i3 8100 vs R5 1600?

[German_John]

Hey everyone,

 

so, it's time to get my first self-built PC (or I might pay mindfactory €50 to build it lol).

Now, I've seen that the i3 8100 is really cheap for what it is - essentially a Kaby Lake i5. Buying it and a cheap Z370 mobo will be about 40 or 50 bucks cheaper than buying a 1600 and a B350 mobo (parts list in the links). 

I'd use it for gaming - mostly older titles, since I hate paying €70 for a game -, browsing, light sound editing and InDesign. I've always wanted to get into video editing or 3D modelling, but frankly, I don't think I'd have the time for that. It's not a huge factor. Just bought a 2560x1080 ultrawide.

However, support is. I guess the Ryzen chipset will be supported for longer, seeing how Z370 is effectively a two year old system, especially the socket... upgrading the CPUs two years down the line just to also have to buy a new mobo would suck a little bit, but who knows if AMD is gonna put out something worth upgrading to then.

 

What do you think should I go for in my scenario? I'm not super tight on money but I also don't like overspending if I'm not gonna need it. 

 

i3 parts list: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/German_John/saved/Whvm8d

1600 parts list: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/German_John/saved/qwWyf7

 

Note:

Location: Germany, currency € of course

Peripherals: already have all of them

SSD: already have a brand new one that I got for cheap on amazon

RAM: well, since RAM speed seems to impact Ryzen's performance quite a bit but Coffee Lake Not so much... that's another factor I guess?

 

Thanks in advance! 

[genexis_x]

Get i3 8100 if you have limited budget and wait for H310 mobo to come out. If not, get a Ryzen CPU like R5 1600

Also, get a good quality PSU

[Sreno1]

8100 has 10% better single core performance than the 1600. For gaming, the 8100 will be better. 

 

If you can find a 8100 and Z370 board for cheaper than the 1600 + B350, get it. It will give you the ability to upgrade to other coffee lake CPUs later. 

 

That being said, the 1600 will likely close that performance gap with over clocking (needs an aftermarket cooler though). Although I think the 8100 is a better long term option as unless Ryzen plans on using the same chipset for then next gen, the Intel option will have much better upgrade options in the future. 

[♠FlamieMeister♠]

Although the i3 may outperform the 1600 in single core, many companies are building games with support for >4 core cpu's, so future proof is ryzen.

[Sreno1]

1 minute ago, ♠FlamieMeister♠ said:

Although the i3 may outperform the 1600 in single core, many companies are building games with support for >4 core cpu's, so future proof is ryzen.

Games that utilize 6 cores are not standard right now, and wont be for some time. In the meantime, getting the best single core performance with the ability to upgrade to K series coffeelake CPUs later is the best option.

 

He will save about $80 not getting the 1600, B350, and aftermarket cooler that would be needed to make it perform similarly to the 8100.

[Sir Asvald]

Change the 1600 for a 1400 or 1500x

[German_John]

6 minutes ago, Sreno1 said:

8100 has 10% better single core performance than the 1600. For gaming, the 8100 will be better. 

My monitor is 75Hz, and I won't be devestated if it drops down to mid 50s. Wouldn't a 1600 be perfectly capable of that?

 

7 minutes ago, Sreno1 said:

If you can find a 8100 and Z370 board for cheaper than the 1600 + B350, get it. It will give you the ability to upgrade to other coffee lake CPUs later. 

Yes, but so would the 1600. AFAIK, at least the socket will be supported until 2020, while I doubt that I could get anything newer than coffee lake for the Z370. 

 

Important bit: I don't really feel like overclocking, never done it and with the additional cash I'd need to fork over for a decent aftermarket cooler, I could also buy a higher end CPU or bump my GPU up to a 580 8GB.

 

Btw, I guess a 1060 6GB is a good match for either of those CPUs... right?

[Herman Mcpootis]

i'd get the 1600 instead of the i3 8100. better multithreaded performance and won't bottleneck a gtx 1070 or stronger GPU when you upgrade in the future.

[Ordinarily_Greater]

I rather get Ryzen 5 1600, it will deliver you better productivity performance and will be less bottleneck than an i3 (anyway AM4 is claimed to exist until 2020)

[Sreno1]

Don't be scared of overclocking, not only do most motherboards have an application that handles overclocking, overclocking is as simple as changing a few numbers in your bios. Just make sure they are the right numbers  (guides handle that)

 

Maybe AM4 will be supported until 2020, but how much more performance will they be able to push out of that chipset? Significant performance improvements usually require a new chipset.

 

I will concede that I have changed my mind, although the Ryzen architecture is behind coffee lake, I will agree that the extra $40 or $50 is worth the extra 2c2t. And you will be able to install a good air cooler ($40-$60) to overclock it later, with the same motherboard.

 

 

[German_John]

17 hours ago, Sreno1 said:

Maybe AM4 will be supported until 2020, but how much more performance will they be able to push out of that chipset? Significant performance improvements usually require a new chipset.

