looking for an upgrade, is the A10 a decent option?

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royce321

Gawd
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Jan 17, 2010
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so i've been waiting and waiting for a upgrade to my slowing decaying itx e6850 build *Intel DG45FC Board/4 Gb 800mhz/Kingston HyperX 120gig*....its an all purpose machine that plays games *I need to play all of my games on low/medium settings @ 1440x900 , encodes videos, etc etc

looking to play games like mechwarrior online and eve online smoothly with all special effects turned on...for now i gotta leave em all off :(, as well as any other game like batman arkham city smoothly over at least 50 fps, i'm not even gonna try with my current config as my board only has a pcie x1 slot thats currently occupied with a usb 3 4-port card

something speedy enough for my emulator software would be useful as well :)

gonna need to install lots of ram as i tend to leave chrome open with at least 20 or more tabs and plenty of windows

i keep seeing A10-5800K bundles advertised @ newegg, frys, and many others and am wondering should I go for this value priced cpu or go with the beefier am3+ platform?
 
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You'll see improvements in every department, from encoding to playing games. If you don't plan on ever adding a discrete GPU, go with the A10. If you plan on adding one, go with an i3 or FX-43xx or 63xx.
 
yea i was looking at getting a dedicated gpu as i'm quite tired with the limits of integrated graphics :(

i'm still smacking myself for missing that 3570k bundle lol....or just wait till summer for the new lines to come out i dunno
 
You could pick up some good used parts like an X4 etc. Be better performance and fairly cheaper.
 
I just got a A10 5800 with the Asrock Extreme 6 and 2x4gb of Gskill Sniper 1866. It ran me $280+shipping on newegg.

I had a 6770 lying around from my HTPC which I also added.

The hardware i replaced was a Q6600, EVGA 780i A1, 2x4gb of Gskill ddr2 1066 and a 8800 gts 512

Clearly, given the generational gap, i was expecting a performance increase. I haven't done any benchmarking yet (i put it together yesterday) but i played a little diablo 3, which was already running max settings on my old system.

When i first put it together, i was plugging my monitor into the discrete card and was kind of disapointed. After a little reading i discovered that i needed to set the UEFI Bios to boot the onboard video and plug my display into the mainboard. I then installed the VirtuMVP Software. The difference was pretty spectacular, definately visually noticable. I'm going to try something a little more demanding tonight, and perhaps a few synthetic benchmarks. I'll keep you posted.

Considering i got a board, proc, and ram for just a hair more than an i5 costs alone, I am quite satisfied with the results.
 
i was interested in this A10 bundle

http://www.frys.com/product/7507186

but the motherboard only had 2 ram slots...1 pcie x16 2 x1's and pci so not much room for expansion...but at least it had 6 sata 3's on there...plus theres mediocre reviews of it on newegg so i'll prolly wait for something else
 
Aidzero said:
I just got a A10 5800 with the Asrock Extreme 6 and 2x4gb of Gskill Sniper 1866. It ran me $280+shipping on newegg.

I had a 6770 lying around from my HTPC which I also added.

The hardware i replaced was a Q6600, EVGA 780i A1, 2x4gb of Gskill ddr2 1066 and a 8800 gts 512

Clearly, given the generational gap, i was expecting a performance increase. I haven't done any benchmarking yet (i put it together yesterday) but i played a little diablo 3, which was already running max settings on my old system.

When i first put it together, i was plugging my monitor into the discrete card and was kind of disapointed. After a little reading i discovered that i needed to set the UEFI Bios to boot the onboard video and plug my display into the mainboard. I then installed the VirtuMVP Software. The difference was pretty spectacular, definately visually noticable. I'm going to try something a little more demanding tonight, and perhaps a few synthetic benchmarks. I'll keep you posted.

Considering i got a board, proc, and ram for just a hair more than an i5 costs alone, I am quite satisfied with the results.
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Ive built a few AMD apu systems and like them for the most part.

You got all your boost from that 6770. Id still take a Q6600 over any of the APUs. A Q6600 @ 3.0 should beat any of them hands down.
 
I'm in love with my A10 system. Just make sure you get at least 1866 RAM (preferably 2133).
 
royce321 said:
so i've been waiting and waiting for a upgrade to my slowing decaying itx e6850 build....its an all purpose machine that plays games, encodes videos, etc etc

i keep seeing A10-5800K bundles advertised @ newegg, frys, and many others and am wondering should I go for this value priced cpu or go with the beefier am3+ platform?
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You should post all/most of your system components, gaming performance often depends more on the GPU than the CPU.

For all we know you can be sitting with a G43 onboard IGP or a GTX690 right now.

At least post CPU & GPU model along with monitor resolution.

EDIT:

And do post if there are any games you want to be able to play, present or soon to be published.
 
runs2far said:
You should post all/most of your system components, gaming performance often depends more on the GPU than the CPU.

For all we know you can be sitting with a G43 onboard IGP or a GTX690 right now.

At least post CPU & GPU model along with monitor resolution.

EDIT:

And do post if there are any games you want to be able to play, present or soon to be published.
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updated
 
hardware_failure said:
Ive built a few AMD apu systems and like them for the most part.

You got all your boost from that 6770. Id still take a Q6600 over any of the APUs. A Q6600 @ 3.0 should beat any of them hands down.
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While I will agree a Q6600 at 3.0ghz will get the job done, id much rather have an A10-5800k over a Q6600. ddr3, sata 3, on board hdmi, better overclocking, etc.

I havent found a benchmark where a 3ghz q6600 would win against an a10-5800k but they do look close in cinebench 11.5
 
If you're going to order online, please try to use the [H] commissioned buying links here: http://hardforum.com/announcement.php?f=32&a=92

That said, I would start with this CPU/mobo combo for $130: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1162005

You'd get true AMD quad-core at (I think 2.7GHz unlocked), and an A6 Llano GPU with 334(?) stream processors on board.

