Advice Needed for AMD AM3+ Build

nheather

nheather

nheather

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My son's PC is dying. The MoBo is suffering from leaking capacitors so takes upteem attempts to get it to start.

I could replace the capacitors or just the MoBo but to be honest it could do with a refresh.

Don't want to spend a huge amount and it doesn't have to be a super system.

This is what I am thinking of buying

AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+)
Gigabyte 970A-DS3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache

And I need 4GB RAM. Was going to go for 2x2GB Dual channel DDR3 but not sure which to get.

I have a AMD system myself and remember being a bit disenchanted with what was advertised and what you could actually get running on AMD in reality.

I don't want to overclock, just run at the speed that the RAM is advertised at.

But from past experience, AMD just picks up the JEDEC and can't pick up the XMP, so getting to run at the advertised speed can be fiddly and unsuccessful.

Is this still the case?

The AMD FX-4 and AM3+ motherboards say support upto 1866. But is I were to get something like this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-137-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Advertised at 1600MHz @ 8-8-8-24

am I going to find it difficult to run at anyhting othet than

1333MHz @ 9-9-9-24


Basically, I don't want to mess with paramenters, or overclock, I just want to be able to select the speed.

Is there a recommended RAM for AMD - remember that I don't want to spend a lot.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
The 4100 is a old generation and it's "replacement", the 4300, is the most recent generation and costs very similar. It might be worth getting the 6300 since it's only costs a few more pounds.

For a AMD FX processor it would be ideal to get a decent 990FX chipset motherboard for a few extra features and since they where 'designed' for FX processors.

On my Sabertooth All I had to do was change the RAM from 1333MHz to 1600MHz in one selection box and it worked fine. Generally most RAM will work fine for both platforms.
 
To give you a few future options you do need to look at a 990FX chipset based motherboard that way you could drop a FX 6300 into it and in future upgade other parts as and when you can.

Also for £12 more you could go for the 8 gig kit ... I do think that would be a good move.
 
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Thanks for the CPU and MoBo advice - I will look at those.

But what about Memory - have things improved since I did my AMD build.

That is, can you easily set and achieve advertised performance (and the profile loaded in XMP) on an AMD machine.

I never achieved it on mine with all the BIOS tweaking.

In other words is it worth paying more for 1600+ memory if the MoBo is just going to select the SPD settings at 1333.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
By default the Ram will be set @1333 within the BIOS i think....you can go and change that though..ie if you buy Ram thats 1600...you can go and see if its set to 1600 in the BIOS , At least that was the case for my anyway :)
 
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The problem I experienced albeit a few years ago was this.

Tried several sticks of RAM quoted at a given speed that my CPU and MoBo claim to support.

But all sticks defaulted to the lower speed, relaxed settings on the SPD.

Tried setting manually but to no avail. People would say, just put in the values printed on the stick.

The problem I found was that the values on the stick are a subset of the actual settings (the important ones I guess). I could try those forever and it wouldn't work.

I guess the advertised values are in XMP and only Intel systems can get at those. The XMP will contain a lot more than 8-8-8-24 @ 1.5V, but that is all it will say on the label, packing and website.

My question,is whether it is still the same with AM3+ or have things improved (my MobO is AM2+ so things may have moved on).

I also notice that all the RAM manufacturers usually add a caveat that the advertised specification has been tested on Intel.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Actually, may have answered my own question. Took the side off my PC to look at my setup.

It has a an old style Arctic Freezer Pro 7 with front facing fan.

I have some standard shape Geil RAM and the fan practically rests on top of the RAM. I recall now, that to replace or reseat the RAM I have to take the Fan off the heatsink before I can access it.

So how do these sticks with the big heatsinks work. I imagine most people here would prefer a non-stock cooler and having a quick look they mostly have a front facing fan.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
As said above, I'd get the FX6300 which I have, I have the GA-970A-DS3 also along with the samsung greens as I have an aftermarket cooler (artic 13). They run at 1600 fine, I have tried them a bit faster as well and they were fine. I would recommend a different motherboard though, I wish I had spent the extra as it is very limited for overclocking, although if its really not an issue (which I thought to start with, but its a bit addictive, free power lol) then this motherboard is fine
 
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