So I have been out of the game for a long time and have been trying to build a computer for a while now. I have decided to narrow it down to these two option, listed below, and am hoping I can get some help. There is a ton of chatter online about how anyone build a computer for gaming should I avoid AMD.
When I was on top of this stuff I always went with AMD because they were always the best price/performance, nowadays it seems they are pretty even.
I am still leaning towards the AMD as the passmark score seems to be better than the Intel one I listed, but would like some input.

Core™ i3-3220 Processor Bundle w/ Asus B75M-A Motherboard
AMD™ FX-4350 Processor w/ Asus M5A97 R2.0

Also, other than memory speed and latency is there anything else I need to worry about?

I may be interested on your results. Since my laptop is MIA I'll probably build another gamer desktop.

Well I think it will more than likely be AMD route.
Then what ever the best deal I can get on memory.
Everything else is from my current build.

Ooo. Go with AMD. Much better for the price. What's your budget? Want me to recommend some parts according to your spending limit?

I'm thinking of a slight upgrade on my system, my Phenom x4 is feeling a little sluggish on video encoding.

I was actually looking at the FX-6300, six core for $5 less than the 4350 you listed, pretty much owns it in every benchmark despite the slightly slower clock speed.

My quad phenom OC'd to 4.2ghz is super laggy in my flight sim to the point where I have to run it on lowest graphic settings.

Sure, that would be cool!
Not much budget though looking to keep it low.
Maybe around 250-300.
I only need mobo, cpu, and memory.
Although I would love an ssd that's sadly out of my price range as I would rather update my computer than just my drive.

Don't even bother building a computer without going here:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8033818&Sku=

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4904561&CatId=7339

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1963472&CatId=7248

That totals to about $320 before tax going by tigerdirect pricing. Places like ncix.ca should have better prices. Also, thats with a single 8gb stick of ram. So it'll help with upgrading in the future.

What video card are you going to be using?

Stephan why did you choose that motherboard?

Salomon, do you mostly use it for checking compatibility or for pricing? or both?

Seems the best chipset one from MSI on sale from them. Personally, after nearly frying a motherboard and then a CPU by over volting, my MSI motherboard would boot right back up. I have also never had a problem from overclocking an MSI board, even with prolonged gaming and under high heat conditions. That's why I'm biased towards their boards.

Also, the new AMD CPU's supposedly have a good architecture.

You can also check out newegg.ca, I've found quite often their prices to be slightly better than tigerdirect.

I always buy everything from memory express.
The have free shipping on wednesday and the price beat policy is the best.

I asked because I looked for reviews on that board and from what I see that cpu doesn't play well when overclocked and has been known to cook the board.

Sal, this site is really cool, it's nice to build everything and see pricing for everything too and I don't have to stress about stuff not working together.

I also read reviews on both my MSI boards about how they don't OC well, but both ran amazing at any speeds and were very forgiving with any errors I made.

Bryan, I use that site for picking compatible parts, comparing pricing and just about everything else. It has reviews and everything else as well...

It compares all the major (and not) sites selling parts, so you really can't go wrong. They've even got some great guides to different levels of PC builds that they update fairly frequently.

Glad you like it...it's definitely helped me out more than a few times and saved me quite a bit of cash.

Going to take your advice Jason, I have also read a bunch of reviews and people said they were able to get it up to 5GHz clock stable, with stock cool.
So I will probably toss it in and overclock it to 4GHz

Nice call Salomon, I usually have to search all my parts on shopbot.ca before ordering.

Good choice, I haven't seen anything bad regarding these cpu's. I need to figure out which board I'll go with now and probably 12-16gb of ram.

I already have an SSD hard drive, so it should make a nice upgrade. Seriously, when you can budget in an SSD, do it, they make your system feel much snappier.

well it was a choice between new computer and an ssd.
For now I will do the computer, I will be getting a 200+ GB hard drive so I will need to save up.
I have always bought ASUS and the M5A97 r2.0 seems to fit what I need on the board. Plus I already have the graphics card I want so I am set there.

