Quick check up on build before buying.

[Rafax]

So guys I'm on a very very tight budget here(200 euros), i already have a gpu that suits my need(Ati Radeon HD7770 for gaming at 1280x1024) but i still have a crappy Dual Core e6500 and I want to get rid of it, which means changing around basicly all my pc, currently I'm looking at buying an i3 3220 , 8gb corsair ram 1600mhz and an asus p8h61 for this build.
Before ya guys say the usual, wait up and get more money, thats out of question for me since I'm a full time student with no job obviously and my income is about nothing apart from the random gift or computer maintenance/repairs i do for family and all.
My only real question here is, are these the best possible components i can get? or should I go for amd at this price point?

[BicycleMafioso]

At that resolution, while you're more CPU-bound than at larger resolutions, are you sure that your E6500 isn't cutting it? Have you tried overclocking it? I mean, you're intending to replace it anyway, so why not squeeze out the last bit of juice anyway?

As for your actual part-choices, if you can save any money whatsoever going for 1333MHz memory, I'd do it; I'd be surprised if you'd ever notice even the slightest difference. Had memory not been so dirt-cheap, I'd recommend you to go 4 GiB; However, I think that is just saving beyond questionable use.
I would choose a different motherboard though - You are picking out an Ivy Bridge CPU for a Sandy Bridge motherboard. While you may be able to run it straight out of the box, you may also have to flash the BIOS first. I'd recommend trying to find a B75, H77 or Z77 motherboard instead of an H61.

[Rafax]

I know I might have to flash the board with a bios update and i wont really mind that, at this budget there is realy no way for me to move up to anything above a h61 withouth cutting back on something else, the ram difference from 1600 mhz to 1333 is like 1 euro so its realy nor worth it.

About the e6500 its overclocked to 3.3 Ghz from the stock 2.9 and im pretty sure its the bottle neck on the system since I upgraded the gpu from a lowbie 6670 and the improvement wasnt very big fps wise, i was going for a 6850 but turns out there were none here in portugal at a price worth grabbing.

The motherboard I'm currently considering is this http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Int...P8H61M_LX_R20/, I believe it doenst require a bios update for it to work with the 3220.

[BicycleMafioso]

There is no such thing as a bottleneck in your build. If you had 512MB of RAM, sure. But a C2D won't be a bottleneck for many many years.
It might however be the next logical thing to upgrade, but that's a different story.

1600MHz memory will give you no discernable difference, but if you're fine with that, go with it.
If you are okay with flashing the BIOS on the motherboard, it seems you have yourself an upgrade plan.

Remember that if you have an OEM version of Windows as your operating system, and your studies is not connected through MSDNAA, you might have issues with the OS and the new motherboard.

Good luck!

[Rafax]

Well its decided then upgrade time for me ill post results whenever its done!Ty for the help tetris.

[yurano]

I know I might have to flash the board with a bios update and i wont really mind that, at this budget there is realy no way for me to move up to anything above a h61 withouth cutting back on something else, the ram difference from 1600 mhz to 1333 is like 1 euro so its realy nor worth it.

It looks like the P8H61 and the ASRock H77M are approximately the same price.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/mother...&sort=a6&m=7,8

[PizzaSHARK]

Honestly, I'd recommend not spending the cash if money's that tight :-/

[Bonsaii]

Personally I think you get more bang for you buck with AMD CPU's. Yeah I'm no computer genius, but an i3 will likely cost you a hell of a lot more than an AMD quad core. How much is that little bit of special architecture worth to you? Yeah I think their model is cool, but AMD is going to get the job done for less.

[Rafax]

The money is tight for spending on something not essential like this, im not tight on money for food or anything like that XD I simply need a computer for 1 or 2 years more untill i finish studying and I have the money to make a true gaming rig.

About amd cpus, at this price range theres no viable option that wont end up costing more and provide the same power, also the cheapest h77 i can get my hands on costs 75 euros , 30 more than an h61.

