[New build] CAD/Modeling/Gaming rig

[goater]

Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP, old machine is dead

Budget Range: less than $750

System Usage from Most to Least Important: CAD and Modeling applications / Gaming (equally important )

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, DVDRW, floppy, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: I use newegg, but I'm indifferent to who gets my money.

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: No Preferance

Overclocking: Doubtful

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: >= 1920x1080

Additional Comments: cheaper = better (as long as no performance is sacrificed)

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Current build list

Western Digital RE4 WD5003ABYX 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136697
$129.99


Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
$54.99



ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767
$89.99


SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
$149.99


Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016
$64.99


G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460
$59.99


AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103961
$189.99


Subtotal: $747.85
Thank you.

 

[g-unit1111]

I would not recommend Zambezi on any build when the FX-8150 is outperformed by the Pentium G620. Go with this as your setup:

- Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
- CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074
- RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544

Otherwise everything else looks good - that motherboard will run a little bit more but you'll still come in under $800.

 

[serialkiller]

My suggestion will be get intel.

Intel i7 2600
asrock z68 pro3
corsair vengence 2x4gb 1600 mhz ddr3 ram
evga gtx 560 ti
Corsair cx 600 80+
wd carvier blue hdd
cm haf 912

 

[g-unit1111]

My suggestion will be get intel.

Intel i7 2600
asrock z68 pro3
corsair vengence 2x4gb 1600 mhz ddr3 ram
evga gtx 560 ti
Corsair cx 600 80+
wd carvier blue hdd
cm haf 912

2600 and 560TI aren't doable on a $750 budget.

 

[Outlander_04]

By all means stay with your AMD FX processor . In many rendering and encoding situations it will handily beat the intel 2500 and the 2600 when overclocked to 8150 speeds . This should be very simple .

The RAM higher timings offset the MHz advantage . I'd look for 1600 MHz cl8 RAM instead . I have used these modules in the past and had good results
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445

The rosewill challenger won an award from Tomshardware for being cheap . As they handed out the ribbon they wished they had more than $50 to spend so they could have afforded the Antec 300.
Ideally get the M5A97 evo and the Antec 300 two so you can have front USB 3 ports

 

[g-unit1111]

By all means stay with your AMD FX processor . In many rendering and encoding situations it will handily beat the intel 2500 and the 2600 when overclocked to 8150 speeds . This should be very simple .

Where? Show me those benchmarks, I want to see them.

 

[serialkiller]

Me too

 

[Outlander_04]

Where? Show me those benchmarks, I want to see them.

Sure , no problem

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/13
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/14

And here you can see that the intels gaming advantage is rather theoretical at 1080p resolution
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/19

What amazes me is that there are MANY such reviews and benchmarks available and still some people haven't admitted to themselves that the FX is actually better than the 2500Kand 2600k in some situations

 

[goater]

Best answer selected by goater.

 

[Outlander_04]

More examples of the FX 8150 out performing the 2500 and/or 2600 from intel in

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/47155-amd-bulldozer-fx-8150-processor-review-10.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/47155-amd-bulldozer-fx-8150-processor-review-9.html

Would you pro intel folks like more examples ?
There are many of them so its not arduous for me to find them and post them here

 

[azeem40]

So what are you actually trying to say? Go to AMD's side even for gaming?

 

[Outlander_04]

So what are you actually trying to say? Go to AMD's side even for gaming?

If I was building a top end gaming machine I would use a 2500k and a Z68 mb

If I was building an encoding or rendering computer I would consider the FX 8150 , or 6200 or 2600k depending on budget

If I was building an FX gaming computer and concerned about the cost I'd use a 4100 or 6100 in a 970 series chip set mb

If I wanted budget performance I'd definitely build using an FX 4100

It is absolutely wrong to say that the AMD FX is beaten everywhere as many of the local intel fanboys like to claim .
I suspect some of them read the conclusions of some reviews that said it was not better than an intel i5 . That is a correct conclusion BUT IT DOES NOT MEAN THE INTEL IS A BETTER CPU either.

Both have their place

 

[Outlander_04]

Where? Show me those benchmarks, I want to see them.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested/7

Here too, the FX 8150 is way more than competitive against the 2500K , and it beats the 2600K from time to time


And the REALLY good news for budget builders is that the FX 4100 is exactly half an FX 8150 .
That means for $110
you can get an overclockable AMD processor ,that even at stock speeds, will match or exceed the performance of an intel i3 which is essentially half of an i5 quad core

 

[g-unit1111]

Sure , no problem

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/13
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/14

And here you can see that the intels gaming advantage is rather theoretical at 1080p resolution
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/19

What amazes me is that there are MANY such reviews and benchmarks available and still some people haven't admitted to themselves that the FX is actually better than the 2500Kand 2600k in some situations

Yeah but what situations would those be? Not even a lot of Autodesk and Adobe products will take advantage of all 8 cores yet and there's no games that take advantage of 8 cores.