Cheap and cheerful processor recommendations.

[Sable]

My Asus A8N SLI deluxe died after 9 years of solid service. I think it was dropping in and overclocking an Opteron 185 last month that pushed it over the edge.

Thinking I might build a mini itx setup as follows.

Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Fractal Design FD-CA-NODE-304-WH Mini ITX Desktop Case

The cheapest and most cheerful CPU for that setup seems to be

Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor

Total price: £205.43

It's very very cheap but is it cheerful enough? Bear in mind this is coming from slow ass socket 939 machine which was just about okay for gaming. Is it worth stretching to an i3?

All I need it to do is function as a media server and play games like Borderlands and Portal 2.

I've got an ATI 4870 I can drop in as well so not worried about the iGPU being pants.

Is there an AMD equivalent that can match/beat this setup for the price?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Looks good to me :thumbsup:

 

[Essence_of_War]

The trouble with the i3 is that pentium -> i3 is usually 2x the CPU cost. :\

On the other hand, although HT DOES NOT do much for quad-core CPUs in most games, there is evidence that it DOES help out quite a bit for dual-core CPUs in the same games. You can see some results here.

If you're looking on the AMD side, in the budget range, the athlon II x4 760k might be a good pick:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad760kwohlbox\

It's a great budget CPU if you need to be able to handle more than 2 threads simultaneously, but I think it's modestly more expensive than the pentium you were looking at, and gives up quite a bit of single-thread performance. So while it would very likely beat the pentium in video encoding, I suspect gaming in the games you mentioned would be a wash, or a win for the pentium.

tl;dr if you have the budget stretch, pick up the haswell i3, if you don't, that build looks good.

 

[DigDog]

i'll go the other way and say that the 3220 is even too much.

i have a G1610 - a real p.o.s, and yet i can game on it without problems. even when using a £65 7750. my mobo is a £34 MSI H61.

HTPC, borderlands 2 and portal 2 ?? you dont need anything else.


(ofc, i just bought a 4670k, z87 mobo, and a 770. because i play more than just portal 2)

 

[Sable]

The trouble with the i3 is that pentium -> i3 is usually 2x the CPU cost. :\

On the other hand, although HT DOES NOT do much for quad-core CPUs in most games, there is evidence that it DOES help out quite a bit for dual-core CPUs in the same games. You can see some results here.

If you're looking on the AMD side, in the budget range, the athlon II x4 760k might be a good pick:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad760kwohlbox\

It's a great budget CPU if you need to be able to handle more than 2 threads simultaneously, but I think it's modestly more expensive than the pentium you were looking at, and gives up quite a bit of single-thread performance. So while it would very likely beat the pentium in video encoding, I suspect gaming in the games you mentioned would be a wash, or a win for the pentium.

tl;dr if you have the budget stretch, pick up the haswell i3, if you don't, that build looks good.

I just assumed AMD side would have something cheaper and more cheerful than intel at the low end. But their ITX motherboards start at £10 more than the asus I picked and their equivalent priced CPU (AMD A6-5400K) gets fairly stomped.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/234/AMD_A6-Series_A6-5400K_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G3220.html

The X4 is £19 more so there's that plus the £10 for the motherboard. I'm normally pretty flexible with budgets but this isn't a major build so I'm being strict at £200ish.

i'll go the other way and say that the 3220 is even too much.

i have a G1610 - a real p.o.s, and yet i can game on it without problems. even when using a £65 7750. my mobo is a £34 MSI H61.

HTPC, borderlands 2 and portal 2 ?? you dont need anything else.


(ofc, i just bought a 4670k, z87 mobo, and a 770. because i play more than just portal 2)

That's what I was hoping someone would say. I've got the PC in my sig for real gaming, this is purely media centre plus something for multiplayer borderlands/portal 2 with the niece.

On a side note, HOW FLIPPIN TEDIOUSLY EXPENSIVE IS RAM STILL?!?!?! So annoying. I've already had a whinge in the memory forum but seriously, I paid £35 for 8GB ages ago and now it's double that.

