I'm switching teams... Hello AMD !

[alienware]

So tonight, after waiting over two weeks on my RMA I finally cracked and had enough. My fiancee said she could buy me a new board, so I had an idea.

I spoke to mum who said she could give me £120 toward the cause so I decided to completely switch teams and ditch Intel for a while.

I managed to find one of these on Amazon for £85 delivered, which is £35 less than anywhere else.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX Extreme3/

Absolutely gorgeous top spec board.

And one of these

http://shop.amd.com/uk/All/Detail/Processor/FD8320FRHKBOX

So when the MSI board finally comes back I can plop the Xeon in it and keep it as a spare if anything ever goes wrong again.

Well chuffed. I must say I've missed the standard AMD socket and not having to buy new boards ever ten minutes.

Drool..



Does any one have a 8320? how easy are they to overclock? are they unlocked on the multi?

At that price I really couldn't stick with Intel.

 

[barnsley]

My 8320 (when it worked ) overclocked very well and I was able to get a nice 4.1 with a seidon. The multiplier is unlocked, as with all fx chips. I've seen people have been able to get around the same as me with hyper 212s. I didn't have to touch the voltage as in boost mode the chip hits 4.0.

I'd reccomend the CPU scheduling and core packing patches that microsoft put out for '7. It does improve performance a bit with 7, not that it has been as much of an issue with vishera as it was with bulldozer.

-Edit- I'm pretty inexperienced with overclocking cpus and I found it a breeze .

 

[alienware]

Well I've read that the Asrock board I bought has pretty poor VRM circuitry so I won't be able to pile on the volts any way. It turbos to 4.0 so I'll be happy with a constant 4.1

Nice to see they have released the patch for Windows 7 though, as I thought I was going to end up stuck on Win 8. EWWWWWWWWW.

 

[barnsley]

EWWWWWWWW EWWWWWWWWW. Yeah, damn windows 8. Here's hoping they fix it with 8.1/blue.

here's the patches:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2645594
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060

Also, I'm considering advising my friend to get that board for his new 6350, let me know how it goes as it'll probably get an overclock as well if it is any good.

 

[alienware]

Haha well I still need to find a retention for my cooler. But yeah, it will be soooo nice to be able to have the same motherboard for multiple CPU upgrades.

I get so sick of Intel changing every bloody year or so.

 

[jamesriley94]

Haha well I still need to find a retention for my cooler. But yeah, it will be soooo nice to be able to have the same motherboard for multiple CPU upgrades.

I get so sick of Intel changing every bloody year or so.

It isn't like you need to upgrade every year with Intel though is it.

AMD have used the same socket for like 7 years now, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's pulling them back a bit tbh. I hate the AMD mounting system for CPUs. Been a couple of occasions where the bond between the cooler and CPU with TIM has been too tight it's ripped the processor out from the socket. That just can't happen with Intel.

I'd personally prefer to switch motherboards everytime you change CPU anyway though. I'd rather have a board that was designed to be used with the processor you're using, rather than have to update the BIOS to something that's been made to be compatible.

Still, I'm looking to get my AMD system up and running within the next few days, so we'll see what happens. Definitely had more fun with AMD than I have with Intel...even if that was because Intel has always worked My old AMD rigs always had problems of some sort.

 

[barnsley]

Well good luck with your 8 core experiance . Hope it goes well and it lasts longer then mine . I can't comment on performance as the only cpus I really have regular access to are either a core duo in a old lenovo laptop or a first gen i3 and as you'd imagine, it was much faster.

 

[alienware]

It isn't like you need to upgrade every year with Intel though is it.

No true but I do like to upgrade once a year. I prefer to get a mid ranged CPU but get one every year, that way I get all excited doing my research etc :lol:

AMD have used the same socket for like 7 years now, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's pulling them back a bit tbh. I hate the AMD mounting system for CPUs. Been a couple of occasions where the bond between the cooler and CPU with TIM has been too tight it's ripped the processor out from the socket. That just can't happen with Intel.

Again true but I used AM2+ for years and never had that issue tbh. If I went to take it off and it felt like it wasn't going to come off I'd just run the PC until it softened up. Maybe from watching others do it haha but yeah, never had it happen (touch wood).

I'd personally prefer to switch motherboards everytime you change CPU anyway though. I'd rather have a board that was designed to be used with the processor you're using, rather than have to update the BIOS to something that's been made to be compatible.

Still, I'm looking to get my AMD system up and running within the next few days, so we'll see what happens. Definitely had more fun with AMD than I have with Intel...even if that was because Intel has always worked My old AMD rigs always had problems of some sort.

I used AMD for nearly four years tbh. Had a 9550 Phenom X4 which I upgraded to a P2 940. I made a mistake there though as the one I got was the 940 rev 1 that did not work with DDR3 or with AM3 motherboards.

So when I upgraded I got a I7 950 and cheap mobo, uber high tech for me.

