New PC build give your opinion

[Diabolis]

Case:
NZXT Phantom ATX white/red

Motherboard:
Asus M5a97 Am3+

RAM:
Kingston DDR3 HYPERX BLU 4GB 1600MHz

CPU:
AMD FX-8120 Black Edition, 3.1GHz, Cache 16MB, Socket AM3+, Eight-Core

Graphics:
AMD Radeon HD 7770 Black Edition 1095MHZ 1GB GDDR5 XFX FX-777A-ZNB4

Power supply:
Corsair 600W

Storage:
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB SH103S3/120G

[ccrs8]

Looks good - I'd double the RAM, though.

[LemonLime]

I'd agree with the above poster, ccrs8, but tell you to go even further. Load up on as much RAM as possible. The Asus M5a97 Am3+ can hold 32gb of RAM. That's a bit overkill, of course, but I'd go with a minimum of 8GB, probably closer to 12 or 16GB. RAM is luckily rather inexpensive to stock up on.

Edit: I typically dual-boot Ubuntu with Windows in order to play games or other *******-specific applications. That's the biggest reason for a RAM increase in my opinion, especially if you have to use a laptop, which can struggle in other areas.

[mag1strate]

Unless he is running really intensive stuff, I doubt increasing the RAM would give much more of a performance hike.

I really like the *770 series for ATI cards, they are the perfect balance of cost, energy, and performance.

[Diabolis]

At the moment the only game I play is league of legends. Probably the most demanding things I'll be doing is having a couple of virtual machines running and maybe some amateurish Photoshop session every so often.

I have done the dual boot thing for the last ~4 years. Now I'm going to use Windows as the base OS, a Wintendo that we'll run LoL only; and I'll have a virtual machine running Ubuntu where I'll do my actual work.

[kow777]

Unless he is running really intensive stuff, I doubt increasing the RAM would give much more of a performance hike.

I really like the *770 series for ATI cards, they are the perfect balance of cost, energy, and performance.

But with the low price of ram any more, why not just buy as much as your budget allows. Personally I would suggest at least 8 gb, especially if you are going to use any VMs.

[cariboo]

If you are going to be running Ubuntu in vbox, I'd suggest at least doubling the ram, to give the Ubuntu instance a full 4GiB. As kow777, the price of ram is quite low at the moment, so it won't add much extra to the price.

[Paqman]

I have a 4GB machine and run VMs on it. In fact VMs are the only reason I went to 4GB.

I guess it depends on how hungry the VMs you're going to run are. Ubuntu itself is more than happy with 2GB, so you'll only need more than 4GB if you're going to need to run a VM that needs more than 2GB itself. Recent builds of Windows maybe?

If you're not VMing it up to the max or doing something like CAD then any more than 4GB is a waste of money IMO, even if it is cheap. It won't hurt to have it installed, but it won't actually do anything either.

[kow777]

I have a 4GB machine and run VMs on it. In fact VMs are the only reason I went to 4GB.

I guess it depends on how hungry the VMs you're going to run are. Ubuntu itself is more than happy with 2GB, so you'll only need more than 4GB if you're going to need to run a VM that needs more than 2GB itself. Recent builds of Windows maybe?

If you're not VMing it up to the max or doing something like CAD then any more than 4GB is a waste of money IMO, even if it is cheap. It won't hurt to have it installed, but it won't actually do anything either.

When I use Windows 7 in an VM, I never give it less than 1.5GB ram. Windows is getting pretty heavy these days.

Also, I didn't catch it before, but I would suggest an extra HDD. That 120GB SSD is going to go fast, as in run out of space. :) Or maybe another SSD to put the Ubuntu VM on to get the maximum speed.

[mag1strate]

Do people really use VM's that much? What would warrant using one?

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

How are you using it?
if this is for gaming you would be better off with a i5-3570k
games tent to need single core performance much more than multi-core performance, intel's single core performance is better than amds

if this a about amd loyalty:
Why use a amd bulldozer when you can use a amd piledriver (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285)

generally over 4 cores does not help gaming, but if the cpu disables cores 5-8 to up the clock speed on cores 1 and 2 it could have its benefits

if you are doing video editing double the ram and stick with a amd 8 core

a virtualbox allocates a fixed amount of ram, you can get by with 4gb, i run 12gb for a 6gb /tmp ramdisk and virtualbox
i could upgraded to 16gb, but i don't see a reason to

[HansKisaragi]

Get 8 gb ram. and also.. if you plan to use Linux I would not touch AMD.

