for my gpu. im not wanting gtx 670 price like. more in the $200 range. i was looking the 7870 or 7850 to suit the fx4100 i already have. so it wont bottle neck it like you said. any thoughts?


I can understand not wanting to spend money of something you don't need. Around $200, my recommendation would be either a GTX 660 or, if you are willing to go up a bit, a 7870 XT. Both are very good cards, with the latter being nearly equal to the 7950. If you can get one of them and still get the CPU+mobo combo, I would. It would be a significant step up from your present rig. However, it wouldn't be a massive difference (we're not talking 550 to 7970, here), so you might simply want to get a new motherboard and wait for the 9000 series GPUs, which release later this year.
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