AMD Spec Check

jwink86 · 17 Dec 2013 at 13:51

Hi All,
I've been tasked with putting together a budget build for a friend and i'm looking for some advice. Its been a while since I put a pc together so I wanted to run this past you guys first!

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £113.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x MSI Radeon R7 250 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £59.99
1 x Antec VP550F "80 Plus" Continuous Power Supply £53.99
Total : £389.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Its a fairly tight budget, below £400 if possible. I've chosen AMD as this seems to be the best for this price range.

Nothing from the above list is set in stone so if anyone has any suggestions which are a better choice or just better value for money that would be appreciated.

Main uses of this pc are for streaming/playing movies and general use, with the ability to play a couple of older games (maybe).

Only criteria is that it must have USB 3.0 as they have a couple of external drives which they want to make the most of. I thought I could have a mobo with a couple on the back and choose a case with a couple on the front. No need for any peripherals, monitor, cd/dvd drive or OS. I also have a couple of HDD's which we can use for the build.

I also have a couple of questions about the components I have chosen.

1. Will this work with this CPU right away or will it require a bios update?
2. Best choice in memory? Will he benefit from any faster?
3. Does this Graphics card require any extra power? Can's see it mentioned anywhere.

I'm sure I will have some more questions at some point but if you guys could just check I'm heading in the right direction that would be a start!

Thanks

p.s. I know I also need a case but figured this would be a personal choice he would have to make!

pipson · 17 Dec 2013 at 14:11

I would go for the 6300 instead of the 8 core one and try and use the difference to get atleast a r9 270

cheesyboy · 17 Dec 2013 at 14:11

Considered going down the FM2 route and getting an AMD APU?

For general PC usage plus older games, an a10-6800k (or the older, cheaper 5800k) would be entirely sufficient. Onboard Graphics performance would be more in line with the R7 240, but you wouldn't need a separate graphics card.

Get a FM2+ board (note the '+') and you can drop in a Kaveri APU when they appear next year.

With that, you can go cheaper on the PSU, and smaller on the case (good m-ATX and ITX options are available, unlike AM3+)

jwink86 · 17 Dec 2013 at 14:31

Ill be honest I never even considered the APU's, they do sound like a viable option. What sort of resolution could I be expecting as I imagine he will have this connected up to a TV via HDMI for most of his playback? I think its a 40" TV.

Thanks for the info both.

cheesyboy · 17 Dec 2013 at 14:40

Video playback at 1080p resolution (which his TV almost certainly is, regardless of dimensions), would perform just as well on a £30 A4-4000 APU as it would on a £250 i7.

jwink86 · 17 Dec 2013 at 14:47

Excellent cheers for the help, ill look into those.

The Kaveri APU that you talked about, ive had a quick look, looks like the newer version out soon? Will this be worth waiting for, Is there going to be much of a performance increase? Or worth waiting to see if the older chips come down in price when this is released?.

suj999 · 17 Dec 2013 at 14:56

Kaveri will be released on the 14th Jan 2014.

A slightly better CPU part and completely new GPU part and a enhanced way of interlinking than before. So I would say they are worth waiting for.

cheesyboy · 17 Dec 2013 at 15:09

Kaveri could be a game changer - CPU side is supposed to gain around 10-15%, GPU could be more, and then there's HSA. I would wait until 14th Jan (or drop a cheap A4 APU into the board and upgrade to Kaveri when it appears)