Mini ITX: AMD vs Intel. Bang for Buck

[Solemn]

Hi All,

I am in the process of building a Watercooled BitFenix Prodigy Gaming Box.
Firstly I fully intend to get a dedicated GPU, something in the price range of a 480 or 6970 (second hand).

Now I am really torn about the best way to go with regards to CPU+Mobo combo.

Either I am thinking of a
AMD FM2 Trinity Board plus a 5600K maybe even a AMD Athlon X4 740 3.20GHz

OR

Z77 + i3 /15 Sandy

OR

H61 + i3 / i5 Sandy

Really I am going for as cheap as possible but still able to play games at 1440p with decent settings. In my experince the GPU does most of the work so I thought I would be able to get away with the AMD Trinity,

Can anyone tell me what kinda of FPS difference I would expect to see between the two?


Any input would be great or even links to where I can get an idea of what preformance differences I will be seeing! Everything I have found so far are all comparing the power of the CPUs without the Dedicated GFX which is no good for me.



Thanks Guys!!

 

[Doomedspeed]

If your going to the expensive of watercooling it you have to overclock it and as your getting a dedicated GPU, the answer is easy. 3570k.

The 5800k is good for on-boards and has a bit of power, the athlon is neither here nor there.

The Ivy i3's are good on the old power front but nothing in comparison to a 3570k Overclocked to the nines.

Though you'd need a Z77 motherboard which are Pricey (ITX)..

 

[Solemn]

If your going to the expensive of watercooling it you have to overclock it and as your getting a dedicated GPU, the answer is easy. 3570k.

The 5800k is good for on-boards and has a bit of power, the athlon is neither here nor there.

The Ivy i3's are good on the old power front but nothing in comparison to a 3570k Overclocked to the nines.

Though you'd need a Z77 motherboard which are Pricey (ITX)..

I already have the watercooling components. The Mobo and CPU I do not have and i don't really want to spend 300 on CPU and mobo for a second PC I will only be using at gaming events

So really I am looking more at what is the FPS differences I will be seeing purely because of the CPU. Honestly I dont see the point in ivy as I have the 2600K in my main system and there isn't nothing it can't handle.

What did you mean by "the athlon is neither here nor there" are they rubbish? I am an Intel girl, so don't know much at all about AMD

 

[pandem0nium]

With a dedicated GPU, there really isn't any need to go for an A10. the ahlon 750K would be better value if doing it on the cheap. It wouldn't hold a candle to the 3570k though.

 

[Doomedspeed]

I already have the watercooling components. The Mobo and CPU I do not have and i don't really want to spend 300 on CPU and mobo for a second PC I will only be using at gaming events

So really I am looking more at what is the FPS differences I will be seeing purely because of the CPU. Honestly I dont see the point in ivy as I have the 2600K in my main system and there isn't nothing it can't handle.

What did you mean by "the athlon is neither here nor there" are they rubbish? I am an Intel girl, so don't know much at all about AMD

If it just FPS, you'd be better off with a 3570k/2500k (not a huge difference between sandy and Ivy) on a H77. They are cheaper and offer a lot of what the Z77's do (apart from the overclocking ability).. Which doesn't seem to be a concern as Overclocks don't add much FPS and it's not like a 3570k/2500k will bottleneck your GPU..

Sorry for the ambiguous answer, The Athlons are a good chip (i had a 640 before my 2500k) but don't really have any power behind them.. Mine didn't struggle in anyway but i didn't feel it had anything else left to give, If you see what i mean..

 

[Solemn]

Thanks guys

Looking at it I could get the AMD mobo(second hand) and the Athlon chip for about 100 and the z77 and i5(second hand) for about 180
Almost double the price, hmm...

What about i3s? Any good for gaming?

 

[tres_kun]

Most games use 2 cores
but the athlon cpu on FM2 is unlocked so you can overclock it and it is cheap
If you do not spend a lot on the GPU than CPU will not make that big of a difference in games
But the FM2 platform has the worst stock cooler ever so you have to purchase one

65pounds for a unlocked quad core is tempting

 

[4737Joker]

Don't you get a gfx boost from the ivy lucid mvp feature? probably would help if your using an older gen card, might be worth reading up on, sorry i have no links etc but im sure a quick google would find you some info.

I play bf3, the difference between an i3 and i5 was very noticeable, not used AMd for a while so i couldn't comment.

 

[Solemn]

Don't you get a gfx boost from the ivy lucid mvp feature? probably would help if your using an older gen card, might be worth reading up on, sorry i have no links etc but im sure a quick google would find you some info.

I play bf3, the difference between an i3 and i5 was very noticeable, not used AMD for a while so i couldn't comment.

I've only ever used the i7's so not really experimented much with the i5 / i3. I didn't realize the CPU played such a big part with dedicated GFX these days. I have been looking for links about what I can get away with on Google but have found much about using the Trinity board with dedicated GFX because I think the whole point of the broad is its discrete CPU

Most games use 2 cores
but the athlon cpu on FM2 is unlocked so you can overclock it and it is cheap
If you do not spend a lot on the GPU than CPU will not make that big of a difference in games
But the FM2 platform has the worst stock cooler ever so you have to purchase one

65pounds for a unlocked quad core is tempting

See that is what I was thinking!

so 100 pounds and I have the PCI-E 2.0 the USB 3.0 header (using a Bitfenix Prodigy) and I have an unlocked quad core! The stock cooler isn't really relevant because I am water cooling.