A8-6600k vs I3-2200

jamie2497

jamie2497

jamie2497

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Hey guys,

My Dads looking to upgrade his PC, he only really uses it for itunes, web browsing, email, videos etc so i'm wondering what kind of setup would be best.

I know the A8-6600k/A10-5800k are great for low end gaming but are they worth the decrease in CPU power against the i3-2200?

If i went i3 then i guess i'd need another £70 odd for a half decent GPU but most of the tasks he does seem to be CPU intensive.

Is it worth saving £70 for an APU and take the hit in performance or bite the bullet and go for an i3/GPU?

Many thanks
 
The APUs aren't weaker processors, they just don't do quite as well in single threaded performance. The A8 will be absolutely fine over the A10 if there's no gaming.
 
I'd do something like this, assuming he would not be needing loads of files storage:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-5600K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD560KWOHJBOX) £71.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £69.95
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-DGS AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Imp MicroATX Tower Case (500w PSU) £31.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £29.99
Total : £256.91 (includes shipping : FREE).



My dad has had a simular build (120GB SSD) for a year or so and it's not even half full.
 
 
It'd be better to get the A8 with a £25 cooler and overclock it a little. The A10 only benefits from a higher end GPU, which won't matter in stuff like this.

The A8 will outperform an i3 in some tasks, fall behind it in others.
 
jamie2497 said:
Many thanks guys, so you reckon the difference in performance would be negligible? Worth going 5800k for the extra cash?
Click to expand...

I'd much rather a Quad APU personally, in some things it will do better than an i3, not much in it overall, though the A8 overclocks a lot better.

Only if he was going to be making use of the extra graphics on the A10.
 
Stock coolers are ok at stock, but a load of rubbish if you overclock - it's possible but they'll get noisy very quickly. Since the A8-5600K is £30 cheaper, even a £20 cooler would allow a good 20% overclock without a problem.
 
From what I gather it should be easy enough to hit 4ghz on the stock cooler, probably just by changing to multiplier to 40. Could go a lot further with a faster market one though, but does add to the cost.
 
It probably could, but see above about noise :) I could run my A10 at 4.7GHz with a £20 cooler and it was silent at normal load.
 
Indeed, but a big jump with super quiet performance for the same price as the A10 is a good deal. Even at stock clocks the stock cooler isn't very quiet at load.
 
You don`t need to spend £70 on a Gpu just to watch movies, as the i3 onboard is good enough. But with a HD6450, he could watch BluRay, if he downloads films, just connect via HDMI to the TV, sit back and enjoy.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x ASRock B75 Pro3-M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £55.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart 430W '80 Plus' Power Supply £37.99
1 x MSI HD 6450 1024MB GDDR3 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card £29.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x Zalman T2 ATX Mini Tower Case - Black £19.99
Total : £278.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
jamie2497 said:
Hmm ok turns out he already has a Sapphire 4670 512mb card in there. Is it worth keeping that and going i3 or A6?
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x ASRock B75 Pro3-M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £55.99
1 x Thermaltake Smart 430W '80 Plus' Power Supply £37.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34GM1600HC11DC01) £29.99
Total : £263.45 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 
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