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Which socket and cpu for budget project for my wife?

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Soldato
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Hi I'm looking to start a little project for my wife so she has her own pc.

Her uses are:

Web surfing
Youtube
Office

It needs to be itx based system and won't have any add in video card. It will have a single SSD running Windows 10 with 8gb of ram.

I'm thinking a i3 would be ideal for this as not too slow but also not overkill.

Would a i3 3220 be good value used along with suitable motherboard or should I be looking at newer platforms?
 

Smoogels

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Pretty much anything remotely recent can do web browsing, office, videos etc without any troubles.

Anything on the Intel 1155, 1550, 1551 socket and perhaps older will do perfectly fine, even a Celeron.

Alternatively you could see if there are any decent used deals on a AMD FM2+ socket.
 

jigger

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AM1 is worth looking at too. You can get a 2Ghz quad and motherboard for peanuts. With builds like this you want to throw the biggest chunk of money at a nice monitor.
 

eddiew

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I have a little Ivybridge i3 laptop for those sorts of tasks when I'm away from my desk - I've never even thought of it as 'slow'. Give them an SSD, and they're heroic little CPUs for everyday tasks :)

Although for the purposes you listed, I agree with others above that AMD would do you fine. The worst culprits in most slow, low-budget systems are low memory and a clunky HDD, and you're not planning on making either mistake ^^
 

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Soldato
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Thanks guys ive never built an AMD system so interested in going that way.

Which AM1 CPUs should I be looking at?

The Athlon 5350 2.05GHz Quad Core Processor seems ok.

The project im planning is to mod the PC into a vintage radio so although a NUC or similar would be easy I would rather put abit more effort into it.
 

Caracus2k

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jigger said:
AM1 is worth looking at too. You can get a 2Ghz quad and motherboard for peanuts. With builds like this you want to throw the biggest chunk of money at a nice monitor.
Click to expand...

Just remember that (currently) you can't compare an AMD 'quad' and an Intel quad core cpu's at anything like the same frequencies and expect anything like performance parity.

A lot of current AMD 'quads' compete with the cheaper intel dual core cpu's and even the best 'octo' cored AMD cpu's could not be recommended over say a 6700k for pretty much any home/ gaming usage scenario. Current efficiency power and heat wise is also a big lose for AMD over intel.

AMD have their place as a budget option due to their low pricing but people should not be fooled by the marketing and should understand the pricing reflects the geriatric nature of their cpu's and accompanying motherboard chipsets and the level of performance the cpu's are actually capable of.

A good monitor may be a good long term investement but it's no good if paired with underpowered hardware.... My monitor, a 34" widescreen, pretty much dictate's that I need a high spec overclocked cpu and a high performing graphics card to play games at decent detail levels at the screens native resolution. Any current AMD setup would be found wanting compared to my current setup
 
Last edited:

jigger

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Caracus2k said:
Just remember that (currently) you can't compare an AMD 'quad' and an Intel quad core cpu's at anything like the same frequencies and expect anything like performance parity.

A lot of current AMD 'quads' compete with the cheaper intel dual core cpu's and even the best 'octo' cored AMD cpu's could not be recommended over say a 6700k for pretty much any home/ gaming usage scenario. Current efficiency power and heat wise is also a big lose for AMD over intel.

AMD have their place as a budget option due to their low pricing but people should not be fooled by the marketing and should understand the pricing reflects the geriatric nature of their cpu's and accompanying motherboard chipsets and the level of performance the cpu's are actually capable of.

A good monitor may be a good long term investement but it's no good if paired with underpowered hardware.... My monitor, a 34" widescreen, pretty much dictate's that I need a high spec overclocked cpu and a high performing graphics card to play games at decent detail levels at the screens native resolution. Any current AMD setup would be found wanting compared to my current setup
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. It's a very interesting point of view.
 

Caracus2k

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Last edited:

Brazo

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AMD simply aren't an option for a heavy weight set up.

That said back to the op I used to have a quad core 5350 and it did very well in a htpc setup and is more than ample for office, web etc. They can also be overcocked to 2.6ghz if you get the right (Asus) boards.
 

Uriel

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Martini1991 said:
Doesn't an i3 3220 murder an a1 AMD quad?

Then again, my ultrabook has an ultra low power skylake, and that can't be any faster than an AMD low power quad at 2ghz.
Click to expand...

Mostly yes (some obscure multithreaded situation aside) but AM1 quads can be less than half the price and just as capable for what she wants.
 

Uriel

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Caracus2k said:
Just remember that (currently)
A good monitor may be a good long term investement but it's no good if paired with underpowered hardware.... My monitor, a 34" widescreen, pretty much dictate's that I need a high spec overclocked cpu and a high performing graphics card to play games at decent detail levels at the screens native resolution. Any current AMD setup would be found wanting compared to my current setup
Click to expand...

That's lovely for you.

If your usage was web surfing, youtube and office though, you'd be absolutely fine driving that 34" widescreen with a cheap modern CPU with onboard graphics.

An i3 will be fine for the OP by the way. Cheaper options that will also be fine are available.
 

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Soldato
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Ok so little update I managed to get a i3-2120 for £25 and 256GB SSD for £40.

I hope to get a itx mobo for around £40.

I have some basic ram and a Pico style PSU already so mostly got all the parts needed apart from a low profile CPU cooler.

Thanks for all the advice but in the end a 2nd hand intel system still made more sense.
 
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