i3 530 or Athlon II x4 620

[thescreensavers]

My parents have a 2.4 ghz Celly which was built back in early 05, which now absolutely struggles with flash in Xp and Ubuntu and needs to be replaced.

So I am looking to build them a new rig for them to keep until it dies or becomes way to slow like the celly rig.

an i3 530 with the H55 chipset mobo ( mobo is $125)

or

Athlon II x4 620 with the 785g chipset mobo ( mobo is $95) is there a better chipset for around the same price?

the i3 beats out the x4 in alot of benchmarks but the x4 beats it in programs which can use all cores.

But the Onboard GPU on the AMD is better then the intel.. hmm

So which would you guys choose?

 

[0roo0roo]

i'd like to see more benchmarks that show more real world multitasking as well. most comparisons don't bother.

 

[Maximilian]

Whichever you can get cheapest, i would be leaning towards the i3 as no GPU means its one less thing to fail and it uses slightly less power. Also from what i saw it won the majority of the benchmarks too although last i looked was a while ago.

By the time the i3 is too slow to do its job the X4 will likely be in the same boat so whichever is the cheapest would be best :thumbsup:

 

[thescreensavers]

The AMD rig would be 50 bucks cheaper then the Intel rig :O same parts just mobo/cpu is different.

 

[KeypoX]

Have you tried the beta of flash 10.1 beta 3 or soemthign? That might speed it up.

But anyways, if they are mostly doing browsing I would go with the cheaper, just make sure that the video card can hardware decode with the new flash. The intel im pretty sure does. I know the older x4500GMA does so the newer ones should too.

 

[JackMDS]

I doubt that is really matter to your parents and whtever they use the computer for.

So I'll go with the better graphic.


😎

 

[Terzo]

Where are you buying from? If you have a Frys or Microcenter nearby you can get some killer deals (for example, right now Microcenter is selling select AMD processors with $40 off a motherboard). Frys will let you get motherboard and processor combos for very low prices (around a month ago they were selling the i3-530 with a gigabyte matx for $100 or so).

Even without these options, your price estimates seem inflated. A quick search reveals these two bundles, i3 and mobo from Tigerdirect for $200 after rebate, plus shipping. Newegg has a 635 and mobo bundle for $160 with combo and free shipping.

As for the graphics, the clarkdale graphics are more than sufficient, performing close enough to the 785 chipset (with the higher clocked i5-661 graphics trading blows). Unless you're gaming I don't think it really matters.

The advantages I see for Intel is lower power consumption, where as the amd competes in price. For a basic home computer, I doubt you'll notice much of a difference between the two.

 

[mfenn]

Why are you paying $125 for an H55 board? Here are an ASRock for $70 and a Biostar for $75 that will surely do all that your parents' require.

 

[yh125d]

Go for the cheap option. Either will be plenty fast to make your parents go "oh wow! fast!", and neither will last notably longer before your parents go "ugh slow!"


In case anyone mentions how AM3 should be compatible with BD, by the time of their next upgrade BD will probably have came and went, or otherwise migrated sockets

 

[VirtualLarry]

I say go with 785G. The improved IGP over the Intel will be noticable, if they watch videos on their computer. Plus, an AMD rig should be slightly cheaper. Microcenter has had some killer combo deals, I took advantage of six of them so far. Building complete quad-core rigs for $350, with 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, and a card reader.

 

[thescreensavers]

Where are you buying from? If you have a Frys or Microcenter nearby you can get some killer deals (for example, right now Microcenter is selling select AMD processors with $40 off a motherboard). Frys will let you get motherboard and processor combos for very low prices (around a month ago they were selling the i3-530 with a gigabyte matx for $100 or so).

Even without these options, your price estimates seem inflated. A quick search reveals these two bundles, i3 and mobo from Tigerdirect for $200 after rebate, plus shipping. Newegg has a 635 and mobo bundle for $160 with combo and free shipping.

As for the graphics, the clarkdale graphics are more than sufficient, performing close enough to the 785 chipset (with the higher clocked i5-661 graphics trading blows). Unless you're gaming I don't think it really matters.

The advantages I see for Intel is lower power consumption, where as the amd competes in price. For a basic home computer, I doubt you'll notice much of a difference between the two.

I was just looking at ATX mobos, since they have 4 ram slots. mATX I guess should be ok,That newegg combo is good.

I live in south florida so all I got here is compusa and bestbuy.

They will also use it for media center on there TV so I think ill throw in a Blueray player. So the 785g would be better for this.

 

[0roo0roo]

Go for the cheap option. Either will be plenty fast to make your parents go "oh wow! fast!", and neither will last notably longer before your parents go "ugh slow!"


In case anyone mentions how AM3 should be compatible with BD, by the time of their next upgrade BD will probably have came and went, or otherwise migrated sockets

cheap+bigger monitor, that matters more