CPU (Should I go with the AMD A4 or AMD A6?)

[P1NKY]

Should I go with the AMD A4 or AMD A6?

This is not a gaming computer. I will be using it for my computer science, computer programming, c# programming, word processing, beginning web design.

If I play any games with be WoW or Grand Theft Auto: SA.

Will be using 8GB RAM and a 450w PSU.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Programming (compiling, anyway) and some web design apps (particularly photoshop) can and will make use of the additional CPU grunt in the additional cores.

 

[P1NKY]

So go with the A8?

3850 or 3870k?

 

[Phynaz]

What was wrong with the other thread you posted? You have plenty of advice in that one.

 

[TheReaWarmonger]

I guess it depends on if you are adding a dedicated GPU or not. If not your best bet would be to invest into the 5800k, so that you can get at least moderately good gameplay without having to pay for a dedicated card. Plus you will get four cores on top of it which will help a bit in Photoshop and other heavy applications (also if you plan on programming thread heavy applications). It might be worth it to invest the $129 into a quad core with HD 4670 performance level graphics, than spending $60 on a dual core and another $60 on a similar performance level dedicated GPU. That's just my opinion.

 

[P1NKY]

I decided on the a6 or a8 because they are less then $100 an I am not getting a separate graphics card.

So how does the A10 compare to the A8 if I decided to spend $130...

 

[Cerb]

What was wrong with the other thread you posted? You have plenty of advice in that one.

I'm guessing because most of the advice was not for an AMD A-series. Only gaming would stress it, and the games it's alleged to be used for will be better with Intel CPUs.

Were I in the same situation, I would get this PC, replace the RAM (supports 4 sticks, up to 4GB each) and HDD, and use my gaming PC for gaming.

 

[P1NKY]

The only thing with Intel is I would have to fork out money for a graphics card where as the A8 or A10 have integrated graphics for $130 or less depending on which one.

Which is a better choice in the long run for me? Do I spend the extra $50 and get a A10 or will the A8 suffice?

 

[P1NKY]

AMD A8 $74.99
MSI A55M $47.99
Rosewill FBM-01 $29.55
Samsung SH-224BB $14.99

$167.52


Is currently what I am thinking unless the A10 would make it worth spending $225 which I don't see much difference in them.

 

[TheReaWarmonger]

AMD A8 $74.99
MSI A55M $47.99
Rosewill FBM-01 $29.55
Samsung SH-224BB $14.99

$167.52


Is currently what I am thinking unless the A10 would make it worth spending $225 which I don't see much difference in them.

What my question is now, why are you going with Llano when Trinity is far superior? My guess price? Also do you actually own any parts that go to this machine yet? and if you do which ones?

 

[Cerb]

The only thing with Intel is I would have to fork out money for a graphics card

Is it a gaming computer?
Is it going to running CAD/modeling programs?
Is it going to running photo or video editing programs, with multi-GB data sets?

You say it's not a gaming computer, but CS/web.

Then you say it needs to run games, which are best run with an Intel CPU, and add-in video card.

Then, so far, you haven't given a budget.

It seems to me you're trying to justify going with a low-end AMD APU, whether it's good for your needs or not.

If it actually is, you haven't given much reason. An i3 will be faster at compiling, faster in the GTAs (with even a cheap video card), and faster in WoW. It's not more expensive for no reason. Personally, I would not game on it, and just get an old office box. It's nice to have something you know works, has some quality to it, is easy to get into, uses old proven drivers, etc., even if it can otherwise be a little limited.

 

[Cerb]

What my question is now, why are you going with Llano when Trinity is far superior? My guess price? Also do you actually own any parts that go to this machine yet? and if you do which ones?

It started here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2317519
The budget and parts jump all around, with no rhyme or reason, that I can see. With the higher budget, I'd get a cheap i3 and a cheap video card. With the new apparently lower budget, I'd hit up eBay or Geeks.com for the cheapest good office computer that supports DDR3, and not even bother with specifying a custom build, even if new parts would technically save a little. Thinkcentres and HP DC-series PCs, with normal-size ODDs--notebook-size ODDs are where I draw the line--are really nice little boxes.

 

[P1NKY]

$170 or less for mobo, case, cpu with graphics or apu, and optical drive.

Already have HDD, PSU, and RAM. Be using my current monitor and I haven't decided what I will do for OS but I can have someone else buy that for me.

I will be using this computer for the next 3 years for CIS classes which includes programming, creating web pages, javascript stuff, c# programming, and god only knows what else.

If any games need to be ran then I can do it on my main computer but mostly building this to separate my gaming from my school work.

I can't afford to go over $170.

 

[TheReaWarmonger]

Is it a gaming computer?
Is it going to running CAD/modeling programs?
Is it going to running photo or video editing programs, with multi-GB data sets?

You say it's not a gaming computer, but CS/web.

Then you say it needs to run games, which are best run with an Intel CPU, and add-in video card.

Then, so far, you haven't given a budget.

It seems to me you're trying to justify going with a low-end AMD APU, whether it's good for your needs or not.

If it actually is, you haven't given much reason. An i3 will be faster at compiling, faster in the GTAs (with even a cheap video card), and faster in WoW. It's not more expensive for no reason. Personally, I would not game on it, and just get an old office box. It's nice to have something you know works, has some quality to it, is easy to get into, uses old proven drivers, etc., even if it can otherwise be a little limited.

Tho taking the Intel route will cost him nearly twice as much to obtain equal 3D performance. I think the idea behind his build is something that offers up unparalleled performance while maintaining a low cost and high efficiency. There is very little gain from moving from a 5800k to an 3220, in fact with the 5800k beating out the i3 in heavy workloads (moar cores! wins in that area). Tho I think the price tag of an extra $60+ to get an acceptable dedicated card to compete with what is on die is what sets them apart. The iGPU is much faster and offers up more performance than a superclocked HD 4670. For running games like WoW, that might be a big factor while maintaining a low price point. From what I gather WoW is also core dependent now (just like BF3), so the more cores the better. So really its hard for him to go wrong either way, except per usual AMD will give him a bigger bang for his buck when it comes to budget builds.

 

[Cerb]

Tho taking the Intel route will cost him nearly twice as much to obtain equal 3D performance.

It started with $300, not counting HDD, RAM, or PSU, which is enough for an i3 and low-end video card. It then went to $130 for CPU (and mobo?) and $100 for video card. $170 is a new number, not showing up until post #13, in this thread.

 

[TheReaWarmonger]

$170 or less for mobo, case, cpu with graphics or apu, and optical drive.

Already have HDD, PSU, and RAM. Be using my current monitor and I haven't decided what I will do for OS but I can have someone else buy that for me.

I will be using this computer for the next 3 years for CIS classes which includes programming, creating web pages, javascript stuff, c# programming, and god only knows what else.

If any games need to be ran then I can do it on my main computer but mostly building this to separate my gaming from my school work.

I can't afford to go over $170.

You wouldn't get much if you went for an Intel build, at least GPU wise. I was going to recommend maybe getting a G2120. Which is basically an i3 without hyperthreading for $79.99. But with such a low budget and still needing more hardware, your best bet is to go AMD with an APU. Tho I would recommend going FM2, so the machine will be upgradable in the future. I personally would aim for the A8-5600k and the Biostar A55MD2. Tho them alone will set you back $160, without a case nor a optical drive. Tho if you live near a Microcenter you can get the board and the APU for less than $100. I would look around and see what resources are available to you, and what kind of deals you got going on. If all else fails you can go for Llano based APU, tho I would recommend sticking to FM2 socket boards for future upgradability sake (AMD promised 2+ years on these boards).

 

[P1NKY]

I WAS thinking $130 but could probably do $170.

Can I do better if I had more to spend? $200?

 

[dma0991]

Will there be Android programming involved?

 

[Cerb]

I WAS thinking $130 but could probably do $170.

Can I do better if I had more to spend? $200?

You can do better by spending more up to around $1200 (including all HW and OS), including gaming, before diminishing returns start really kicking in. Figuring out budget and usage are basically the most important things to do.

 

[P1NKY]

I can't do more then $200.

This is a basic low end build so all my school crap won't be on my gaming pc

 

[Headfoot]

Don't bother with a graphics card.

Get the cheapest quad core you can get. That way, when you are learning multi-threading and concurrent programming you can better see the gains and overhead from going from 1 thread, to 2, to 4. A dual core won't let you see that. Just make sure your RAM is compatible with whatever you are going to get.

If you're just programming on it you only need to worry about having enough cores for experimentation and having enough RAM to run some virtual machines or a server simultaneously. 4 gigs minimum, 8 gigs or more preferred.

Besides, there won't be any temptation to game when you should be working then...

There is a reason the Raspberry Pi is a $35 dollar PC for learning programming on; it doesn't take much to learn the basics!

 

[grimpr]

Should I go with the AMD A4 or AMD A6?

This is not a gaming computer. I will be using it for my computer science, computer programming, c# programming, word processing, beginning web design.

If I play any games with be WoW or Grand Theft Auto: SA.

Will be using 8GB RAM and a 450w PSU.

Get an A10-6700 or 6800 Richland coming this June.

 

[Phynaz]

Is get an A10 your answer to everything? Did you bother to look at his budget?

 

[grimpr]

Don't bother with a graphics card.

Get the cheapest quad core you can get. That way, when you are learning multi-threading and concurrent programming you can better see the gains and overhead from going from 1 thread, to 2, to 4. A dual core won't let you see that. Just make sure your RAM is compatible with whatever you are going to get.

If you're just programming on it you only need to worry about having enough cores for experimentation and having enough RAM to run some virtual machines or a server simultaneously. 4 gigs minimum, 8 gigs or more preferred.

Besides, there won't be any temptation to game when you should be working then...

There is a reason the Raspberry Pi is a $35 dollar PC for learning programming on; it doesn't take much to learn the basics!

This, cheap dualcores are out of the question, he must raise his budget a little so to build a balanced computer that will last him a long time.

 

[grimpr]

You wouldn't get much if you went for an Intel build, at least GPU wise. I was going to recommend maybe getting a G2120. Which is basically an i3 without hyperthreading for $79.99. But with such a low budget and still needing more hardware, your best bet is to go AMD with an APU. Tho I would recommend going FM2, so the machine will be upgradable in the future. I personally would aim for the A8-5600k and the Biostar A55MD2. Tho them alone will set you back $160, without a case nor a optical drive. Tho if you live near a Microcenter you can get the board and the APU for less than $100. I would look around and see what resources are available to you, and what kind of deals you got going on. If all else fails you can go for Llano based APU, tho I would recommend sticking to FM2 socket boards for future upgradability sake (AMD promised 2+ years on these boards).

Well said, the best setup.