New A10-7700K System is awesome

[Dr. Zhivago]

I just built a system for a client with the following:

Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H
AMD A10-7700K BE
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1866
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB System
WD Blue 1TB Storage
Asus 24x DVDRW
Thermaltake V2 w/ 400w PSU
Windows 8.1 64Bit

So far, I'm very impressed with the speed and responsiveness. Windows installed in about 8 minutes. This machine will be a basic, every day machine for an older couple. They are savvy. It will run AutoCAD, Office 2013, etc. I'd build one of these for myself if I needed a box.

[ASCI Blue]

I've been happy with my 7850, brought it to a friend's pad and she was pretty impressed with it coming from an i5. Price/performance it seems these little APU's can't be beat.

[Dr. Zhivago]

Yep, that about sums it up.

[Redeemed]

Probably starting next month I'm going to be build my best buddy a couple new gaming rigs. I'm going with the 7700k in each, not even sure I'll need a 250 as he and his wife mainly play LOL. The 7700k alone should handle that just fine. May toss in a 250 just for longevity sake.

[metroidfox]

How much did that run them?

[ASCI Blue]

I'm guessing around ~$700 for everything.

[Dr. Zhivago]

Well, with the parts markup and labor I charged, it came to $790.00 built, tested and setup.

[ASCI Blue]

$790 for that machine, assembled is pretty reasonable.

[Dr. Zhivago]

I thought so.

[metroidfox]

Ah, thanks! I was thinking of building myself a similar setup, and was wondering if I could get it any lower than I was looking at.

[ASCI Blue]

Ah, thanks! I was thinking of building myself a similar setup, and was wondering if I could get it any lower than I was looking at.

Shop the sales, look at different manufacturers for hardware (Crucial has an M500 on sale today from the 'egg, $109 iirc).

I put together a new system less case and power supply for a little over $500, this included a new heat sink and a SSD adapter bay cause my case is acrylic and is therefore strange the M500 did not come with an adapter like the Vector it replaced did and I was a dum dum and lost it. I also had to get a new keyboard since I was on a laptop before. Without that my system would have been in the $450 range.

Specs follow:
A10-7850k
ASRock FM288x+ Killer
G.Skill PC2133 8 gb
Crucial M-500 240 gb
LG Blu ray drive
Roccat Isku FX
Icydock dual SSD adapter
Artic Freezer 7 pro rev 2.

This is a single order for mission necessary stuff. I had a few older drives, and ordered a tera after cause I just plain needed more space.

[caveman-jim]

[Ristogod]

I've been phasing out any AMD APU machines I obtained/built. Most of them struggle to run abcmouse.com for my 3 year old daughter.

[caveman-jim]

My kids play awesomenauts, rayman, disney online games etc. on their A8-6600K APU's at 1080p. Might be something different in your setup from mine.

[ASCI Blue]

I've been phasing out any AMD APU machines I obtained/built. Most of them struggle to run abcmouse.com for my 3 year old daughter.

I play Titanfall, Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2 in 1080 medium to high everything. Starcraft is the only thing to slow it down and that was with most settings on ultra.

[Dr. Zhivago]

I delivered the system yesterday afternoon and the clients were delighted with it. They had been out of town and didn't get back until Wednesday evening. This was a planned upgrade and since they were out of town, I was in no rush.

Anyhoo, they were extremely impressed with the new box. I showed them around Windows 8.1 with all the latest updates installed and they thought it was really cool. They liked the Start Screen and Applications Screen which I had sorted by Category and liked how you could use both types of interfaces. I explained how the Live Tiles worked, which they also liked. They loved the Weather app for instance along with the Sports, News and Financial tiles.

I had already configured the system to default to the Desktop and made some other navigation changes to make moving around more intuitive for them. I even explained that we could install a program that would give them a Windows 7 interface with Start Menu and they said they were good with the way things are.

The system is hooked up to a Samsung 24" 1080p medical quality display that I had sold them a few years ago. Looks great.

[ASCI Blue]

Good to hear your clients are happy with it!

[v3rninater]

Do these run hot, and what are your temps like?

[Dr. Zhivago]

I built this system for a client v3rminater. Temps seemed fine when I built it and ran it through Prime and Intel Burn Test. Using the stock fan, temps never went above 55-56*C. During FurMark, temps were around 66-68*C. Max case temp is 72.4*C, so it was within spec. Remember, there is a fairly powerful GPU inside.

[caveman-jim]

I sent semiaccurate an a10-7700k, they seemed to like it

http://semiaccurate.com/2014/05/05/amds-a10-7700k-k/

[ASCI Blue]

Do these run hot, and what are your temps like?

I've got a beastly hsf on my 7850, it never goes over 43c under load. Averages 37c.

[v3rninater]

I just built an A8-5600K for a couple, to use for general/business use, and I gotta say, I really liked it! Very snappy with a Crucial SSD, I would buy this APU over any other for sure! It did run hot though with the stock cooler, but I'll bet on water, it would be just fine!

