AMD FX-8300 vs 120GB SSD

[JankyRamza]

I'm on a tight budget for a gaming/family friendly PC and have everything decided except the CPU and the Hard drive.

AMD FX-6300 ($118) + Samsung 840 ($100) = 218

AMD FX-8320 ($160) + WD 500 GB ($50) = $110

I'm not sure what the tradeoff would be either way to be honest.

I plan on playing BF4 and Starcraft II. Other than gaming, I plan on doing the usual like watching movies, sharing photos and internet.

My first thought is to just go with the cpu, but then I think about the hassle of upgrading to a new hard drive in the future vs a new cpu.

Any help and insight is appreciated!

 

[cin19]

If you are tight budget, then get the fx8320 + the Seagate Hybrid Drives ST500LM000 500GB, because when you use the SSD in your PC, it doesn't help too much, only boot the PC and load the programs/ game faster, and if you use ssd you need other HDD too. And the Hybrid Drives is little bit slower than the SSD but it is much faster than HDD.

 

[JankyRamza]

Are hybrid drives a lot more difficult to setup than a standard SSD? I guess I have a third option to look into. I don't claim to be a expert builder, it's been over 5 years since I built a PC, so it's a brave new world for me here.

 

[cin19]

Just like the regular HDD, connect to PC, install the OS, restart a few times then you are done.

 

[Fredrik Aldhagen]

1. If you buy the FX-8320 and HDD, then you can add an SSD down the line and still use the HDD for storage (you would have to install the OS on the SSD to take advantage of the faster boot up speed). If you buy the FX-6300, then decide to upgrade you will have no use for the old CPU except to sell on or use for another computer. Of course, if you buy an SSD, you can also add a HDD for additional storage down the line.
2. Few games currently take advantage of all eight threads on the FX-8320. This may change however as the new consoles will require games to optimize for multiple cores.
3. Hybrid drives have advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you don't have to manually sort what goes on the SSD and what goes on the HDD, it all goes on the HDD then the drive itself makes copies of frequently accessed files on the SSD as they are read. The disadvantage is that you have no control yourself of what goes on the SSD, you have to trust the drive's judgement.