Holiday 2012 AMD Trinity Buyer's Guide
by Zach Throckmorton on November 29, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
- Systems
- AMD
- Trinity
- Holiday 2012
Final Words
To be blunt, AMD has seen better days than today. Its higher-end CPUs (the FX series) have difficulty competing with Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs in many regards, though Piledriver has helped narrow the gap. Up until recently, AMD competed with Intel's lower end CPUs (Celerons and Pentium Dual Cores) with older, power-hungry processors (Athlon II X2s, X3, and X4s). This situation was especially untenable in the mobile market. If you've followed my guides over the last two years, you've seen fewer and fewer systems based on AMD processors.
But the first-generation Llano APUs and especially the current-gen Trinity APUs fare well against Intel's low- and mid-range CPUs. From a consumer standpoint, competition is always good, and I'm glad to see AMD competing well in the mainstream market segment. Most of the computers I build are mainstream systems, and it's great to be able to reduce power consumption, system complexity, and cost by simply cutting out the discrete GPU—while still allowing my computers' users to play new, popular video game titles. Trinity is especially well-suited to the small form factor, and I hope motherboard manufacturers start to make more models available!
While Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, holiday sales will continue to present compelling prices to potential parts buyers. If you're patient and do your homework, you'll be able to put together systems like the ones outlined in this guide for as little money as possible. AnandTech's own Hot Deals Forum is a great place to find and share what are often ephemeral, flaming prices on hardware. And of course, AnandTech's General Hardware Forum is a great place to ask any questions you might have and share your expertise with fellow enthusiasts.
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mrsmegz - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
Is there any reason to use an A85X chipset other than the extra 16x slot/lanes for Xfire?just4U - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
I would say no until the price comes down... I bought one and regret wasting the extra $60 as it simply wasn't neccessary. I don't even see a reason to pick Trinity for crossfire setups as that should be handled /w their new Piledriver proccessors or a intel offering.lmcd - Friday, November 30, 2012 - link
Yeah, if you're going to do XF anything it better be dual graphics, or you're wasting your money.Medallish - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
It supports SLI afaik too.ThomasS31 - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
Yes. If you need more that 6 hdd, you need the A85x.I personally planning to build a media PC which can contail all my old HDDs with videos. I have 8HDDs... so this is my only choice. :)
dingetje - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
i would drop the burnarrrr and drop windows (aarrrrr), and add an ssd daaarrrriveDeath666Angel - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
I've bought a i7 860 (Socket 1156) and that only lasted for that one generation. I bought a A6-3500 (Socket FM1) and that only lasted one generation. That's the reason I'm not upgrading to IVB, and will only upgrade to Haswell when I know that socket lasts at least another generation. :DGood guide, always interesting to see other peoples suggestions for these builds.
xxtypersxx - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
How were you able to play Amazon HD video? Last time I tried (admittedly a couple months ago) it indicated HD couldn't be played in browsers and required approved devices (eg. Roku 2's). Has this changed or do you have some secret I desperately want to know?As others have said, pricing is tough during the holiday season as it fluctuates so much. Your writing however is excellent.
bill.rookard - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
from someone who was having troubles with it and Win8. So - I took the tower computer, gutted it, dropped it into my HTPC case and did an install of Win7x64. Runs great. Geekbenches at 6100 or so with no clock adjustments which is right around what my Athlon quad-core benched at - at half the power budget.More than enough power for HTPC use at a very reasonable power envelope with enough processing power for most anything I'd need to use it for.
Esben - Thursday, November 29, 2012 - link
Thanks for an interesting buyers guide, and good choice on components. An important feature for me to note with the ASRock FM2A55M-DGS is the support for 2560x1600 using the DVI-output. None of the Intel boards support dual-link DVI. Only through DisplayPort is this resolution possible. Intel boards with DisplayPort are usually much more expensive than boards with only DVI/HDMI.Would it be possible for you to verify if the DVI output of the A55 can also support audio, if used with a DVI->HDMI converter?