APU based low budget system: Should I + How to buy it

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yekkkk

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Hello, I'm one of your fresh members. I hope the Systems category is the right place to post it. I know there are many posts about APUs and I think I've readed enough on here and other places from google to ask my own questions about them too.

Let's start with my budget. I can't give you a number, but if I'm to spend money, I want to buy an A10 7870k at least and utmost. (After it comes here) Now, first question: They say it'll be costed 137$ as retail, so will I get any better performance with a seperated cpu and gpu or is APU just fine? Note that I'll be playing games on it, I'm not into photo editing or video rendering, just the games.

The other question: Is DDR3 2133 mhz ram OK? I think I'll be buying 2x4 gb to make a total of 8. Which products should I avoid? I'm going to go cheap but don't want crappy things.

Also, which mobo should I buy? I don't want to put too much money on it either.

I think I'll go for a Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo as cooler, will it be cool enough when it comes to OC? (But I don't think I'll OC the apu, should I? -it'll be my first OC so I don't have the courage to do it.)

I have a hard disk that I don't even remember its model, years passed after I bought it. Do you think I can continue to use it with my new mobo? Waiting for the loading times doesn't matter much right now.

As the last, if I have more money in the future, likely to be able to buy a new Graphics Card, will be the APU's CPU enought to raise my system's performance?

I have a 600w psu, 1080p monitor (But I'm OK with lower resolutions, as you can see I'm very familiar with them.) And as I'm running a desktop, I hope I won't need any more parts.

Thanks for the answers.

EDIT: Some say they bought 2400mhz rams, how are they going to use them? Some more expensive mobo and OC? Just OC?
EDIT 2: Just read something about using Dual Graphics with an R7 240 2gb GDDR3, it seems to be increasing performance much. (Thinking about it for buying a Graphics Card later.)
 
Solution
clutchc
If you want to game at 1080p, that automatically means you'll want a discrete card. The on-die GPU is equivalent to a slow R7-250. Not really going to make you happy at 1080p. If you are satisfied with 720P resolutions, then you may be happy with the on-die GPU. But stay away from dual graphics mode. I tried that with an A10-5800K. Not good.

The A10 7870K can keep up with a R9-280 or GTX 960. Anything above that, and there will be some CPU bottleneck. As long as the 600W PSU has the necessary +12V specs and is of good quality (important), it will be good for either card.

While the APU is spec'd to support 2133 MHz RAM max, there's no reason it can't use 2400 MHz. I have the Athlon X4 860K w/2133 MHz memory which is the A10...
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clutchc

clutchc

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If you want to game at 1080p, that automatically means you'll want a discrete card. The on-die GPU is equivalent to a slow R7-250. Not really going to make you happy at 1080p. If you are satisfied with 720P resolutions, then you may be happy with the on-die GPU. But stay away from dual graphics mode. I tried that with an A10-5800K. Not good.

The A10 7870K can keep up with a R9-280 or GTX 960. Anything above that, and there will be some CPU bottleneck. As long as the 600W PSU has the necessary +12V specs and is of good quality (important), it will be good for either card.

While the APU is spec'd to support 2133 MHz RAM max, there's no reason it can't use 2400 MHz. I have the Athlon X4 860K w/2133 MHz memory which is the A10 7850K w/o GPU. OC'd to 4.2 GHz, it was able to keep up with my R9-280 and GTX 960 FTW.

The 212 EVO will do the job at the best stable OC you'll be able to get. If it is like my 860K, it will reach max vcore before it runs out of thermal headroom. I had to take it to 1.5+ v to make it stable at 4.2 GHz.

As long as the HDD is SATA, it will work with modern boards. This is the board I have for my 860K. It's the only one I've tested completely: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/A88XM-GAMING.html#hero-overview
So, I will only offer that one suggestion. But which ever one you choose, be sure it has heat sinks on the VRMs and has at least 4+1 phase power... min.
This Asus may be one of the best for the FM2+ socket: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/A88XPRO/
 
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Cooper0408

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Let's say your going to spend $400 on a PC, a apu system would get destroyed by a cpu-gpu system, just something to think about.

2133 ram should suffice your needs. I recommend crucial, g.skill, and corsair.

The cooler master 212 evo is a great cooler for overclocking.

Check if your drive is sata 3

Cross-firing a apu and a GPU doesn't improve performance by much, (meaning your better off with just the GPU).

 
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yekkkk

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When it comes to price, Asus looks like has it more than Gigabyte's GA-F2A88XM-D3H and Biostar's Hi-Fi A88W 3D FM2+ so what are the differences? Quality, speed, compatibility..?



What cpu-gpu system could destroy it?
 
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Cooper0408

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Asus just has better quality boards, I think there overpriced for what you get, but that's just me. A and 860k with a 750 ti or r7 260x both are cheap cards, and perform great for the price.

 
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