So I finally got around to a new gaming PC.

lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
in Gaming
Amusingly enough, brought on by Borderlands 2 - I don't know if anyone would remember my old system, but I still had the same one kicking - my good old core 2 quad with dual radeon HD 5850s. BL2 finally broke its back though - some of the levels brought the poor Core 2 chip to its knees. Since the system was 7 years old anyway, I finally upgraded. Here's the specs on the new one (built around a month ago) for those who would care to browse them:

AMD FX-8350 "Vishera" Processor 4.00GHz, presently clocked to 4.4GHz w/ Coolermaster Hyper 212 evo cooler
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 Motherboard
32GB Mushkin DDR3 (supposedly 1600 capable, but the system became unstable at that setting, so running @ 1333)
Coolermaster 1000W Silent Modular PSU
Coolermaster HAF 922 case + additional 200mm side fan added
Gigabyte Radeon HD7970 OC card x2 (in 16x / 8x slots) Crossfired
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD (boot)
3x WD Black 1TB SATA3 / 64MB 7200RPM platters in RAID5 (games / storage)

I'm quite pleased with it - Piledriver seems to have picked up a lot of Bulldozer's slack. Given the flop Bulldozer was, I thought I was going to end up with an i7 system. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance reviews of the Vishera chips, and ended up going AMD instead. Keeping it lightly overclocked for now, I don't see a need to push it yet as it seems to be blazing through anything I throw at it so far.

Comments

  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    Your system goes to 11 dude!

  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited December 2012
    Good parts all, except you went with the AMD chip instead of an i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge?

    Fail.
  • MrTRiotMrTRiot Northern Ontario Icrontian
    Definitely goes to 11. 32gb of ram is insane
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    That rig gives me such a nerd boner. Mind if I ask approximately what you dropped on all that gear?
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2012
    Around $2200 CDN after tax - though it was mostly the fault of the graphics cards for bloating the budget. I didn't want to have to be upgrading it much though.

    Edit - more specific reasons for me going with AMD over intel are definitely budget related, though I frankly believe this setup is more future-proof than an intel based setup would be. Vishera falls somewhere between an i5 and an i7 in most tests, but blows ivy bridge out of the water when hit with a heavily multithreaded test. From what I gather, AMD is also still planning on using the AM3+ socket for at least one more generation of CPUs.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    Vishera is absolutely fine for that rig. Don't listen to Tim.
    ardichoke
  • RootWyrmRootWyrm Icrontian
    primesuspect said:

    Don't listen to Tim.

    ^ FTFY

    But yeah.. I mean, at least it's not Bulldozer. Dear gods does Bulldozer BURN if you do a lot of FP intensive work. And anything that's going to trounce Vishera in memory A) see also 'large memory access frequently' B) only comes in LGA2011 flavor also spelled as 'Expensive Socket.'
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    Vishera still runs quite hot when hit with a lot of FP load as it's still being manufactured on the 32nm process. When doing the maximum heat test in prime95, my CPU gets to 69C on the 212 evo - 1 degree from TJmax. It peaks at 56C in games.

    Pretty glad I got the 212 evo for it. It only took me a week to get pissed off at the stock cooler. It was hitting 69C at stock speed in games on that dinky little thing, not to mention it sounded like a tiny jet engine.
  • VicarVicar Icrontian
    Good specs and enjoy.
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