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Best budget general purpose cpu

Rodneyg87
By Rodneyg87
in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
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Since it's tax time and my ma needs a new computer since her laptop is dying she asked me to look into building her a new computer I have pretty much everything else I'd want to include already in mind except for the cpu which I am having trouble with. She doesn't play games other than facebook flash games like Bingo by Ryzing. Other than that just general purpose use internet browsing, Word, and other basic tasks. The processor thats currently in her laptop is an AMD 2.3ghz dual core and it's served her well for the past 5 years. 

 

I'm considering either the G3258 or the FX-4300 I know for general purposes an overclockable cpu isn't really needed but I figured if in the future it ever seems to slow for her I can always ramp it up for her. Which do ya'll think I should go with?

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G3258 is best general purpose, and can handle gaming pretty decently, not to mention it has newer technology and higher IPC than the 4300

Remember a wise man once said, "You'll most likely hear/see more bad reviews from products than good, because if they get a good product, they won't bother to write a review, and if they got a bad product, they'll complain about the product" ~ SoftenButterCream

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Pentium or the i3 for her

 

she def dont need a i5

Budget? Uses? Currency? Location? Operating System? Peripherals? Monitor? Use PCPartPicker wherever possible. 

Quote whom you're replying to, and set option to follow your topics. Or Else we can't see your reply.

 

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If its general purpose I don't see why you guys are recommending I3, its for his mom... Get the G3258, and overclock it since she doesn't game or do much besides basic stuff

Remember a wise man once said, "You'll most likely hear/see more bad reviews from products than good, because if they get a good product, they won't bother to write a review, and if they got a bad product, they'll complain about the product" ~ SoftenButterCream

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I would get the cheapest current gen I3. I have the I3-4130 and it's fantastic for general computing. it's used for web browsing, netflix streaming, movie watching, live TV (cablecard reader) and serves double duty as the home server and it takes it all like an absolute champ without a stutter whatsoever.

paired with a cheap SSD it makes for a snappy cheapish machine.

 

edit:

quick and dirty build. similar to mine except different SSD and mine has a custom case(kinda)

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sZDhTW) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sZDhTW/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i34130) | $121.99 @ Newegg
**Motherboard** | [Asus H87M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-h87me) | $86.49 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbxl) | $63.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct128mx100ssd1) | $62.99 @ Amazon
**Case** | [Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/fractal-design-case-fdcacore1000usb3bl) | $42.99 @ Directron
**Power Supply** | [Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx430) | $34.88 @ OutletPC
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $393.33
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-19 01:28 EST-0500 |

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You know what. After calculating the cost of a 212 Evo + Pentium, you should get a i3 instead. But you can get 4.4 Ghz overclock on stock intel cooler with pentium  ;)

Remember a wise man once said, "You'll most likely hear/see more bad reviews from products than good, because if they get a good product, they won't bother to write a review, and if they got a bad product, they'll complain about the product" ~ SoftenButterCream

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People, an i5 is overkill for a business machine. Read OP's post for gods sake. G3258 or i3 would suffice on the intel side of things. AMD's APU's could also be cheap, it all depends on what you find for the price. I always tell people to set aside some money, figure out exactly what you are willing to spend, then spend that money evenly throughout your PC. 

 

Does your mother multi task a lot? If not, the G3258 would easily suffice for its price. Even stock clock, it will be absolutely perfect for browser games, and doing some document based work. The i3 offers the better multi tasking option. I would seriously avoid buying an i5. It is seriously beyond your need, unless you can find it cheaper than an i3 or G3258, which i highly doubt.

 

I would also take @ suggestion into consideration as far as the SSD goes. Getting an SSD to use for an OS, and pairing it with an HDD for mass storage makes the entire PC more responsive, and makes it feel much faster than just a normal HDD would. 

My (incomplete) memory overclocking guide: 

 

Does memory speed impact gaming performance? Click here to find out!

On 1/2/2017 at 9:32 PM, MageTank said:

Sometimes, we all need a little inspiration.

 

 

 

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You know what. After calculating the cost of a 212 Evo + Pentium, you should get a i3 instead. But you can get 4.4 Ghz overclock on stock intel cooler with pentium  ;)

Im buying a 212 plus for my personal rig that I'll be building in april to tie me over till I can afford to make a custom loop so I figured I'd just put the 212 plus in hers when I get my water cooling loop

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People, an i5 is overkill for a business machine. Read OP's post for gods sake. G3258 or i3 would suffice on the intel side of things. AMD's APU's could also be cheap, it all depends on what you find for the price. I always tell people to set aside some money, figure out exactly what you are willing to spend, then spend that money evenly throughout your PC. 

 

Does your mother multi task a lot? If not, the G3258 would easily suffice for its price. Even stock clock, it will be absolutely perfect for browser games, and doing some document based work. The i3 offers the better multi tasking option. I would seriously avoid buying an i5. It is seriously beyond your need, unless you can find it cheaper than an i3 or G3258, which i highly doubt.

 

I would also take @ suggestion into consideration as far as the SSD goes. Getting an SSD to use for an OS, and pairing it with an HDD for mass storage makes the entire PC more responsive, and makes it feel much faster than just a normal HDD would. 

Exactly. People don't bother reading the post besides the damn title nowadays

Remember a wise man once said, "You'll most likely hear/see more bad reviews from products than good, because if they get a good product, they won't bother to write a review, and if they got a bad product, they'll complain about the product" ~ SoftenButterCream

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I would also take @ suggestion into consideration as far as the SSD goes. Getting an SSD to use for an OS, and pairing it with an HDD for mass storage makes the entire PC more responsive, and makes it feel much faster than just a normal HDD would. 

ohmygodyes. I can't use any computer that doesn't have a SSD. literally every computer I have used in the past 6 months has been SSD based. thank god the engineering buildings at my university have all SSD machines.

