ASK: Best CPU for my budget

Anfield_1 · Jan 27, 2017

I'm planning to upgrade my CPU,Motherboard, RAM, and PSU. My rig now:

- CPU : Intel Core i3 3210 3.20 Ghz LGA 1155 Ivy Bridge
- M.board : ASUS Ph8-H61 M-LX LGA 1155 socket
- PSU : Simbadda 530w pure
- RAM : 4 x 2 GB DDR 3
- VGA : GTX 750 Ti (Single Fan)
- SSD : Toshiba 500GB

I'm running my pc everyday around 6 hours for gaming and editing (adobe premier,photoshop) My question is, My budget its just around $280 (thats all i can spend this month). I know that i won't be able to upgrade it all. But i think i should focus on CPU and Motherboard. Please help me and let me know about :

1. What is the most important and crucial parts to upgrade my rig?
2. Is there any suggestion for the best brand for my budget,right now?

That's all i ask.. I'm desperately waiting for your response guys.. Thankyou XOXO

schaft · Jan 27, 2017

Maybe you meant 2x 4Gb as your motherboard only have 2 ram slot.

1. What is the most important and crucial parts to upgrade my rig?
I would say an SSD as you failed to mention what kind of storage you currently use. An SSD will help a lot in optimizing your current pc. Once you try using SSD, its very hard to go back to use HDD. Its just wasting our life waiting for the slow HDD. For me, an SSD is a must have if you can afford it. Its cost around $120-$160 for decent 480-512 Gb.

2. Is there any suggestion for the best brand for my budget,right now?
brand of what? whole pc? for $280?

I think your current build already maximized. For $280 budget, a gpu such is amd 480 8Gb or nvidia 1060 6Gb is within reach. But I felt reluctant to recomended it to you as your i3 will surely bottleneck in certain game and your power supply will surely fail on you (in that case you can go amd 480 4Gb $200 and 500W pure psu $65). Your 750Ti should still be able to play any game with medium to low setting.

all in all its you who need to decide. I can only help with knowledge that I have.

PS: don't even consider gtx 1060 3Gb as the vram will not enough to get ultra setting on 1080p. For almost the same price, amd 480 4Gb is a much better option.

Good luck

Slow Pri · Jan 27, 2017

Answer 1: I'd say for future upgrades and especially for gaming and editing I'd recommend upgrading your CPU, Motherboard, and GPU at some point in time. At that point shedding that much money into those 3 parts, I'd be safe to say that If possible you should go with the new platform for Intel processors (Skylake) as well as build yourself a new rig. By the time you upgrade your GPU to a 1050ti or even a 1070 you may need more power for them which results in upgrading the power supply. Of course on the new platform of Skylake's you'll need to be upgraded to the DDR4 lifestyle.

However: Since you're on a budget I'd upgrade your CPU and Motherboard and than eventually upgrade the GPU. I'd say go with the LGA1150 platform for the i5 but it ends up being roughly 200$ for the CPU itself. I'd recommend at that budget point the i3-6100 (89$) && MSI- H110M MATX ($69) && If your doing heavy work on editing I'd recommend 16GB DDR4 2133 RAM (109$ roughly)

Anfield_1 · Jan 27, 2017

schaft :

Maybe you meant 2x 4Gb as your motherboard only have 2 ram slot.

1. What is the most important and crucial parts to upgrade my rig?
I would say an SSD as you failed to mention what kind of storage you currently use. An SSD will help a lot in optimizing your current pc. Once you try using SSD, its very hard to go back to use HDD. Its just wasting our life waiting for the slow HDD. For me, an SSD is a must have if you can afford it. Its cost around $120-$160 for decent 480-512 Gb.

2. Is there any suggestion for the best brand for my budget,right now?
brand of what? whole pc? for $280?

I think your current build already maximized. For $280 budget, a gpu such is amd 480 8Gb or nvidia 1060 6Gb is within reach. But I felt reluctant to recomended it to you as your i3 will surely bottleneck in certain game and your power supply will surely fail on you (in that case you can go amd 480 4Gb $200 and 500W pure psu $65). Your 750Ti should still be able to play any game with medium to low setting.

all in all its you who need to decide. I can only help with knowledge that I have.

PS: don't even consider gtx 1060 3Gb as the vram will not enough to get ultra setting on 1080p. For almost the same price, amd 480 4Gb is a much better option.

Good luck

edited mate.

Guest · Jan 27, 2017

cpu i5 4460 - $211 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Processor-3-2GHz-Cache-Previous/dp/B00JIJUBAS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485535070&sr=8-1&keywords=i5+4460
motherboard gigabyte z97p-d3 - $78 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-Z97P-D3-LGA1150-Motherboard-USB3-0/dp/B00K9R1OCW/ref=pd_bxgy_147_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XN8283A9TCF1V1ZPBER6

Thats if you want cpu and mobo. I also recomend upgrading your ram and gpu when you have the money.

DavidVioMC · Jan 27, 2017

You can go with i7 2600k but I would wait and save up for a i7 3770k, it goes around for $300-320 but it will be much better.

Anfield_1 · Jan 27, 2017

Slow Pri :

I'm consider to upgrade to that Skylake life too mate. My friend suggested my to take:

i3 6100 for the proccesor
Colorful H110m for the motherboard
but...............
the memory is way too much :pfff:

schaft · Jan 27, 2017

@ slow pri
I don't think another i3 of skylake will make a big difference against i3 ivy. Its almost a waste of money. He better off buying $312 Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo).
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAAEE40S0739&cm_re=E3-1230_v2-_-9SIAAEE40S0739-_-Product

It basically an i7 ivy without the onboard gpu (which he did not need). This will make his old build safe against i5 killer game such as Battlefield 1 and Mafia 3. More game needed more thread and 8 thread seem barely enough nowadays.

Anyway, I did not mention this option earilier as op ask $280 limit. Still I think its a much better option than changing into i3 skylake.

uguv · Jan 27, 2017

If it were me I'd probably save up a little more so you can go with a Kaby Lake i5 and a B250 board (build 3), but here's the best I could find for your budget. If you need to buy now instead of saving a little I personally would pick build 1 because you can increase to 16gb ram later on down the road even though you temporarily have to run with single channel memory until you add more.

Build 1
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-E/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($50.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $284.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-27 11:50 EST-0500

Build 2
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-E/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $283.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-27 11:46 EST-0500

Build 3
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($198.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($73.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $322.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-27 11:52 EST-0500

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ASK: Best CPU for my budget

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schaft

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