My impressions owning both the FX8350 and now the 3770k.

[Phynaz]

Yeap, those FX6300 dont hold any performance advantages against the core i3s or the FX8320 against entry Core i5 and Trinity doesnt obliterate every Intel Core i CPU in Graphics etc

Tired argument is tired

 

[Idontcare]

I haven't tried the 3770K but in my country it's in a TOTALLY different price bracket, and here the 3570k is more expensive £165 vs. £149. In My opinion Microcenter, should NEVER be used to justify one CPU over another.

You write "NEVER" but wouldn't you agree that it should be a considered justification when the buyer does happen to live within reasonable distance from a Microcenter?

Shouldn't your "NEVER" really be a "mostly never"?

I'll be looking to under-volt this CPU to see where it can go, however I will warn people with ASUS boards to be wary of the EPU function. I found that the system "seemed" stable, but in Prime95 it had errors while that was enabled in the BIOS.

I like ASUS but they are the quirkiest boards you can buy. The BIOS settings do the oddest of things, and trying to figure out why things work or don't work is really a painful learning process.

I'm not suprised the EPU setting does silly stuff to undermine stability. That is par for the course with ASUS.

 

[Bearach]

You write "NEVER" but wouldn't you agree that it should be a considered justification when the buyer does happen to live within reasonable distance from a Microcenter?

Shouldn't your "NEVER" really be a "mostly never"?



I like ASUS but they are the quirkiest boards you can buy. The BIOS settings do the oddest of things, and trying to figure out why things work or don't work is really a painful learning process.

I'm not suprised the EPU setting does silly stuff to undermine stability. That is par for the course with ASUS.

Okay, I agree "NEVER" may have been overly wrong in this instance, and "mostly never" would have been better in this case.

I do think too many justify a processor to others cause they have access to Microcenter, when a very large majority do not.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Okay, I agree "NEVER" may have been overly wrong in this instance, and "mostly never" would have been better in this case.

I do think too many justify a processor cause they have access to Microcenter, when a very large majority do not.

I don't know if you have to "justify" a processor at all. If you think one processor gives better performance, just buy it, especially for a mid range or high end system. Yes, it looks wasteful when one costs 300 and the other costs 200. (Just arbitrary easy to use numbers). 50% more expensive. But in a 1000 dollar total system, that is only 10% more. One must consider that the system can last 3 years or more, so the cost spread over this time is minimal. If the more expensive processor also uses less power, part of the initial price difference will be made up in power savings.

 

[Vesku]

It is a bit frustrating though when prices are mentioned and I'm like "man I need to get in on this deal" and then I see the "at Microcenter" which sometimes doesn't get mentioned for several posts. It would be nice if people are mentioning Brick and Mortar prices they instead link to the relevant hot deal posts, that keeps it in perspective.

 

[frozentundra123456]

It is a bit frustrating though when prices are mentioned and I'm like "man I need to get in on this deal" and then I see the "at Microcenter" which sometimes doesn't get mentioned for several posts. It would be nice if people are mentioning Brick and Mortar prices they instead link to the relevant hot deal posts, that keeps it in perspective.

I can see how you would be frustrated. Luckily for me, I do live close to a microcenter. Nerd heaven!!
It is surprising that they are not more widely distributed. The one in my area is always extremely busy.

 

[akugami]

I can see how you would be frustrated. Luckily for me, I do live close to a microcenter. Nerd heaven!!
It is surprising that they are not more widely distributed. The one in my area is always extremely busy.

Well, Frys is on the west coast and they're generally very good. I do happen to live near a Microcenter. Hell, I just bought a 3770k from the very same Microcenter as the OP two weeks ago.

I also bought an AMD FX-8320 which will be used to run some virtual machines for work related testing.

 

[Vesku]

Fry's used to be pretty good with the combo deals, but ever since they caught that exec getting kickbacks the deals haven't been quite the same level.

 

[2is]

Fry's hasn't had good combo deals in a few years but I actually kind of prefer their current business model of matching online retailers pricing.

Their combo deals of yesteryear were generally lower end parts, particularly the motherboard which was usually a no frills ECS board with crappy onboard audio and extremely limited to no overclocking options. It was great in it's time for system builders to put together a cheap box for a customer, but today with entry level retail boxes being so inexpensive, it wouldn't really make sense.

