Fx 4100 or OEM phenom ii x4 830

[kenmore81]

I'm looking at building a computer to mess around with. I want to stay low budget as I can. I will be buying all of my parts from a local computer store (Microcenter). I am going to hopefully be using an old beige steel case and modding it when I can track one of those suckers down. I will be running it on a 50" plasma tv. I only want to play WoW and stream hulu and netflix. Nothing much more demanding than that. Here are the specs I am looking at for now. I want to be able to upgrade later if Piledriver seems to do well otherwise I will go with a 1090t or 1100t at a later date.

Gigabyte 990fx-ud3
CM 212+ or EVO (maybe better later on)
4-8 gb 1600 RAM midrange not anything too crazy priced
750watt psu modular
1tb hdd 7200rpm
Dvd rw drive
6850 gpu (maybe crossfire later)

So I'm looking at cheap decent CPUs wanna try to go $120 or less if I can. I can get a fx 4100 for $110. But the phenom ii x4 830 OEM caught my eye and I am wondering if I would be able to OC that CPU. The 840 is cheap too but doesn't have any L3 cache but the 830 does and is only $50. I know I can OC the 4100 easily. What are your thoughts? Keep in mind I am wanting to go low as I can and still get good performance and upgrade later. Also I am running a P4 3.4 single core 775 socket type CPU right now and a 6200 le gpu. Anything is an upgrade for me. LOL but the new computer will be hooked up to a 50" plasma so that's a concern of mine.

Thanks everyone for your time and recommendations! It means a lot to a noob like me.

 

[jdamon113]

I'm looking at building a computer to mess around with. I want to stay low budget as I can. I will be buying all of my parts from a local computer store (Microcenter). I am going to hopefully be using an old beige steel case and modding it when I can track one of those suckers down. I will be running it on a 50" plasma tv. I only want to play WoW and stream hulu and netflix. Nothing much more demanding than that. Here are the specs I am looking at for now. I want to be able to upgrade later if Piledriver seems to do well otherwise I will go gwith a 1090t or 1100t at a later date.

Gigabyte 990fx-ud3
CM 212+ or EVO (maybe better later on)
4-8 gb 1600 RAM midrange not anything too crazy priced
750watt psu modular
1tb hdd 7200rpm
Dvd rw drive
6850 gpu (maybe crossfire later)

So I'm looking at cheap decent CPUs wanna try to go $120 or less if I can. I can get a fx 4100 for $110. But the phenom ii x4 830 OEM caught my eye and I am wondering if I would be able to OC that CPU. The 840 is cheap too but doesn't have any L3 cache but the 830 does and is only $50. I know I can OC the 4100 easily. What are your thoughts? Keep in mind I am wanting to go low as I can and still get good performance and upgrade later. Also I am running a P4 3.4 single core 775 socket type CPU right now and a 6200 le gpu. Anything is an upgrade for me. LOL but the new computer will be hooked up to a 50" plasma so that's a concern of mine.

Thanks everyone for your time and recommendations! It means a lot to a noob like me.

This cpu is fine, but you will still need a cooler. I would buy the Boxed Version.

 

[kenmore81]

I am going to buy a CM 212+ or EVO cooler no matter what I get for a CPU but because I want it to stay as cool as I can and $25-$30 for an aftermarker CPU cooler seems like a no brainer to me for a budget rig. Do you think the 6850 would do fine on the 50" plasma? And the 830 would do fine too? Or would the fx4100 be better for the low price range? And would the 830 bottleneck the ram at 1600+ and hdd that runs at 6gb/s? I know the fx4100 should be fine for all those specs but would the 830 bottleneck any of those other parts?

 

[icracked]

Go with the FX4100, although not the best, it will be better off overall with your RAM speed.

 

[popatim]

if you can get the 830 for $50 go for it. I've a 720BE in my grandsons PC and the dam thing runs Wow great w/o OC'ing. I've also run Bad Company2 on there while I was testing it so its good to go IMO. I got the BE for $50 too and they basically seem to be the same chip minus the unlocked multiplier.

 

[kenmore81]

So if I were to try to run all of this on a 50" plasma at 1080p would either one bottleneck or would the 4100 be better for high res? And would the 6850 be okay for that or would I need to step up to a 6870?. Wow would be nice to run at top settings but would that run ok at 1080p amd what about hulu and netflix? I am willing to spend a little more if need be but I'm nervous to go for a 1090t when I could get a fx 6100 with the newer technology even if its a little slower. I want to go as cheap as I can since I would Like to save up for the Piledriver since it SHOULD be better than the bulldozer and 1090t.

 

[asnorton44]

So if I were to try to run all of this on a 50" plasma at 1080p would either one bottleneck or would the 4100 be better for high res? And would the 6850 be okay for that or would I need to step up to a 6870?. Wow would be nice to run at top settings but would that run ok at 1080p amd what about hulu and netflix? I am willing to spend a little more if need be but I'm nervous to go for a 1090t when I could get a fx 6100 with the newer technology even if its a little slower. I want to go as cheap as I can since I would Like to save up for the Piledriver since it SHOULD be better than the bulldozer and 1090t.

I would get a 6870, the price difference between a 6850 and 6870 is as little as $20 on Newegg.

 

[lilcinw]

That is almost exactly the rig I am looking at right now. I am think of going with GTX 560s (TI?) for other reasons (F@H, its an addiction).

The reason I was going with the 830 was because it was a cheap intro PhII while the UD3 gives me plenty of upgrade options later, thinking of BD or PD.

I was going to spend around $400 upfront and then spend 2-300 every few months until... does it ever really end?

Edit: You should be fine with 1080P gaming on the 830 btw.