help me decide

[pairbrain]

Hello cpu experts,

I’ve been thinking of upgrading my aging home desktop pc. Having put off a new build for some time I decided to upgrade my aging home desktop pc, I checked on the internet to find out what’s being offered from AMD/Intel.

 

I’ve come across 2 cpu configs which I think suits me best and cant decide between the two:

1. Amd-fx-6300 with radeon R7 240 DDR5 1 Gb Ram

2. Intel core i5 4460 or 4590 (clock speed 3.2/3.3 turbo 3.4/3.7) with no discreet graphics card.

 

Plz note that I have no intentions to overclock the cpus and will use them as stock, & think that i should atleast get a quad core processor. 

 

Budget wise both the above configs are more or less the same price with the intel being slightly costlier, if I do choose the intel build then I plan to run it without discreet gpu as it will exceed my budget at least for now. Remaining budget is allocated for RAM/Case/SMPS/Mobo. 

 

The system needs to run on windows 8.1 and will be used as a Home/General use PC.

This is the only system I have & would use it for anything between Web browsing/torrent downloads/rainmeter app/word excel/Music/HD Movies/light photo editing to maybe light gaming (AOE) I do not intend to do any hard core gaming. 

 

Is the intel integrated graphics hd4600 enough for the tasks mentioned above. Or will I be better off with a discreet graphics card.

 

My goal here is to achieve the fastest pc in term of opening of apps with multiple apps running at the background and speed in general, an example would be opening a bunch of .Raw pictures taken from my canon Dslr to switching between apps or speed between web browser tags and windows cuz lag irritates me.

 

I’ve been reading and comparing both the cpus and notice that intel is much better cpu for single threaded applications. What exactly are single threaded applications? How much difference do they make is real world. More cores of AMD will be an avantage over Higher IPC ?

 

Between the intel 4460 & 4590 will I see a major difference in speed for the tasks mentioned above cuz in my country the difference in price is around 40$. 

 

Is it generally a bad time to be looking for new cpus cuz haswell refresh is essentially 2013 repackaged in 2014. With broadwell coming out in 1Q 2015 is it worth the wait cuz iris pro and 5-10% cpu performance + lower power consumption. ? 

 

My current rig is AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core processor 3600+ 2.00 ghz/4gb ram/GeForce GT 620 1 gb graphics card and 120 gb Kingston SSD Drive with 2 TB disk drive.

 

I plan to move the ssd’s and HDD over to the new computer.

 

[ShadowCaptain]

What about getting an i3 and cheap h81 board and a dedicated GPU, that would be your best bet overall in my opinion 

[harrynowl]

What about an APU? I think that'd work. A8 7600 in 45W mode. An R7 240 is barely an upgrade from GT620.

[pairbrain]

Posted 8 minutes ago

What about getting an i3 and cheap h81 board and a dedicated GPU, that would be your best bet overall in my opinion 

 

i thought of getting an i5 cuz i would like the system for atleast 4-5 years. Which Gpu would u recommend. ?

[SpyRosL]

Well the snappiness is not achieved by a powerful CPU. All you need is an SSD bro.

 

I think an i3 is perfect for your uses.But based on what you wrote,an SSD is a must.

[pairbrain]

What about an APU? I think that'd work. A8 7600 in 45W mode. An R7 240 is barely an upgrade from GT620.

 

I read somewhere that the Kaveri APUS have lesser CPU power than older gen amds. should i be looking at APUS for as a good enough pc for general use. ??

[harrynowl]

I read somewhere that the Kaveri APUS have lesser CPU power than older gen amds. should i be looking at APUS for as a good enough pc for general use. ??

They have enough CPU horsepower for what you want to do, it's a big upgrade from what you have now either way.