FX build, for gaming & engineering

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azraa

azraa

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Hey guys, this is my very first thread so I dont really know your usual format.

So thats the thing, im planning on building a new PC. Its main use will be gaming, and next year, for CAD (Electrical engineering student) and other educational tasks/programs alike.
Im not so constrained on the budget area, but I dont want to go ultra/extreme with this build. Im inclined to use AMD FX-8120 (which in my country competes with an i5-2310 pricewise) and therefore, the plan is to buy my hardware along that performance range. I really need extra cores for future threaded apps, but i dont want to go with a wallet-raping LGA2011 cpu. By the way, I am very educated on overclocking and cooling, so feel free to drop a few comments on your experience with OC'ed FX chips.

So, my questions:
Should I pick a faster Intel CPU for my academic needs?
Should I wait for AMD to release Piledriver FX?
If i choose to buy before piledriver, should I go with an ASUS M5A99X EVO or Gigabyte 990FXA UD3? (which are at about the same price)
Local retailers dont have such a great PSU variety, but I know of power consumption and I know i can make the right choice, but first I need to have the PSU. Hence the question, is Sentey worth it? I dont really trust their products, never tried their PSUs but i associate them with crappy pc Cases. Its almost my only choice today, if i could i would pick a Corsair one.


I live in Chile, by the way, so I cant rely on amazon, newegg or other sources. I can, however, get my hands on almost every item you suggest with a little traveling, so feel free to add links to your retailers. I will know how to find the item.

So thats it. Thanks everyone.
 
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The FX 8120 will beat the locked i5 in rendering applications , and then you can overclock it for more performance anyway

Of the motherboards the ASUS has a better BIOS .
If you will only use one graphics card then the M5A97 evo will be cheaper and give you the same performance
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azraa

azraa

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No, not really.
You know, some basic engineering stuff. Mainly home and industrial circuitry diagrams. Nothing like 3D or giant mappings. Thats why I chose an FX cpu as intended buy, I dont really need a powerhouse CPU for that kind of tasks, but I still need the cores, and, for that price I prefer the 8 fx cores rather than a 4core i5 second gen.
 
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aqualipt

aqualipt

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Well... not because you have many cores mean you will have more performance, a i7 3930k (6 cores) without HT would destroy a overclocked (5Ghz if you want) FX 8150(8 cores)

can you get your hands on a 3570k?
 
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Outlander_04

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The FX 8120 will beat the locked i5 in rendering applications , and then you can overclock it for more performance anyway

Of the motherboards the ASUS has a better BIOS .
If you will only use one graphics card then the M5A97 evo will be cheaper and give you the same performance
 
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azraa

azraa

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Oh well, thanks for that tip. Im actually like more having just 1 beefy card rather than xfire (im going to choose AMD for my graphics, hands down)

@aqualipt: Yeah i know Intel is far better for intensive FP unit processing, but again, an i7 is overkill for me. A i5-3570k is abou 100bucks more, but only gives me 4 cores. I really like that cpu for gaming, its just awesome, and i know for a fact that any Intel cpu will be better at encoding than a similarly priced amd chip. But in the OpenCL accelerated apps area... i dont really know. As far as I know, most of design and professional software works with app acceleration, which is known to be good in AMD.
Any comments on that anyone?
 
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aqualipt

aqualipt

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Well...lets make you a build, what's your budget? is USD
 
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zloginet

zloginet

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Maybe... I smashed a 2600k without HT in wprime with my BD...
 
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azraa

azraa

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Currently I have about 1200 to 1300USD (Nearly 650.000 CLP) but any build you suggest for that money must be a bit inflated because retailers here are waaay more expensive than the one in the US. As an example, FX8120 costs about 240USD whereas in Newegg it costs 160USD ... quite a bit dont you think? For 1500 usd in the US you can go extreme, but here you only get mid range.

