Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012 (Archive)

[dosmastr]

Memnarchon I didn't run fast enough out of stock

Secondly why the hell doesn't this stuff show up in google or bing? I've been checking like every 24-36hours for crazy deals like this and coming up empty, just happen to check this thread and boom, much cheap processoro

I found out through pcpartpicker.com while I was putting together some builds I saw 149.99 and knew that wouldn't last long.

pc part picker -- where the heck did that come from? I only learned about it a month ago on here. google products used to be real good at catching these things... idk what changed.

 

[Memnarchon]

Memnarchon I didn't run fast enough out of stock

Secondly why the hell doesn't this stuff show up in google or bing? I've been checking like every 24-36hours for crazy deals like this and coming up empty, just happen to check this thread and boom, much cheap processoro

I found out through pcpartpicker.com while I was putting together some builds I saw 149.99 and knew that wouldn't last long.

He is talking for the 4770K for 199.99 @Microcenter today!!! Not for the 3570K...

edit:

Memnarchon I didn't run fast enough out of stock

Secondly why the hell doesn't this stuff show up in google or bing? I've been checking like every 24-36hours for crazy deals like this and coming up empty, just happen to check this thread and boom, much cheap processoro

Dam this sucks .

 

[littleleo]

The only bummer is the best deals at Micro Center for in store pick-up and they are over an hour thru some of the busiest highways for me to get there. Luckily I could reserve them online and go pick them up.

 

[dosmastr]

I reserved that 3570k,,,, then saw ebay fees would make it not worth it... I'm really trying to get a 4570s dirt cheap (Its an office pc 99% of time and gaming 1% so the lower power usage and tdp are worth it... plus I'm still running an E2180 Pentium dual and intend to keep the next chip just as long)

, and I'm not against flipping some better procs for profit to make it happen!

 

[dosmastr]

think they will deep discount haswell this black Friday or will it be the day of ivy bridge?

 

[Moonsfang]

think they will deep discount haswell this black Friday or will it be the day of ivy bridge?

No way to say honestly. Stuff fluctuates unpredictably. For instance a few months I saw a Samsung 840 pro 120gb on sale for $89.97. Now I cant find it for that anymore and who knows if it will be that price again. Keeping up with the prices is just something that takes time and patience. Your always going to be gambling a bit one way or the other.

 

[logainofhades]

think they will deep discount haswell this black Friday or will it be the day of ivy bridge?

No way to say honestly. Stuff fluctuates unpredictably. For instance a few months I saw a Samsung 840 pro 120gb on sale for $89.97. Now I cant find it for that anymore and who knows if it will be that price again. Keeping up with the prices is just something that takes time and patience. Your always going to be gambling a bit one way or the other.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/402603/840_Series_MZ-7TD120BW_120GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_Solid_State_Drive_(SSD)

 

[Moonsfang]

think they will deep discount haswell this black Friday or will it be the day of ivy bridge?

No way to say honestly. Stuff fluctuates unpredictably. For instance a few months I saw a Samsung 840 pro 120gb on sale for $89.97. Now I cant find it for that anymore and who knows if it will be that price again. Keeping up with the prices is just something that takes time and patience. Your always going to be gambling a bit one way or the other.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/402603/840_Series_MZ-7TD120BW_120GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_Solid_State_Drive_(SSD)

Awesome. Gonna have to grab one for later.

 

[logainofhades]

Speaking of microcenter, they are selling the 3570k for $149.99 right now. 0.0

 

[Moonsfang]

Again? Look a few post up they were the other day as well. But they also had the 4770K for 199.99

 

[logainofhades]

Yea the 4770k is $199.99 for the one I go to as well. Tempting, but really unnecessary considering I am running an overclocked 3570k now.

 

[Moonsfang]

Yeah but for someone that wanted a new build for say video editing and could use the extra push its a pretty good deal. If I had the money I'd get it just to either have it later or sell it at a higher price. Microcenter seems to be having some pretty good deals is it typically of them around this time of the year?

 

[logainofhades]

They always have great deals. I think these are more due to the coming holiday rush. Giving people even greater deals before black friday.

 

[CommentariesAnd More]

I think this list never changes , the same list is posted again and again , and again :/

 

[f-14]

sale started the 18ths was originally supposed to end the 21st, however prices are still marked at $200 and $149

Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5GHz Socket LGA 1150 Boxed Processor
Processor pricing varies by store
$199.99 Save $170.00 / Originally $369.99
Find online. Buy in store.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/413248/Core_i7_4770K_35GHz_Socket_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor

Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz Socket LGA 1155 Boxed Processor
Processor pricing varies by store
Available for In-Store Pickup Only.
$149.99 Save $100.00 / Originally $249.99
http://www.microcenter.com/product/388577/Core_i5_3570K_34GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

 

[f-14]

"cleeve , January 15, 2013 3:30 PM
Tigerdirect is having a short-term sale, and Microcenter has no on-line option so you have to live close to one. Regardless, it doesn't have an impact on the recommendations as the Core i5 is a much better performer in games for the $.

