Possible new build

**Beanz** · 08-06-2014, 10:49 PM

Looking at finally retiring my C2D, so I've been having a look around at what's available in my price range.

Anything i7 related is off the table. From what I've seen, i5-4570 is the one to go for price-performance wise, however I see Plat has been on a bit of a "threads uber alles!" rant recently. As Intel's HT options are out of my price range, there's the option of AMD FX-8350 which is close enough to the i5 in terms of price and performance (albeit with a higher power consumption).

Going the AMD route does throw another spanner in the works - I had been planning on going for mATX again, but it appears no-one has bother making an mATX AM3+ board with anything newer than the 760G chipset. I could switch to an A10 as there are plenty of mATX FM2+ boards, but then I'm back to quad core and might as well stick with the i5.

Any thoughts? Anything looming on the horizon for mid-range buyers? Or should I just try and find space for a full ATX build?

Platinum · 08-06-2014, 11:45 PM

It is a strange one that by AMD to not allow the 9xx chipsets to be MATX

760g should be fine if not overclocking, and I think you can still get the 880 chipset boards.

Intel wise the i5 should be fine, I would check out a few benchmarks on modern games though, Watchdogs for example has a 8 core chip down as its recommended spec and a quad core as its minimum.

**Beanz** · 09-06-2014, 10:55 AM

Issue with 760G is that it's only SATA II. Can only find a single 880 AM3+ board, but that maxes out at 8GB RAM.

Bobster · 09-06-2014, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beanz

Issue with 760G is that it's only SATA II. Can only find a single 880 AM3+ board, but that maxes out at 8GB RAM.

need the RAM?

**Beanz** · 09-06-2014, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobster

need the RAM?

At this precise moment in time, I could probably survive with just 8GB.

If my new build lasts anywhere near as long as my current one (just shy of 7 years old), I'd rather have the scope for more, especially as I was planning on running a stack of VMs for studying.

**Beanz** · 13-06-2014, 11:38 PM

Think I will be going Intel and mATX after all, although I might be very daring and go for mini-ITX instead