New build, possibly liquid cooled, AMU?

[jason41987]

hey everyone.. the computer i have now, which i also built is getting rather archaic... im thinking maybe its time to build a new one...

i have some questions...

for gaming, whats better, a phenom quad/six core processor with really good graphics card, or the new AMD AMU processors with a $130 graphics card which is supposed to achieve awesome performance?...

and for liquid cooling, im thinking ill buy the radiator and pump, but fabricate the rest myself.. for the blocks my idea is to get pieces of copper i can machine one and rough up on the inside for greater surface area with the coolant, routing out the inside or channels for the coolant to pass through, and do the same with a piece of plexiglass or acryllic, and then screw them together with small screws and a gasket giving me a clear window to see the coolant on one side, and copper for better cooling on the other

also, a no brainer to me is to use non-conductive coolant so if theres a spill its not going to destroy everything

well thanks in advance for all advice

 

[zooted]

Using liquid cooling for an apu is kinda pointless. Generally liquid cooling is for high end hardware undergoing massive overclocks. What are you using the system for?

 

[kinggraves]

The APUs are pretty much equal to an Athlon/Phenom II with similar clocks except they use less wattage and have a built in GPU.

If you aren't going to use the built in GPU, then it's kind of pointless. The APU's integrated can be combined with a 6670 max for Hybrid Crossfire, and it does give decent results when it works, but crossfire can be problematic and isn't always supported. You're just as well getting a Phenom II and a discrete graphics card 6770 or better for the most part.

 

[geekapproved]

You gotta laugh when you read posts like this....

 

[jason41987]

well, that was one of my questions.. does an APU with the combined graphics setup really offer that much better performance increase?, and which would yield better results from overclocking?.. i havent actually used the AMU processors yet

and i will be doing a lot of 3D CAD and modeling as well as gaming... for the liquid cooling system ill probably fabricate a lot of the parts myself such as the blocks

 

[jason41987]

so... does anyone know if the APU with dual graphics is worth it? or would it be better to go phenom with PCI-E graphics?

 

[zooted]

Apu's are great for lower end gaming as well as everyday use. For serious gaming look for a cpu and discrete gpu.

 

[jason41987]

my question was... the AMD website states the APU plus a 6570 card or something like that combined is like having a 4gb DDR5 graphics card.. is this true or would an actual 4gb DDR5 blow the APU combo away?... if it really is better than the APU combo, what sort of card would the combo graphics be equivelant to?