Notrix :
RookieOfTheYear :
Absolutely. For that kind of budget though, I would suggest going with AMD. You only have $160 to spend on a motherboard CPU combo?
Okay?
But which AMD?
This combo should do you well. It stays within your budget, and will out-perform the i3 in games.
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($98.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $158.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-08 22:33 EDT-0400
The advantage to having the i3, is that the newer ones are on the 1150 socket, which supports up to an i7 4790K (including the i5 4690K, which is considered by most to be the best gaming CPU). So there is a better upgrade path. Now the i3 will also slightly out perform the 6300 in SINGLE threaded applications. But pretty much all software use multiple threads now. Games are already using more than 4 cores. So you can count on them using 8 and beyond in the future.
It only makes sense to me to get a less expensive more powerful CPU. Unless you plan to upgrade your CPU in the future. Then the i3 makes more sense since the upgrade path on that socket is much better. The best CPU you can get on the AM3+ socket is the 8350. They make the 9370 and the 9590, but they are just essentially overclocked 8350's with a few little tweaks. I wouldn't buy one.