Building a rig, with AMD FX-8120

[smileyface97]

Hey Folks. I'm building a new rig and am wondering about the issues that folks are having with the AMD FX series of CPU's, and the issue with having to update a motherboards bios for the CPU to work. Now, I'm looking at an AMD FX-8120 and the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX, and was curious as to if I should be worried about the Bios issue. If so is there a way to avoid having the hassle of buying a whole different card to update the bios. I have looked at Intel cores as an alternative, but really like the look of that motherboard, so any help would be grand so I don't have to switch.

Thanks ton for any help!

 

[xtremegamer2da-max]

i5 2500k is better LOTS better

 

[tsnor]

For gaming, i3-2100 low end intel is stronger than fx8120 by considerable margin. So unless you get a really really great price on FX-8120 benchmarks say you'll want something else. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-10.html

For BIOS: you should always update bios on new MB when you get it. There are always fixes. Video drivers download new video bios all the time. No big deal.

If you have a very old version of the MB then you have a chicken/egg problem. You need a supported CPU to flash the bios. The solution can be ugly "...got the mobo from Dabs in the UK - it shipped with the 0405 BIOS so I ended up buying a cheap Sempron 145 processor to get the system up and running (which worked) so I could flash the BIOS to 0813. Did this, refitted my FX-6100 and the system now works - kinda...." http://www.overclock.net/t/1170300/new-990fx-sabertooth-bios-0813-officially-available-supported-now-on-the-asus-download-pages

Any reasonable place, e.g. newegg, amazon, etc., will be able to tell you the bios level on the MB they are selling. New stock is not a problem, only old old stuff.