CPU+MOBO+RAM+HDD £350-370

honosuseri said:
Bulldozer or "Faildozer" as it was nicknamed was a flop anyway. That's what I mean by not expecting much from AMD, we have no idea what the performance of Steamroller will be. You see in most threads people tend to have their setup for a good 3 years or so before upgrading and then it tends to be a new mobo bundle purchased. Of course there are always "Tech junkies" who have to play with the newest kit ;)
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We don't know what will come with Steamroller, but if it's not much of an upgrade then there's still Steamroller+1. With Ivy Bridge you've got nothing - you either buy a dirt cheap budget board, or you spend out on an expensive board that has no possible CPU upgrade. If the i5 offers no performance gain in the games you play, it makes no sense to me to go down that route.

I've got the feeling that Steamroller is going to be pretty good. With new games already using the FX cores well, all it needs a bit of a boost and it'll be easily up there with the top end Intel CPUs in all modern games.
 
uksoldierboy said:
Cheers hono,
Like the look of that 3570k system..pah!
So bloody difficult to decide!
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No worries fella. If you haven't already subscribe to Tiny Tom logans youtube channel (timetolivecustoms). He has video reviewed the 8350 (he didn't like it) and also did that MITX system review I hinted at earlier (I can't link it as it's a competitor system and forum rules forbid it).

Yes it can be confusing. To upgrade your sig then dropping in an 8320 makes sense. Your mobo is good for OC'ing and it can run dual GPUs in sync, if your PSU can't hack it you'd still have cash to upgrade that.

TTL put that All AMD rig up against the SandyBridge-E which is mega money in comparison but old tech as Ivy-E is due soon. The AMD setup held up very well against it for gaming but then you see the Ivy 3570K with a 7870LE (that GPU is MUCH cheaper than the 7970 in the AMD rig) and it wins in almost every game.

I'm not picking on Teppic as I know he is trying to help but I think it says a lot when he spent his own cash on the intel setup ;)
 
honosuseri said:
I'm not picking on Teppic as I know he is trying to help but I think it says a lot when he spent his own cash on the intel setup ;)
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That doesn't say anything at all. I already said my main system is used for much more than gaming. I only recommend things I would buy myself in that situation.
 
Ah right i see the confusion,
Sorry guys i should have said, the system in my sig is/was my main system, it has recently been sold :(
So I'm starting fresh,
Got monitor
Psu
keyboard
mouse
OS
Gpu
 
My advice would be the FX route because i) you'll be getting equal performance ii) it's a lot cheaper iii) if Steamroller turns out to be amazing, you can instantly upgrade to that.

In no way am I saying that getting a 3570K system would be bad, I just don't see any advantages considering the above.

There are certainly bad reviews out there of the 8320/8350, but a single youtube review doesn't negate the countless benchmarks and tech site reviews that show it to be equal in games like BF3 and the others I posted above. Don't get the 8350 though, it's not worth the extra when the 8320 overclocks fine (it's best for people who want 5GHz+ overclocks on high end cooling).
 
Both suggestions seem to have equal pros and cons, just depends what the OP thinks will suit him best.

Personally I'd be tempted to go with teppic's spec, but with a cheaper mobo and put the money saved towards the next GPU or a SSD if you don't have one.
 
If the 4670K build is in budget, I'd go for that. The FX build for lower cost (using the cheaper RAM in it of course comes down further).

I put in a higher end board to make sure that there'll be no issues upgrading with a next gen 8 core CPU later on - the cheaper boards tend not to run these too well.
 
uksoldierboy said:
Hono,
do you think i'd be better going with that I5 build rather than say..
Fx6300-or 8350
Asus m5a99x evo Rev 2.0
same ram
same Hdd
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Intel makes for the better all round rig dude, that is why Teppic put his cash into it. That is where I would put my cash and if I could I would try for the Haswell spec rig.

Some fairly recent Crysis 3 benchmarks HERE

Ok they are headlining with the i7K vs the 8350 but scroll down a bit. You see the 3470 is pretty much bang on with the 8350 at stock. The 3570K is clocked faster and being a K CPU you can overclock it, it's just missing the Hyperthreading from the i7. With a decent cooler you can expect around 4.4Ghz. Keep in mind that the overclocked i5K is using less power than the AMD CPUs at stock too.

