System Comparison Question

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Kahlidan

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Jun 4, 2012
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I'm considering buying a new PC from Magic Micro and could use some advice. I recently went through a nightmare dealing with a custom PC dying from SuperBiiz and don't want to repeat these problems. I'm looking to spend under $1k but still have something with reasonably good performance, and I've narrowed it down to these 2 builds or something similar. I'd like some input as to potential pitfalls and bottlenecks and/or adjustments needed as I am not a PC technician, and it seems you almost have to be now to get something that won't be problematic. I already have a video card to add to this build in case anyone is wondering why one wasn't included. Both of these builds cost exactly the same and seem to be evenly matched performance-wise.

AMD FX-8320 Piledriver (Vishera) 3.5GHz (Eight Core) 32nm, AM3+ 8MB Cache
Zalman CPU Cooler Vertical, 3 Copper Heat Pipes, Extra Quiet CPU fan
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+, AMD 990, SLI & Cross Fire, SATA3, USB3.0, IEEE
8GB (2x4GB) PC14900 DDR3 1866 Dual Channel (high performance memory)
1TB Western Digital Blue 7200RPM SATA 3 6.0Gb/s 32m cache
LG Blu-ray 12X Recorder,16x DVD Recorder SATA combo drive
Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)
Ethernet network adapter (onboard)
Apevia X-Dreamer-4 Black and Blue, front USB 2.0 & 3.0, Temp. display, Hot swap HDD
TOP Nano 500W Extra Quiet ATX Power, Supply SLI & X-fire ready
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit DVD w/SP1

Intel Core i5-3550 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) Quad Core 6000K
Coolermaster Hyper101, Vertical, 2 Copper Heat Pipes, Extra Quiet CPU fan
Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H, Onboard video DVI & HDMI, X-fire, SATA3, USB3.0, GB LAN
8GB (2x4GB) PC14900 DDR3 1866 Dual Channel (high performance memory)
HD Onboard 3D graphics Dual head, HDMI (only if listed with board)
1TB Western Digital Blue 7200RPM SATA 3 6.0Gb/s 32m cache
LG Blu-ray 12X Recorder,16x DVD Recorder SATA combo drive
Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)
Ethernet network adapter (onboard)
Apevia X-Dreamer-4 Black and Blue, front USB 2.0 & 3.0, Temp. display, Hot swap HDD
Thermaltake TR2 430W ultra quiet ATX Power Supply w/ 6pin PCI-E
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit DVD w/SP1

 
Solution
lmaonade200
Edit: didn't read properly

imo the 2nd one is better

but it'll depend on what you're doing with these computers, just regular gaming, word processing, and such then get the i5 computer, if you're doing something truly niche and special that performs better with more integer threads then go for the FX 8320 (these programs aren't very common among regular consumers).

In something like video editing and encoding it's often a wash between these 2 processors.

wait, what kind of video card do you have? Depending on how current (or even how old) it is the 430W might not be able to power it
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lmaonade200

lmaonade200

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Edit: didn't read properly

imo the 2nd one is better

but it'll depend on what you're doing with these computers, just regular gaming, word processing, and such then get the i5 computer, if you're doing something truly niche and special that performs better with more integer threads then go for the FX 8320 (these programs aren't very common among regular consumers).

In something like video editing and encoding it's often a wash between these 2 processors.

wait, what kind of video card do you have? Depending on how current (or even how old) it is the 430W might not be able to power it
 
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K

Kahlidan

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Jun 4, 2012
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My usage will be a mix of gaming, video transcoding/streaming and general app usage. The PSU can be swapped for something else, thanks for the link because they all seem the same except the wattage output. I have a GTX 550 Ti already.
 
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lmaonade200

lmaonade200

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I think most of your demands are pretty single thread so I'd say the i5, and that link is a really nice resource, to most people most PSUs seem alike but on the inside they're different, there's a massive difference between, say, chinese capacitors from a non reputable company, and japanese solid caps.

as for your 550Ti (the 500 series Geforce cards guzzle power pretty harshly, more than the 600 series anyway) the 430W will not do, I'd say a quality 500W (something like tier 3 or higher on the list above) should be good enough though
 
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johnnyb105

johnnyb105

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Feb 18, 2013
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X brand has 500 watts and V brand has 500 watts don't mean a thing its about the quality who makes them and the warranty when it comes to a PSU good brand are seasonic Brands that will work but are not top tier are like the cx models from corsair ... Brands that are prone to failure example no named top power or maybe raidmax ect ect... The 8320 you can overclock I have mine at a little over 4.4 ghz the intel is a good cpu as well they are both different some prefer intel more then amd because of the speed and performance over amd but when it comes to saving a few bucks and losing a few fps ect ect the amd chip is also a good buy its a matter of what you want in your system...
 
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K

Kahlidan

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Jun 4, 2012
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10,520
Thanks for all the info. My previous build's failure from SuperBiiz may have been partially my fault, as the PSU was the 500W Cooler Master that came with the case-I think it was a tier 4 extreme model and might have fried the system when I put in the video card. That situation may not be resolved fully yet (I had to file a chargeback), so it will be some time before I replace my old Core 2 duo from 2006.
 
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