There's still a possible upgrade to at least an 8c16t, whereas Z370 is likely to top out at 6c12t...

 

17 hours ago, Sreno1 said:

I will concede that I have changed my mind, although the Ryzen architecture is behind coffee lake, I will agree that the extra $40 or $50 is worth the extra 2c2t. And you will be able to install a good air cooler ($40-$60) to overclock it later, with the same motherboard.

It's actually two more cores and eight (!) more threads... and yeah, getting a cooler later on to squeeze some peformance out of it is probably the way to go. 

 

I've looked at some gaming benchmarks (since that'd be the only thing the i3 could be better at) and they're mostly really similar. Even the ones where the R5 doesn't hold up, it's still good enough for me, so I think I'll fork over another €50 to get the overall better chip. 

 

Thanks everyone!

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 hour ago, German_John said:

There's still a possible upgrade to at least an 8c16t, whereas Z370 is likely to top out at 6c12t...

 

It's actually two more cores and eight (!) more threads... and yeah, getting a cooler later on to squeeze some peformance out of it is probably the way to go. 

 

I've looked at some gaming benchmarks (since that'd be the only thing the i3 could be better at) and they're mostly really similar. Even the ones where the R5 doesn't hold up, it's still good enough for me, so I think I'll fork over another €50 to get the overall better chip. 

 

Thanks everyone!

the 1600 would edge out the i3 in gaming with the extra threads, the i3 8100 can't handle anything past a 1060 without choking at higher refresh rates.

[Ordinarily_Greater]

1 hour ago, German_John said:

There's still a possible upgrade to at least an 8c16t, whereas Z370 is likely to top out at 6c12t...

 

It's actually two more cores and eight (!) more threads... and yeah, getting a cooler later on to squeeze some peformance out of it is probably the way to go. 

 

I've looked at some gaming benchmarks (since that'd be the only thing the i3 could be better at) and they're mostly really similar. Even the ones where the R5 doesn't hold up, it's still good enough for me, so I think I'll fork over another €50 to get the overall better chip. 

 

Thanks everyone!

I would still go for the Ryzen chip, because Zen+ will still be on AM4 Platform

[brob]

22 hours ago, German_John said:

My monitor is 75Hz, and I won't be devestated if it drops down to mid 50s. Wouldn't a 1600 be perfectly capable of that?

 

Yes, but so would the 1600. AFAIK, at least the socket will be supported until 2020, while I doubt that I could get anything newer than coffee lake for the Z370. 

 

Important bit: I don't really feel like overclocking, never done it and with the additional cash I'd need to fork over for a decent aftermarket cooler, I could also buy a higher end CPU or bump my GPU up to a 580 8GB.

 

Btw, I guess a 1060 6GB is a good match for either of those CPUs... right?

Chipset/socket longevity is a red herring. It makes no difference to the longevity or upgradeability of a system. Coffee Lake technically uses the same socket. But it does have a different pin configuration. 

 

I don't believe AMD has officially made any statements on the compatibility of current AM4 chipsets and future cpu. But consider how quickly AM3+ became dated.

 

1 hour ago, herman mcpootis said:

the 1600 would edge out the i3 in gaming with the extra threads, the i3 8100 can't handle anything past a 1060 without choking at higher refresh rates.

Of course. The r5-1600 is nearly twice the price of the i3-8100. A better comparison would be the i5-8400. In the US the R5 1600 is within a few $.

[German_John]

18 hours ago, brob said:

I don't believe AMD has officially made any statements on the compatibility of current AM4 chipsets and future cpu. But consider how quickly AM3+ became dated.

AFAIK, AMD has stated that the AM4 socket will be supported until 2020. Let's see about chipsets though...

 

18 hours ago, brob said:

Of course. The r5-1600 is nearly twice the price of the i3-8100. A better comparison would be the i5-8400. In the US the R5 1600 is within a few $.

I think motherboard price should be taken into account, since even an overclockable motherboard can be had for about €40 less than a Z370 motherboard (but doesn't offer SLI or crossfire - that'd bring them closer).

Also, here the 8400 is about €40 more expensive than the R5 1600, so if you factor in the mobo cost, that's 80 bucks more - I don't find that very reasonable, especially considering that could basically get you an R7 1700 as well. The closest would be an 8350k and z370 motherboard vs an R5 1600 and a B350 motherboard.

[Tz000]

Ill throw my 2 cents at this, 

 

I personally have a Ryzen 1600. When I first built my PC I was easily able to overclock this CPU to 3.7Ghz on all cores w/ stock cooler.  I only did a very small voltage increase which kept my temps still very reasonable and the overclock was stable.  To hit 3.8-3.9-4.0 Ghz you need a better cooler to keep it stable and decently quiet.

 

Right now I have the Cryorig H5 ultimate on my 1600 running at 3.9Ghz @ 1.376v and my temps never get over 70 degrees under heavy load its usually closer to 65c.

 

Good luck with whatever you choose but personally after owning i5's in the past this ryzen chip really has surprised me.

 

Cheers