 

[AtenRa]

Is Trinity the same IGP that's gimped on many computers because they aren't configured for dual channel?

Nice try, but no matter how you trying to spin it for the same price or lower AMD products offer more performance (FX8xxx vs Core i5, FX6300 vs Core i3, Trinity iGPU etc).

 

[2is]

Nice try, but no matter how you trying to spin it for the same price or lower AMD products offer more performance (FX8xxx vs Core i5, FX6300 vs Core i3, Trinity iGPU etc).

What spin? Is it or is it not that same IGP? And no, the 8xxx isn't better than an i5. That's your imagination.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested

I count 9 victories for the 8350 and 16 for a 3570 (18 if we include load and idle power consumption)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113284
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116504

A whole $30 difference ($20 if you have no intention to OC)

$30 for a faster, more efficient processor and that's before we get to platform superiority that IDC already touched on.

Oh, but we aren't done yet...

With energy rates in southern California, and my usage, that $30 will have been paid for in a year, and I typically keep the same CPU for 3-4 years, so the i5 actually becomes cheaper. That's at stock. Overclocked I make out even better.

Like I've said in the past, the "value" argument AMD people use doesn't actually exist in the context they think it does.

 

[holden j caufield]

Well, Frys is on the west coast and they're generally very good. I do happen to live near a Microcenter. Hell, I just bought a 3770k from the very same Microcenter as the OP two weeks ago.

I also bought an AMD FX-8320 which will be used to run some virtual machines for work related testing.

I'm not a gamer, I've been very happy with my 1045t and 990fx for virtual machine testing. How is the comparable i5 or low end i7 series for virtualization. I got my cpu/mobo from microcenter last year for $170 after rebate so it's very competitive.

 

[Piroko]

With energy rates in southern California, and my usage, that $30 will have been paid for in a year, and I typically keep the same CPU for 3-4 years, so the i5 actually becomes cheaper. That's at stock. Overclocked I make out even better.

At 20c per kWh and a difference of 100W between the two 30$ would give you more than 60 days of non-stop maximum load (read: benchmarking loop). The difference in idle power between the two would fairly easily get you 24/7/365 for 30$.

With such a usage scenario I can't stop thinking that you'd have picked the wrong CPU with both of them since you would spend more than 100$ a year in electricity for your PC no matter which one you pick.

 

[nemesismk2]

You must be joking.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/06/torvalds-nvidia-linux/

Late last week, at a hacker meetup in Finland, Torvalds laid into Nvidia, calling it “the single worst company” the Linux developer community has ever dealt with, complaining that the chipmaker doesn’t do as much as it could to ensure that its hardware plays nicely with his open source operating system. He even turned to the camera filming the event, flipped the company the proverbial bird, and dropped the proverbial F bomb.

“Nvidia, **** you,” he said, as the room erupted with applause and laughter.

Well done Linus Torvalds

 

[vampirr]

2is.. You mention FX 8350, never FX 8320 that is 20$ cheaper or more than FX 8350. It has similar performance, its a bit less overclockable but its a sweetspot for the price... As for AnandTech benchmarks...

You only see CPU, you don't see what GPU, motherboard, RAM they used nor their power supply so its not valid. They should use same RAM, GPU and power supply... Ultil we don't know what they used for the test and comparison in my book this is not fully valid for any argument because of lack of details/info.

 

[akugami]

I'm not a gamer, I've been very happy with my 1045t and 990fx for virtual machine testing. How is the comparable i5 or low end i7 series for virtualization. I got my cpu/mobo from microcenter last year for $170 after rebate so it's very competitive.

I'm still setting things up so haven't moved over to the AMD machine full time from my old Intel C2D machine at work. The C2D machine is not conducive to running VM's and in my normal beta testing I would have to scrounge for a spare machine to test on. VM's are going to speed things up tremendously and also save space. My work room usually has about 3 to 5 stations set up for various tests.

I only ran 2 VM's (2 cores, 2GB RAM) with each VM on their own HD so I'm not really stressing anything. I doubt I will need more than 3 VM's for testing and the software we develop is not exactly taxing. The target market uses bottom of the line Atom x86 processors. Runs pretty smooth for what I need it to do is all I can say.

As for the i7-3770k. I haven't done much to it other than install the OS and some bare essentials. Not much free time. But damn is it smooth. Of note is that I moved from a WD Raptor to an SSD when I upgraded to the i7 so that's probably a major part of it. My old home system which I donated to my sister in law was an Intel Q9550 built back in the stone age.

