Budget CPU for Gaming Help

[Microbell]

Hello Gents,

I've spent the last 3 days going through specs, reading reviews, looking at advice/comments from others and still can't decide on a CPU so let me ask here. I only have a budget of $100-$125 for a good CPU choice though I may be able to stretch that to $150.

What I'm looking for is a MID range CPU to use mostly for gaming but I'm stuck (like others) about doing Intel or AMD. Here are the CPU's I'm considering and their price points but if you have a better suggestion within my price range please let me know.

Intel Core i3-6100 $124
Intel Core i3-6320 $159 <--- may be doable but with cost
AMD FX-6300 $104 <---- this was my first choice
AMD FX-6350 $129
AMD FX-8300 $119
AMD FX-8350 Black Edition $159 <--- may be doable but with cost

*note* I'm concerned about the duel core vs quad+ as I do play Farcry 4 and such and with Intels Skylake version I'll have to work around the installing windows 7 bug with the USB ports but again doable.

Motherboard will depend on CPU chosen

AMD= Asus/MSI 970 Pro Gaming series
INtel= Z170 series

The lower the price the better as any extra $$$ can be advanced to the GPU card.

Thoughts?

 

[cdabc123]

i3-6100 will game the best out of those however if you can get this one it will kill every cpu you listed by a fair margin
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-i5-4690S-QuadCore-SR1QP-3-20Ghz-FCLGA-1150-Haswell-Processor-/272225006908?hash=item3f61dff53c:g:NvkAAOSw6kxXH8XE

 

[TJ Hooker]

Why the Z170 mobo? A cheap H110 is fine for most people, and you could put the money saved towards a better cpu/gpu.

 

[Ecky]

Just so you know, Skylake i3's are seen as quad cores by applications, because they have 4 logical cores (hyperthreading).

If you downgrade from a Z170 to a B150 or H110 board, you may be able to swing an i5 6500. Otherwise, the i3 6100 would be my choice.

 

[Microbell]

i3-6100 will game the best out of those however if you can get this one it will kill every cpu you listed by a fair margin
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-i5-4690S-QuadCore-SR1QP-3-20Ghz-FCLGA-1150-Haswell-Processor-/272225006908?hash=item3f61dff53c:g:NvkAAOSw6kxXH8XE

Would love to do that but question ebay used CPU's and that one listed is only $60 off a new one. Not a great deal if it goes full price at auction.

 

[Microbell]

@ TJ and Ecky

Well I'm not really set on the motherboards but the B150 is only slightly less then the 970 and the H110 are Micro ATX which can't function for me as this is not a total new build. This is a component upgrade of a tower PC that must have 4 rams slots, support 5 hard drives, SSD etc so most micro Atx's won't have the features I need to support my other hardware that's not being replaced so I want to stay full ATX if I can.

Still open to any ideas but I'll maul over your input and advice and welcome any more input. Thanks

 

[Microbell]

Just so you know, Skylake i3's are seen as quad cores by applications, because they have 4 logical cores (hyperthreading).

Yes I did know. But my understanding is from what I've read that some games can not depending on if it's in the code. They only see 2 cores and refuse to run. I think in normal PC operation it would be fine but games that require Quad core or better might not run.

Edit: Should have said run well or OK. Farcry 4, Crysis 3 comes to mind but as far as I know no game requires Quads only

 

[Ecky]

I've found most mATX boards still have 6+ SATA ports, and B150/H170 both have 4 RAM slots. Pretty much the only thing they don't have is a full 6-7 slots for expansion cards.

For example:

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16813157645

B150, mATX, 2x PCIe 16x slots, 6 SATA 3.0 ports, 4 RAM slots. What else do you need that's missing?

 

[Ecky]

Yes I did know. But my understanding is from what I've read that some games can not depending on if it's in the code. They only see 2 cores and refuse to run. I think in normal PC operation it would be fine but games that require Quad core or better might not run.

This is incorrect. A hardware thread is a hardware thread. As far as software is concerned, an i3 is just as much a quad core as an i5 is. The only CPUs that have problems are Pentiums/Celerons and single module AMD CPUs.

 

[Microbell]

I've found most mATX boards still have 6+ SATA ports, and B150/H170 both have 4 RAM slots. Pretty much the only thing they don't have is a full 6-7 slots for expansion cards.

