Intel Core i7 960 or AMD FX-6300 For Gaming?

[itsMilo]

Hi, I was wondering whether I should buy the AMD FX-6300 new, or the Intel Core i7 960 off of Ebay. I'll be pairing it with either a GTX 750 Ti or the HD 7950. Which one will deliver better for gaming, editing, and everyday tasks?

 

[itsMilo]

I have no issues with buying second hand parts from ebay. I would never buy a second hand power supply though, it's the heart of the build. Also, ram is extremely sensitive so I don't like getting second hand ram either

I recently came across a listing for some ddr3 memory on ebay uk and the seller had laid the memory on their CARPET to take a picture of it! they need to learn about static

Don't forget hard drives, they'll blame the break on shipping. I think video cards and cpu's are fine as long as you check all the information really well to make sure they don't sneak in that this part doesn't work.

 

[LucoTF]

Actually I can't remember the last time I bought a HDD, both of my current ones are recycled from other builds

 

[itsMilo]

Since now I've pretty much figured out the way to go is an i3-4150, I just want to confirm that it is in fact better than an FX-6300? Also, what video card would you recommend? GTX 750 TI FTW, a used HD 7950, or what?

 

[itsMilo]

I'm looking at benchmarks and the i7-960 performs better in all of them.

 

[mattmidori]

duhhhhh i7

 

[itsMilo]

The FX-6300 also performs better than the i3, except in the single-core tests

 

[LucoTF]

The i7-920/30/40/50/60 are all the same chip just different clock speeds, and they're all overclockable so really there's nothing between them. Overclock it to 4ghz and it's right up there with an i5-4460 or so

But many of the older lga1366 boards are dead, and many of those that are alive don't have sata 3 or usb 3. If you want to go old school I think the i5-2500k is the daddy. That chip is a monster

 

[Matt Dobe]

I would personally go with the newer gen i3 than the 960. Better to get up to date with mobo etc so you could stick in a 97 chip i5/i7 abit later on. If you get the FX6300 now there is no beneficial future proofing as a 8320 (possible upgrade) isn't actually that much of an upgrade for gaming. The i3 uses less power than the 6300 also.

 

[LucoTF]

The FX-6300 also performs better than the i3, except in the single-core tests

Single core performance is what matters. Especially for gaming.

One of the most recent far cry 4 benchmarks had the i3-4160 beating the 8 core FX-8350 simply by having the better IPC performance

 

[itsMilo]

The FX-6300 also performs better than the i3, except in the single-core tests

Single core performance is what matters. Especially for gaming.

One of the most recent far cry 4 benchmarks had the i3-4160 beating the 8 core FX-8350 simply by having the better IPC performance

Yeah I need USB 3.0, and I'd like SATA 3. Do boards that support the i5-2500k have those features and DDR3 memory slots?

 

[LucoTF]

ddr3 came out back in the LGA775 days, so all LGA1155 boards will be ddr3 as standard.

If you can pick up a good Z77 mobo and an i5-2500k or 3570k for the right price then it wouldn't be a bad shot. Z77 boards should all support USB 3 and sata 6gb/s and PCIe 3.0 too.

 

[itsMilo]

ddr3 came out back in the LGA775 days, so all LGA1155 boards will be ddr3 as standard.

If you can pick up a good Z77 mobo and an i5-2500k or 3570k for the right price then it wouldn't be a bad shot. Z77 boards should all support USB 3 and sata 6gb/s and PCIe 3.0 too.

Sweet! Thank you very much! Which video card would you recommend?
Also, is $135 a good price for the i5-2500k

 

[LucoTF]

Sweet! Thank you very much! Which video card would you recommend?
Also, is $135 a good price for the i5-2500k

That's a very average price imo, you should hopefully be able to do a lot better. $100 would be a good deal

I mean $150 would get you a brand new 4th gen i3 with mobo...

 

[LucoTF]

What power supply are you getting?

 

[Darkbreeze]

If I go used I'll check to make sure the condition is perfect working condition, and then Ebay will cover me after that.

