G3258 vs i3-4160 for NON-gaming budget build?

[Zorba Greekthe]

Zero gaming, and I do not edit video, music, or sound.

My use is 90% heavy Chrome browsing (hence will probably get 16GB of memory) and multi-tasking with various Office apps. Some light multi-media usage like music listening and movie watching as well.

Would I see ANY noticeable difference in paying the extra $40 for the i3-4160? It doesn't seem like hyper-threading is something that has any relevance to a user with my needs at all...or am I missing something?

 

[runswindows95]

Overall, yes. I went from a dual-core to a quad-core, and I can notice a huge difference. I do heavy multi-tasking, and deal with large Word files (300+ pages, 100,000+ words), and the difference is like night and day. If you can post a budget, we might be able to help you build a proper system.

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

Overall, yes. I went from a dual-core to a quad-core, and I can notice a huge difference. I do heavy multi-tasking, and deal with large Word files (300+ pages, 100,000+ words), and the difference is like night and day. If you can post a budget, we might be able to help you build a proper system.

I already have an SSD that I'll use as a boot drive, as well as an HDD for media storage, the OS (Windows 7), monitor, mouse/keyboard.

So the budget is for a case, PSU, mobo, CPU, and memory only...in the $250-350 range in total. The lower the better.

Went to my local Microcenter, told them my usage, and they suggested
the G3258 CPU + MSI z97 Mate mobo, for $100
a mid-ATX case for $27 --- it has front USB 3.0 and 2.0 plugs which I like
a Corsair CX430 PSU for $30 AR
an LG optical drive for $15

They said they can match any Newegg or Amazon price so I will probably get them to match Amazon's $73 for Crucial Ballistix 2 x 4GB.

That puts the total at $260 with tax.

A typical multi-tasking usage for me is:

1. Chrome with 15-30 tabs open (I'd like to be able to have 50-90 but that would probably require 16GB instead of 8GB memory and DDR3 is pricey these days)
2. Word
3. Excel
4. Jet Audio for music listening
5. Foxit PDF reader
6. various minor and background apps like WriteMonkey, Calculator, Draw. Rocketdock, Wunderlist, Evernote, Notepad, Wordpad, Google Drive, Dropbox, Free Timer, Word Web, etc.
7. occasionally: Powerpoint, Skype, Irfanview

Currently have an i5 Sandy Bridge in a Thinkpad that I'm pretty happy, but again I think the SSD seems to make the biggest difference.

You don't think I'd be able to notice any performance slow-down going from that to the G3258, do you? Given my modest needs.

 

[CTurbo]

Personally, I would rather have an i3 for a general use PC. I think you'd benefit more from hyperthreading than you would overclocking.

ssds DO make the biggest difference. The hard drive is almost always the bottleneck in any system that doesn't have a ssd.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rT3Cgs
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rT3Cgs/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($104.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($71.40 @ Newegg)
Case: Azza SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($25.00 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $297.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-02 19:11 EST-0500

Maybe microcenter has a better deal on an i3?

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

Personally, I would rather have an i3 for a general use PC. I think you'd benefit more from hyperthreading than you would overclocking.

ssds DO make the biggest difference. The hard drive is almost always the bottleneck in any system that doesn't have a ssd.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rT3Cgs
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rT3Cgs/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($104.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($71.40 @ Newegg)
Case: Azza SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($25.00 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $297.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-02 19:11 EST-0500

Maybe microcenter has a better deal on an i3?

Yes, they do have the i3-4160 for $100 before taxes. Not sure what the difference is between the 4130 and 4160, probably none.

Thanks for the list...I do feel better about Gigabyte than MSI for the mobo. Or is there an Asus in that price range you could also recommend? I have zero expandability needs since I will never add a graphics card or sound card, and having one HDD in addition to my boot SSD is plenty for me.

Never considered overclocking, I think I'd probably blow the thing up, lol.

Could you elaborate on what difference hyperthreading would make for a general use PC? I thought it's mainly for stuff like video editing or Adobe Photoshop, neither of which I use.