 

[2is]

At 20c per kWh and a difference of 100W between the two 30$ would give you more than 60 days of non-stop maximum load (read: benchmarking loop). The difference in idle power between the two would fairly easily get you 24/7/365 for 30$.

With such a usage scenario I can't stop thinking that you'd have picked the wrong CPU with both of them since you would spend more than 100$ a year in electricity for your PC no matter which one you pick.

Depends on what performance you want. My costs wouldn't be $100/year but certainly could be for people doing DC projects. I never said my computer is always at full load or always at idle. There's a large range in between that you left out that most people fit into. If you need i5ish performance then you need i5 performance.

2is.. You mention FX 8350, never FX 8320 that is 20$ cheaper or more than FX 8350. It has similar performance, its a bit less overclockable but its a sweetspot for the price... As for AnandTech benchmarks...

You only see CPU, you don't see what GPU, motherboard, RAM they used nor their power supply so its not valid. They should use same RAM, GPU and power supply... Ultil we don't know what they used for the test and comparison in my book this is not fully valid for any argument because of lack of details/info.

8350 already fell behind the 3570, why would i compare an even slower processor? AT afaik uses similar configurations for the processors they group together. Meaning GPU and memory speed/size is the same. You can keep making excuses, I gave you facts, you gave what exactly? An assumption that the processors weren't tested equally? So a conspiracy theory? You'll have to do better than that. Especially considering the 8350 is quite a bit newer than a 3570 and if there was a platform advantage, be it better supporting hardware or more mature drivers (particularly for video card in gaming benchmarks), it would have went to IT and not the 3570. So you "book" isn't exactly doing AMD any favors.

 

[Idontcare]

2is.. You mention FX 8350, never FX 8320 that is 20$ cheaper or more than FX 8350. It has similar performance, its a bit less overclockable but its a sweetspot for the price... As for AnandTech benchmarks...

You only see CPU, you don't see what GPU, motherboard, RAM they used nor their power supply so its not valid. They should use same RAM, GPU and power supply... Ultil we don't know what they used for the test and comparison in my book this is not fully valid for any argument because of lack of details/info.

That is like saying no one can ever make a valid price/performance comparison between ANY cpus because everyone pays a slightly different price owing to different tax rates, shipping and handling fees, etc.

There is obviously a lot of leeway that people already factor into expectations and estimations regarding price. The same can easily be said of power consumption.

Such aspects of reality do not make the comparisons invalid. People are smart enough to know there is some slop in the analyses anytime specific numbers are getting involved.

But you are arguing everyone should focus on the tree and lose sight of the forest. The forest is still there, the difference in power draw at the wall is very real and your electric provider sees it too (and will charge you for it).

Just because we can't nail down the exact value to the fifth decimal place doesn't mean we can't speak about it, draw comparisons to it, make decisions based on it.

 

[vampirr]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing

I am from Croatia so its about 16 to 24 cents depending in on the zone, you guys in USA have 8 to 17 cents and you must be a lucky son of a b###h to live where is only 8 cents...

Prices of CPU's in my country with taxed incluced, CPU price in my country is like the wild west and prices are very different. Cant wait when Croatia enters EU on 1.7.2013:
FX 6300: 150-170$
FX 8320: 190-230$
FX 8350: 255$
A8 5600k: 120-140$
Athlon 2 x4 750k: 100-120$

G860: 80$
i3 3220: 140$
i3 3225: 170$
i5 2500k: 300-315$
i5 3570k: 260-300$
i7 3770k: 380-438$
G2120: 95-125$

 

[AtenRa]

AMD FX4350 and FX6350 listed for pre-order

 

[Magic Carpet]

Okay, I agree "NEVER" may have been overly wrong in this instance, and "mostly never" would have been better in this case.

I do think too many justify a processor to others cause they have access to Microcenter, when a very large majority do not.

I feel your anger. Processors in England are just way over priced. At my favorite shop there, Ebuyer 3370K retails at J256.88, the very same processsor on newegg usa is J221. And if you go to a MicroCenter... one would thought, that in a global economy things should have been simpler... *sigh*.., cheaper.

