Buddy's on a budget, need some advice.

[TuKr]

Alright, so my friend currently has a phenom i believe (i know it runs DDR2) and hes ready to do an upgrade. He is running an Nvidia 750TI that he plans to move over to the new motherboard and CPU. He does very light gaming on it, like american truck sim and small indie games, general youtube and what not.

He wants me to find him a decent mobo/cpu combo that runs well. I was thinking either the G3258 with a z97 board, or an AMD 7870K(or 7850k) and an asus ranger board. he would really like to keep it below or around 200. It will be run on air and more than likely a 500W PSU for marginal overclocking.

Any body have any other suggested combos for that Price point?

 

[trents]

Instead of the 7870k I would substitute the 860k if he is going with AMD. Reason is he will be using a discrete video card which is as good or better than the built-in GPU of the 7870k AMD. The 860k has the GPU disabled and is only $70-$75 with all the processing power of the 7870k. If going with Intel, the parts you mentioned are appropriate for the goals stated. Just be careful in selecting the PSU. 500W should be enough but it might not be if you go with a cheapo PSU. Get a good quality XFS, EVGA or Seasonic in that wattage range and you will be fine.

 

[TuKr]

yeah, Im going intel. g3258 for 50 bucks and they have a few open box ASUS Z97-Pro Wi-Fi @ $90 bucks. He will be extremely happy for 140 + tax. it also gives him the opportunity to upgrade quite a bit if he feels the need to with any of the core i3-5-7 processors. Thanks again guys.

 

[Evil-Mobo]

yeah, Im going intel. g3258 for 50 bucks and they have a few open box ASUS Z97-Pro Wi-Fi @ $90 bucks. He will be extremely happy for 140 + tax. it also gives him the opportunity to upgrade quite a bit if he feels the need to with any of the core i3-5-7 processors. Thanks again guys.

Trent hit the spot with his reply. I will just add this. I have built a similar rig, twice, now. One for my nephew, and a second for my wife. The wife's rig is running a 750 Ti and an 860K and it's a big difference over the nephews Pentium G3258. The Pent is dual core no HT, the 860K is four cores. In my opinion if anyone is considering anything under an i5 Intel then AMD is where it's at.

FYI Today newegg put the FX 6300 on sale for like $90, it might be worth stretching the budget for it in this case. I don't need one and thinking of picking one up just because of the price.

I can can tell minimal difference between my wife's 860K setup and my new X99 setup in the day to day stuff like checking emails, youtube video, etc, so for your buddy and his light use you can definitely get together something for him with quality parts thast will exceed his expectations.

 

[Dlaw]

Trent hit the spot with his reply. I will just add this. I have built a similar rig, twice, now. One for my nephew, and a second for my wife. The wife's rig is running a 750 Ti and an 860K and it's a big difference over the nephews Pentium G3258. The Pent is dual core no HT, the 860K is four cores. In my opinion if anyone is considering anything under an i5 Intel then AMD is where it's at.

FYI Today newegg put the FX 6300 on sale for like $90, it might be worth stretching the budget for it in this case. I don't need one and thinking of picking one up just because of the price.

I can can tell minimal difference between my wife's 860K setup and my new X99 setup in the day to day stuff like checking emails, youtube video, etc, so for your buddy and his light use you can definitely get together something for him with quality parts thast will exceed his expectations.

The thing about going with a 6300, is he'll need an enthusiast-class board to run it effectively. A G3258 can run on almost anything, and as the OP said, can be upgraded on the board he chose to an i3/5/7 for just the cost of the CPU. Any of those would beat out an 860K, and the i5/7s beat out the 6300 (and the 8XXX series CPUs in most situations).

Until AMD releases their next generation, Intel has most of the market. Hopefully AMD will make a comeback, but right now, at every price point, without going used, Intel is what I'm recommending.

 

[trents]

I just built a couple of systems with the 860k and I've also built several systems with the G3258. Th G3258 will outperform the 860k in apps that aren't well multi-threaded and depend heavily on what one or two cores can give. But with apps that can take advantage of the extra cores of the 860k it will win. The 860k will overclock to about 4.3-4.4 but may need an aftermarket cooler to get there. The G3258 will overclock to that same level on the stock cooler most likely and with an aftermarket cooler may go beyond that.

 

[Evil-Mobo]

The thing about going with a 6300, is he'll need an enthusiast-class board to run it effectively. A G3258 can run on almost anything, and as the OP said, can be upgraded on the board he chose to an i3/5/7 for just the cost of the CPU. Any of those would beat out an 860K, and the i5/7s beat out the 6300 (and the 8XXX series CPUs in most situations).

Until AMD releases their next generation, Intel has most of the market. Hopefully AMD will make a comeback, but right now, at every price point, without going used, Intel is what I'm recommending.

There are some games now that the Pentium won't even play without a hack because it's dual core and no HT. So this is why my suggestion of the 860K. As with anything, here in this situation we get into really needing to know specifics about what the PC will be used for and even what games will be played on it.

