Advice on new build - possibly AMD cpu / mobo

[mikelshwede]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my ageing Q6600 cpu / mobo and buy a new gpu aswell.

I don't have massive amounts of cash to throw at the build so was looking around £400 for the above items.

I was looking for anyone who has an fx8120 cpu and if they could recommend it? So many mixed reviews kicking about its hard to know what to believe, I am fully aware it won't preform as fast as an i5 2500k however budget is important due to wife / kids / impending new born.

I mainly game, bf3 / crysis 2 / new moh when its out and do a bit of photo editing.

I've spotted this mobo - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-468-AS - not great for x fire but I probably won't anyway.

FX 8120 prices are quite cheap so I would be able to get both for around the £200 mark, was thinking maybe an hd7850 for around the £150 mark and then RAM to make up the rest of the budget.

I have an OCZ fatality 750w PSU, I know the power usage is quite when heavily OC'D? (something I would be doing) but this should be sufficient? I only run 1 hdd, 1 optical drive and 6 case fans.

Any advice appreciated!

Thanks

 

[idroid]

buddy read my signature builds....what's your budget?

 

[mikelshwede]

Well I had some bday money kicking about so I bought an hd 7950 from overclockers.co.uk last week, they sent it in a battered box with no protection so I returned it as it was broken and unstable at stock speeds, when it did work it was so bottlenecked by my q6600 I decided to replace the lot.

I'll be looking at about £400 for cpu / mobo / ram / gpu which is why I was thinking AMD, I just want decent performance in the games I play and budget is pretty important.

Any real world opinions on the FX chips would be great

Would love to drop a load of cash on a 3570k but money dictates

 

[idroid]

Well I had some bday money kicking about so I bought an hd 7950 from overclockers.co.uk last week, they sent it in a battered box with no protection so I returned it as it was broken and unstable at stock speeds, when it did work it was so bottlenecked by my q6600 I decided to replace the lot.

I'll be looking at about £400 for cpu / mobo / ram / gpu which is why I was thinking AMD, I just want decent performance in the games I play and budget is pretty important.

Any real world opinions on the FX chips would be great

Would love to drop a load of cash on a 3570k but money dictates

Hmmm but you got your money back, right?? so why don't you buy this GPU: http://pcpartpicker.com/mr/scancouk/xfx-video-card-fx795atnfc and use the extra money you have for upgrades?

 

[songorocosongo]

You can also consider the FX 4170 and the Phenom II 965. Those would perform similarly at a lower price.
£95 Phenom II 965
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-253-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=

£105 but also has a £10 cashback FX 4170
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-319-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=

 

[ScrewySqrl]

for 400 pounds just for CPU/MOBO/RAM/GPU, you could go intel.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£142.79 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£52.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.79 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£154.79 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £383.36
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-30 14:21 BST+0100)

 

[quilciri]

If this build is largely for gaming purposes, I can't recommend the AMD 8 cores at all. The only reason to grab an 8 core chip is if you *know* the PC will frequently use heavily multithreaded apps.

Gaming isn't heavily multithreaded, the vast majority of games use two cores at the most. An FX-4100, 4170, or any phenom black (955 and up) would do better. With your budget, a 3570k is in reach and will out perform all the current AMD chips (or a 3450 if you don't plan on overclocking).

*however*, if you can wait a bit, the first piledriver CPU (FX-4130) shipped to retailers a few days ago. Personally, I'm waiting for the benchmarks (and overclockability reviews) on that chip before deciding to either upgrade my x3 with that, or ditch the whole platform and go with intel. The fact that AMD didn't send samples to reviewers before retail release worries me, though >.<.

good luck!

P.S. Your PSU is *far* more than you'll ever need for any single-GPU build. My 750w Thermaltake used to support 3 OC'd 6770's.