i3 vs g3258?

[TickleMyElmo]

So I figured getting the i3-4170 and the Gigabyte GA-z97X-sli mobo with 8gb corsair vengeance pro series 2133 ram would be the best route for a decent gaming machine without being to expensive. Could always upgrade to the i5-4690k in the future if needed. Then some guys told me I'd be better off getting the Pentium G3258 and overclocking it. Said it would be faster and cheaper. What do you guys think? I almost thought it was a joke at 1st, a Pentium? Seriously?

 

[satrow]

The Pentium G3258 can hit very high speeds once cooled and overclocked correctly, so it's fine for most current games.

But - some newer games (roughly from Far Cry 4 onwards) might require a 4-core CPU, which the i3 qualifies as.

 

[Lochekey]

It really will depend on what type of games you play. If they depend on b single threaded performance more than an overclocked Pentium will do better. If it is a game that relies on multi threading then the i3 may do better.

 

[TickleMyElmo]

Problem is the case I got her isn't big enough even for a 212 evo let alone an aio, so I couldn't oc the Pentium. Unless you guys know of any low profile heatsinks that will do. I doubt it though.

 

[Lochekey]

What case are you using?

 

[Kenrou]

http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-c14s/specification

Low profile quality from Noctua

 

[TickleMyElmo]

Using the corsair carbide spec-02.

 

[Lochekey]

The cooler kenrou linked should work in that case. Am aio should fit that case as well but you are limited to a 120mm variant like an h60

 

[TickleMyElmo]

It would have to be under $30, we're already over budget.

 

[Lochekey]

It would have to be under $30, we're already over budget.

Well since the budget is going to be a concern let's look at it this way. The i3 4170 runs around $125. The g3258 runs about $70. This leaves a difference of $55 for a cooler. You can find h60 aio for around $60. If the $30 you mentioned above could go on top of that then that puts you around the $90 range which would allow you to get the noctua cooler listed above or an aio like the h80i.

None of this directly answers the original question though. I would say if this is truly a gaming rig go with the i3 as out will give you an overall better all around gaming experience.

If the budget is a little tight we might be able to help reconfigure parts slightly to help you get more bang for your buck. I see above that you are looking at the vemgeance pro ram. You can get similar performance from other ram that perform the same and will be cheaper. If you post the rest of the hardware as will we can make some other recommendations.

 

[TickleMyElmo]

These are the parts already bought. Corsair Carbide Spec-02 case $59.99, EVGA 750w 80+ bronze semi modular PSU $59.99, Kingston SSD Now 300 120gb $49.99, Gigabyte GTX 660 $50, LG cd/dvd drive $9.99.
Just need cpu, mobo, ram, 1tb hd.

 

[Lochekey]

In that case I would stick with the i3 and either go with the mother board you mentioned above or the one I linked below, whichever you can find cheaper. I don't know what set of corsair ram you were looking at but take a look at what I linked below. They are a decent kit for the price and will be plenty for that system.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16813157501

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16820226572

 

[mackerel]

Something that hasn't been mentioned already, is that the Pentium has had AVX/AVX2 instructions removed/disabled. If the software supports those, it would be quite a performance hit, so the i3 would have quite an advantage in that case.

 

[machausta]

You can cross check some parts/prices on pcpartpicker... here's a sample page I configured using the i3-4170 and a decent board, memory, and hard drive http://pcpartpicker.com/p/shZvzy