Any PC Builders Out There?

I was all about AMD from the K6-III to the Phenom II X4. AMD fell behind after that. Last time I looked into it, AMD chips ran really hot while still falling behind on most tasks, even at a higher clock. I've heard they're catching up quick though.

 

the threadrippers are ridiculous ive looked at their benchmarks compared with the i9s. then I saw the price tags and quivered.

 

Yeah, I can personally say Threadripper is the HEDT king both performance and price wise. However, for gaming it’s slower than the mainstream Intel processors. I game and work on my PC and Threadripper has been a cost saving god send.

 

Ryzen is only about 5-15 percent slower per core than Intels designs and costs less while using almost exactly the same amount of power. AMD is literally Ryzen from the grave, which is good for all users since it’ll push Intel to give us their best. The 8700k is only a Hexacore because of Ryzen market pressure.

 

This was my budget build started about 4 years ago. I upgraded the video card from a 660ti to the GTX 970 and added two SSDs, one for OS, and one for Steam. The two HDDs are for file storage. I'm getting ready to pass this build along to my oldest son when he turns 10 next year and start a new one. I've been giving some thought to a Ryzen build, but am 50/50 Intel or AMD at this point.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($113.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($147.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($27.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($27.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master - HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.88 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive ($15.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM 64-bit ($109.99 @ My Choice Software)
Monitor: Dell - ST2220L 21.5" 1920x1080 Monitor
Monitor: Dell - ST2220L 21.5" 1920x1080 Monitor
Monitor: Dell - ST2220L 21.5" 1920x1080 Monitor
Keyboard: G.Skill - RIPJAWS KM780R Wired Gaming Keyboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: UtechSmart - Venus Wired Laser Mouse ($37.67 @ Amazon)
Total: $866.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-07 16:13 EST-0500

 

If you like AMD wait for Ryzen 2. It’s expected in the next 6 months. It’ll be the refined Ryzen that should go close to blow for blow with Coffeelake for less money.

 

Would you be interested in building me a home theater PC?

 

For home use I'll pick whatever the best price on a Newegg combo deal at the time is. Work is a different story! If it isn't Intel it doesn't float here -- at least for our workstations.

 

That’s starting to already change. Epyc is getting a lot of uptake in the server and workstation market over Xeon. AT&T and HP just changed all their internal stuff over to Epyc based systems.

 

First I've even heard of it. But I don't do much on the server side except maintaining old DEC hardware.

 

Microsoft just confirmed this morning their new virtual machine stuff will be based on Epyc too.

 

Back when I worked in the chip business, CPU and GPU manufacturers commonly did what is called "binning," where they decide how to mark a processor based on testing. Every processor on a wafer is the same design, but some will run hotter than others. They "bin" them into speeds based on how well they run. That said, the market decides how much they will buy at each price point. Once they have the manufacturing down, there are a lot of cheaper chips that are fully capable of running at the higher speeds, but they already filled the bin needed for the fast ones and mark them as slower ones. Some lucky consumers get a really good chip for a really good price. I would bet that this hasn't changed. As far as heat, what is considered safe is based on real data, what is considered reasonable is subjective. The folks that run data centers would sure like them to run cool.

Intel seems to go through these cycles. Back when everyone was focused on higher GHz, Intel went the Pentium 4 route to be able to market those higher speeds. Nd it had hyperthreading, woot! But it ran hotter than hell. I was running SETI@home on all the family PC's in the office (my 2 and my 2 kids), and had to stop because the office got too dang hot. The Israel Intel engineers took the older Pentium 3 architecture and turned it into the Core architecture, which ran faster and cooler than the Pentium 4. My Core 2 Duo at 2.4 blew my P4 at 4.0 out of the water. Glad to see that trend died.

 

AFAIK, binning still happens. I remember attacking one of my AMD chips with a razorblade and graphite so I could overclock it. I don't remember what chip it was, but it was one of the first (I had) where the multiplier was locked. I was able to match the speed of the next model up.

Sometimes, I miss the days of overclocking with jumpers.

 

Binning is still the norm. All Ryzen chips start the same and are binned by disabling cores. All i9s are the same and both cores and pcie lanes are disabled to create different price levels. Same with the i5/i7 lineup.

One important consideration is that at 10-14 nm yields of Intels chips are low and AMDs are high because AMD is fusing two or more dies to make there chip while Intel is still only using one die. AMD has more room to move price over Intel which could be huge should Ryzen 2 increase clock rates significantly.

All Intel chips get potato for thermal compound internally though including the K lineup. Usually you hit a thermal barrier before hitting the clock rate barrier on i7 and i9 overclocking. AMD is using top end soldier for there thermal solution. Ryzen is only limited by it’s low clock rate barrier and that’s because it’s brand new architecture, ie never before used. It’s literally at it’s floor and will likely get much better.

Just to build on your comment, I think the Core architecture is based on a moodification of the Pentium M which was a modification of the the Pentium 3. Netburst, ie the Pentium 4 HT, died because Intel didn’t anticipate the heat issues they encountered. When they started down that path they figured a Pentium 4 would hit 10 gHz one day lol. Core has a better IPC than the Pentium 4. A single Core 2 core at 2.4 is actually faster than a single Netburst core because of that. Frequency isn’t the end all be all.

 

Haha, maybe I'll snap a pic next time I take it apart to clean the dust out, but there's nothing fancy about it like some of the other builds.

 

Do you Tattoo nVidia on your winkie as well? You need to do that before the nVidia gods will be pleased

 

FE cards are already lit up green, could have gotten one of those.