I'm quite happy just to do a drop in CPU upgrade tbh. I mean damn dude, I remember my Asrock Alive ! Xfire. It cost me £30 and by the time I had done liaising with the tech people at Asrock (who are the best bunch I've ever met) I had it supporting X6 Thubans on private bioses and everything :lol:

I had that board longer than I've had any other tbh.

 

[jamesriley94]

Well I'm only 18 - 19 next week, and built my first PC when I was 13.

First had a Phenom 9950 which lasted for ages, until I changed the cooler, or something like that and ripped the CPU out of its socket, leaving a couple of pins behind. It did actually still work after that - much to my surprise - but then I had to replace the motherboard and needed DDR3 so had to swap to a 965. The 9950 didn't really survive out of a system too long after that and ended up with bent pins so just kind of died.

The 965 was amazing for a few years. Still going strong in my mate's rig... Sold it last year to get money to switch to Intel, which is where I am now.

The AMDs just don't seem as well made to me. Ended up RMAing so many of the AMD motherboards, and the processors with the pins are just so fragile. Just prefer to stick to Intel mainly for that reason tbh.

 

[alienware]

It's funny how luck goes tbh. I've never had to RMA any AMD equipment due to failure, only bios update failure (known issue on the two boards).

I had a 9950. A friend of mine gave it to me. Big old 140w version that cooked the VRMs on my second Alive Xfire lmao.

What CPU are you putting in this AMD rig? You bought that stuff in the FS&W section didn't you?

I noticed on my board it says 140w cpu support so it should be good for a bit of gentle overclocking. Oddly enough there's only around 2-5 FPS between the 8350 and 8320 at stock speeds.

 

[S_I_N]

I have a Sabertooth and 8320 whilst I had it running (needs gpu now) only reason its not running. She's a great runner. I've been contemplating selling myZ68 setup and just running the 8320.

 

[alienware]

I have a Sabertooth and 8320 whilst I had it running (needs gpu now) only reason its not running. She's a great runner. I've been contemplating selling myZ68 setup and just running the 8320.

Any overclock?

 

[S_I_N]

dang sorry bro forgot to add that. yeah I'm still toying with it since it allows fsb adjustments. Last time I played with it I had 265fsb @ 16 multi with a vcore i'd be lying about if I said it cause truthfully I cant remember.

 

[alienware]

No worries. All I want is 4.2 or there abouts ghz.

I've just been watching some Youtube vids and I gotta say I'm quite humbled.

I can't believe the 8350 at the same clocks as a 3770k beats it in some games. In fact, the tests done weren't even done with a 3570k because the 8350 beat that in everything.

What I can do though is provide plenty of figures to see how it compares to an I5 2400. Because the 8 core AMD costs less than the Ivy equivalent of that now..

 

[S_I_N]

should be able to get that on pretty close to stock volts maybe a .050 uppage

 

[MacLeod]

I would be shocked if you couldnt get 4.2 and I wouldnt be surprised at all if you got that on stock volts. My 8150 did 4.3 on stock voltage! But it needed a big lump of juice to get 4.4 though. FX chips are weird like that. Cruise up into the 4's pretty high just sipping juice then need a diesel engine hooked up to them to go 1 MHz higher. Weird indeed.

Im sitting at 1.4 right now and OCCT tested stable enough to have CnQ running and my H100 is on the lowest setting and is running quieter than my case fans, even when gaming! Temps hover around 58C during OCCT and never get higher than the upper 40's during gaming.

AMD chips are a blast to overclock because youve got so many more buttons to push and dials to turn in the BIOS so to speak. Welcome to Team Red!

 

[alienware]

What's odd is that the 8320 is 3.5ghz yet turbos to 4ghz whilst the 8350 is 4ghz and turbos to 4.2.

I find that incredibly strange tbh, given that they're from the same technology.

 

[MacLeod]

That doesnt mean much. Theyre both capable of the same thing. The 8350's are just the better binned chips (or at least should be). Turbo is also only 3 cores and its voltage is 1.475 IIRC.

 

[alienware]

Ahhhh OK cool yeah now it makes sense..

So what I'm aiming for then is an 8 core 4.2ghz OC.

I read a few horror stories about the board I bought on Newegg (I got mine here in the UK of course).. People claiming that they couldn't up the volts. Something to do with the power stages.

On the board though it says 140w CPU and the 8320 is 125. I've also read reviews where they got a 8150 to 4.4ghz and the 8320 uses a little less power.

Either way the jump from 4.2 to 4.5ghz doesn't really yield all that much. 2-4 FPS in games.

 

[MacLeod]

Yeah, thats the downside with FX processors if you want to overclock, you need a very beefy motherboard and 8+2 power phase is almost required to get anything much more than low 4's. This Gigabyte 990FX for £124 is the cheapest one I know of with 8+2. This would be a better option if youre wanting anything more than a basic overclock. Its a very solid board that you could have for a while.

Remember, Steamroller is coming out in a little less than a year (hopefully) and itll be AM3+ too so you might want to reconsider buying as beefy a motherboard as you can cause if you get one thatll last a good long time and be plenty durable, youll be able to drop in a Steamroller and be set for a good while to come.