Best Motherboard to go with Piledriver 6300 processor

Xein

Xein

Xein

Associate
Joined
15 Oct 2010
Posts
1,461
Hello,

I'm looking into upgrading my computer and I need to start with the processor and motherboard, they're not really old but they're not the best that they could be.

I'm looking into getting the Piledriver 6300, but I'm unsure of what motherboard would best suit. I'm not currently looking at overclocking just yet, but the option would be nice.

I've got around <£100 for the motherboard, and I've had a look on the website, but I'm not sure what's good anymore.

Cheers :)
 
mickyflinn said:
Surley intel would be a better way to go , whats the rest of your system spec ?
Click to expand...

I was looking into Intel but the processors just seem overpriced, or is that just me?

Current specs:
4GB DDR3 Ram (Only have Windows 7 32-bit - fail)
AMD Athlon II x2 250 Processor 3.00GHz
5770 GPU
Asus M4A88T-M Motherboard
XFX 650W PSU
60GB SSD + Storage drives

My whole system apart from my PSU needs upgrading really, but I thought I'd start off with the main parts.
 
The FX6300 is better than the i3 dual core in most circumstances. More cores is becoming important in newly released games. So unless you can afford to go i5 and overclock, I would go with the AMD processor on a budget.

For around a £100 you can get the Asus M5a99x or similar 990x chipset.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus M5A99X EVO AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £104.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £104.99
Total : £221.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).



YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3225 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (55W) - Retail **High Performance IGP** £109.99
1 x Asus P8H77-M Pro Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £92.99
Total : £213.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

 
Thank you for your recommendations, at the moment I can't stretch for the i5, but the AMD build is looking tempting.
 
In some titles like crysis 3 and battlefield 3, AMD's 8 cores and 6 cores really shine. No matter what games you decide to play though, you will never think 'this 6300 isn't enough'. Go for the 6300 if your on low budget and grab a board like the Asus EVO like nkata spec'ed. The board has seen some good clocking results considering its low price tag and it's power phasing can handle an 8320/8350 if you ever decide to upgrade.

If you stretch your budget for say something like an i5, though you will get a few fps higher in some games, you might not have the cash for a GPU upgrade for quite a while, which will affect your gaming experience much more than the difference between a 6300 and a i5 or i3.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
In some titles like crysis 3 and battlefield 3, AMD's 8 cores and 6 cores really shine. No matter what games you decide to play though, you will never think 'this 6300 isn't enough'. Go for the 6300 if your on low budget and grab a board like the Asus EVO like nkata spec'ed. The board has seen some good clocking results considering its low price tag and it's power phasing can handle an 8320/8350 if you ever decide to upgrade.

If you stretch your budget for say something like an i5, though you will get a few fps higher in some games, you might not have the cash for a GPU upgrade for quite a while, which will affect your gaming experience much more than the difference between a 6300 and a i5 or i3.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your post, would you recommend upgrading my graphics card beforehand then? And then saving for an i5?
 
I would recommend getting a 6300 first and then splashing out on the GPU than getting a GPU first and waiting for the i5. If you dont upgrade your CPU, your upgraded GPU will be severely bottlenecked at best, at worst for the more CPU intensive games you will find the FPS unplayable even at low settings.

The difference in cost between i5 and a z77 motherboard can be added to your GPU budget and your overall frame rate will be much better with a 6300 990x/990fx board and a £50-60 better GPU.

If i were you where budget is an issue and the upgrade would be happening in a certain order over a period of time id go:

1. change to 6300 + a 990x or 990fx board (keep the ram)
2. get a ATI 7850
3.consider if you need more RAM. If you do upgrade your operating system and add another 2x2gb.

What games do you play?
 
nkata said:
The FX6300 is better than the i3 dual core in most circumstances. More cores is becoming important in newly released games. So unless you can afford to go i5 and overclock, I would go with the AMD processor on a budget.

For around a £100 you can get the Asus M5a99x or similar 990x chipset.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus M5A99X EVO AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £104.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £104.99
Total : £221.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).



YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3225 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (55W) - Retail **High Performance IGP** £109.99
1 x Asus P8H77-M Pro Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £92.99
Total : £213.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

Click to expand...

