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AMD FX-8350 upgrade

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Hey there, GOOD MORNING !
So I had a big plan about 6 months ago to upgrade some components to my Phenom 965 machine but then some health issues struck and I couldn't use the computer much !

The store next to my house sells the "AMD FX-8350" for a nice price I guess, and my motherboard can definitely take it.
I currently have the PII 965 with 8GB of ram, a D14 Cooler, and a 990X motherboard.

My uses: some autocad, basic photoshop and image stacking software, Adobe acrobat and google chrome.

Will I see much difference with the FX-8350 surgery, enough to justify 180-200$ ? It appears so on paper but is it true in real life ? It's after all a 3 year old CPU I think ? Latest AMD tech, but still 3 years old.

I have no interest in Intel by the way, they are priced way too high in my home country and any import taxes can kill. The AMD importer sells right at USA prices most times


So it's either 8350 or nothing :) It all works, I figured I have some time and spare cash now so maybe it's a good time to ask.

Thanks a lot !!
 
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Norton

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I would go for it- went from an overclocked 960T on my main rig to an 8350 and haven't looked back. Very happy with the performance at stock and with a mild overclock.
 
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I'd go for it:)
Should be quite an improvement, especially in your use case.
 
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Get the 8350. It's worth it.
 
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That sounds good ! I shall go get it first thing tomorrow morning :)
Any reason to get extra RAM while I am there ? Never seen it top-up on the RAM dial so I guess that's OK for now right ?
 
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Yep go for it :toast: 8gb ram is enough is it 1600 or 1866?
 
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Very exciting upgrade :) They are 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance, those black ones with the fancy heatsinks
 
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Very exciting upgrade :) They are 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance, those black ones with the fancy heatsinks
The difference between 1600 and 1866 should be very slim, if anything you might add another 8GB of 1600MHz RAM if you ever start running out of memory.
Good luck with the upgrade!
 
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Hey there, GOOD MORNING !
So I had a big plan about 6 months ago to upgrade some components to my Phenom 965 machine but then some health issues struck and I couldn't use the computer much !

The store next to my house sells the "AMD FX-8350" for a nice price I guess, and my motherboard can definitely take it.
I currently have the PII 965 with 8GB of ram, a D14 Cooler, and a 990X motherboard.

My uses: some autocad, basic photoshop and image stacking software, Adobe acrobat and google chrome.

Will I see much difference with the FX-8350 surgery, enough to justify 180-200$ ? It appears so on paper but is it true in real life ? It's after all a 3 year old CPU I think ? Latest AMD tech, but still 3 years old.

I have no interest in Intel by the way, they are priced way too high in my home country and any import taxes can kill. The AMD importer sells right at USA prices most times


So it's either 8350 or nothing :) It all works, I figured I have some time and spare cash now so maybe it's a good time to ask.

Thanks a lot !!

Which 990X mobo u r using?

That D14 cooler should keep the FX happy!!

If there is spare cash pick up a 120/240GB SSD and load your OS and most used programs/games on it, that will give way better improvement (ie if you don't have an SSD already)
 
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Motherboard is the 990XA-UD3 by gigabyte ! Is it still OK for the job ?

SSD - I got a nice 256gb one that's working well so all good there !
 
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Be sure you have the F13 BIOS or higher on the board before dropping in the new CPU. According to their website, CPU support for the FX-8350 was added in that BIOS version.
 
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Excellent ! Just updated using @bios
Nice !

Some good minds here !
 
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Don't expect a massive out of this world night and day performance boost. I went from a 3.6Ghz 945 to an 8320 that I then clocked up to 4.5Ghz. There will be a speed up but I honestly did not notice it as much until I used programs that utilized the extra cores. If you put a Phenom II vs an FX at the same core speed, the PII will win, that is just a fact. I do think you'll see a boost in your case but how much of a boost, don't know. I just want you caution you in case you are expecting a brand new PC experience out of it.

Ultimately for me it was worth it as I use handbrake or video editors a lot and the performance gain with the FX in those is huge for the money.

However, going forward with Win 10, you'll likely benefit more from the FX than the PII.
 
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Yea I figured it's not going to be a whole new machine but as long as there is a general performance increase that's good :)

AMD isn't going to launch new desktop AM3 FX CPU's this year, correct ?
 

Ebo

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Yea I figured it's not going to be a whole new machine but as long as there is a general performance increase that's good :)

AMD isn't going to launch new desktop AM3 FX CPU's this year, correct ?

No, when AMD is launching their new CPU with Zen architecture, as far as I remember it will be on the FM2+ platform, as I understand it, sometime in 2016.
 
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No, when AMD is launching their new CPU with Zen architecture, as far as I remember it will be on the FM2+ platform, as I understand it, sometime in 2016.
it will be on the Am4 platform.
 

Ebo

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Hmm well it seems like now is a great time to insert the FX then !

By the time Zen is out i'll need a board and DDR4 anyway so it will take a while.

On my way to the parts shop !
EDIT: FX-8350 is here and I am going to slide it in and report back !
 
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OK so I applied the thermal paste using the blob method, but I highly doubt it will cover exactly 100% of the CPU surface... It covers most of it.
I hope that little bit of metal to metal won't hard these CPU's ?

Prime95 Max Heat test shows 42 degrees at CoreTemp with the D14 - Is this a good result ?
 
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OK so I applied the thermal paste using the blob method, but I highly doubt it will cover exactly 100% of the CPU surface... It covers most of it.
I hope that little bit of metal to metal won't hard these CPU's ?

Prime95 Max Heat test shows 42 degrees at CoreTemp with the D14 - Is this a good result ?

Pea method is a good way, and what I do.... you don't need to use to much. Just a pea size dab in the center.

I would monitor temps with AMD overdrive - and HWMonitor

62celcius is the max safe Package temp (AMD says)
and 70c on the socket temp
 
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OK so I applied the thermal paste using the blob method, but I highly doubt it will cover exactly 100% of the CPU surface... It covers most of it.
I hope that little bit of metal to metal won't hard these CPU's ?

Prime95 Max Heat test shows 42 degrees at CoreTemp with the D14 - Is this a good result ?

42 is good enjoy your new cpu:toast:
 
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