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Upgrade for A4-4000

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bigboxes said:
I have an A4-3300 and it is dog slow. That is with 8GB or ram and an Samsung 840.
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What OS, and are you running in dual-channel? I built some A4-3420 (?) rigs (same as A4-3300, except 2.80Ghz, rather than 2.50Ghz), and they weren't horrible, running Win10 Home 64-bit, with 2x2GB DDR3-1600 in dual-channel mode.
 
Arachnotronic said:
So I was able to run CPU-Z on the machine and the motherboard is an MSI A55-E33. So, FM2, not FM2+. The A10-6700 seems to be the best choice here -- it's got 2x the cores of the current CPU & runs at a higher frequency.

The system also has just one stick of DDR3, so I'll be getting rid of that and putting in 2x8GB sticks.

This isn't a gaming system or anything -- just a general purpose desktop. But, I think with these upgrades it will become much more fun to use.

Thanks all.
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Unless you already have the 2x8GB or can find em really cheap I'd suggest that 16GB would be complete overkill and a waste of money. 2x4GB should be absolutely fine for that system.
 
Sable said:
Unless you already have the 2x8GB or can find em really cheap I'd suggest that 16GB would be complete overkill and a waste of money. 2x4GB should be absolutely fine for that system.
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It sounds like he wants to "max out" the CPU - why not likewise "max out" the RAM? For longer-term usage.

Otherwise, I'm sure OP would be doing a platform upgrade instead.
 
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VirtualLarry said:
It sounds like he wants to "max out" the CPU - why not likewise "max out" the RAM? For longer-term usage.

Otherwise, I'm sure OP would be doing a platform upgrade instead.
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CPU upgrade and 4 to 8GB yes you'll notice a big difference. But going to 16GB is gonna be double the price and I don't think you'd notice the difference. The money would be better spent on possibly an SSD if the system doesn't already have one. Or on a nice meal. 😉

I went from 8GB to 16GB last year on my 2500k and honestly couldn't tell the difference.
 
VirtualLarry said:
I have a BNIB MSI A55M-E33, that I purchased (qty) from TigerDirect back in the day, when they were on sale for like $28 shipped. The ones I purchased claimed to be FM2+, but I never actually tested that, I don't think. I've only had A4-6300 APUs (FM2) in them.
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Yes this one is FM2+, and you can install A10-7850K max. A BIOS update will allow a A55M-E33 go A10-7890K max. But, seriously, it's time to step up to A68HM-E33 V2 with SATA III that is already discounted enough and $6 after rebate at Micro Center combo.
 
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I like to point out that A10-7800 has full Windows 10 compatibility. A10-6700 is only 80% compatible with Windows 10. You can't install the latest AMD Radeon software.
 
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Now, my wife has an A-10 7850K in a Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H. It's an FM2+ board. I put that together three years ago. It was AMD's fastest APU at the time.
 
kwalkingcraze said:
I like to point out that A10-7800 has full Windows 10 compatibility. A10-6700 is only 80% compatible with Windows 10.
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...?

Trinity/Richland is 100% Windows 10 compatible. You can only use the WU included driver (v 15.7.1) though. That driver is rock solid and extremely mature however, further game specific optimisations would likely be a waste of time for AMD. Which leads to:

kwalkingcraze said:
You can't install the latest AMD Radeon software.
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This is because Trinity/Richland use the older TeraScale architecture, not GCN. The video decode block is however identical to first-gen GCN cards.

You -can- install a beta version of the Crimson driver, but I'd not recommend it, as it breaks all kind of stuff. Not least including HDCP, which is pretty important for HTPC usage. Properbly why AMD left TeraScale as-is.
 
Bought the A10-6700, had to go used from eBay, but there you have it.

Anyway, I think this will be a big user experience bump for the family member. I've also told said family member to not buy any more computers from his "computer guy," and to come to me for future builds.

Thanks all.
 
They need 8 GB RAM. When I tried to work with 4 GB (really 3,5 GB due to GPU sharing) on A10-6800K + W10, it was quite noticeable. It might be better with SSD, but still.
 
Arachnotronic said:
Bought the A10-6700, had to go used from eBay, but there you have it.

Anyway, I think this will be a big user experience bump for the family member. I've also told said family member to not buy any more computers from his "computer guy," and to come to me for future builds.

Thanks all.
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NIB A8-7600 FM2+ is going for $55 on eBay, item #192197909243. Still slightly faster than A10-6700. I still think his board is A55M-E33 FM2+, and he's missing out after all.
 
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When the Ryzen APUs come out in 2018, AMD will make A8-7600 its base and cheapest processor (like Sempron 145 AM3 before), on the way down to $39.99 retail price where A4-7300 was last sold. All FM2 dual-cores will be discontinued shortly, including A6-7400K.
 
bigboxes said:
Now, my wife has an A-10 7850K in a Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H. It's an FM2+ board. I put that together three years ago. It was AMD's fastest APU at the time.
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It's still among the fastest though. Considering 7890K is just clock bump and all of Bristol Ridge is still MIA for DIY user. 2018 can't come soon enough.
 
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