AMD athalon 2 x3 vs core i3

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Megamuffin

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i was thinking to upgrade my old pc cause i want to keep a 2nd computer around that will want to use a decent pc that will run games smoothly too... so i saw AMD athalon 2 x3 and a core i3 they cost around the same price... if im correct i3 only has 2 cores though it can hyper thread though... but the AMD has 3 cores... the technician at the shop suggested the AMD for value for money because you get 3 cores for the same price so im leaning towards getting the AMD so jst wanted to get your guys views on which one is better
 
ive got a i5 in my pc atm(which i just put togather this weekend)... i dont want to blow another 10k on upgrading my ****ty old pc
 
Depends on which Athlon X3 vs which i3, the Athlon X3 455 and the i3-540 seem fairly evenly matched in terms of price and performance. If it's an i3-2xxx though, then the Athlon X3 gets beaten badly in terms of performance.

Someone in a computer store once recommended a Huntkey 700W PSU over a corsair VX450, because you get 700W for the same price...
I'd rather have a look at reviews and benchmarks, most of the people who work in computer stores are fairly clueless.
 
Either go full out and spend a lot on a gaming PC or don't upgrade it at all.

With regards to power supplies: avoid Huntkey PSU's, except perhaps for their X9 range.

DX11 games can make much better use of multiple core CPU's, so you will really benefit from a Core i5 over just a 3 Core AMD CPU.
 
Megamuffin said:
i was thinking to upgrade my old pc cause i want to keep a 2nd computer around that will want to use a decent pc that will run games smoothly too... so i saw AMD athalon 2 x3 and a core i3 they cost around the same price... if im correct i3 only has 2 cores though it can hyper thread though... but the AMD has 3 cores... the technician at the shop suggested the AMD for value for money because you get 3 cores for the same price so im leaning towards getting the AMD so jst wanted to get your guys views on which one is better
Click to expand...

A Tri-core is really the minimum for games these days.
 
if do go amd route just buy amd 555be, and get motherboard to unlock it.

friend bought retail , cpu,mb and ram about 2.5k, now hes got a nice qaud core system, with usb 3 sata 6g etc.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/870A-G54.html

think that was the board he got, as they were out of stock of the 790x series board.
 
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Pada said:
Either go full out and spend a lot on a gaming PC or don't upgrade it at all.

With regards to power supplies: avoid Huntkey PSU's, except perhaps for their X9 range.

DX11 games can make much better use of multiple core CPU's, so you will really benefit from a Core i5 over just a 3 Core AMD CPU.
Click to expand...

all i want is the minimum.. as i said before i build my own pc last weekend... the amd is a AMD athlon II x3 455... not sure what the i3 was... i was thinking to get the AMD + MSI 880GMA-E45 and 4 gigs of RAM and gt 430 nvida gfx card should come to around 4-5k and should be able to run games smoothly atleast on medium - high gfx
 
Megamuffin said:
i was thinking to upgrade my old pc cause i want to keep a 2nd computer around that will want to use a decent pc that will run games smoothly too..
Click to expand...

What are the current specs of this PC (MB, CPU, Ram, GPU)?
 
For R5k you can get a decent SB setup if just going for CPU/RAM/Motherboard/Graphics card: i5 2400, H67/low end P67, 4 GB 1333mhz RAM, GTX460/HD6850. That should be good for med/high settings and would last a lot longer than what is listed above.
 
ponder said:
What are the current specs of this PC (MB, CPU, Ram, GPU)?
Click to expand...

not sure what mb.. but has a core 2 duo 1.8 ghz.. 2 gigs of DDR2 ram... and a nvidia 7900 gs .. its 5 years old so i think either i throw away that pc or just upgrade the parts and keep it around if anyone else is around that needs to use a pc

also i just used 10k on my new pc so i dont want to spend too much on this one
 
Megamuffin said:
not sure what mb.. but has a core 2 duo 1.8 ghz.. 2 gigs of DDR2 ram... and a nvidia 7900 gs .. its 5 years old so i think either i throw away that pc or just upgrade the parts and keep it around if anyone else is around that needs to use a pc

also i just used 10k on my new pc so i dont want to spend too much on this one
Click to expand...

Well why not just get a quad core cpu, another 2GB ram & a faster GPU for it instead of buying all new? You can even get the cpu & ram second hand.
You will just need to check what CPU's that MB supports.
 
You know I just got a new PC and I can recommend it - the Gigabyte H61 motherboard supports Sandy Bridge, which has two PCI-E slots, +-R650, a Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge CPU (+-R600), some DDR3 RAM, (cheap) and a GPU; voila!

The Pentium G620 is the cheapest of all Sandy Bridge CPUs, I got it because I don't need speed, you can get a Core i3 or i5.
 
Synaesthesia said:
You know I just got a new PC and I can recommend it - the Gigabyte H61 motherboard supports Sandy Bridge, which has two PCI-E slots, +-R650, a Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge CPU (+-R600), some DDR3 RAM, (cheap) and a GPU; voila!
Click to expand...

:erm: He just brought a brand spanking new R10k Sandy Bridge system.
 
ponder said:
Well why not just get a quad core cpu, another 2GB ram & a faster GPU for it instead of buying all new? You can even get the cpu & ram second hand.
You will just need to check what CPU's that MB supports.
Click to expand...

good idea its compatible with quad cores but as far as ive seen the prices of the quad cores are same as getting a new board + an i3 or amd x3 ... which is about 2k
 
btw besides what i should get for that old pc... no one has answered which is better a AMD II athlon x3 455 or a core i3... lets take for example core i3 540 since its about the same price
 
Very strange thing happened to my x3 amd... I decided to overclock the bugger !! and somewhere in the BIOS there was a mysterious setting... now look what it's done !!
http://www.mania-sa.com/images/dunno.jpg :D


Ok. jokes aside... the 455 is a great chip, great value for money, I did actually manage to unlock it to 4 cores, but the temps just shot through the roof.
 
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