H77 (1155), or A75 (FM2)?

[VirtualLarry]

Trying to decide, for a new-ish build, whether to get an H77 board (primarily for SRT caching), or whether to get an A75 FM2 board. The FM2 board has more features (other than SRT).

ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157334
$75

ASRock H77M LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157303
$70

If I got the FM2 board, I would probably go with the higher-end quad-core chip. If I got the H77, Intel CPUs are so expensive, I would probably go with a Celeron/Pentium dual-core between $50 and $80.

I do really like the FM2 platform. For the price of a mobo and CPU for that platform, you really do get a lot.

This is the case I want to get to go with either of those boards:
Rosewill LINE-M Micro-ATX Mini Tower Computer Case, Dual USB 3.0, come with Dual Fans, Support up to 4 Fans, 12.5" card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147166
$50

 

[ShintaiDK]

Seems you already made up your mind. Since you are willing to spend much more on the FM2 platform.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I guess my real question is, how useful/valuable is SRT?

Is it really as fast as an SSD? Or only for booting and a few other things? Does it do write-caching to the SSD (useful for web browsing)?

Edit: Not sure why you think FM2 is more expensive, an FM2 quad-core APU is MUCH cheaper than an Intel 1155 quad-core.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I guess my real question is, how useful/valuable is SRT?

Is it really as fast as an SSD? Or only for booting and a few other things? Does it do write-caching to the SSD (useful for web browsing)?

Edit: Not sure why you think FM2 is more expensive, an FM2 quad-core APU is MUCH cheaper than an Intel 1155 quad-core.

I would forget caching or wait till I could afford the SSD.

You list a 75$ FM2 board and a 70$ H77 board. Then note that you would max spend 50-80$ on an Intel CPU. While you are willing to spend atleast 105$ on an AMD CPU arcording to Newegg. So just buy the AMD one if you already decided instead of making these posts.

Or get a 55$ board etc.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157335

Even better if you live near a Microcenter.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I would forget caching or wait till I could afford the SSD.

So in other words, SRT isn't really worth it? That's what I wanted to know.

You list a 75$ FM2 board and a 70$ H77 board. Then note that you would max spend 50-80$ on an Intel CPU. While you are willing to spend atleast 105$ on an AMD CPU arcording to Newegg. So just buy the AMD one if you already decided instead of making these posts.

Only because it would be a waste to pay 150% more than a $50 SB dual-core, for just a .5Ghz bump and HyperThreading, which wouldn't be worth it. (i3-2120, i3-3225) Spending $230 for a SB quad-core is completely out of the question. But for $130 or less, buying an FM2 quad-core would seem to be worth it to me, compared to just the SB dual-core with HT. Then again, the reason that AMD is pricing their FM2 quads against the IB i3 chips, is probably because they have similar performance for some things. But the FM2 quads are unlocked, whereas the IB i3 CPUs are not, which in my mind gives them the edge. Plus, I can run distributed computing on the FM2 Trinity APUs' IGP. (Was doing that on FM1 quad-core IGP too. Works pretty well.) Plus, all the SATA ports on the A75 chipset are 6G, whereas on the Intel H77, only two of them are.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Or get a 55$ board etc.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157335

Even better if you live near a Microcenter.

I'm not really sure why you're suggesting that board. It lacks HDMI, and lacks SRT capabilities. Sure, it's cheaper, but I'm not looking for the cheapest solution, I'm looking for the best value solution, that has the features that I want, within my budget.

I don't have a specific fixed budget at this point, but I do need HDMI, and if I went Intel, then I would probably want SRT.

I do have a Mushkin 240GB Chronos Deluxe SSD that failed on me, that needs to be RMAed. I also have several OCZ Agility 30GB SATA2 SSDs lying around. They are a bit too small for Windows 7 proper (although you can shoehorn it onto there, if you disable hibernation, and limit the size of the pagefile), but would make decent cache drives I think.

 

[SPBHM]

you can use SSD caching with any chipset by using something like the Corsair Accelerator, but really... larger SSDs are so cheap at the moment, it doesn't make much sense.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think that I'm going to go with this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157342

ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M FM2 AMD A85X (Hudson D4) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard