Best $150 CPU for video encoding & web surfing.

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Rickyyy369

Rickyyy369

Member
Apr 21, 2012
149
13
81
The time has come my friends.. its time to retire my old Athlon 64 X2 and move on to something new. We sure have been through a lot together but her age has just become too evident.. the wrinkles in her performance.. too deep. When she hit 115C and crashed after 10 minutes of encoding a movie.. I knew it was time to put her down.

This isn't going to be a very high cost upgrade. I'm looking to spend around $300 total for the cpu, memory, and motherboard, and im willing to allocate a full half of that total for the CPU alone, so im shooting for a cpu of around $150 or less.

In order of importance, I primarily use this pc for encoding movies, web surfing, and the occasional game. I almost never have time to game anymore thats why im not concerned with upgrading the archaic Radeon 4830 that i have in it.

There seems to be about 3 choices:
AMD FX-6100 Six-core
Phenom II X4 975 Quad-core
Core i3-2130 Dual-core

Im not going to be buying an aftermarket cooler with these so overclocking isnt really a concern. I know the 2130 isnt overclockable and the 975 probably is about at the limit that the stock cooler can handle. If I went with the 6100 I would probably see what I could get out of it with the stock cooler, but im not expecting much.

Really what im primarily focused on is video encoding speed. I know that encoding likes more cores and it looks like AMD is willing to give me those cores at a better price, so im actually leaning towards the FX-6100, but I wanted to check with what your opinions are.

Is the woefully better per-core IPC of the core i3 worth it or should i go with the more cores of AMD?
 
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hyrule4927

hyrule4927

Senior member
Feb 9, 2012
359
1
76
2500K would come in under $150 if you factor in the $50 discount when bundled with a Z68 motherboard at Micro Center, provided there is a store near you.
 
Rickyyy369

Rickyyy369

Member
Apr 21, 2012
149
13
81
hyrule4927 said:
2500K would come in under $150 if you factor in the $50 discount when bundled with a Z68 motherboard at Micro Center, provided there is a store near you.
Click to expand...

Arghhh :mad: I really envy you guys that live near a microcenter. The closest one to me is ~100 miles away, and unfortunately driving there would completely negative any potential savings.

I would love to go for a Thuban but it looks like the only one available is the X6 1045@2.7ghz and I think the FX-6100's clock advantage could easily overcome the IPC difference between the two.

Believe me.. im about as excited about bulldozer as most of you. Ive read all the reviews and I know it to be overwhelmingly lackluster in most areas. But given my price constraints at the moment it appears to be my best choice.

Maybe I can knock it up to 3.6ghz on the stock cooler to better justify choosing that over the X4 :biggrin:
 
B

BallaTheFeared

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2010
8,115
0
71
Have you considered used? I've been thinking about putting mine on the FS section for around $170 or somesuch.

It's been overclocked to the moon!
 
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PhoenixEnigma

PhoenixEnigma

Senior member
Aug 6, 2011
229
0
0
What about a 960T and rolling the dice on unlocking cores?

One other thing to consider is if you can take advantage of QuickSync. If it's an option for you, the i3 suddenly becomes a monster.
 
K

Kevmanw430

Senior member
Mar 11, 2011
279
0
76
PhoenixEnigma just brought up the two best points. The 960T seems like a great idea to me, as it will still be good at 4 cores, but if you get all 6, it will be great.

However, check out QuickSync. That could be the answer to this.
 
P

pyjujiop

Senior member
Mar 17, 2001
243
0
76
Not that I like recommending Bulldozer for anything, but video encoding is a workload it can actually do well on. On that budget, I would probably go for the FX-6100. But the i3 wouldn't be bad, either. I wouldn't choose a Phenom II unless I could get an unlocked Thuban for cheap.
 
Rickyyy369

Rickyyy369

Member
Apr 21, 2012
149
13
81
SithSolo1 said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103962
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231314
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065

$309 shipped as long as you don't have to pay tax. That Hyper 212+ is much better than the stock heatsink and isn't that expensive.
Click to expand...

This looks absolutely perfect, thank you very much for the recommendations.

I had the ASRock 970 EXTREME4 picked out before but now that I look at it, I really have no use for more than one x16 slot and that really all the EXTEME4 offers over the EXTREME3. And now that leaves enough money to get an aftermarket cooler so I can really push this puppy :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: Awesome.

As for the 960T, I seriously considered it as an option because of the possibility to unlock it to a 6 core, but I don't really care to bother with it. Unlocked 960's dont sound like they overclock as well as their thuban brothers, around 3.6ish seems to be average, and I think ill easily be able to surpass that with an the overclocked FX.

