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Discussion on Article:
Recipe for a Budget Gaming System: AMD A8-3870K Black Edition Processor, Dual Graphics and Overclocking

Started by: amythompson172 | Date 03/18/12 09:43:42 PM
Comments: 24 | Last Comment:  09/11/12 07:41:21 PM

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1. 
Fanstastic Read!
1 0 [Posted by: amythompson172  | Date: 03/18/12 09:43:42 PM]
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2. 
Waiting for Trinity + HD 7000 Dual Graphics. Not good enough for me yet. Good for 90% of what I do, but I want 100%.
0 0 [Posted by: TekTekDude  | Date: 03/18/12 10:46:46 PM]
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3. 
I recently built an entry level gaming/allround system for a minor relative. I went for i3-2100, H61 and HD6670 which I believe was about the most bang for the buck. It doesn't hurt to have some cpu-power too, everything isn't gaming.
1 0 [Posted by: xeizo  | Date: 03/19/12 05:13:01 AM]
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4. 
Btw, why is there two bars for Pentium G850 in every diagram? One fast and one slow. Some info seem to be missing in this review, or are the results plain wrong?
0 0 [Posted by: xeizo  | Date: 03/19/12 05:31:43 AM]
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You need to reading the charts legend more accurately. There are two different configs: G850 + HD 6670 and G850 + HD 6770
2 0 [Posted by: Tester128  | Date: 03/19/12 05:57:44 AM]
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LoL, you're right, there was a much better gaming card in ONE of the setups. Of course it was faster at _gaming_
Way to similar names imho
0 0 [Posted by: xeizo  | Date: 03/19/12 11:23:29 AM]
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5. 
I forgot to mention that I believe it was a great idea to compare budget configs, all cred to you for the effort, not much out there to read in this direction. Everything is focused on what's the fastest.
0 0 [Posted by: xeizo  | Date: 03/19/12 11:28:52 AM]
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6. 
The review is much better than Tom's iCore vs 3850. However, the 6770 setup should not have been included in my opinion, because it requires a better PSU (6770 requires one 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors). The 6670 does not have any power connector requirements.

Since it will be an entry level system, PSU cost differences should also be considered.
0 0 [Posted by: mecow  | Date: 03/20/12 09:56:25 PM]
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A crap 200W molex only will run it with the included adapter.
Meknows you protesteth too much.
0 0 [Posted by: SiliconDoc  | Date: 06/08/12 04:43:40 PM]
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7. 
The essential purpose of this article completely falls to the floor when no price is mentioned whatsoever, with only very vague sentences of "similar pricing".

Isn't this all about trying out the best price-performance? Why are factual prices being omitted?

Where I live:

G850: 80€
i3 2120: 132€
A8 3870K: 110€

Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H: 98€
(cheapest FM1 A75: 60€ from MSI)
Asus P8Z68-V Pro: 170€
(cheapest LGA 1155 Z68: 100€ from MSI)

Cheapest (non white-brand) HD6670 1GB GDDR5: 75€
Cheapest (non white-brand) HD6770 1GB GDDR5: 95€


The article implies that A8-3870K + HD6670 GDDR5 is standing at the same price as G850 + HD6770, whereas:
A8-3870K + reviewed motherboard + HD6670 = 283€
G850 + reviewed motherboard + HD6770 = 345€

And even if we go to the lowest possible motherboards we can find:
A8-3870 + cheapest A75 + HD6670 = 245€
G850 + cheapest Z68 + HD6770 = 275€


These are hardly "similarly priced" combos. The price difference is enough to buy instead a HD6850 (1st case) or a HD7750 (2nd case) for the AMD platform.

The truth is that G850 + motherboard costs about the same as a 3870K + motherboard, so the HD6550D GPU is practically coming "for free".

The main problem in using A8-3870K with Dual Graphics is AMD's own low-cost solutions. For the same price as a A8-3870K + HD6670 + motherboard, one can buy a 3GHz Athlon 651 + A75 motherboard + HD6850, getting a significantly higher performance for games.
2 1 [Posted by: ToTTenTranz  | Date: 03/21/12 08:25:14 AM]
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Why would you buy a 170 dollar motherboard for a budget build?

There are 80 USD h67 boards , and 50 USD h61 boards, both of which would work fine for budget gaming pc's. so maybe 80euros max for mobo for the intel build.

And if you think the motherboard matters then you havent seen many motherboard benchmarks, its usually 1-2% difference between systems with otherwise identical parts.

