A10 5800K vs FX 6300 vs i3 3225

[bluechrism]

Hello,

I'm building a budget pc and hoping to make good use of Micro-center's $50 off MB/CPu (Am3+/i3 3225) combo deal right now, as well as about $50 in gift cards at amazon.

I'm looking at the 3 setups because they all come in around the 120-130 mark for the CPU, and with either $50 off boards at microcenter and/or a $50 amazon gift card CPU, board, graphics, case & PSu are possible for around $200. I have the RAM on the way already (8GB DDR 3 1600) which I bought just before my $30 in ebay bucks expired at the weekend.

The target isn't to do everything right away, but to use some components of my existing PC for now and then finish the job in a few months, just due to the budget i'm on. I was hoping to make use of the exisiting case I have with my current PC but it's only good for mATX boards and I have struggled to find good ones, especially for AM3+. This means buying a new case & PSU, and in the case of Am3+, a video card too, though mATX case is less upgradable in future. I want a system that has a decent board so the next series of upgrades I do might just be just a component here or there - I had my current pc since 2006 - Athlon 64 based. Ultimately, i'll end up with 2 complete pc's and sell (admittedly, probably for no more than the cost of a cheap video card) the old Athlon based one.

Anyway, so for now, CPU, board and if necessary Graphics card & case
Later Hard drive, Card reader, 2 Monitors, if necessary case & psu, plus other odds and ends.

Anyway, 4 configurations i'm considering (prices for total rig, after discounts):
AMD A10 5800K
(mATX) MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 ($130) [Edited 2/6 - just realized i had the put the wrong board in, the A85XA-G65 is ATX]
or
(ATX) FM2A85X Extreme6
Case & PSU combo ($210)

FX 6300
MSI 970A-G46 / Asus M5A97 R2.0 LE
Sapphire Radeon HD 6450 1GB
Case & PSU combo ($196 MSI / 201 Asus -the MSi one is out-of-stock right now at Microcenter near me)

Core i3 3225
AsRock Z77 Pro3 1155
Case & PSU Combo ($179)

Thoughts. Oh, this isn't for a gaming rig, just for day to day use, plus some development, possibly including windows phone which means Hyper-V to run the emulator - one of the reasons to ditch the Athlon.

 

[bluechrism]

OK, here's what happened in the end.
1. Decided on FX 6300 as the best CPU option of the 3 - A10 would have been my second choice in the end.
2. Every case that looked good at Amazon had either bad reviews on NewEgg or wasn't going to ship for ages, or was just cheaper at microcenter
3. Microcenter also had the better price on cheap graphics cards, and a step up made little difference.
4. It snowed and i thought Sunday would be a great day for building a pC.
5. I found something else to spend the amazon stuff on (that i would have got anyway).
6. I spent more than i wanted to.. but i did a my shopping at microcenter and got:

AMD FX 6300 (120)
AsRock Extreme 3 M/B(85 - 50 Bundle discount = 35)
Themaltake V3 black case (33 with $10 MIR)
Msi Radeon HD 6570 (45 after i bartered a $10 discount)
Total 250.99 after tax

Full system also includes
Kingston 8GB DDR3 1600 44 (- 33 ebay bucks)
Sony Lightscribe DVD R/W (20 via ebay)
Corsair 430W Bronze PSU (40 via newegg + 20 MIR)

Using my old HDD for now, will buy a SATA 3 one next month.
Total out of pocket costs: 321
After MIR 291. Pretty good going i think.

This should be a system that lasts a good long time and if decide to upgrade my CPU come steamroller (assuming the still make an AM3+ processor) then the 6300 should be good enough. The board does miss USB headers, but i don't have USB 3 on the case either right now and will just have to buy a PCI card and USB 3 front panel some time in the future. Checking the Toms Hardware Graphics card comparison table, the 6570 should be well above the 6450 that i was originally going to get, or the NVidia 210/610 that is the other cheap option, and should suffice for my needs for a good while too.

 

[tiny voices]

The GPU still won't get you anywhere in terms of anything besides powerpoint and youtube videos. You did get a good deal for the money on the system as a whole.

 

[twelve25]

Sounds like a pretty good little build that you should be very happy with. If you get into gaming more seriously, you can always upgrade the card then.

Are you sure it doesn't have USB 3.0? All the Extreme 3's I have seen have at least 2, but maybe they are just on the rear panel.

The GPU still won't get you anywhere in terms of anything besides powerpoint and youtube videos. You did get a good deal for the money on the system as a whole.

He was originally looking at a 6450 or Intel HD 4000, so it's all relative. 6570 is a pretty big step up from those at will at least allow a reasonable gaming experience at low graphics quality.

 

[bluechrism]

Sounds like a pretty good little build that you should be very happy with. If you get into gaming more seriously, you can always upgrade the card then.

Are you sure it doesn't have USB 3.0? All the Extreme 3's I have seen have at least 2, but maybe they are just on the rear panel.

He was originally looking at a 6450 or Intel HD 4000, so it's all relative. 6570 is a pretty big step up from those at will at least allow a reasonable gaming experience at low graphics quality.

Sorry, should have been clearer. USB3 on back panel but no headers on board for front connectors. I had a choice of getting a board with USB 3 headers or the better graphics card. As I don't have a need for usb3 right now and I do at let have the rear ports, I decided to take the better graphics card.