Ok, having been down this exact road many times before, I have to stop you right there. You need to go carefully read the ebay terms of service. They DO NOT guarantee any product will work or guarantee any product's "Fitness for purpose and merchantability." The ONLY things they guarantee is that the product WILL be delivered to you and that the product will be the same as what was represented in the sellers advertisement. If you take it out of the box and it doesn't work or instantly shorts your system out, too bad, that's not their problem. I've had many in depth engagements with the Ebay TOS and can state this as a matter of fact.

And when the item is used, they're even worse about it. They'll quite simply tell you "it was used, what did you expect". Of course that doesn't mean you can't ever find a good bargain on working but used hardware, just don't expect to cry to anybody including Ebay about it if there is an issue.

 

[itsMilo]

If I go used I'll check to make sure the condition is perfect working condition, and then Ebay will cover me after that.

Ok, having been down this exact road many times before, I have to stop you right there. You need to go carefully read the ebay terms of service. They DO NOT guarantee any product will work or guarantee any product's "Fitness for purpose and merchantability." The ONLY things they guarantee is that the product WILL be delivered to you and that the product will be the same as what was represented in the sellers advertisement. If you take it out of the box and it doesn't work or instantly shorts your system out, too bad, that's not their problem. I've had many in depth engagements with the Ebay TOS and can state this as a matter of fact.

And when the item is used, they're even worse about it. They'll quite simply tell you "it was used, what did you expect". Of course that doesn't mean you can't ever find a good bargain on working but used hardware, just don't expect to cry to anybody including Ebay about it if there is an issue.

Okay...thanks

 

[itsMilo]

Sweet! Thank you very much! Which video card would you recommend?
Also, is $135 a good price for the i5-2500k

That's a very average price imo, you should hopefully be able to do a lot better. $100 would be a good deal

I mean $150 would get you a brand new 4th gen i3 with mobo...

Okay, now that I have had another reply about buying used, I'm kind of weary about buying from Ebay.

 

[Darkbreeze]

This would work fine with either of those graphics cards you were leaning towards, although, they're both rather low end GPUs. But this would be fine, and you could upgrade to an i5 or i7 CPU using the same motherboard later if you wanted.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($141.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $213.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-02 21:46 EST-0500

 

[itsMilo]

This would work fine with either of those graphics cards you were leaning towards, although, they're both rather low end GPUs. But this would be fine, and you could upgrade to an i5 or i7 CPU using the same motherboard later if you wanted.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($141.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $213.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-02 21:46 EST-0500

Okay, thank you.

 

[LucoTF]

Sweet! Thank you very much! Which video card would you recommend?
Also, is $135 a good price for the i5-2500k

That's a very average price imo, you should hopefully be able to do a lot better. $100 would be a good deal

I mean $150 would get you a brand new 4th gen i3 with mobo...

Okay, now that I have had another reply about buying used, I'm kind of weary about buying from Ebay.

I expected darkbreeze to come in and give you the other side of the coin, his point is a valid one and the less hardware knowledge you have, the greater the issues. And it's not really DoA hardware that I'm talking about (basic selling law covers you against misrepresentation), it's the lack of warranty and the risk that you don't really get the bargain you were hoping for.

That said, I got a fantastic deal on my GPU on ebay when I got it because it had been misspelled "grahpics card", wasn't categorised correctly, and apparently had an intermittent fault on the second DVI port (I have been unable to replicate this fault, and the card has 4 different outputs anyway).

 

[LucoTF]

This would work fine with either of those graphics cards you were leaning towards, although, they're both rather low end GPUs. But this would be fine, and you could upgrade to an i5 or i7 CPU using the same motherboard later if you wanted.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($141.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $213.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-02 21:46 EST-0500

Given that milo will be using a dedicated GPU I'm not sure why you chose the i3-4360 over the 4150 or 4160, price vs performance the 4160 wins when you aren't using the onboard graphics

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $177.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-03 03:26 EST-0500

And giving up broadwell compatibility you could squeeze the price even further:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($104.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.85 @ OutletPC)
Total: $149.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-03 03:28 EST-0500