$800 AMD Gaming Build

Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple of weeks

Budget Range: $800-$900

System Usage from Most to Least Important: GAMING

Parts Not Required: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: New-Egg but open to suggestions

Country: Rochester, NY (USA)

Parts Preferences: I want to go AMD, already have Intel

Overclocking: possibly

SLI or Crossfire: yes but not right away

Hi, I'm new to Tom's Hardware but have always used it as a quality reference point. I have seen that here at Tom's you lean away from AMD but i already have an i7 system, hence why I want to go AMD this time. Any and all help, suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you and I hope to hear from you guys soon

if you have an i7 and you want to build amd system then you're downgrading

Just for giggles, I'd rock this if I didnt build my i5 recently. Went for a kind of Industrial/Ninja theme. I nicknamed it "The Dark Horse"

CPU = AMD Phenom II x4 980

MOBO = Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3

RAM = Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8gb DDR3-1600

CPU COOLER = Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

CASE = Fractal Design Core 3000

PSU = SeaSonic S12II 620w 80+ Bronze Certified

GPU = Sapphire Radeon 6870

HDD = Seagate 500gb HD

TOTAL = 791.92 (theres $20 in shipping but you get a $20 MIR, so it cancels)

EDIT:

Crud, I forgot your Optical...

OPTICAL = Samsung 22x DVD Burner

TOTAL = 807.91

Hey guys, very similar to the build I'm trying to put together, based around the AMD P2x4. But I notice you all opted for the GIGABYTE 990FXA?!

I've been debating between this board and the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX, and was just wondering was there any reasoning for choosing this one??

I'm not looking for a big gaming system but instead a solid multi-tasker with some additional gaming, so I thought about RAM and future proofing with a healthy 16Gb. I had looked at the Mushkin @ 1.35V for stability and possible future OC, but wasn't sure if it was the way to go?

You seem to be the guys in the now, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated

Hey guys I have compiled a decent list of parts and it's just a little over the $800 budget but I can handle that. Please let me know if all is copatible and looks good. Thanks again to everyone for there help too.

GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $134.99

AZZA Triton 401 Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $29.99 (with rebate)

RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-730SS 730W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply $59.99 ($5.99 shipping)

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL $46.99

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $165.99

LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM $17.99

*COMBO
*HIS IceQ X Turbo H695QNT2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
*AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDZ980FBK4DGM - OEM $413.98

Total=$869.92

I'll still suggest at $800 you can get an i5-2400 or 2500 thats better than ever single chip AMD makes

FX 6100 or FX 4100
Asrock 970 series chipset mb
2 x4 gig of RAM
hyper 212 cooler

You should easily hit 4.5 GHz with this set up

GTX 560 ti or Radeon 6950

Antec 300 two case

500- 600 watt psu

As you can see here from this page of the article the screwed up squirrel posted b4
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 120-4.html

the FX 4100 plays BF3 at 1080p resolution LESS THAN ONE fps slower than the intel fanboy favorite the 2500k

BF3 isn't CPU bound.

the overall result is far clearer:

I did have a similar build to this, as noted above, which was actually designed for multi-tasking (which is supposedly what AMD do) and not gaming (which is what Intel do), but with further research the age of the AMD really shows.

Yes there's a lot to be said for the Phenom, but if you go 960T there's the possibility of 6 cores and some serious power after an unlock and overclock (5 mins reading around), however, this is almost always required atm just to keep up with Intel. It's just a case of age as the new generation of FX just doesn't cut it. Where as a new i5 2500k straight out of the box will put all AMD bellow FX8100 to shame.

I hate to say it, I've always had a thing for AMD, but Phenoms have had their day. Bulldozer was the replacement and they're just not going to cut it. Price per pound, you just wont get the performance you want from a similar priced AMD to Intel when gaming, although you want to keep price down. AMD is cheaper, but they're tired and sadly Bulldozer wasn't the stimulus they needed.

Maybe check out my build, especially GPU for BF3:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] ild-please

I am new to Tom's Hardware but have always used it as a reference point. I am looking to build an AMD Gaming Rig, but not very familiar with all the choices and compatibility. I do not live near a Micro center (Rochester,NY) so New-egg is preferred site but open to suggestions, and I'm looking to make purchases in the next couple weeks. All that is needed tower and components, have OS,monitor,keyboard, mouse. Any and all help is greatly appreciated, thank you

ya sorry about that, wasn't exactly sure where to post until I found the New Build forum in System. thanks though

Update : didn't see that you had an os, it'll be around 600 without it, you could maybe get a 6870, maybe a bigger hard drive/better case. hope i helped

well since he want an AMD build lets give it to him, since you have an OS, go get a better case, no need for a bigger hdd, as price right now doesn't seems worth it, since when the time comes for you to junk your system out, the case always stays..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220557
this for ram,

this for the case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119239

and what drew13 recommended, just that exchange those ram and case for this

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

At this price point, I really can't see why you'd want an AMD. An $800 Intel build doesn't have to skimp on the graphics or PSU. Indeed, if you're planning on pairing the Phenom with a higher end GPU, you're going to have a CPU bottleneck in your gaming anyway.

This may be a bit dated in pricing, particularly the HDD, but it's only slightly over your budget and will give you bounds of extra performance, efficiency, and longevity.

$220 i5-2500K
$150 Z68 Board ( Less if you're willing to go P67 )
$50 4GB RAM
$60 Case
$90 650W Antec Green PSU
$20 DVD Drive
$170 Radeon 6870
$760 Total

Then throw whatever you can at a HDD. Yeah, it might be a little over your $800 budget, but I'd be willing to spend 10% over my budget if it meant a 20%+ performance and longevity boost.

Well I have made all my purchases and just wanted to thank everyone for the help and advice. The final build looks like this.

1x MSI 990FXA-GD65 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s

1x AMD FX-6100 Zambezi 3.3GHz Socket AM3+

1x SAPPHIRE 100312-3SR Radeon HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition 2GB 256-bit (Dual BIOS Switch)

1x G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

1x RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, New Version

1x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500413AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s

1x NZXT M59 - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

1x LG 22X Super-Multi DVD

2x Rosewill RFA-120-K 120mm Case Fan

1x Rosewill RFA-120-BL 120mm 4 Blue LEDs LED Case Fan

1x LOGISYS Computer CLK12BL2 12" DUAL COLD CATHODE KIT

1x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Total With Shipping=$905.33

I went a little over the budget I wanted but I picked up some extra shifts and I've got just about $100 coming back in Rebates...hopefully. lol So thank you guys again and please give feed back as I should be getting everything tomorrow or the day after, so I'll see if I can post some picks of the finished product.