Hey guys, I'm just looking for some feedback. I plan on building a budget gaming rig. I do not need a monitor or OS. I already have a list compiled. I'm really only trying to decide whether or not I should get the AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE or spend the extra cash for the FX 6300. Here's the list thus far (subject to change)...
[url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qG0u]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qG0u/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qG0u/benchmarks/]Benchmarks[/url]
[b]CPU:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-hdz965fbgmbox]AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor[/url] ($84.99 @ Newegg) [b]Motherboard:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-970ag46]MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ Motherboard[/url] ($77.95 @ NCIX US) [b]Memory:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31600c9d8gab]G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory[/url] ($37.99 @ Newegg) [b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex]Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive[/url] ($69.99 @ NCIX US) [b]Video Card:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/his-video-card-h787f2g2m]HIS Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card[/url] ($219.98 @ Newegg) [b]Case:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc912kkn1]Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case[/url] ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz) [b]Power Supply:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx500]Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply[/url] ($39.99 @ Newegg) [b]Total:[/b] $580.38 [i](Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)[/i] [i](Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-03 02:59 EST-0500)[/i]
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to spend the minimum possible whilst still getting a kick ass machine.
I guess my burning question would be is the FX 6300 worth the extra money for gaming; also, how well would the phenom II 965 handle video editing/rendering? Would it be sufficient? I only do light editing for YouTube gameplay/commentaries and other oddities.
Personally I have the Phenom II x4 965. First off, I must say. It is a beast. Tho its not any i7 3820 but it can deffinately handle its witts when it comes to video editing and rendering very much so. If you use Sony Vegas and such it is getting better with GPU acceleration. For light video editing it might not concern you nearly as much but if you're going to be using ANY of the Adobe editing suite heavily or on a day to day basis NVidia is MUCH faster. Logan went over it I guess? You could pull information out of the negative of his statements about Fanboys but yes nvidia is better with adobe because of the CUDA architecture and such. So if you're going to be editing a lot and really care about render speeds I'd go for a GTX 660 TI because it will beat the 7870 in render speeds with Adobe. Thats not to say that the 7870 is a bad card, its just not implemented as well with Adobe. Overall, your build looks very solid and good for the price. I like the fact that you aren't getting some $20 Power Supply.
If you were to make the jump, I'd suggest the following parts:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qI9W
If you want me to break down the reasoning for my component choices I could in a follow up post. Here are some comparison benchmarks between the two CPUs at stock:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/699?vs=102
Take note of where it says 'higher is better' and 'lower is better'. The FX chip is also very overclockable though, you should be able to hit around 4.6-4.8GHz on the setup above which would yeild about a 15%-25% boost in performance. The PII BE chip is also overclockable but not nearly as much, perhaps 8%-17%.
Yes, I've done some extensive research in the past year. I've also been watching quite a bit of Logan's videos. They're enlightening and humorous to say the least.
And yes, I know that Adobe takes advantage of CUDA. I don't really use Adobe as I've never really had the need to bother with it Although, I guess I could give it a try. I may as well use a program that takes advantage of my hardware, lol. Do you know of any video editing programs that take advantage of AMD GPUs, more specifically the HD 7870? I much prefer the cheaper price tag of the 7870.
How long do these threads remain open? I would like some more opinions; I really do not plan on purchasing this build until sometime in January/February. If I'm going to drop $700 on something, I want it to be worth it. =D
I do like the Corsair 200r case you picked out; it's clean and offers numerous fan mounts. Now I need to figure out whether or not I should get the HD 7870 or the GTX 660 Ti. I'm willing to give Adobe a try. Any recommendations?
I mainly plan to use this build to play older titles as well as a couple of newer titles such as Borderlands 2, Skyrim (numerous mods), Battlefield 3, Minecraft (w/ mods), GTA V, and other neat games that cross my path. I may even try out a MMO. Although, I mainly stick with single player RPGs and online FPSs.