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Building Budget/Value PC: Athlon 760k or FX-6300

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  • CPUs
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March 12, 2014 10:18:52 AM

Hi. I still have to decide if I want to go through with this or not. Because I have a pretty decent gaming PC, and going for this build would be a downgrade.


I have been thinking of building a small PC intended for soft- midcore gaming with a controller, or a SteamBox if you will.

The main priorities of this build:

1. Power consumption
2. Performance
3. Price
5. Noise/Heat
4. Size

I pretty set on what I want for most of the specs. Except for Mobo/CPU combo. I have been looking at some CPUs and narrowed it down to either:
Athlon II x4 750k
Athlon II x4 760k (the 760k is going to cost me 37$ more than the 750k)
FX-6100
FX-6300

I find it very hard to choose between a AM3+ or a FM2(+) motherboard, because I am not sure if it would be worth going for a Mini-ITX mobo, for I fear that I will be getting far less performance per dollar if I went with a Athlon/Mini-ITX combo, because I know that the FX series would beat any FM2 cpu.... More or less.

I have seen you can get AM3+ Micro-ATX mobo, but the ones I have been looking at don't use the 990FX chipset, which made me take a step back.

So in a nutshell:
Should I go for a ATX/FX-6300 or Micro-ATX/-6300 or Mini-ITX/750k/760k ?


If I missed anything or if there's anything you want to know, then go ahead and ask.

I will be looking forward to your response.

More about : building budget athlon 760k 6300

a b 4 Gaming
a c 99 à CPUs
March 12, 2014 10:51:32 AM

If it were my system, FX 6300 + discrete GPU + ATX board in a compact case or mini-tower.
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 393 à CPUs
March 12, 2014 11:31:03 AM

The 6300 will be MUCH better. 990FX is only necessary if you want to do some serious overclocking, on a good board like an Asus M5A97 R2, you'll usually get within .3ghz of a 990FX at the complete max.
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 902 à CPUs
March 12, 2014 11:35:01 AM

If you are concerned with power consumption, then Haswell i3 4130 is the way to go. Cost is similar to an FX 6300, it is faster, unless you overclock the FX 6300 which then causes power consumption to go up. Also overclocking requires an aftermarket cooler, increasing the overall cost. You can settle for a very cheap board, since you are not going to overclock. Just pick one with the features you really feel you need. Also better upgrade path.
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Best solution

a b 4 Gaming
a c 902 à CPUs
March 12, 2014 11:41:58 AM

Some examples of what I am talking about.

AMD build
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($20.55 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $185.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:39 EDT-0400)


Absolute cheapest 4130 combo
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $157.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:41 EDT-0400)


If you want 4 ram slots
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi B85S3+ Ver. 6.x Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $178.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:39 EDT-0400)


If you want raid capability
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H87M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $198.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:40 EDT-0400)
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 393 à CPUs
March 12, 2014 11:52:44 AM

Well, the 4130 does not perform as well in some games such as Battlefield 4 or Crysis 3, the 6300 is going to last a lot longer.
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 902 à CPUs
March 12, 2014 11:58:14 AM

I would say a Haswell i3 would do just fine in Crysis 3, and bf4, since we are not looking at components capable of ultra anyway. The OP mentioned that this system will basically be like a SteamBox. Power consumption being a big concern, this system probably shouldn't go with anything more than a GTX 750ti.


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a b 4 Gaming
a b à CPUs
March 12, 2014 1:11:56 PM

This all depends on form factor. If you really want a small system that is set up and play no fussing/ no oc'ing then just go ITX FM2+, any of the quad core fm2 chips chips will game just fine, if you are playing at 1080p with a GPU even better.

For your case I see form over function. Just go for the FM2+ board, whichever cheaper quad core APU, and a case that can support decently sized GPU's while being form friendly. As far as building a Steam Machine is concerned, don't bother right now. I've spent a good couple of weeks on it and I'd hold off for a couple more months, if you are Linux saavy then by all means go for it.
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 902 à CPUs
March 12, 2014 1:31:54 PM

An i3 is faster than any FM2+ chip. 750k/760k is slower, clock for clock, than an old Phenom II X4 965. There are a fair amount of mini itx 1150 boards out there for the i3.
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March 17, 2014 4:39:16 AM

logainofhades said:
Some examples of what I am talking about.

AMD build
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($20.55 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $185.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:39 EDT-0400)


Absolute cheapest 4130 combo
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $157.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:41 EDT-0400)


If you want 4 ram slots
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi B85S3+ Ver. 6.x Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $178.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:39 EDT-0400)


If you want raid capability
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H87M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $198.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-12 14:40 EDT-0400)


Wow, thanks for a very informative reply.

Looks like I will be going with the i3-4130, even though I don't like going with only a dual-core CPU with low cache.
But it's about what one would expect for a budget PC (and it lives up to everything I mentioned) .

I am not going to build the PC just yet, as I think it would be somewhat of a stupid move. Instead I going to wait for the release of the 850 Ti and maybe DDR4 RAM.... and Steam OS

But thanks a lot for your help, everyone of you!
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 98 à CPUs
March 17, 2014 6:51:12 AM

Dual core or not the i3 outperforms both the 760k and the fx-6300(if the fx-6300 isn't oced) generally.

the 850ti? the 750 ti only just came out....when's this 850 ti coming???

DDR4 RAM will be hella costly as well and it doesn't seem much faster than DDR3's high clock speeds anyway.
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March 17, 2014 7:24:29 AM

AshyCFC said:
Dual core or not the i3 outperforms both the 760k and the fx-6300(if the fx-6300 isn't oced) generally.

the 850ti? the 750 ti only just came out....when's this 850 ti coming???

DDR4 RAM will be hella costly as well and it doesn't seem much faster than DDR3's high clock speeds anyway.

The gist is that I am going to wait awhile before I go for it. I am currently running with a high performance gamer.

I am well aware of the 750 Ti's release, but I just don't feel like it would be worth it at the moment, not that the 750 Ti isn't a good card! but I have limited amount of cash that I can spend Willy-nilly, so I want to save up before going for this build.

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