I am still on a x2 6000+ at 3.0GHz so it's probably best i do the update.

What he said. It's like a whole different level.

I need prices to come down on the 240GB SSDs, my 120 has been filled. Too many damn game installations haha

That's the other thing, the more full the SSD is the sooner it will die. that's why I am waiting on a 240 too

Bryan it has limited writes, but it won't die that soon.

You'll probably be onto the next best storage device before it dies.

Haha I wouldn't bet on that, I tend to hang onto this longer than I should. Like this computer, it's almost 6 years old.

So here is the final build, thank you all for your advice:
AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

$305 after tax

I've been running a G.SKILL Phoenix Pro 60gb SSD for over 2 years, I haven't noticed any degradation yet. I try to maintain at least 20gb free on it. I have windows 7 and only the apps I used the most installed on it, the rest resides on a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint drive.

I used Photoshop(scratch disk on the SSD) and Lightroom a lot, as well as some video editing and the SSD really helped a lot. I'm not a gamer, so I can comment on how it would affect that, but I couldn't see any downside.

Here's a quick benchmard of my two drives, not ideal conditions, about 4.4gb of background apps running while doing the benchmark lol. You can obviously see when the SSD hits an empty spot on the drive. The read speeds is generally a little faster, but the access time is the real secret.

Nice, good stuff to know.
I thought about splitting it up like that but would prefer not to. 20gb free on a 60gb drive is a lot! so you shouldn't.
I am impressed the SSD is going strong, scratch disk will definitely add some wear.

Just make sure you get a drive larger than 32gb.

So parts arrived and she is all together but I can't seem to get it into setup.

What setup? You mean BIOS?

No it was windows 7 setup.

I got it now, I am just in ubuntu right now copying some stuff before I install.

It seems the windows 7 install doesn't want to start with anything more than the bare minimum connect. I had a PCI USB hub and as soon as I took it out I was good to go.

1 stick of RAM, enter BIOS immediately and set the appropriate voltage for your RAM.

Save exit.

Install windows with that single stick of RAM.

If it's still flakey, try another RAM slot or try another stick of RAM, if possible, something really run of the mill that will run at lower stock voltages for DDR2/DDR3 whichever you have.

Edit: Still bad, and getting errors about missing files during disc loading, try another hard drive, could be bad.

I'm going to assume you're using a legitimate copy of windows, otherwise it could be that release you've acquired is just effed up, burn another copy.

Well this night has been a mess.

I finally am installed on windows and then went to grab the stuff I backed up and somehow I installed on the wrong effing drive! They were both labeled the same and I usually pull the drive that I am not putting windows on but this time I opted not too. Anyways it's going to take a while for me to get back up to speed.

Thanks Michael.

I hate when that happens. I just finished building my computer yesterday, put in the final SSD and when I formatted, my SSD and my driver / program partition are the same size, I was like hmm haha.

LOL

@Bryan, that's why you ALWAYS put the source as Disk1 and the target as Disc0, so 0 being you main OS drive, new drive.

*face palm*

The computer I just finished building was

i5 3570k @ 4.5ghz
MSI Z77 G45 motherboard
16gb DDR3 Corsair Vengeance
1 64gb SSD
1 120gb SSD
2x 1TB HDD
MSI Twin Frozr 7970 3gb OC edition
H70 Corsair water cooler
Corsair 850W modular psu
Corsair Carbine 300m window edition case

Michael do I do that in BIOS? I changed the boot order of the drive but didn't think that changed what the label was. I honestly should have had the backup labeled like the rest of my drives/

Nice setup Brandon, I think the next thing down the road will be a modular psu, I spent some good time this build hiding wires and making sure they were tucked away before I put the board in.

I didn't get a fully modular, the 850m from corsair is semi. So all your main plugs are there all the time, so CPU and motherboard. Same with 1 row of power connectors. Still, corsair rates their psu on maintained power not peak, so it's a really good psu and goes on sale for around 110.

I have heard a lot of good things about corsair so I will probably go that way.

