Building a budget AMD gaming rig

R

raz0r

New Member
Hello there. As the subject states, i'm going to build a amd build. I'm trying to keep the costs around 600 euros. I know that most of you are going to say that i should get an i5 and so on, but going for the fx 8120 is going to save me around 70 euros, which is quite a bit.
I'm aware that the i5 is a great performer , but honestly i am not bothered by the 5 or 6 fps difference in games. Mostly because i currently have an intel pentium D 820.I'm also secretly hoping, that AMD will get a processor right, which leads me to believe, that it will also be using the same AM3+ motherboard, since they have not made any releases regarding to the fact, that they will be switching to a different design in the near future.
+ the 8120 seems to overclock reasonably well, so i really don't think that the performance will be an issue for me. I'm also going to be using office programs, mathcad, and 3d's max quite often, related to my university work. So here is my current idea:

CPU: AMD FX 8120

RAM:AMD Performance Edition 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) 1600MHz CL8 1.65V
(Can anyone comment on this RAM? Why is it called the performance edition, and is it ok to use it or should i get some corsair ram or something similar, since they are all around that same price for me)

PSU:OCZ 650W ZS I think this should be good enough, but if you have any recommendations for a better PSU around the same price, please go ahead :)

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Seems like a decent motherboard to me for the price.

CPU COOLER: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo (couldn't think of any other coolers at around the price)


CASE: Cooler Master HAF 912 looks great

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1500DM003 1.5TB

GPU: HD 7850 The thing is that I'm not sure if i can fit this in the budget right now. I will be able to afford it most likely at the end of the year. But maybe something better is out there by that time and around the same price, who knows. I currently have a 8800 GTS 320 MB, which is outdated i know, but it has served me well. I was thinking that i could fit that in until i had the resources to get a better card. So what do you think? Should i buy some cheaper card in the mean time until I get the money for the 7850, or will it do for me until then? I don't have to play games on high settings, so it doesn't really bother me that much.

Thanks for reading the long post! All of your ideas are welcome :)
Cheers!
 
Hey there, welcome to the forums!

The FX-8120 is definitely not a bad CPU, but I'd save yourself even more money and go for an FX-6100. Hex-core processor, overclocks well, pretty good for gaming. I'd say go for a 6100.

I'd honestly just stick to brands such as G.Skill, Corsair, Patriot, Kingston, Crucial etc when buying RAM. I like Corsair and G.Skill myself, I have RipJaws-X 1600MHz by G.Skill, good RAM. :) 8GB is a nice amount, and yes you want 2x4GB sticks.

I have that OCZ power supply, it's good. :) There are better power supplies out there though, perhaps look into the OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W or 700W units? They're semi-modular you can completely remove the cables you don't need or use. After having saved some money on the CPU, I'd look into a better power supply I think.

Board seems all right. I'm not an expert on AMD-based boards it must be said. I'm sure somebody else will give you their opinion on that board.

Good choice of cooler and you should easily be able to overclock an FX processor to well over 4.0GHz with that. You're probably looking at 4.3-4.6GHz I'd say.

The hard drive is good, does it spin at 7200 RPM and does it have a 32MB or 64MB cache buffer?

Case looks fine.

GPU is also good, the 7850 is a good choice. As for whether you should spring for one now or use your 8800 GTS for a while, it depends on how much money you want to spend. Certainly once you've put this all together and then throw in a 5 year old GPU, that's going to bottleneck the rest of your system. You could just go for a cheaper GPU such as the 6850 or the 6870 and just use that and not get the 7850, I'd say that would be the better thing to do if you are tight for cash. However, if you don't mind a fairly major gaming bottleneck, then the 8800 would be viable until you get the money for a 7850.

After having saved money on the CPU you may even be able to afford the 7850 right now, I don't know.
 
Thanks for the welcome and the response :) If you think that the fx 6100 is decent, then sure I'm going for it. More money left over for me. The RAM thing i kind of figured, and it really doesn't matter price wise that much, since they are all around the same price. The HDD is 7200 rpm 64 mb cache. I think I'm going to take your word for it and get the 600w psu that you recommended, if you really think that it is better. Again it is not so much more expensive. About the GPU, i think that buying either the 6850 or the 6870 might be a good idea, since why would i bottleneck my new computer right from the start eh? But is the performance difference great betweens those two? Price wise the difference for me is around 40 euros. I most likely will get a better card next year, so looking ahead, will the 6850 be good for one year?
I actually have this tingling sensation about the new AMD cpu's being released this year. I'm not sure how much better they will be compared to the current ones, any ideas? And the thing is that I'm going to get this system by the end of the month, so my brain be thinking if I should perhaps wait for the new cpu's released. Ahh so many questions :)
 
The FX-6100 is a good gaming CPU for the money so yeah go for it. That OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W will also be fine.

