Consider OCing the 8320E or 6300? Gigabyte-GA-78LMT
Consider OCing the 8320E or 6300? Gigabyte-GA-78LMT
I've already used three air coolers on my setup: the Arctic A11 was quite a challenge and I repurposed parts from it, attaching bits to the Arctic Extreme which is also a heavyweight with no flat base—it’s curved, so I’d need hours of sanding. They didn’t mention it was waff in the description.
After that, I designed my own cooling loop:
http://m40i.imgup.net/frankenrad0530.jpg
I’m satisfied with the radiator, which is a modified motorcycle transmission cooler. It looks impressive to me, and I appreciate the reservoir made from DVD boxes. The only issue is that the pump manufacturer didn’t list its thermal tolerance at 35°C on the product page—it falls short for an overclock, so I’m returning it.
I’m not overreacting; I’d rather overspecify and stay within safe limits than keep pushing too hard. Plus, a Noctua would be nice, but that feels too routine. It was time to move beyond reading about water cooling and actually get hands-on experience.
There are challenges you can’t avoid. I need to replace some olives for my compression fittings, ordered a PSU to power a Peltier, and am using a copper reservoir. I’m keen to see how these changes affect the loop’s performance.
Some of this is just curiosity, but also practicality. Many items can be used in multiple ways. Some components will eventually move to other systems. Plus, I could easily add a GPU block—two or three would work well. With seven turns, I can detach the CPU, swap radiators, go to GPU 1, then back in and finish with another loop. This setup has been worth around £90, compared to high-end coolers costing £150.
All you get is a simpler plug-and-play solution, but I’m confident I can fix or upgrade any part if needed. The fittings are standard, so I can easily replace them when necessary. For me, it was about breaking free from the default options.
The 8320e is a minor redesign aimed at improving power efficiency, essentially offering the same CPU as a 6300 with an additional module. This means it provides the same processor but with two extra cores. In applications that rely heavily on single-threaded tasks, Intel maintains a clear advantage over AMD. However, in certain demanding games such as Star Wars Battlefront or Battlefield 4, where all eight threads are utilized, any performance gap between the 8320e and the 6300 becomes noticeable. Currently, neither processor can reliably sustain high operating temperatures (above 4.7°C) on this board. With only four power phases available, excessive heat at high speeds leads to instability and difficulty maintaining steady operation. The optimal thermal and power settings for both CPUs are around 4.3GHz, which represents the upper limit of stable performance on this platform. When using Zen close, the fan curve is nearing completion and is not expected to be suitable for long-term use. If CPU selection is unavoidable, the 8320e is a solid choice to preserve flexibility. Otherwise, switching to Skylake would be a better decision.
I bought AMD because my last PC was 1156 & there was no upgrade path from the old i3 550 and at least I have got a working PC and a basic platform which still has some upgradeability - I haven't bothered overmuch with HD because at the time it was premium pricey and still is to some extent & I'm counting the days 'til PCI Express is retired and that may be the time that I snaffle a few bargain bin & I think I will be using my WC loop for quite a while yet. I think there is a bit of kick still in the old pony. I have not reached the limits of what my system can do as I'm not spending hundreds of dollars a month on new titles & I can still get an 8 core later on plus I have yet to see if I can attain a 5ghz overclock for which I am waiting on my new pump which should be here before the end of the week .
If you look at what some companies have done with their games franchises in the past very often it they were used to push people on to the next OS; Halo 2 wasn't available on anything less than vista in the early 2000's; the companies were so desperate to turn a quick buck they just screwed over the fans but lost out later on when you could get them for 50p in the game trade in shops. Halo is my favorite bug bear. I don't even know what happened to 3,4 and 5. Went to x box I suppose. & the x box is now slowly dying while the pc lives on.
So if you're purchasing a new system, you can find the core Skylake CPU, motherboard, and memory for around £220 in the UK with a mediocre ATX motherboard and no overclocking options unless you opt for an expensive Skylake overclocking board from Asrock.
If you choose the FX6300 with a decent motherboard, you're looking at £130. For the FX8300, it's £160, and with the overclocking board, it goes up to £260. If you get the overclocking board for the Skylake version, it costs about £170, which raises your Intel quote to £350.
Anyway, my copper planter has just arrived—it looks amazing, so I’m going to shut it down and replace my reservoir. That should cost me around £11.99, giving me a bit more cooling power, I hope.
Anyway, I’m already settled with AMD. All I need to do is spend £160 on an FX9560, although there’s a noticeable lack of information comparing the performance of the two, especially if you try to push the AMD FX9560 beyond its 5GHz stock speed.
Huh. The CPU is biased against AMD just because it doesn’t have an integrated GPU—yet you’re always getting a third-party GPU.
The reality is that the volatile market is really chaotic right now, and AMD hasn’t released its 14nm CPUs yet if they want to compete in that space; they’ll be offering 14nm GPUs in six months.
So what do you think about that? If you do some relative calculations, the Zen cores still aren't as strong as Skylake. They're only about as good as Broadwell. The i3 6100 plus a decent mATX board is around 175 dollars in the US. You usually can't overclock and it's not really necessary anyway. I wouldn't recommend AMD this year. There isn't really a strong reason to overclock. Just stick with Skylake instead.
Just a h110 board with an i3 6100 costs around 160£
Board plus i5 6400/6500 comes to just 240£
No need to overthink it. It's much more efficient and cooler too. Performance will surpass the best AMD CPU right now. Intel is definitely worth it. I get if you're an AMD fan...
The reviewer isn't particularly loyal to any brand but notes the benchmarks suggest the FX6300 offers better value and performance compared to the 6100. They mention considering an i5 if they're on the right track, but currently prefer AMD options. The focus is on getting a 9560 instead of spending on memory upgrades at 2133 MHz, as they can overclock their CPU to 2400 MHz without issues. They're curious about achieving a 20% overclock on the FX9560 and what benchmarks it would score.