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People, an i5 is overkill for a business machine. Read OP's post for gods sake. G3258 or i3 would suffice on the intel side of things. AMD's APU's could also be cheap, it all depends on what you find for the price. I always tell people to set aside some money, figure out exactly what you are willing to spend, then spend that money evenly throughout your PC. 

 

Does your mother multi task a lot? If not, the G3258 would easily suffice for its price. Even stock clock, it will be absolutely perfect for browser games, and doing some document based work. The i3 offers the better multi tasking option. I would seriously avoid buying an i5. It is seriously beyond your need, unless you can find it cheaper than an i3 or G3258, which i highly doubt.

 

I would also take @ suggestion into consideration as far as the SSD goes. Getting an SSD to use for an OS, and pairing it with an HDD for mass storage makes the entire PC more responsive, and makes it feel much faster than just a normal HDD would. 

The most multi-tasking she does is 3 tabs of internet explorer. If I go the 3258 route it will allow me the budget to set her up with a z97 mobo now and put my i7-4790k in when I upgrade in a few years after I get out of college

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The most multi-tasking she does is 3 tabs of internet explorer. If I go the 3258 route it will allow me the budget to set her up with a z97 mobo now and put my i7-4790k in when I upgrade in a few years after I get out of college

Sounds like a good plan

Remember a wise man once said, "You'll most likely hear/see more bad reviews from products than good, because if they get a good product, they won't bother to write a review, and if they got a bad product, they'll complain about the product" ~ SoftenButterCream

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The most multi-tasking she does is 3 tabs of internet explorer. If I go the 3258 route it will allow me the budget to set her up with a z97 mobo now and put my i7-4790k in when I upgrade in a few years after I get out of college

It's a shame there are no Microcenters in Florida. http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/G3258Bundle.aspx

 

This would probably be the ultimate budget business computer combo. Hard to find that amount of features and performance for the price. The G3258 will work just fine for her needs. I still use mine as a daily driver, even for gaming. I can run multiple chrome tabs while playing Guild Wars 2, certainly her flash games will not hurt her performance. Still, highly suggest finding room in your budget for a cheap SSD. Even if its only 60GB, throwing an OS on one of those and using a spare HDD for storage will greatly improve performance.

My (incomplete) memory overclocking guide: 

 

Does memory speed impact gaming performance? Click here to find out!

On 1/2/2017 at 9:32 PM, MageTank said:

Sometimes, we all need a little inspiration.

 

 

 

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Sounds like a good plan

Yea because I plan to go Skylake or whatever current gen K series cpu is when I graduate from college in May 2017, since I will be working in the game design/development field I'll want to upgrade my home machine as soon as possible to keep up with technology since a lot of work making games is done from home on your personal rig

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It's a shame there are no Microcenters in Florida. http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/G3258Bundle.aspx

 

This would probably be the ultimate budget business computer combo. Hard to find that amount of features and performance for the price. The G3258 will work just fine for her needs. I still use mine as a daily driver, even for gaming. I can run multiple chrome tabs while playing Guild Wars 2, certainly her flash games will not hurt her performance. Still, highly suggest finding room in your budget for a cheap SSD. Even if its only 60GB, throwing an OS on one of those and using a spare HDD for storage will greatly improve performance.

Oh trust me she will have an SSD maybe not now but after I build my rig in april I will be selling my late 2013 retina 15 inch macbook pro and I intend to pick her up a nice 250gig evo then

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It's a shame there are no Microcenters in Florida. http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/G3258Bundle.aspx

 

This would probably be the ultimate budget business computer combo. Hard to find that amount of features and performance for the price. The G3258 will work just fine for her needs. I still use mine as a daily driver, even for gaming. I can run multiple chrome tabs while playing Guild Wars 2, certainly her flash games will not hurt her performance. Still, highly suggest finding room in your budget for a cheap SSD. Even if its only 60GB, throwing an OS on one of those and using a spare HDD for storage will greatly improve performance.

Here is my preliminary build I will probably tweak it a little over the next few weeks but this is the basic build as I have planned. I know for a general purpose computer 8 gigs of ram is a tad excessive but I figured why not at least take advantage of dual channel and making it overall more future proof for her. I figure as I upgrade I'll take my old parts and put on hers to make it even better as time goes on. I know a 260x might be a bit overkill but she likes watching 1080p youtube vids so why not. And I plan to put one of my 6 windows keys that I have on hers so I didn't need windows for hers. And I know 1tb of storage might be overkill but she has a 750gig drive currently thats about 80% filled with pictures and word documents so I figure 1tb will be good for now and I'll add a 250gig samsung 840 evo in 3 months out of my pocket. Then as for cpu cooler I'll stick with stock until I get my water cooling loop for mine and put the 212 evo I will be purchasing for myself on hers.

 

I know a dvd drive really isn't needed these days but she insists that she has to have one to do backups on and refuses to let me teach her otherwise.

 

As for peripherals she already has a 19 inch 720p flat panel monitor in her closet, a wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard from her last desk model she had years ago. Which will suit her just fine until I can get her something better.

 

 
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.98 @ OutletPC) 
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($24.98 @ NCIX US) 
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer  ($15.88 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $433.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-19 01:50 EST-0500
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