APU vs Cheap CPU + GPU

Legatta · Jan 6, 2016

This is my first post so sorry if I'm doing anything wrong!

I'm building my first PC on a serious budget soon, I have about £300 for the whole thing, but I might be able to push a little more. My original idea was to go for the A-10 7850k, but I realised for not tooooo much more I can afford an FX-4300 with a 750 TI. Obviously this isn't a top of the range set up, but would that be better, or should I just stick with the Kaveri for now?

Any suggestions would be great, and very sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Thanks!

Outlander_04 · Jan 6, 2016

The Athlon 860K fits in an FM2+ motherboard and should out perform the FX 4350 .
It is an APU with no graphics cores . The cpu cores are two generations later that FX cores and should be around 20% better [ depends on the situation ]

rolli59 · Jan 6, 2016

Can you do this http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/rKfqGX I3 can be upgraded to I5 or I7 later.

DeathRabit · Jan 6, 2016

750TI is a lot better compared to APU iGPU

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£55.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£33.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£35.50 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.08 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£94.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Zalman ZM-T4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£20.02 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic ECO 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£39.34 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £318.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-06 21:30 GMT+0000

Edit: cheaper one

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£55.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£33.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£35.50 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£27.59 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB StormX OC Video Card (£88.98 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Zalman ZM-T4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£20.02 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic ECO 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£39.34 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £301.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-06 21:33 GMT+0000

Brunostako · Jan 6, 2016

You should go for CPU+GPU, you will get much better results.

Something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£55.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£33.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£27.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 370 2GB Core Edition Video Card (£100.13 @ More Computers)
Case: Rosewill SRM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£41.76 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £317.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-06 21:33 GMT+0000

Legatta · Jan 6, 2016

Thanks for all the responses guys, this is really great. I'll have to see what my final budget ends up on in a couple of weeks and I'll let you know what I went with.

Legatta · Jan 7, 2016

rolli59 :

Someone downvoted this, how come? That actually looks like a pretty good idea to me

DeathRabit · Jan 7, 2016

Legatta :

Have missing parts full build looks:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.50 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£48.42 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£33.37 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB StormX OC Video Card (£88.98 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£39.91 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic ECO 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£39.34 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £372.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-07 22:01 GMT+0000

rolli59 · Jan 7, 2016

Legatta :

It is just Outlander_04 he is a fan of AMD end will defend them to the death! I on the other hand have stopped recommending them until the pick up and catch up to current tech.

Outlander_04 · Jan 7, 2016

Legatta :

Actually I voted it down because there is no practical chance of a future upgrade that you suggest .
Haswell processors are EOL and will soon disappear from the supply chain . Those few that remain will be very poor value .

rolli59 · Jan 7, 2016

Outlander_04 :

Lol where are you going to upgrade to from Athlon 860K! At least we can go I7 from an I3 even if a used $100 CPU in few years! FX still being sold because nothing new from AMD and FM2+ EOL and nothing better than a mediocre 860K.

Legatta · Jan 8, 2016

Outlander_04 :

Is that true? I'd have thought there'll be a decent few Haswell CPUs still kicking around for a while. My only issue with the Athlon is that I'd have to change my motherboard to upgrade, but if Haswell is going to be that hard to find it might be worthwhile saving a little and springing for a 6300 or something.

ScrewySqrl · Jan 8, 2016

Haswell's replacement, Skylake is out and uses a new motherboard socket.
AMD FX AM3+ is from 2011 (!) and both it and FM2+ will be replaced with Zen. a new AM4 for the FX chips, and FM3 for APUs. More PCIe lanes and DDR4 support are the big reasons.

Brunostako · Jan 8, 2016

Outlander_04 :

Sorry to disagree with you, but Haswell its very far from been poor value. They perform extremely well and still makes no sense to get a Skylake with Haswell around.

I'm an AMD fan, but i'm aslo very realistic and objective. AMD is ok right now with 860K for mid-low end builds for 1080p mid-high settings, but that's the highest good value CPU you can get from them.

DeathRabit · Jan 8, 2016

Future Prof alternative:
* when add good cpu cooler can be OC to around 4.4Ghz and CPU can be upgraded

** Build without discrete GPU gather more money and buy R9 390 / 380 / 370 or GTX 970 / 960
*** iGPU part in this CPU is slower from 40% -250% depends to game compared to 7850k

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£95.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M Pro4S Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£78.45 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£39.95 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.94 @ Aria PC)
Case: Xigmatek Recon ATX Mid Tower Case (£22.78 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Super Flower Golden Green HX 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£57.12 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £327.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-08 18:37 GMT+0000

Legatta · Jan 8, 2016

DeathRabit :

Thanks for all the great suggestions,[strike] I wonder though; you said it can be OC'd, isn't this locked?
[/strike]
*Edit: My mistake, I just saw that Z170 allows for some over clocking!

theservermaker · Jan 8, 2016

If for gaming, a cheap CPU and GPU would help. Get something cheap from AMD for your GPU and a more expensive CPU (it's better to buy from Intel but AMD will do). If for general use, stay with an AMD APU.

APU vs Cheap CPU + GPU

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