Got a faulty 8350 and I'm going to get a refund, refund amount £200 suggestions for a good intel processor and motherboard?

Max Guymer

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I need a good mobo and intel processor for gaming as I received a faulty 8350 and I don't have the spare cash right now to get a cooling system that can run the 8350 oc'd, so with the refund I want to get an intel cpu, please don't cheap out on the mobo too much.

My case is atx, so the board needs to be atx

Specs:
8350 (faulty to be returned)
can't remember mobo
16gb ram
1tb barracuda 7200rpm hdd
Zotac gtx 970
corsair CX600M psu
Zalman Z11 atx mid tower
 
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There isn't a major performance difference between the i5-4460 and the i5-4670; personally I find that the i5-4460 is a better value processor, you're getting similar (albeit slightly lower) performance for a cheaper price. However I of course support purchasing the i5-4670 if you want better performance and I agree with you - you can indeed purchase a cheaper quality motherboard with no performance consequences.

With that being said, if you're keen on the i5-4670 then I'd recommend the following:

PCPartPicker part list / Price...

bmacsys

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What was wrong with the 8350?
 

Max Guymer

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Running most games in 10fps, I tried my friends old bulldozer cpu and mobo in my system and it performed so much better

 

Obnoxious

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I'd recommend Intel, as explained numerous times in previous threads at Tom's Hardware purely due to Intel possessing stronger single-core performance over AMD; as games only utilise 4-cores at maximum even in 2015, it's better to have stronger 4 cores rather than weaker 8 cores (where only 4 of those 8 cores will be utilised). Therefore I'd recommend an Intel processor and motherboard to go with it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£130.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.79 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £195.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-02 01:01 GMT+0000

The above includes an Intel i5-4460 and a H97 motherboard (the motherboard being compatible with Intel's 5th generation Broadwell processors too). The i5 is ideal for gaming, as mentioned as games only utilise 4 cores; the i7 is same as the i5, only with Hyper Threading, the i7 is ideal for gaming and also other demanding uses, such as photo rendering and etc.

The i5 combined with your GTX 970 and 16GB RAM will easily provide you better gaming performance over the FX-8350.

Update: Apologies, didn't realise you specifically wanted an ATX motherboard; I had included a micro-ATX previously, which of course would have fit too.

All the best. :)
 

Max Guymer

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Hey thanks! Would there be much difference between a 4670 and the 4460? Also if there were, would there be any consequences of cheaping out on the mobo a tiny bit and going for that processor?

 

Obnoxious

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There isn't a major performance difference between the i5-4460 and the i5-4670; personally I find that the i5-4460 is a better value processor, you're getting similar (albeit slightly lower) performance for a cheaper price. However I of course support purchasing the i5-4670 if you want better performance and I agree with you - you can indeed purchase a cheaper quality motherboard with no performance consequences.

With that being said, if you're keen on the i5-4670 then I'd recommend the following:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£33.35 @ Aria PC)
Total: £195.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-02 22:51 GMT+0000

The motherboard is unfortunately micro-ATX (otherwise known as mATX or uATX), as you stated you wanted an ATX board; regardless the micro-ATX will fit in most (if not all) ATX cases. Tied in with the i5-4670, purchasing an ATX motherboard would exceed your £200 budget.

The other build I recommended you in my previous post is still a decent build, considering you're getting a 9 series motherboard. The current build with the i5-4670 in this post is not a 9 series motherboard, hence why it's significantly cheaper. The motherboard I've recommended in this post is an 8 series; the only difference with the 8 and the 9 is that the 9 series motherboard will support Intel's next [5th] generation processors, dubbed Broadwell. This is not an important factor if you're not looking to upgrade anytime soon, hence the 8 series motherboard is more than adequate.

The i5-4670 does provide better performance over the i5-4460, and in gaming you may notice a minor difference (between 1 to 5 FPS perhaps).

All the best. :)
 
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Max Guymer

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Alright, thank you so much!
I think I'll go for the 4670, as I'm not terribly interested in Broadwell, but do the vrms have a heatsink on either of these boards?