Trying to build a budget rig. Taking under consideration 1gen i5/i7.

[mykail]

Hi guys.

I just joined to ask for advice.

I want to build a rig 'cause my Asus G71G laptop is not performing well anymore.

Not having much money to spend I'd like this equipment to be decent yet budget. Frankly I prefer to invest more money in GPU and O/C CPU. I was thinking about going for either i7-930 or i5-860. I know they are pretty old but they spin nicely and CPU+MoBo can be bought second-hand for as little as half of the price of new i5-3350p and it doesn't o/c.
I was thinking also about i5-2500K but it's almost twice as much as i7-930 (talking processors only).
I know for sure I haven't got enough for "K" versions of 3gen and 4gen i5s....Well I have but I'd rather spend it on vacation or something.

Bottom line: I would like to have a decent rig so it would be able to survive for 2years+ with OCing.
As for GPU I'm going for GTX660OC - it should suffice.

Thanks for your help.

 

[mykail]

I see it's not an easy question. I was thinking maybe go with i3 3gen for now and then update to 2500K when prices fall. Being on 1155 I would have much more CPUs to choose from.

 

[logainofhades]

If getting an i3, just get a Haswell one, so you have an upgrade path. What is your budget, and what parts do you need? There are AMD options to consider as well.

 

[AshyCFC]

No point looking at old parts unless you're gonna pick up a used beaten up rig.

Go for Haswell or AMD of some kind.

Sandy/Ivy worth a consideration if you can find them cheap.

These i5's/i7's are already starting to feel dated and in 2 years time they'll feel very dated.

 

[mykail]

It's hard for me to talk about budget since I'm not from US and parts in US are a bit cheaper. Let's say I'd like to pay for mobo and cpu no more than 250$ (At least that's how much is 2500K+mobo here)

 

[CTurbo]

Yep I would rather have an i3-4130 than the 1st gen i5 or i7 unless it was one of the 6 core extremes. I would try really hard to avoid starting out with such old parts.

 

[Powerbolt]

There's nothing wrong with picking up a 2500K/2700K. It'll lack some updated hardware specs, but will perform nicely no matter what. Get a good cooler, and a good OC on there, and she'll run with the latest. As for a GPU, you *might* look into at least a 670, or a 680 if you can get a good price. Either way you'll do OK for next couple years.

 

[mykail]

For anyone interested, those are my local benchmarks in Ultra Details in 1920x1080. FPS of course. Same test rig. Faded colors behind are after O/C.

 

[AshyCFC]

Looks like 2500k is the best bet but i7 920/930 aren't too bad

 

[mykail]

even i5-750 is not bad and it's very cheap

 

[mykail]

As strong mobo for i7-920, which will be able to proovide all the power for good OC, is quite expensive...actually 920+mobo is as expensive as i5-2400 with mobo@Z86, I think I'll go with i5. What do you think?

 

[AshyCFC]

which i5? the 750 or 2400?

the i5 750 will be faster than the laptop for sure but i'd get minimum 2500k or look at AMD options.

Did you never consider buying AMD?

 

[mykail]

Since Athlon/Barton I was never fond of AMD. What are my options to consider?
For the price of FX8350 I can get i5-4570(nonK). On stock, AMD presents 83% of performance of i5 and after OC 90%. Same goes for FX6300 which has 83% of i5-2400(nonK) performance for the same money. OCed has 93%. According to my benchmarks of course (if you want I can provide a link).

Do you have any proposition? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. I'm only interested in gaming rigs.

 

[AshyCFC]

fx-6300 costs the same as i5 2400? damn where are you buying.

These processors normally compete with i3's on price.

 

[mykail]

In Poland brand new fx6300 is $125, used i5-2400 is $135.
Bundle GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3+AMD X6 FX-6300 is $206.
GA-78LMT-USB3 alone is $58

 

[AshyCFC]

Oh you're a european like me, so as ever we get robbed.

My recommendation for value/performance is the i5 2500k but you could game on any of these you listed.

 

[mykail]

Even if we're gonna find independent benchmarks which will show AMD as a winner, at the end of the day 90% of the games is written for Intel I think.
I don't think I can afford i5-2500K, other thing is you never know what second-hand merchandise are you buying. That cpu is clearly for OC so God knows where it's been.
$80 makes a difference between above and 2400.

 

[AshyCFC]

ok then get the 2400.

Like you said it's made for OC so you don't know what happened.

 

[mykail]

but on the other hand K has multiplier enabled which is a safe way of OC.
2400 is bclk - I guess it's easier to break CPU this way.

.......I don't know... i just don't want to waste my hard earned money.

 

[logainofhades]

You can get an i5 2400 to around 3.5ghz. http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1811622

 

[mykail]

So what's the bottom line? If I can afford 2500K I should go for that, if not then 2400 should be fine. FX6300 is not worth looking at since there is no price difference....

 

[AshyCFC]

If you can afford the i5 2500k get it, if not go for 2400 yeah.

FX-6300 isn't competing very well really, If the choice was an FX-8320 then yes I'd say get the FX but it's not.

 

[mykail]

oooh... your just playing with me now!
New 8320 is $180, used 2500K is $205

I'm playing mainly ARMA3 MP and DAYZ SA which are single core heavy I guess. (There are some -cpuCount and -threadCount options but I don't know how much do they change the performance)

 

[AshyCFC]

Check out this topic.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1854369/amd-8320-2500k.html

8320 beats 2500k and with the 8320 you know exactly where it has been etc(probably on a warehouse shelf all its life)

only problem is that you need to spend the money you save by getting the fx-8320 instead of 2500k on a cpu cooler.

The stock 8320 cooler is AWFUL and I would not recommend it to my WORST enemy.

If you can find a cheap cooler such as Cooler Master TX3 or TX3 EVO, go with the 8320. The 8320+TX3 is *PROBABLY* about the same as the 2500k.

 

[EricJohn2004]

Dude, because of ONE benchmark (Edit: Not even a benchmark, just some people saying the 8320 is better)your saying that one processor "beats" another. That's pretty pathetic. Try playing some online MMO's that only use 1, MAYBE 2 cores, and see which processor performs better. The only way I'd recommend an 8320 over a 2500k is if the guy was ONLY interested in using all 8 threads at once, and would never even consider running single threaded applications. In which that'll never happen.

I ran an FX8350 and a 3570k with the game World of Tanks, with the same 660Ti GPU. One CPU ran the game on MAX settings at 100FPS, the other ran the game on MEDIUM settings with 60FPS. Guess which processor is which.

It all depends on what your doing. And most people do a bit of everything, and that's why the 2500k is a great choice, cause it does everything well.