Input for using AMD 8350 for my workload

morgue888

Honorable
Dec 27, 2012
14
0
10,510
Pre-Note: Not Another AMD Vs Intel Post.

I have a 3770K as my primary gaming/fun box.
This new one is for varied loads and tasks but no gaming.
My thought is that "more cores" would be better for my workload.
I'm fairly certain an AMD 8350 is a somewhat cost effective high performance option based on my workload.
Power per performance is of no concern.
I just wanted some feedback.

Daily Tasks and requirements:
Primary OS is Linux
1-3 Virtual machines via Virtualbox (varied OS'es, not always running, mostly low load.)
2-4 Minecraft servers (not to be hindered by desktop use and virtual machines)
Normal expected desktop use (browsers misc apps)
occasional compiling

I would be using the 8350 on an Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2 with at least 16GB of memory.
I have not used an AMD in a while except for an ESXi build using 2x6128's.

The actual questions of the post:
Is the 8350 appropriate for my needs with some headroom?

I'll be googling the following but feel free to comment on these:
With the AMD series, will I benefit from DDR3 1600MHz Vs 2133MHz?
- I found that 8350 has native support for 1866MHz but not any clear information on higher speeds.
How well do current linux kernels support the 8350 CPUs.
- Found a great article on phoronix that pretty much answered my main question as well.

I would love a reply from someone that has run an 8350 with mixed workloads and VMs.

Thanks in advance.



Also for reference the current system this will be replacing:
Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 @2.4-3.0GHz
XFX M8-N780-ISH9 V4.1
4GB DDR2 800MHz (2x2GB)


Edit:
I ended up finding the answer to my question when I was looking up kernel support for the CPU.
I would still love to hear everyone's input.
 

8350rocks

Distinguished
Linux OS is like super unleaded fuel for the FX8350, it runs extremely fast on that OS, and the scheduler in the Linux kernel seems to be better suited to the AMD CPUs than the Windows counterpart. I could not find any reason for you to spend the extra money on an intel given your criteria. You'll be comparable almost across the board and better in some cases.

You will benefit from 1866 MHz DDR3, AMD scales more aggressively with higher bandwidth memory. While intel CPUs do not gain much of anything with higher speed RAM.

The FX8350 has some headroom still, you could easily overclock it later and gain an even greater advantage.