Budget gaming: CPU choices

[SniperDan]

A friend recently asked me to build him a gaming Pc, for around £400, not a majorly difficult task and I've done it in the past. However on my previous build I've usually gone with an AMD CPU, as at this price range I believe they have much better value for money. However I pointed towards a possible alternative, the Intel pentium k, anniversary edition.
Dual core, 3.20GHz Unlocked, and from what I've seen, it'll happily overclock to at least 4GHz with a decent after market cooler. This seems like a pretty interesting option to me.

The build will include something along the lines of a R9 270 or 280, depending on price of the rest and the price of the GPU's at the time.

So my question to you is this, for a budget gaming Pc,
The high clock, dual core intel CPU,
or
A lower clocked multi-core AMD CPU.

If the AMD, which one would you recommend?

 

[Solarstarshines]

A friend recently asked me to build him a gaming Pc, for around £400, not a majorly difficult task and I've done it in the past. However on my previous build I've usually gone with an AMD CPU, as at this price range I believe they have much better value for money. However I pointed towards a possible alternative, the Intel pentium k, anniversary edition.
Dual core, 3.20GHz Unlocked, and from what I've seen, it'll happily overclock to at least 4GHz with a decent after market cooler. This seems like a pretty interesting option to me.

The build will include something along the lines of a R9 270 or 280, depending on price of the rest and the price of the GPU's at the time.

So my question to you is this, for a budget gaming Pc,
The high clock, dual core intel CPU,
or
A lower clocked multi-core AMD CPU.

If the AMD, which one would you recommend?

You can buy the top tier AMD cpu for about the same cost as a Quadcore Intel that was made 4 years ago pretty much if you don't mind paying at least $120.00 you can get a 8320 or 8350 if you spend 149.00 for budget builds i would go AMD for sure

http://www.microcenter.com/category/4294966995,4294965455/AMD-Processors

http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx

 

[N00berG00ber]

here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVmIVSalP-s

always go intel. after i made the switch from AMD to intel, i will NEVER even touch AMD again. Intel and Nvidia is THAT much better.

i would just go with a cheap quad core i3 or i5

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If I recall correctly, i3s are dual core and i5s are quad core.

 

[RoasterMen]

Core i3s are dual core (It uses HT so it would look like it boasts a quad-core) while i5s are Quad-Core (May have HT enabled, depends on the model of the i5).

 

[N00berG00ber]

Ahhh. I would go with the Pentium than and just OC it to 4.6 or so.

 

[Boozad]

Nothing wrong with AMD CPUs at all, they're ideal in budget builds. Personally I'd recommend a 6350 as the performance benefits in gaming between that and the 8350 will be pretty minimal I'd have thought, and while there's not much difference in the price every penny saved is a bonus when the budget is so low.

 

[N00berG00ber]

Look at the benchmarks in the video I posted. That extra 10$ is worth it IMO

 

[Boozad]

An FX-6350 or 8350 will outperform that 860K. Also if you're going to overclock a dual core i3 to 4.6GHz as you recommended you're going to need something like an h80i to keep it cool as opposed to a standard triple copper heatpipe cooler for example on a stock CPU. That's another $80 on the price.

 

[N00berG00ber]

No I was saying get the Pentium anniversary edition and over clock that to 4.6. A 212 Evo would be fine for that.

 

[Boozad]

I just don't understand overclocking as a baseline for performance when you don't need to. Fine for benchmarking, not for everyday gaming. That's just my take on it and the FX-8350 will be more than adequate for gaming.

 

[N00berG00ber]

I've had a 6350 at 4.6, 4100 at 4.7, and a stock 3770k. The stock 3770k beat the 6350 at 4.6 while gaming. Instantly saw more and smoother frames. I'm just saying, throgh my experience with AMD I would ALWAYS. Spend the extra money to get Intel. It takes the 8350 (8 core and overclocked) to meet the performance of a 3570k at stock.

 

[Boozad]

I'm not arguing an FX-8350 will equal or beat a 3570/4670 or 3770/4770 because it won't, but the OP isn't in the price range for those sort of CPUs. For his budget the FX chips do provide great value for money, if he had £200 or so to spend on a CPU I'd be recommending the i5 or i7 all day long, it's why I upgraded to one myself.

 

[N00berG00ber]

He was debating between the Intel Pentium or another similar AMD cpu. So was just saying that the Intel is the better choice between the two. Benchmarks say so too.

 

[Boozad]

The benchmark showed an 860, the 8350 is better than the 860. That was my point.

 

[Windows i7 920]

If I recall correctly, i3s are dual core and i5s are quad core.

Not always. There are dual-core Core i5s. i3s are always dual-core though. For that matter, the i7 has dual-core low power versions (my Surface Pro 3 has one).