[PC Build question] Intel i3 4340 vs AMD FX-8320

[Crimson Dog]

So these two CPUs are exactly the same price as eachother.

 

I plan to use them for general purposes with some gaming involved.

 

Rest of the system:

• Tower: Fractal Design Core 1000

• PSU: Corsair CX430

• RAM: Corsair 2x4GB @1600MHz

• GPU: MSI nVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti | 2GB GDDR5

• HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB @7500rpm

• Monitor: AOC 21.5' 1080p monitor

 

Alternatively, i can go a bit out of my budget and get i5-4440 i5-4460  i5-4440 (after all because of some black magic between the CPU and MB) or an FX-8350.

[EDIT: the i5-4460 is basically the same price as these two and it's a better option than the 4440]

 

Motherboards would probably be:

• Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 for the AMD

• Gigabyte GA-H81M-D3H for the Intel

 

Opinions? Thoughts?

[Hirad123]

Get the 8350.

[Crimson Dog]

Get the 8350.

Could you go a little bit more in depth on why?

 

I mean, sure, the 8350 has more cores and better multi-thread performance, but the 4440 has better single-core performance.

[Hatsune Miku 「 」]

4340 imo because intel is using significantly less power, has better single core performance, and hyperthreading

[Krzyimprt]

Could you go a little bit more in depth on why?

 

I mean, sure, the 8350 has more cores and better multi-thread performance, but the 4440 has better single-core performance.

Why buy an 8350 when you can get an i5 for $10 more?

[Crimson Dog]

Why buy an 8350 when you can get an i5 for $10 more?

They're actually the same price here, around 220$

 

Also, asking a question, even a rhetorical one like that, is doing nothing for a scrublord like me. 

[H4X3R]

The AMD 8XXX platform is way to outdated. The i3 will outperform the 8350 in most games. I'll try put a build together for a similar price (this is assuming you are in the US).

 

Here's what i have put together:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($187.97 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($81.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Team Zeus Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($68.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.98 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card  ($95.50 @ Newegg) 

Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($27.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 

Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 60Hz 22.0" Monitor  ($119.00 @ Amazon) 

Total: $661.40

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-21 03:45 EDT-0400

 

Found some benchmarks to support my claims:

 

http://www.hardcoreware.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/battlefield-4-fps2.png

 

http://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/h/www.hardcoreware.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/570x421xcrysis-3-fps2.png.pagespeed.ic.OxVs5ewy2I.png

 

http://www.hardcoreware.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/metro-last-light-fps2.png

 

I included an i5 in build as i THINK i managed to squeeze it in your price range, if not, the i3 is still a solid option AND you can upgrade to an i5 broadwell in 2015 onwards if you so decide.

[Crimson Dog]

 

The AMD 8XXX platform is way to outdated. The i3 will outperform the 8350 in most games. I'll try put a build together for a similar price (this is assuming you are in the US).

 

Here's what i have put together:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($187.97 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($81.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Team Zeus Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($68.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.98 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card  ($95.50 @ Newegg) 

Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($27.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 

Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 60Hz 22.0" Monitor  ($119.00 @ Amazon) 

Total: $661.40

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-21 03:45 EDT-0400

 

The rest of the build is pretty rigid.

I like the core 1000 a lot.

The monitor i picked is 40$ cheaper.

The MSI 750Ti is at the same price as a 650 and generally cheap-o

Memory is literally the cheapest 2x4Gb 1.6Ghz RAM i could find from Kingston/Corsair

 

What are the advantages of the ASRock vs the Gigabyte i chose in the OP?

 

The 4460 is actually practically the same price as the 4440 so i'll edit that in the OP, thanks for that one. the i5-4570 isn't that far out too, but that's pushing it a bit too much.

[Krzyimprt]

 

What are the advantages of the ASRock vs the Gigabyte i chose in the OP?

 

The 4460 is actually practically the same price as the 4440 so i'll edit that in the OP, thanks for that one. the i5-4570 isn't that far out too, but that's pushing it a bit too much.

even with you went with the i5 4690 @ $225, the clock speed is negligible.

3.2Ghz Intel > 4.7Ghz AMD

[H4X3R]

The rest of the build is pretty rigid.

I like the core 1000 a lot.

The monitor i picked is 40$ cheaper.

The MSI 750Ti is at the same price as a 650 and generally cheap-o

Memory is literally the cheapest 2x4Gb 1.6Ghz RAM i could find from Kingston/Corsair

 

What are the advantages of the ASRock vs the Gigabyte i chose in the OP?

