Opinion on choice of CPU

Jantrit

February 26, 2012 2:58:49 PM

Hi its update time and I've decided to rebuild my old desktop but I bought a laptop a few years back and thus havent kept up with developments in component tech (since the only reason I ever did was to keep up with upgrades but obviously you cant upgrade a laptop .. .. never again).

I need a little help picking out a decent cpu. I have about £100 to spend on it and at the moment I'm looking at the AMD Bulldozer 4100 quad core cpu. The other option I've come across in the same price range is the Intel Core i3 dual core. As I said I'm looking at buying the bulldozer atm since from what I read its performance isnt to different to the i3 and the 2 extra cores could come in handy should I decide to use the desktop for any media production work (I occassionally do videos for youtube and I make songs for a hobby) but gaming comes first here so from a purely gaming point of view how do the Bulldozer 4100 and the Core i3 compare? Any other suggestions would be appreiciated

Plus although I'm a hardcore gamer I'm not really into over clocking

I've also been recommened that the AMD Phenom X4 960T is a better choice than the FX-4100 for gaming and in general. Thoughts?

Thanks

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farrengottu

February 26, 2012 3:20:59 PM

the i3 2100 is better for gaming but only on cards better than the 6850. on weaker cards it performs almost identically.
some in depth info here.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-4100-core-i3-210...

the 960t is faster in gaming situations but your better off just getting a 955 black and overclocking it. i know you dont want to overclock but heres why its better.

the 960t is a 3GHz version of the phenom II 955 that has turbo that will reach 3.4GHz on two cores only. the phenom II955 is 3.2GHz but unlocked, so easily overclockable and with 10% or so increases you dont even need an amazing cooler. you should be able to reach 3.8GHz on stock cooler unless you have a vary warm room.

but still better to get a 2100. it offers a lot more upgrade paths. since you can swap out the processor with an ivy bridge one later on. or even a 2500k which should be cheaper in a year.

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delaro

February 26, 2012 3:24:36 PM

Intel in gaming just blows anything AMD has to offer out of the water at any price point. I assume you have a AMD MB and one that is able to handle or be flashed to AM3+ correct? If not and you funding is low then the 960T might be the only option.

Personally it all depends on the deals you can find, I picked up a Phenom X4 965 with a MSI 870A-54 for $155 over the holidays and frankly for the cost it was a pretty sweet machine for my son and his WoW habit.

Frankly if you have a little more money to spare get a Z68 and a I3 and you will have a great deal more upgrade options opening up in the years to come.

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Jantrit

February 26, 2012 3:53:31 PM

delaro said:

Intel in gaming just blows anything AMD has to offer out of the water at any price point. I assume you have a AMD MB and one that is able to handle or be flashed to AM3+ correct? If not and you funding is low then the 960T might be the only option.

Personally it all depends on the deals you can find, I picked up a Phenom X4 965 with a MSI 870A-54 for $155 over the holidays and frankly for the cost it was a pretty sweet machine for my son and his WoW habit.

Frankly if you have a little more money to spare get a Z68 and a I3 and you will have a great deal more upgrade options opening up in the years to come.

I'm afraid I dont have a motherboard that can handle them atm, infact its about 4 or 5 years old (it'll be replaced depending on cpu of course). The cpu's came up because they fall into my price range for the cpu.

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LordConrad

February 26, 2012 3:57:47 PM

You said you were looking at the Intel i3 and AMD Bulldozer cores, correct? The users above apparently do not realize that the AMD Phenom processors they are discussing are the older K10 series, not the new Bulldozers chips you were asking about.

To answer your question, the Intel higher end i3 processors will be better at everything except video processing, in which the Bulldozer will excel. For a gaming or all-purpose computer I would recommend the Intel processors.

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