Any advantage to AMD on mobo/CPU/graphics?

Jackal75

Distinguished
Apr 4, 2011
5
0
18,510
It has been a while... too long... time to start researching a system upgrade. The core of my current system was done 3-4 years ago, and I upgraded one item/aspect per year averaging $100-$200 per change.

I am a gamer that dabbles in video editing. I have experience building systems since 1995, so what I am looking for here is your experiences in your research or a system you have built and had time to test.

The first question I have: Is there any performance advantage (now that ATI is owned by AMD) in going all AMD for the Chipset/CPU/Video?

Background: I have had EXCELLENT customer service from AMD and nVidia, and I am very loyal to those brands. Most of the games I play say they run better on nVidia. I hate Intel due to poor service I got and their price point. (I am on a budget here...) I am looking to do an upgrade that will be <$1000 and get me where I can play games like Rift, Black Ops, EQII, and EA Sports titles at higher resolutions.

At a minimum, I need to upgrade case, PSU, Mobo, RAM. I would like to also add in a better CPU cooler, and video cards if I have cash left.

Current System:
Case: Old Antec model... not very great at cooling.
PSU: Cooler Master 600W
CPU: 3.0GHz Athelon II x2 64bit
Mobo:Asus M4NE-SLI
RAM: 8GB OCZ DDR2 800
Video: TWO each nVidia GeForce 9600GSO 768Mb DDR3 (SLI mode)
Sound: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-e 1x
HDDs: System Drive: 320GB Seagate 7200rpm SATA
Game/Data : Two each Seagate 500 GB 7200rpm SATA RAID 0

Looking atupgraded parts only:
CASE: (undecided... looking at an Antec and a Cooler Master)
PSU: 1000W SLI Certified - Modular
CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1090t (or 1100t) with Cooler Master 212 - 120mm sleeve cooler.
Mobo: Asus M4N98TD EVO
RAM: 16Gb DDR3 1333

The upgraded bits above take me close to my budget, which means I'll be weak on video until next year. I'm leaning this way for now because to add in video now requires either very little improvement on the video or compromising on the Mobo/CPU/RAM. I have to get a case because I fear the current one will not vent the heat well enough on the upgraded PSU and CPU. This is how I tend to build anyway to spread the cost over time.

Please discuss both the system specs and whether there is any advantage to going AMD all the way throughout.

 
Having an AMD CPU, GPU, and Chipset all in one board provide a performance benefit of about 0% over mixing with nVidia, actually mixing will tend to let you get the most out of your money. There isnt a good reason as to why you would need to stick with all AMD.

Looking at your system, you dont have it planned out super well, a 1090T isnt a great value, its rather expensive and in gaming performs similarly to the x4, you dont need a 1000W PSU, a good 850W is plenty even if you opt for dual GTX 580s, 16GB of memory is over kill for your planned uses, i dont see photo/video editing, or large scale 3D modeling on that list so you wont need more than 8GB, that should free up the budget a fair amount to allow for a good GPU.
 

Jackal75

Distinguished
Apr 4, 2011
5
0
18,510
You think six-core isn't any better even with the turbo boost? I know that games usually aren't threaded for using that many cores, but what I read said that the turbo speed increase could benefit where the extra cores do not. I would be interested to hear more about this.
 
Turbo helps a tiny bit, but not nearly enough to justify the $60 price difference between the 1100T(3.7GHz at max turbo) and the 970(3.5GHz), especially not when the limiting factor in almost all games is the GPU, not the CPU, the 955 is plenty fast for pretty much any game, and if you OC it its fine for any, spending more on the CPU isnt going to provide any benefit, especially when it will lead to you starting with a much weaker graphics card.
 

Jackal75

Distinguished
Apr 4, 2011
5
0
18,510
Ok. So it sounds like I should adjust a couple things to see if I can do video as well. My fear is that it won't be quite enough to afford video cards that will give an appreciable boost.

Great feedback so far. Hope to hear more opinions and experiences!
 

akhilmangala

Distinguished
Apr 7, 2010
46
0
18,540
Buy a Sapphire Hd 6850, It will allow you to play almost all games at full graphics in 1440x900 resolution.
AMD phenome II X4 955 BE processor has great money value.
When it comes to gaming you just have to look whether your cpu bottlenecks the gpu, 955 BE cpu is fast enough.
Buy a 650 watts psu and you can crossfire HD 6850, buy max of 700watts for overclocking and cooling ....
Buy 4gb ram, you can easily upgrade it later.
 

cloonso

Distinguished
Dec 20, 2010
61
0
18,640
I would go this route:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $120
ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 - $100
Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) -$52
HIS H685FN1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 - $160
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W - $95
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $60
so you are looking at about $527 from Newegg before rebates I you will be hard pressed to equal the performance for the price. This is solid good quality hardware and a good price. Not the best performance but again it is best for the price as you stated you are on a budget but did not give us that number. Add an aftermarket cooler and overclock for more cpu performance. Add a higher end gpu for video performance if your budget allows.