Athlon X4 860K vs Pentium G3258 w/o Overclocking

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Teranus

Teranus

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After 9 years my father has finally started considering upgrading his archaic Dell Dimension 5150 with a Pentium 4 HT @ 3.2Ghz, ATI Radeon X600 (I think) with 256mb of VRAM and 4GBs of 400Mhz DDR2 RAM.

It needs to be relatively cheap, sub £400, which has led me to either the Athlon X4 860K or the Pentium G3258. I have read a lot of good things about both and therefore have no clue what to go with. Many say the Pentium performs well once overclocked but I have not seen any comments on its performance without overclocking. I do not wish to overclock the system.

My question is which CPU will perform better at things like Photoshop, Civ V and CS:GO at 1080P with a possible 480P second monitor.
I plan to put an R7 260x or a R9 270 in the build.
 
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herrwizo

herrwizo

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Without OS, peripherals and monitor, you can try this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£87.86 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.20 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£53.15 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.79 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R7 260X 1GB Direct CU II Video Card (£66.66 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case (£37.91 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£50.95 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £426.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-09 12:01 BST+0100
 
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Solution
Teranus

Teranus

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It says I may need to update the Motherboards BIOS before using a Haswell Refresh CPU. If so should I use a i3-4130 instead?
 
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Teranus

Teranus

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I've altered your configurations slightly, adding an optical drive and changing the case to something that doesn't look like Darth Vader's butt vent.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£87.86 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.20 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.95 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R7 260X 1GB Direct CU II Video Card (£66.66 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£25.00 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£39.81 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.96 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 74.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£3.72 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 74.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£3.72 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling AF9 PWM 35.0 CFM 92mm Fan (£3.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £370.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-09 13:06 BST+0100
Is this ok?
 
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madmatt30

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£87.86 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-DS2 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£38.32 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.20 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.95 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card (£89.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£32.86 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.94 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.96 @ Aria PC)
Total: £393.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-09 13:20 BST+0100


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£74.89 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£51.00 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.20 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.95 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£99.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£39.81 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.96 @ Aria PC)
Total: £397.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-09 13:29 BST+0100
 
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Teranus

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I forgot to consider FX chips! Would the BitFenix Neos be a better alternative to the Zalman? Also, isn't the 270 supposed to out perform the 750ti while remaining cheaper?
 
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madmatt30

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^ couldn't find a 270 to squeeze under budget mate.
The bitfenox maybe slight better quality but with the zalman you get a lot of case for £27 - has 4 fans prefitted & a basic fan controller - will also fit any 120mm cooler should you feel like over clocking in the future.

If you could up to £450 you'd get a very good aftermarket cooler & a r9 285 into the build - you'd then be talking a bonafide high settings gaming machine.
 
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Teranus

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I beg to differ!
[Edit]
Oh I said £400, I thought I said £450! Oh well, a 285 would be too Op for Civ and CS:GO anyway.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£87.86 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£52.20 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.95 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270X 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£105.65 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£25.00 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£39.81 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.96 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 74.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£3.72 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 74.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£3.72 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling AF9 PWM 35.0 CFM 92mm Fan (£3.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £409.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-09 17:48 BST+0100

I will consider the Zalman if that is the case- Haha, Case, get it?!
 
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madmatt30

madmatt30

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I'll drop you a 860k build in.
With any amd build you do honestly want an aftermarket cooler.
The stock ones do the job but imply they're noisy as hell seriously.

This is £8 over budget but does contain a r9 285 which is a seriously powerful card.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£56.04 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: RAIJINTEK AIDOS 48.6 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£15.12 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus A68HM-Plus Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£46.42 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.77 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 285 2GB Video Card (£131.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.59 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£9.96 @ Aria PC)
Total: £408.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-09 18:01 BST+0100

Personally id go 6300 myself - people will argue bit it'd plain & simple value for money if you dont plan to upgrade again for 3 or 4 years.
 
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Teranus

Teranus

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Oh well, I can get a 270 from scan for £5 extra anyway.
 
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Teranus

Teranus

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To be honest he probably doesn't plan to upgrade it for the next 7 years!
I could get him the 285 and swap it with my 280 when he's not looking.
Actually I could just swap the entire PC and put the cat on my desk so he doesn't see it!
 
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Teranus

Teranus

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I get very little bottlenecks with an A8-5600k & R9 280
 
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