The 3225 is a waste of money over the 3220 unless you intend on using the onboard graphics. Apart from having HD4000 instead of HD2500, it is the same chip.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
I would recommend getting a 6300 first and then splashing out on the GPU than getting a GPU first and waiting for the i5. If you dont upgrade your CPU, your upgraded GPU will be severely bottlenecked at best, at worst for the more CPU intensive games you will find the FPS unplayable even at low settings.

The difference in cost between i5 and a z77 motherboard can be added to your GPU budget and your overall frame rate will be much better with a 6300 990x/990fx board and a £50-60 better GPU.

If i were you where budget is an issue and the upgrade would be happening in a certain order over a period of time id go:

1. change to 6300 + a 990x or 990fx board (keep the ram)
2. get a ATI 7850
3.consider if you need more RAM. If you do upgrade your operating system and add another 2x2gb.

What games do you play?
Click to expand...

I think I'll go for the motherboard and CPU upgrade first then.

I play WoW, LoL, Metro 2033, F.E.A.R, Fallout 3 and NV and more, but don't want to bombard you with the list :p
 
What to remember also is that ... quote

With AMD's aggressive pricing, the updated FX series isn't necessarily in an indefensible position against Ivy Bridge when purely comparing speed and price, but it's not exactly an open and shut case either. The FX-6300 may offer 22% more performance than the i3-3220 for about the same price, but our Piledriver-powered test rig also consumed around 86% more power than the Ivy Bridge machine (227 watts versus 116 watts).


AMD FX-8350 and FX-6300 Piledriver-Final Thoughts


http://www.techspot.com/review/586-amd-fx-8350-fx-6300/page8.html
 
mickyflinn said:
What to remember also is that ... quote

With AMD's aggressive pricing, the updated FX series isn't necessarily in an indefensible position against Ivy Bridge when purely comparing speed and price, but it's not exactly an open and shut case either. The FX-6300 may offer 22% more performance than the i3-3220 for about the same price, but our Piledriver-powered test rig also consumed around 86% more power than the Ivy Bridge machine (227 watts versus 116 watts).


AMD FX-8350 and FX-6300 Piledriver-Final Thoughts


http://www.techspot.com/review/586-amd-fx-8350-fx-6300/page8.html
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound too good, made me think twice now about going for AMD.
 
A few facts about the FX8350 power measured at the wall socket,

I compared the FX8350 at 4.6Ghz with my previous 1090T at 3.8GHz using the same motherboard, ram, disks.

At no load, there was little difference both pulling around 130-135W total system power (most of the time in windows, browsing, office etc,).

At load with all cores on prime (8 on 8350 and 6 on the 1090T) there was an increase of 60W for the 8350 above the 1090T, at 260-270W total system power This was all cores stressed out with prime at 4.6GHz. Not a massive difference for two extra cores and 0.8Ghz more

Running BF3 This power was not exceeded even with the HD6950 on full song.

The piledriver 8350 with eight cores running prime and running heaven benchmark v2.5 gave the absolute limit of 350W system power that I have seen during tests on this machine.

This was using a 650W seasonic 80% efficiency PSU so the actual figures quoted at the wall were probably reduced by 20% within the machine.

If you are gaming on an overclocked i5 or i7 the power figures quoted will not be much different to the above. I am not surprised that a dual core at 3.2GHz only output 120W without a gpu

A friends i7-2600k is not massively different power to my 8350, He has a 570GTX against my 6950

A fast gfx card will easily output another 100W to 200W on top of the CPU output. So any gaming PC will use more power than reviews state. hence why people recommend massive PSU's. These may be needed for multi graphics setups.

The final choice is yours, but I can say that the power is not hugely different for any gaming PC and the fact that I have done quite a lot of testing in that area, more so than a review done a couple of days following release.

I hope the above information is of use. The power ratings quoted are for the FX8350 at 4.6Ghz and using an HD6950 graphics card
 
Last edited:
Frozo said:
I was looking into Intel but the processors just seem overpriced, or is that just me?

Current specs:
4GB DDR3 Ram (Only have Windows 7 32-bit - fail)
AMD Athlon II x2 250 Processor 3.00GHz
5770 GPU
Asus M4A88T-M Motherboard
XFX 650W PSU
60GB SSD + Storage drives

My whole system apart from my PSU needs upgrading really, but I thought I'd start off with the main parts.
Click to expand...

Intel are good! but yes on the over priced side.

AMD are good too! but better price per performance. You get more for your money.

The difference between the two whether playing games or using heavy applications isn't godly so imo just go for the amd unless you have money falling out of your pockets :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom