Making a new PC, what to get?

[Symbolic Ace]

this will be my first time making a PC of my own, mostly have them built by a friend but now he's not here to help so i will do it myself

I'm having a hard time figuring out what CPU to get, i want to make the PC for video rendering, music creation, gaming (waiting for Battlefield 4 so i can have a clear view on what Dice/EA recommend to use for that game), internet and other shenanigans.

I'm thinking to get the AMD Piledriver FX 8350 4.0Ghz which is for like £160 at Overclockers.co.uk
cheap and effective but most reviews throw AMD down and say get the Intel processors, imo i'd rather spend more money on a better GPU unit (looking at the HD 7970 Ghz Edition atm) but i still need help here

and please no fanboying, legit answers about what is better n stuff only

 

[chesteracorgi]

It depends on your priorities: the AMD lineup is inferior at gaming, but better at multithreading. That Piledriver chip is, IMHO, compares badlly to the similarly priced i5 3450 in gaming, but may edge it out in music creation or video editing. And please, don't think that I am a pure Intel Fanboy, I have used different CPUs in the past and at one point avoided Intel like the plague. It is just that Intel's SB/IB design rocks in terms of design and power compared to AMD's designs.

That being said, it depends on direct comparisons of chips in the particular apps that you intend to use. Look for direct comparisons of Intel & AMD alternatives in each of the games you intend to play (like BF4) and the applications you intend to use (like Adobe Photoshop).

You also have to keep in mind other features, such as PCI 3 standards, even if there is no specific application of PCI 3 to date, because it may provide a significant boost to video performance or, in contrast, be as useful as firewire. Intel IB supports PCI 2, AMD only has support for PCI 2 standards.

Here's Tom's latest comparison of gaming CPUs. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html