I was upgrading my mobo and cpu; I chose msi Z97 pc mate but I am confused which to choose from the two cpus. The reason I am looking at budget cpus is that I am already buying a mobo and I don't want to go cheap with the mobo since I will upgrade later to broadwell. [If u know better options u can suggest it; sorry for bad English].
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I3 4160 or pentium k oced to 4.0/4.3?
- Thread starter Olmerzeno
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Well I will use the pc for gamming mainly [1280x1024 resolution] and a little web surfing; I have gtx 750 too. What makes me confused that the pentium k will save some money which would be used for extra ram or for getting an ssd ; I hear that once it gets oced it might be better than the i3... . Still I hear also that not all people can get 4.0 with stock cooler and there is some kind of luck when it comes to the pentium k also I hear that the i3 has better future proofing due to the increased thread numbers. So it is kinda tough here and again if u know better options u can suggest it.
TheMagicalWallaby
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Aravind92
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I would say go for the i3...hyperthreading makes a difference..Even if the dual core is overclocked to the limits it would probably be on par with the stock i3...Yes the price differs,but with the dual core you will have to take a custom cooler which would match the price of i3...Go for the i3 and save yourself some time...
So the i3 is better than the pentium k by alot or by a little when it comes to gaming? If the performance difference between them is little then the pentium k with a ssd will be more worthwhile. I wont upgrade til a middle range I5 broadwell gets released. I also hear that some people on the Internet and you tube achieve good overclocking with stock cooler on pentium k some may get 3.8 others lucky enough to get 4.0 or even 4.2 on stock cooler.
- Dec 8, 2013
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Get the i3 4160. It's better for gaming performance. For the G3258 you'll have to buy a good cpu cooler to level the costs aswell. I would take hyper threading dual core over overclocking dual core. The G3258 might have been a better choice if you planned on upgrading to an i5 in the near future.
The processor I will buy will be used til a good value quad core broadwell cpu comes out, so I wont upgrade for a while.u are utterly sure that the i3 will serve me better than an overclocked pentium k with ssd? Sorry for asking many times I just want to make the best use of the money.
OK it is done now that the i3 will be better than dreadfully overclocked pentium k. The question now is difference between them in gaming performance big or negligible? The difference in price between them is big so if the difference in performance is small then the pentium k will be a better option. Sorry again for asking alot.
Thanks GhislainG, it looks like performance difference between cpus is generally negligible if compared with difference in price. So I will get the pentium and the rest of the saved money will be paid for a ssd. Again if anyone know a better choice or thinks that the i3 is more worthwhile for a specific reason I would rather get warned now than after paying the money.[Gonna play games with gtx 750 on 1280x1024 res. Hope that helps]
- Dec 8, 2013
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You shouldn't get the Pentium because you are not going to buy a CPU cooler. It's absolutely useless without it. You can't have a luxury item such as an SSD in your build if you're on such a budget really and you can't overclock a G3258 with the stock cooler, Im pretty sure you are not thinking about that or are you? The difference is significiant. Are you prepared to pay 25-30 dollars extra for a cpu cooler or not? If not your CPU is going to be up to 20% below performance compared to the i3-4150
The i3 has double the threads, 4 threads compared to the Pentium 2 CPU threads. The i3 is up to 30% faster when it comes to multi-threading.
A GTX 750 to play at 1280x1024 doesn't require a lot of processing power. The Pentium won't play games that require at least 4 cores, but those games also require a much faster and expensive GPU than your GTX 750. You'll never regret getting a SSD.
Thanks both of u for help. There is a change of plans though. I went to the local market and found out two things: First cpus are cheaper than I thought [the pentium k costs 500EGP while an i3 4150 costs like 850EGP] so the difference in price wasn't as huge as I thought [the gtx 750 price was a hefty 1125 EGP, looks like gpus are very expensive here in Egypt] Still is the i3 4160 alot faster than an i3 4150?And should I wait a little til the i3 4160 becomes available?
- Dec 8, 2013
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The clock speed is slighty faster, I don't think you will notice a difference. If you can get a GTX 750 Ti with a i3-4150 you will have good performance. Do you still have to buy all PC components? Make sure you have 8 GB RAM and a good power supply (450-550w +80 Certified)
Btw your mobo is good. You can also get the ASRock H97 Anniversary as that mobo will do well with the i3. It's cheaper too.
I already bought the gtx 750 so I think I should wait till the gtx 960. I also want to buy I good mobo so I can forget about it for a while. What do you think about msi z97 guard pro it costs 900EGP here. If u know a better option u can suggest it.
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