For example:

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16813157645

B150, mATX, 2x PCIe 16x slots, 6 SATA 3.0 ports, 4 RAM slots. What else do you need that's missing?

PCIE slots for external SATA/USB card and a SB -XF Pro sound card (don't use non 7 channel onboard sound or any onboard sound as it lacks low and midranges). GPU will likely cover the first PCIE slot. And even it they fit they would be crammed in there with minimal space and airflow between them. Be lots of room around the outside though LOL

 

[madmatt30]

Realistically you're looking at the 6300 with a $20 aftermarket cooler vs the i3 6100 with a stock cover both at the exact same pricepoint..

Which is better for you depends on your exact needs, the i3 is stronger on a gaming performance basis but in all fairness on a 60htz screen either CPU will manage fine.

 

[Microbell]

Realistically you're looking at the 6300 with a $20 aftermarket cooler vs the i3 6100 with a stock cover both at the exact same pricepoint..

Which is better for you depends on your exact needs, the i3 is stronger on a gaming performance basis but in all fairness on a 60htz screen either CPU will manage fine.

Thanks for your input Matt. As stated I mostly want it to support gaming and I planned on adding an Hyper212 but are you saying the 6100 would not require one? Money saved jumps me another notch lol


After thought: Is the AMD at the end of the line for the AM3+? If so to futureproof and doing Intel now would still support and I7 later correct?

 

[madmatt30]

You won't need an aftermarket cooler with the i3 mate , the stock Intel one is fine.

& yes the Intel chipset is ultimately far more upgradeable & future proof.
While I personally prefer the fx 6300 solely on a CPU basis there really is no viable upgrade path at all on the am3+ socket.

 

[Microbell]

You won't need an aftermarket cooler with the i3 mate , the stock Intel one is fine.

& yes the Intel chipset is ultimately far more upgradeable & future proof.
While I personally prefer the fx 6300 solely on a CPU basis there really is no viable upgrade path at all on the am3+ socket.

Thank U kind Sir's. I'm going to change my build from AMD to Intel and will post in this thread my upgrade parts so you can tell me if anything has an issue that you know about and if it's a good/fair setup.

 

[Microbell]

Ok guys here's the setup I'm looking at.

MotherBoard: MSI Gaming B150A Gaming Pro LGA 1151 Intel B150 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130887

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3M 3.7 GHz LGA 1151 BX80662I36100 Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=2MN-0004-00002

Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 Platform ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231884

*note* Ram is listed for the Z170 but it shows as an upgrade option for the B150 board so it should be fine. I'll shoot Gskill an email to make sure.

HD: SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E250B/AM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 960 DirectX 12 GTX 960 GAMING 4G 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ATX Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127860

OR

MSI GeForce GTX 960 DirectX 12 GTX 960 2GD5T OC 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ATX Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127844

Let me know your thoughts and issue if something is amiss. Thanks!

 

[madmatt30]

Good setup mate
Consider this board , apart from it being a great featured board in its own right it has an isolated blck divider so supports overclocking on non k series CPU's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157697&FM=1

At the minute I would take a 380 over the 960.
I'm jot sure when the r9 480 is dropping but if you can wait it will be worth it.

 

[Microbell]

Good setup mate
Consider this board , apart from it being a great featured board in its own right it has an isolated blck divider so supports overclocking on non k series CPU's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157697&FM=1

At the minute I would take a 380 over the 960.
I'm jot sure when the r9 480 is dropping but if you can wait it will be worth it.

Will give that board a look. Not liking the 1 year warranty and I've only used an Asrock board once in my Dad's PC for just basic stuff. Not sure about their quality or reliability in the long run. Looking for a "trouble free" upgrade.

As for the 380 I was torn between AMD/Nvidia. Had some issues with 2 AMD/ATI cards a few years back and switched to Nvidia and never had any more. I'll give it a peak though and compare.

Edit:

Did some more research on the 380 vs the 960 and gaming wise they are almost dead even +- a few FPS in the games tested. What I did find interesting is that in both versions 380/960 the 2GB models produced the same FPS as the 4GB models with the exception of 2 games but that only produced less the +8-10 FPS better.

The 390 blew'em out of the water but that's out of my price range lol