We all know the old saying "Can it run Crysis?" it even made it as an achievement on consoles lol Crysis 2 wasn't as demanding as the original was to rigs back in the day but Crysis 3 is a return to form. If you are chasing Ultra specs on it you can throw some serious cash at components but it's diminishing returns.

The 8320 is pretty cheap, the 990 mobos offer decent overclocking over the 970 and Dual GPU possibilities for that cash it is a bonus. I understand why it's tempting to those on a budget and that's why Teppic is pointing it out as an alternative. He has done some AMD specs recently which I've tweaked slightly, it's not what I would buy but I won't knock anyone if that's what they want to do.
 
But that very Crysis review says, "Looking at the performance of various processors and platforms, it's safe to say you'll want to play Crysis 3 with a quad-core processor -- and not just any old quad-core like the Athlon II X4. It'll need some muscle. The FX-8350 surprised us with 61fps, just a few frames slower than the Core i7-3770K."

The few frames = 3.

(And they overclocked it to 4.5GHz to get 67fps.)

The conclusion:

"For starters, you'll definitely want a quad-core processor, preferably a recent Core i5/i7 or the FX-8350"
 
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Yes thank you Teppic I can read believe it or not ;)

Nobody should buy the 8350, the 8320 makes more sense, I literally spat my coffee out when i saw the pricing of their 9590! AMD is an option but it's not where I'm putting my money which you haven't done either.

The other pro to Intel is the IGP, whilst basically useless for gaming should the dedicated GPU have a fault it's a simple case of removing it to troubleshoot the issue. The intel IGP is also used by quicksync to help speed up video encoding with supporting software.

We do our best here to spec the best all round rig for the cash. RJC and Idleman are well established members who are also backing intel too. I have a feeling my buddy didn't use the B grade Z77-D3H as the OP stated he wanted NEW parts. It would make sense to buy a heatsink for the bundle too which makes the B grade mobo even more tempting.

The Conclusion:

You'd support AMD better by buying their products ;)
 
You should only get an AMD FX if you can afford a decent Asus motherboard to go with it, ASRock tend to have throttling problems.

Just Google "asrock 990fx extreme3 throttling" to see what I mean.

I'd always recommend an i5 though because in 95% of applications it is faster.
 
Potty27 said:
I don't see the point in comparing teppic's i7 4770K with the 8320 he recommended for a lower budget?
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Me neither, when I said I'd recommend Haswell for a higher budget, plus as I've said twice now already, I have this CPU for reasons other than gaming.
 
teppic said:
The 3570K is fine, but there's no upgrade option. I'd be reluctant to spend out on new hardware that can't be upgraded, when something a lot cheaper would do as well for just about everything.
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And where is the upgrade path with Haswell? As I don`t think Broadwell or should I say Haswell Refresh, will be a significant upgrade. An IB or Haswell will still be good for a few years, without the need to upgrade Cpu.
 
There's room for an upgrade with Haswell, there's guaranteed none with Ivy Bridge. You also have the benefit on the platform of more native SATA 6 ports (2 is not great these days).

Anyway...

The OP wanted, "Need the best i can get for gaming with a budget of £350-370. Sole use is for gaming."

I've given that, even under budget, with good upgrade potential. Haswell is over budget, or I would have suggested that. I've given a lot of explanation and benchmarks for my recommendation and I've got a bit sick of hitting my head against an Intel brick wall.

As for the suggestion that my opinion is less important because I've been on this forum for less time is ludicrous. I've spent half my adult life writing for PC magazines, and I'm quite capable of being objective.

That's all I'm going to say on this topic now, as it's just going around in circles.
 
Thanks guys,
Really grateful to all the help and suggestions.
It's extremely difficult as I know if I could stretch the budget a little more I could go haswell...
But I need to be strict so it's looking like another AMD build.
I trust the Asus m5a99x evo boards as it what I had, very good boards with stellar overclocking.
So unless I can find an extra 50 to add to the budget..ill be ordering this tomorrow..
Asus m5a99x evo rev 2
Amd 8320 black edition
Specced ram and hdd.
So wish I could just put the extra to the budget though...
One more thing.. The gpu I have is a his 6950, if indeed it can be flashed, how would it compare to the 7970 I used to have?
 
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