 

[CTurbo]

The i3 4160 is 3.6ghz compared to the 4130's 3.4ghz. The i3s are all dual core cpus with hyperthreading meaning that they can handle 4 threads at a time. The Pentium is a dual core cpu that can only handle 2 threads at a time. The i3 would be WAY better in multitasking and pretty much everything else if you're not going to overclock the Pentium. The i3 also has far superior integrated graphics for smooth video playback and such.

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

The i3 4160 is 3.6ghz compared to the 4130's 3.4ghz. The i3s are all dual core cpus with hyperthreading meaning that they can handle 4 threads at a time. The Pentium is a dual core cpu that can only handle 2 threads at a time. The i3 would be WAY better in multitasking and pretty much everything else if you're not going to overclock the Pentium. The i3 also has far superior integrated graphics for smooth video playback and such.

hmmm, I'm still trying to figure out what "heavy multi-tasking" means exactly. The graphics of the 3258 are "Intel HD" and of the 4160 are "Intel HD 4400" but googling the difference didn't yield any clear answers either.

Also, of this long list of multi-threaded software, the only 2 I use (very occasionally) are winRAR and 7zip.
http://www.dennis.se/smp/

 

[runswindows95]

Heavy multi-tasking = 15+ tabs in Chrome along with running anything else

I'm running a i5-4440, and my CPU usage was around 25% total with more then 10 tabs in Chrome, and the system easily went over 4GB. 50+ tabs, and my system went down to a crawl. I would go with the i3. Even if it's not multi-threaded software, have more cores / threads will make the system run smoother.

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

Heavy multi-tasking = 15+ tabs in Chrome along with running anything else

I'm running a i5-4440, and my CPU usage was around 25% total with more then 10 tabs in Chrome, and the system easily went over 4GB. 50+ tabs, and my system went down to a crawl. I would go with the i3. Even if it's not multi-threaded software, have more cores / threads will make the system run smoother.

Yeah, my i5 Sandy Bridge Thinkpad goes over 4GB all the time with +20 tabs open, CPU usage around 30% with Excel and Word being open too. System doesn't really slow down though...maybe due to using a zippy Samsung SSD for the boot drive.

Have found an open-box Asus Z87 motherboard for $40, I think I will get that with the $100 i3-4160...

 

[AHBman]

Get the i3 4130 is this situation, otherwise you need to update the BIOS of the Z87 Board
Or get an H97 board

As your like

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

Get the i3 4130 is this situation, otherwise you need to update the BIOS of the Z87 Board
Or get an H97 board

As your like

oh no! So Is updating a BIOS a real pain?

This makes it look relatively simple, and the Z87 board I was looking at does have the required EZ Flash feature:
http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1572-how-to-flash-bios-on-asus-board

 

[AHBman]

No, the PC won't run at all, because the H87 chipset was released for Haswell CPUs, and the original BIOS with H87 is only compatible with Haswell CPU (like the i3 4130) not Haswell Refresh CPU (i3 4160), except if the manufacturer or the dealer has updated the BIOS since the release of Haswell Refresh

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

No, the PC won't run at all, because the H87 chipset was released for Haswell CPUs, and the original BIOS with H87 is only compatible with Haswell CPU (like the i3 4130) not Haswell Refresh CPU (i3 4160), except if the manufacturer or the dealer has updated the BIOS since the release of Haswell Refresh

Argh!!!

Wonder why PC Parts Picker didn't notice that incompatibility. Weird thing is that online the 4130 is now upwards of $20 more than what MC is selling the 4160 for.

 

[AHBman]

Really sorry 🙁
If I can help :
The i3 4130 is at 104 $ on outlet PC, only 5 $ of difference now :
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i34130

 

[g-unit1111]

Get the i3 4130 is this situation, otherwise you need to update the BIOS of the Z87 Board
Or get an H97 board

As your like

To run a Pentium G3258? No, you only need to run the BIOS to unlock the multiplier. I run a Pentium G3258 on a H81 motherboard and it works perfectly fine.