So the computer has been running for a while now and I have to say I am happy with the setup!
It is booting a bit faster, and I am actually able to do stuff as soon as I get into windows, where as before I had to wait for everything to finish loading.
The fan control for this motherboard seems to be a lot better, I would say my computer is definitely quieter than before. I have yet to play the games it was struggle with before (Metro Last Light and Witcher 2) but I am sure with the new mobo and cpu I should be good.

What do you guys usually do with your old parts?

I keep all my old parts and give them to friends when their stuff breaks. That, or I build older Frankensteins and donate them to family members who don't have such good (or any) PCs. You can also donate them to schools. A few years ago I helped a buddy of mine build his own in-car computer with his older computer. That was fun too!

Hey carputer, that's cool!
I have already hooked up the fam with computers, so good there.
I would probably go for one of those tiny things if I was going to do that. I can't imagine using a full size computer for a carputer. What did you use for a screen and where did you put it? That has always been my issue.

Had a spare laptop so we slapped the LCD on the passenger side dash area angled so that both the driver and passenger could see it. The alternative was to cut up the dash a LOT more and pop it in the middle console area but the angle sucked and it was right next to his shifter... Bad shift = fist through monitor.

Haha, true that would not be good! Good call on the laptop screen! They are relatively cheap to pickup, I am sure I can solder a female connection so that I could use a laptop monitor with with vga.

Don't have any input on building a gaming PC, as I don't game but if you looking for sources, I use Canada Computers a lot. They keep adding more & more stores (plu you can order online) & their prices always seem to be some of the best out there.

NCIX generally seems to be more expensive the Canada Computers but they run a lot of sales & sometimes have some pretty good deals.

Never thought Tigerdirect had great prices and their stores just seem to be old junk, probably that didn't sell online (well atleast the Markham store)

Yeah Tigerdirect stopped being a good place to go as soon as these other places started popping up.
If you are going to buy parts online no buddy beats Memory Express' price beat policy.

Hey Bryan, as I recall you were looking at SSD's. Just wanted to update that the SSD in my desktop for 2 years just died, taking all the documents with it, and for the last couple weeks, the SSD in my toughbook has been hanging for moments at a time which is apparently a sign of a dying SSD (Both OCZ drives. One Vertex II and the other a Vertex III as I recall).

I just picked up a Crutial M4 today after hearing everyone rant and rave about it. Installing new OS and moving folders now. Oh, and a RAM upgrade. 24GB @ 1600 Oh yea...
In terms of better stores, I'd say NCIX and Canadacomputers are pretty much neck and neck. Before NCIX was in Ontario, I had them ship my whole system from BC and they had it to me in under a week for less then $30! This thing was a monster as well! They had to ship a Coolermaster Stacker full tower.

I'm running a Cosmos tower now, but have been itching for quite some time for the Cosmo II Case. It's nothing short of a beast, but frack is it ever beautiful and well built.

24GB of RAM? Holy!

I need to build something soon to run Xplane 10 across my 3 screens. Even with the graphics set to lowest its maxing out both CPU and the GPU.

Wow Stephan, sorry to hear that.
From what I have read the only brands you should go with is Crucial and Kingston.
I have a HAF 922 and I thought that was big!!

http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/case/ultra-tower/cosmos-2.html

This thing is king of the tower! So many hot swap drives... I need this thing because I currently have 8 HDD and I'm always having to swap one out because I only have room for 6 on the board. lol.
And she weighs 50lbs!
I'm rocking it's little yet older brother
http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/case/full-tower-cosmos-series/cosmos-s.html



The weakest part of my system atm is my first gen i7 920 core. Aside from that, running 2xGTX280s (in SLI when gaming) and a whopping 4.5TB of storage (it's almost full... ) I have the computer hooked up to my 46" as well for movies/games/browsing from the couch. Aside from that, 4 screens span my desk. When I clean the damn thing, I'll be sure to post a picture.
Oh, and logitech z5500 speakers I'd never sell these puppies!

