AM3 or FM1

[peter212693]

Evening all,

Im looking at a new build for my uncle. Im going the AMD route and im unsure if to go to the new FM1 socket. It will be a "office" use PC (Music, emails, web browsing and the occasional sky anytime type use) so nothing high end.

I was looking AM3:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-314-AM

or FM1:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-317-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=2060

With the AM3 I get nearly a 1Ghz higher clock but with added GPU on the FM1.

What do you guys recommend?

Thanks
Pete

 

[jamesfreddie]

Neither

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £57.98
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £38.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £33.59
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £32.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £344.52 (includes shipping : £12.50).



---------------------------

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £57.98
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £46.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £38.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £33.59
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £32.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £293.52 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[peter212693]

Neither

What alternative would you go for then?

EDIT: Thanks mate, I will have a look over then and see. I would have loved to go intel but been out of the loop for a while and thought they were a lot more expensive

 

[cmndr_andi]

+1 for the Intel i3

It is a much faster CPU for the tasks the OP mentions.

Here is a review which compares the i3 2120, a current-gen pentium (in this case the G860), and AMD bulldozer 4/6/8 core CPUs.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Any modern dual core running above 2GHZ would probably be fine with the very light tasks the OP is suggesting.

A Core i3 is OTT for such tasks as I use for one running games and processing RAWs from dSLR and films scans. If anything in most cases you are I/O limited anyway.

I would get a Celeron G530 and an SSD.

 

[The Halk]

I agree with Cat5.

The AMDs compare with Intels, however it's only if you're going to be doing low resolution gaming that they come out as a good choice.

The i3 you've been recommended is a better choice, but in all honesty you could do admirably well with a G620 which is a very capable chip.

The biggest difference you can, assuming you don't starve the system of memory (4GB is right), is put in an SSD. They make a tremendous difference.

 

[peter212693]

Thanks for all your help guys. I will see what he says

 

[mmj_uk]

One of these and a Sabertooth 990FX, then pick up a cheap GPU.

 

[DragonQ]

I would get a Celeron G530 and an SSD.

I'd be inclined to agree, I doubt HyperThreading will be necessary for a general office PC. Maybe an i3 would last longer but if it was a budgetary choice between an i3 + HDD or a Celeron + SSD, the latter would definitely be better.

 

[MaxP779]

Any modern dual core running above 2GHZ would probably be fine with the very light tasks the OP is suggesting.

A Core i3 is OTT for such tasks as I use for one running games and processing RAWs from dSLR and films scans. If anything in most cases you are I/O limited anyway.

I would get a Celeron G530 and an SSD.

This.

 

[Gashman]

much faster at browsing the internet, e-mails and sky anytime? of course FM1 processors are so bad they can't even do menial work such as that.

any processor, LGA775, AM3, FM1, anything will be perfectly capable of doing the said tasks, nothing will offer 'superior' performance in those types of tasks.

 

[Martini1991]

much faster at browsing the internet, e-mails and sky anytime? of course FM1 processors are so bad they can't even do menial work such as that.

any processor, LGA775, AM3, FM1, anything will be perfectly capable of doing the said tasks, nothing will offer 'superior' performance in those types of tasks.

So, he should get the AMD set up without justification?
You're massively anti-Intel, or at least that's the way you come across.
Even if you can't tell the difference between the AMD and Intel set up, if they're around the same price, it's illogical to get the slower set up, which in most cases will be the AMD set up.

For such a set up, he'd want a basic sandy pentium dual core, like this ; http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-401-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=2037 and then an entry level board.

What do AMD have at 35 quid that can compete with that dual core?

Cheapest AMD CPU ; http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-310-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=

And slower than the Sandy Dual core, it's illogical to get the AMD set up.

 

[peter212693]

Hi guys

I went down the intel route and got a G620 and a Gigabyte H61MA-D3V. Do I need to enable the onboard GPU on the CPU. I know I can set how much RAM the onboard on the motherboard uses or can this just be disabled?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The only reason I suggested the G530 was down to the tasks suggested in the OP. If the build had loads of HD media playback and/or light gaming,ie,like an HTPC setup,I probably also would have suggested something like the A4-3400 or A6-3500 due to the IGP being pretty decent for these sorts of things.

However,in this case,the G530 seems to be very capable for the price.

Edit!!

The motherboard should run the IGP first if no graphics card is detected.

TBH,I still think the G530 is a better buy than the G620. The 200MHZ lower clockspeed and 1MB less L3 cache won't really make much difference in the scheme of things.