 

[AHBman]

It just about the BIOS comptability of a Z87 board with an i3 4160, not G3258

 

[bsod1]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $344.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-03 18:22 EST-0500

This has the USB 3 headers.
The motherboard is a H97 which will help with future upgrades.
This CPU performs better than the i3-4130 will also help with all the multiple tabs you have.
Also includes a nice CD/DVD writer.

 

[mdocod]

Went to my local Microcenter, told them my usage, and they suggested
the G3258 CPU + MSI z97 Mate mobo, for $100

Sounds to me more like you went to a local overclocking enthusiast and got mediocre advice that doesn't target your needs particularly well. A G3258 + Z97 combo is a budget novelty performance tuning hardware selection, and you seem to have no interest in performance tuning.

---------------

My wife falls into the same sort of usage class as you. She uses Chrome, and often has 10-20+ tabs open. She also tends to have other software open (libreoffice and gimp). She uses an overclocked A10-6800K + 8GB RAM and a 120GB SSD and that works pretty nicely for her use. She often goes over 4GB of memory usage and she is using a linux distro with the XFCE desktop environment, which is quite a bit "lighter" than windows in terms of memory usage. For this sort of use, the A10 is comparable to the i3 in execution performance and is a pretty good fit. Chrome is also a good choice of browser for those who like to browse with many tabs and browswer windows open, as it is very well threaded (I have 10 tabs open now, and chrome has 24 threads spawned).

----------------

For the usage you have described, an i3 haswell or A8/A10 Kaveri APU from AMD are good options. Both offer similar combined execution performance, but the i3 can work on lightly threaded workloads more quickly, while the A8/A10's have much stronger iGPUs.

-----------------

Before locking in your final choice, consider for a moment another approach that may be superior...

You can get an FX-8320 + GA-78LMT-USB3 from microcenter for $140 (less after MIR). The FX-8320 is up to ~65% stronger in heavily threaded workloads than the i3-4130. The downside, is that the integrated video on this system is very weak/old and would not be suitable for a modern desktop. A discrete GPU for ~$50-60 would be required to take advantage of this platform. The advantages of such a configuration would be significantly more execution resources, and separate RAM and VRAM, which does improve responsiveness of a busy system. In a system like the i3 or APU that uses system memory for the iGPU, the memory controller is juggling requests from both the CPU and GPU. This competition for memory access can manifest as input lag and less responsive behavior compared to a traditional workstation with a discrete GPU under a similar workload.

 

[AHBman]

MDCod : according to you, the FX 6300 with discrete GPU can be a good option, the FX 6300 still better than i3 in multitasks (between i3 and i5), and less expansive than i3 or FX 8320, but we didn't know if it fit on budget :/

 

[runswindows95]

That is true. An FX chip with a cheap $30 graphics card will be more beneficial due to the more cores. If I could have gotten an FX-8XXX when I bought the i5 (Pre-built Acer. Needed a PC ASAP for work, and the only AMD chips were APU's for $50 less), I would have gotten an FX chip. I don't game, but when I do work, I can multi-task heavily (huge Word files, Excel, Notepad, FF with multitabs, etc).

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

Went to my local Microcenter, told them my usage, and they suggested
the G3258 CPU + MSI z97 Mate mobo, for $100

Sounds to me more like you went to a local overclocking enthusiast and got mediocre advice that doesn't target your needs particularly well. A G3258 + Z97 combo is a budget novelty performance tuning hardware selection, and you seem to have no interest in performance tuning.

---------------

My wife falls into the same sort of usage class as you. She uses Chrome, and often has 10-20+ tabs open. She also tends to have other software open (libreoffice and gimp). She uses an overclocked A10-6800K + 8GB RAM and a 120GB SSD and that works pretty nicely for her use. She often goes over 4GB of memory usage and she is using a linux distro with the XFCE desktop environment, which is quite a bit "lighter" than windows in terms of memory usage. For this sort of use, the A10 is comparable to the i3 in execution performance and is a pretty good fit. Chrome is also a good choice of browser for those who like to browse with many tabs and browswer windows open, as it is very well threaded (I have 10 tabs open now, and chrome has 24 threads spawned).

