FX-8300 95W OEM CPU is a BIG WINNER!!!
review by
agent smith1984
The FX series CPU's from AMD have been around for some time now, but with the CPU industry moving at a much slower pace than say, 10 years ago, that's not necessarily a problem right now. This is especially if you consider how excellent these chips overclock, how well they perform when overclocked, and what kind of deal you can score one for when they go on sale.
Something I will say that I do consider to be "new" with this CPU, is the fact that there are several different variants of the 8 core Piledriver based CPU's that run at 95W, versus the 125W TDP they were rated when first introduced.
Now, part of that power rating is just semantics, in the sense that AMD has essentially introduced the 95W chips at lower clock speeds than the original 125W parts. The other part of this though, is the fact that the manufacturing process of these CPU's has obviously evolved quite a bit, and even though there has not been a die shrink, or any increases in their typical clock speed ceilings, it is quite obvious now that these chips will achieve those typical clock speeds at lower voltages than their old 125W brothers.
Now the question you may have when building an AM3+ system right now is; which FX CPU should I get?
It's certainly the biggest question I had when approaching this build, and I think it comes down to a few things:
Do you plan to overclock?
What is your budget?
Do you, or will you have adequate cooling?
What type of motherboard will you be using?
My answers to all of these were simple.....
1) I definitely wanted to overclock (you almost have to when going with AMD and your chip is shipping at a lowly 3.3GHz)
2) My budget was no set number, but rather, "as cheap I can get an 8 core rig running at 4.5GHz+"....
That may not be a goal, or expectation for everyone, but it was for me.
3) I already had fairly decent 120mm all in one water cooling unit and
4) I picked out a budget motherboard (ASRock 970 Performance- see my review) with an 8+2 power phase.
Once those questions were all answered, the choice had narrowed down some for me. I was going to go cheap as possible, and tweak this rig as much as I could, in the hopes of reaching a higher performance per dollar, than going with an expensive board, and higher badged/binned CPU. It left me with the option of purchasing the 8300 @ $99, the 8310 @ $115, and either the 8320 or 8320E @ $139.
I only wanted 4.6GHz out of this build, which is seemingly common ground for almost any 8 core I've seen lately... With that in mind, I decided to shoot for the cheapest chip, and be the "guinea pig." I say that because there are very few overclocking threads, or results for the OEM 8300 and 8310 chips sold here in the US by Tiger Direct.
I had my skepticism, as anyone would....
"Is the warranty really 12 months as advertised?"
"What will the packaging be like?"
"How will this overclock compared to the retail versions everyone is getting such good results from?"
So, here is the part where I set all those fears and concerns to rest.....
This folks, is a great chip!!
Packaging:
Not only did Tiger Direct ship this in a ridiculously oversized box (no complaints here
), but they also shipped the chip itself in a very decent package, with all product and warranty information displayed.
The chip came pin-pressed into a pink foam block, and was well secured in place by the packaging itself.
This package was obviously some sort of generic CPU container for any OEM/refurb/open box CPU's that Tiger Direct sells, but regardless, it does a good job. Not much else to say.....
Build quality:
Uhhh..... it's an AMD, not much more to say. Their CPU's are generally built like tanks, and can take a beating!
It was very heavy for a CPU.... I did notice that!
Installation:
Easy as usual , line up the triangle and presto! 8 core goodness....
Stock performance:
Well, obviously, with my intentions being to scrape every last MHz I could out of this little budget combo, I didn't spend a lot of time at stock speeds, however I did run some IBT's with the CPU running at it 4.2GHz turbo frequency.
Disregard my comments pictured in my post claiming that my temps were too high!
Come to find out, the temperature I was reading was my CPUTIN (socket)
That is an entirely different issue associated with my motherboard, and as you can see, the package temps on my basic 120mm water loop were pretty good under load!
I actually ended up running prime all night at 4.2GHz with that voltage.
This is an exceptional chip for someone wanting to just go with a stock setup.
Keep in mind that the 3.3 base clock, and 4.2 turbo clock is almost identical to the 8370E part that ships at 3.4GHz base, and 4.2GHz turbo. That part is selling for $199 right now, so this chip has already declared itself as a complete bargain, before it ever hits your doorstep!
Now, let's get serious.....
I'm not going to post up a bunch of benchmark numbers here, cause there thousands all over the net, and we already know what these things can do for the most part.....
But what happens when we want to try 1.35v+
Where can we push to???
Well, let's just say that after clocking further, and getting stability for 20-30 minutes, only to end up with throttling on 4 cores, I realized the VRM heatsink on this budget board was getting hotter than a brick in hell.
After throwing a 60mm fan on it, I went for 4.6GHz, on 1.35v, and sure enough, 20 passes of IBT, and an hour and half of BF4 proved to be rock solid.....
Good enough for me
Okay, so let's go further!!!
Went up to 4.8GHz on 1.4v...... IBT was a no go after 5 runs.
Raised up to 1.45v, and now we were getting somewhere....
I got to pass 12 and checked temps.... the socket was an astounding 90c, and the CPU was at 69c. .....
On pass attempt 13 the socket hit 91c, and the CPU throttled to 1400MHz. Mind you, that the 1.45v set in the BIOS, was never reported higher than 1.36v under load!!! With full stability to the point of thermal throttling, I would say that's great, and really just means my overheating VRM's are not delivering stable power....
My hands were tied by my temps, but I knew, I just knew with some better cooling, and a fan on the rear of the motherboard socket, this thing has got much longer legs.
I encourage anyone wondering which FX-8 series chip to buy.....,. If you don't need a guaranteed 5GHz, and are okay with a 4.6-4.9GHz, if you have a mediocre-good motherboard and are not aiming for the bragging rights of higher badged chip, and if you are okay with not getting a factory heatsink and a fancy box.....
GET THIS OR THE 8310 OEM CHIP FOR $99-115!!!!
Let me add also, that I have a much better cooler on the way (LEPA AquaChanger 240, which I will be reviewing as well), and a low pro 120mm fan to mount behind my socket... I have already benched at 5GHz (short cinebench runs), and am wholeheartedly counting on a minimum of 4.8GHz with this chip.
You can NOT go wrong at $99... you simply can not....
Pros | Cons |
---|
Great price if on sale, excellent multithreaded performance, overclocks like a dream and does so on lower voltage than traditional FX-8 series chips | Single thread performance is lack luster, needs better than average cooling, uses lots of power when overclocked. |
Ratings