[ASCI Blue]

I just built an A8-5600K for a couple, to use for general/business use, and I gotta say, I really liked it! Very snappy with a Crucial SSD, I would buy this APU over any other for sure! It did run hot though with the stock cooler, but I'll bet on water, it would be just fine!

With anything but the stocker it would be fine. I compared my old A64 to the new A10's and the older one is a beast by comparison. I wish I'd saved it to take a couple pics side by side.

[Hardwood]

Just built computer #2 and although it's running fine with Win8.1pro, each time I try to install Catalyst (version on disk 13.12ish, 14.6beta) it crashes looking for a restore, luckily system restore is doing the job but I'm more than a little depressed dealing with this issue. Guess it's time to try 14.4.

[caveman-jim]

Install the 14.4 chipset drivers first, then install the 14.6beta (redownload from the website, the first 14.6 verison they put up had a bug in it)

[Hardwood]

Install the 14.4 chipset drivers first, then install the 14.6beta (redownload from the website, the first 14.6 verison they put up had a bug in it)

removed current ccc partial install and deleted install folder from c:..
d/l'd 14.4 chipset and it installed but OS would not load, instead presented uefi shell. changed boot order to actual legacy SSD (instead of UEFI)
d/l'd latest 14.6beta installer and executed it. Went well for a bit then a number of device add remove sounds, screen went blank and didn't recover. Came home 1/2hr later it appears windows had hibernated? restarted computer and nothing came up. WIN8.1 OS was locked. Used recovery disk to access last restore point and back to square 1.
I'll check the MSI forum for info on this UEFI issue.

[Hardwood]

I changed to a VGA connection and everything works fine. Not sure why DVI works with Microsoft's default 8.1 driver but not with AMD's driver. MSI is thinking it's an APU issue.

[Dr. Zhivago]

I bet it's a BIOS issue on their end. That's always been their Achilles's heel.

[Hardwood]

You're probably right, as it makes more sense. At any rate, I've replied to their solution with my solution and posted on their user forum, so with any luck they'll make a note and investigate.

[Dr. Zhivago]

Is there any settings in the UEFI that concern display scaling or display priority as it relates to the ports?

[Hardwood]

No, the only settings are Initiate graphics adapter IGP/PEG, Initiate graphics devices Auto/disabled/Dual and I've tried all the combinations.
Other than a serial port setting that's it.

[caveman-jim]

I changed to a VGA connection and everything works fine. Not sure why DVI works with Microsoft's default 8.1 driver but not with AMD's driver. MSI is thinking it's an APU issue.

I'm using DVI on A10-7850K currently, no issues. Not an APU issue, it's their BIOS.

[Hardwood]

I tend to agree. Their latest BIOS v1.1, suggests improvements to the VGA output (which works fine) possibly losing DVI in the process.
Jim, is there anything I can do as a consumer to get them to look at this? I've already replied to their troubleshooting team mentioning the VGA working and DVI not working, and I've posted on their official User forum stating the same. Needless to say I'd like to use DVI vs. VGA.

[caveman-jim]

Link me to the exact mobo you're using and your monitor, and I'll push from my side.

[Hardwood]

Thanks Jim. I appreciate this help.
Mobo: http://us.msi.com/product/mb/A88XG45....html#download
I've tried it with these two Monitors:
1) http://hk.viewsonic.com/en/products/...ecs.php?id=234
2)http://www.samsung.com/ph/consumer/m...CMZKFV/XP-spec

The viewsonic is the attached monitor and works good with VGA. DVI will show the POST screen and UEFI and then go blank once win8.1 starts to load.
Also tried it with the Samsung. It won't even show Post screen, stays blank after sensing it's a digital connection.
Just to be sure, I tried the cable on the 5870 (computer#1) to the samsung and it's good.

[ASCI Blue]

Any chance with the Samsung you have to set the monitor for a digital connection? I seem to remember that I had a monitor once where it was a setting for the inputs.

[Hardwood]

Any chance with the Samsung you have to set the monitor for a digital connection? I seem to remember that I had a monitor once where it was a setting for the inputs.

It's automagic sensing. When attached it quickly toggles between vga and digital then settles on digital but no POST screen comes up. The only thing showing is some hex output in the lower right corner which may be a mirror of the onboard diagnostic LCD readout.

[ASCI Blue]

I think in my bios I have to set it to use VGA, which I'm assuming you've already done if your's requires it. I'm at a loss at this point.

[Hardwood]

Interesting.. mine doesn't have a setting like that. +1 for asrock. Meanwhile VGA is working OK so it's not a big deal until I upgrade the old monitor.

[Dr. Zhivago]

Can you boot to Safe Mode w/ DVI on the Viewsonic monitor that has a POST screen?