Thinking of replacing my old Phenom II X6 1055T: Opinions on which CPU to buy.

[LowlySkeleton]

Hello everyone,

Recently, I've been searching around the net and researching for a good CPU to replace my old Phenom II X6 1055T. Since my budget is only around $120-200 range at best, I first thought of looking to buy either AMD FX-8320 ($180) or i3 4370 ($199). However, I've also considered buying slightly cheaper and lower performance CPUs such as AMD FX-6300 ($129) or i3 4170 ($149), as my rig is no more than a low end gaming PC if not less. I am wondering whether or not the FX-8320/i3 4370 is worth buying over the FX-6300/i3 4170 (i.e. Would paying $50 more really be worth it?). Also, would the it be better to go for the Intel or AMD CPU, in regards to both overall performance and annual energy costs? I will very much appreciate everyone's opinions on this matter.

My current PC specifications are as such:
CPU: Phenom II X6 1055T OC @ 3.0GHz (1.264V)
Ram: 4GB
OS: Windows 10 Home (64bit)
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 610 (I might also upgrade this to something slightly better as well.)

 

[Maletone]

Hey there! Well, I would recommend going with an Intel chipset (A bit more support, motherboard..and they play nice). Now for the 4370 vs the 4170..I personally see very little difference for the 50 buck price gain. I reccomend you check out this Benchmark/comparison of the two: http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/415/Intel_Core_i3_i3-4170_vs_Intel_Core_i3_i3-4370.html and draw your own conclusions as to what you need!

 

[kolvoke]

i5 4690 is your answer...if you look around a bit ull find it for cheap...find a h97 1150 motherboard to go with it...amd is dissapointing and i made my jump from a 1100T BE x6 to an i7 4790k and i wont need to change my cpu for a looong time now

 

[RobCrezz]

H81 + i5 4440 best bang for buck

 

[kolvoke]

@robcrezz....h81 is outdated and i5 4690 is just a little more expensive....get the i5 4690k and z97 board and you can overclock the heck out of it provided you get a good cooler. Either way should be better than the amd

 

[RobCrezz]

@robcrezz....h81 is outdated and i5 4690 is just a little more expensive....get the i5 4690k and z97 board and you can overclock the heck out of it provided you get a good cooler. Either way should be better than the amd

how is the h81 outdated? Its the cheapest 1150 motherboard along with the i5 4440.

As I said, best bang for the buck.

 

[kolvoke]

@robcrezz h81 was released back in 2013 while h97 and z97 mobos are latest ones...it would be nice to have new mobos. i5 4590 isnt that expensive compared to i5 4440 a bit faster too

 

[RobCrezz]

@robcrezz h81 was released back in 2013 while h97 and z97 mobos are latest ones...it would be nice to have new mobos. i5 4590 isnt that expensive compared to i5 4440 a bit faster too

Changing from h81 to a H97/Z97 motherboard is "nice to have" wont give any more performance though, thats why I said it was "bang for buck", H81 boards a very cheap and can be a bargain if you dont require any of the features of H97/Z97.

4590 is a tiny bit faster and quite a bit more expensive.

 

[kolvoke]

the features of h97 is nice to have, 4590 is a tad expensive consider you bought some kfc along i5 4440..thats all

 

[RobCrezz]

The combined difference between a H97 + 4590 and H81 +4440 can be around £70 ($100) If that means he can get a better graphics card, its money well saved IMO.

 

[kolvoke]

H81 needs bios update and stuff, too much mess...you can go for haswell refresh and a good h97 mobo that works with them i5 4690 or 4590...good investment...i initially wanted to get i5 4590 and then a graphic card but i went with i7 4790k i still have no graphic card and i lost interst in gaming, anyway what i am telling is you can perfect the base of the gaming rig and then save later for a good graphic card. for a beast machine but have to wait a bit though or get i5 4590 h97 and a r9 285 or 280 which ever you can find cheaper

 

[RobCrezz]

H81 doesnt need bios update for haswell CPUS, only haswell refresh.

Youre on a tech site and you think a bios update is a big deal??? ok.

 

[kolvoke]

It is a big deal considering he has an amd cpu currently...dont you require a cpu for updating the bios ? unless u have asus mobo which has usb bios update but that is expensive mobo

 

[LowlySkeleton]

Wow, thanks for all these responses everyone. Hm, I see. So I guess going for AMD is no good anymore, at least in my case. Seeing as the increase in performance from my old AMD core to any one of the i5 cores(4440, 4590, or 4690) is quite significant, I feel like getting the cheaper 4440, as the significant difference between any one of the 3 is quite small in comparison. But now I'm stuck on whether paying ~40$ more for the newer H97 is worth it or not. H81 has 2 DIMM slots, H97 has 4, but then Windows 10 seems to manage ram differently, and I don't know if I will really need any more than my 4GB of ram (I think I will be getting off topic though, since this is the CPU section of the forums). If 4GB is enough, I can really just put that extra money into buying a new graphics card like RobCrezz has mentioned.

 

[RobCrezz]

Theres no doubt H97 is better if you want the features it has, but H81 will run a i5 4440 just fine with no bios update and get the same performance.