You need to do a better job of criticizing. Try reading the first page, it'll help. "

best criticism is this:
Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5GHz Socket LGA 1150 Boxed Processor
Processor pricing varies by store
$199.99 Save $170.00 / Originally $369.99
Find online. Buy in store.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/413248/Core_i7_4770K_35GHz_Socket_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor

Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz Socket LGA 1155 Boxed Processor
Processor pricing varies by store
Available for In-Store Pickup Only.
$149.99 Save $100.00 / Originally $249.99
http://www.microcenter.com/product/388577/Core_i5_3570K_34GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

of course i did not hear about this from Tom's, no no, i read about it on my microcenter enews update and would have missed it had i waited another 2 days to check my email.

grannys slow but she's old, i want to pick up your gauntlet and throw $170 discounted big reasons at you why it'd be nice to get a tip for even the meager few (10,000+) or so microcenter store customers who read toms, because microcenter atleast prints out your articles and posts them at their department desks for thousands of NON TOMS HARDWARE READERS to review in their purchasing decisions.

(this is what you get for your new recycling article comments section Toms)

have a little blankity blank blank courtesy and tip your hat at the guys who are putting YOUR PRODUCT OUT THERE AT MICROCENTER especially Sales Associate Jeremy M. for putting my $200 i7 4770K at St. Louis Park at the register in less than 5 minutes (along with the 3 other guys drooling at the display case getting these sweet deals) instead of waiting 1-3 days...still waiting on the newegg.com Maximus VI Formula to arrive which i placed the order for the day before i had time to get over to Microcenter and buy my i7 4770K FOR $200+ 7% sales tax. (1% of which goes to fund the the non taxed major league and national league sports team for new stadiums)

 

[f-14]

hope the other Tom's readers understand the need for and excuse my lil 'rant' . i had tipped Tom's off with links on the 20th deals for the day article and word of $70 to $170 savings wasn't good enough to even mention despite this savings deal starting on the 18th, 4 days before this article was released.

apparently it's not a big deal or good enough to share with those Toms reads who can take advantage of these fantastic savings. that really irked me as i have some faith still left in Toms at being on the readers side of things.

 

[SessouXFX]

Boy, this chart truly does need to be updated. There's not a single IB-E on there...


Ok, so do I go with Haswell, or do I wait for Haswell-E? Or should I just say screw this, let's go with Broadwell?

I'm not exactly in a rush, but I do want to plan ahead of time...

 

[valuial]

still promoting the 1155? that's dumb, as we can't find any proper motherboard with pcigen 3.0, only mid range crap...

 

[silverblue]

I'm not sure if this matters due to their age, or if somebody has already mentioned it, but I don't see how the Phenom II X3 720BE should be two entire tiers ahead of the 710. Sure, the former is multiplier-unlocked meaning the latter requires memory overclocking, but stock performance is very close as there's a mere 200MHz clock speed gap.

 

[cats_Paw]

I cant take this seriously. I mean, why not test ahtlon x4 750k overclocked? If it does as well as a i5-3570k non OC, then its a budget monster. If not, then you know why the Intel costs more...

 

[Memnarchon]

I cant take this seriously. I mean, why not test ahtlon x4 750k overclocked? If it does as well as a i5-3570k non OC, then its a budget monster. If not, then you know why the Intel costs more...

Guyz, to you and to everyone else that wondering the same thing.
Tom's Hardware and most sites take numbers from stock clocks always.
CPU o/c might be the 1-5% of global CPU sales, especially at low end products like athlon x4 750K.
When a CPU is a good o/c then this is a plus on the recommendation but nothing more.
Also I doubt that even a 5Ghz x4 750K could even touch a stock clocked i5 3570 or an FX8350 (same price range).

 

[Sakkura]

still promoting the 1155? that's dumb, as we can't find any proper motherboard with pcigen 3.0, only mid range crap...

There are plenty of LGA 1155 boards with PCIe 3.0 support. Not that it's really that important at the moment.

 

[Firedrops]

I really hope to see some specific comments/reasons as to why certain last-gen chips are still better than current-gen counterparts, instead of only comparison with other chips in that(old) genereation. Like, put them together in the box where they're recommended.

 

[Onus]

Guyz, to you and to everyone else that wondering the same thing.
Tom's Hardware and most sites take numbers from stock clocks always...
When a CPU is a good o/c then this is a plus on the recommendation but nothing more.

This. You decide how many tiers you might move up with an OC.
That said, I too am losing some confidence in the overall value of this chart. I realize that most games are much more dependent on the graphics card than the CPU for overall performance, but just on the AMD side, I'm seeing too many [left over?] kindnesses. 970BE on the same tier as a FX-6300?
Particularly at stock, it looks like a lot of older AMD CPUs need to lose at least a tier or two; sure, OC them to bring them back up, but at stock, they need to be lowered.
At the same time, too many Intel CPUs are on the same tier. Is there really that little difference?