bwall244

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Jul 21, 2012
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Need some help on if I should piece together a build or look at barebones.

I've been interested in basing this on the AMD FX-8120.

From looking around CPU, MOBO, RAM, CASE, PSU could be done for right at $500? However tiger direct has a barebones kit picking up a 1tb HD and DVD burner for $489 after rebate. Any ideas on how to do this cheaper or which is the better idea?
 
assiuming this is the kit you are talking about:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2313376&CatId=332

it has a horribly unreliable power supply. that DiabloTek 600W PSU will probably fry at something under 400W load.

when you consider you have to buy a new power supply for $50-60, I think you can do better:


here is an almost the same price build. faster RAM, better quality PSU

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8120 3.1GHz 8-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.98 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($76.98 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Rosewill Challenger-U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($51.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $490.43
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-23 10:09 EDT-0400)
 

bwall244

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Jul 21, 2012
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Thanks for the quick reply, after further reading as a matter or budget/performance/value is the 8120 by best bet? No high end gaming will be done. Video conversion, video streaming, uploading large files to NAS, and multitasking are my primary concerns.
 

bwall244

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Jul 21, 2012
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Tons of conflicting reading material out there. Some things show the i3 2100 outperforming the 8120, plenty of people say you are stupid for not going to the i5-2500k. The more I read the less I seem to know.
 

djscribbles

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Apr 6, 2012
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Regarding barebones, in general, I find that these kits usually have some fatal flaw included (often the PSU); generally they are designed to get rid of slow-selling stock I think rather than build a good computer.

For your CPU, you are likely getting alot of misinformation simply because everyone likes to bring their own perspectives and biases into the debate on what is the best 'value' for a given use.

Odds are, whatever you get will be faster than what you have, and will make a nice computer; you may see a little better performance on an Intel processor for a little more money but unless you have some needs/expectations to be met, it's more or less splitting hairs.
 


*Q3* is July through Sept -- so there is the potential that AM3+ Vishera Piledriver cores could be 10 weeks away.

The chips will likely carry that 'new price' smell, too. And I hope that this is not a surprise to you, but in highly multi-threaded applications such as video work, the FX-8120-50 series performs quite well against the i5-2500k, and certainly wallops the i3-21xx series.

At $150, for your desired intentions, the FX-8120 is an excellent value.


 
that will work fine, and has on-board video. It will use, but not fully exploit some of the hyper-transport speeds of the FX series (a little slower talking to the RAM, North and South Bridge basically), but it will do the job. Again, for video encoding, the on-board will be VERY slow
 

bwall244

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Jul 21, 2012
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btw I have been convering avi/mvk ect to iso/whatever i need on a 2.26 dual care with 4gb ram.....I'm assuming this will be a night and day difference without a dedicated card