Best cheapest option for AMD-FX8350 high end gaming pc??

[SL97]

Hey, I'm going to building my first pc very soon and have already selected a lot of the components, however I'm really stuck on the motherboard and it would be great if some of the more experienced pc builders/tech savvy people could help me out here.

I'm going with an AMD-FX8350 CPU and the GPU is going to be a GTX 780, I would like overclocking capabilities but PCIe 2.0 (x16) is a must. If I was to overclock I would be pushing it to about 4.8gHz maximum (going to use a cpu water cooler).

Another must is also USB 3.0 headers at the front, but when a case says they have USB 3.0 but doesnt mention anything about headers, does that mean its only got usb 3.0 at the back of it and i won't be able to hook up the usb 3.0 at the front of the case??

I picked out some motherboards, budget is real tight so I would only be looking at the cheapest of the cheapest motherboards that present the most bang for buck, so far I've picked out these:

Asus M5A97 R2.0 - £70

MSI 990XA-GD55 - £75

ASRock 970 Extreme4 - £77

£80 would really be pushing it, any opinions on those boards would be great, they seem to provide the x16 PCIe 2.0 that would be able to support a GTX 780 and have usb 3.0 (not sure if they have usb 3.0 headers to connect to the front???) however I'm really unsure on the overclocking capabilities on these.

If anybody owns these motherboards or knows a lot about them please feel free to give some advice, any help is appreciated as I don't want to buy one of these motherboards and then find out I can't hook up usb 3.0 at the front of the case or that I can't overclock my FX-8350 to atleast 4.5gHz.

 

[airborn824]

If you want this for gaming I think you should look into an i5. The intel processors really make a mockery of the AMDs when it comes to gaming and it will probably hold back your 780.

I don't think you should be skimping out on a decent motherboard either, why penny pinch on important components when your dropping a ton of money for a GTX 780?

Just my opinion, get a quality motherboard and processor because its harder to replace/upgrade those than a graphics card.

none of the i5 can touch a 8350, not even close. and 2 the 780 is a joke 7970 spanks it and is far cheaper. not to mention a 8350 can reach 5.1ghz with a $30 cooler and competes with the best i7 for gaming. Intel is good for waitsing $$ and high high multi core processing. Go AMD all the way and it will be good for your pocket and FPS. Not to mention all the free games and $$ you save you can use towards other things liek a GOOD case

 

[spooky2th]

That's funny. Here a ten minute clip that demonstrates that the 780 beats the 7970 hands down, in sheer performance.
http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2013/pc/amd-vs-nvidia-gtx-780-vs-hd-7970-ghz-edition/

And, I'd luv to see what you are basing your claims on especially the claim that the 8350 cpu beats an i5 in FPS. In all the reviews and tests I have seen, an i5 outperforms in pretty much all games with just very few exceptions that depend on the resolutions being played on. OC'd and not OC'd.

The 8350, is an excellent cpu though...

 

[inzone]

Ok let's not degrade this thread into the usual AMD vs Intel flame war. The OP has decided on a CPU and is asking help with a motherboard selection so let's keep the posts aimed at that.

We all know that these flame wars never get resolved and they can go on forever because neither side will yield.

 

[SL97]

Lol its widely known that the GTX 780 outperforms the 7970, don't know where the guy got his info from.
In REAL-WORLD tests running games at high resolutions (1920x1080) the FX-8350 does outperform the i5 3570k in almost every game tested. I don't care much for synthetic benchmarks and lower resolutions, the i5 beats the amd by a little in calculations and stuff like that, but the performance in gaming is negligible even when compared to an i7, with the only exception being Skyrim.

For the price, amd offers a lot more than intel but after a certain price amd can't offer any more haha
I'm happy with my cpu and decided to not cheap out on the motherboard and just go with an m5a99x evo rev2
currently the temperatures are way too high and i cant seem to figure out why, i'm using a corsair h70 with 2 fans and the computer crashed when i ran prime95

 

[airborn824]

Lol its widely known that the GTX 780 outperforms the 7970, don't know where the guy got his info from.
In REAL-WORLD tests running games at high resolutions (1920x1080) the FX-8350 does outperform the i5 3570k in almost every game tested. I don't care much for synthetic benchmarks and lower resolutions, the i5 beats the amd by a little in calculations and stuff like that, but the performance in gaming is negligible even when compared to an i7, with the only exception being Skyrim.

For the price, amd offers a lot more than intel but after a certain price amd can't offer any more haha
I'm happy with my cpu and decided to not cheap out on the motherboard and just go with an m5a99x evo rev2
currently the temperatures are way too high and i cant seem to figure out why, i'm using a corsair h70 with 2 fans and the computer crashed when i ran prime95

The comparison on this site had the 7970 far far far higher in several tests, if it happens in even 3/8 tests by that much (15%0 why on earth would you pay $220 more? ideally for any sane person that would be obvious. I guess i prefer VALUE over bragging rights when the human eye would never know the difference. ( this is no disrespect to anyone)

 

[inzone]

It has been proven in many benchmarks that the 8350 runs games better with an Nvidia video card then and AMD card , strange as it may seem. Another thing about benchmarks is that when looking at all of them you'll notice one thing, they all are capable of running the games and usually what separates them is a few FPS. So then it's really just a personal choice of what you want to buy. Not everybody looks at value , or bang for the buck or who wins what benchmark of what games, you just have to make smart choices and put things together that fit.
There are many reasons to go with any component and when it's your money you have the choice of choosing the components that you want in your computer.

About your heat issue, you may need to reapply the thermal interface material as you may have put too much. the TIM needs to be applied in a razor thin film otherwise if too thick it acts as an insulator and gives the opposite affect. Are you overclocking your processor?

 

[SL97]

I didn't have to apply thermal paste as it was already applied on the corsair h70 block when i put it in, in prime95 the cpu goes up to about 68-72 and shuts down the computer around there, i tightened the screws and this only lowered the idle temperatures but not the load temps as from what I saw. I have no clue how to achieve the best performance from the fans as i just mounted them with the fan cable being in the most convenient position to plug into the motherboard, that might be a problem.

I went with the GTX 780 because it offers almost titan-like performance but for a much cheaper price, I was so close to buying a 7970 because of the free games but ultimately, i wanted my pc to be more future proof and heard better things about nvidia drivers so i bought a 780. I get about 70 to 100 fps in BF3, never dips below 60. In crysis 1 I am hugely unimpressed as I have yet to see 60 FPS!! It frequently jumps below 30 and averages at about 40, for an old game I was expecting over 100 fps. I have doubts that my pc will even run crysis 2 and 3 with the performance I've seen from crysis 1. Hugely unimpressed in that game but the performance is amazing in the other games i've played.

All games I played were at the highest settings possible. From benchmarks I saw that the GTX 780 was good in crysis 3 and crysis 2 so I'm hoping its just an issue with crysis 1 not being well optimised for the new gpu.

 

[inzone]

The thermal shut down for an AMD CPU is around 68c to 72c so that is the reason it shuts down, however you have to remember that with Prime95 you are stressing the CPU at 100% so that becomes the worst case scenario. when playing a game or using other programs you will not be stressing the CPU nearly that high. I know you want it to pass Prime95 but unless you can cool that CPU some more it won't, I would suggest the H-80 or H-100 with push pull fans to get extra cooling power to get those temps down.