AMD-FX 4170 - Worth the money?

[tosse]

Okay, hey guys.
I'm new here, so I'm not so sure about whether or not this have been asked in the past.

So this friend of mine is going to buy himself a custom-made computer. He's not allowed to build it himself nor let me help him by his father, so he's going to have to go for one of the custom-made computer from a website, non-producer-made that is.
Anyways, I found a system for him that fits him the best in my opinion both price-ranged and use-area. Though it had this AMD cpu, so that made me a little unsure about the system's capability to perform as good as you would think for the price it's set at. (about 1800 US dollars)

I know it's far from as good as the i5 2500k, but it is actually cheaper and it doesn't really look too bad. Though here in Norway it’s a bit more expensive than it is in the US, about 40$ more.
Is this processor good in general and in gaming? Is it fast?

Thank you!
Sincerely, Tosse

(I apologize for eventual mistyping; English is not my language)

 

[sarinaide]

Hello and Welcome

It is unfair to compare a 4170 to a 2500K as they are not in the same price bracket to compete with each other. I haven't personally tested any 4100 or 6100 samples but I find that Zambezi is only worthwhile at the 81XX series which gives you pretty good performance.

If you don't go with Zambezi and stick with AMD, then look at a Phenom II, notably a X6 1090/1100T or X4 965/970/980

If you go with intel then get the i5 3570K on a Z77 chipset Motherboard.

 

[ohyouknow]

Well if you do not have the option to have an intel build it would be a good idea to make sure that build comes with a solid aftermarket cpu cooler. If you do have a decent one and plan to overclock then you could actually save money and just get the FX 4100 and reach the same clock speeds quite easily.

That being said, the FX series performs on par with each other gaming wise with no tangible differences with the FX 4100 leading the pack according to Toms benchmarks based solely on it's clock speed. But like sarinaide said if you can fit a phenom instead that would be a good idea but your build for him of course depends more on the graphics card than the cpu. Cheers and good luck

 

[tosse]

@Sarinaide
I see, so going with the 8-core would be the smarter choice? As far as I understand it, games can't take advantege of all of the cores of the 81XX, so wouldn't it then be understandable that the 4-core actually might performe better in some games (?)

 

[tosse]

Remember, it's not me who's going to buy a new computer, it's my friend.
Anyways, my friend is, well, a noob so to say. I don't think he should do anything with BIOS at all really ^^ Saving him the trouble, it would be better for him to buy the 4170.
well, have I understood it right? The FX 4170 will perform quite descent then in gaming?
(Sadly It's not possible to choose a Phenom as an optional CPU on the website :/)

 

[ohyouknow]

Yes I understand it is for your friend I meant it as if you(help) overclock, but since you said you do not want him messing around with bios then yes the 4170 would be the best choice. And like I stated earlier the 4170 will perform on par, most likely better, than the 6 and 8 core bulldozer/zambezi iterations since it's out of the box clock speed is well above them. Go with it.

 

[tosse]

Okey!
Thank you for the answers guys. You guys cleared some things off my mind. '
Take care :happy:

 

[popatim]

What are he rest of the systems specifications?
$1800 seems like an awful lot of cash to be only getting a $100 processor IMO.
I think more along the lines of (roughly) for that kind of cash:
i5-2500k - $200
Cooler Hyper 212+ - $30
motherbd - $150
8gb ram - $50
GPU HD7850 - $350
SSD Intel 520 120GB - $190
HDD Any 2TB - $150
DVD Burner - $20
Gaming keybd MS Sidewinder - $50
Gaming mouse Logitech G9x - $70
Case - $100
PSU - Corsair TX850 - $125
Win 7 Pro 64 bit - $140

 

[nforce4max]

I just wouldn't buy it unless there is nothing else in the price bracket or you are going after the platform (AM3+) with the intention of upgrading later. The stock cooler is junk, no really its complete crap and not even worthy much even for a sempron. BD in general is weaker than phenom 2 in most tasks but as a socket plug it is up to you. Phenom 2 x4/6 or a i5 quad.

 

[tosse]

You would think you would get a 2500k for that price, indeed. But he doesn't trust other websites than this specific one and this specific one is kind of expensive. Weird, I know. Anyways, they offer some good quality-systems, though they're a bit more expensive since they assemble it for the customer. As mentioned, his dad won't let anyone or him touch any of the internal parts except the website-guys.
The specs are;
HD 7870
AMD-FX 4170
Cheap M-ATX card from MSI
Cheftec 650w Modular PSU
8 gb ram 1333mhz
120 gb SSD (Sandforce) + 500gb HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
(The price of a keyboard, mouse and a cheap pair of speakers is added to the price-tag of the system as well)

So ye, all in all, I guess it's a pretty good system. Though except from the PSU, the system isn’t really future-friendly. Though my friend says he doesn't care at all about that. He just wants a computer that can run BF3 on high/max basically as well as he want it to have blue or red lights. I’ll try to find a better ready-built system on their website now. I think it’s tragic that he have to go with a CPU like that on such an expensive system.

This is the system I actually set up for him, but he's not allowed to build it himself :/
http://www.komplett.no/k/shoplist.aspx?mode=receive&si=1061793&su=75D4A5B9-DB27-4194-AD5E-B4CB4BBBD184
This system costs the same as the one mentioned previously. (The price is in Norwegian Krones)

 

[Headbomb]

I am also unsure about what processor to get.
The FX-4170 seems so great with its 4.2ghz clock speed and because most games still don't support multi threading, It seems like the best choice.
I am also getting a Gigabyte 7870.

Is it worth it?