Please help me kill my console

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1

Hello guys, girls, and all you dirty synths, as the title implies I'm crushing and melting my current console as well as the "next" gen stuff with this build. I'm trying to do it without crushing my wallet in the process.

So far I have chosen an
AMD FX 8320
Cooler Master Hyper Evo
Asus m5a99fx pro R2.0 ATX AM3+
G. Skill Trident X Series 8GB DDR3-2400
SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB 2.5"
Asus Radeon R9 390 8GB
Inwin GT-1 white ATX mid tower case
EVGA 850w 80+ BRONZE

currently I'm going to be doing some gaming on a 1080p tv and some video editing, PS, and 3ds max. I'd like to be able to have up to 3 displays (maybe on in 4k... Who knows) in the future and Will add a second card to do that and do live video capture. So here are my questions.

For now (meaning one card) will I need the cpu cooler?

Would it be ill advised to have the two cards w/o water cooling and just the 212 evo?

Could I give it a slight over clock with the evo and no water? (I'm talking like 4 or 4.5gHz)

What I'm thinking is, if you guys think I should be doing water, and I don't need the cooler now... I'll wait for card two and put the water system in then. If I can get away with it w/o water I'll just put the cooler in now.

On a side note what do you guys think of the case? I don't know squat about cases, if someone else knows one with better features, or more room or is just better for around the same price let me know. I'd like it to be about midsized and have window so my cards can look out from their ivory tower at plebeiani with their smart phones and consoles. I like the raidmax viper too but I don't think my cards will fit... Unless I can cut on that cage w/o destroying the integrity of the case. Then that's what I'll probably get. (Yes I have a dremmel, grinder, tin snips, a file, hacksaw, plasma cutter... And yes I know how to injure myself with them, but I should get about 10 tries before I have to give up. ;-)

Oh and I know I'll need some thermal paste if I get the cooler, anything else... Do I need to add a case fan, or some wires and doo-dads?

Let me know what you think (about my build)

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I would change something in your build. First of all go Intel, there is no reason to go with an 8320 at the current date. I mean, for an eight core it's still a good bang for the buck and in some cases it's still pretty good for the price. Anyway the world doesn't encourage multi threaded applications and the single core performance it's just disappointing. I am still rocking an fx6300 but two years ago it made a lot of sense. Go for any haswell CPU >= i5, I it's up to you and how much you can invest right now. Anyway ifell that the i5 4460 it's a good CPU, if you want to raise the bar go for the xeon 1230 v3. I like the 390, and the 850w makes sense of you want to crossfire it later, but don't expect to go triple 4k any soon. I would rather invest in a good 1440p display.

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Direct x 12 has proven to undo this bottle neck for gaming and video editing, max and cry (post direct x 12) all benefit from the multiple cores. It's especially beneficial when you have 3 Adobe programs running and let's face it this cpu and gpu are totally strong enough to get me over the direct x 11 hump the last AAA title in that bracket is prob fallout 4 and this thing will run it as smoothly as my surface plays mine sweeper. An i5 is twice the price and will be outmatched on DirectX 12 titles. Any thoughts about cooling?

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What's your budget?

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Actually, it has not... I5 still outperforms 8350 in gaming.

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Pretty sure the only game the 8350 runs better with is Arma and similar engines that only really utilise one core, 4+ghz benefits them.

1 Like
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You need a better CPU cooler than the stock one anyway despite how many GPUs you have and for both Intel or AMD cpus. The CPU cooling needs to be there no matter have many GPUs you have in. Especially with AMD cpus that are they are notoriously prone to heating up on high loads. Buy a good extra CPU cooler and try to spend a few bucks on it, its essential.

I think an 8350 is a better value for buck choice. But if you are going for a strictly gaming PC you might also consider an i5. If you are going to use the PC for other stuff as well the 8350/8320 is a good choice. And if in the future games become more mutli-core friendly it might be a great choice overall.

