Now that Skylake's out, what options do I have for a sub-$120 (US) CPU?

[Ivan747]

Now that Skylake's out, what the wisest choice for for a sub-$120 (US) CPU? 

 

This is for a Mini-ITX system so sadly AM3+ is out of the question, and it's going to be used for gaming as well as engineering software (not too demanding).

The intended lifetime of the PC is 3 years with an upgrade down the line. I'd rather not spend $200+ on a motherboard and DDR4.

 

Yeah, we got that overclockable Pentium G3258 we like to call the Pentium K, and I got a handful of Intel i3s, BUT these are LGA1150 so the motherboard coulde be outdated in about 2 years, right?

 

There's also the FM2+ socket from AMD, is that even an alternative?

 

I guess it comes down to LGA1150 vs. FM2+ vs. waiting 6+ months

 

Will LGA1150 (and 16GB of DDR3 RAM) ever limit a system in the next 3 years?

[SkixAces]

Now that Skylake's out, what the wisest choice for for a sub-$120 (US) CPU? 

 

This is for a Mini-ITX system so sadly AM3+ is out of the question, and it's going to be used for gaming as well as engineering software (not too demanding).

The intended lifetime of the PC is 3 years with an upgrade down the line. I'd rather not spend $200+ on a motherboard and DDR4.

 

Yeah, we got that overclockable Pentium G3258 we like to call the Pentium K, and I got a handful of Intel i3s, BUT these are LGA1150 so the motherboard coulde be outdated in about 2 years, right?

 

There's also the FM2+ socket from AMD, is that even an alternative?

 

I guess it comes down to LGA1150 vs. FM2+ vs. waiting 6+ months

 

Will LGA1150 (and 16GB of DDR3 RAM) ever limit a system in the next 3 years?

That ram speed is good enough!

[Wiflare]

Considering 1st gen core i5s are just now being outdated, I'd give the lifespan of these newer chips about 6+ years.

[Exploded117]

The FM2+ socket is ancient.

 

Also, in the next 3 years. I think you may be pushing it a bit, but LGA1150 would still be completely viable.

 

Heck, i'm still using LGA775

[dizmo]

It entirely depends on what you plan to do with your machine, and of course, things that we can't forsee. We can't tell the future. For all we know you might very well need a more powerful machine a lot sooner than 2 years.

For most uses, I'd just grab an i3 and call it a day. Same performance as the G3258, but you don't need a fancy motherboard or cooler. (I know you don't technically for the Pentium, but to get the results out of it that are desirable you probably should).

Just get the highest clocked one you can afford.

 

I would avoid AMD. Much worse performance.

[Ivan747]

Yeah, the thing I don't like about the Pentium is that even though you can overclock it, you need a fancy motherboard for it (unless you trust your manufacturer to give you overclock on a chipset that's not made for that). Plus it's straight dual core, some games are starting to complain about it. I KNOW right now this is probably an artificial limitation or that games could have been optimized, but in 2-3 years I can see game developers not even bothering to support dual core, because it's extra programming and optimization for older hardware. Yeah, and being Mini-ITX I need a decent cooler unless I get a Pentium from a very good batch.

 

Some of you pointed out that Sandy Bridge is 6 years old (well, it was released 4 years ago), and it is still performing well (I'm guessing you're talking about the more expensive i5 and i7 here). I guess I would need a CPU upgrade down the line in 3 years if that's the case.

 

At this point I'm hoping to overhaul or replace the system in 3-5 years. That may or may not include an upgrade between year 1 and 2. Really depends on how well my component selection worked out.

 

I wonder why AMD is so stuck behind and their solution is to throw half-cooked cores at the problem.

[Ivan747]

 

Heck, i'm still using LGA775

 

Can you get into the details?

[typographie]

Will LGA1150 (and 16GB of DDR3 RAM) ever limit a system in the next 3 years?

 

LGA-1150 won't, generally speaking, but a $120 CPU might. If it was a Haswell i5 or i7, I'd say no. But an i3 may not have the same useful lifespan.

 

That's the limitation of the budget, though. An i3 is the best gaming CPU you can get within $120 right now.

[runit3]

Now that Skylake's out, what the wisest choice for for a sub-$120 (US) CPU?

Intel has yet to release the i3 and Pentium lineup for Skylake, should be coming around the end of September or early October. Considering you could pick up i3-4370's for ~$120 I would presume that will still be the sweet spot for the price bracket. Tacking on Skylake's 10-15% IPC improvement just makes it a more attractive option.

[Ivan747]

LGA-1150 won't, generally speaking, but a $120 CPU might. If it was a Haswell i5 or i7, I'd say no. But an i3 may not have the same useful lifespan.

 

That's the limitation of the budget, though. An i3 is the best gaming CPU you can get within $120 right now.

 

I'd have to buy an i5 down the line I would guess, and these CPUs don't come down in price just because they are old. That's what gets me.

 

The reason for that is that because of their larger geometry (say 22nm, fro example) it takes the same area of silicon to achieve what they are doing in less area on a newer, smaller geometry. And when dealing with silicon, you always pay for how much area you get in your chip.

 

The main reason why I'm considering i3s is that after US$200 I get taxed 18% on any import I make.

[Exploded117]

Can you get into the details?

 

I have a core 2 duo and a GT610.

 

Runs CSGO at 60fps.

 

Works for me.