A 6850 will be fine for a year most definitely. As far as performance goes, it will be a world above and beyond the 8800 GTS and compared to the 6870 it is a bit slower but there isn't a massive difference, take a look at this http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/539?vs=540

Not sure what the next generation of AMD chips will be like if I'm honest - hopefully better than Bulldozer. Be sure to overclock your FX-6100 once you get it. ;)
 
Heh thanks for the link. And wow, the 6850 actually looks great! And i think this is it then, don't have any more questions, and the build seems solid, and i'm kind of happy and so on : ) again thanks for all the help!
 
For the money you can't really beat a 6850. :D

No problems regarding the help. Keep us updated on how it goes and enjoy your rig! :)
 
For that RAM Performance Editions basically means the Cas Latency is 8 vs 9 or higher. (CL8) Like said, GSkill and Corsair make good memory as well with GSkill usually costing a bit less. Gskill 1600 C9 would be a good choice. Or 1866 if there's a deal on it which would allow oc headroom.
I realize that, while maintaining quality and needed amps, pricing may be a deciding factor when choosing ps wattage. With newer generation vc's requiring less power and on a 970 mb/single gpu setup, you could go lower than 650w and still have plenty. Take a look at Seasonic 520w which is also enough for 6850/6870.
GA-970A-UD3 . Costs more but is much better.
For oc'ing the FX, make sure you have agood mb that can handle it.
 
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Thanks Benny, i think i can handle the price on that motherboard that you suggested, it's some 15 euros more for me. About the PSU, i think i'm going to go with the OCZ ModXStream PRO 600w, the price difference is around 4 euros with the Seasonic, but if the quality difference isn't too big, then I think the 600w one would be a better choice, because it would leave me more room to upgrade no? The ram, well I am looking at the gskill ones, and I can't seem to find the right one, in the product description it gives compatibilities with certain motherboards and producers like intel and amd. Hell, i didn't even know that ram was so picky about what motherboard or etc it will be placed in... So perhaps you can give me a gskill ram which will work with the mb that you mentioned and the fx 6100?
 
Yep given the choice I'd take the modular 600W unit. It will give you more headroom, especially if you want to get a bigger graphics card in the future.

G.Skill RipJaws-X 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 will work with an AMD board. I know it says "designed for Intel!" on the packaging but it will work just fine with the AMD board. So long as it is DDR3 and the board supports the clockspeeds, any RAM will work with it.
 
G.skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBXM PC3-12800 / DDR3 1600 Mhz 2 x 4GB 9-9-9-24 1.35V RipjawsX here is the long description i got from the store thingie I'm using, I'm guessing this is it. If so, then the price is exactly the same with the previously mentioned amd ram.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy because it isn't any more expensive and the price is acceptable for me.
 
About the case, as I understand, it comes with 2 120 mm fans, one in the front for intake, the other in the back for exhaust. It can mount 2 extra 120 mm top or 1 200mm top, + a 120mm on the side. Which fans should I pick up for my rig, and how many? And also, wouldn't it make the air flow less effective, if the air is being pulled in 3 different locations?
 
Get one for the top and one for the side. Remember the smaller the fan, the noisier it will be, so get the biggest size possible. It won't affect airflow in a negative way at all, it should actually improve your airflow.
 
So after some discussions with my friends and so on, they said that instead of buying a desktop pc, maybe a laptop would be better for me, since i go to the university and go home every friday-sunday. So if i didn't drag either my monitor or pc along, i would be computerless for the weekend. I found this laptop, quite cheap i think, anyways here are the specs:
ACER Aspire AS7750G 17.3"
i5-2450M
memory: 4096
hdd capacity: 750
vga card: AMD Radeon HD 7670M
memory size: 2048
277004.jpg


But i'm still not sure about it... The desktop setup we discussed seems pretty sweet. And i'm not sure what this laptop is capable of. Gamewise i play mostly online stuff, like league of legends, dota 2, world of tanks, eve online APB reloaded. I can actually run most of these except apb on my current pentium D, but yeah.. The laptop itself costs 540 euros, so it would be a bit cheaper than the desktop. Anyways guys, tell me your opinion about this, do you think this would be okay, or would i be better off with the desktop. Cheers!
 
The desktop would be much better for gaming, but if you need a computer for school, the laptop would be better.

What's more important for you? Using a computer for gaming or using one for schoolwork?
 
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