AMD A8 for now..wait for Haswell?

hadbeen

New member
Laptop video card crapped out on me after 6 years leaving me without a computer at home. I am planning on building a powerhouse of a rig, I need a PC now, but want to wait for Haswell and DDR4 to come out. I am going to be really busy in the next year and don't think I'll have much time for gaming or need for a powerhouse PC. I was thinking I'd invest a few hundred in getting an A8 processor, a motherboard and 4-8gb of memory so that I can have a functioning PC until I am able to get my hands on the parts that I want. I am wondering what you all think and if the A8 will be able to easily be able to play x264 encoded videos. Thanks!
 
I disagree. I think that if you just want an every day browsing PC on the cheap to tide you over until the next Intel iteration, then an A8 would be just fine.
The main thing you need for a Google-Chrome machine is RAM...god damn Chrome likes to chug RAM.
 
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I agree with Josh. Buy a cheap little system for the time being and when you have the time and cash, splash out on a nice powerhouse system.
 
thanks for the response,guys. I already have an HAF X case and 850w PS. I have been reading a lot about IB vs SB OC'ing performance and have pretty much come to the conclusion that if I'm not going to have free time to enjoy an OC'd powerhouse for around a year..I might as well wait till the haswell when they've "perfected" their 22nm process. I'm under the impression that nobody really knows what haswell's capacity for OC'ing, but I feel that it wont be worse than IB. Once I'm out of school in the spring I'll have some time to actually play some PC games and I plan to load up my rig with maybe a 8 series radeon (if they're out by then) and possibly do a dual WC loop and add a SSD or two for the OS and for games.
My only real concern is the A8's ability to do HD playback. I watch a lot of TV shows on my PC and I want to be sure that it will be able to handle any kind of format (i.e. 10bit x264 1920X1080 .mkv) with no trouble at all. My plan is to buy an inexpensive ATX Mid Tower/Micro ATX case (depending on which MB I choose for the A8) buy a 1-2TB HD, and a ~400-500w PS and have that as a media PC in another room.
As long as the A8 can do video playback well (I figure it should because it's half GPU in addition to the CPU) I think I'll be patient and wait to build my dream PC :lol:
 
The integrated graphics on the A8 far surpasses anything that Intel have going for them at the moment - video playback should be of no issue whatsoever.
And yeah, expect some pretty hefty performance increases with Haswel. It should be the new SB.
 
I built a system around an A8 a few months ago for my daughter, it is perfect for a browsing, low end gaming pc. The integrated 6550 graphics will play most stuff if you dial the res down. It will easily play any HD content you throw at it.
 
thanks for the input, I really do want to just spend the money now and build what I really want..but I do think it'll be worth waiting. What I am wondering though is whether or not DDR4 ram/Haswell will make much of a difference if I have a HD bottleneck? I planned on getting two SSD's, one for the OS and another for just games. Taking my plan into consideration, do you think there'd be much of a difference Between a IB/DDR3 and Haswell/DDR4 build?
 
Intel work on what they refer to as a tick/tock model. The transition from 32nm Sandy Bridge to 22nm Ivy Bridge was a tick, which mainly concentrated on a die shrink and as a result only netted a comparatively small increase in performance from SB to IB.
It is the tock part of the cycle that normally sees significant leaps in performance. However the current crop of Intel processors is excellent, and is more than adequate for a gaming pc.
 
+1 for sheroo. excellent descript
make your best deal on a game system and use it.. there will always be a better deal
or price point, it'll make yourself crazy waiting. just do it and use it...

airdeano
 
+1 for sheroo. excellent descript
make your best deal on a game system and use it.. there will always be a better deal
or price point, it'll make yourself crazy waiting. just do it and use it...

airdeano

while I agree that there will always be something better, faster..etc around the corner..if I don't really have free time to enjoy IB's performance, would you agree that waiting to build my "within my budget" dream PC till a time when I can actually have some free time to enjoy the difference in performance between an A8 and IB/Haswell? I know the way I stated that is a bit confusing..but you get what I mean..lol
 
no, i understand completly. i did for years to "slow" build and plan rigs and those were the most
expensive builds i had every done. technology changes so fast, price points are not stable,
and the market idea is always changing. right now, i'd have 12 PC's with different systems
and cooling solutions, just to do it.

so the waiting game is not for me, maybe for you... but you'll write a book on what to have,
what to get and plunk down the cash and, aww shucks something else is better, faster
or more brillant.

budgets are to limit how much you will not try and go over. i have bought many basket
cases on the cheap, because they lost interest, can't pay for it, or went a different direction.
thats how i fund my habit.
if you see a plan of three months till done, wait it out. wait for 6-months till done, you are on that
edge of switch-a-roo technology. wait for 9-months plus, get you budget and inflate it..
new tech is always expensive tech. and in three months it has settled in price level, because the
next new gadget, everyone has got to have...

dunna know how old you are, but it reminds me of the Dr. Suess story "The Star-Belly Snitches"
a rotating line of bodys changing and changing and changing. the only thing that came out
of it, was the guy applying and removing the stars from the Snitches made out like a bandit..

you do what you gotta do, my opinion is make your best low-dollar deal and pull the trigger
now

airdeano
 
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I ended up picking up these three parts for a grand total of $240

MoBo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128515
CPU/GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106001
RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

Think that should be sufficient for playing any 1080p video that I come across?

When Haswell/DDR4/Whatever new GPU are out I'll swap out the parts and buy an inexpensive case+PS. Do you all think that should be more than sufficient as a media/server PC for the next 5 or so years?
 
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