What is the best I can do with $500?

[Shockattackr]

The 965 and the i3 trade blows, where one is good in one thing, the other is better in another.

 

[DarkOutlaw]

The 965 and the i3 trade blows, where one is good in one thing, the other is better in another.

I can agree with that.

 

[DarkOutlaw]

Benchmarks

Buying an i3 and intending to upgrade to an i5 later is a waste of money, and just plain bad financial planning. Get the i5 NOW if you want it, and save up until you can afford it if you can't now and still want one.

I agree with that also. It is only what...a $70 difference if that? But tell me to keep it under $xxx.xx and thats what I'm going to do.

 

[Shockattackr]

It all comes down to which one you prefer at this point. If you want to upgrade in the future, stick with the intel chip, if not and you can wait another year stick with the AMD chip till Piledriver comes out

 

[nekulturny]

I agree with that also. It is only what...a $70 difference if that? But tell me to keep it under $xxx.xx and thats what I'm going to do.

Well, I'm glad we agree on something. I'd rather make friends here than enemies. But I'm still going to be blunt if I have to lol. :lol:

I agree that the i5 is superior, you won't ever get an argument from me on that. But as far as the i3. Since I personally am more of a multitasker than a gamer, I'll gladly take the 1-5 less FPS for the superior multithreaded performance. Honest to god if I put an i3 machine in front of anyone and a Phenom II with the same video card, nobody would ever be able to honestly tell a difference between either one for gaming. An i5 rig, yes probably in some games there will be a difference. But honestly, I haven't come across any game or application that my Phenom II can't happily munch on.

 

[djscribbles]

Unless I am looking at the wrong Phenom II 965, which I could be, Intel's dual core preforms at the same level as AMD's quad core...that kinda tells me right there AMD doesnt have it all together...

Most games only fully utilize one thread (core), and maybe spawn off some small side processes that could occupy another core partially, so I don't quite understand what you are attempting to imply by saying that an AMD quadcore performs at the same level as an intel dual core.

I would still expect upgrading the GPU+PSU to be a much more beneficial and logical upgrade (depending on what the OP has of course) than the CPU/Mobo/RAM and the PSU anyhow.

edit: Was a little slow in typing this post out and submitting, I see the conversation has moved past that now sorry.

 

[gpalm05]

Thanks for the advice so far guys. I haven't really looked at Intel chips yet simply because of price, but I think I will do a little research on that side and see what I like the best. Also, is there any sites where I can see some Price to Performance Ratios for CPUs? Everything I have looked at seems to show that AMD chips will give solid performance when overclocked for a much better price which is why I was leaning towards them.

 

[nekulturny]

Most games only fully utilize one thread (core), and maybe spawn off some small side processes that could occupy another core partially, so I don't quite understand what you are attempting to imply by saying that an AMD quadcore performs at the same level as an intel dual core.

Because it does based on Tom's benches, and many other sites lol. Speculating about the architecture and programming only gets you so far before you have to start looking at the raw data on actual performance.

 

[nekulturny]

Thanks for the advice so far guys. I haven't really looked at Intel chips yet simply because of price, but I think I will do a little research on that side and see what I like the best. Also, is there any sites where I can see some Price to Performance Ratios for CPUs? Everything I have looked at seems to show that AMD chips will give solid performance when overclocked for a much better price which is why I was leaning towards them.

Price to performance ratios change pretty quickly and varies from store to store, but if you want a generalization, my advice would be to look at benchmarks and ask questions, as you've done here. I will tell you based on my knowledge, ( I am a second year tech student going for my Associate's Degree and made Dean's List- if thats worth anything to you) The FX-CPUs just have a very Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde nature to them. You'll get more consistent gaming performance at the 100-130 price level with either a Phenom II 965 or an i3-21xx than any FX CPU (including the expensive ones).

 

[nekulturny]

I don't really like this article because in my opinion the guy who wrote it is a moron, you can read the commentary if you want, but mainly I'm linking it for the benchmarks, as far as the price points, they're all outdated as it was written in January but it has a bunch of CPUs on there:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-3.html

A note about Skyrim: Skyrim is one of those games thats inconsistent, and it absolutely will favor a quad core in certain parts of the game (particularly caves) as its a badly ported Console game which puts more burden on the CPU than it ought. I don't care what that guy says, unless he explains what hes actually doing in the game when he benches it (he doesn't), his results are worthless.

A few other games:

Diablo III
http://www.techspot.com/review/532-diablo-3-performance/page5.html

Max Payne
http://www.techspot.com/review/537-max-payne-3-performance/page7.html

Mass Effect 3
http://www.techspot.com/review/507-mass-effect-3-performance-test/page5.html

Pretty much any Call of Duty Game is going to easily be maxed out on anything (they all use the same game engine) I can add that, but if you want a bench on it I'm sure I can dig one up.

 

[gpalm05]

Ok, i did some shopping around for an Intel based build, and this is what I came up with-

Prices are all after rebates-

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor - $190.00
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler - $30.00
Biostar TZ77XE4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard - $75.00
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory - $50.00
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk - 80.00
OCZ 600W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - $45.00

That puts the total at $470. I feel like this is a build that will decent for now with room for upgrading in the future. I would like to get a good graphics card now but that will have to wait until the end of this month. All the prices come from my local Micro Center. So I will have to pay some taxes that will probably put the total cost right around $500.

I do like this build better than my original AMD based build. I have to go work an overnight tonight, but hopefully tomorrow I can have enough information to make the purchase. Thanks for all the help so far guys.

 

[nekulturny]

Ok, i did some shopping around for an Intel based build, and this is what I came up with-

Prices are all after rebates-

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor - $190.00
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler - $30.00
Biostar TZ77XE4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard - $75.00
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory - $50.00
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk - 80.00
OCZ 600W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - $45.00

That puts the total at $470. I feel like this is a build that will decent for now with room for upgrading in the future. I would like to get a good graphics card now but that will have to wait until the end of this month. All the prices come from my local Micro Center. So I will have to pay some taxes that will probably put the total cost right around $500.

I do like this build better than my original AMD based build. I have to go work an overnight tonight, but hopefully tomorrow I can have enough information to make the purchase. Thanks for all the help so far guys.

Thats not a bad build at all. I can probably save you a little bit of money on it though:

CPU cooler-212 Plus (Doesn't save you a lot, but it is $10 cheaper, and its practically just as good)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065


For a Biosstar Motherboard, thats actually a decent one.

RAM- Theres no reason to get 1866mhz ram. Although I admit again this isn't going to be much cheaper, but cheaper nevertheless.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231426

The CPU will run the RAM at 1333mhz by default anyway (even if its 1866mhz, as thats the highest number they guarantee it to be stable at, not what it will run at). It can be overclocked with XMP, but honestly there will be no discernible difference.