I am planning to build my first pc, and, have made a few decisions, but, am left with one I'm just unsure of. I have decided that I want to use AMD parts, both cpu, or, as the case may be, apu, and dedicated gpu, with the thought of possible future upgrades. Perhaps a better processor or a second gpu. I am at a loss when it comes to deciding between the fm2+ socket and the am3+ socket. The rig will be used for mostly gaming, at least to start. I am not sure at this point if it will go beyond that. I am recently getting in to pc gaming as well. I want to play games like Far Cry, Arma 3, Bisohock Infinite, Grid; maybe The Crew, as well as some older games that I know any of those systems will be overkill for. The reason I'm hung up on the sockets is that while the fm2+ only has a maximum of 4 core cpus available for it, it would be significantly cheaper to build than, an am3+ based build, but, those 8 core options though. I know I probably don't need them now, but, is there a significant enough benefit in the future, being able to upgrade to an 8 core, or, will the quad core be enough. My current rig is a core 2 duo with gt 630, so, I tend to keep things a long time.
Thanks for any constructive input.
Firstly, what's your budget?
Games like Arma won't perform too well on AMD due to the lack of IPC - keep that in mind.
My budget is whatever it takes to get into the platform. I don't know about IPC, so, I will youtube it now. My choice of AMD is mostly because, here in Canada, a 4 core Intel is as expensive as the 8350 4 core.
Yeah that's usual however the quad core Intel might be better especially if you are just gaming and not doing any streaming
IPC = better single core performance.
"Instructions per clock"
Thats what google said too. Thanks. I am going to want the ability to overclock too. I am trying to learn everything I can about pcs and building. That will affect the cost of Intel greatly, from my understanding, as the unlocked parts are significantly more expensive. I could get an unlocked quad core amd and board for almost the same price.
The streaming part is one of the possibilities, "in the future". It would be nice to have that option.
Well, an Athlon 860K + an A88X board would be much cheaper than an i5-4690k and a Z97 board, but the performance difference would be pretty big. Don't simply compare core count - there are many other factors to consider.
Its also hard to make a build without a very rough budget. How much are you expecting to spend?
I'm guessing at 500 to 700 CAD to start. That needs to include the OS which is 124 right now. I also want to have USB 3 connections if possible.
For 700 CAD you don't really get much but here is a start.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/mg22f7
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Thanks. I've been looking at the 860K and a fm2+ board, and just reusing my current gpu for a while until I can afford a better one. Another thought though, is the A10 7850K, in a similar board, with some good and fast ram. The graphics, according to my research, would actually be better than my current gpu. On the other hand, I still think an am3+ build, with the eventual possibility of an 8 core cpu, might be a good way to go. That's where I'm stuck right now. I'm really not all that interested in the intel parts as i don't think the performance advantage is really worth the extra expense. Especially when you take into consideration, that I want to start overclocking. I do currently have a 500gb hdd, and an evga 500w psu that I would reuse, to start with, and replace later. I have 2 cases that, while not pretty, will do the job for a while.
Here are a couple of thoughts for a build to start with. I've included a few parts that I plan on reusing from my inventory.
The first one is an am3+ build http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/tgn8sY
This one is an fm2+ build http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/KzvqXL
This is an fm2+ with apu http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/FZ2bZL
I like the FM2+ build, although I'd try to find a cheaper motherboard.
If you're a student, you can also get Windows for cheap or free through Dreamspark. Even if you're not, there are Windows sellers on the buy/sell/trade here on Teksyndicate and on reddit: reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap
That could probably save you a huge chunk of money which you can use toward better hardware.
I chose the motherboard based on the fact that it offers 8x for crossfire as opposed to 4x on any of the less expensive boards. Multi gpu is planned for the future.
Sadly, I'm not a student either.
Which fm2+ build did you like?
I would ho for the 860k build. A friend of mine has just upgraded to one and is loving it. The R9 270 is a fantastic card for the money. As @Some_Tech_Noob said, try and buy windows from a seller on here or reddit then use that money get an even better GPU.
Any haswell with iGPU and intel quick sync is a beast at streaming. Its a little bit of a pain to set up but much better.
You can with a Intel. I have a intel/nvidia build. Between using the CPU,Quick Sync,and Nvidia H.264 encoder on board the graphics card. I have three ways to encode and stream video. You also need a good internet upload speed. 3 to 5 Mbps upload should be enough. You can find out what you have at speedtest.com
What GPU do you have now? This changes the build