AMD APU Gaming Build(HELP!)

[hunterpostit88]

Approximate Purchase Date: Friday

Budget Range: I could care less

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming(modern games), streaming movies/TV shows, daily use

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Everything

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, TigerDirect, us.ncix, any from pcpartpicker.com

Location: Houston, TX

Parts Preferences: APU, AMD Hybrid XFire

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Hybrid XFire

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I WANT THE *** FOR MY LITTLE BROTHER!

CPU: AMD A10-5800K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113280
CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
MOBO: ASUS F2A85-M PRO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131883
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 7770GHz Edition http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127664
RAM: G. SKILL Ares Series 8GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544
HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
Case: Coolermaster HAF 912 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233&Tpk=cooler%20master%20haf%2091
PSU: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-S-B 750W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182067
Optical: SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
I'm buying a Windows 8 3-pack for me, I'll lend him one.



And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: (e.g. I'm having trouble running game X or my PSU broke)

 

[mousseng]

1. I don't believe you can do hybrid crossfire with a 7770, [strike]though I know you can do it with a 7750[/strike] though I misread that article. There is no dual-graphics with the 7750 even - appears as though the 6670 is as good as it gets.

2. You may want to bump up the memory speed to 1866 or higher, as that's the A10's biggest GPU bottleneck.

3. No to that power supply. Period. Way overkill on the wattage, plus it's inefficient and of poor quality. You'd be better off with something like a Rosewill Capstone 550M - efficient, reliable, more affordable, more appropriate, and overall better.

 

[mohit9206]

gaming on a 1080p monitor with an APU is not what an APU was meant to do.. though you may prefer to go with an amd apu setup it doesnt make sense to me.. even with hybrid crossfire enabled you still wont be enjoying your gaming sessions as much at 1080p .. i suggest you go for an ivy bridge dual core i3 and pair it with a radeon hd7850 for a good experience at 1080p.. that will be a much better setup than anything an apu will give you..and yup that psu ia way overkill for your needs ..just get a corsair cx430 ..

 

[hunterpostit88]

He wants to have AMD for some God forsaken reason...and this is his...so no APU. When is PD rerleased?

 

[Guest]

 

[Hazle]

if he wants to get AMD, and can't wait for PD, then you got the 965BE if he wants to pair it off with that 7770. much cheaper, and at least a much better pairing for that GPU, and so worth the money over the APU. if he's insistent on that APU, pair it with a 6670 at least. would be kinda sad if he can't push that 7770 to it's potential at that price point.

750W is waaaay too much. i doubt he'll need anything more than 550W with that GPU+CPU. Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, PCP&P are some of the more favorable brand

 

[mousseng]

if he wants to get AMD, and can't wait for PD, then you got the 965BE if he wants to pair it off with that 7770. much cheaper, and at least a much better pairing for that GPU, and so worth the money over the APU. if he's insistent on that APU, pair it with a 6670 at least. would be kinda sad if he can't push that 7770 to it's potential at that price point.

[strike]The A10 is actually a better CPU than the 965 - at stock clocks, the A10 is neck-and-neck with the i3-3220, whereas the 965 is a bit slower than a 2120. The A10 should overclock just as well (if not better) than the 965.[/strike] Edit: The A10 and 965 are about on par, depending on whose benchmarks you're looking at.

But if he ever wants to upgrade it, socket AM3+ would be better than FM2, as he'll be able to just drop in a Piledriver or Steamroller (or possibly even Excavator) CPU.

 

[Guest]

The A10 is actually a better CPU than the 965 - at stock clocks, the A10 is neck-and-neck with the i3-3220, whereas the 965 is a bit slower than a 2120. The A10 should overclock just as well (if not better) than the 965.

pass the bong and stop bogarting it!
AMD Trinity for Desktops. Part 2: Socket FM2 Platform and AMD A10-5800K Processor Review

Of course, hardcore enthusiasts and dedicated gaming fans will hardly fall in love with this product, but the average mainstream users who enjoy occasional gaming, surf the Web, work with some multimedia content and maybe some relatively simple specific applications may find Trinity an excellent product for their needs.

 

[mohit9206]

whats better for OP. 965+7770 or A10+6670 or i3+7770.. just tell him that .. i say i3+7850

 

[DarkSable]

Going of of what Mousseng said, most of the APU chips, when you disable the integrated graphics, have godly high overclocking headroom. [Yes, I know part of the APU's thing is integrating the two... that'll be seen in excavator. 'Till now, they're simply nicely efficient chips.]

Hasn't AMD said they'd be sticking with FM2 from now on? I thought I had read something about that.

 

[mousseng]

pass the bong and stop bogarting it!