Im still gonna give it a few hours before I place my order but I think im pretty well set on the 6100. Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it.
 
richierich1212

richierich1212

Platinum Member
Jul 5, 2002
2,741
360
126
You can get the FX-6100 or whatever from Superbiiz.com cheaper with coupon code HOMERUN for 15% off.
 
A

Absolute0

Senior member
Nov 9, 2005
714
21
81
would be better off getting a used I7 920 I think. And if you wait a few more days Ivy Bridge comes out and a lot of people will sell their 2500K's so you could pick up one of those with a little more $$. It makes no sense to have a firm $150 ceiling when a few extra bucks will get you a 2500K where the near-guaranteed 4.5 Ghz will stomp all over anything you can buy from AMD.
 
Don Karnage

Don Karnage

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 2011
2,865
0
0
Faildozer? What? Am i dreaming? 2130 till Ivy bridge I3's get released in 2 months.

The Ivy Bridge I3's will be overclockable to a 133mhz Bus making the 3120 overclock to 4.5Ghz
 
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C

Cpus

Senior member
Apr 20, 2012
345
0
0
The bulldozer would actually be pretty good for your needs. That is what I recommend.
 
Rickyyy369

Rickyyy369

Member
Apr 21, 2012
149
13
81
Just put my order in. With the coupon code I got from RichieRich1212 the total for the CPU came to $132.99 with shipping. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

I think for my needs I made the right choice. I'm not at all concerned about gaming performance or else I would have gone with the i3 2130 of course. Like I said, im really just concerned with my video encoding performance and other basic tasks that dont require a beast cpu.

Ill be dropping this under a CM Hyper 212+ and hopefully ill be able to reach 4.5ghz at least. Either way, I expect it to be a pretty sizeable upgrade from my old A64 X2 5600+ that I had to downclock to 2.8 and undervolt to keep it from overheating with the stock cooler -_- that thing has been nothing but a disappointment since I got it.

Wish me luck fellas.
 
daveybrat

daveybrat

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jan 31, 2000
5,819
1,034
126
For what the OP does, mostly video encoding, the 6100 is actually a decent choice. And with the CM Hyper 212+, you should be able to get a good overclock out of it.
 
pauldun170

pauldun170

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2011
9,497
5,713
136
Rickyyy369 said:
The time has come my friends.. its time to retire my old Athlon 64 X2 and move on to something new. We sure have been through a lot together but her age has just become too evident.. the wrinkles in her performance.. too deep. When she hit 115C and crashed after 10 minutes of encoding a movie.. I knew it was time to put her down.

This isn't going to be a very high cost upgrade. I'm looking to spend around $300 total for the cpu, memory, and motherboard, and im willing to allocate a full half of that total for the CPU alone, so im shooting for a cpu of around $150 or less.

In order of importance, I primarily use this pc for encoding movies, web surfing, and the occasional game. I almost never have time to game anymore thats why im not concerned with upgrading the archaic Radeon 4830 that i have in it.

There seems to be about 3 choices:
AMD FX-6100 Six-core
Phenom II X4 975 Quad-core
Core i3-2130 Dual-core

Im not going to be buying an aftermarket cooler with these so overclocking isnt really a concern. I know the 2130 isnt overclockable and the 975 probably is about at the limit that the stock cooler can handle. If I went with the 6100 I would probably see what I could get out of it with the stock cooler, but im not expecting much.

Really what im primarily focused on is video encoding speed. I know that encoding likes more cores and it looks like AMD is willing to give me those cores at a better price, so im actually leaning towards the FX-6100, but I wanted to check with what your opinions are.

Is the woefully better per-core IPC of the core i3 worth it or should i go with the more cores of AMD?
Click to expand...

I have an I3-2100 and HD4830 paired with a (now) $85 Asrock Z68 board.
I use it for light gaming and HTPC including encoding (including blurays)

I highly recomend the i3 + basic z68 or z77
No need to mess with overclocking or extra cooling. Does great at stock speeds. Virtu works perfectly.

I don't think the 2130 is worth it.
i3-2100 ($99-$125)
Asrock z68M\usb3 ($85) (or biostar z77 for $100)
4gb ram ($25?)
Final cost = $235
 
Stuka87

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
136
I think the OP's choice of the 6100 was fine. It will destroy an i3 when it comes to video encoding. The i3 is certainly faster per clock, but when it comes to video encoding, cores is everything. And bulldozer actually does pretty well at it.
 
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