i'm looking to put together a machine for my girlfriend. she plays all the latest AAA titles (bf4, crysis 3, etc.) and they're very demanding. i have a 7990 laying around doing nothing, so i want to use that for her gpu. now the problem is, i only have a $400-ish budget for the rest (cpu, mobo, ram, case, storage drive, and am-cpu cooler if necessary). i also have a 240gb ssd for a boot drive i can throw in.
what i want to know is; can this be done? can someone build an entire system to leverage a 7990 for $400?
she's not doing any editing. but that does look promising. and i could swap out that apu for the 860k and save a few bucks, with the same cpu performance. but could that cpu handle crossfire 7970's?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RZsyRB ditched the 212, i5 shouldn't get too hot case has terrible airflow but you can fix that with a dremel, and yes I actually own one of these. cheap mobo for locked i5
EDIT: and yes this is the build @DedSec_ had but I changed it
I wouldnt go any lower than an i5 - I wouldnt touch fm2, too much of a bottleneck. Also a good psu is essential for those hungry gpus. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/deejeta/saved/#view=RNCKHx - is over budget but I'm sure you'd get some extra boyfriend points for building a nicer rig for her. Otherwise I'd be hunting around for a good 2nd hand i5/i7 cpu/mb combo and other parts. There is also the am3 route but if you go for a 8 core fx you need a decent motherboard, hence an i5 with a cheap(er) board which works out about the same.
that i5 build looks like my best bet, but that case tho lol. i actually found a z97 msi board for $70 i'll probably grab. i'll keep looking around for a better case for cheap. hell, i might even jerry rig an old cardboard box or something like i used to.
Here you go. Should be good enough for what she needs. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nMMPLk I tried to get her a node 804 case from Fractal Design. It has the proper spacing for crossfire if that is something she would ever want to do. But drove the price to high. But if she would ever be interested in crossfire with a R7 260X I checked and you should have enough wattage. And you would need the 5th expansion slot like the node 804 has
For most of the builds people are recommending, yes some FM2+ motherboards will definitely need a BIOS update prior to installing an Athlon 860k, HOWEVER you must google and look around to see which specific motherboard already has support for the 860k. that issue is pretty minor.
On a secondary note, I'd Still push for the Athlon 860k for a multitude of reasons.
It's an excellent quad-core for the money.
AMD seems to care more about their APU/Athlon Series more than their FX-Line, BUT this is going to be addressed soon with the new FX Zen Architecture. but for now at this moment, AMD is pushing APU, APU, APU.
With DirectX12 and Vulcan, for what is known and what is rumored, CPU bottlenecks will be non-existant. So an Athlon will be just fine for future games.
FM2+ Socket/Platform gives you much more options when it comes to motherboard sizes. also there is very good quality motherboards for the money as well, for example MSI's Gaming mATX which is just around $90 bucks as compared to an Intel Equivalent.
I'd push @CellProcessing's Recommendation build, BUT I modified it a bit, to take into consideration that 7990 which is very power-hungry.
Edit: I just checked upon the MSI A88XM Gaming, It does require a BIOS update to support the 860k, So i would recommend a 760k build instead [the above PCpartpicker link has been re-updated], and then later on down the road, upgrade to an 870k [AMD's new Godaveri CPU later down the road if you so desire] but the 760k will be just fine.
im pretty sure 860k will suffer keeping up with 7990! hell even my 8320 suffers to keep up with 290x in some games. so either atleast try to get an amd 6 core or go for core i3 or a i5 4440 !
i tried putting together a few different takes on 860k builds, but never actually pulled the trigger on them. still not certain at all that it can handle a 7990. but the 6300 is a decent option. does anyone know how well it'll do with 2 gpu's?
i will probably end up upgrading it to 8320/50 in a bit which would more than likely be just fine.