 

The 4460 is actually practically the same price as the 4440 so i'll edit that in the OP, thanks for that one. the i5-4570 isn't that far out too, but that's pushing it a bit too much.

1) The core 1100 is bascially the gen 2.0 of that case. If it is similarly priced i'd consider it over the core 1000. If not, the core 1000 is still a solid choice.

2) I just chose the best cheapest IPS 1080p display i could find Buy whichever display you want.

3) The 260X is superior to the 750ti in performance and the extra power draw is negligible. If you want benchmarks, google them or ask me

4) The pro4 has better audio, otherwise it's basically identical. Buy whichever looks more appealing to you. IMO asrock has gotten much better in terms of build quality. I use 2 of their board and they are both going strong (z87 extreme4 and z87 pro4).

5) The 4460 is the "refresh" of the 4440. They are both very similar in performance so get whichever is cheaper (just a small bump in the ghz (by 0.2) . The i5-45XX and 46XX is basically a waste of money as they are just slight improvement in ghz (no noticeable real world improvement).

 

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask

[Crimson Dog]

1) The core 1100 is bascially the gen 2.0 of that case. If it is similarly priced i'd consider it over the core 1000. If not, the core 1000 is still a solid choice.

2) I just chose the best cheapest IPS 1080p display i could find Buy whichever display you want.

3) The 260X is superior to the 750ti in performance and the extra power draw is negligible. If you want benchmarks, google them or ask me

4) The pro4 has better audio, otherwise it's basically identical. Buy whichever looks more appealing to you. IMO asrock has gotten much better in terms of build quality. I use 2 of their board and they are both going strong (z87 extreme4 and z87 pro4).

5) The 4460 is the "refresh" of the 4440. They are both very similar in performance so get whichever is cheaper (just a small bump in the ghz (by 0.2) . The i5-45XX and 46XX is basically a waste of money as they are just slight improvement in ghz (no noticeable real world improvement).

 

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask

Huh, well, that's informative.

1) the 1100 isn't even sold here, as far as i can tell.

2) yeah, this was the cheapest one i could find too.

3) Huh, really? Because the 260x is cheaper than the 750Ti.

260x: http://www.nabava.net/graficke-kartice__150/xfx-graficka-kartica-amd-radeon-r7-260x-2gb-ddr5-pcie__5467521

750Ti: http://www.nabava.net/graficke-kartice__150/msi-graficka-kartica-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-2gb-ddr5-pcie__5619411 - look at second price tag

[divide cost by 5.5 for USD price]

The 750Ti has higher benchmarks from what I can tell.

 

Also, don't AMD cards work better with AMD CPUs?

4) Unfortunately, that is way too expensive for my tastes. I'll stick with the Gigabyte one, i think.

 

Thanks for the info.

[Faceman]

Get the i5. It's not about cores and Mhz. It's about IPC and architecture. Intel dominates AMD in that regard. Games want strong cores, not many weak ones. The only thing that AMD makes sense for is productivity. Things like video editing and rendering.

[Sklo]

3) Huh, really? Because the 260x is cheaper than the 750Ti.

yes

[Crimson Dog]

So now I have:
 

• Tower: Fractal Design Core 1000

• MB: Gigabyte GA-H81M-D3H

• PSU: Corsair CX430

• RAM: Kingston 2x4GB @1600MHz

• CPU: i5-4460 @3.2GHz

• GPU: XFX AMD Radeon R7 260X | 2GB GDDR5

• HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB @7500rpm

• Monitor: AOC 21.5' 1080p monitor

 

That's a total of just over 900$ [hardware be expensive in Croatia]

[Faceman]

So now I have:

 

• Tower: Fractal Design Core 1000

• MB: Gigabyte GA-H81M-D3H

• PSU: Corsair CX430

• RAM: Kingston 2x4GB @1600MHz

• CPU: i5-4460 @3.2GHz

• GPU: XFX AMD Radeon R7 260X | 2GB GDDR5

• HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB @7500rpm

• Monitor: AOC 21.5' 1080p monitor

 

That's a total of just over 900$ [hardware be expensive in Croatia]

Make sure that it's a Haswell i5 and not Devil's Canyon. Otherwise it won't be compatible with that motherboard.

Lastly, try and save a bit more money for a higher performance GPU.

[Siddhesh]

Spend the extra buck & get the 8350. It's an awesome chip for gaming.

[typographie]

3) Huh, really? Because the 260x is cheaper than the 750Ti.

