Some advice on which way to go please

Spangles · 7 Jan 2014 at 01:06

Hello gents,

So, it is nearly upgrade time, should be a week and I will have the funds.

I see 2 options up ahead, which way to go?

I can either pop over to Intel and get myself a 4670K and an MSI Z87-G45 motherboard, or I can remain with AMD and go from my A10-5800K up to the 8350 and a motherboard of your choosing!

I will be getting a new PSU as well as my 450W is not powerful enough to team either with my R9 280X that I just purchased.

What way do you think I should go? I don't do any editing as such and mainly use it for gaming. I will be playing War Thunder (which runs fine anyway now so nothing to worry about there) but also looking at getting into Rome 2, if it gets fixed, ever! Skyrim with tons of mods too.

I know the i5 will perform better in single core performance, but does Rome utilise, or will it utilise, the cores on the 8350? I have had a look around on here and google, but google throws up so many posts from what seem uneducated fools, that I thought I best ask here.

I will be looking at a 650W PSU, probably the Superflower Golden Green 650W that is currently on at £73.99 but if there is a better choice please let me know, would like modular as my cable management is infantile at best.

To get the i5, PSU & Mobo, I am looking at £390.97, so would it be worth dropping to AMD and save some cash? What mobo would you recommend for the AMD?

Spangles · 7 Jan 2014 at 10:05

Thing is, if I am going to be spending that sort of money I may as wrll go with the Haswell setup......gaaaaaah! Darn you decisions!

Spangles · 7 Jan 2014 at 11:01

Well I want to spend around £350 so the last reccomendation is a bit too high really. What do you think of this? Not bad for the price and the motherboard is generally reviewed well from what I can find online.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £143.99
1 x Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £74.99
Total : £333.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Will the PSU be enough though to power the above, along with the MSI R9 280X, 2 HDD's, 1 SSD & 1 DVD-RW

I can imagine myself getting annoyed with the 8320, knowing that I could have had the 8350 which has a higher speed, I don't want that niggling feeling after I have purchased. I am more AMD swayed than Intel mainly due to a slight love of AMD from over the years.

Spangles · 7 Jan 2014 at 11:14

If I go for the Intel, I will be getting the MSI motherboard just to match up with the MSI card I just got. So that adds about £30 to the price which would be fine as it is more my choice for a touch of vanity inside the case more than anything else. Will that 550W PSU be capable of powering everything I have though? I know people can easily go overkill with PSU's, just my 280X requires 2 PCI-E power connectors, so it should be happy days?

Also, with the MSI boards, would there be much difference between the G43 & G45?

Thanks for all the help so far chaps

Spangles · 7 Jan 2014 at 11:20

I find myself swaying slightly more back to that now as I want the best performance I can get from my budget. It seems the G43 board is for a single card, the G45 can have more, that seems to be the main difference, so if I go for the G43, that only adds £10 to the price of your intel recommendation.

Probably go with this then

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £357.96 (includes shipping : FREE).

I know the PSU is not modular but maybe with some patience I can still make things look tidy

Spangles · 9 Jan 2014 at 10:36

Hey chaps, just another query regarding all of this stuff. I was thinking, would it be worth me picking up a Asus Xonar sound card to pop into the build as well? I would only need one of the lower ones as I have the Edifier speakers that we all love on this forum, so it is a 2.0 set up. Will the onboard sound be just as good? The Xonar DG 5.1 with headphone amp is only £20 so was thinking it could be worth it for that extra clarity and crispness?

Would it be worth the difference in saving up a bit more for the sound card and spending closer to £50? I do listien to a lot of music through my PC so it could be a 'sound' investment. LOL! ROFL! ..... niiiiice.