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Need some build help

Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
849
So I'm looking to build a SFF system to replace my now aging tower. The justification being that my current living situation has left me with less space than before and I don't have a need for a full size tower anymore.

My current system is a q6600 with an msi p35 platinum and a radeon 5770

I did some looking around and found that microcenter has a combo deal for the A10-5800k and either an ASRock or MSI itx board

So I was thinking:

A10-5800k
ASRock FM2A75M-ITX
Node 304
8gb of corsair 1866 (have yet to figure this one completely out)
Samsung 840 250gb

and then reusing my PSU and 5770 for the time being and before too long switching out for a seasonic PSU and a 6xx series or 7xx series nvidia gpu.

What I'm *expecting* is a smaller machine that can handle most of the games I can play currently with obviously some degree of increased performance from my current machine.

At the moment I get ~30-40 fps on ultra settings with crysis at 1920x1080, so I'm looking at some increase from that while not expecting a significant increase because I'm also going from a mid-tower to SFF so my cooling/OC options are going to be different etc.


edit:
Looking at going with the A10 for bang-for-buck as I can build what I want for much less than an intel build. But if there's a significant power/heat difference between the two then the up front investment will pay for itself.
 
What's the power supply (brand and model)? How old is it? When are you planning to purchase the Seasonic PSU?

If you're not overclocking (much less heavily), you don't need DDR3 1866. You'd be just fine with DDR3 1600; you'd also find better deals and specials on DDR3 1600 RAM.
 
What's the power supply (brand and model)? How old is it? When are you planning to purchase the Seasonic PSU?

If you're not overclocking (much less heavily), you don't need DDR3 1866. You'd be just fine with DDR3 1600; you'd also find better deals and specials on DDR3 1600 RAM.

I've had the PSU since 2008, it *might* be a raidmax psu, but I don't remember the details. The timeline for picking up a seasonic PSU is ~2 weeks from the rest of the parts, whether I buy that before or after cpu/ram/mobo/case.
 
I've had the PSU since 2008, it *might* be a raidmax psu, but I don't remember the details. The timeline for picking up a seasonic PSU is ~2 weeks from the rest of the parts, whether I buy that before or after cpu/ram/mobo/case.

Try to time the PSU purchase around the same time as your other parts, if not sooner.

The Seasonic X650 Gold is currently on sale for $105 shipped until the end of the month.
 
If you'll be using some mid to high end 700 series in future, I don't see why you wouldn't get Intel instead, because your integrated graphics is going to just sit there doing nothing and your GPU gets bottlenecked by your CPU on some games.
 
If you're going with a discrete GPU, you're better off with a x4 760k then the A10, cheaper, and you wont be paying for a GPU bit you wont be using.

And actually, you might want to consider going for a haswell i3 instead of the AMD chip, i cant speak for all cases, but even a lowly haswell pentium whoops everything amd's got on single threaded tasks.
 
Yeah you definitely need to be looking at an Intel setup if you Want a noticeable performance increase over your current Q6600. The Intel Core I3 should fit into your budget.
 
If you're going with a discrete GPU, you're better off with a x4 760k then the A10, cheaper, and you wont be paying for a GPU bit you wont be using.

And actually, you might want to consider going for a haswell i3 instead of the AMD chip, i cant speak for all cases, but even a lowly haswell pentium whoops everything amd's got on single threaded tasks.

Okay, so assuming I went with an i3 4340 for a small performance gain but a larger drop in power consumption. What would be a good GPU that would provide a slight increase in performance over a 5770 but also offer reduced power consumption?
 
Has AMD made any headway with their linux drivers? As much as I love my 5770, I may go with the 650 for the better linux driver support.

Thanks for all the input everyone.
 
Should really wait to see what AMD is offering soon for GPU, or price drop from Nvidia.

If your low on budget go with the i3 haswell + new psu for now and see if you can stand your 5770.
 
Are you talking about the open source Radeon drivers or the drivers coming from AMD themselves? Either way, this article should be of use to you:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_oktoberfest_11way&num=1

Interesting, I guess it's time to start considering AMD again =P

Should really wait to see what AMD is offering soon for GPU, or price drop from Nvidia.

If your low on budget go with the i3 haswell + new psu for now and see if you can stand your 5770.

I can live with my 5770 for the time being, I'll probably go this route for now, and then just upgrade my cpu if/when the time comes.
 
I was unable to exhibit the slightest bit of self control today:

Corsair H60
Coolermaster Elite 130
i3 4340
ASRock Z87E-ITX
8gb DDR3-1600 Ballistix
Seasonic X650
Samsung 840 Evo 120gb

Let the building commence.
 
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