There are two new mobo's that the 6300 will work on that hover around $120USD mark and tone even has M.2 support so not sure what the issue is really. Your buddy needs to decide whether he wants performance or to spend as little as possible, and some point in crossing these two things together compromises must be made. For the same price point give or take $10 I would take the 860K over the Pent the one in my wife's build has performed beautifully so far and I had fun pushing it to 4.6 on air before setting it back to 4.2 for her to run it 24/7. Just giving some feedback based on my actual real worlds use, and in the same situation again I would not take the Pentium over the 860K.

Z97 mobo's are getting harder to find so it might be feasable for your buddy to go skylake now on a non Z170 mobo with a pentium or snag an i3 skylake and non Z170 motherboard as well.

 

[Dlaw]

There are 96 Z97-based boards on Newegg right now, ranging from $80 to $200. Every one of them can run that Pentium. The bare minimum I would trust any 6 or 8 core FX CPU on would be an M5A99FX, which runs at about that $120-$130 price point. So, I think it's safe to say that the AM3+ platform is out.

Now let's talk about upgrading. Sure, an 860K will fit the bill, but what about the future? The only thing to upgrade to on that board is an APU, and they aren't going to be any better for gaming than what he'll already have. But on a Z97 board, he can upgrade to a Core series chip, and overclock it too. All that would be required to purchase is the CPU, and if applicable, a cooler.

For right now, if a G3258 will cover his needs, that's what I would go with. If down the road he needs more, you can probably find a used i3 for $150 or i5 for $200 or maybe less.

 

[Evil-Mobo]

There are 96 Z97-based boards on Newegg right now, ranging from $80 to $200. Every one of them can run that Pentium. The bare minimum I would trust any 6 or 8 core FX CPU on would be an M5A99FX, which runs at about that $120-$130 price point. So, I think it's safe to say that the AM3+ platform is out.

Now let's talk about upgrading. Sure, an 860K will fit the bill, but what about the future? The only thing to upgrade to on that board is an APU, and they aren't going to be any better for gaming than what he'll already have. But on a Z97 board, he can upgrade to a Core series chip, and overclock it too. All that would be required to purchase is the CPU, and if applicable, a cooler.

For right now, if a G3258 will cover his needs, that's what I would go with. If down the road he needs more, you can probably find a used i3 for $150 or i5 for $200 or maybe less.

I don't understand your persistence here to argue, you're entitled to your opinion, but just the same I am as well. Last time I checked newegg there were less than 20 Z97 mobo's so I guess they stocked up again. It's not that big a deal to me.

But your upgrade path is pointless as he can do the same on a skylake platform and be on newer architecture if you really do feel like arguing, that's a more proper path if one wants to leave themselves open to upgrade..............

 

[Dlaw]

I don't understand your persistence here to argue, you're entitled to your opinion, but just the same I am as well. Last time I checked newegg there were less than 20 Z97 mobo's so I guess they stocked up again. It's not that big a deal to me.

But your upgrade path is pointless as he can do the same on a skylake platform and be on newer architecture if you really do feel like arguing, that's a more proper path if one wants to leave themselves open to upgrade..............

You misunderstand me, I wasn't trying to imply that you weren't entitled to your opinion. I was simply informing OP (and you) that the FM2+ platform has no viable upgrade path, and that I felt Z97 is a better option, providing information on both fronts.

Z170 is an option, but (as far as I know), the Skylake Pentium chips are locked, so overclocking is not an option.

 

[TuKr]

Guess i can update this thread. Builds complete. Asus z97 pro wifi, pentium g3258, 8gb evga 2133 ram, thermaltake chaser mk-1 case, and an evga 500w gold psu. Total came out under 200 thanks to an additional 30% off open box items. He is super happy with it. Total came out to be right at 160ish. Being an open box special, the first motherboard we picked up died after about 7 hours. I got the pentium stable at 4400 1.3ish Volts. But he didnt want to risk another mother board so he decided to bring it back down to 3600 at stock vcore. We will probably go to about 4000 if it stays stable at stock vcore. I had a logisys ice wind pro laying around that i hooked him up with for a cpu cooler. 8 heatpipes cooled by a 120mm fan and the case has 200mm rgb fans controlled via an integrated controller.

When him and i went back to swap mother boards we talked about moving over to skylake but for just an i5 alone it would have cost more than the current build. He loves that if he wants a better chip he has full upgrade capabilites to a 4790.

Amd was an option but the 3258 nearly out performs an a10-7850k with a decent overclock, also as mentioned it really is dated tech, an fx was another option but from my experience amd is a pain to get stable plus the added heat is unfavorable... also cost was the biggest deciding factor here.

Incomparison to his old system, he benched arma 2 on two benches, recieving a score of 7 fps, and 28 fps. Once we moved the gpu over and set the overclock, that went to 28 fps and 59 fps.
He is astounded with it for how much it changed and how little he paid.
I will update this post with some pics once i get a chance to get back over to his place.
Thanks again eveyone.

 

[wingman99]

Glad he likes the new PC.