Ultimate budget AMD gaming rig (Sept 13)

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1

Hi guys, it has been an incredibly long time since I've visited the forums, but I find myself in need of advice.

I was forced to sell my beloved gaming rig a couple of months ago.  It was my pride and joy, but I was recently made unemployed, which caused me to panic and sell everything of value that I owned. I stripped down my i5 2500k, GTX 580 Twin Frozr II, 8GB DDR3, 2x SSDs and BitFenix case and sold them all on Ebay for knock down prices... T'was a sad time.

Recently I've gone back into full time employment, and I'm looking to create a whole new mid/high end gaming PC for less than £550 (my absolute highest budget). I caught Logan's video showcasing the FX 8350, and I've tentatively planned to build a budget AMD rig. Below is a list of the components that I am currently considering:

AMD FX-8350 4GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Socket AM3+ 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

XFX HD 7870 Black Edition 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Dual Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

Crucial v4 64GB SATA 3GB/2.5" SSD

Corsair 600W CXM Builder Modular 80 Plus Bronze PSU 3 Year Warranty

(old) Antec P182 ATX case

(old) Corsair 1800mhz DDR3 CL9 Vengeance RAM

 

I worked out the overall cost of combining the new components with an old case and some RAM from my old gaming rig would be around £504. The only thing I'm really not sure about is the GPU. It seems as though Nvidia and AMD have once again made the naming structure of these cards as confusing as possible. I wouldn't mind spending upwards of £200 for a GPU, but I would really like something that is less than £160, considering I sold my GTX 580 for £130 on Ebay. The 7870 I listed above comes with 5 free games, including Tomb Raider, Bioshock and Far Cry 3 (along with 2 games from AMD's Gold redemption zone), which tempts me even more towards this particular card. All I really want is a PC that can handle Photoshop, Sony Vegas, Xsplit, Adobe FME and a host of games such as Battlefield 3, Starcraft 2, Day Z, Total War and other games that will release in the next year. Do you think the rig I'm planning on building will be up to the standard I expect? Would you suggest any tweaks or improvements? Most importantly, which GPU would you choose between the 7870, 7950 and the GTX 670 and why?

 

Thanks

2

I'd look at gtx 760 not 670 unless its cheaper

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EVGA GTX 760 SC ACX 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - £203.99 with 1 free game

Zotac GTX 670 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - £203.99

XFX HD 7870 Black Edition 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Dual Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - £159.98 with 5 free games

Both the 670 and 760 are the same price, and the reviews I have read state that the 670 is superior. I feel so out of touch, the names of these cards and their performance makes them seem so similar. it's hard to tell the difference between a 580, 660 ti, 670, 680, 7950, 7870, 7970 etc...

4

If you grabbed a cheaper FX6300 and a 970 chipset motherboard, you could include a 7950. A 7950 destroys all other cards in its price bracket.

Edit: I just read that you have some editing requirements. Stick to the octa-core processors. In the event of AMD's new GPUs being launched, you could pick up a 7950 for cheap. They're not much more than the 7870, and it is highly recommended.

5

Interesting. I'll have to investigate. The 7950 is actually quite cheap compared to the Nvidia cards I'm looking at!

Sapphire HD 7950 BOOST 3GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card - £189.30

If I find that the 7950 boost outperforms the 670, I think I will have found the card I'm looking for.

6

670 vs 7950: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-7950-vs-GeForce-GTX-670

760 vs 670: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-760-vs-GeForce-GTX-670

760 vs 7950: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-7950-vs-GeForce-GTX-760

760 has wider memory bus, and faster clock speeds, but the 670 has more cuda cores and is better for rendering videos etc. They are the same GK104 core.

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lol!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z6e0UtPZY0

Here's the overclocked performance of the 7950, which most reviews do not show. It actually competes with an overclocked 770 at 1440p

AMD is better for rendering, now that Adobe supports it. It has a much higher computational capability than the 760 and 670. There isn't any real need for CUDA these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmGWyAyO9mc

760 being destroyed at 1080p, by as much as 10 FPS in some games.

8

Get the 8320 and a 7950.

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This is probably the best, cheap 7950 in the UK:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-msi-radeon-hd-7950-twin-frozr-oc-be-28nm-5000mhz-gddr5-gpu-880mhz-1792-cores-dvi-hdmi-2x-mini-dp

This vendor offers more free games, I believe:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-190-MS

The card has undergone a new revision, and I am unsure how it stacks up.

The HIS IceQ X2 is a better card, but hard to find cheap:

http://www.extak.com/catalog/54264/Radeon-HD-7950-IceQ-X2-Boost-Clock---3-G?ppc=google_shopping

10

Thanks for your efforts. I love MSI products - after owning a GTX 580 Twin Frozr 2 that was solid, cool and quiet for the 18 months I owned it. I will update tomorrow when I make my purchase, but right now it looks like I'll be going for a MSI 7950 OC edition, 8350 (I want the overclock option so that I could keep the rig fast in future by overclocking with a custom cooler instead of buying a new CPU). I need this purchase to last at least 4 years.

Thanks for your input guys. I feel like I've become really out of touch with hardware in the past 18 months.

11

The 8350 would overclock better on a 990 motherboard. Otherwise, a 970 would suffice for a little overclocking. It's worth grabbed the octa-core processor with a 7950, then maybe upgrading the motherboard when it is possible.

Or save up the additional funds for an Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0

12

Use this: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/DroPouT1999/saved/2ii5 It's 12 quid over budget but i added a mechanical HD because i didn't know whether you had one.

13

I would second Rotating Camels build. Though, I would sacrifice the SSD to get a slightly better model of 7950. You can always add a larger SSD at a later time.

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http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1Dzsm 

get the SSD latter, save your money for a better one.

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I've purchased the setup below (this paragraph).. I took in to account all of your recommendations, and I would like to thank you all for imparting some serious wisdom upon me. I have been so out of touch with CPU/GPU/RAM for the past 2 years, and I can't believe how drastically things seemed to have changed. I decided to switch to a 7950 on offer with a custom PCB and cooling, and settled on the 8350 because in future I want the option to swap out motherboards and take it all the way over 4.5ghz. But for the moment I read that a 970 chipset board should handle a slight overclock of a few hundred mhz, which is all I'm looking for right now.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1EatP

I bought a secondhand dusty Antec P182 from a friend, and his brother has stuck a bunch of repulsive Turtle Beach, Apple, AMD, Steel Series and OCZ stickers all over it (and I mean all over). It's a nice looking case, and I was wondering whether anyone had any tips on how to remove these things.. I've tried to get them off with my nails and a pocket knife, but it ended up tearing the stickers and scratching the case. These stickers ruin the look of the case.

 

 

 

 

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I should add the final cost was pretty much dead on £555. I am using old RAM from my stripped down PC, and everything else was checked and checked again to see if it was the best deal going. I'm quite pleased with the graphics card. It's almost £40 off at aria.co.uk, and comes with the RADEON GOLD coupon for 3 free games (which I can hopefully sell to make back a bit of the money spent on the card). It's not quite as cheap as I was hoping, but this PC should see me through another 3 years of enjoyment hopefully :D

17

£555 for an 8350, 7950, and a nice Seasonic isn't bad at all. It'd be easy enough to upgrade the build piece meal, should you decide to do so.