 

Prices alone are generally a poor indicator of performance. The GTX 750 Ti's ultra-low power consumption carries a price premium, so its not really worth it unless you actually need a card that only draws ~60 Watts. Better to go with the R7 260X or 265 if you have a power supply adequate for a low-end gaming PC.

 

That said, the 750 Ti is still so popular I don't even bother fighting it anymore unless someone specifically asks.

[LemonSpice]

Spend the extra buck & get the 8350. It's an awesome chip for gaming.

did you even read the thread a 4core haswell will destroy the pewny fx cores in games

[i_build_nanosuits]

So now I have:

• MB: Gigabyte GA-H81M-D3H

• CPU: i5-4460 @3.2GHz

OP you have two choices:

- You can either select a non-refresh core i5 (core i5-4430 or core i5-4440) and go with this H81 motherboard you've picked,

- Or if you decide to go with an haswell refresh CPU like the core i5-4460 you need an H97 motherboard which are a little bit more expensive but they are better has well they have more features.

Otherwise the motherboard will need a bios update to support the CPU and you'd need a non-refresh chip to perform the flash which i suppose you don't have in hands.

Could you get your hands on that motherboard instead?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/H97M/

or this:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97M%20Anniversary/

Those are generaly the cheaper go to boards or maybe the MSI H97 PC MATE.

...or just change the CPU to core i5-4440

Performance wise any of these haswell core i5 outperform the FX at gaming...any FX even the highly overclocked ones.

[Crimson Dog]

OP you have two choices:

- You can either select a non-refresh core i5 (core i5-4430 or core i5-4440) and go with this H81 motherboard you've picked,

- Or if you decide to go with an haswell refresh CPU like the core i5-4460 you need an H97 motherboard which are a little bit more expensive but they are better has well they have more features.

Otherwise the motherboard will need a bios update to support the CPU and you'd need a non-refresh chip to perform the flash which i suppose you don't have in hands.

Could you get your hands on that motherboard instead?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/H97M/

or this:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97M%20Anniversary/

Those are generaly the cheaper go to boards or maybe the MSI H97 PC MATE.

...or just change the CPU to core i5-4440

Performance wise any of these haswell core i5 outperform the FX at gaming...any FX even the highly overclocked ones.

The H97s are like double the price of my chosen MB.

Is there any palpable difference between 4460 and 4440 because they're virtually the same price.

 

 

Prices alone are generally a poor indicator of performance. The GTX 750 Ti's ultra-low power consumption carries a price premium, so its not really worth it unless you actually need a card that only draws ~60 Watts. Better to go with the R7 260X or 265 if you have a power supply adequate for a low-end gaming PC.

 

That said, the 750 Ti is still so popular I don't even bother fighting it anymore unless someone specifically asks.

My PSU, as stated, is a 430W Corsair, should be enough, i'd reckon.

 

I can upgrade to Corsair RM VS 650 80+ Gold PSU for like 20$ more, which is not too bad.

From the GPU site: http://puu.sh/cl6jz/8e1c04bbae.png

 

Make sure that it's a Haswell i5 and not Devil's Canyon. Otherwise it won't be compatible with that motherboard.

Lastly, try and save a bit more money for a higher performance GPU.

No idea what Devil's Canyon is.

 

I can't really go much higher than this though. This is already pushing it.

[i_build_nanosuits]

The H97s are like double the price of my chosen MB.

Is there any palpable difference between 4460 and 4440 because they're virtually the same price.

No they are pretty much the same so you should pick an i5-4440 unless you know somebody who could perform the bios update for you.

[Crimson Dog]

No they are pretty much the same so you should pick an i5-4440 unless you know somebody who could perform the bios update for you.

4440 it is

thanks.

[Crimson Dog]

http://puu.sh/cl6jz/8e1c04bbae.png

So should i get a 500W or a 650W PSU?

[Faceman]

@CrimsonDog

 

Get the i5-4440 and the H81 motherboard.

 

For GPU, both the R7 260X and 750Ti are similar in performance, both will be fine for mid-range gaming.  In the future, this will be the component you want to upgrade first.  Graphics card companies always overestimate how much wattage you need.  You will be fine with the CX430M for that system.

 

Power Consumption Test

[i_build_nanosuits]

http://puu.sh/cl6jz/8e1c04bbae.png

So should i get a 500W or a 650W PSU?

500W is enough for this machine and a single high-end GPU as long as it's a good unit.

550W or 600W would give you some more headroom and would be ideal...650W is overkill.