The New AMD Building Thread

I remember when I went from cas 3 to cas 2 in my older Pavilion in 2004. I thought it was a noticeable difference. But who knows. Perhaps the memory I replaced had errors :S

 

Oman7,

Who knows! I can see the difference between 800 and 1066MHz memory, when most people say you can't. Maybe I was just visiting "Alice", getting two parts of "Wishful Thinking!"

Russ

 

Well it looks like Bobcat is officially out. If I was building today, this would be my choice! check it out.

AMD bobcat

Motherboard $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128515

APU A8-3850 2.9GHz Quad Core $139.99 HD 6550D Graphics
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103942

Total $269.98

You could also do a budget build using the A6-3650 2.6GHz Quad core for $119.99 HD 6530D Graphics
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103943

Motherboard $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128511

Total $219.98

Sounds interesting, and inexpensive! You certainly can't make the pipelines any shorter than this, so the graphics should be pretty fast!

Russ

 

Is it just me, or are the benchmarks for these CPUs really terrible? It's been pitted against a dual core Core i3 2100, and a lot of the time it loses, when it wins it's only 10-20% faster at best. Given the 100W TDP, and the fact that the i3 2100 is $15 cheaper, and is only a dual core, something seems a bit wrong here...

 

Sam,
I can't answer that because I've yet to see any benchmarks. Got any links?

Russ

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/06/30/amd-a8-3850-review/5
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...a8-3850-apu-review-llano-hits-desktop-13.html

I suppose, for a Phenom II, it performs as you'd expect for a Phenom II.

 

npb

 

npb2

 

I am building a workstation for using 3dsmax, adobe photoshop, and other 3d graphic software and feel a 6 core solution best serves my needs.

I have been away from the AMD scene for a few years so I am not up to date on their technologies but as an "old school" AMD customer I can not justify $1000 intel for this computer.

Choices to date are:

Case - Coolermaster Haf X EATX Tower Case
PSU - Corsair Professional HX850W 850W ATX
MoBo - ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+
CPU - AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 6 Core
Cooler -Corsair Hydro Series H100 High-performance CPU Cooler
Ram - G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL8-8-8-24 1.5V
GPU - ATI FirePro V7800 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Graphics Card

Any comments/reccomendations greatly appreciated.

 

not12quit,

You've got a pretty good looking set of parts there. I've got pretty much the same rig, only with a 790X motherboard and DDR2, with a 1090T. Mine is liquid cooled too, but mine is a CoolIt RC-120. It 82F in my room right now and the CPU is idling at 29C. That's right at 84F. 4.0GHz was no problem with the 1090T. I could get about 4.2GHz on a good AM3+ motherboard, but I'm pretty happy with it the way it is now at 3.7GHz. I'm not well and this is being left to a friend who doesn't know a lot about Computers, so I wanted to be 100% certain it would hold up. The 1090T is the 4th generation of CPU for this build. it started life as a 7750 Dual Core on a 785G motherboatd. I already had the 7750 Dual core, Graduated to a $100 Propus Quad, to a Phenon IIx4 955BE, and finally the Phenom IIx6 1090T BE. It's gotten better with each CPU. I don't favor the 1100T at all, because the 1090T and the 1100T overclock equally well. Then again, the price has gone down to where it's only a $10 difference, so it's not like you are paying an arm and a leg for an additional .1 GHz. I'm not a heavy duty gamer, so I'm not trying to wring every last FPS out of the games I do play. I play Far Cry 2, Quake 3, all the Age of Empires, and even Coleco games with an emulator program, and everything plays just fine!

I do have to ask though. Why a $200 motherboard. I'm not much of an Asus fan at all these days and have been using GigaByte motherboards for the last 4-5 years or so, dating back to an Intel E6750 Dual core. I replaced the Intel with the AMD 7750 Dual core on a 785G motherboard and I've never looked back. I wound up with the 790X because there was a problem with the 785G and I was told by newegg that the 785G had been discontinued, so I spent the extra bucks and bought the 790X, and aside from a couple of bad SB Chips, it's been a good investment. I can't very well blame Gigabyte for a bad SB Chip. I haven't seen the need to buy anything but AMD ever since, and I've saved a lot of money in the process. I also had a lot more fun too! It does everything I ask of it and more!