[PizzaSHARK]

The money is tight for spending on something not essential like this, im not tight on money for food or anything like that XD I simply need a computer for 1 or 2 years more untill i finish studying and I have the money to make a true gaming rig.

About amd cpus, at this price range theres no viable option that wont end up costing more and provide the same power, also the cheapest h77 i can get my hands on costs 75 euros , 30 more than an h61.

I'd still advocate saving the money, but that's just me

At my $130 range, the FX-4300 I got is equal to or better than Intel's $130 Ivy Bridge chip, but if you plan on reusing components down the road, it'd probably be better to get the Intel chip simply because that means you're using the same socket as all the other Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge chips. That's not relevant for me, but since you're talking about upgrading a year or two down the road... yeah, I'd go with an Intel chip if possible.

[Faithh]

I'd still advocate saving the money, but that's just me

At my $130 range, the FX-4300 I got is equal to or better than Intel's $130 Ivy Bridge chip, but if you plan on reusing components down the road, it'd probably be better to get the Intel chip simply because that means you're using the same socket as all the other Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge chips. That's not relevant for me, but since you're talking about upgrading a year or two down the road... yeah, I'd go with an Intel chip if possible.

A single core from an i3 is twice as fast as one from FX xxxx.

Loads of games are limited to 2 cores. The i3 performs just a lot better in that case especially in WoW.

[Rafax]

I'm sticking with intel since as said core per core its just much better for games currently, not realy gonna reclyce any of these parts later on since later I'm going to do something a bit more powerful ans serious.

[Faithh]

I'm sticking with intel since as said core per core its just much better for games currently, not realy gonna reclyce any of these parts later on since later I'm going to do something a bit more powerful ans serious.

The parts you choose are perfect. I hope you have a decent power supply and not just a crap one. A friend had a similar system like you but from Acer, not a builded one and I told him to upgrade his PSU before it's going to kill the parts. He was being so stubborn and so sure about his pc is okay but yea.. 2-3months later the PC just died..

[PizzaSHARK]

A single core from an i3 is twice as fast as one from FX xxxx.

Loads of games are limited to 2 cores. The i3 performs just a lot better in that case especially in WoW.

Pretty much every benchmark I looked at showed them at about neck and neck for most games and the Vishera obviously outperformed on games that could use more than two cores.

[Xuvial]

Pretty much every benchmark I looked at showed them at about neck and neck for most games and the Vishera obviously outperformed on games that could use more than two cores.

FX6300 is priced very competitively but I still wouldn't declare it the all-out winner over an i3 3220. Keep in mind the i3 is ~$10 cheaper.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/677?vs=699

The i3 wins in single-threaded Cinebench and is almost neck-and-neck in games.

[Faithh]

FX6300 is priced very competitively but I still wouldn't declare it the all-out winner over an i3 3220. Keep in mind the i3 is ~$10 cheaper.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/677?vs=699

The i3 wins in single-threaded Cinebench and is almost neck-and-neck in games.

Games like BF3 the FX6xxx would win clearly. Games like WoW are only using 2 cores, there is the point where the i3 wins clearly.

[Rafax]

The FX6300 costs 25 euros more and all motherboards for it are more expensive then the lga 1155 socket ones.

[Faithh]

The FX6300 costs 25 euros more and all motherboards for it are more expensive then the lga 1155 socket ones.

Just a tip, benchmarks are irrelevant sometimes but also useful to measure their performance. FX is great IF all cores are being used, but it's shit if 1 or 2 or 3 cores are only being used. Mostly games will only use upto 2, such as WoW.

I really literally want you to force to buy the i3 instead of any FX crap.

]

Single threaded, I have troubles there finding the AMD cpu (being ironic).

Bear in mind that you can upgrade in the future to any i5 2xxx or 3xxx. Think you can sell the i3 for like 70-80eur and add some money and buy an i5.

[BicycleMafioso]

Chill with the AMD-trolling now, please.

[Rafax]

I would actually consider amd but they dont offer anything that can compete with intel atm for the use i plan on giving to my computer : D