Rig Advice -£600

[teppic]

Given what the game developers have said ("DICE has a partnership with AMD specifically for Battlefield 4 on PC to showcase and optimize the game for AMD hardware"), I'd be very surprised if going down two full GPU ranges just to get an Intel CPU would do anything other than seriously harm performance in that game.

I am not disputing either that on certain games the FX-6300/8320 would hold back the GPU compared to an i5 3570K, but where this would mean rates under 60fps on a 7950 would be extremely rare. On most games, being far more GPU bound, you'd see a big improvement with a 7950 just as you would combined with a 3570K.

 

[GavinG]

What you guys think of this? Is there a cheaper quality mother board that i could save £10 or £20 on? Have i enough power? Anything else i could improve on or cut back on?

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) £167.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £155.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £90.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £19.99
Total : £648.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[teppic]

8320 - not the 8350. Cheaper and overclocks well.

To be honest I'd spend a little more on the board (Gigabyte UD3) with an 8 core CPU.

Suggested changes:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £43.99
Total : £345.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 

[GavinG]

This?

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) £167.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £19.99
Total : £651.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[Doomedspeed]

This?

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) £167.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £19.99
Total : £651.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

This actually works out cheaper now:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £185.99
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) £167.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £45.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £43.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Silverstone Argon SST-AR01 CPU Cooler - 120mm (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1150 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £28.99
Total : £626.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).



3570k obviously

Same GPU

RAM will perofrm exactly the same just this one won't obstruct air coolers.

Better CPU cooler

absolute bargain of a motherboard.

 

[Idleman]

Hi Gavin, if you don`t have a 64 bit OS you can re-use, then Win 8 Enterprise may help.
You can use this for a period of 90 days, which should give you time to save. You could also at sometime upgrade to Win 8.1 and see if MS will be offering any cheap upgrades as they did with Win 8 in January.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

 

[GavinG]

The Windows 8 enterprise will i have to uninstall it and reinstall a proper Windows 8 when the time comes? Or can i just pay for a key and continue using?

Doomed im in 2 minds again now lol I want to order today changing my mind everytime i look

That motherboard doomed is it future proof will it last a few years? And can i overclock with it?

 

[RJC]

I think you have to install again.

 

[teppic]

The FX 8320 will be absolutely fine for BF4, it may well even perform better given it's an AMD backed game. I'd take the much higher end board and better PSU. There's no upgrade route for a 3570K either, and if you wanted to overclock and put in a higher end card you'd have to replace the PSU.

 

[Idleman]

I think you have to install again.

Correct sir. Upon purchase of the licence key, you will be given a link for the full version. This will be an Iso file, which you can keep for further use.

 

[Idleman]

The VTX3D can be OCed to about 7950 stock. Or you could go for the HIS HD 7850 IceQ Turbo, which comes with 6 free games, which you could sell to recoup some of your money.

YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D HD 7870 Black Boost Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £90.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £43.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £24.98
Total : £643.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QT2G2M) £169.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £90.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £43.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £24.98
Total : £613.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18524378

 

[teppic]

The 7870 LE is a brilliant performer, but I've heard that there's basically no RMA warranty service for VTX3D? The MSI 7950 Twin Frozr is £30 (?) more than it with the 6 free games, but that's starting to up the price quite a lot.

For B-grade VTX3D this is hard to beat for the money -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-002-VX&groupid=595&catid=683

Certainly ups the budget a bit but probably will allow for very high settings.

 

[GavinG]

So after a lot of tooing and frowing and dreams about what cooler to get (i **** you not lol) i went for the following and ordered yesterday, thanks for all your help advice and opinions i really appreciate them. Excited

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T) £167.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £43.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £24.98
1 x Thermalright Chill Factor 3 Tube (4g) Thermal Paste £3.6
Total : £634.48 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[teppic]

That's sure to give really good BF4 performance.

Be sure to post a build log, always good to see these systems put together

 

[GavinG]

My 1st Build

Hi here is my very 1st build, i really enjoyed it, please feel free to comment

Problems encountered:
1) Case delivered the day after everything else even though they were on the same order (not blaming Overclockers it was the couriers fault). Having to stare at all those parts with nothing to put them in was a nightmare lol

2) CPU fan took me the guts of an hour trying to figure out how to get the fan on the heatsink, it turns out to be quite simple as it goes.

3) Assumed my monitor connector would fit the new graphics card na na not that lucky had to test the setup on my TV until i got the DVI-VGA adapter this morning.

4) Cable management ( What a bitch lol)

Here's some pics:

Boxes together at last

The Gear

Cable Management!! (Don't think i did a bad job for my 1st time)

Finished Product

My Battle Station

 

[teppic]

Looks very tidy to me How's performance?

 

[GavinG]

Downloading BF3 and all the additional addons so haven't got to actually play a game yet. Downloading everything i used a lot before aswell.

The FX-8320 seems to only use what it needs in terms of performance currently using 1400 Ghz but rises to 4000Ghz when needed. Is there any way to turn this off that you know off, i think it's some kind of energy saver. I want to overclock it but not not sure how to

 

[teppic]

Why would you want to turn it off? It's called Cool and Quiet in the BIOS, it helps save energy as well as keep the system cool. When you overclock it just goes to the overclocked speed instead of 4GHz - you went for the 8350 instead of 8320?

 

[GavinG]

No my mistake 8320. No i was just wondering if there would be a time delay in the middle of the game when the resources are increasing, would it cause lagg or stutter? Whats the best why to test performance apart from playing a game?

 

[teppic]

Not really, it leaps up in frequency in a fraction of a second. Games will tend to keep the cores in use at max frequency all the time.

To overclock the simplest way is to try increasing the multiplier in the BIOS until it stops being stable, then you can look at increasing the voltage (which will increase the heat). For higher overclocks you need to look at bus speed and some other things. 8 pack is about to post an FX overclocking guide.