I'm building a micro-ATX system that will exclusively run Linux and will be used mostly for work (writing), hobby coding (nothing crazy) and some light gaming (EU4, Dota 2, maybe a few older wine games). The goal is for it to be my everyday PC to replace an aging Mac Mini.
I'm torn right now between getting an FX-6300 or an A10-6800K, and a big deciding factor seems to be chipset.
I know a lot of people are really high on the FX-series, but they also always insist on using 970 or 990 boards, and there simply aren't any for a micro-ATX (space is a big limiting factor for me). There are some newer revisions of 760g boards (Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 5.0) that support the FX-6300 but there seems to be a lot of conflicting stories about whether or not it really "works" or if there's a major performance loss.
On the other hand, there are tons of boards that support the A10-6800K, and A88x chipset boards (like the Asrock FM2A88M-HD+) even have the brand new FM2+ socket, so there might be upgradability to a Kaveri APU or something else in the future.
It's a stark difference. On the one hand the FX-series seems like the better "right now" performer, but it's saddled with an extremely old chipset and probably no upgradability. The APU is a little weaker, but it has that built-in graphics (which honestly might be enough and would save me having to buy a cheapy GeForce GT-630 or something) and be a little more future-proof. I also like that the A88X boards seem to support way faster ram, while the 760g boards mostly seem to cap out at 1333 or 1600.
Since faster ram costs more but the FX needs discrete graphics, I'm estimating the initial costs either way to be about the same. Given that, which is the better choice?
I'm torn right now between getting an FX-6300 or an A10-6800K, and a big deciding factor seems to be chipset.
I know a lot of people are really high on the FX-series, but they also always insist on using 970 or 990 boards, and there simply aren't any for a micro-ATX (space is a big limiting factor for me). There are some newer revisions of 760g boards (Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 5.0) that support the FX-6300 but there seems to be a lot of conflicting stories about whether or not it really "works" or if there's a major performance loss.
On the other hand, there are tons of boards that support the A10-6800K, and A88x chipset boards (like the Asrock FM2A88M-HD+) even have the brand new FM2+ socket, so there might be upgradability to a Kaveri APU or something else in the future.
It's a stark difference. On the one hand the FX-series seems like the better "right now" performer, but it's saddled with an extremely old chipset and probably no upgradability. The APU is a little weaker, but it has that built-in graphics (which honestly might be enough and would save me having to buy a cheapy GeForce GT-630 or something) and be a little more future-proof. I also like that the A88X boards seem to support way faster ram, while the 760g boards mostly seem to cap out at 1333 or 1600.
Since faster ram costs more but the FX needs discrete graphics, I'm estimating the initial costs either way to be about the same. Given that, which is the better choice?
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