8320 vs 4670k with R9 270x

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4670K-vs-AMD-FX-8320

The i5 will do better. But both will drive the r9 270x without bottlenecking.

Intel cores are around 2x better than a single AMD core so it all adds up to an Intel CPU handling tasks generally as well as an AMD CPU unless it is something that strictly targets 8 cores, not just something that is able to utilise it.

Will you be using software to record? It will be very taxing on either of the CPUs, I'd still take the i5 personally.
Stronger cores > Weaker but more numerous cores. Applications still don't effectively scale up to 8 cores, games especially.

Also what components do you need to include in that £500 budget?

If you are using fraps/bandicam you'll probably want 2 HDD's, play from one and record to the other.

You also didn't reveal what the £500 budget was for specifically. If it's for the whole system, you won't get the components you're looking for. Windows itself takes up almost £100 of that budget.

Personally, I feel this would be the best option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£176.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£74.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£55.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.40 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£144.50 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Zalman Z11 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.90 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.51 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£79.89 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £728.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Ignore the name Xeon, that CPU is an i7 4770 equivalent, it just doesn't have an integrated GPU that you wouldn't use anyway since you have a dedicated one. It's a hell of a lot cheaper. However, this setup wouldn't allow you to overclock but it probably wouldn't be necessary anyway - a stock 4th gen i7 will beat an 8320 @ 5GHz, which is a huge overclock. To be able to overclock you'd have to change the motherboard to a Z series, and get an aftermarket CPU cooler and change the CPU to a 4770k/4790k - that's an extra ~£200 for little gain.

If you're set on overclocking an i5, here's another option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.76 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£105.13 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£55.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.40 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£144.50 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Zalman Z11 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.90 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.51 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£79.89 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £763.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Now, you might hit 4.4GHz on this chip. I'd wait until the i5 4690k releases (25th of this month) and get that instead. I'd expect the Xeon build to livestream, edit and record better, this i5 build may be slightly better for plain gaming depending on the game - and by that maybe a 5 FPS boost at most. In livestreaming/recording I'd expect the Xeon to drop far less frames than the i5. Either would be sufficient though.

If you want a laptop style keyboard you'll want to look at a chiclet one.

The 8320 will not be good for the future. Not counting the fact that no one knows what the future will bring, the thing is already 3 years old. CPU's do not get better with age. It's an old chip on a dead socket. The 4670k is better now, and it has an actual upgrade path.

Here is an Intel comparo. There is more to it than just hyper-threading and IGPU: http://ark.intel.com/compare/80811,75054,75462

I can see no problems with the Xeon.
Yogi

It will perform identically to an i7 4770 (minus the 100-200MHz which isn't noticeable anyway).

Should drop into just about any LGA 1150 motherboard just fine. Check the supported processor list on the manufacturer's website.

The Xeon is recommended often on these forums, it's essentially a diamond in the rough. People tend to disregard it as they're often labelled as server/workstation CPU's, which isn't necessarily the case. Its price/performance ratio is better than the i7 4770, and they're almost indentical.

Which motherboard does your friend have? It should work in most LGA 1150 motherboards.

Video card depends on the settings you want to play on. I'd say it's just below adequate for ultra settings at 1080p now. It should play high settings fine for the most part (look up benchmarks of your favourite games if you're concerned). I don't expect there to be too many graphical advancements in the coming years since the consoles already released, but honestly I'd say you're hitting your threshold of high settings in 2 years.

Yes, that's a nice power supply. I chose the one I did because it's fully modular, which I can't recommend enough.

[PCPartPicker part list](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/VdVXYJ) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/VdVXYJ/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd8320frhkbox) | £103.19 @ Aria PC
**CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2) | £24.76 @ Amazon UK
**Motherboard** | [MSI 990FXA-GD65 ATX AM3+ Motherboard](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-990fxagd65) | £79.58 @ Aria PC
**Memory** | [Kingston HyperX T1 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-khx1600c9d3t1k28gx) | £38.37 @ PC World Business
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003) | £35.94 @ Aria PC
**Video Card** | [Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-112170120g) | £127.00 @ Amazon UK
**Case** | [Zalman Z9 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/zalman-case-z9plus) | £42.50 @ Ebuyer
**Power Supply** | [Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx500m) | £46.26 @ Amazon UK
**Optical Drive** | [Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas12414) | £11.27 @ Scan.co.uk
**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-fqc04649) | £54.00 @ Amazon UK
**Monitor** | [Hannspree HE225DPB 21.5" Monitor](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/hannspree-monitor-he225dpb) | £84.00 @ Ebuyer
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £646.87

That should get you going, and you may not necessarily need everything on the list...for example if you have a monitor and windows license already that brings you to 500 quid on the button.

ASRock Z97 Extreme 4.. Gave the compariosn with the 8320. It will livestream OK. It can multitask OK.