Best Intel i3/AMD A10/athlon for around $130?

[Ant_Teh_Nee]

I have heard that Intel i3s are much more efficient than really any AMD processor, more powerful, and don't run as hot; And I have about $130 to spend on a processor, but what is your favorite? I would prefer to buy Intel but AMD might also be worthwhile.

I would be using it for light gaming for games such as: Minecraft, Garry's Mod, Team Fortress 2, TERA, CS:GO, etc.

Thanks in advance!

(The most efficient and cool running processer that can still play games is perfect for me.)

 

[Deleted member 217926]

To be perfectly honest in that budget range there isn't much difference. The features are all determined by the chipset and are pretty much standard across the lower end range. To get more features you have to go with a higher end chipset and that means a more expensive board.

For what you're doing with an i3 and a 750 Ti you are right where you need to be in the ~$50-$70 range to build a balanced system. That little Gigabyte board impressed me when I used it a couple of months ago. Especially at the price.

If it was me building it I'd go with the system I recommended above with the Gigabyte board and the 16GB of RAM but it's not really a wrong choice going with what you picked.

 

[Inkiad]

I'm a Gigabyte fan myself and I've used them in my personal builds since the late 90s. ASRock was low end 10-12 years ago. They did a complete turn around though and they are up there with Asus and Gigabyte now. EVGA boards are excellent as well but never cheap. I'd rate MSI as a smallish step down then everybody else. But it's your first build you get what you are comfortable with.

Hmm, I see. In that case, do you have any better reviewed Asus or Gigabyte boards I should try? I might try ASRock but I'm still thinking on it. Whichever has the right specs, good reviews, and a decent price tag will be my board. (Remember, I can only use Micro ATX)

I would go with the gigabyte board anort3 suggested. Gigabyte makes very good motherboard. I have 3 build with their motherboard. One build is 8+ years old, now running as local server 24/7. You can go woth literally any gigabyte motherboard without any worry.

Also getting a so called "gaming" motherboard in your budget and H110 is a no brainer sacrificing 8GB of ram.

 

[Ant_Teh_Nee]

To be perfectly honest in that budget range there isn't much difference. The features are all determined by the chipset and are pretty much standard across the lower end range. To get more features you have to go with a higher end chipset and that means a more expensive board.

For what you're doing with an i3 and a 750 Ti you are right where you need to be in the ~$50-$70 range to build a balanced system. That little Gigabyte board impressed me when I used it a couple of months ago. Especially at the price.

If it was me building it I'd go with the system I recommended above with the Gigabyte board and the 16GB of RAM but it's not really a wrong choice going with what you picked.

I hope it's not going to have the problem I had last time I got a cheap Gigabyte board. When I bought mine, NONE of the on board USB ports registered anything except for my USB 1.1 mouse that I tested with. Ugh...

 

[Ant_Teh_Nee]

Good news! I was able to place a full refund on the Motherboard and RAM, so this is a 100% GO! Also, still waiting on something from the last post, I wanted to know if anyone else has experienced that before. Thanks for the help! (The post should be closed in less than 2 weeks)

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I always use Gigabyte and haven't ever had a problem. I used the board I recommended above in a build for my uncle as I think I said already. I though it was pretty nice. I used it with a new SSD and his old HDD as a backup drive.

 

[teknobug]

i3 6100, very happy with mine.

There are a few lower end boards for Skylake that still support DDR3 but it has to be DDR3L which is 1.35v. So you're probably going to have to buy memory as well unless you go with something older like Haswell.

H110 combo boards supports full DDR3 (1.5v) such as the ASRock H110M Combo-G, i can use my G.Skill DDR3 1600 sticks on that.

Is there an ASUS or GIGABYTE H110 combo motherboard that you recommend? I don't really trust ASRock.

Never had problems with ASrock, even when the LGA socket pins were bent ASRock were quick and responsive on getting me through the RMA process.

And here's the i3 6100 with DDR3 1.5v on the H110M Combo-G

 

[TJ Hooker]

@teknobug just because you can run 1.5V DDR3 on Skylake, doesn't mean you should.

 

[teknobug]

@teknobug just because you can run 1.5V DDR3 on Skylake, doesn't mean you should.

It's set to auto, even when manually setting 1.35 it shows 1.5v *shrug*

PS- forgot to post link, most of these supported memory sticks are 1.5v/1.6v
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H110M%20Combo-G/?cat=Memory