The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

I wrote that simply because Steve mentioned 'Bulldozer quad' specifically, but obviously there are Piledriver 4-core CPUs as well, as far as I'm aware there's no issue with them other than anything affecting the entire FX-series (TDP etc.)

 

Though Piledriver's TDP is infinitely more reasonable, being similar to a Phenom II X6. I would imagine a 4 core would be much better than my Thuban

I would be really interested to see a 4GHz X6 on a proper board duke it out with a Piledriver. Am quite fond of this CPU. The two extra cores make a noticeable difference in a wide variety of games.

 

http://www.techspot.com/review/586-amd-fx-8350-fx-6300/page5.html

990FX across the (AMD) board, Phenom II / Bulldozer / Piledriver compared.
I can't give you the X6 being at 4Ghz, but you should be able to extrapolate that.

 

Those benches are more like it Sam. In a brand neutral environment, most of today's higher-end CPUs are equal in practice. I see lots of people replacing Thubans for gaming, but discovering the lack of benefit or even a loss of performance in certain situations. Granted in a raw performance application, Intel is the king, but in something like gaming I'm just not seeing a practical difference if the CPUs are capable of minimum 60.

A great example, at the risk of putting word in someone's mouth, would be our late friend Russ who compared his Thuban very closely indeed with more than one OC'd FX CPU. IIRC he decided to put the Thuban back in as his OC'd quite well and far outstripped the FX's in many areas.

I will however, admit that in truly multi-threaded applications such as rendering, encoding, etc there is absolutely no choice at all. The 8350 is better. I eagerly await Steamroller. I guess I;m lucky so far in that most games still use 4 cores at max.

 

Nope mine work just fine I only said that because he can save money but I would go with the Piledriver as well.

 

Thank you very much for your help guys, it was extremely appreciated.

In a few days I'll be able to finally buy the parts, at least I hope so haha.
And in case I'll screw up I'll come here for help again

 

Our pleasure and it was nice of Sam to get you started with a good source to buy from.

Post to us exactly what you purchased with links if possible, should you have issues during build or post build.

When you put your CPU/Heat-sink and Memory sticks onto the motherboard make sure that you do so with the board mounted securely in the case or better yet on a flat ESD safe table e.i., like a kitchen table with a pad or the ESD bag that comes with the MB. With these items you will need to be careful since they are static sensitive so if the motherboard comes with a foam pad use it to sit the MB on while populating it. Try not to build on a carpet floor and before handling the MB/RAM/CPU discharge yourself by grounding yourself to the computer case first, then populate the MB. The issue here is you don't want to flex the board as the internal layers could get damaged and then you'll have real problems.

CPU Insertion
Also CPU's and their sockets have a keying system so make sure that the CPU is placed with the corner marks the same, you have 4 possible combinations that only 1 position will be correct. Don't force the CPU as you may bend pins and they are difficult to straighten if you do.

Do not over grease the CPU before attaching the heat-sink to it. Normally only a dime size amount of grease is needed to the center of the CPU. It shouldn't be a mountain of grease either.

RAM [memory stick(s)] Install
If you are putting one or two sticks in make sure to install them in the last 1 or 2 banks, slots 3 & 4 of the mother board or slots 2 & 4 if the boards bank set two for some board.

If you have questions during the build feel free to ask about anything you might have question(s) on. Since we spread the globe here someone should be able to answer relatively quick should you need help.

Good luck and may the force be with you,
Stevo

 

LOL, I concur, and that's the name of that tune, you won't get better advise anywhere else.

 

Well, I'm certainly jealous! I have a building itch!!! The only upgrade I can currently afford, is upgrading my motherboard. Which isn't a bad thing really LOL! Leaves more money for other things. Certainly when considering a 6 Core CPU is nothing to sneer at But is an AM3+ board really the right choice for me(owning a 1090t)? Considering my running it on a 790X(AM3) board, it's quite possible the upgrade could be justified. But what if steamroller releases within a year, and requires an AM4(+) board? Could I wait a year for it? Decisions, decisions LOL!

