Short build log, Switched from FX8150 to i7-3820

[Claviger]

I have recently finished what will be my last upgrade for the next year, likely a GPU upgrade at the year mark, then at least 1 more for the rest of the PC.

I went with a Rampage IV Gene, only because it was on sale for $200, and I could honestly not be happier. The fact that it is mATX threw me off it at first then after reading that people are getting OCs very near the R4E with it I took the plunge. So here is the system build:

HAF X, lightly modded to accept a 200mm radiator in the lower front position.
i7 3820
R4G
Mushkin 993997
Radeon 6870s in CF
2x 1TB HDD in RAID 0
OCZ Synapse caching for the RAID array
750GB Seagate backup drive


This is a recent change from the exact same system running an AMD 8150 and Crosshar 4 Formula.

First and most important item for me was the RAM setup. R4G, just enable "Tight Hynix" and its done, works like a charm with 44GB/second read/write speeds! On the C4F, I had to manually find all those settings, and even then it peaked out at 21.5GB/s, yes I know the bandwidth is nearly useless, but damn the simplicity was SO worth it! ASUS if you read this, ADD THE HYNIX TIGHT TIMINGS FOR C4F GUYS!

Immediately I could tell a difference in the "feel" of the computers after re installing windows and all my personal bloatware The intel build just feels more responsive, usually. I will say however that the AMD system allows mutitasking more smoothly while doing heavy loads on the CPU, like running IBT and browsing the web, it is more fluid on the FX chip. Everything just works on the i7 system though, the sleep state (never worked on the FX right), the audio on the R4G is vastly superior to the audio on the C4F (no hum, thanks ASUS!), everything just runs "smoother" 99% of the time.

Overclocking the i7, was WAY easier than the AMD. Pick a speed, adjust the Block Boost strap, set the bclock, bump voltage a notch or two as needed and your good. The FX chip took adjusting far more settings to get the same or nearly the same OC out of and be stable. I started OCing when the Duron 600 was originally released, so I have a little practice with AMD chips, they are not hard to OC, but jesus is the i7 easy lol.

Both systems running the same software environment, the same RAM/HDD/GPUS/PSU etc etc, the i7 system picked up some in benchmarks, but not like what some silly people claim that it doubles your FPS lol. A few select applications, such as BOINC crunching on moowrapper, are actually significantly slower on the i7, like 1/2 the speed.

For reference:

Cinebench 11.5 scores:
FX-8150 @ 4856, 2040mhz RAM score: 8.26
i7 3820 @ 4801, 2080mhz RAM score: 9.54

Performance Mark:
FX- 11125
i7- 12985

3dMark11
fx-8998
i7-9492

So all in all a fair upgrade considering it cost me only 80 dollars more to jump ship to the i7 2011 platform vice the 990x platform.

The greatest aspect of all: HEAT
fx at 4856mhz, 1.5vcore = ~66c (25c ambient), but could not leave running all day in closed office as it would heat ambient by about 12c. Water temps were peaking in the mid 40s!!
i7 at 4801, 1.408vcore = ~60c (25c ambient), can leave it in the closed office all day, does not heat the room significantly.


//WARNING AMD HATE BELOW//
Honestly, AMD, should just shutdown the FX line, and live in the mid ground, as the comparison is so significant in both general computing feel, gaming, power draw and heat when OCd that the AMD becomes totally irrelevant, especially for 80 bucks more!
Seriously, I wanted BD to be awesome, so I bucked the reviewers and forum posts and went with it, realized it is true garbage, and went with a correct solution. Not only that but I seriously doubt that PD will have any noticeable effect on the gains the i7 series are putting on AMD, if anything I predict the IPC will only grow with PD vs IB.
Left camp red, not going back ever.
//END AMD HATE//

[Zka17]

Well, Claviger, you found out the same thing a lot of people (including myself) had experienced with converting from AMD to Intel... Based on my knowledge acquired mostly from reading different reviews, benchmarks and tests, if you want pure performance - then you go Intel! This is not meaning that AMD is bad or wrong - it is mainly for lower budgets. Couple years ago people were saying: "If you want calculating power, then get Intel; if you need multimedia, then get AMD". Not sure how this stands for today's cpus... I guess: if you want high performance, get an Intel cpu and ATI/AMD graphic card... (again, is nothing wrong with Nvidia - talking only about Intel and AMD)

Just an idea: you may want to post a build log to the "Build Advice" or "Case Modding & PC Build Pics" sections of the Forum (if you can post pictures, then specially in the second one)...

[R4E3960X]

AMD is the southern star camp man, Intel is northern star camp.

[AllGamer]

i have both FX-8150 and i7-3960x

the FX-8150 is easier to OC to the same speed than the i7-3960x, the i7 gets very hot (needs water cooler) at the same speed while the AMD does it only on air and stock HSF

I also like the Crossfire V Formula board more than the Rampage iV Formula board

the i7-3960 it does perform a little more smoother if you plan to run VMware or VirtualBox using only 6 cores
while the FX-8150 doing the same thing seems to get random I/O bottle necks, even with all SATA3 drives and 8 cores

on games or multimedia, you'll never know the difference between them two, unless you are doing benchmark

both are super fast

you can see the details of both rig on my profile over at OC.net http://www.overclock.net/u/279753/allgamer

[Claviger]

I concur they are both very fast, however I absolutely can tell the difference, and no it is NOT placebo effect. BF3 same settings on everything performs far better on the 3820.


Not sure about 3960x, wish I had one to play with lol. For me I found the opposite, the i7 i find easier to resolve issues by tweaking settings, possibly because there are more settings to tweak on the R4 than the C4 maybe?