Definitely need to swap out that CPU and those video cards They are showing their age now

The video cards are still going strong and perform great. As for the CPU, it can still d it's job, just isn't the head honcho he used to be.

FTFY

I'm still rocking a Phenom II x6 1190t and in any game it dosent show its age at all. I also use a HD7970 and any game I choose gets maxed out with all the eye candy on my 42" lcd


for the money I'll always use amd.

I used to be an AMD guy, but I needed a new rig when intel had just released the i7 a couple years back. It was a no brainer at the time.

And of course there is porn on there Sal! But the other 3tb are movies and shows . Hahaha. I kid I kid. I horde programs like a mad man. Games, adobe stuff, networking utilities, etc.

I have about the same amount of storage though it's not that full, only have 3TB almost full. I assume with that many drives you are running raid?

I usually run my stuff in RAID, but never the OS drive.

I'm looking at picking up some of those WD red drives to store all my media stuff on. Supposedly they have longer lives.

A picture would be sweet. I haven't done anything computer related really since I started working on the car, but updating my setup has got to happen soon.

After getting the i5, I will never try AMD again. i5 is the best bang for the buck that there is, and the K series is amazing OC but keeps cool temps. I got my i5 3570k for $215 on sale at Canada Computers

I got the same one with a watercooling setup. It is good but i can't OC it nearly as much as i would like. The integrated heat spreader on these are not very good which sucks for OCing. I was thinking about pulling it off and repasting it but i don't want to have to buy a new one if i slip.

I have mine to 4.5ghz no problem, with the Corsair H70 water cooling setup. Never goes above 60 full load. I'm gonna try and hit 5ghz. But I also may buy a fully real water cooling setup with the hoses that go from the cpu to the video card and back to the radiator.

No raid. All drives .
With the most recent SSD upgrade, the minimal requirement for RAID is no more.
All of the other drives are mainly for reference and storage.








Enjoy

That's a serious setup...just need to clean up that desk, and vacuum too, while you're at it.

That's cool, I have the v6 GT, pretty happy with it!

I just whipped off the front cover. . carpet basement gets very dusty very quickly.

Oh damn, we are posting pics are we

Here is the one i am working on:









There isn't much so far. I5K overclocked with water cooling and 8 gigs of ram. WD black 500gig drive.

I don't need much space in my workstations when i have this bad boy.

Nice!
One of the companies left the airport after going bankrupt not too long ago and we got to pillage what ever they left behind. I picked up 4 server racks Not sure what to do with them yet.....

You mean 4 units or the whole racks?

I suppose I mean 4 units. Only one mounting rack.

Nice!

I just use a home built stereo rack to hold my server. Sold one and only got the old one left. I'll post my setup when I get home from work.

There.

The inside:


Cooler is a Corsair H100. Had to cut into the case a little, and can only fit one fan.

The temporary setup:


Stuck as being a shared desk for now as we are still sorting where to put things from moving.

have you guys never heard of cable management!?

My case used to look like that until I got a taste of cable hiding and much prefer the look and was very meticulous with my last build.

In the case or outside the desk? The case I have has no room in the back for cable management. Its a fairly ugly computer case, but it was only $25.

The desk is only a mess because its shared with the family and everyone leaves their stuff on it.

haha, inside the case was what I was referring to.
I too am still working on outside the case, that one is definitely more difficult for me.

Outside the case is the tough part. My last build in an HAF 932 looked amazing inside. This case barely has room inside. Goal is to pick up another 6970 soon now that the 7xxx series has been released for a while. Going to have to do some more modding of the case for this.

what happened to your HAF?

Sold it. That build cost something like $1800. I may upgrade to a larger case, but probably not.

Oh wow, that's wild!

Cable management. Thank you!! Inside AND out!!

Hey sal i found a case i know you will like. http://hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTM3Mzc2Njg4Nm8xZzhyY0VEamVfMV8xX2wuanBn

I like

Amazing

Hey Johnny any tips on cable management outside?

