Building a £300 PC: AMD v Intel

Samuelsock

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Mar 6, 2014
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Hello, I am upgrading from my (extremely bad) laptop to a desktop before i head off to Uni, unfortunately I have a £300 budget but it is flexible. The question I'm asking is AMD v Intel. Which would be better for general PC usage with light gaming and wouldn't take up 50% of my budget. Future proofing isn't a massive concern, it will just be to tide me over for 1-2 years.
 
Solution
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Danbuscus250/saved/3Yuq
CPU AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core £105.59
Motherboard MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ £47.96
Memory Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 £57.78
Storage Samsung Spinpoint F1 DT 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM £30.00
Wireless Network Adapter TP-Link TL-WN751ND 802.11b/g/n PCI £7.73
Case Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower £29.99
Power Supply XFX 550W ATX12V / EPS12V £44.98
Optical Drive Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer £11.83
Total: £335.86

here you go, this has a much better cpu, 8gb ram, 750gb hdd, internal wifi adapter (if you need) and a much better psu,

ImPrettyIrish

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Oct 17, 2013
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For a budget build like that, I would go with AMD. The lower end of Intel's CPUs aren't the best compared to AMD. A $100 CPU (FX 6300)on AMD is the equivalent to the i5 4670K ($300+). The AMD may be a little worse but the price to performance ratio is way on the AMD side.
 

ImPrettyIrish

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Oct 17, 2013
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Here is a build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4350 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£79.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£30.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston Value 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£24.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F1 DT 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£30.00 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card (£88.44 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.97 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £328.30
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-07 00:26 GMT+0000)

NOTE: This does not contain an OS. I would contact your University about getting one. There is also Steam OS(which is in beta) and Linux.
 

Samuelsock

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Mar 6, 2014
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Thank you! I can choose between Windows 7 or 8 to get for free but I'll defiantly be using that build although I probably will switch out the GPU as im going to be getting a GTX 560 from my friend
 
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Danbuscus250/saved/3Yuq
CPU AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core £71.99
Motherboard MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ £47.96
Memory Kingston Blu Red Series 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 £15.99
Kingston Blu Red Series 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 £15.99
Storage Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM £18.99
Video Card MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB £108.90
Case Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower £29.99
Power Supply EVGA 430W ATX12V / EPS12V £28.99
Optical Drive Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer £11.83
Total: £350.63

this one is 20 euros more, but it uses less power, can burn dvds/cds, has a better mobo, usb 3.0, sata 6gb/s, faster ram, and a faster graphics card, but a tiny bit slower cpu and less hdd space. this build will run games significantly faster and save money on your electric bill by a tiny bit. your choice, but i would defiantly spend an extra 20 euros for this build.
 
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Danbuscus250/saved/3Yuq
CPU AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core £105.59
Motherboard MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ £47.96
Memory Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 £57.78
Storage Samsung Spinpoint F1 DT 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM £30.00
Wireless Network Adapter TP-Link TL-WN751ND 802.11b/g/n PCI £7.73
Case Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower £29.99
Power Supply XFX 550W ATX12V / EPS12V £44.98
Optical Drive Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer £11.83
Total: £335.86

here you go, this has a much better cpu, 8gb ram, 750gb hdd, internal wifi adapter (if you need) and a much better psu,
 
Solution


This is a great build, also that PSU is good and will even leave you space for upgrading if you need it ^^.
 

ImPrettyIrish

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Oct 17, 2013
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That is a way better build. I didn't know he didn't need a GPU so I just kinda gave up lol. I selected you as best answer instead of me. gg