Heh, looking around I'm seeing wildly different benchmark numbers - NCIX has the A10 right at the 3220, Anand has it just a bit behind it, TechReport has the A10 right around Phenom IIs and a fair bit behind the i3s, and that link you've got there shows it being a fair bit further behind. Looks like I'll have to retract that statement, but I think it still fares pretty admirably for not being primarily a CPU (especially considering its lack of L3 and its ability to OC).

whats better for OP. 965+7770 or A10+6670 or i3+7770.. just tell him that .. i say i3+7850

Ha, you tell us to pick from those three and choose something entirely out of budget yourself. Funny. Anyway, he should get the 965 + 7770 (or 7850, if it can be afforded) for the best price/performance.

Going of of what Mousseng said, most of the APU chips, when you disable the integrated graphics, have godly high overclocking headroom. [Yes, I know part of the APU's thing is integrating the two... that'll be seen in excavator. 'Till now, they're simply nicely efficient chips.]

I don't think you can disable the GPU (I've not seen anything about it, at least), and even if it could I don't think it'd have 'godly high' overclocking headroom. Most reviews are showing it hitting between 4.5 and 4.7GHz, which is 900MHz more than stock (at best).

Hasn't AMD said they'd be sticking with FM2 from now on? I thought I had read something about that.

No, FM2 is simply going to last longer than FM1. The AM3+ platform is still their main man.

 

[morbious81]

if he wants to get AMD, and can't wait for PD, then you got the 965BE if he wants to pair it off with that 7770...

This exact combo has run every game I've thrown at it on high detail. I've never checked FPS. I tend to rely more on real world experience. I'm big on Shooter games, and I've had no problem what so ever with this combo. Oblivian, Skyrim, MW3, FallOut NV, L4D2, Diablo3, all perfect and smooth. Given the CPU does have a mild OC on it, I run it at 3.8 rather than 3.4.

 

[Guest]

Heh, looking around I'm seeing wildly different benchmark numbers - NCIX has the A10 right at the 3220, Anand has it just a bit behind it, TechReport has the A10 right around Phenom IIs and a fair bit behind the i3s, and that link you've got there shows it being a fair bit further behind. Looks like I'll have to retract that statement, but I think it still fares pretty admirably for not being primarily a CPU (especially considering its lack of L3 and its ability to OC).

i never closed a tab so fast seeing that NCIX was a linus the loser vid :lol:

though i mean no harm in my reply, the trinies are great for what they can do, an integrated graphics entry level cpu. to tweak one out and compare it to more "enthusiasts friendly" counterparts is a bit ambitious. it is confidence building that amd has been able to make some substantial gain with the arch of the cpu. but it does have a bit more to go to compare it to a sandy bridge, let alone an ivy, while really its caught up to the first gen of icore processors and just behind the PIIs still.

on a semi related side note:
i remember just a short time ago everyone got excited when llanos where compared to an i3 2100 in gaming w/o a discrete card and how well it did. then a week later i remember several folks coming back and complaining how bad it did playing skyrim and had to toss out their A8-xxxx FM1 socket boards for a PIIx4 with an AM3+. i'd just hate to see history repeat its self. (i know you did suggest a AM3+ board )

 

[mousseng]

i never closed a tab so fast seeing that NCIX was a linus the loser vid :lol:

though i mean no harm in my reply, the trinies are great for what they can do, an integrated graphics entry level cpu. to tweak one out and compare it to more "enthusiasts friendly" counterparts is a bit ambitious. it is confidence building that amd has been able to make some substantial gain with the arch of the cpu. but it does have a bit more to go to compare it to a sandy bridge, let alone an ivy, while really its caught up to the first gen of icore processors and just behind the PIIs still.

on a semi related side note:
i remember just a short time ago everyone got excited when llanos where compared to an i3 2100 in gaming w/o a discrete card and how well it did. then a week later i remember several folks coming back and complaining how bad it did playing skyrim and had to toss out their A8-xxxx FM1 socket boards for a PIIx4 with an AM3+. i'd just hate to see history repeat its self. (i know you did suggest a AM3+ board )

Ahaha. I like Linus, if only for his cat videos :lol:

Yeah, I get you though. Ambitious - maybe, but I'll be on the lookout for some max OC A10 benchmarks in the coming weeks, because I'd really like to see how that stacks up with a max OC 965 and an IB i3 (though the likelihood of a fair thread that comprehensive is... dubious, at best). I do agree on the architecture bit - it makes me hopeful that desktop PD will actually be a step up over BD (instead of BD's stumbling over Deneb and Thuban). Also of note are the Trinity-based Athlon IIs that may be coming to FM2.

Anyway, back on topic - I'd replace the A10/ASUS with the 965 Black and either the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 if you're hoping for some high overclocks, or the ASRock 970 Extreme4 for a more budget-y option. This'll perform better and be more affordable, as well.

 

[mohit9206]

amd trinity setup only makes sense for upto 1440*900 or max 1680*1050 res..anymore than that going discrete cpu+gpu is the only option for smooth gaming

 

[nstiver]

Why AMD cpu? I don't get it.