My decision to go Intel worth it? Read more.

[Radioactive Gamer]

Currently I am running an am3+ setup with an FX 4350, and because my upgrade options are slim I may just jump over to Intel all together.

I could buy and FX 8350, but I feel as tho I am cheating myself. My budget is 200 and I can get an i5-6100k combo for just that price. That includes the Cpu, motherboard, and ram. An 8350 is max for my current board, but If I go Intel, there are much bigger upgrade options later on. Would the i5 be worth it? Or should I just get an 8350? The reason for my idea to switch is because I would rather have a genuine out of box performance rather than a value CPU with overclocked performance.

 

[geofelt]

FX-8350 essentially gets you more slow cores.
If you are running multithreaded apps, perhaps it is worth it.
And, you will need a better than average motherboard for a FX-8xxx.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html

For gaming, FX-8 is no good. Few games use more than 2-3 threads, and the fx cores are half the power of intel.

 

[WildCard999]

AMD Ryzen might be a better choice for your budget and AMD is using the same socket (AM4) until 2020 which gives you upgrading options later on. For $200 though it won't get you much but if you can stretch it to $280 that'll give you a quad core, B350 MB & 8gb DDR4.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kpqGTH

 

[Radioactive Gamer]

FX-8350 essentially gets you more slow cores.
If you are running multithreaded apps, perhaps it is worth it.
And, you will need a better than average motherboard for a FX-8xxx.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html

For gaming, FX-8 is no good. Few games use more than 2-3 threads, and the fx cores are half the power of intel.

Oh my board definitely supports the 8350. I have an Asus m5a78l-m usb 3.0 rev.5 mobo.

 

[Radioactive Gamer]

I do know that the i3 outperforms my 4350, so I got to thinking maybe I should grab a cheap i3 combo kit and slap in an i7 when my budget permits. Thoughts?

 

[DSzymborski]

FX-8350 essentially gets you more slow cores.
If you are running multithreaded apps, perhaps it is worth it.
And, you will need a better than average motherboard for a FX-8xxx.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html

For gaming, FX-8 is no good. Few games use more than 2-3 threads, and the fx cores are half the power of intel.

Oh my board definitely supports the 8350. I have an Asus m5a78l-m usb 3.0 rev.5 mobo.

It supports it in the sense it'll work, but even the budget boards that technically support the 125W FX CPUs frequently run into issues with throttling, in part due to the meager voltage regulator modules. It's generally not recommended to go 125W unless you have a 990FX or one of the better 970 motherboards.

 

[Radioactive Gamer]

FX-8350 essentially gets you more slow cores.
If you are running multithreaded apps, perhaps it is worth it.
And, you will need a better than average motherboard for a FX-8xxx.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html

For gaming, FX-8 is no good. Few games use more than 2-3 threads, and the fx cores are half the power of intel.

Are you aware that the 4350 is 125 watt? I have had the same setup going strong for 2 years now with a 4.4 Ghz overclock.

Oh my board definitely supports the 8350. I have an Asus m5a78l-m usb 3.0 rev.5 mobo.

It supports it in the sense it'll work, but even the budget boards that technically support the 125W FX CPUs frequently run into issues with throttling, in part due to the meager voltage regulator modules. It's generally not recommended to go 125W unless you have a 990FX or one of the better 970 motherboards.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

He's right. If you try to put an fx 8 core cpu into that board you are likely to have problems. The vrms on those boards aren't strong enough in my opinion. You want a 970 or 990 series board preferably with 8+2 power phasing.

If 200 is absolutely all you can afford, you'd be better off picking up a Dell refurbished tower with an i5 or i7 cpu and transfer your other parts into that. If you can save a little more or sell your old parts, then it's recommend a ryzen quad, 8gb or more of ddr4 and a b350 board. At least that way you have an upgrade path.

The i3 6100 bad thing is you will be in a dead end platform and won't be able to upgrade past say a 7700k at best. Not that that's a bad cpu, but the 8700k is already out with more cores, and AMD is supposed to release more new ryzen chips soon.

 

[geofelt]

I do know that the i3 outperforms my 4350, so I got to thinking maybe I should grab a cheap i3 combo kit and slap in an i7 when my budget permits. Thoughts?

I think a very reasonable proposition.
Any lga1151 motherboard can support a I7-7700K which is about as good as it gets.
At stock, 7700K runs very well, no overclock needed.
That would be a reasonable future upgrade.
I3-6100 is a very good chip.
See if you can't find some benchmarks with the i3-6100 and YOUR games.

If you are budget constrained, consider used.