Thoughts on the Integrated AMD Radeon R7 HD 8000?

[FelixFarrow]

I'm thinking of buying my first, budget gaming PC from pcspecialist.co.uk and I decided that I wanted to go with the AMD Athlon 5350 Quad Core APU. I noticed that an AMD Radeon R7 8000 came integrated with it and I just wanted to know it's a decent GPU? Weirdly enough when I checked the specifications on th pcspecialist website, they all came up as N/A 😛
Thanks chaps -

 

[Onus]

Ok, the Athlon 5350 is a very low-power chip. It is not, by any stretch, a gaming CPU. It can handle older titles, but nothing current. If you want to play current games, you'll need something considerably stronger.

 

[rgd1101]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-5350-am1-platform-review,3801.html
and it a R3 unless you mean the system come with a R7 8000 gpu.

 

[quilciri]

It's a pretty amazing chip for a 25w part, but it's *not* for any serious gaming. try one of the builds in my sig as a starting point.

 

[FelixFarrow]

Ah thanks man - knew it seemed a bit cheap

Ok, the Athlon 5350 is a very low-power chip. It is not, by any stretch, a gaming CPU. It can handle older titles, but nothing current. If you want to play current games, you'll need something considerably stronger.

 

[FelixFarrow]

What would be the best processor for under £70?

 

[das_stig]

Sempron are AMD's low of the low and not wouldn't have one if you gave it away free.

If you after gaming, stay away from A-series and look for something with an FX cpu

 

[quilciri]

What's you budget for the entire PC?

Do you need mouse, keyboard, monitor, and/or headphones/speakers included in that budget?
Do you need an OS included in that budget?

 

[FelixFarrow]

Okay so my budget is around <£500. I just want a crappy Logitech starter mouse, headphones and speakers, but I don't have a monitor. And yes, an OS would be nice

What's you budget for the entire PC?

Do you need mouse, keyboard, monitor, and/or headphones/speakers included in that budget?
Do you need an OS included in that budget?

 

[quilciri]

do you mean you already have a mouse/keyboard and speakers/headphones? I'm confused by the "but I don't have a monitor" part.

 

[FelixFarrow]

Ah sorry yes xD I need a mouse and keyboard (cheap), I need a monitor but I don't need headphones.

do you mean you already have a mouse/keyboard and speakers/headphones? I'm confused by the "but I don't have a monitor" part.

 

[quilciri]

okedoke. un momento.

 

[quilciri]

My humble suggestion:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£48.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£31.98 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.60 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£12.93 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB PCS+ Video Card (£123.19 @ More Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£18.49 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.46 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£91.46 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £501.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-09 20:46 GMT+0000

*make sure to contact the vendor that you buy the motherboard from and have them update the BIOS to at least 7817v15 before they send it to you if it's not already. H81 chipset boards need BIOS updates to support haswell chips.

 

[FelixFarrow]

Do you think 320 gb will be enough?

My humble suggestion:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£48.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£31.98 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.60 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£12.93 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB PCS+ Video Card (£123.19 @ More Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£18.49 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.46 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£91.46 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £501.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-09 20:46 GMT+0000

*make sure to contact the vendor that you buy the motherboard from and have them update the BIOS to at least 7817v15 before they send it to you if it's not already. H81 chipset boards need BIOS updates to support haswell chips.

 

[quilciri]

It's enough space to install farcry4 8 times, and that's one of the largest game installs @30gb. Most games are a fraction of that size.

 

[FelixFarrow]

Okay fair enough, might add another 120 just to be sure but other than that you've been a great help

For games, for sure. If you want to store a lot of movies on your hard drive, then maybe not

 

[FelixFarrow]

Sorry, one final quirk - will a dual-core cut it?

It's enough space to install farcry4 8 times, and that's one of the largest game installs @30gb. Most games are a fraction of that size.

 

[quilciri]

Yes, the haswell cores are very strong, and that is the only multiplier unlocked pentium out (easily overclocked if you so chose).

 

[quilciri]

Also, that rig has a big upgrade path. In the future you could just drop in something like this:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£212.58 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£255.59 @ Aria PC)

without having to replace any other parts.

have fun!

 

[FelixFarrow]

Thanks for all the help!

Also, that rig has a big upgrade path. In the future you could just drop in something like this:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£212.58 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£255.59 @ Aria PC)

without having to replace any other parts.

have fun!

 

[sora]

Also, that rig has a big upgrade path. In the future you could just drop in something like this:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£212.58 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£255.59 @ Aria PC)

without having to replace any other parts.

have fun!

+1; that is a great build for the price!

 

[FelixFarrow]

Sorry, one FINAL query. In the compatibility notes, it mentions that the case is too small to support a GPU of that size. Is there another case I could use?

My humble suggestion:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£48.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£31.98 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.60 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£12.93 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB PCS+ Video Card (£123.19 @ More Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£18.49 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.46 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£91.46 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £501.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-09 20:46 GMT+0000

*make sure to contact the vendor that you buy the motherboard from and have them update the BIOS to at least 7817v15 before they send it to you if it's not already. H81 chipset boards need BIOS updates to support haswell chips.

 

[quilciri]

The case does support the video card.

"The Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case supports video cards up to 350mm long, but video cards over 210mm may block drive bays. Since the PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB PCS+ Video Card is 240mm long, some drive bays may not be usable."

That means the card will extend into some of the drive bays, which won't bother you because you're only using one 2.5" drive.