BTW, Welcome to AD!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Thank you for the feedback.

I really just picked the mobo based on it being the am3+ as amd says their next line will be socket compatible. But I did find very similiar board for 60$ less and reviews show it to also be a good board.

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 Socket AM3+ AMD 990FX+SB950 Chipset

Many of the apps I use are CPU rather than GPU intensive, thus the six core choice, DDR3 choice. DDR2 is getting harder to find these days, at leaat at my local retailers, and memory is one of the least expensive parts of this system.

The harder choice I have been having is the GPU, though I like to play the games I work on, I do mostly development for them and a workstation oriented GPU seems a better choice.

I use photoshop, max, and other 3d tools for 50-70 percent of my workload. My current E8400 system is a few years old and is still working very well, but it is slow at multitasking, rendering, file format conversions etc, Now that I am getting more deeply invovled with 3D development I decided to build a workstation. I

will keep the old system for recreational game play cause it does run current games quite well, getting framerates of 30-60 depending on resolution settings.

Thank you for the feed back, and pointing me to the alternative board choice.

 

I'd agree with the decision to move to a Gigabyte board. Since 2006 for my various PCs I've had 10 motherboards, 4 from Asus and 6 from Gigabyte. All 4 of the Asus boards failed within 18 months (three within 9 months and had issues before then), and only 1 of the Gigabyte boards had a fault, which was with a part of it that most people don't even use. Four of the gigabytes are still operational to this day, two of them more than 3 years old.

 

Aight what's this new technology coming out here with AMD going from cpu's to apu's FM1 sockets from 45nm to 32nm. I see they only started out with 2 chips and several boards to pick from L2 cache instead of L3 cache is that like going back words in a sense but with a Quad in a way the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto would be faster would'nt it ? strike 2 cores from a quad but the FM1 would run much more cooler cause it's bein a 32nm chip but then again the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto Thermal Design Power is 80W against the AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz Thermal Design Power is 100W And the BIG Black Edition Quads And 6 Cores are 125w. I gotta do some research. I believe this is a test run for Amd to see how the comsumers like the New chips. I still haven seen the voltage limit on the chip yet maxs that is but the cost of the chip is starting off pretty low in the market along with the new FM1 boards some say it due to the ecomomy Here in The States and also it holds better graphics for gamers on a desktop models...Tell me what you thinks Cause. I'm gonna sit back a watch the reviews on what people say about the chip and how there using it,I'm not the one on BIG jumps from a 790X board to FM1 board you can move to fast and make a mistake and waste money

http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-ushers-in-next-2011june14.aspx

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...03-942^19-103-942-TS,19-103-943^19-103-943-TS


a little test run. i found but still whats the temps like?
http://gigabytedaily.blogspot.com/2011/07/using-high-performance-ram-with-amd.html

 

Sam,
I'll tell you what! The Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H motherboard I put in Oxi, made a world of difference in performance over the nVidia chipped Foxconn, and that's with an Athlon IIx4 Propus Quad. It should really Rock with a Phenom IIx4 in it! The new hot MB is the Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H AM3. It's got everything that everybody wants, with all the bells and whistles. I put a Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz, unlocked the two cores and overclocked it to 3.7GHz without any fuss. Very fast, very nice machine.

Best Regards
Russ

 

N_3_Days: The FM1 chips are not designed to be new high performance CPUs, for that you still want to be using AM3 for the time being, they're fusion APUs, i.e. processors that come with relatively powerful integrated graphics built in. AMD's new high-end processors will be coming out towards the end of this year.

 

Alternatively the Gigabyte 890XA-UD3 is a fully updated 790X-UD4P which is a tried and tested design. Have used both boards for unlocking and overclocking with good results. The only differences are USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s plus some minor electrical component changes. They even use the same chipset(790X). They are a middle of the road between the mid-range 880 chipsets and the high-end 890 chipsets.

