Compatibility check please! :D

[MrSamHideki]

Hi

Second build but need help with compatibility. All derived from scan.co.uk Thanks in advanced!

650W Corsair RM Series, Full Modular, 80 PLUS Gold, 1x135mm Fan, ATX v2.4, PSU

4GB XFX Radeon R9 290 Black Edition Double Dissipation, 28nm, 5000MHz GDDR5, Boost 1050MHz, 2560 Streams, DP/DVI-D/HDMI

480GB OCZ ARC 100, 2.5" SSD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, 19nm MLC-Flash, Read 490MB/s, Write 430MB/s, 80k/80k IOPS Max.

MSI 970 GAMING, AMD970+SB950, Socket AM3+, 4DDR3, 2PCI_EX16, 2PCI_EX1, 2PCI, 6SATA3, 4USB3

AMD FX 8320E, 8 Core, AM3+, Clock 3.2GHz, Turbo 4GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 95W, CPU, Retail

Cooler Master Seidon 120V Version 2.0 Water Cooling Kit Quiet with Compact 120mm PWM Radiator for Intel & AMD CPU's

NZXT CA-N450W-W1 Noctis 450 Blue/White Mid Tower Case, w/ Window, 4x Fans Included, 8x Internal 3.5"/2.5" Drive Bays

2x 4GB corsair vengeance

[Biscuit]

Dont see any problems with that configuration myself.

I have a couple of other comments:
As I understand it, the coolermaster Seidons can be quite noisy with the stock fans.
AMD are announcing the 300 series cards next week. Although the expectation at the moment is that they will be rebrands, it might be worth waiting till then and finding out what the situation is.

[scaryjim]

I can only assume that you've gone for a 95W processor and a watercooling kit because you're planning some overclocking shennanigans? Otherwise the cooling is going to massive overkill, I'd've thought.

Otherwise it all looks good - DX12-ready high quality gaming

[MrSamHideki]

Planning on buying this system at the end of June but i own a GTX 670, this little beast still manages to beat some of the new GTX series. Which is kind of odd! But thanks for the info Looking up the 300 series now and the pricing looks very promising.

[MrSamHideki]

I might do in the Future but im not fond of Fan CPU coolers, too big and ugly and take up too much room. But thanks for the info, im just wondering if more mobo are going to be released for the AM3+ socket.

[scaryjim]

im just wondering if more mobo are going to be released for the AM3+ socket.

Very unlikely: AMD will probably be moving away from the AM3+ socket before too long anyway as they plan to shift over to DDR4, and unify the socket for APU and CPU lines. No doubt one or two manufacturers will rehash their lines, but AFAIK there aren't going to be any new chipsets, so there won't be any great change in the features available. May as well pick the best current board that fits in your budget

[MrSamHideki]

Is PSU amount enough for this rig? Still trying to wrap my head around with APU and CPU are being turned into one unit. Doesn't a graphics card do the graphical stuff? Sorry if i sound a bit stupid. Never really keep up with the technology world. Didn't even know the 300 series where out soon! Glad i posted this before i purchased the rig.

[Biscuit]

650W is plenty, don't worry about that!

[scaryjim]

The PSU is more than ample - you're unlikely to draw half its rated wattage, and it's a good quality unit.

A graphics card does, of course, do graphics stuff. An APU simply takes the guts of a graphics card, and puts it on the same piece of silicon as the CPU cores. Now, you have a single processor that can do both the CPU stuff and the graphics stuff. It's a little cheaper to make than a separate CPU and GPU, and it takes up less space and means you don't have to worry about the complex bit of connecting a GPU to a CPU and telling it what to do (although you do then have to worry about getting all that graphical stuff to the screen). Also, it's worth knowing that the way a GPU does graphical stuff is actually just be doing a lot of simple calculations all at the same time (that's a gross over-simplification, but it'll do!). Those calculations don't have to be about graphics, and using them to do other things can accelerate those tasks. Hence APU - the accelerated processing unit.

To use APUs for graphics you need to have some way of getting the graphics output off the APU and onto a screen, which means they won't work in sockets designed just for CPUs. OTOH, a CPU can happily sit in an APU socket and simply not use the bits of the socket that are designed to carry graphics signals. It'll be easier for AMD to have a single family of motherboards and chipsets to manage, so it's a fairly easy prediction to say they'll move off the AM3+/FM2+ split soon. They've also got a new CPU core coming in the next year or so, which would be a great time to rehash the current line up.

[MrSamHideki]

OK this might sound even more stupid but does that mean there wont be a need for a separate GPU?

[Biscuit]

OK this might sound even more stupid but does that mean there wont be a need for a separate GPU?

There is no need for it, but the GPU inside APUs wont cut the mustard for high resolution, high frame rate, high texture gaming. It will be fine for more low to mid end gaming or more casual PC use.

There are some cases where you can internally crossfire the GPU in an APU with an seperate PCI-E GPU, but the results are rarely beneficial over a higher spec, seperate GPU and pure CPU of similar cost.

[scaryjim]

OK this might sound even more stupid but does that mean there wont be a need for a separate GPU?

There is no need for it, but the GPU inside APUs wont cut the mustard for high resolution, high frame rate, high texture gaming.

That's a great encapsulation of the situation, tbh. I have a laptop with an AMD A10-4600M APU, and I find the APU graphics more than adequate for the types of games I play, at the laptop's native resolution (1366x768), at medium to high quality. I'm an RPG nut at heart, so I don't need very high frame rates, and play stuff like Torchlight/Tochlight 2, LOTR War in the North, Neverwinter, a bit of Warframe, X-COM: it's fine for all of those. My HTPC has an older AMD A6-3500 APU and is used to run games like Dungeon Seige 3 at 1080p low details. It's OK for that.

if you want to play a modern game at 1080p with high details, an APU will struggle. So whether you *need* a discrete GPU is a question of personal preference. I'll be honest - I don't think I'll ever need one again. Doesn't mean I won't actually buy one at some point, but I don't think I'll ever *need* one.

There are some cases where you can internally crossfire the GPU in an APU with an seperate PCI-E GPU, but the results are rarely beneficial over a higher spec, seperate GPU and pure CPU of similar cost.

This is essentially accurate, particularly on the desktop, where it's relatively easy to power and cool high end hardware. One place where dual graphics can come into its own is mobile, though - With AMD's improvements in performance per watt there's real mileage in laptops with a low power APU and a low power mobile GPU harnessed together - the overall power budget is probably lower than for a comparable discrete CPU and GPU. However, that relies on a manufacturer putting the appropriate hardware together.


For your purposes that's all kind of academic, because you're looking at a high end desktop rig where the money is definitely best spent on good separate CPU and GPU. But at the budget end of the market and in confined devices like laptops, APUs are pretty big news

[MrSamHideki]

Interesting but now ive hit a wall with the GPU, for the price im paying for the R9/290. I can purchase a GTX 970, which would you go for? Frame rate for important or processing?

[Biscuit]

I would still wait for the 300 series announcement next week

Some more rumours suggesting that they might be a bit more refined than a pure rebrand of the 200 series.