is 530 or E8400 ??

[imamosher]

Well its come time to build myelf a new pc and I have been out of the game for a while now.

I have been looking around and doing a fair bit of reading and the towo processors I have narowed it down to , seem to be the i3 530 and the E8400.

I dont do a while lot of multitasking and the pc will mainly be used for gaming and video encoding.

Now from what I can tell these seem to have very similar results in game play but possible the i3 has the edge in multitasking. as well as being more future proof. The i3 comes in slightly cheaper than the E8400 but I just wanted to know which you would choose.

thanks

P.s is thre a n AMD equivalant to these to cpu's?

 

[mit1]

If you are buying everything fresh like ram and mobo then i3 would be best.......... however if you already have a good mobo and ram then i would go for the E8400.

I too have been pondering the thought of getting later technology but already had a Ip35 board that clocks well with a Core 2 Duo clocked to 3.ghz and 1066ram so i opted for a new core 2 processor that i have clocked to 4.2 ghz, My system is now so much snappier than at 3.2.

 

[liquidex]

As said by mit1. If buying everything new like mobo and ram then get the i3. Not sure of the upgrade path on the old socket 775.

 

[imamosher]

yeah its going to be a completely new build.

So seems to swing towards the side of the i3 530. Now just need to settle ont he rest of the build.

Some decent ddr3 ram and a decent overclocking mobo to partner with the i3 530.

I have a budget of about £400 so gonna have to do a few searches for some bargains

 

[coupe69]

What exactly do you need for your £400, do you have a monitor for example?

 

[SfnX]

the 530 seems a lot more managble and obviously higher tech, plus OCing will be beasty!

 

[imamosher]

@ coupe69

The £400 needs to go towards

case
psu
cpu
mobo
hd
gfx card
ram
optical drive
couple possibly squeeze out another £50

 

[coupe69]

You're going to be struggling to get a really decent gaming machine with that budget, however I've come up with a couple of specs for you.

The first is an Intel based system, you'll notice I've had to scrimp on the video card with this spec.

The second is an AMD spec, I notice you said you did a bit of video encoding and the AMD Athlon 620 X4 will do a better job than the i3 in this respect.

This spec although slightly over your budget has a better video card included, and tbh is probably a more balanced system.

Just a thought, what resolution do you intend to game at?

 

[imamosher]

appreciate the reccomendations. Im going to do a bit of research on that gt 240 gfx card, did really conisder that an option before but I'll see how it fairs against other cards.

I think both of those make good systems and It would be tough to choose between either of them.

I would consider only going for 2 gigs of ram right now and rather use the spare cash for the ATi 5750.


Then grab myeslf another 2 gigs of ram next payday.

 

[JimboJet]

Worth considering that ram is best with most mobos as 2 banks of gb sticks as compared to 4x?gb sticks. Be sure to buy 1x2Gb and not 2x1gb if you do opt for 2gb now. The 5770 cards are coming very close to £100 and I think represents the best bang for buck right now if you consider future-proofing (as best you can!) for DX11.

4870s are on ebay for around £50-70 right now if you need another solution to confuse you!

 

[imamosher]

thanks jimbojet

Hoping to order this weekend so need to make my mind up asap.

I was going to purchase a 2gb stick for now and grab another next payday, but thanks for the heads up on that. I am pretty much decided on the i3 530 now, from what I have read and reviewed benchmarks it seems like a good cpu for the money.

thanks

 

[PhoenixUK]

Buy x3 435 and get a better gpu/cooling instead !
Don't splash 80-100 on cpu for that budget.

x3 435 - 56
mobo - 60
ram - 80
case - 30
hdd - 29
dvdrw - 15
gpu - 100 (4870)
PSU - 40
------------------------
= ¬410
I'd try to squeeze extra 17.99 for Zalman 9700.



--------
Edit:

thanks jimbojet

Hoping to order this weekend so need to make my mind up asap.

I was going to purchase a 2gb stick for now and grab another next payday, but thanks for the heads up on that. I am pretty much decided on the i3 530 now, from what I have read and reviewed benchmarks it seems like a good cpu for the money.

thanks

It's terrible for it's price and it's useless without a good GPU matching it.
Even sempron 240 for 40quid will be better with stronger gpu than i3 with a slow one...
And x3 435 isn't far behind in gaming and costs about half price.

 

[imamosher]

hi phoenixUK, do you mind showing me which components you are referring to with regards the mobo, gpu etc. I have an Xbox and most of my gaming will be for that so this will not solely be a gaming rig, I just want the ability to play games if I feel like it. It will just mainly be an everyday usage machine with video encoding used a fair bit.

Would you still reccomend the x3 435 for this type of usage?

I do want something that is going to be highly overclockable.

 

[blaineoliver]

Encoding will love a phenom over an athlon due to the extra cache.

 

[imamosher]

This is becoming confusing now, I have too many choices! So it seems people are advising against the i3 530 and to rather go for a cheaper and cpu instead?

well after reviewing a fe benchmarks and reviews it seems that the x3 435 is a very worthy competitor. I think that is the cpu I will be going with.

 

[imamosher]

Ok it looks like I have my mind made up...well almost

I know this isnt OCUK but they didnt actually have half of what I needed

// Please crop the image by 1 cm at the top and repost it as you can see the competitor name in the image - Phil

The only thing I am still thinking about is weather to go with the 4870 over the card i have in there now.

Benefits of 5750 = HDMI (important) & DX11
Benefits of 4879 = more powerful card (downside) no HDMI or DX11

 

[PhoenixUK]

4870 does have HDMI, all cards released for the past few years have it.
It doesn't have DX11 support tho but that's up to you if you really need it.
The setup looks really good so far, I'd change a HDD for spinpoint f3 and maybe try to squeze few pounds for better case and swap a psu for something modular otherwise you'll get jacked with cables in this small cases.

Remember this board has inbuilt HD4200 which might not be the best card out there but it might be worth picking better case/psu now and adding a GPU lets say in a 2-3 weeks when you need more cash.

Good case and PSU are essential and you can always keep those for your next upgrades.
It's really hard to fit into that budget.

Also if you're not a really super high detail and max res gamer, it might be worth considering a cheaper card like HD4650 which costs around 40quid only but has enough juice to still play modern games on lower resolutions just fine.
And it's one of those things that can't really get any cheaper so if in 2 months you decide that you need more GPU power, you can always sell it for almost same price you bought it and get something better while having the onboard to keep you going during the swap.

Also good card might not be as good with just 2gb ram either so I'd considering picking a cheap one for now and then maybe change for better with extra 2gb ram as well.

 

[imamosher]

I must have mis read that the 4870 doesnt have HDMI.

I will be susing a 720p 32" tv as a monitor via hdmi, not sure what that equates to resolution wise.

I have changed out a few bits, The ram will only be 2 gigs for a month tops, then it will be upgraded.

 

[PhoenixUK]

Ah sorry I messed something looks like it doesnt have it after all.
720p res is quite low, it's a 1280×720 so you could actually do easily with a cheaper GPU !
2nd hand 4830/4770 or even a cheapo 4650/4670 will be playable, and there is an option to CF onboard gpu with 4xxx series card but not sure how that would work.

brb gonna give a short test with onboard gpu on that res : ).

-------------------
just the onboard 4200 manages 25-35fps in cod4 which is playable easily on that res,no AA tho.
So a 4670 kind of card would do easily I guess, I would also look for a second hand 4830/4850 maybe, they can be had for ¬40-50.

 

[imamosher]

I have swapped out a few bits , I think they are closer to what you were reccomending.