----------------

For the usage you have described, an i3 haswell or A8/A10 Kaveri APU from AMD are good options. Both offer similar combined execution performance, but the i3 can work on lightly threaded workloads more quickly, while the A8/A10's have much stronger iGPUs.

-----------------

Before locking in your final choice, consider for a moment another approach that may be superior...

You can get an FX-8320 + GA-78LMT-USB3 from microcenter for $140 (less after MIR). The FX-8320 is up to ~65% stronger in heavily threaded workloads than the i3-4130. The downside, is that the integrated video on this system is very weak/old and would not be suitable for a modern desktop. A discrete GPU for ~$50-60 would be required to take advantage of this platform. The advantages of such a configuration would be significantly more execution resources, and separate RAM and VRAM, which does improve responsiveness of a busy system. In a system like the i3 or APU that uses system memory for the iGPU, the memory controller is juggling requests from both the CPU and GPU. This competition for memory access can manifest as input lag and less responsive behavior compared to a traditional workstation with a discrete GPU under a similar workload.

hmmm, thanks for the FX/GA tip! $130 at MC, and that does sound better than the $100 G3258/MSI combo. I don't mind an extra $30 if you are sure I would be able to experience a noticeable and tangible improvement.

Are you sure I would need a discrete GPU?
What is the cheapest one that would do the job for a non-gaming, non-PhotoShopping person like me?
Bear in mind that I run Windows 7 with all graphical bells and whistles turned off...especially hate Aero!

To give you a good idea of how minimal my graphical standards are, I have an enduring affection for my 5 year old Samsung NC10 running EasyPeasy Linux using their Gnome2 desktop. It's not my main computer, of course.

Also, would I need to buy any additional fans or cooling components for the notoriously hot FX cpu? One of the attractions of the Haswell entry-level chips is their low wattage/heat, but guess you can't have everything...

 

[Zorba Greekthe]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $344.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-03 18:22 EST-0500

This has the USB 3 headers.
The motherboard is a H97 which will help with future upgrades.
This CPU performs better than the i3-4130 will also help with all the multiple tabs you have.
Also includes a nice CD/DVD writer.

Thanks for the detailed list! This is a minor question and very off topic, but I'm curious: how would you compare that Asus optical drive to the one by LG that Microcenter has, or the LiteOn that Newegg carries, both in the same price range?

 

[AHBman]

Re
This should be good for cooling :
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/arctic-cooling-cpu-cooler-ucacofa11001csa01
(This only fit with AMD FX 6300, not i3 or i5)
And for GPU :
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr523d31gl

 

[CTurbo]

My first vote goes to any Haswell i3. The A8 or A10 would be a good alternative for reasons mentioned above. I would not even consider ANY FX at this point or any cheap 760G socket motherboard. Any i3 would be faster than the fastest FX 80% of the time and they use only a portion of the power which equates to less heat and noise as well. Having to add a video card is an unnecessary waste of money that will use even more power and put out even more heat. I would even take a regular Pentium or A4/A6 over any AM3+ cpu for regular use PC.

i3 + 8GB RAM + ssd would make a really fast PC.

 

[bsod1]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $344.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-03 18:22 EST-0500

This has the USB 3 headers.
The motherboard is a H97 which will help with future upgrades.
This CPU performs better than the i3-4130 will also help with all the multiple tabs you have.
Also includes a nice CD/DVD writer.

Thanks for the detailed list! This is a minor question and very off topic, but I'm curious: how would you compare that Asus optical drive to the one by LG that Microcenter has, or the LiteOn that Newegg carries, both in the same price range?

I would go for the i3-4160 over the 6300 because you'd save a lot of cash per year.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-4160-vs-AMD-FX-6300

I just like ASUS more as a brand compared to the other two. Cheaper optical drives don't differ much and you won't see any difference in performance. Asus is the highest rated OD on pcpartpicker. The one I suggested.