 

There are certainly solid reasons to upgrade to a 990 board, but you make a strong point that Steamroller might require a platform change. However, it could also be backwards compatible much like BD/PD are with some 890X/FX boards.

 

Indeed I may risk it. If Steamroller is not compatible with AM3+, It should not discourage me much. For the 1090t is a very capable CPU. It's already impressed me with X264 encoding. And a 990X board may give me at the very least, a 10% increase in performance(just a wild guess). And steamroller will very likely succeed both bulldozer and Piledriver(naturally). So whatever it's performance increase, I'll be interested when the time comes. The penny saving begins now Ha ha! And who knows, perhaps I can build a mirror/intel tower at the same time? An intriguing prospect!

 

A fairly important addendum to this - the builds discussed come with a stock CPU cooler, to which cooling material is already applied. With these, simply placing the cooler onto the CPU is sufficient - no additional paste needs to be added.

 

Either this week or next I'm going to upgrade my DLink DIR-655 router to the Asus RT-AC66U 1.75Gb WiFi Router. I've looked at and considered TPLink & Netgears versions but the ASUS stands out from them with exception to USB3 which the Netgear has. I'm hoping I can clone the MAC of one or all 6 Guest connections you can setup. That way I can StreetPass/SpotPass my 3DS with others around the world. My DIR-655 won't allow WLan's MAC to change, only the WAN, so even though I can make a Nintendo Zone I won't pass others unless they drive by my house.

I may have to use my Media Server as a Nintendo Zone if the new router isn't capable of cloning the WiFi MAC(s).

I'm also going to make a Mac/Intel clone for my sister as she would like a Apple PC for her new work and I don't want to waste money on buying a true Apple.

Those are my next upgrades with exception to possibly another Crown XLS 2500 amplifier,
Stevo

 

I have to say actually, the Apple Airport router I was given to try out has been pretty damn good. The 'just works' mentality of Apple products is really quite welcome in the consumer networking industry where almost everything you can buy is terrible
It is mindblowingly infuriating that any setting change no matter how minor requires a reboot, but being able to remotely administer it by default with no PCs on its network switched on is quite handy.

 

Airport routers are nice but I need more control of my router and any of the three I mentioned are great plus one more I didn't mention like Amp routers. Actually any of these routers you can just plug in and go, much like the Airport so they are easy to or hard if you want them to be, more options.

 

I pulled the trigger on my new ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router which I got for ~$170 shipped. Can hardly wait to play with this gem and having faster speeds plus further coverage without adding an AP.

There is a 4w active antenna amplifier add-on I've been looking at but it is for 2.4GHz and may actually impede the 802.11AC frequency otherwise I'd love to have the extra coverage/stronger signal.

Now I'll have to buy some high speed dual-band adapters to bring my TV's,Blu-ray Players, Media Server, and computers up to pace. That's where the real expense will come in.

Santa could be at my doorstep as early as Wednesday, yip-pee.....

 

Will they not work with normal settings, or are you just looking for faster speeds?

 

I've wanted this router for more then a year now mainly for the 1.75 Gb WiFi speed and better coverage. But now that my WiFi MAC address for the Guest environment isn't changeable I'm hoping I can do so with the new router. However if that was my main concern I should have gone with an Open Source router like the Netgear or a cheaper ASUS (less speed) dual-band.

If my new router doesn't allow my Wifi's to clone I will just setup my Media Server to setup a Virtual Hotspot Server which is truly the best option as I can run scripts to change the MAC's every ten minutes allowing me to tag more people without screwing around.

 

It's me again, I haven't been able to purchase the parts yet because of bureaucratic troubles, but that will be fixed in a few days.
What I was asking is if there are any good mouse+keyboard combinations for 250 krones, or roughly 30€.
Thanks again.

 

Probably not the best value out there, but we use Microsoft keyboard/mouse sets for our clients at work:
https://www.amentio.no/amentio/default.asp?page=vare&ProdusentID=5MH-00003