Amd Fx 6300+Radeon R7240 or Core i5 4460 + hd4600

pairbrain

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Aug 19, 2014
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Hello cpu experts,
I’ve been thinking of upgrading my aging home desktop pc. Having put off a new build for some time I decided to upgrade my aging home desktop pc, I checked on the internet to find out what’s being offered from AMD/Intel.

I’ve come across 2 cpu configs which I think suits me best and cant decide between the two:
1. Amd-fx-6300 with radeon R7 240 DDR5 1 Gb Ram
2. Intel core i5 4460 or 4590 (clock speed 3.2/3.3 turbo 3.4/3.7) with no discreet graphics card.

Plz note that I have no intentions to overclock the cpus and will use them as stock, & think that i should atleast get a quad core processor.

Budget wise both the above configs are more or less the same price with the intel being slightly costlier, if I do choose the intel build then I plan to run it without discreet gpu as it will exceed my budget at least for now. Remaining budget is allocated for RAM/Case/SMPS/Mobo.

The system needs to run on windows 8.1 and will be used as a Home/General use PC.
This is the only system I have & would use it for anything between Web browsing/torrent downloads/rainmeter app/word excel/Music/HD Movies/light photo editing to maybe light gaming (AOE) I do not intend to do any hard core gaming.

Is the intel integrated graphics hd4600 enough for the tasks mentioned above. Or will I be better off with a discreet graphics card.

My goal here is to achieve the fastest pc in term of opening of apps with multiple apps running at the background and speed in general, an example would be opening a bunch of .Raw pictures taken from my canon Dslr to switching between apps or speed between web browser tags and windows cuz lag irritates me.

I’ve been reading and comparing both the cpus and notice that intel is much better cpu for single threaded applications. What exactly are single threaded applications? How much difference do they make is real world. More cores of AMD will be an avantage over Higher IPC ?

Between the intel 4460 & 4590 will I see a major difference in speed for the tasks mentioned above cuz in my country the difference in price is around 40$.

Is it generally a bad time to be looking for new cpus cuz haswell refresh is essentially 2013 repackaged in 2014. With broadwell coming out in 1Q 2015 is it worth the wait cuz iris pro and 5-10% cpu performance + lower power consumption. ?

My current rig is AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core processor 3600+ 2.00 ghz/4gb ram/GeForce GT 620 1 gb graphics card and 120 gb Kingston SSD Drive with 2 TB disk drive.

I plan to move the ssd’s and HDD over to the new computer.
 
Solution
The i5 will be fine for what you're using your PC for. Even the cheaper i5 4440 would be suitable.

Is the intel integrated graphics hd4600 enough for the tasks mentioned above. Or will I be better off with a discreet graphics card? - the HD4600 will be fine for what you're doing. You said so yourself that you will buy a discrete card further down the line.

My goal here is to achieve the fastest pc in term of opening of apps with multiple apps running at the background and speed in general, an example would be opening a bunch of .Raw pictures taken from my canon Dslr to switching between apps or speed between web browser tags and windows cuz lag irritates me. - the i5 would be better at this.

I’ve been reading and...

Leemon

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Dec 13, 2013
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The i5 will be fine for what you're using your PC for. Even the cheaper i5 4440 would be suitable.

Is the intel integrated graphics hd4600 enough for the tasks mentioned above. Or will I be better off with a discreet graphics card? - the HD4600 will be fine for what you're doing. You said so yourself that you will buy a discrete card further down the line.

My goal here is to achieve the fastest pc in term of opening of apps with multiple apps running at the background and speed in general, an example would be opening a bunch of .Raw pictures taken from my canon Dslr to switching between apps or speed between web browser tags and windows cuz lag irritates me. - the i5 would be better at this.

I’ve been reading and comparing both the cpus and notice that intel is much better cpu for single threaded applications. What exactly are single threaded applications? How much difference do they make is real world. More cores of AMD will be an avantage over Higher IPC ? - single threaded applications are internet browsers, video players, MS Word/Excel/Powerpoint, old games, etc. Basic programs basically. So again, the i5 would be better at this.

Between the intel 4460 & 4590 will I see a major difference in speed for the tasks mentioned above cuz in my country the difference in price is around 40$. - not enough of a difference to justify buying the 4590. Like I said, even the 4440 will do and it's cheaper.

Is it generally a bad time to be looking for new cpus cuz haswell refresh is essentially 2013 repackaged in 2014. With broadwell coming out in 1Q 2015 is it worth the wait cuz iris pro and 5-10% cpu performance + lower power consumption. ? - that's up to you to decide. You've said so yourself what the pros are of those CPUs, if you think that's worth waiting for then do so :)

Hope this helps.
 
Solution

pairbrain

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Aug 19, 2014
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Thanks for taking the time to reply.
you've cleared a lot of doubts i had in terms of which cpu is best suited for my needs.
as you can see from my current PC spec i haven't upgraded my cpu for a while now.. i would generally like to upgrade in 4-5 years time.
over the years i did add an ssd and gpu, i would generally like to buy a slightly overkill PC for my needs as it helps not having to upgrade earlier.

i think i'll go with core i5 , increased turbo speed of 4590 wont make much of a difference in day to day use ?
i've decided to go with msi H97M G43 motherboard.

How much ram and which ram should i get ?
What are the specs i should be looking at to buy a gpu ?

 

Leemon

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increased turbo speed of 4590 wont make much of a difference in day to day use ? - not for what you're using it for.

How much ram and which ram should i get ? - for what you're using the computer for 4GB would be enough but you could always buy 8GB if you'd rather. I'd recommend the Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 RAM or Kingston Hyperx Beast DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 RAM

What are the specs i should be looking at to buy a gpu ? - it depends what your budget is. Let me know and I will recommend you a GPU :)
 

pairbrain

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Aug 19, 2014
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lets say an entry/mid level graphics card which is better than the integrated hd 4600 or the next gen iris pro which i can use for medium gaming and multimedia tasks,play video 4k @60 fps. if i decide to start gaming tomo :) i don't have a budget per se.

hows is the radeon r7 240 1gb ddr5 ?
 

pairbrain

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thankyou logainofhades & leemon, i'm gonna start gathering stuff by the end of the month Wk1 of sept.
One last thing i have an extra 1 tb hdd lying around if i wanna install mac os on that cuz i'm gonna install win 8.1 on the ssd, which motherboard should i be looking at, ?
i've chosen the msi H97M G43 cuz it has a toslink connector at the back which i will use to connect to my Amp/reciever.
hows the msi board for an hackintosh ? will everything work ? sound/keyboard/display anyone have any experience with that sorta requirement.