Then, if you need more GPU, I'd disable the integrated graphics and order this for $140:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130838

You'd get 768 of the newest CUDA cores (Kepler) at low-wattage and with great OC headroom.
 
wurmy said:
If you're going to order online, please try to use the [H] commissioned buying links here: http://hardforum.com/announcement.php?f=32&a=92

That said, I would start with this CPU/mobo combo for $130: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1162005

You'd get true AMD quad-core at (I think 2.7GHz unlocked), and an A6 Llano GPU with 334(?) stream processors on board.

Then, if you need more GPU, I'd disable the integrated graphics and order this for $140:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130838

You'd get 768 of the newest CUDA cores (Kepler) at low-wattage and with great OC headroom.
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I would not recommend that CPU, as FM1 has been retired and at 2.7 Ghz it's slower than the recommended 3.2 GHz Athlon II X4 650 recommended for Mechwarrior Online.

OP:

Thank you for the update.

There is little point in buying the A10 if you are planning on getting an add in GPU.
The main point of the A10 is the integrated being good enough for most things and it is part of the price of the CPU & GPU package you are buying.

Some people have found good offers on the A10 with a HD6xxx GPU for crossfire, but if you buy something else you're just wasting the build in GPU.

The A10 will run those games at decent frame rates, but you will have to set the details around medium, my best guess for that resolution.
 
runs2far said:
I would not recommend that CPU, as FM1 has been retired and at 2.7 Ghz it's slower than the recommended 3.2 GHz Athlon II X4 650 recommended for Mechwarrior Online.
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Ditto. Between the dead socket, slower clock frequency, and outmoded GPU it'd be a sidegrade if ever there was one.

Odd recommendation.
 
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runs2far said:
I would not recommend that CPU, as FM1 has been retired and at 2.7 Ghz it's slower than the recommended 3.2 GHz Athlon II X4 650 recommended for Mechwarrior Online.

OP:

Thank you for the update.

There is little point in buying the A10 if you are planning on getting an add in GPU.
The main point of the A10 is the integrated being good enough for most things and it is part of the price of the CPU & GPU package you are buying.

Some people have found good offers on the A10 with a HD6xxx GPU for crossfire, but if you buy something else you're just wasting the build in GPU.

The A10 will run those games at decent frame rates, but you will have to set the details around medium, my best guess for that resolution.
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I would also avoid the llano chips, if you are going to add any GPU then you would also want to consider AM3+ or intel I3 3220 or better. I think microcenter has i5-2500k for $139 right now that they will ship so you dont have to live near one. i5-2500k seems like a no brainer to me at that price.
 
ugh theres no way i'm getting that tiny 650 as you can get a 670 in a similar size...or was it 660 i forget lol

anyways pfft on the A10 then, any recommendations on an alternative then?
 
If you are going to get a discrete GPU, the AMD APUs don't make sense, since you are paying extra for power that you will not use.

Any Ivy Bridge CPU, even an i3, will run circles around your old setup, and have no difficulty with games at the rez you described. get the i5 3450k if you want to overclock.

for reference, i have an overlcocked i5 2500k, play all my games at 2560x1600 with a GTX 680, and am always GPU limited.
 
i was thinking that an amd setup would be cheaper, plus with haswell rumored to come out in early 2013 its prolly better to wait on that side as its supposed to match amd's sata 3 availablity instead of the current 2 port native sata 3 restriction
 
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royce321 said:
i was thinking that an amd setup would be cheaper, plus with haswell rumored to come out in early 2013 its prolly better to wait on that side as its supposed to match amd's sata 3 availablity instead of the current 2 port native sata 3 restriction
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I highly doubt that you will see Haswell shipping until June/July at the earliest, much like with Ivy Bridge..That is assuming there are no last minute delays..I would grab a 2500K if you are near a MicroCenter, along with a decent mid-range Z77 board (love my ASRock) and some decent ram..
 
royce321 said:
i was thinking that an amd setup would be cheaper,
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Initial costs might be cheaper but long-term costs may be higher since AMD FX CPUs uses quite a bit more power than Intel CPUs.
royce321 said:
plus with haswell rumored to come out in early 2013 its prolly better to wait on that side as its supposed to match amd's sata 3 availablity instead of the current 2 port native sata 3 restriction
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Unless you're planning on using more than two SSDs, regular HDDs will not benefit from SATA 6.0Gb/s.
 
ccityinstaller said:
I highly doubt that you will see Haswell shipping until June/July at the earliest, much like with Ivy Bridge..That is assuming there are no last minute delays..I would grab a 2500K if you are near a MicroCenter, along with a decent mid-range Z77 board (love my ASRock) and some decent ram..
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damn microcenter near me shutdown down recently :(

all i have locally for parts is frys and best buy argh!

so you'd say an intel sandy/ivy chip over the amd fx-8350 and 965?
 
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Danny Bui said:
Initial costs might be cheaper but long-term costs may be higher since AMD FX CPUs uses quite a bit more power than Intel CPUs.

Unless you're planning on using more than two SSDs, regular HDDs will not benefit from SATA 6.0Gb/s.
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i'm not too concerned over powerdraw, but good point about the additional sata 3 ports
 
buttons said:
I would also avoid the llano chips, if you are going to add any GPU then you would also want to consider AM3+ or intel I3 3220 or better. I think microcenter has i5-2500k for $139 right now that they will ship so you dont have to live near one. i5-2500k seems like a no brainer to me at that price.
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They will? Where is it on their site? I've been wanting to get to one to get an i5. How do I do this?
 
That $139 oem i5 2500K deal is already over. I assume the limited supply was exhausted pretty quick.
 
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