[MindBlankTech]The i3 7350K vs the FX-8300 (8350/8370) - how do they stack up?

[frozentundra123456]

do you know how much electricity $140 buys? from anandtech's testing, overclocked to 4.5 ghz, the 8320e uses 120 watts more than the 7350k. lets assume 4 hours a day of doing that. so, every other day the 8320e will use 1 kwh more than the 7350k. at current US electric rates of 12.75 cents per kwh, that's nearly 2200 days difference. do you remember what hardware you were rocking 7 years ago? even accounting for air conditioning, you're talking about 5 years of difference.

My point was that *in addition to* the electricity cost of the FX, the price difference is no where close to 140.00 if one buys a standard i3 or even more so the hyperthreaded pentium.

For instance, New Egg prices are as follows: FX-8320 = 124.00, i3-6100 = 120.00, and the G-4600 is only 90.00. And using your own figures, the FX will use 22.00 per year more in electricity. So, except for the corner case microcenter bundle, which despite the obsession with it of a certain poster, is not available to the majority of the US, much less the rest of the world, the FX is actually the most expensive option, considering TCO, when compared to a conventional i3 or the new HT pentium. In fact, in four years, the electricity cost savings, again, by your own figures, would actually pay for the pentium, compared to the usage of the FX. TBH, I dont know why anyone would consider the overclockable i3 at the current price, unless they just wanted to play around and see how high they could clock it. It is a terrible value proposition.

 

[Yuriman]

I agree, you'd have to be out of your mind to think an overclocked i3 is a good value in anything but niche circumstances. I feel that way about all of the "K" CPUs, really. The 7350K + Z board cost more than an i5 6500 + inexpensive B150 even assuming you already have a cooler laying around that'll fit the i3, which is not always the case. Once you add in an aftermarket heatsink, you're on par with an i5 7500 or 7600 + B250, and I've no doubt which I'd prefer. The same is true of the 7600K vs 7700.

 

[ElFenix]

they're both terrible value propositions! the only time an fx isn't horrible value proposition and merely becomes "that's not a good idea" is when you get them at microcenter. so your point is neither here nor there. it'd be like, if someone asks you which truck he should get for commuting and not going further offroad than his own driveway, the TRD tacoma or the pro-4x frontier? and you say, the honda. and that might be true. but this is america, we don't buy things based on what we need. so, isn't your suggestion of an i3 6100 or a pentium an indictment of our entire american society? well, you can do what you you want to me, but i'm not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the united states of america.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

So let's get this straight;

Intel i3 build;
Team Elite Plus 16gb DDR4 2400 - $90
Gigabyte GA-Z270P-D3 - $109
i3-7350K - $180

Total - $389

and he's comparing it to;

AMD fx8300 build;
G Skill 16gb DDR3 1866 - timings 10-11-10-30 - $98
Biostar TA970 - $50
Fx-8300 @$115

Total - $263

So we've got a bad motherboard, overpriced ram and a bad choice of AMD processor.

Using the same website if he'd compared it to;

Team Dark 16GB 1600 - timings 9-9-9-24 - $97
ASrock Fatal1ty 990FX - $120 ($90 after rebate)
Fx-8320 @$125 ($10 off with promo code, $115)

Total - $302 after rebate and promo and a much fairer test. 1800 ram with CAS 10 in theory is slower in most games than 1600 CAS 9, the 990fx board will be better for overclocking and the fx-8320 is a better processor

The Biostar TA-970 is a solid motherboard without even acknowledging price. The motherboard is good for up to 4.6ghz until VRM throttling. I would know. It's in my desktop.