I like the velcro strips and zip ties.

sh!t, nice rigs guys. I just set up my new HTPC in my place and it was a pain in the beginning but now i got it all sorted out and running XBMC.

Nice Joe, what's the specs on that thing?

Its my old gaming rig.

X6 1100T
Giga UD5
Nvidia 650TI Boost
(6) 2TB HD
(1) 1TB HD
(1) 500 GB Black drive

Yu want an expensive case, that open thing costs a fortune!!!!


How neat are we talking?? Zip ties, Velcro straps, and cable sleeping are all you need. It's Ike making a wiring harness for your living room. (Minus the e-tape) run all with wires in bundles depending where they're going.
I have a wire hanger under my desk from ikea. It keeps all of the lengthy wires out of sight. Looks like a rats nest, but its organized. Aside from that, I have wires running in the supports of my desk, out to my AV equipment, and up to the screens. All fancy and neat .

You say old... Ridding of any hard drives? .

Aaaand my seccond power supply fried (Hope its just the PSU). After working at 100% for 23 hours, it died. Time for an upgrade.

What wattage was it?

I believe 550w. I'll check when I get home. Made by Ultra. I didn't use it often, so there's no reason it should have blown. Tiger has a 650 watt for $60 by Ultra. Might try my luck with that.

I would just go 750, your system is beefier than mine and that's what I am running.
I am pretty sure mine is an ultra too.

550 is so tiny!!!
I said to hell with it and tossed in a 1000w. Lots of room to grow

I used to rock a 1000w XION PSU. That thing was garbage for holding a seady voltage. 12 and 5v rails had a difference of +/- 0.1v. Ended up getting a 750w For $70 after a mail in rebate of $10. Maybe next PC I will feel rich and finally buy a modular Corsair one for $130+

If I recall correctly, I'm running an Enermax Galaxy 1000w. Haven't had any issues and my computer is only off when I'm in vacation

I am hit and miss, some days I leave it on 24 hours. Some days I turn it off over night.
When I was still at home it was always on.

I've got the Corsair TX850M, which is actually a 1000w psu, but Corsair rates their PSU by constant power, not by peak. Much like Seasonic. Other companies like Cooler Master, rate it by peak, so a 600w Cooler Master may only actually put out 450 - 500.

I'm thinking about picking up a new gaming mouse. I've been looking for a mouse that has a pad for my pinky as I'm a picky dragger, not a claw mouse person.

I think I'm going to grab the Razer Ouroboros. It's both wireless and wired. Rechargeable if you go wireless, it's an ambidextrous mouse, but you can lock the front and back buttons depending on what hand you are. Here's a picture


Currently I'm rocking this bad boy, and have been for over a year, amazing mouse and has been great, but I'd like to grab a mouse pad, but I can't because the feeling of my pinky dragging on a mouse pad grosses me out... lol

Princess.....

Lol

I got a razer naga and love it. No complaints and it's very comfortable in the hand.

I'm worth it

I am rocking an old logitech mx laser and a palm pad like this one.
Everyong that has ever come to my house seems to be totally clueless as to how to use it, and it becomes entertaining.

If that's a mouse, wheres the space ship?

It definitely looks...different.

I used to have a lot of issues with wrist pain, this has basically made it disappear.
Once you get the hang of using it, it just feels weird to use a mouse without it.

Huh. Kinda neat then. I used to have carpel tunnel from using my cell phone too much when I was young. Fortunately I havent had any pains for a long while now, but its no fun at all.

Maybe, you interested in WD EARS? Most of the HD's i have still have about a year + a few months worth of warranty. Im thinking of upgrading to 3 TB+ since im running out of space.

1080p pr0n takes too much space .

I've always stick to Antec, Corsair, XFX or seasonic based PS. None of them hasn't let me down yet *knock on wood* .

Thought i would get used to this thing, its been over a year now and i still find it very small. My hands tend to cup during hardcore fragging.

My most comfortable mouse ever was my Logitech G500. Even when said hardcore fragging, my hands just lay on top of it - rather than cupping the mouse per se.