You can skip the watercooling even with two GPUs if the case and the airflow on your system is designed correctly.

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OK, outperform may have been a strong word, in fact, in a heads up, core for core test an i7 is almost certainly the better chip (with a few exceptions like a 7zip benchmark). Again I'm going to be using this machine to edit too, and frankly, what equipment you CAN game with is not always what you NEED to play with. That being said there is good evidence that direct X 12 is going to narrowing the nvidia gap. With this in mind I don't think we can expect the gap between the cpu performance to come way down with the new apis for Multi-threaded command buffer recording; and Asynchronous compute scheduling/execution. I can't justify spending twice as much money for the performance gain, Also we aren't comparing an i7 to a 8320 we are talking about an i5, so there will be tasks where it will loose out (just not playing GTA 5). Streetguru hits it on the nose when he asks about budget which is pretty much maxed for the moment. I could spend a little bit more but I don't want to get into the trap of buying more than I need. The only thing I feel I'm leaving out for power is more ram which I don't buy until after the holidays and a hard drive which I didn't mention but, I am salvaging one so no worries there.

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If I'm understanding the consensus its get the cooler now, it will be fine with two cards if i have enough airflow... I'll take it that depends on the case / case fan? any suggestions?

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Your saying spend a little more on the cooler now.... any suggestions? Will that eliminate the need for an additional case fan? Do I need a case fan now or only when I have a second card? Everything I'm reading elsewhere is saying an evo is ok for mild overclocking.... and like with two cards x3 fans each and a case fan and a cpu cooler fan there are up to 8 fans blowing at once.... how can staying cool be a function of
airflow?

11

Well how much are you going to spend here?

Because really aside from some cheap render bitch/workhorse PC the FX 8 cores have no place in this world any longer, as a Xeon 1231v3 is like 200 bucks for what is basically an i7 with no iGPU

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I would suggest to look at !be quite, Noctua and Cooler Master coolers. You can certainly find a model on your price range. Personally I use a !be quite Dark Rock Advanced C1, which i changed from a cheap-ass Thermaltake and I am very satisfied (on an 8350). But that might be a bit too much for your budget, though.

It depends heavily on the quality of the fans the case comes with and the rest of the cooling quality. So the choice of case is not one to take lightly. Generally a decent case and cpu cooler do not require more than 2 fans on the case for mild over-clocking, even if you have two GPUs. For example I have at work a fractal r5 case with two Titan X on SLI and a expensive !be Quite CPU cooler and its been doing fine with just the stock case fans doing scientific experiments sometime 24/7.

Its more important that the amount of fans actually. You need to have a constant stream of air coming in from the front fan, passing though the critical components inside and passing through the back fan to the exhaust. That way always new cool air comes into the case and the already warm air inside it exhausted to the outside quickly, colling the PC.

Most modern cases are designed to give you that. So if you put every component on its designated position in the case you will get decent airflow.

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I wanted to be under 700 As it is I'm a little over and doubling the money on the cpu for a 10% gain in benchmark tests..... Just doesn't seem important. But If you think you can build me something better for less or equal value go ahead.

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Can you give me a sub 100$ suggestion..

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CPU cooler or case?

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Whichever you think is better value for the $

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Well you are going to need both a decent case and a decent CPU cooler....For the CPU cooler check the brands i told you and the reviews online you will find sth on your budget. All these have multiple models on different ranges. (actually the evo you have there is not a bad choice if you want to stay at the 25 bucks range. I just would spend a bit more on the cooler if i wanted to overclock)

For cases under 100 bucks the Cooler Master Silencio series and the Fractal Define r5 and r4 are good choices in my opinion.

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Just buy whatever combination works out the cheapest and most reliable.

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this is actually not a bad time for this: Check this out:

Normally this model is way over 100 bucks

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Your combo looks fine to me except for the cooler.
Look for 140W+ TDP.