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Budget CPU - i3 3245 vs FX 6350..?

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January 3, 2014 2:58:54 PM

Friend is looking for a CPU from our local Micro Center for a budget build for medium/light gaming, some Blender use but mostly HTPC stuff and hes torn between the i3 3245 and the FX6350. Ideally he's looking for a motherboard and CPU for $150 or less and is looking for the best bang for his buck. He has a GTS 450 graphics card and will be getting 4gb of DDR3. His old Q6600 just took a dump on him. One of his concerns is having to get a new PSU for the AMD (he has a 500w and a 550w) so he is leaning towards Intel. I already told him to get a new PSU anyways but money is tight. Any help is appreciated.

More about : budget cpu 3245 6350

a c 198 à CPUs
January 3, 2014 3:05:41 PM

for an htpc or mitx format mb i'd get an i3.
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a c 915 à CPUs
January 3, 2014 3:10:37 PM

He would be fine with a 500watt for either build so no need for new PSU, if any multitasking is done I would go with the FX but otherwise the I3.
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January 4, 2014 4:11:31 AM

Thanks I think he is going to go with the FX 6350. Lots of other people recommend the FX over other similar i3 CPUs like the 4130 and 4340.
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a b à CPUs
January 4, 2014 4:24:55 AM

Microcenter does CPU/Motherboard bundling which KILL Intel as a competitor. The FX-6300 will destroy the i3 in blender when rendering. Put bluntly, the i3 desktop chips are good for gaming strictly... which they do rather well.

No new PSU needed, check this out though.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.as...

Get the FX-6300, its 20 bucks saved on a glorified overclock. (Dual Core vs Six Cores!)
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January 4, 2014 4:41:46 AM

Yea he will end up getting a mATX mobo for free with the CPU because you get $40 off in store. MC FTW!
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a b à CPUs
January 4, 2014 5:08:36 AM

Darn right, I feel bad for the guys out there without one.
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January 4, 2014 5:25:17 AM

Hell yea me too. Just wish they had a wider selection of stuff in stock. Good deals, easy return policies though. RMA'ing stuff sucks. I bought an MSI Z87 mobo with a dead ethernet port a few months ago. Sure it was 45 mins back to the store but I walked out with a new one the same day. I had to RMA this ASUS wifi card through ASUS because it wasn't compatible with Z87 boards and it took weeks. Eff that.
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a c 198 à CPUs
January 4, 2014 12:40:22 PM

FloppyNacho said:
Microcenter does CPU/Motherboard bundling which KILL Intel as a competitor. The FX-6300 will destroy the i3 in blender when rendering. Put bluntly, the i3 desktop chips are good for gaming strictly... which they do rather well.

No new PSU needed, check this out though.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.as...

Get the FX-6300, its 20 bucks saved on a glorified overclock. (Dual Core vs Six Cores!)


except the fx6300 will blow up every single motherboard you can bundle it with in that deal except for that m5a97 r2.0 if you try to overclock it.

this is why AMD shoots itself in the foot by keeping it's sockets around for so long, it causes some serious confusion. Most budget AM3+ motherboards out there were made for 3 or 4 year old phenomIIs... i had a 125w phenomII x4 965be... it was VERY easy on the northbridge and vrms on every motherboard it was in. So motherboards without heatsinks on the vrms wouldn't suffer from having it plugged in.

Piledriver is different. Even though the vcore i use to overclock this fx8320 is actually lower then the vcore i was using on my old PhII, and even though they are both the same 125W TDP cpus... this 8320 is freaking brutal on the VRM/Northbridge. The heatsinks on the motherboard get far too hot to touch, and that's with a fan blowing down onto them.

Giving someone a suggestion to get a board with low quality vrms and no heatsinks on the motherboard is just asking for their motherboard to blow up, catch fire or die a quick death. If the person with that motherboard is lucky, when the board goes it won't take the video card, cpu or psu with it.

OP, i'm not saying there are no good deals on that microcenter webpage. the m5a97 R2.0 is a fine budget ATX board... and will hold a moderate overclock on that fx 6300. but there isn't an AM3+ board in existence in the matx format i would ever suggest putting a piledriver into.
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a c 901 à CPUs
January 4, 2014 12:47:09 PM

FX 6300 will work just fine with the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 as it is a 125w capable board. You can safely run 3.9-4.0 with that board and CPU. It supports the 4.0ghz FX 8350. There is no way an FX 6300 @ the same clock speed will consume more than a stock 8350. Any higher, and for sure have to get a better board. 970a-ud3p would be my budget pick since it has 8+2 phase power.
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January 5, 2014 2:49:03 AM

The "free" board he is going for is the ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS because it has more PCI slots than the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3. He also will *not* be overclocking so it should be ok.
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a c 901 à CPUs
January 5, 2014 11:02:31 AM

PCI slots are about useless anymore. I cannot remember the last time I actually used one. The motherboard already has everything you really need. I would suggest a Hyper TX3 cooler and bumping to an FX 6350 at the very least. (I don't consider that true overclocking. :lol: ) The Gigabyte board at least has a heatsink for the VRM's. It also has 4 ram slots instead of 2. 4 ram slots and vrm heatsink is much more useful than rarely used PCI slots anyday.
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January 5, 2014 4:41:24 PM

OOPS NEVERMIND
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