Xbit just tested with any motherboard they had lieing around, because as i said above, the 1-2% difference isnt going to be even noticeable.
1 0 [Posted by: cashkennedy  | Date: 03/21/12 09:55:50 AM]
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$45 mboard for the Intel on the Egg, free ship.(see I can do it too - like a blithering idiot)

I find price comparisons rather ridiculous the way they are widely done - where the fanboy takes the lowest price they can find on the crappiest version with the most discounts and specials, and pretends "that's the price", then for their opponent, they do much the opposite - and exaggerate pricing by $5 or $10 or more for each part whenever possible... the lying building up a thickness that disgusts....

The single lowest priced piece of crap the fanboy can muster up for their side, especially when it comes to penny pinching scrooge like amd fanboys, is usually sold out as soon as some red amd fan of any note mentions it - as all the little dollar crybabies clamor on over to snatch it up... another reason why REASONABLE center of the road for the component pricing should be used in these comparisons.

One shouldn't always have to endure, as we all do, the lowest price anywhere on the net ( or only for the fanboy blabbering they found it at such and such a steal), while instantly stretching the opposition price far above that great deal on their side.

I am so, so sick of it.

The added insanity and near constant cheat is the immediate AMNESIA concerning the vast product tier on the oppositions side that remains unmentioned, ignoring several other even more advantageously priced configurations.

If these penny pinching fantasies were true at all, the entire computer industry would collapse within a Quarter.
0 0 [Posted by: SiliconDoc  | Date: 06/08/12 04:57:08 PM]
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AMD Athlon II X4 651 = 104.99 USD
Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 = 119.99 USD
Biostar (A75MH) micro ATX AMD A75 = 46.99 USD
Total = 272 USD

AMD A8-3870k = 139.99 USD
Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 = 54.99 USD
Biostar (A75MH) micro ATX AMD A75 = 46.99 USD
Total = 241 USD

On top of this, you need a better and higher wattage PSU for the 6850 setup. Add that to the cost too.
0 0 [Posted by: mecow  | Date: 03/21/12 09:56:13 PM]
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ROFLMAO - after you "destroyed" the entire articles "flawed" conclusion and methodolgy that showed INTEL wins, you wound up with your 100% BACKPEDAL, and produced the very same thing with your amd configured "winning system that destroys a8-3870K"...

HAHAHAHHA - you red fans are a hoot of discombobulated chicanery and self exposure !

Thanks for proving how badly A8-3870K sucks, nonetheless.
0 0 [Posted by: SiliconDoc  | Date: 06/08/12 04:47:03 PM]
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Your post is nonsense, H61 boards are only ~US$50, overpriced mobos are not a requirement for gaming. At that pricepoint Intel wins once discrete cards are used, full stop. The 3870K is an utterly pointless product that can't decide whether it wants to be a solely HTPC (Intel wins for being cheaper, far less power consumption) or gaming (Intel wins with discrete GPU), it sucks at both.
0 0 [Posted by: Randomguy  | Date: 08/19/12 07:55:53 AM]
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8. 
Basing the 100% GPU+CPU Burn which happens only at 1% chance on daily task unless you are a power user but this system is for common and ordinary user. So it is impractical to base them at that, most cases some cores is at idle most of the time like watching video and other stuffs but as a desktop utilizing all parts is much better than having some sitting dock part like the GPU inside the Corei3 and Pentium when there is an external GPU installed.
0 0 [Posted by: pogsnet  | Date: 03/21/12 10:41:54 PM]
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9. 
No budget gaming here, dude. I burn it!
0 0 [Posted by: TeemuMilto  | Date: 03/22/12 01:16:17 AM]
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10. 
If one bothered to do some farther research the writer and tester would have found out that the monitors used by budget games rarely if ever exceeds 1400x900. Even Win 8 is set to a lower screen/monitor than this. So after asking my 40 year old son what his children and their friends had as monitors his reply was most had 1280x1024 monitors so if the writer and or tester had used these monitors it would have been far more edifying.
0 0 [Posted by: tedstoy  | Date: 03/23/12 02:54:06 AM]
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11. 
According to the AMD site, if a game does not support dual graphics the FASTEST graphics chip is automatically used not the SLOWEST one. >.>
0 0 [Posted by: mecow  | Date: 03/30/12 10:12:21 PM]
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And we all know how well amd graphics drivers respond to adversities, as in , they don't. They prefer collapsing in normal mode.
0 0 [Posted by: SiliconDoc  | Date: 06/08/12 05:00:43 PM]
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12. 
Will dual graphics make a difference if i just want to use it an htpc to watch 3d movies on 3d tv?
0 0 [Posted by: Pigster  | Date: 09/11/12 07:41:21 PM]
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