Budget PC, still having a "kick" to it

CodeOverflow

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Sep 12, 2013
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This are the parts I've been looking at.


  • ASUS Sabertooth 990FX - Socket AM3+ - Chipset 990FX - ATX
    AMD FX-8320 Black Edition - 3,5 GHz - Socket AM3+ (FD8320FRHKBOX)
    G-SKILL PC Sniper Series 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1866 - PC3-14900 - CL9 (F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR)
    1 TB SEAGATE Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003 3,5" - 1 TB
    GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 650 OC - 2 GB GDDR5 - PCI-Express 3.0 (GV-N650OC-2GI)

This racks me up about 550€, with minor changes depending on where I get the parts.

The GPU isn't the greatest, but the point of this build is to be upgraded in the future.
I was wanting a 660ti oc, but this would destroy my budget. Same as the RAM, only 8 gigs for now.

1º - I'm worried about the AMD quality. I haven't built a pc or worried about it in years (dedicated to laptops these past few years), also about bottlenecks when I decide to upgrade my RAM and GPU in the future.

2º - Budget wise, AMD looks a better choice for me, but maybe I could be mistaken?
 
Solution
AMD's parts are as well built as any intel .

Unless you are planning on using two graphics cards there is no point in using the FX 990 board . Boards with 970 chip sets perform identically, and that would free up so much money you can get a decent graphics card now .

8 gig of RAM is more than any game can use so this is not a gaming limitation . Just make sure its rated for 1.5 volts or less
AMD's parts are as well built as any intel .

Unless you are planning on using two graphics cards there is no point in using the FX 990 board . Boards with 970 chip sets perform identically, and that would free up so much money you can get a decent graphics card now .

8 gig of RAM is more than any game can use so this is not a gaming limitation . Just make sure its rated for 1.5 volts or less
 
Solution
AMD is the pockets friend when it comes to Budget builds. The performance does lack vs. Intel but your also paying less. Everything looks good for a budget gaming rig with major possibility for upgrades. When it comes to bottlenecks with ram, AMD's memory controlers are not as fast as Intel's but you will not have an issues in that setup. The max native ram speed for that CPU is the 1866MHz that you picked so there will be no bottleneck there. As it sits the GPU will be your limiting factor and when upgrading you always shift the bottleneck to a new piece, it is unavoidable. 8GB of ram is the sweet spot for gaming right now as most things that use over 4GB use just over 6GB. in the future 16GB of ram is a possibility in that setup but that would not be necessary unless you use Photo shop and the like types of programs.
 
That CPU will be just fine for a gaming rig. I would not worry about it you will be just fine.

I have two AMD/ATI rigs a FX-8120 and a FX-8350 with a Crossfire HD 7950 and Crossfire HD-7970 both are great and keep up in gaming very well. I would pit them up against my i5 3570K SLI GTX 670 rig on any game I have.

As for ram I agree 8gig is just fine for a gaming rig you will not need more than that. i only have 16gig in my i5 rig because it was on sale at the time for only $10 more after Christmas.

As for the motherboard I would look at a AMD 970 board to save some money and get a GTX 660ti instead of the GTX 650. I would give you better graphics performance and I think you would be happier with it in the long run.
 

CodeOverflow

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As outlander and bryonhowley put it very well, looking at 970chipset boards does save me a lot of money, and allows me to switch the graphics card for the 660 ti oc I wanted in the first place while maintaining the overall cost.

I just fear that switching the board will limit my options in the future.


As for the case and PSU I didn't include them as I already have those, keeping my 500w PSU.I would need to upgrade the PSu in the future but I think it should be fine for now


And I said 8 gigs is fine for now, but will probably add a bit more to it, due to the ocasional 3d modelling/rendering and video processing I do in my spare time. Nothing professional. Just the ocassional hobby of mine.
 

CodeOverflow

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I am assuming you mean 990FX and 970.
Thanks for the info. that pretty much settles it then. Yeah I wasn't really considering using SLI anyway. So I was just getting a top notch board so as to waste the feature that made it that expensive.

And this way I can fix the 660ti on the budget.

Thanks everyone. :bounce: Can't wait to get the parts and get hands on with this one.
 
The three AM3+ designed chip sets are 970 , 990X and 990 FX

990X can run two graphics cards at x8/x8 slot [ like Intel ]
and
990FX can run two cards at x16/x16

I think , but I am not sure , that the actual chips are identical bits of silicon with some features disabled or enabled to differentiate them .
By default the 970 sets the north bridge speed 200 Mhz lower , but that is also a simple adjustment to make

GTX 760's start at about $250

 

CodeOverflow

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Oh I misread what you meant then. It's late late night for me here. I thought you mean the difference between the 970 and 990FX was the lack of dual graph cards.

Hence why I thought it was a typo. The information is still the same, I just read it differently.