Building a sub £400 system - what AMD processor?

hummingman · 18 Apr 2013 at 15:18

Hi, I'm trying to choose between 4 Athlon processors for a new system. Currently have a x2 6000+ wanted something significantly faster and that will last me a few years!

Basket so far:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Asus M5A99X EVO AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £104.99
1 x Aerocool Xpredator X1 Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £49.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £49.99
1 x OcUK Battle 550W Dual Rail High Efficiency Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £48.98
Total : £430.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Alternative CPUS:

AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8150 Black Edition 3.60Ghz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-311-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967

AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-337-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=1825

AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-327-AM&tool=3

Maybe even this bundle?!
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-136-OE&groupid=43&catid=2512

I'd like to save money wear possible but balance this with performance? Opinions please

hummingman · 18 Apr 2013 at 15:38

PC used for high def movie watching, gaming (can't play Witcher 2 or Planetside 2 on current PC), some video editing, music, general miscellaneous crap.

Was looking at Intel chips but AMD are cheaper and have always used AMD. Going Intel doesn't feel right! And my current chip has served me so well I hope the quality will be replicated in the next AMD chip I buy.

I know Piledriver is newer but I don't know if the best Bulldozer is better than the second best Piledriver?

I don't need a new graphics card, at the moment I have a 5700 2gb Radeon, will upgrade in the next few months. Would the GPU in the A10 work alongside my current graphics card?

hummingman · 18 Apr 2013 at 16:44

The graphics card I will update in a couple months..

How's this for now?

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £134.99
1 x Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) £62.99
1 x Aerocool Xpredator X1 Midi Tower Case - Black/Red £49.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £49.99
Total : £422.05 (includes shipping : £11.75).

hummingman · 18 Apr 2013 at 21:59

Ok... well I changed the PSU for a more expensive one.

Thanks all for the input

I'm pretty torn between the AMD 8350 and the 8320 though :/

hummingman · 18 Apr 2013 at 22:47

I'm pretty much decided on AMD its just between these two

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £134.99
£49.99[/b]
Total : £584.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).

hummingman · 19 Apr 2013 at 12:48

Ah. Well I only went and bought the AMD setup an hour ago! I went for the 8320 which was £134. That meant I could spend a bit more on the PSU, RAM and Motherboard. Reading forums and looking at benchmark results etc seems to indicate that the difference between AMD and Intel (8320 and i5) is fairly superficial and I'm not particularly fussed about 3fps on some benchmark test or other. Hopefully the setup I've chosen will allow me to do modest overclocking and be stable for a few years to come, like my current setup has been.