Which cpu and motherboard should I buy?

[soidier37]

My brother is currently in the midst of building a low end computer that will hopefully run games decently.
He has already acquired a 6670 from a sale online, but now I am trying to find him a motherboard and cpu to use with it.
Right now we are considering buying from microcenter, as they seem to have the best deals on these two components.
Right now we are faced with four options,

a Phenom II X6 1045T or a Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (Both $100 with motherboard)

with either a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Socket AM3+ 760G mATX or (for $10 more) an Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS Socket AM3+ 760G mATX motherboard.

There are also APU's on sale,

An A6 X4 3670K Black Edition or A8 X4 3870K Black Edition

With a Gigabyte GA-A55M-DS2 motherboard

($110 and $130 respectively with motherboard)

(Right now I am leaning towards the APU's due to their capability of dual graphics with the 6670 he already has.)

Considering that he will most likely not be upgrading his computer anytime soon but may be overclocking, which build seems the best for gaming?

Thanks again!

 

[akxpckwb]

Considering overclocking I'd go with the phenom II x4 probably. However if the purpose is gaming why not go with Intel?

 

[bartholomew]

x4 965 is the best choice here.

As for the Motherboard, both are good budget boards, not much difference between them.

 

[randomkid]

I go for the APU just for the possibility of having better graphics performance than a single 6670 ( no matter how little ). These new APU's can be overclocked but of course no match for the 965BE in terms of ultimate processing power.

But you wont need that much processing power with 6670 anyway. You will be bottle necked by the graphics long before the cpu potential is reached so any boost to the graphics prowess will help.

 

[soidier37]

Best answer selected by soidier37.

 

[soidier37]

Thanks again!