If you want to suggest some items to match the Chilean price, you can browse my nearest retailer
The conversion rate is simple, 1USD = 500CLP
 
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azraa

azraa

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I know you're right about that. I've spent years researching on tech and hardware, watching unboxings and benchmarks, and for gaming, im hands down sure that AMD is more than enough to max out every current game. Most of the time, the bottleneck is in the GPU.

@ your link, amazing info there, thanks. Not sure if the page is biased, but the performance of the 8120 was absolutely amazing, even while comparing against a more expensive CPU. Besides, as shown there, it smoked the 2600k in Photoshop, which i use quite often.
 
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aqualipt

aqualipt

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Hmmm..then i guess i will have to make you a ~900$ rig.

CPU: AMD FX-8120 3.1GHz 8-Core Processor ($159.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 EVO ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.98 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($217.55 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 500W ATX12V Power Supply ($57.08 @ NCIX US)
Total: $869.53
 
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azraa

azraa

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Thanks for the build, aqua. You guys make me jealous -.-
Here you can put your hands on a SSD for about double the price.
But I suppose you're right, about 1000k is the max to compare with your pricings.


Any word on my other questions? What about Sentey? Should I wait for Piledriver?

Thanks to everyone for your responses :DD
 
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aqualipt

aqualipt

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*Sentey is low-mid quality

*IMO...both Bulldozer and Piledriver suck, a FX 8150 gets outperformed almost always by a i7 950 (4 years old CPU) http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/100?vs=434 and even if piledrive performs 20% better than bulldozer i will not touch sandy or ivy bridge and it will not be competition for haswell.
 
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Outlander_04

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The anandtech benchmarks are probably the least useful of any on the web. Some times their system set ups are surprising .

You could look at the comparisons on this site
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-hotfix-bulldozer-performance,3119.html
you will see the margins between the FX 8150 and 2500k are actually very small .
In some benchmarks , particularly poorly threaded applications the intel wins , but in others the AMD has a clear lead

The FX 8120 with a mild OC to 8150 speeds is great value .

And since win 8 thread scheduling may increase performance of BD by as much as 15% , and piledriver has a good speed boost over BD theres every chance PD will be outperforming IB in some benches too .
Possibly by a very good margin


 
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aqualipt

aqualipt

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no offense but you seem to be a AMD fanboy.... anyways, i couldnt care less about brands, i only care about what offers more performance and Intel (at this time) offers more performance than AMD in most applications.
 
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Outlander_04

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Thats exactly what I'd expect from an intel fanboy

Have a nice day
 
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aqualipt

aqualipt

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look, i am not a fanboy, i don't have the time or the desire to be so.

on the other hand... you always spread wonders about how "good" AMD is when they clearly suck (ATM)
 
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azraa

azraa

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We all know Intel outperforms AMD in almost every scenario, but I cant just go on the best choice because of money. All these years saving money and investigating about hardware benchmarks made me very conscient of price/performance ratio and honestly, if I had to choose between FX8120 and i5-2310... thats why I asked about AM3+ motherboards.

Now, I know very well that I could go for a i5 3570k, a wonderful processor in almost every aspect, but I will have to buy a lesser graphics card, which goes against one of the main purposes of my platform, gaming.

I dont really get fanboyism. I use whats best for my pocket and the apps that I commonly use. I cant get Ivy Bridge. I can get a 2500k for a bit more, but still the improvement is marginal and I get only 4 (really efficient, I know) cores. FX is far better in CS Photoshop for the price. Intel is better transcoding and with general numbermunching apps. I havent seen any benchmarks for AutoCAD yet.

IDK, just dont fight over amd vs intel pleeeease
 
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cbrunnem

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he only needs a gaming cpu. as an engineer let alone a student, he will not be doing anything engineering wise that will need any cpu power at all.



engineering stuff that you will be doing will run on anything almost.
 
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Outlander_04

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I dont mind taking a bit of time to explain things to those of you who have failed to understand the real issues involved
 
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aqualipt

aqualipt

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oooh shut up AMD fanboy, Intel is simply superior to AMD in every way, get over it and stop typing BS
 
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