Guts of PC needed

UKflames · 11 Aug 2013 at 17:46

So my old NF7-S board finally gave up the ghost and it is time to come up to date(ish). I have budget constraints so trying to get the best bang for my buck that I can.

There is one restirction that I have, the new board needs to have 2 PCI slots as my Creative sound card needs them and i cannot afford to upgrade that and the PC. I believe that takes the Intel chips and Mboards out of play, so this is what i have chosen (but not bought) so far:

AMD A8 5600k Black edition 3.60 GHZ FM2 (Retail)
Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H Motherboard

So I need some recomendations on RAM (manual says this will use up to 1866Mhz but i believe it will go higher, anyone know), PSU and cooler (supplied are normally not very good).

If I can make the budget stretch I might even go for a SSD, is a 64GB one big enough for a Win 7 install, and some programmes, or should I try and stretch to 128GB??

Sorry for the long post, done a bit of research but recomendations are always a good lead.

Thanks

teppic · 11 Aug 2013 at 17:57

What maximum budget are you looking at?

The A8 APUs officially go to 1866MHz, but loads of people run them at 2400MHz without any problem. I wouldn't get a 64GB SSD when 128GB ones are barely any more expensive.

Doomedspeed · 11 Aug 2013 at 18:01

As teppic said an overall budget would help us.

Is the sound card PCI or PCI-E and why two slots?

Is this a gaming PC or just general use?

honosuseri · 11 Aug 2013 at 18:04

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £45.95
Total : £330.90 (includes shipping : FREE).

The i5K would be better but I have no real budget to work on but from your CPU choice that looks to be out of reach.

I can understand wanting to keep the PCI slots. I have a TV card that's PCI and a Audigy soundcard which is still pretty decent.

UKflames · 11 Aug 2013 at 19:37

Thanks for the help so far, I am probably aiming for about £350 for the lot, hence the choice of going for an A8 chip rather than the A10, although the difference between them seems quite small from reviews and doesn't warrant the extra £20 as well.

Doomedspeed - I need PCI slots and not PCI-E as the sound card is an old version 1212M, which i use for basis music production. There will be no gaming on this at all, so the graphics from the cpu will be fine for now.

teppic · 11 Aug 2013 at 19:43

The A8 is better if you're not gaming - the A10 is basically the same performance but a slightly better GPU. You can overclock the A8 too for a nice gain.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-5600K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD560KWOHJBOX) £71.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £69.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £332.86 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Potty27 · 11 Aug 2013 at 20:39

Looks good

Spudsasin · 11 Aug 2013 at 21:45

So hang on I've got a question about APUs, how good are the integrated graphics? Sorry for jacking the thread slightly though

teppic · 11 Aug 2013 at 21:47

Spudsasin said:
So hang on I've got a question about APUs, how good are the integrated graphics? Sorry for jacking the thread slightly though

The higher end ones are around an HD 6570. Overclocked A10s with fast memory are around a 6670.

Spudsasin · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:06

Oh that's not bad actually and does that work with your GPU a little like Xfire or SLI? Or am I being dumb?

teppic · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:13

It'll run in crossfire with a discrete 6570 or 6670. The top end ones will work unofficially with a 7750. So on a budget, an A10 APU with a second hand 6670 will make a very powerful gaming PC for the money.

Spudsasin · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:15

That's pretty amazing actually, you learn something new everyday, so would a A10 on its own run minecraft or TF2 or would it need some help?

teppic · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:18

Spudsasin said:
That's pretty amazing actually, you learn something new everyday, so would a A10 on its own run minecraft or TF2 or would it need some help?

It'd easily cope.

This is TF2, max settings, 1080p:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWnvtCLDZVI

Spudsasin · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:23

Oh now that is fancy but I'm thinking of getting an i5 3570K I think that has integrated graphics too, how good/bad is that?

teppic · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:27

Spudsasin said:
Oh now that is fancy but I'm thinking of getting an i5 3570K I think that has integrated graphics too, how good/bad is that?

This should be in its own thread really

The 3570K has fairly terrible integrated graphics, you'd need a separate card. It's a better CPU than the APUs, but in games like TF2, you don't need the extra CPU power. If it's for other games, it'll vary whether you do or don't.

Martini1991 · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:29

Spudsasin said:
Oh now that is fancy but I'm thinking of getting an i5 3570K I think that has integrated graphics too, how good/bad is that?

You'd be wanting to go 4670K tbh, its IGP is better than the HD4000 seen in the 3570K, but it's still a decent amount off Trinitys/Richland.

It'd play TF2 and Minecraft though.

EDIT : http://www.youtube.com/user/r3un1on/videos?shelf_index=3&view=0&sort=dd

At lower resolutions it'd cope as an interim, I wouldn't want to push it at 1080p though.

Spudsasin · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:30

So would the i5 work better with a 660 or a 7870?

Martini1991 · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:33

I'm AMD GPU biased, I'd take any 7870/LE over an Nvidia GTX660.

i5 4670K and a 7870 LE if you want to make the purchase would be plenty fine.

teppic · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:34

Spudsasin said:
So would the i5 work better with a 660 or a 7870?

For TF2, no. For most of the time, much better. But there's no sense comparing an i5 with a higher midrange card to an APU with integrated graphics.

If you're looking to play demanding games at high settings, don't consider an APU.

Spudsasin · 11 Aug 2013 at 22:49

Yeah sorry I should have made myself clear, I wasn't considering an APU nor was I comparing a GPU with the APU I was merely curious but thank you for you help. One more question though, what is this 7870 LE I've been hearing about what separates it from a normal 7870?