 

[Arkaign]

ITX is usually a moderate price premium over mATX FWIW. If you don't absolutely have to have a itty bitty PC, then you might be able to get away with a better build for the same $ using mATX parts.

Also, if space IS an absolute must, a lot of times you can find notebooks with similar or better specs for good $. If you also need a Windows license, this is a good combo. Just get one with HDMI output, disable the lid close sleep option, and bingo, you have a super low power PC slimmer than ITX for a good price.

Bumping things up to a gaming capable unit, if you could sell the stuff you have left over to make up for the price difference, there's this :

http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDIO...um=produktvergleich&utm_campaign=pricegrabber

More modern GPU, much more power efficient compared to the 4870, gives you an actual i3 CPU (dual + HT helps many games!) yadda yadda, and you can unplug it and take it with you

Just a thought!

 

[Arkaign]

Oops, wrong one, this is the one with a GT740M :

http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDIO...&wt_cc1=4&wt_cc2=30016130A1&wt_cc3=30015402A1

 

[ShintaiDK]

Haswell Celerons are coming early next year. They can already be bought some places. Then you can avoid the old LGA1155 platform. But I would simply buy the Haswell Pentium if I was you. Haswell IGP is not only faster, but also a tad better to watch movies on.

 

[SPBHM]

just go for one of those cheap 1037U boards if you only want to replace the old opteron.

 

[Headfoot]

Haswell Celerons are coming early next year. They can already be bought some places. Then you can avoid the old LGA1155 platform. But I would simply buy the Haswell Pentium if I was you. Haswell IGP is not only faster, but also a tad better to watch movies on.

+1 vote for this

 

[NTMBK]

Isn't the HD4870 rather large and hot? That's going to limit what you can do in a truly small ITX case. You'll probably need one of those "cube" cases which is basically the same size as a microATX PC.

 

[Sable]

Isn't the HD4870 rather large and hot? That's going to limit what you can do in a truly small ITX case. You'll probably need one of those "cube" cases which is basically the same size as a microATX PC.

I'm trying to reuse bits from my defunct PC so PSU, graphics card and harddisks.

According to fractal...

ATX PSUs, up to 160mm in length (To fit in combination with a long graphics card, PSUs with modular connectors on the back typically need to be shorter than 160 mm)
Graphics cards, up to 310mm in length, when 2 HDD slots (1 HDD hanging bracket total) are removed (Graphics cards longer than 170 mm will conflict with PSUs longer than 160mm)

4870 is 24cm and the HSF only reaches back as far as 18cm. PSU is 14.5cm (enermax liberty 500w. Awesome PSU, I didn't skimp when I built the ye olde machine).

Heat wise yeah, the 4870 can get a bit warm but with the decent airflow of the 304 and the minimal specs of the CPU I can't see temps being a problem. If they are I'll have to rethink.

I COULD just buy bits and shove them in my old ATX case but as I said, I want to try an itx build.

It's not a money no object build but it's a nerd fanciful build. I've built many MANY ATX builds, desktops with 486's, towers with K6's. Never a mini PC and I like the idea.

Kinda think I should make it compatible with my desktop Sandy so when I come to upgrade this I can throw it into the Node 304. BUT, this Sandy is too good and by the time I need to upgrade this I'll need a whole new PC anyway.

Well done Intel, your CPU progress is astounding.

Although, I hope this sandy lasts as long as my AMD X2 did on my Asus A8N. 8+ years. That's a lifetime in computer years.

 

[gammaray]

i got a g3220 paired with an asrock mATX lga 1150. I'm very surprised and satisfied with how fast that 65$ cpu is! (windows 7 is installed on a 128gbs ssd)

careful with memory tho, i think you need ddr3-1333.
http://ark.intel.com/products/77773/

 

[Sable]

i got a g3220 paired with an asrock mATX lga 1150. I'm very surprised and satisfied with how fast that 65$ cpu is! (windows 7 is installed on a 128gbs ssd)

careful with memory tho, i think you need ddr3-1333.
http://ark.intel.com/products/77773/

Ah good spot, thanks.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Rermember you can use 1600Mhz memory, it will just run at 1333Mhz.