EDIT: buy it while on vacation, or make some friends, works for me :whiste:

 

[Idontcare]

Okay, I agree "NEVER" may have been overly wrong in this instance, and "mostly never" would have been better in this case.

I do think too many justify a processor to others cause they have access to Microcenter, when a very large majority do not.

It is a bit frustrating though when prices are mentioned and I'm like "man I need to get in on this deal" and then I see the "at Microcenter" which sometimes doesn't get mentioned for several posts. It would be nice if people are mentioning Brick and Mortar prices they instead link to the relevant hot deal posts, that keeps it in perspective.

Hot deals are just that, hot deals because they are based on extra-ordinary pricing opportunity.

A hot-deal does alter the price recommendation for anyone who has access to the hot deal. And obviously if it doesn't apply then neither does the recommendation.

Personally I don't see the problem.

If someone recommends I buy a 3770k because it is available at MC for $250 then that recommendation is either (1) relevant because I live near a MC, or (2) irrelevant because I don't live near a MC.

Now if I happen to live near a MC the last thing I want is for someone to sit on their recommendation, to not post it up for me to read, just because that person has been told "recommendations based on MC deals are invalid and should never be posted".

Wouldn't I be done a disservice if that were to happen?

On the other hand if I don't live near a MC then what do I care, what impact does it have on me, if two or three people want to chime in and post a recommendation that is irrelevant to me but might perk up the ears of a would-be reader in my thread?

So what if I can't take advantage of the MC deal, I'll keep reading the thread for recommendations that are geographically relevant to my personal situation, and in the meantime maybe other people on the planet will profit from having spent time reading my thread and finding out for themselves that there is some hot deal going on at a MC that is near them?

The problem with referencing prices is one that can never be decisively or conclusively put to rest because there is no such thing as a global brick-and-mortar or globally accessible (common shipper, etc) etailer.

Make it a rule that MC deals can't be referenced and you've solved nothing. Do we use Newegg then? Doesn't help our Canadian friends who can't score newegg USA deals, doesn't help Europe, doesn't really apply to anyone but USA folks.

There is no universally accessible storefront to appeal to and rely upon for pricing, other than MSRP which means nothing as we all know.

So it really does fall back to the case where the burden of making sense of the recommendations falls to the person who is looking to take advantage of other people's generosity in providing those recommendations in the first place.

In other words we are not to look these gift horses in the mouth. Beggars cannot be choosers.

If you come to a freely accessible forum seeking freely given recommendations then you need to be prepared to put in a little time and effort on your end of the equation and sift through the recommendations to determine which ones are relevant to your specific personal situation and ignore the ones that are irrelevant.

 

[Vesku]

There is a hot deals section for a reason. I also noted that if they are going to point out a deal price they should link to the relevant hot deals post. My main pet peeve is people throwing around prices within a larger thread as part of an argument or discussion and not clarifying they are talking about a specific "hot deal". Often it's several posts later from a similarly peeved person that it is determined "oh you mean at that one brick and mortar store that uses its in-store only pricing as a major source of foot traffic?".

Again, not a big deal if the person is clear about what they are talking about. Annoying when they are treating it as some global price with which to "win" an argument or undermine someone else's argument.

 

[SlowSpyder]

AMD FX4350 and FX6350 listed for pre-order

Despite its flaws, I think the FX6300 is a real monster in its price bracket. The FX6350 might be even better.

I'd really like to go AMD again for my next system (I haven't had an Intel desktop system since the 486 days), but based on the experiences I've read here it is hard to justify an FX63x0 system, especially when I already have a PhII x6. I'd really like to play with one, see what I could get out of it, but I think I have to wait for Haswell. And hopefully Steamroller makes it to the market, it sounds like it really should fix some of the FX's flaws.

 

[Shephard]

I think people don't like 8350 because it was not a big jump from Bulldozer. Bulldozer was also not huge from Phenom either. The Phenom II X6 still seems to hold up very well as being a true 6 core processor.

I got my i5-3570k for $170 after tax and shipping. That was the best deal I had for my new build. Cheaper than 8350.

i5 2500k vs 3570k not a huge jump in processor speed. Better than 8350 though because of better integrated graphics and lower power consumption.

FX 8350 sucks so much power. You also have to OC just to get it to battle with the i5 and i7.

I am no fan boy for either but Intel is best right now for price and performance.

I think AMD X2 and AMD Phenom II are the best processors they have ever made.