[ratcheer]

Looks good - I'd double the RAM, though.

^^ What he said.

Tim

[ccrs8]

Do people really use VM's that much? What would warrant using one?

I sometimes use Windows 7 in VirtualBox (with 4 of my 8 total gigs of RAM assigned to it) to watch streaming Netflix because my two HD monitors are better than my regular TV connected to my Roku. There are also still a few programs I have to use for work that are Windows only. I don't use it much, but it's nice to have.

[mike acker]

i put 16G ram in mine..... but, according to the Performance Monitor, I've not yet got it using above 2G .....hmmm. I'm not convinced the monitor is accurate: the core listed as used by the processes adds up to a lot more than shown used on the activity graph. I'm told much of the memory is being shared...

HDD : I put 2 x 1TB Seagate Baracudas in mine. music and photos eat DASD

i like the 8 core cpu. I put a 4 core AMD Phenom II in mine but the machine uses them all

I used the 1333 memory; i'm suspecting that i'd been better off to go 8G of the 1866 speed memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148552). I think I can just order new chips and switch it out . my M5A88-M ASUS motherboard does support this higher speed; i just wonder how much i'd notice it. originally i guessed just putting in lots of std 1333 memory would be good.

lots of cache on the cpu chip is generally seen as a good plan

[mike acker]

[QUOTE=Diabolis;12325738]{snip}

Motherboard:
Asus M5a97 Am3+
{snip}

.... the M5A97 has UEFI BIOS -- has that been a problem in UBUNTU Boot-up?

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

{snip}

Motherboard:
Asus M5a97 Am3+
{snip}

.... the M5A97 has UEFI BIOS -- has that been a problem in UBUNTU Boot-up?
there should be a option to disable secure boot in there somewhere
i doubt that will be enabled by default on a retail motherboard, cause they don't want to deal with rma over i cant install xp


I used the 1333 memory; i'm suspecting that i'd been better off to go 8G of the 1866 speed memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148552). I think I can just order new chips and switch it out . my M5A88-M ASUS motherboard does support this higher speed; i just wonder how much i'd notice it. originally i guessed just putting in lots of std 1333 memory would be good.

lots of cache on the cpu chip is generally seen as a good plan
i have 12gb of ddr3 1600 on my phenom ii x4
going over 1600 is a pain (have to use over clocking tools to get it working), and will not make a noticeable difference, unless you are using a APU, with APUs i go with the fastest ram the APU supports
edit: with your board you have to use over clocking for 1600

[mips]

Case:

CPU:
AMD FX-8120 Black Edition, 3.1GHz, Cache 16MB, Socket AM3+, Eight-Core


Why don't you get the newer Piledriver CPUs instead? They use less power and perform better. The FX-8320 would be the Piledriver version of the older Bulldozer FX-8120.

http://www.nag.co.za/2012/10/29/amd-vishera-fx-preview-and-performance-analysis/
The above is a nice summary of the reviews below,
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-8350-vishera-review,3328.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/46985-amd-fx-8350/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/FX-8350_Piledriver_Review/1.html

[mike acker]

there should be a option to disable secure boot in there somewhere
i doubt that will be enabled by default on a retail motherboard, cause they don't want to deal with rma over i cant install xp

i have 12gb of ddr3 1600 on my phenom ii x4
going over 1600 is a pain (have to use over clocking tools to get it working), and will not make a noticeable difference, unless you are using a APU, with APUs i go with the fastest ram the APU supports
edit: with your board you have to use over clocking for 1600

thanks. i'll leave the existing memory as is; the box runs fine. ( except this week -- internet service keeps jumping in/out )

the M5A88-M has a "MEM OK" switch to sync memory support; supposedly all that is needed is to put in the new memory chips -- after which the board won't start -- until you press and hold this special switch until the red led stops blinking