AMD X4 Raid or AMD X6 Liberator

drnick · 2 Oct 2013 at 18:33

Old rig brought from OC (OC'd Q6600, 6850 card and IP 35 Pro Mobo in an antec 900 case) is 5 years old now so its time.

I am pretty cost conscious so £650 including OS is what I am hoping for, or a really good argument to go over.

The X4 Raid system with windows 8 and a 7850 card, 8gb ram and 1tb HD comes to £559. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-344-OE

The X6 Liberator windows 8, 7870 card, in an antec 300 case comes to £656. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-411-OE&groupid=43&catid=2475

Questions.

I assume even with the X4 system I would notice big difference over my current system.

I have windows 8 on a laptop a frigging hate it, do I just have to deal with the fact things have moved on or pay that few quid more for windows 7

Playing mainly adventure games would I actually notice the difference between the two rigs above?

Would the GTX 660 be better in the X6 system its only £8 more

Any other suggestions

mickyflinn · 2 Oct 2013 at 18:47

Intel alternative.

YOUR BASKET
1 x "OcUK X4 Ruby" Intel Core i3 4130 3.4GHz Haswell Gaming PC ***With Four Free Games*** £278.02
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **FREE SHIPPING** £185.99
1 x No Second Hard Drive Option (ZERO Cost) £0
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £43.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x 24 MONTH WARRANTY - COLLECT & RETURN £0.01
1 x Standard Build Systems - Approximately 5-7 working days £0
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £71.99
Total : £650.99 (includes shipping : £17.50).

drnick · 5 Oct 2013 at 19:59

Just a quick question about this intel alternative.

I see the merit in getting a better card, I don't think I would ever really feel the benefit of 6 cores! I guess the saving that allows the better card here is the processor and to some degree the mobo

The question is, is the PSU up to the faster card and if I upgraded to an faster i5 or i7 in a year or two and/or to a better card again will the PSU cope and secondly will the MOBO cope or start to bottle neck reducing the impact of the upgrades. I really know very little and a little knowledge is a bad thing but my current very old rig needs 650w so 430 seems scary to me...

Jinxter · 5 Oct 2013 at 20:40

Newer components are generally built with ever more efficient fabrication processes so they require less power from the PSU. So in terms of the build options offered I believe it is highly likely OC are offering alternatives which will cope in demand from the 430w PSU included. If you wanted to upgrade processor / graphics in future you'd have to be mindful that there's possibly very little headroom remaining but you'd be best to run it past a PSU calculator of which there are many available on line. Also bear in mind PSU naturally deteriorate with age and their maximum capacity will be reduced.

drnick · 5 Oct 2013 at 22:21

Thanks,

It makes sense that advancing tech would give you more performance for less power and to some degree a PSU is easy to replace, certainly more so than the mobo, will the mobo cope with much upgrade.

The x6 system with the 7950 is a little under £50 quid more at £688ish (600w psu) with a AMD 970 (socket AM3+) mobo while the x3 above is an MSI H81 (socket 1150). I basically have little idea what this means but would one be more tolerant to upgrades than the other.

P4Clock · 5 Oct 2013 at 23:54

under budget so you get to choose your own case. NOT the bets but better that any of the pre pack crap.

YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D HD 7950 V3 Boost X-Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £169.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £71.99
1 x ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £47.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £593.46 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Jinxter · 6 Oct 2013 at 12:36

drnick said:
Thanks,

It makes sense that advancing tech would give you more performance for less power and to some degree a PSU is easy to replace, certainly more so than the mobo, will the mobo cope with much upgrade.

The x6 system with the 7950 is a little under £50 quid more at £688ish (600w psu) with a AMD 970 (socket AM3+) mobo while the x3 above is an MSI H81 (socket 1150). I basically have little idea what this means but would one be more tolerant to upgrades than the other.

Basically you're comparing an AMD based system with an intel one. It all depends on what you're intending to upgrade in the future. Intel have a tendency when releasing new generation processors to change the socket design which would require a change of motherboard. That is not to say you cannot replace the processor with a faster version eg i3 to i5 of the same generation. The same goes with AMD, however there are rumours the next gen Steamroller processors may be compatible with AM3+ although this is yet to be officially confirmed.

If you're able to then have a go at building your own as pound for pound you'll be getting more for your money as you can see from the build stated above which means you'll have a decent spec PC right from the start for the same price.