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Which option do YOU pick?

J

jana519

Senior member
I have a question for you fellas on GH. Suppose you want to build a machine for mainstream, 1080p gaming and you are on a tight budget. You have a GTX 770 reference GPU and a choice between four different platforms and processors. The choices are:

1. LGA 1156:i7-920, 4GB generic 1333 RAM, stock cooler, and an H55 ECS motherboard
2. LGA 1155: i3-2120, 4GB generic 1333 RAM, Hyper 212, and a mint ASUS Z77 ROG V Formula
3. LGA 1150: G3258 at 4.4Ghz stock cooling, 4GB Corsair Dominator 1600 RAM, and an Asrock H81 motherboard, all BNIB
4. LGA 775: Big bundle of Q6600, Hyper 212, 8GB generic 1066 RAM, Gigabyte P45xxx motherboard, Corsair CX430, and generic plastic ATX case

For hypothetical purposes, let us assume every option cost exactly $200 shipped. Is there a clear winner overall, and why?
 
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A 3.2 GHz quad-core i7 wins hands down even if you get a stable 3.0 GHz OC for the Q6600, but you really need another 4 GB RAM for 8 GB total.
 
Performance-wise, i7-960 is the clear winner. However, with only a H55 mobo it's a bust deal, you would want to OC the i7-960 on an X58 board to get the most out of it.

The LGA1150 set is obviously the newest, but I wouldn't buy a Pentium for gaming, i3 at minimum. Could replace the Pentium with an i5-4460 though.

Which brings me to the LGA1155 set. It has the best motherboard out of the bunch and a good cooler too. The i3 could be enough for GTX 770, but the best case scenario would be to sell the i3 and buy an i5-3570K used, overclock that to 4.2Ghz, and add another 4GB of RAM.
 
G3258 mainly because of the ability to do a large performance upgrade when the time comes. I would rather see at least an i3 though.

The 1155 is second choice. It's also still pretty upgradeable.
 
Option #1 would be the fastest, by far, except for some rare situations where the G3258 might be faster.
 
Interesting answers. Seems like the responses suggest the 1156 i7-920 is the best short-term return, while 1155 and 1150 have long-term return. No one seems to think the Q6600 would be a good choice, even though money is saved on PSU and case.

Thanks for the replies! 🙂

Oops, I did make a mistake, option #1 was supposed to be an i7-920, not i7-960
 
Q6600 is simply too slow for a GTX 770, and there's nothing to upgrade it to without upgrading also the motherboard and RAM. In addition, CX430 is a bit too weak for GTX 770 + Q6600.

Oops, I did make a mistake, option #1 was supposed to be an i7-920, not i7-960
Click to expand...

All the more reason to not grab that one. i7-920 turbo frequency is only 2.93GHz, and on a good motherboard with high end cooling you could get it up to 3.8Ghz. i7-960 turbos to 3.46GHz which is already a lot faster than i7-920 and has much less overclock headroom, so the poor motherboard would've mattered less with the i7-960
 
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Stop the madness! The i7-920 doesn't fit in an 1156 motherboard. You'd need an i7-860 or i5-750/760 for that motherboard. The i7-920 only works with socket 1366.

Of the combos the OP listed that actually work, none are all that good. I'd reach for a core i3-4160 at $120 plus a B85 motherboard at around $75.

Good luck getting a G3258 (BNIB?) to run at 4.4Ghz on stock cooling. How is someone promising you that without testing it? Sounds fishy. I realize you're buying used here, but it sounds like you're pulling up some pretty bad deals. They're all way too expensive and generally mis-matched in terms of cooling and boards.
 
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I would probably get an Asrock H97M Pro, 8GB of RAM, and a Pentium Dualie, then upgrade to a locked (non-K) Haswell i5 when the prices on those start to drop in a year or three. Investing in a good modern platform and lots of ram up front will help mask the slower CPU, get you new-part warranties. Buying non-overclocking gear will mean you save a few bucks and aren't buying somebody's half-dead chip.
 
lehtv said:
Didn't even register! Just assumed it was the right socket D:



As in got to Windows for long enough to screen cap CPU-Z?
Click to expand...

No, I fooled around with it for a little while. I don't remember how long, but it was not just a boot and screen cap deal.

I did not leave it there.

This was done on Win10 in a system I was constantly fooling around with as part of testing Win10.
 
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