The trick is having good cooling on the VRMs. Lots of mid-range boards are capable of unlocking and OCing but just don't have beefy enough cooling to last. Lots of mid range AMD boards without proper cooling get burned up when OCing. Cooling is easy to add though. Some heatsinks and a fan on the VRMs on my last mid-range board, the Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3HP, allowed it to OC my high wattage Phenom II 940 very well. AFAIK it still has the OCd 940 in it and runs very well to this day. Without the cooling, the board would easily burn up its VRMs. With the cooling, the board is very capable for OCing.

Most might know this but I thought it was a good fact to point out. Make sure your AMD board has proper VRM cooling if you intend to OC. Also, many mid range boards have the features to OC and can do it well if you add the extra cooling vs burning to a crisp without it. Board cooling is a big issue for OCing and I've seen too many guys burn up a perfectly good mid-range board then bad-mouth it because they didn't understand its limitations.

 

The VRM cooling on a lot of AMD boards seems quite weak these days. even high-end AM3 boards seem to be given something roughly similar to an entry-level basic core i5 board. Surprising, given AMD don't really have any advantages in power consumption, almost the opposite in fact.

 

In my experience the mid-high and high-end boards all have very adequate cooling. It's the mid-range and lower boards that do not. AMD chipset boards rarely skimp on features though so they make a great candidate for aftermarket cooling. My 890XA is hardly a high end board and I consider the chipset and VRM cooling to be fantastic. If you saw what Russ showed me you'd agree too. AMD heatsink fans can conveniently attach to the Cool-It pump's retention bracket with a zip-tie and face directly down at the chipset. Increased airflow to my chipset and lowered temps by a significant amount. The fans are cheap, plentiful, powerful, and quiet. It moves huge amounts of air for the size. Really surprised me.

As a small bonus, my top video card also runs slightly cooler than before due to the extra fan blowing down at the back of the card.

As a small point, MSI is one of the more reliable brands out there, but they have a large amount of mid-range boards with little or no VRM cooling. Mid-range MSI failures are extremely common among OCers. Have done extensive research on this at the OCforums. OCforums member QuietIce has so graciously made a table to show the rate of failure for OCing on AMD boards. Most high-end boards can OC issue-free. A lot of mid-range boards, MSI being the majority recorded on the list, will die due to heat damage. The list also shows the rate of failure after cooling mods and it is way less.

So yes, I agree that many AMD boards have inadequate cooling. But the majority of them are fine.

 

To be fair, the newer 890FX boards seem a lot better than the 790s were. I was thinking back to a discussion I had with one of the guys at our LAN, now remembering it better, it was the VRMs themselves, not the cooling that was really under concern. This mainly stemmed from him running a £100 MSI board with a stock X6 1100T, and managed to burn out the VRMs within hours. I presume it was faulty, but that's still a bit concerning

 

Well MSI boards are famous for it so I'm not surprised. The VRMs themselves are somewhat to blame but the main culprit is the cooling. MSI boards are good quality but historically skimp on features, cooling and OC options being the most often mentioned.

Hate to say it but Gigabyte has never had issues like any other company. I mean I probably sound biased, but every other brand I've tried has some quirk or inadequacy that keeps me from getting the full use out of the board. Even my lovely lovely powerful DFI had its completely skimped out cooling, weird layout, incompatibilities, and funny power hookups(floppy power connectors for each PCI-e slot? WTF?). Whereas you buy a Gigabyte board, and common issues are suddenly eliminated. And try as you might, picky Sam, I bet you can't level very many complaints at Gigabyte Gigabyte has a reputation for quality for a reason. They don't compromise on design. My 890XA is great example of that. Instead of needlessly introducing a new model, they took an absolutely rock-solid design and updated it. Really have no complaints about that, old 790X chipset and everything.

I have a very hard time recommending any other brand when Gigabyte is simply better than most of the competition. ASUS is still the most popular at the OCforums though. Dunno what the site policy is about referencing other forums but I've found some of the senior OCers and my fellow benching team-mates to be a great source of info for AMD hardware. The general verdict is ASUS or Gigabyte. But even they agree with the ASUS failure rate. What use is a board after liquid N2 torture anyway though right?