Gaming on a budget - which is the better CPU option?

[dmoney1980]

Friend of mine wants to get into PC gaming but he's on a limited budget. Here are the options I have:

- pick up an FX 8320 chip with a mobo at Micro Center, but have to buy a lower end video card (GTX 760 / Radeon 7950 level)

- pick up a x58 based system with a i7 960 CPU that I can get for a good price, along with 12gb triple channel RAM. This would come out to about $120 in savings over the FX, which would allow him to get a faster GPU (GTX 770 / 280x, etc).

- He plays FPS, RPG's, and MMO's
- 1080p monitor
- Windows 7 based machine

Reasons for the 8320 chip:
- More cores, much newer chipset (SATA 6, USB 3)
- May have better overclocking potential
- The cpu and motherboard will be brand new

Reasons for the x58 based build:
- Benchmarks show slightly better single core performance with the i7 960 (at stock speeds)
- This system will come with more RAM and a high quality motherboard (ROG)
- Cheaper upfront cost will allow him to buy a better GPU

What are your thoughts on this dilemma?

 

[Gikaseixas]

If he can get a better GPU with the Intel it's a no brainer, the i7 960 is still a very capable cpu.

 

[Mk pt]

A cheaper i920 + good cooler for oc. This way you put i7 920@ 3.8Ghz, and a 280x.
Much better than a stock i7 960.


But for gaming is a better idea an i5 2500k + nice cooler to reach 4/4.2 Ghz, than the older X58 build: you'll get better performance, lower power consumption and usb 3/sata 3.0.

 

[dmoney1980]

A cheaper i920 + good cooler for oc. This way you put i7 920@ 3.8Ghz, and a 280x.
Much better than a stock i7 960.


But for gaming is a better idea an i5 2500k + nice cooler to reach 4/4.2 Ghz, than the older X58 build: you'll get better performance, lower power consumption and usb 3/sata 3.0.

a 2500k based system would be ideal, but I can pick up a x58 rog board, the 960 cpu, 12gb ram, case, and power supply for a killer price.

 

[AtenRa]

a 2500k based system would be ideal, but I can pick up a x58 rog board, the 960 cpu, 12gb ram, case, and power supply for a killer price.

If you dont care about SATA6 and USB3 (you can actually buy a 4x PCI-e SATA and USB3 card) then go for the x58 + Better GPU. If hes going to play BF4 MP I would go for the FX8320 (OC to 4GHz or higher) + R9 280.

 

[Mk pt]

a 2500k based system would be ideal, but I can pick up a x58 rog board, the 960 cpu, 12gb ram, case, and power supply for a killer price.

If it's a really killer price, it's the way to go.

But don't give much importance of being an ROG board.
My desktop is a X58 too, based on a Asus P6T Deluxe V2, and it's enough to reach 4.0Ghz with my good old i7 920. I think that's enough to reach 4.2 Ghz stable - I did it once, but only for light benchmark's, with air cooling more than 4Ghz is a suicide with this cpu's.
And my gpu is a Sapphire 290 Tri-X.

A mid range board is enough for nice oc with stability.

But if you found that great deal...
Just be sure that's a nice power supply too, but I guess who bought an ROG board, also bought a nice PSU.
Be aware that i7 960 could be a bit 'burned' with heavy OC. An ROG board is for heavy OC, and a 'old' cpu with heavy oc over the years will have a short life or at least don't reach nice o.c. But it also could be a cpu that was always on stock and the owner just bought that ROG board because it was the more expensive he found.

 

[shady28]

FX-8320 wins 8 out of 13 Anand Benchmarks vs i7-950 (3.06ghz, the 960 is 3.2ghz) :

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/100?vs=698


Tom's shows the i7-960 vs FX-8320 -
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/100?vs=698

Total of all timed benchmarks:
FX-8320 : 1705s
i7-960 : 1753


These two chips are actually very well matched up, there isn't much difference in performance at all. They even have similar power draw.

I am thinking it would be more a measure of cost and board features, as you aren't going to be getting something like SATA-3 or USB 3 on a socket 1366 board.

 

[Sweepr]

I am thinking it would be more a measure of cost and board features, as you aren't going to be getting something like SATA-3 or USB 3 on a socket 1366 board.

I've got that since 2009 in my ASUS P6X58D Premium rig. Lots of LGA1366 motherboards support SATA3/USB3.0 (not nativelly via X58 though, requires 3rd party controllers).

 

[shady28]

I've got that since 2009 in my ASUS P6X58D Premium rig. Lots of LGA1366 motherboards support SATA3/USB3.0 (not nativelly via X58 though, requires 3rd party controllers).

Well, the boards support you adding a 3rd party card yes, so does a Core 2 board though.

But that's going to mess with the price advantage. I'm not sure why someone would want to get a 4-5 year old board / CPU and then have to deal with additional cards, potential driver issues / lack of support (if you go cheap), when you can get a brand new one with the kind of deals Microcenter has.

That said I don't see any really good FX-8xxx deals at MC anymore, the only one is $209 for a FX-8350 + mobo and I would't rec that as opposed to the $234 i5-4670K/mobo combination they have.

The only really, really good deal they have on FX right now is the FX-6350/6300 + mobo at $129/$109. Those are killer deals.

 

[dmoney1980]

thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'll keep my eye on a good deal for a 25/2600k series along with an 8320. As another poster here mentioned, the Micro Center FX deals are not as sweet as they used to be and typically come with a crap-tastic budget board.